In our worship service on Sunday, September 14 – through song, prayer, and word – we made space to commit ourselves to being a church that practices beloved community, following Jesus who welcomed children and was a fierce defender of the vulnerable. This work of community safety, abuse prevention, and caring well for all the members of our community is holy and important work. We as CHMF seek to follow our Child & Youth Safety Policy and standards from the Mennonite Church USA on abuse prevention and response.
Below is the sermon from this Sunday.
“God’s kingdom belongs to people like these children,” Jesus teaches. “God’s kingdom belongs to people like these children.”
The thing I’m curious about is why? What do children have to do with God’s realm? Why does Jesus welcome children as he’s teaching? What does this call to receive the kindom of God as a child have to do with all of us, as a church, on this Sunday, when we’re focusing on safety?
The drama in our gospel story emerges from the tension between the center and the edges of the circle. There in the middle is Jesus, teaching, surrounded by a crowd pressed in on him. And at the messy edge of the crowd, beyond the control of the disciples and the pointed questions of the Pharisees who stand up close, there are children.
These children peek their heads around the knees of the adults, they are youths keenly listening, they are toddlers playing at the edge of the fray.
And when Jesus welcomes and blesses these children and proclaims that the God’s kingdom belongs to people like them. Jesus does so because children are vulnerable.
We see this in the story – the children are on the edge, people must bring them to Jesus so he could bless them. Children require lots of bringing. Babies must be carried around before they can walk. We bring children food and diapers and clean clothes and bring them to daycare and school and sports. Children are vulnerable because they are along for the ride, for better or worse, with adults responsible for caring for them.
When Jesus’ own disciples try to prevent the children from receiving Jesus’ blessing – he passionately and publicly rebukes them. Jesus announces his priorities, God’s priorities, loudly.
Children, of course, are not the only vulnerable people who Jesus welcomes and embraces in the center of his circle. In the gospel stories we might also think of the man with a disability whose friends tear down the roof structure of a house to get to Jesus, we think of women in need of healing who reached out to Jesus through a crowd, we think of the hungry crowds hanging onto hope in Jesus’ words, expectant there would be food afterwards.
Jesus welcomes the vulnerable, extending God’s blessing to them, because they belong to the kingdom of God. When we commit to following Jesus, we commit ourselves to welcoming, caring for and protecting the vulnerable too.
This work of welcome and safety is ongoing and unfolding. Jesus respects the initiative of the adults who bring children to him and critiques those who hinder their way. Jesus does not reach out or touch the children because of his own agenda or self-important desires. His touch respects the agency of the children and their families, and in so doing demonstrates the love and blessing of God.
The kind of care that Jesus offers to these children also involves challenge and conflict in the community. He corrects his own disciples’ urge to control who had access to God’s blessing.
We, as followers of Jesus, seek to create spaces of nurture and welcome so that all can draw near to Christ, who offers life and love.
Jesus doesn’t just open a way f or the children to come to him only because they are vulnerable. Jesus knows that children are also feisty and stubborn and independent and playful and inquisitive and whimsical and curious.
Children are wondrously open. Our short passage from Mark comes amidst a series of squabbles. Jesus’ own disciples are closed-minded, arguing over which one of them will be the greatest, each wrapped up in cementing their own self-importance in this radical movement.
Jesus disrupts this on multiple occasions, and he points to the presence of children among them, reminding the disciples that “whoever wants to be first, must be the least of all and the servant of all.” (Mark 9:35-37, 10:44).
Jesus invites us to embrace creativity and wonder, like children, so that of we might be open to what God is doing in the world.
Children ask questions that we adults would not ordinarily think of. Children look at the unexpected and seek out the valuable and beautiful in what adult vision often misses. Go for a walk with a young child and see what they point at or grab onto or comment on.
The creativity and wonder of children is a doorway into the kingdom of God. “Do you want to enter God’s kingdom?” Jesus asks, “Then you must receive it like a child.”
The work of committing to safety and preventing abuse of the vulnerable is not an add-on to the mission of church, or a policy we can sign off on and be done with, but it is central to who we are as followers of Jesus.
By creating spaces of welcome and safety – we allow the creativity and wonder of children to flourish and we allow all of us to be open to what God is doing, so that all of us can experience the wonder of God’s love.
When I first arrived for a long weekend in May two years ago as a candidate to be the pastor of this Chapel Hill Mennonite Fellowship – outside of the search committee – the first people I met here in North Carolina were the kids and youth of this congregation.
The first event on my itinerary that weekend was an ice-cream social at Kathy’s house with the youth. And that choice – whether planned and intentional or just instinctual – spoke volumes to me about the care and love that this congregation has for its young people. And youth – I was struck by your thoughtful and difficult questions and by your openness to laugh with a newcomer.
As a church I’ve seen all sorts of ways that we put that kind of concrete love and care into action. We practice the rule of two adults supervising any activity with minors. We bless infants and celebrate milestones as children grow. We do our best to include children in all aspects of church life and listen and respond to their gifts, insights, and wisdom.
Jesus’ passionate call to “Let the little children come to me! Do not ever stop them” – is a call to practice safety and care and beloved community.
It’s also a reminder to each of us and all of us – no matter our age – is a child of God. Each of you is a child of God, made in God’s image – deserving of safety, belonging, respect, care and love. No matter what.
We specifically emphasize Safety this Sunday because it each of you matter so much to God. Each of you is a beloved child. Each of you has vulnerabilities. Each of you is full of curiosity and wonder and possibility and growth.
And it is all of our jobs as followers of Jesus and members of this beloved community – to protect and care for one another. Our policies and our willingness to talk about and commit to this shared work of safety helps us love each other well. That doesn’t mean that preventing abuse is easy, that navigating how we circle up around Jesus will ever be clear-cut, or that new questions won’t emerge.
But I hope we always remember that Jesus blesses each of us as God’s beloved children and Jesus calls us, as his body, to boldly care for the vulnerable. May we remember that Jesus stands among us, teaching, welcoming, challenging, blessing in the center of this circle – inviting all of us to receive God’s kingdom like a child.