St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church, Woodstock

Sunday 20 September, 2009, Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost
The Rev’d Georgene Conner

THE WELCOME TABLE

For today’s reading go to:http://bible.oremus.org

Years ago, when I was at St. Michael’s Church on the Upper West Side of New York, I would take my vacation during the summer and go to Florida. I guess I needed the humidity fix. It was really more like a quiet retreat because I would spend the week alone, just walking up and down the beach. One year, on the last day of my vacation, as I was walking on the beach, I found a beautiful pink flower that had been washed up on the beach.

I picked it up and took it back to my room – stuck it in some water. The next day I pinned it on my jacket – wore it on the plane back to New York – a great way to remember the week. It was a little droopy when I got back to my apt so I put it in a little vase and it perked right up. I would look at it everyday and think about the beach, the tides – always reminding me that no matter what happens, the tide comes in and the tides goes out…someone is in charge.

One day, I swear it looked like the flower had a sprout coming out of the stem. I began to imagine that roots would form and I might even give some of this flower to others. About a week after I got home, I changed the water. And found to my amazement that the flower was not real! I had been lovingly caring for a fake flower! Things were not as I had thought they were.

Well, isn’t that just like our gospel story today? The disciples were moseying along, talking to each other, not about the great issues of the day but rather who among them was the greatest. Jesus caught them off guard – asked them what they are talking about. They admitted they wanted to know who among them was the greatest, the best. Jesus surprised them by putting a little child in their midst…like a visual aid. He said to them whoever wants to be great has to be servant of all and further more, whoever welcomes a child such as this in my name, welcomes me, and the one who sent me.

They didn’t see that coming. Welcoming a child in Jesus’ name is what would put them right? Children back then were property…no voice…no real status.

In Barbara Brown Taylor's ‘Bread of Angels’, she calls these ancient-world children "fillers, not main events. They were gifts of God who would be useful someday...fuzzy caterpillars to be fed and sheltered until they turned into butterflies. (That is, if they even survived to adulthood, and the odds were against them.) At this point, however, they were more like servants. In fact, the Greek words for "child" and "servant" have the same root, and both, lived life on the receiving end of things.

But with Jesus, things were not always the way they seemed. Jesus turned expectations and perceptions upside down. He reached out in unexpected ways to those who lived on the margins of life. The message that day to the disciples was that they were to welcome and even value those who were small, insignificant and powerless.

You know we were all children, once. Truly we were. Ok Some of us might still be…but often I think we forget what life was like, what it looked like, felt like, when we were pretty close to the ground. Everything designed for big people… big words – big books – big seats.

But here is the truth about children and the church. Children are central to the life and vitality of a parish. And we all share in the responsibility for nurturing their faith and honoring their spiritual gifts. When children are baptized we pray that they will receive the Holy Spirit and be given inquiring and discerning hearts, the courage and will to persevere, and to know the joy and wonder of all God’s works. And we promise that we will be there for those children as they grow in their faith.

The assumption of course is that they will be around…we will know them and they will know us. I remember when I was in Michigan and my own children were little, one Sunday I felt someone grab my leg. I looked down and it wasn’t one of my children and yet it was. Some child had grabbed hold because they couldn’t find their own parent but they recognized someone they did know. Just as we are all sisters and brothers in Christ, so are we family to our youngest.

In my more than 20 years of working in churches I have found that often getting congregations to recognize children as full participants in the worshipping life of the community has been harder than accepting other people who might live on the margins of life.

Parents have often told me that they are nervous about having their children in church because someone will give them ‘the look.’

We used to keep children in the back or in the basement – letting them join in the life of the community when they reached ‘the age of reason’…usually meaning around age 12… when they got confirmed and could take communion. With the advent of the 1979 Prayer Book that practice changed or should have changed. When a child is baptized she or he is entitled, just like all baptized people, to be fed at God’s Welcome Table. Jesus did not say, “do this and understand.’ He said ‘do this and remember.” The way to remember is by doing.

Children learn by doing. They can multi-task. I’ve seen children coloring away in a book and when the celebrant says, “The Lord be with you” they reply, “and also with you” and go about their coloring. I’ve had sermons critiqued by 8 year olds…and I’ve seen five year olds call the chalice bearer back …”hey you forgot me.” Once when I asked who had been attending the cathedral for all of their life, several children raised their hands. They get it. They understand inclusion and exclusion. They may not understand (and sometimes I still don’t understand) all the implications of the Eucharist…Let us proclaim the mystery of Life…but they do understand being a part of the community.

I know that there are many kinds of people who live on the margins of life and who often have no voice. But for us today, I have stayed focused on children. How can you and I – the community – make St. Gregory’s a place that is known for welcoming children? What are the outward and visible signs to parents, to young people, that we are expecting them, prepared for them? Today after the service, walk around the building both inside and out. Imagine that you are young or that you are a parent or grandparent with a child. What signs do you see that offer welcome to children or give a different impression?

We are very good in our society of talking about greatness – of offering classes for the enrichment for our adult souls, of planning for the success of our children in the academic, social, or business . But perhaps in church we need to remind ourselves of what Jesus said on that particular day to his disciples.

“Whoever welcomes a child in my name, welcomes me.“