Sermon, October 19, 2003
19 Pentecost; Proper 24, Year B
The Rev. Lowell E. Grisham
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas
Sermon, October 19, 2003
19 Pentecost; Proper 24, Year B
The Rev. Lowell E. Grisham
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas
How the Big Kids Play
The Observance of the Children's Sabbath
Maybe you remember the popular essay "All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten." Here's one of those kind of lessons. On a crowded playground a parent leans down to a five-year old. "Honey, before you kick the soccer ball, you need to look around and make sure there aren't any babies or little kids in the way. Remember, you are one of the big kids here today." The boy stands up a little straighter, almost physically shouldering his new sense of responsibility, he looks around, waits for a toddler to stagger by before kicking the heavy leather ball. Learning in kindergarten a sense of God's justice -- the bigger, stronger, and more powerful are to care for and protect those who are smaller, weaker, and less powerful. (from Shannon Daley-Harris, in the Children's Defense Fund's Providing What God Requires and Children Need: Justice, Kindness and Faith)
Or in more grownup language, "whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve."
Today we join thousands of congregations of many faiths who observe the annual "Children's Sabbath" this weekend. It is a time to celebrate and encourage those of us who are bigger, stronger, and more powerful to care for and protect those who are smaller, weaker, and less powerful, and to connect them with the source of all power, the divine love to whom little ones belong, for "they are weak, but he is strong."
Listen to this prayer written by Marian Wright Edelman who has given her life to the welfare of children as the founder and president of the Children's Defense Fund:
O God, we pray for children who woke up this morning in dens of dope rather than in homes of hope, with hunger in their bellies and hunger in their spirits... We pray for children who are sick from diseases we could have prevented, who are dying from guns we could have controlled, and who are killing from rage we could have averted... We pray for children struggling to live to age twenty in the war zones of our cities, who plan their own funerals and fear each day will be their last. We mourn for the thousands of children whose life journeys have already ended too violently and too soon... We pray for children who are born with two, three or more strikes already against them -- too tiny to live, too sick with AIDS, too addicted to alcohol or cocaine or heroin to thrive... We pray for children who will be born and grow up in poverty without a seat at America's table of plenty; for youths whose only hope for employment is drug dealing, whose only belonging is gangs, whose only haven is the streets, whose only tomorrow is prison or death.
Providing What God Requires and Children Need, p. 57-8
It is no surprise that bad statistics about health, education and crime parallel bad statistics about poverty. But it surprises many people to learn that three out of four children living in poverty live with a family member who works. There are more than nine million children in the U.S. who are uninsured, and 90% of them live in working families. Too many people work in low-wage hourly jobs without benefits, paying more for child care than they do for rent. And all of us benefit from their work, their service to us.
I'm proud of the way this congregation has responded to the needs of many of the most vulnerable of our neighbors. In 1989 St. Paul's started the St. Francis House ministry responding to various needs of the poor. Seeing the growing need for access to health care, we changed our focus in 1994, starting what is now the Community Clinic at St. Francis House. Last year we served six thousand people with 11,000 patients visits, nearly all of them working families who have no insurance. Our dental clinic is the region's largest provider of service to poor children. It's a life-saving ministry.
I'm also proud of our ministry to the homeless, the Seven Hills Center. It has grown exponentially. It's not unusual for 75 people a day to find hospitality, shelter from the weather, an address and phone number for potential employers, a ride to work, a shower, a washing machine and dryer, a safe restroom, a meal, clothes, toiletries, and some compassionate care and direction. Our transitional housing program is in an expansion period now, offering a place of stability and support for people moving from homelessness to independence.
Every Monday and Wednesday and all-volunteer crew in St. Paul's kitchen prepares a nourishing hot meal and take-out sandwich bags while our church opens its doors and makes welcome anyone who is hungry. Begun in partnership with Central Methodist, we now have days when we serve over 200 meals. We also help others through the Cooperative Emergency Outreach and the Rector's Discretionary Fund. Today we finish our fall Community Kids Closet effort to get clothes for elementary children, and through the year we have ministries of outreach and compassion. Many of you work in service jobs and for non-profits. This is a congregation that makes a difference in our community.
We do more than respond only to the physical needs of our neighbors. We also offer God's compassion and love for all people. Our outreach ministries do their work with dignity and respect for our friends. And we work hard to care for one another.
One of the growing edges of our church is our plan to call a full time Children and Families Minister to help bring the presence of the church and the grace of God more dynamically into the homes and lives of our young families. We think it will become another means of outreach into the community, as we connect the love of God with the complicated business of growing up. There's a brief description in today's bulletin insert describing one part of that vision for ministry. Please read it enthusiastically. We believe this new ministry will be another way for the strength of God to care for and protect those who are smaller, weaker and less powerful.
It's all a matter of stewardship, isn't it. What you do with what you have. We're asking our congregation to give generously on behalf of our children. If we can find the money for the beautiful new expansion of our facilities, we believe we can find the money to better serve our children. On the national front, the Children's Defense Fund is seeking $75 billion in the comprehensive Act to Leave No Child Behind. Marian Wright Edelman says of that effort, "If we can find the money to fight a war in Iraq and tax cuts for the non-needy, we can find the money to educate and protect our children."
It's not easy, though. It's not easy to grow up; it's not easy to address our society's most challenging social problems. But with a courageous and faithful attitude, I believe we can. It takes the kind of character that Marian Edelman's son Jonah Martin Edelman said he learned from her.
Many of her lessons for life strike a chord in me, but three in particular represent what I have come to see as the legacy of my ancestors. 1. Don't feel entitled to anything you don't sweat and struggle for. 2. Never give up. You can make it no matter what comes. Nothing worth having is ever achieved without a struggle. 3. Always remember that you are never alone. You are loved unconditionally. There is nothing you can ever say or do that can take away my [love] or God's love. (Ibid, p. 59)
That's the gospel we proclaim to our children and our nation's children as we seek to feed them and house them and educate them and keep them healthy and safe in a troubled world. Work hard. Never give up. Always remember, you are never alone. You are loved unconditionally. And that's a lesson for all of us children of any age. So, "whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve."
Remember, you're one of the big kids here today.