Lenten Sermon Series: Look Who Gathers

“Children”

Psalm 27

Genesis 15:1-6

Rev. Martin C. Singley, III

My best boyhood friend – Dennis Astrella – and I were allowed to do lots of things with our many friends who were Roman Catholic. Each week, we sat under the Maple tree on the front lawn of our house on Calumet Avenue and helped the Catholic kids make up sins to take to confession. As we got older, we went to all the CYO dances at Holy Rosary Church because we had heard that Catholic girls were really hot stuff. And, when the music got slow and soft, and we got cheek-to-cheek with those girls out there on the dance floor, a priest or a nun would invariably show up and push us apart, telling us we had to “leave room for the Holy Ghost.” But at least we Protestant boys could still dance with those really hot Catholic girls.

The one thing Dennis and I could not do with our Catholic friends, however, was take Communion. Because we were not Catholic, we were not allowed to come to Christ’s table.

Many churches have rules like that – permitting only some to take Communion. As I was growing up and learning about how this went on in many churches, Catholic AND Protestant, I thought, “Who do they think they are, deciding who can take Communion and who can’t?”

But then – years later - I became a pastor and found myself doing the very same thing. Oh, we let most everybody come to the Table – Protestants, Catholics, all who confess Christ.

But we didn’t let kids come to the Table of the Lord – at least, not until they were confirmed at 12-years of age or older. Communion – someone decided along the way - was for grown-ups only.

So I was surprised – years later – when I was given a print of Bohdan Piesecki’s painting of the Last Supper – to see children there, gathered with all the others at the Table of the Lord! See if you can find the kids in the picture printed on today’s bulletin cover.

I guess what I – and many others sometimes forget – is that the Last Supper is actually a Passover Meal, and Passover was intended to include both adults and children. As I stated last Sunday, Passover was and is a whole family observance and EVERYONE is invited to the Table.

In fact, Jesus had a special concern for the inclusion of kids. Don’t you remember the scene in Luke 18 where the disciples are doing their level best to keep kids away from Jesus? He was teaching. They were playing. The grown-ups were quiet. They were noisy! Can’t you just hear Peter or John trying to hush up these kids? Maybe it was like that day in church when a little boy was causing a stir, much to the chagrin of his parents. Several times they shushed him, but to no avail. Finally, the father picked up the kid, threw him over his shoulder, and walked down the aisle to the back doors. And as he was being carried down the aisle by his father the little boy was crying, “Pray for me! Pray for me!”

But Jesus told his disciples to let the children come to him. He welcomed them with open arms. He blessed them. And then he said, “To such belongs the kingdom of heaven!”

The Table of the Lord is an earthly representation of the kingdom of heaven. So Piesecki had it right, and I had it wrong. Kids belong at the Table of the Lord.

Let’s think today about what Jesus said about children – and why.

“To such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”

We grown-ups sometimes miss the power of what Jesus said because we spiritualize the passage into meaning that we – the big folks – need to become like little children. And that’s true, we would all do well to humble ourselves. But that’s not the point Jesus had in mind!

Jesus is simply saying that the future belongs to our children and grandchildren, and the kingdom of heaven will come about for the sake of them! Jesus is saying that it is our job as adults to partner with God in making the kingdom come true for those who will come after us!

Listen to the original promise God made to Abraham. It is the starting point of our Faith: “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great and you will be a blessing…and all people on earth will be blessed by you.”

So God promises to bring about a future kingdom of heaven for the world, and God will do it through Abraham. But there’s one problem. Abraham and Sarah have no…(what?)…CHILDREN.

And in today’s reading from the 15^th chapter of Genesis, that’s exactly the complaint Abraham puts to God: “Easy for you to say, God, that the world will be blessed through me, but the fact is, I don’t have any kids for building this beautiful future!” And God says to Abraham, “Oh, you ol’ worry-wart! Of COURSE you’re going to have children. In fact, look up at the stars and count them if you can. So shall your offspring be!”

The promise of God to bring about a just, peaceful, beautiful world that the Bible describes as the kingdom of heaven is a promise about the FUTURE! Without children, Abraham and God both know there can be no future! And both Abraham and God know full well that the future we want for our children is a future we have to work at building.

This past week, the whole world got behind Joannie Rochette, the Canadian figure skater whose mother died of a sudden heart attack just before the Olympic games began. Joannie knew her mother would want her to go on with her Olympic event, so she did, skating beautifully as her openly weeping dad and a world of teary-eyed well-wishers cheered her on. Joannie won the Bronze medal.

Afterwards, she spoke about her mom. Describing her as her biggest fan and advisor, she recalled that her mom would come once a week to where she trained and comment on everything she did She helped Joannie make sure she was reaching her goals. Joannie says her mom was tough on her but when she needed support her mom was always there. Her mom was giving her a future! Joannie says she saved her mother’s final voicemail message. She listened to it over and over again during the week. And she listened to it again just before going on the ice before her final skate. At the end of the message Joannie’s mother simply said, “I know you can do it, and you will be on the podium.”

And Joannie went out and won the Bronze.

That’s what parents do. They dream of a better future for their children. They lay down their lives so their kids can be whole and happy. What greater purpose can a parent serve than helping their children and grandchildren achieve their full potential? What greater work can a grown-up do than make the world a better place for the generations yet to come?

I think that’s why there are children at the Table of the Lord. They represent the future! When we see children there, we are reminded that life is not all about us grown-ups and this present moment. Life is about what we build for our children to inherit.

A funny thing happened this week when my kids heard about the “Shame on Pastor Singley” sign out in front of the church. They were infuriated, of course, and wanted to get back at the protestors. So my son, reacting to an idea mentioned by one of my staff, offered to pay for an even larger banner that said, “Jesus Was A Non-Union Carpenter!”

That provided a much-need laugh in that moment. But, I found myself thinking about the future. Do I really want my son to grow up with the idea that you pay back shame with shame? Do I really want the men holding the sign to think we are against them? Is that the best way to build the kingdom of heaven?

It is so important for we who are followers of Christ to always hold before us a vision for the future. What do I want the end-result of my words and actions and life to be – with my spouse, my kids, my neighbors, my community, my friends, my enemies…?

So often we say things and do things in the heat of the moment that prevent us from achieving the larger goals we really want. I’ll bet there are some things you’ve said and done that you wish you could get back now. But you can’t. What you said and did in the past created a future that you may never have bargained for. So maybe one reason God puts children at the Table – at the very center of our faith - is to help us focus not so much on the NOW as on the YET TO COME.

Only by looking to the future can we gain a vision for how to live now. And this is true not only for each of us as individuals, but also for all of us as a Christian church.

Back in 1828 there was a man who lived in a very historic section of North Attleboro, Massachusetts called “Oldtown.” His name was Silas Rhodes. Silas and his family belonged to the First Congregational Church. They were getting ready to build a new sanctuary. The original church building had gone up in 1712, just a generation or two after the Pilgrims came ashore in Plymouth. A second building was constructed in the mid-1700’s because the first one became too small for the growing congregation. But this second sanctuary developed a termite problem and was condemned. Talk about an embarrassing sign to have out in front of your church: “CONDEMNED!”

So in 1828, the people set about to build a new church. They paid for it by selling pews to church members. If you bought a pew, you actually got a deed saying that pew number such-and-such belonged to you and your heirs forever! The pews were priced differently – the more expensive ones were at the front of the sanctuary, and the less expensive ones were in the back. You could buy a whole pew, or a half-a-pew. Silas Rhodes bought a half-pew.

Now I’m sure that old Silas Rhodes was thinking only of himself and his family when he bought that pew. Getting a nice comfortable pew for them to sit in was well worth the money he gave to have it. Thinking about what WE will get from what we give is human nature.. We think of our own needs in the present moment. But following Christ is about more than me. And following Christ is about more than this moment.

Faith is about the future. And little did ol’ Silas Rhodes know that 182-years later, people would still be sitting in that pew he bought in 1828. And people still worship in that beautiful church he helped to build. Perhaps without realizing it, Silas Rhodes had given a gift of faith to thousands of people in the generations that followed, and the good that has come out of that church to the whole community cannot be measured.

Last week, I stood once again in our new chancel, somewhere around where our new pulpit will be. As I looked out over the new sanctuary, I started wondering about the future. How many generations yet to come will be blessed with the love of Christ through that pulpit and that sanctuary? Over the course of the next 182-years or more, how many millions of mission dollars will flow out to our mission partners all around our community? Over the centuries, how many tens of thousands of people will go out from our church to serve as volunteers in Loudon and Monroe counties, giving of themselves and their faith to love their neighbors as themselves?

Look who gathers at Christ’s table!

You. Me. Children.

The past. The present. The future.

When Abraham caught that vision – that God wanted to work with him to build a kingdom that would bless generations yet to come, and the whole world through them – God smiled.

The Bible says, “Abraham believed God. And God credited to him as righteousness.”

Do you believe God?

If so go and live today for what you want tomorrow to be.