Lord, Listen…Send Us

This conversation between Jesus and the disciples occurs at a turning point. At the end of Matthew 17, Jesus was at home in Capernaum in Galilee. At the beginning of 19, he will leave home, and head from Galilee to Jerusalem, to the cross. Here, in chapter 18, at home, before setting out on his final journey, he talks with his disciples. Some interpreters have called this section of Matthew “the book of church order” – here we have Jesus’ polity instructions. Jesus is giving instructions on how to organize ourselves as his disciples.

The disciples ask first, “How are things organized in the kingdom of heaven?” Seems a good model to model their organization after.

Rev. Dr. Tom Long invites us to “pay attention to the visual aspects of this passage.”

Jesus is standing, and they are sitting in a circle around him. That is how rabbis and their students organized themselves.

Now, “Imagine a circle drawn in the sand called “the kingdom of heaven.” When the disciples ask, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” they assume, of course, that they are standing inside this circle. They want to know who, among the insiders is the greatest. Startlingly, Jesus reaches outside the circle.”

Jesus calls a child to come stand at the center and says, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never even enter the kingdom of heaven.” Now the disciples are outside the circle! And the only way back in is for them to become humble like the child.

We have to be careful not to read into this scene our culture’s mindset about children. Grandparents in Galilee didn’t carry around pictures of their grandchildren. Parents didn’t sacrifice for their children. The problem of couples prioritizing their children over their marriage that is so common today was not unthinkable.

“Children were always at risk. According to some estimates, 30 percent of infants died at birth, another 30 percent [died]by age 6, and 60 percent were gone by age 16.” Girls were often put out to starve, because their family didn’t want the expense of a daughter to raise; she wouldn’t be worth much even if she did survive to adulthood. Children were property, like slaves, except they weren’t as useful.

So, this worthless, useless child stands at the center of the circle that is the kingdom of heaven. It, they didn’t use gender specific pronouns for children, it was the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And the disciples find themselves outside once again. Remember they were a ragtag collection of fishermen and tax collectors, who had been lowly when Jesus came along and called them to be disciples, remember they had already been rejected by other rabbis and left to get vocational employment because they were not the brightest and the best, but then they were picked by Jesus and for three years they followed and listened and learned from Jesus. Now they thought they were in the inner circle, and then Jesus says they have to stoop low to enter the kingdom of heaven.

“But Jesus isn’t done with the moves on this circle in the sand. Jesus says, ‘whoever welcomes one such child in my name’ actually welcomes me.” Do you see what has happened?! Jesus says he is now outside the circle, hidden in the faces of children, the ‘nobodies,’ the weak, the small, and the helpless. “If the disciples indeed become humble leaders, then they will demonstrate that by showing hospitality to those who are like children, the weak and lowly. Why? Because whoever shows hospitality to the powerless.”

This is the church polity of Jesus; this is the way the kingdom of heaven is organized. “When the world looks at the church, it should see not simply another social organization….; it should see [the kingdom of heaven in the flesh] where leaders serve…, where the weak are nourished…, where people who lose their way are not forgotten but sought and restored, where people cultivate mercy and forgiveness.”

And when the church looks at the world, it should see Jesus in the faces of the downcast and the outcast. Today is Children’s Sabbath. Since 1883, the Presbyterian Church has designated one Sunday of the year as Children’s Sabbath: a day to hear, to pray, and to act on behalf of children.

A day to hear that according to UNICEF statistics 22,000 children will die today because of poverty. And by tomorrow the toll will reach, a few more than the population of Germantown. And by Wednesday, as many as the populations of Germantown and Collierville will die from poverty-related conditions. Every 43 days, every 6 weeks, as many children die from poverty in our world as there are people living in Shelby County.

And a day to pray: Lord, listen to your children praying.

A day to hear that in our own nation, • more than one in five children live in poverty; • one in seventeen lack health coverage • one in nine are at risk of hunger; • two in five 8th grade public school children read below grade level; and • nearly one in five youth will drop out of high school.

And a day to pray: Lord, listen to your children praying.

This is a day to hear and pray. But, Children’s Sabbath is not just to hear and to pray about the suffering of children. The purpose of Children’s Sabbath is also to open ourselves to the power of the Holy Spirit to work in and through us to transform the lives of children who face a gap between the reality they live in and the promise God sees in them.

One of the most powerful ways right now that Presbyterians are working to change the lives of children is through the “Educate a Child, Transform the World” effort. Educate a Children, Transform the World is joining with partners both in the US and around the world to provide quality education for 1 million children by the year 2020 because education breaks the cycle of poverty. Education is power to transform. Your Pentecost Offering supported this ministry.

This afternoon at Fellowship Coffee, Rev. Sharon Junn will share with us her story. Sharon has been Associate Pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Jackson, TN. And she is answering God’s call to be a missionary and teach children in China along the border of North Korea. She will be our Presbytery’s missionary in one of the most strategically important regions of the world, working to transform the world as she educates the next generation. You will have the opportunity to support her directly and Farmington has the opportunity to support her in our 2017 budget.

Farmington will begin hosting Room in the Inn on the first and third Saturday nights again on November 5. Last year early in the season, we began accepting families because there is not a better situation for families with children but without a home in the Memphis area. Several nights last season the youngest homeless guest was 9 months old. Your pledge to Farmington and your participation make this ministry possible.

Next spring we will host our second Stop Hunger Now packaging event. We will package meals to be sent to a school in a third world country. The children come to school hungry, so when they arrive they are fed. A person cannot focus and learn when they are hungry. So, first the children are fed, and then they are taught. Last year, we packaged 10,000 meals. Your pledges for 2017 will make this ministry possible again next year.

Our Stewardship theme this year is “Where God’s Children Find Home.” Each and every day these halls ring with laughter and learning. One of the most important lessons taught here is taught to every child of God who comes through our doors. You are an incredible, interesting, wondrous creation of God, who loves you, and we love you too. The Farmington family teaches that lesson to children of all ages, at the day school, in Sunday school and youth group, at Wednesday Night Dinner and Potluck and Fellowship Coffee, at Trunk-R-Treat and Lessons and Carols, in Worship and in Service. We teach that lesson as we serve one another and others, as we place those who are vulnerable at the center rather than those who are powerful. We teach that lesson as we intentionally move toward the outsider, the rejected, the one who is suffering.

This is the church polity that Jesus taught. This is the way the kingdom of heaven is organized.

May our prayer always be, “Lord, listen to your children…and send us.” Amen.