September 21, 2003 - Baptism Sunday
Josie May
daughter of
Albert & Tanya Hoffarth
We all need recognition. We
need to belong. We need a sense of status even if it is only in our heads. But
it must never be at other's expense. Jesus uses a child as metaphor. The
Powerlessness and vulnerability of a child is a good example of a way to belong
that adds to everyone's status. For Jesus to comment on
Child status opens the doorway to a lot of things. The Sunday school teacher
had been talking about how Jesus can come and live in our hearts. One
five-year-old must have been thinking about this on the way home in the car with
her dad. She leaned over and put her head on his chest. “What are you doing?” he
asked. “I’m listening for Jesus in
your heart?” she said. “And what do you hear?” her
dad asked. “It sounds like Jesus is
making coffee.” That grin comes from an
understanding of a child in our culture. The culture from which Jesus
illustration came has no such sense of the ‘cute little child.’ Until the ritual
of a child being welcomed into family life as a teen, a child was invisible. Three times Jesus talks
about his passion and death. Each time, Mark structures it the same way. Jesus
makes a prediction; the disciples misunderstand; Jesus seizes the opportunity to
teach. This time, the disciples
failed to understand because they were still preoccupied with position and
status. And Jesus responded, in a way that becomes more and more characteristic
as he moves towards his final week, by dramatizing his message. He scoops up a
toddler probably playing on the floor, and uses him (or her) as an example.
I've seen whole theologies
developed around "becoming like a child." We need to remember that this is an
enacted metaphor and the context identifies the point—the child has no power,
and no status. Jesus could have
administered a verbal rebuke to the disciples. But He didn't. He gives them,
instead, a skit, an experience, a dramatized parable that they will remember
better than mere words. JT It’s a statement of
belonging: the child belongs simply because the child “is”. Whoever embraces
that embraces Jesus’ message. It’s a whole new message. The invisible child
becomes visible in the economy of Christ and this new “Jesus-offered” visibility
is the status that the disciples should seek…nothing more, nothing less. We can read the Proverbs
passage, from centuries earlier, as a statement on belonging also…this woman
belongs not because she has been bought or sold…she belongs because in her there
is a centre…in her, there is a family…her belonging is her gift to all who are
part of her home and all who experience it. Baptism is about belonging
too. We come together today…we celebrate the miracle of life with a young family
and we stand here and say Josie, you belong…Josie’s parents, you belong, as
members of this congregation we all belong as we take ownership for our place
here at Westminster and our place within the greater Christian church. We
don’t belong to the Christian family because of our wealth or our poverty…we
don’t belong because of our genius or our slowness, we belong because Jesus
takes us, holds us up and says, ‘see this child, whoever welcomes such in my
name, welcomes me.’ A colleague tells a story of
belonging in her congregation. She says, “There was a fellow in our congregation
who did the jobs nobody else would do. His name was Roy. Roy came early and unlocked
the door, and he shoveled the snow in the winter. He did the same thing over at
the legion. He'd go at five in the morning and stoke the furnace up for them.
He'd clean things up and put things away. If there was a work party, he was
there. Roy was a bit slow. He never
really held down a full-time, permanent job. He never married. He lived with his
sister. Roy never held office in the church, though he was there every Sunday.
He couldn't really follow most discussions, but he was always genuinely friendly
and always ready to help as much as he could. Roy died. Reverend Barbara
was supposed to go to Vancouver for an important church meeting, and phoned a
colleague to share her dilemma about whether or not to stay and do the funeral.”
She was asked, "Was he an
important member of your community?" She says, “I knew in that
instant that I would stay and conduct Roy's funeral. And I was right. Roy was an
important member of our community. It was the largest funeral I have ever
conducted. The church was absolutely packed. Roy was like the good wife
of Proverbs 31 or the child of Jesus’ illustration. He had very low status. He
never expected to be paid or thanked. And sometimes people took unfair advantage
of him. When he died, the people of the community gathered to say goodbye to
Roy, whom they recognized as a genuinely good person.
I like Barbara’s story of
belonging… it shows us status from the underside. But lest we think that it was
by doing that Roy belonged I need to uphold that Jesus’ example of belonging is
even more simple. One belongs simply because they are one of God's creatures. Don’t misunderstand me,
there is no community without participation but it is not our participation that
makes us belong to the Christian family. We belong because of Christ and because
we belong we are moved to participate. Not the other way around. Probably nowhere is the
difference between the kingdom of God and the kingdom
of this world set out more graphically than in this passage of Jesus turning the
idea of greatness upside down. I have referred earlier to
the status of woman and it needs to be said that children in the Greco-Roman
world were of little account. In our culture, a child runs the house. Life
revolves around it. Just ask our new family. We marvel at its perfection and
"ooh" and "aah" at all it does. Again, In Jesus' day, a
child had no power or status. (Its life was of no account, except to its mother,
I presume.) When Jesus took a child in his arms and said if you welcome it, you
welcome me, he was making a powerful statement indeed. Greatness is to be measured
by how we relate to the "powerless" and "worthless." It is interesting to
speculate what would happen if the church were better at embracing Jesus' model
for greatness. The call to welcome the most
vulnerable among us as we would welcome God lies at the heart of the gospel.
The simple truth is that
everyone is the greatest because God made us all. And no one is greater than
another, again, because God made us all. Always remember, "You’re the
greatest!" and also “no greater than anyone else.”
Our baptism reminds us of
our belonging in the presence of God…our baptism affirms that we are together
and welcomed in this experience…our baptism is really the single act of shared
experience that affirms who we are before God. By embracing baptism we
embrace a trust that says we know this to be true. That’s why it is so
important. It says we do this because you have asked us to and even in our
confusion we know you mean it…even in our doubts we claim your covenant
promise…it is an act of faith and trust to be sure. It is good for us to
experience the common sharing of baptism …it is the most central aspect of our
faith…Jesus commanded it and in faith we exercise our option to be celebrating
it …even if we can’t fully explain it… the grace of baptism exists especially
because we can’t fully explain it. We talk about God visiting
us in our questions … perhaps nowhere is that more lived out than in the
church’s vulnerable action of baptism. Amen.