Women And Children First
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
Object:
Jesus' response to the Pharisees' question about divorce in this week's lectionary gospel passage offers us an opportunity to address an issue that in many congregations may well be the religious equivalent of entitlement reform in politics -- a "third rail" that one touches only at great peril. But in this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Dean Feldmeyer notes the real significance of Jesus combining comments on divorce with ones on the primacy of children: in Judean society both women and children were looked on as little more than property, and Jesus is speaking a radical word to the disciples about their rightful place in faith and society. It's important to note that divorce is a different matter in modern life than in Jesus' day, when it was granted entirely at the whim of the husband -- but Dean reminds us that our underlying attitudes toward the most vulnerable members of our society may not have changed quite as much as we might think... and that we still have an obligation not just to approach our faith and lives from the innocent, unjaded viewpoint of young people but also to care for those who are powerless and dependent.
Many congregations will also observe World Communion Sunday this week, and team member Mary Austin offers some additional thoughts on that celebration in light of our lectionary epistle text. Mary points out that gathering around the table together is the ultimate miracle of grace, for it allows us to celebrate our common heritage as children of God, made in the image of the Creator and sharing in one Redeemer, rather than the differences that often tear us apart.
Women and Children First
by Dean Feldmeyer
Mark 10:2-16
Several weeks ago I was at the local shopping mall and saw three women making their way through one of our major department stores, looking at perfumes and lingerie. Now, there's nothing odd with three women shopping together and admiring the latest perfumes and lingerie, and I probably wouldn't even have noticed them -- except that these three women were wearing traditional Muslim garments. They weren't the burkas that cover even the woman's face, but they were conservative enough that they were drawing glances from people like, well, me. They wore full headscarves covering their hair and heads. Their children were wearing western clothing, but I wondered what kind of future those little girls had to look forward to.
I left them in Macy's and made my way to Starbucks, all the time thinking what a shame it was that these ladies' religious faith oppressed women so severely, requiring them to wear such restrictive, unflattering clothing when they went out in public. What a terrible religion that must be... and just as I got to that point in my thinking, two Amish families passed me going the other way.
In the gospel lection for this week, Mark turns his attention to the treatment of women and children, two of the most dependent and vulnerable members of first-century culture. It is tempting to dismiss Jesus' admonitions with a nod to modernity: "Things have changed since then -- women and children have it better today." But a close examination may bring that assumption into question. If, as Gandhi said, a nation's greatness is measured in the way it treats its weakest members, then how much truer this must be of a religious faith.
THE WORLD
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, about 46.2 million Americans live below the poverty level of $22,000 (annual income) for a family of four. That's about one out of every six Americans.
Nearly half of those, 20.5 million, live in deep poverty, with annual incomes below $11,157 (one half the poverty level). Another 20 million people are being kept above the poverty level only with the assistance of government programs like Social Security, the Earned Income Tax Credit, the Child Tax Credit, and Supplemental Security Income.
That means that fully one third of our population is living below the poverty level or being kept above it by government assistance programs.
And 35% of those poor people, about 16.4 million, are children under the age of 18. Twenty-two percent of all American children (one in five) live below the poverty level. That's 39% of African-American children, 35% of Latino children, and 12% of Caucasian children.
Since 2006, 5.3 million American children have been removed from their homes due to foreclosure. (Annie E. Casey Foundation)
According to the U.S. Census bureau, as of 2011 there were 10 million families in the United States headed by single women (87.2% of all single-parent families). Only about half of these women receive child support, and the average child support payment is $300 per month. Twenty-four percent of all American children live in single-parent families, about 40.7% of which fall below the poverty level. That's 4.7 million families, triple the poverty level for the rest of the population.
Two fifths of single-mother families are "food insecure," one seventh use food pantries, one fifth have no health insurance, one third spend more than half their income on housing. Three quarters of homeless families are single-mother families.
Two thirds of all single mothers receive supplemental nutrition benefits (i.e., "food stamps"). Among children with single mothers, 41% get food stamps and 59% don't. Fewer than 10% of poor single mothers receive TANF assistance (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, the successor to AFDC, Aid to Families with Dependent Children).
It is altogether understandable if you are feeling somewhat overwhelmed by these figures. Statistics such as these are often confusing and hard to understand and absorb.
What is even more confusing and harder to understand, however, is that in an election year we have heard very little about these invisible Americans who live under the crushing weight of poverty. Those who would lead us have had virtually nothing to say about the 66.7 million Americans who are living in poverty or just above it thanks to government assistance.
We have heard not a word mentioned about the 123,000 children awaiting adoption or the 3.3 million cases of child abuse that are reported to police every year.
We have heard much about jobs but little to explain how half of the new jobs created since 2006 have been below $33,000 per year and a quarter of them have paid below the poverty level for a family of four. Listen carefully and you will hear the middle class being touted and courted, raised up and elevated as the darlings of both parties.
But who will speak for the poor? Who will speak for the weakest and most vulnerable in our country?
THE WORD
In the gospel pericope for this week, Mark brings together two stories to deal with this very issue in a first-century Judean context. His concern is for women and children, the most dependent and vulnerable people in the culture.
In the first story, the Pharisees come to Jesus with a question to test his legal acumen. Their concern is not for the weak, dependent, insecure, or powerless. Their concern is for the law. What does the law require, and conversely, what does it allow?
In this case, the question is about men. How are powerful, independent men allowed to treat the women to whom they are married? What is the least that's required of them? Under what circumstances are they allowed to not concern themselves with the welfare of the women they no longer want in their lives?
But the Pharisees phrase their question carefully: "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?"
They knew the answer before they asked the question. Yes, it is lawful. Moses allowed for this in the Levitical code. A man was not allowed to simply walk away from a woman. He had to state the reasons for the divorce in a formal and legal document and present it to her. This document also freed her to marry another and there were some exceptions to this rule. (See Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, Vol. 1.)
Jesus' concern here, however, is not about legality -- the focus of the Pharisees. His interest is the hardness of heart of one whose only concern about the weak and vulnerable is "What's the least we are required to do?" His concern is about people who want to know "What's the least we can get away with?"
The account of the children brings to light the hardness of heart of Jesus' own followers. People are bringing their children to Jesus so that he might touch them and bless them, but the disciples are turning them away.
The disciples know, as any pastor does, that children are unpredictable and liable to disrupt the service. They cry, they run around, they throw up, they poop in their pants, and their parents can't always be counted on to corral and control them -- none of which makes for a smooth and orderly Bible study or worship experience.
So the disciples tell the people with little kids that they'll need to take the tots to the nursery, where they have employed several skilled childcare professionals who have all passed their background checks, and where they have instituted a thorough safe-sanctuaries policy.
Then Jesus interrupts everything and tells the disciples that not only are the children welcome but that they are to be seen as role models for adults. Their vulnerability, their trust, their absolute dependence upon others makes them prime candidates for the kingdom -- and there's a lesson in that for adults.
CRAFTING THE SERMON
The text speaks to us about women and children, of course. But more importantly, it speaks to us about those who are the most vulnerable, the weakest, and the most dependent and needy people of our culture and their place among the people of God.
The Indicative
There are certain people in our culture who are weak and vulnerable. In first-century Middle Eastern culture the weakest, most vulnerable, and most dependent people were often women and children. Today that may or may not be the case, depending upon the context.
The Imperative
Jesus calls us to care for those who are weak and vulnerable, those who are dependent. And our caring is to be motivated by love, not by law.
Caring motivated by law asks only "What does the law require?" It seeks only to fulfill the minimum requirement that is sufficient for blamelessness under the law.
Caring motivated by love asks "What is the best and most I can do?" It recognizes those who are weak, vulnerable, and dependent as children of God and worthy of our concern for that reason if no other.
One must be careful when using figures and statistics. Sheer numbers can become overwhelming, causing an audience to stop listening. Better to create a story about a typical person or family who represents the weak and vulnerable in our culture, and then to expand that story with some statistics.
Two thousand years of history have not changed the fact that women and children still represent a significant number of the weak, poor, powerless, and dependent members of our culture -- those for whom Jesus called us to care.
ANOTHER VIEW
World Communion Sunday
by Mary Austin
Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:5-12
This passage from Hebrews recalls God's abundant care for humankind, reminding us that all of humanity is made in the image of the Creator. The writer draws on the words of Psalm 8 to illustrate the connection between humankind and the God who gave us life and who shapes our days. Also connecting us with God is Jesus, who "for a little while" lived among us and shared our life and now has returned to God. Different races, skin colors, languages, and ways of living all reflect together the image of a creative God.
We celebrate that connection with God, and Jesus' life with us, whenever we come to the communion table, where the ordinary becomes sacred by the Spirit's power. At the table, we pause and take time to deliberately remember the earthy, and earthly, side of Jesus' life. As our hands touch the bread, we recall his doing the same. As our lips touch the cup, we know that he had the same thirsts we do, whether for water after a dusty day of walking or a deeper thirst for communion with God. As we share the feast with each other, we follow his commandment to share with one another. We pass the elements and recall our need to share the things that sustain our human life, and also the good news that sustains the spirit's life.
This Sunday, many churches will celebrate World Communion Sunday. Our joy in the communion feast extends worldwide on this Sunday. The liturgy will be said in different languages, at every hour of the day, in every kind of church, with every kind of bread on plates and in baskets. We all, with all our differences, as the scripture says, "have one Father" (and Mother) in God. This Sunday, our unity in that is paramount.
As the letter to the Hebrews notes, God is active "in bringing many children to glory." Many of those children in faith will join together in different congregations to celebrate a common Creator, a shared Redeemer, and an active and loving Spirit. Our history leads us closer and closer to one another. The writer observes that "Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son." We all share the one Redeemer and lift up that blessing as we celebrate communion together on a shared Sunday.
It's a stunning gift of faith that we can celebrate together, in spite of our theological differences about what happens in communion and even about who is qualified to serve communion. For one day, disputes about transubstantiation versus real presence fall away. For one day, questions about the ordination of women and gay and lesbian people fall away. We come to the table together in an annual miracle of God's grace. All of us together are called by our host and master, Jesus, who is, the letter to the Hebrews says, "The reflection of God's glory and the exact imprint of God's very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word." Among the things he sustains by his word is our fragile unity and our shared meal. Even if it's just for one day, what a joyful day it is!
ILLUSTRATIONS
What ties the periscopes about divorce and little children together? Sensitivity. Jesus was sensitive to what caused divorce and he was sensitive about little children. Jesus' disciples wrongly rebuked or scolded parents who brought their children to be blessed by Jesus. Do we still have people in our church who feel that children should be seen and not heard?
Barclay translates Jesus' words as: "Moses would never have prescribed any such regulation, if it had not been for the fact that your hearts are quite impervious to the real commandment of God" (Mark 10:5). Have we taken his words and become people of law rather than of love?
* * *
The Pharisees mean to trap Jesus with their question "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?" If Jesus answers with a simple "yes," he's anti-family. If he answers with a simple "no," then he's disregarding the law. But Jesus doesn't take their bait. He refuses to answer with a simple "yes" or "no." He explodes the parameters of the question, reclaiming religious law from legalism and reasserting God's intentions and covenant priorities within it. Pastor and activist William Sloane Coffin knew what Jesus was up to in his response...
Rules are at best signposts, never hitching posts. Personally, I doubt whether there is such a thing as a Christian rule. There are probably only acts that are more or less Christian depending on the motives prompting them. But if we say, "Down with rules," we must at the same time say, "Up with persons." And if we exalt freedom as Christians, we must remember that freedom is grounded in love.... In short, we have come up with love as an answer to legalism on the one hand and lawlessness on the other. Love demands that all our actions reflect a movement toward and not away from nor against each other. And love insists that all people assume their responsibility for their relations.
-- William Sloane Coffin, Credo
* * *
New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn have written a book -- Half the Sky -- that shares the stories of women and girls from across the world who have been able to turn from the oppression they have experienced and toward opportunities for a better, safer, healthier, and more abundant life. This week PBS aired a program based on the book. The 30 Days/30 Songs campaign is also being held to raise awareness around the stories included in the book. It consists of legendary female musicians like Bonnie Raitt, Sheryl Crow, Joan Osborne, and Annie Lennox offering their music for free download via the Half the Sky Facebook page to draw potential supporters and partners to the movement.
Lucinda Williams was the featured artist on Saturday, September 29, and she offered her song "Born to Be Loved" for download. Its words can speak both to our Hebrews passage's reminder that God honors, holds, and brings each of us to saving glory and to Jesus' teachings from our text in Mark's gospel about how we should treat women, children, and any vulnerable person in our midst.
You weren't born to be abandoned
And you weren't born to be forsaken
You were born to be loved
You were born to be loved
You weren't born to be mistreated
And you weren't born to be misguided
You were born to be loved
You were born to be loved
You weren't born to be a slave
And you weren't born to be disgraced
You were born to be loved
Mmm, hmm, you were born to be loved
You weren't born to be abused
And you weren't born to lose
You were born to be loved
You were born to be loved
You weren't born to suffer
And you weren't born for nothing
You were born to be loved
Mmm, hmm, you were born to be loved
* * *
Sometimes our actions can have unintended consequences that we may never have thought about. One example of this results from our punitive attitude toward the burgeoning prison population. The expenses associated with maintaining these prisons are creating a massive strain on government budgets and so officials are looking for ways to help bridge the gap. One popular method has been for state prisons to negotiate exclusive contracts for phone service -- but as this article notes, one devastating side effect of the exorbitant charges to prisoners is that their children, who have already been physically separated, find it increasingly difficult to maintain any sort of contact with their parents. Madison-Area Urban Ministry in Madison, Wisconsin, is one ministry group doing good advocacy and person-to-person work on issues related to children with incarcerated parents.
* * *
Referring to the book of Genesis, [Jesus] says, "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." In doing so, he is taking a position that's extremely radical for his day. He is speaking out in favor of those women, young and old, who live in fear that they are just one divorce decree away from poverty and disgrace. Jesus' complete prohibition of divorce is, functionally speaking, a powerful protective device for the least and lowly of that society.... When Jesus quotes the book of Genesis, saying, "God made them male and female," and "the two shall become one flesh," he is not making a universal philosophical statement about the nature of the human marriage bond. Rather, he is speaking a stern pastoral word to the men of his society. He is telling them to stop using divorce as a means of abandoning one wife so they can pick up another. Jesus' word about divorce, taken in its historical context, is a word not of judgment but of grace, given: grace for those women who were all too often victimized by a harsh and oppressive system that considered them little more than property.
-- Carlos Wilton, Lectionary Preaching Workbook [Series VIII, Cycle B] (CSS Publishing, 2006)
* * *
The name Pop Warner is synonymous with developmental youth football in America -- like Little League baseball, Pop Warner Little Scholars, Inc. is the country's largest administrative organization for football for middle-school age kids. Recently the national organization suspended two coaches for the Tustin Cobras, a team from the city of Tustin, in Orange County, California, amid allegations that they encouraged their players to intentionally injure opposing players.
Darren Crawford, the Cobras' head coach, and Pat Galentine, the team's president and offensive coordinator, were accused of instituting a bounty system -- paying their players $20 to $50 for hard-hitting tackles, especially ones that remove the opponents' star players from the field with an injury. This scandal evokes the shadow of the NFL's New Orleans Saints scandal -- except that the Cobras' players are 10 and 11 year olds.
Jesus asks us to come and serve him in childlike innocence. Jesus does not instruct us to be childish in our actions.
* * *
The Wall Street Journal has conducted an extensive investigation to determine how often our lives, correspondence, and activities are tracked each day for the purpose of law enforcement and commercial interests. From license-plate readers to a built-in GPS system in our automobiles, from cable TV to e-readers, from cell phones to email, each of us have our activities recorded more than 20 different ways during our daily routines. Today it is no longer criminals, but innocent people who cannot escape living privately and inconspicuously.
As Christians we are being observed and judged by others. It may be more than electronic surveillance, as others watch and speak with us. It would be good for us to live, as Jesus instructed, lives that reflect the innocence of children.
* * *
Often church folk become impatient with children and exclude them because they are inconvenient, immature, or inclined to act on youthful impulses that embarrass adults.
New York City's legendary mayor Fiorello LaGuardia ended up getting an airport named after him because of his compassion and humanity during his tenure. On one occasion he made it clear that he believed the New York police were being too hard on youthful offenders. He tried to illustrate to them the difference between a mischievous prank and true juvenile delinquency. Said La Guardia, "When I was a boy, I used to wander around the streets with my friends and we found a horse tied up to a post. We'd unhitch him, ride him around town, then tie him up again."
One of his officers exclaimed, "Are you telling us that the mayor of New York City was once a horse thief?"
Quipped the mayor, "No, I'm telling you that he was once a boy."
* * *
The grand and glorious images in this week's Hebrews text speak to us not only of God and God's glorious work in Christ, but also of ourselves and who we are destined to ultimately become. The majesty of God and God's perfect reflection in Christ find their glorious counterpart in a humanity set free for joyful participation in the life of God. Here we see God's glory span the space between heaven and earth, bridging the distance between the created and the Creator. And with our lives we strengthen that bridge, making it wider and more visible in this world.
Teacher, farmer, writer, and poet extraordinaire Wendell Berry writes that this bridge is what the world, this old ground aches for in his poem "The Birth." He notes that it is this bridge that creates true life, what some might call rightly ordered living, and what the author of Hebrews calls all things subjected carefully beneath our feet. Berry writes: "[The ground] wants the birth of a man to bring together sky and earth, like a stalk of corn. It's not death that makes the dead rise out of the ground, but something alive straining up, rooted in darkness, like a vine."
* * *
In a recent interview, Klaus Biesenbach, the chief curator of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, discussed some of the criteria for how he chooses an exhibit. Biesenbach identified one of them, saying, "An exhibition should be challenging or disturbing so that it makes you look at the work differently."
Job was certainly one who rejected the simplistic explanations offered to him for his predicament -- a turn of events that was challenging and disturbing enough to make him look at his faith in God differently than he had previously. As one who avoided simplicity, Job was placed before Satan as an exhibit as an individual whose obedience to God was not based on "skin for skin," but on love and faith.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Prove us, O God, and try us;
People: test our hearts and minds.
Leader: For your steadfast love is before our eyes,
People: and we walk in faithfulness to you.
Leader: Our feet stand on level ground;
People: in the great congregation we will bless our God.
OR
Leader: Come to God's table and feast with the saints!
People: We come as God's children, poor and needy.
Leader: Come and share in communion with all God's creatures!
People: We come in unity with one another and all God created.
Leader: Come and share in abundant and eternal life with our God!
People: We come to find our lives renewed and our mission clarified.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
"All Creatures of Our God and King"
found in:
UMH: 62
H82: 400
PH: 455
AAHH: 147
NNBH: 33
NCH: 17
CH: 22
LBW: 527
ELA: 835
Renew: 47
"All People That on Earth Do Dwell"
found in:
UMH: 75
H82: 377/378
PH: 220/221
NNBH: 36
NCH: 7
CH: 18
LBW: 245
ELA: 883
"One Bread, One Body"
UMH: 620
CH: 393
ELA: 496
CCB: 49
"You Satisfy the Hungry Heart"
found in:
UMH: 629
PH: 521
CH: 429
ELA: 484
"Draw Us in the Spirit's Tether"
UMH: 632
PH: 504
NCH: 337
CH: 392
ELA: 470
"O Master, Let Me Walk with Thee"
found in:
UMH: 430
H82: 659/660
PH: 357
NNBH: 445
NCH: 503
CH: 602
LBW: 492
ELA: 818
"Jesu, Jesu"
found in:
UMH: 432
H82: 602
PH: 367
NCH: 498
CH: 600
ELA: 708
Renew: 289
"Where Cross the Crowded Ways of Life"
found in:
UMH: 427
H82: 609
PH: 408
NCH: 543
CH: 665
LBW: 429
ELA: 719
"Take Our Bread"
found in:
CCB: 50
"You Are Mine"
found in:
CCB: 58
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who knows and is known in relationships: Grant us the wisdom to be open to you and one another that we may remember life is found in relationship with you and with our sisters and brothers and all creation; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We come because you have called us, O God, as your children to gather and worship you. In this time of worship we find your claim renewed on us as your children and our relationship with one another affirmed. Grant that we may open our hearts to you and all our sisters and brothers in Christ that your reign may fully come among us. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially our inattention to our relationships with God and our failures to acknowledge our family relationships with all God's children.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We spend one hour a week thinking and talking about you but most of our time we live unaware of your presence. We look around us and see how different some people are from how we perceive ourselves. We fail to see the reality that they are your children, our sisters and brothers. Open our eyes and our hearts that we may see you in our lives more clearly. Open our eyes and our hearts that we may welcome all your children. Amen.
Leader: God loves us and claims us all as dear children. Know that God's love and forgiveness are always ours and that God delights in being known by us, especially when we share God's loving presence with those unlike us.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord's Prayer)
We praise and glorify your name, O God, because you not only create us but you also love us and seek to bring us to the fullness of life.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We spend one hour a week thinking and talking about you but most of our time we live unaware of your presence. We look around us and see how different some people are from how we perceive ourselves. We fail to see the reality that they are your children, our sisters and brothers. Open our eyes and our hearts that we may see you in our lives more clearly. Open our eyes and our hearts that we may welcome all your children.
We give you thanks for all the ways in which you come to us. We are grateful for your presence when we are unaware that you are with us, and we rejoice in those times when we are aware that you are there. We thank you for our sisters and brothers who bear your image and Spirit. We thank you for your love poured out in all creatures and in all creation.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for one another in our need. We hold before you those who have not yet learned that they are loved by you. We pray for those who suffer in body, mind, or spirit. We pray for those who find the world acting hatefully toward them. Even as we know you are with them in their needs, we pray that we may be visible signs of your love to those around us.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father... Amen.
(or if the Lord's Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children's Sermon Starter
Talk to the children about some of your memories of being held on someone's lap. Ask them about their being held. (You might utilize pictures of people holding children in their arms or on their laps. If you have one, show them a picture of Jesus blessing the children.) Tell them that Jesus wanted everyone to know that God loved and cared for the smallest child as much as for the most important adult.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
"Let the Children..."
Mark 10:2-16
Object: a yardstick
Good morning, boys and girls! Have you ever been to an amusement park with rides? (let the children answer) Were you able to ride all the rides? (let them answer) Why could you not ride them all? (let them answer) Some of the rides probably had a sign that said "You must be [this tall] to ride this ride." (Here you can hold up the yardstick and see who is tall enough and who is not.) And maybe you were just not tall enough!
Are there other things that adults can do that children are not allowed to do? (let them answer) Drive a car... vote... teach a class... We could name many things that children are not allowed to do.
One day people were bringing little children to Jesus -- just to have Jesus touch them! Can you tell me if this made Jesus' disciples happy? (let them answer) No! It made them very unhappy. They thought that Jesus was only interested in adult matters and that the children should stay away. They thought that Jesus was wasting his time by having the children around him.
Sometimes people think that Jesus is for adults. But we believe that Jesus is also for children. Jesus was unhappy with the disciples, and he said to them, "Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs." Wow! The kingdom of God belongs to you! You are important people to Jesus! And you are important people to this congregation too! That is why we have Sunday church school and children's sermons and children's bulletins. You are important to Jesus, and you are important to us as a church!
I'm glad Jesus thinks we are all important. Let's talk to Jesus now in prayer.
Prayer: Dear Jesus, you love children; you love us. Thank you. Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, October 7, 2012, issue.
Copyright 2012 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
Many congregations will also observe World Communion Sunday this week, and team member Mary Austin offers some additional thoughts on that celebration in light of our lectionary epistle text. Mary points out that gathering around the table together is the ultimate miracle of grace, for it allows us to celebrate our common heritage as children of God, made in the image of the Creator and sharing in one Redeemer, rather than the differences that often tear us apart.
Women and Children First
by Dean Feldmeyer
Mark 10:2-16
Several weeks ago I was at the local shopping mall and saw three women making their way through one of our major department stores, looking at perfumes and lingerie. Now, there's nothing odd with three women shopping together and admiring the latest perfumes and lingerie, and I probably wouldn't even have noticed them -- except that these three women were wearing traditional Muslim garments. They weren't the burkas that cover even the woman's face, but they were conservative enough that they were drawing glances from people like, well, me. They wore full headscarves covering their hair and heads. Their children were wearing western clothing, but I wondered what kind of future those little girls had to look forward to.
I left them in Macy's and made my way to Starbucks, all the time thinking what a shame it was that these ladies' religious faith oppressed women so severely, requiring them to wear such restrictive, unflattering clothing when they went out in public. What a terrible religion that must be... and just as I got to that point in my thinking, two Amish families passed me going the other way.
In the gospel lection for this week, Mark turns his attention to the treatment of women and children, two of the most dependent and vulnerable members of first-century culture. It is tempting to dismiss Jesus' admonitions with a nod to modernity: "Things have changed since then -- women and children have it better today." But a close examination may bring that assumption into question. If, as Gandhi said, a nation's greatness is measured in the way it treats its weakest members, then how much truer this must be of a religious faith.
THE WORLD
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, about 46.2 million Americans live below the poverty level of $22,000 (annual income) for a family of four. That's about one out of every six Americans.
Nearly half of those, 20.5 million, live in deep poverty, with annual incomes below $11,157 (one half the poverty level). Another 20 million people are being kept above the poverty level only with the assistance of government programs like Social Security, the Earned Income Tax Credit, the Child Tax Credit, and Supplemental Security Income.
That means that fully one third of our population is living below the poverty level or being kept above it by government assistance programs.
And 35% of those poor people, about 16.4 million, are children under the age of 18. Twenty-two percent of all American children (one in five) live below the poverty level. That's 39% of African-American children, 35% of Latino children, and 12% of Caucasian children.
Since 2006, 5.3 million American children have been removed from their homes due to foreclosure. (Annie E. Casey Foundation)
According to the U.S. Census bureau, as of 2011 there were 10 million families in the United States headed by single women (87.2% of all single-parent families). Only about half of these women receive child support, and the average child support payment is $300 per month. Twenty-four percent of all American children live in single-parent families, about 40.7% of which fall below the poverty level. That's 4.7 million families, triple the poverty level for the rest of the population.
Two fifths of single-mother families are "food insecure," one seventh use food pantries, one fifth have no health insurance, one third spend more than half their income on housing. Three quarters of homeless families are single-mother families.
Two thirds of all single mothers receive supplemental nutrition benefits (i.e., "food stamps"). Among children with single mothers, 41% get food stamps and 59% don't. Fewer than 10% of poor single mothers receive TANF assistance (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, the successor to AFDC, Aid to Families with Dependent Children).
It is altogether understandable if you are feeling somewhat overwhelmed by these figures. Statistics such as these are often confusing and hard to understand and absorb.
What is even more confusing and harder to understand, however, is that in an election year we have heard very little about these invisible Americans who live under the crushing weight of poverty. Those who would lead us have had virtually nothing to say about the 66.7 million Americans who are living in poverty or just above it thanks to government assistance.
We have heard not a word mentioned about the 123,000 children awaiting adoption or the 3.3 million cases of child abuse that are reported to police every year.
We have heard much about jobs but little to explain how half of the new jobs created since 2006 have been below $33,000 per year and a quarter of them have paid below the poverty level for a family of four. Listen carefully and you will hear the middle class being touted and courted, raised up and elevated as the darlings of both parties.
But who will speak for the poor? Who will speak for the weakest and most vulnerable in our country?
THE WORD
In the gospel pericope for this week, Mark brings together two stories to deal with this very issue in a first-century Judean context. His concern is for women and children, the most dependent and vulnerable people in the culture.
In the first story, the Pharisees come to Jesus with a question to test his legal acumen. Their concern is not for the weak, dependent, insecure, or powerless. Their concern is for the law. What does the law require, and conversely, what does it allow?
In this case, the question is about men. How are powerful, independent men allowed to treat the women to whom they are married? What is the least that's required of them? Under what circumstances are they allowed to not concern themselves with the welfare of the women they no longer want in their lives?
But the Pharisees phrase their question carefully: "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?"
They knew the answer before they asked the question. Yes, it is lawful. Moses allowed for this in the Levitical code. A man was not allowed to simply walk away from a woman. He had to state the reasons for the divorce in a formal and legal document and present it to her. This document also freed her to marry another and there were some exceptions to this rule. (See Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, Vol. 1.)
Jesus' concern here, however, is not about legality -- the focus of the Pharisees. His interest is the hardness of heart of one whose only concern about the weak and vulnerable is "What's the least we are required to do?" His concern is about people who want to know "What's the least we can get away with?"
The account of the children brings to light the hardness of heart of Jesus' own followers. People are bringing their children to Jesus so that he might touch them and bless them, but the disciples are turning them away.
The disciples know, as any pastor does, that children are unpredictable and liable to disrupt the service. They cry, they run around, they throw up, they poop in their pants, and their parents can't always be counted on to corral and control them -- none of which makes for a smooth and orderly Bible study or worship experience.
So the disciples tell the people with little kids that they'll need to take the tots to the nursery, where they have employed several skilled childcare professionals who have all passed their background checks, and where they have instituted a thorough safe-sanctuaries policy.
Then Jesus interrupts everything and tells the disciples that not only are the children welcome but that they are to be seen as role models for adults. Their vulnerability, their trust, their absolute dependence upon others makes them prime candidates for the kingdom -- and there's a lesson in that for adults.
CRAFTING THE SERMON
The text speaks to us about women and children, of course. But more importantly, it speaks to us about those who are the most vulnerable, the weakest, and the most dependent and needy people of our culture and their place among the people of God.
The Indicative
There are certain people in our culture who are weak and vulnerable. In first-century Middle Eastern culture the weakest, most vulnerable, and most dependent people were often women and children. Today that may or may not be the case, depending upon the context.
The Imperative
Jesus calls us to care for those who are weak and vulnerable, those who are dependent. And our caring is to be motivated by love, not by law.
Caring motivated by law asks only "What does the law require?" It seeks only to fulfill the minimum requirement that is sufficient for blamelessness under the law.
Caring motivated by love asks "What is the best and most I can do?" It recognizes those who are weak, vulnerable, and dependent as children of God and worthy of our concern for that reason if no other.
One must be careful when using figures and statistics. Sheer numbers can become overwhelming, causing an audience to stop listening. Better to create a story about a typical person or family who represents the weak and vulnerable in our culture, and then to expand that story with some statistics.
Two thousand years of history have not changed the fact that women and children still represent a significant number of the weak, poor, powerless, and dependent members of our culture -- those for whom Jesus called us to care.
ANOTHER VIEW
World Communion Sunday
by Mary Austin
Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:5-12
This passage from Hebrews recalls God's abundant care for humankind, reminding us that all of humanity is made in the image of the Creator. The writer draws on the words of Psalm 8 to illustrate the connection between humankind and the God who gave us life and who shapes our days. Also connecting us with God is Jesus, who "for a little while" lived among us and shared our life and now has returned to God. Different races, skin colors, languages, and ways of living all reflect together the image of a creative God.
We celebrate that connection with God, and Jesus' life with us, whenever we come to the communion table, where the ordinary becomes sacred by the Spirit's power. At the table, we pause and take time to deliberately remember the earthy, and earthly, side of Jesus' life. As our hands touch the bread, we recall his doing the same. As our lips touch the cup, we know that he had the same thirsts we do, whether for water after a dusty day of walking or a deeper thirst for communion with God. As we share the feast with each other, we follow his commandment to share with one another. We pass the elements and recall our need to share the things that sustain our human life, and also the good news that sustains the spirit's life.
This Sunday, many churches will celebrate World Communion Sunday. Our joy in the communion feast extends worldwide on this Sunday. The liturgy will be said in different languages, at every hour of the day, in every kind of church, with every kind of bread on plates and in baskets. We all, with all our differences, as the scripture says, "have one Father" (and Mother) in God. This Sunday, our unity in that is paramount.
As the letter to the Hebrews notes, God is active "in bringing many children to glory." Many of those children in faith will join together in different congregations to celebrate a common Creator, a shared Redeemer, and an active and loving Spirit. Our history leads us closer and closer to one another. The writer observes that "Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son." We all share the one Redeemer and lift up that blessing as we celebrate communion together on a shared Sunday.
It's a stunning gift of faith that we can celebrate together, in spite of our theological differences about what happens in communion and even about who is qualified to serve communion. For one day, disputes about transubstantiation versus real presence fall away. For one day, questions about the ordination of women and gay and lesbian people fall away. We come to the table together in an annual miracle of God's grace. All of us together are called by our host and master, Jesus, who is, the letter to the Hebrews says, "The reflection of God's glory and the exact imprint of God's very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word." Among the things he sustains by his word is our fragile unity and our shared meal. Even if it's just for one day, what a joyful day it is!
ILLUSTRATIONS
What ties the periscopes about divorce and little children together? Sensitivity. Jesus was sensitive to what caused divorce and he was sensitive about little children. Jesus' disciples wrongly rebuked or scolded parents who brought their children to be blessed by Jesus. Do we still have people in our church who feel that children should be seen and not heard?
Barclay translates Jesus' words as: "Moses would never have prescribed any such regulation, if it had not been for the fact that your hearts are quite impervious to the real commandment of God" (Mark 10:5). Have we taken his words and become people of law rather than of love?
* * *
The Pharisees mean to trap Jesus with their question "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?" If Jesus answers with a simple "yes," he's anti-family. If he answers with a simple "no," then he's disregarding the law. But Jesus doesn't take their bait. He refuses to answer with a simple "yes" or "no." He explodes the parameters of the question, reclaiming religious law from legalism and reasserting God's intentions and covenant priorities within it. Pastor and activist William Sloane Coffin knew what Jesus was up to in his response...
Rules are at best signposts, never hitching posts. Personally, I doubt whether there is such a thing as a Christian rule. There are probably only acts that are more or less Christian depending on the motives prompting them. But if we say, "Down with rules," we must at the same time say, "Up with persons." And if we exalt freedom as Christians, we must remember that freedom is grounded in love.... In short, we have come up with love as an answer to legalism on the one hand and lawlessness on the other. Love demands that all our actions reflect a movement toward and not away from nor against each other. And love insists that all people assume their responsibility for their relations.
-- William Sloane Coffin, Credo
* * *
New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn have written a book -- Half the Sky -- that shares the stories of women and girls from across the world who have been able to turn from the oppression they have experienced and toward opportunities for a better, safer, healthier, and more abundant life. This week PBS aired a program based on the book. The 30 Days/30 Songs campaign is also being held to raise awareness around the stories included in the book. It consists of legendary female musicians like Bonnie Raitt, Sheryl Crow, Joan Osborne, and Annie Lennox offering their music for free download via the Half the Sky Facebook page to draw potential supporters and partners to the movement.
Lucinda Williams was the featured artist on Saturday, September 29, and she offered her song "Born to Be Loved" for download. Its words can speak both to our Hebrews passage's reminder that God honors, holds, and brings each of us to saving glory and to Jesus' teachings from our text in Mark's gospel about how we should treat women, children, and any vulnerable person in our midst.
You weren't born to be abandoned
And you weren't born to be forsaken
You were born to be loved
You were born to be loved
You weren't born to be mistreated
And you weren't born to be misguided
You were born to be loved
You were born to be loved
You weren't born to be a slave
And you weren't born to be disgraced
You were born to be loved
Mmm, hmm, you were born to be loved
You weren't born to be abused
And you weren't born to lose
You were born to be loved
You were born to be loved
You weren't born to suffer
And you weren't born for nothing
You were born to be loved
Mmm, hmm, you were born to be loved
* * *
Sometimes our actions can have unintended consequences that we may never have thought about. One example of this results from our punitive attitude toward the burgeoning prison population. The expenses associated with maintaining these prisons are creating a massive strain on government budgets and so officials are looking for ways to help bridge the gap. One popular method has been for state prisons to negotiate exclusive contracts for phone service -- but as this article notes, one devastating side effect of the exorbitant charges to prisoners is that their children, who have already been physically separated, find it increasingly difficult to maintain any sort of contact with their parents. Madison-Area Urban Ministry in Madison, Wisconsin, is one ministry group doing good advocacy and person-to-person work on issues related to children with incarcerated parents.
* * *
Referring to the book of Genesis, [Jesus] says, "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." In doing so, he is taking a position that's extremely radical for his day. He is speaking out in favor of those women, young and old, who live in fear that they are just one divorce decree away from poverty and disgrace. Jesus' complete prohibition of divorce is, functionally speaking, a powerful protective device for the least and lowly of that society.... When Jesus quotes the book of Genesis, saying, "God made them male and female," and "the two shall become one flesh," he is not making a universal philosophical statement about the nature of the human marriage bond. Rather, he is speaking a stern pastoral word to the men of his society. He is telling them to stop using divorce as a means of abandoning one wife so they can pick up another. Jesus' word about divorce, taken in its historical context, is a word not of judgment but of grace, given: grace for those women who were all too often victimized by a harsh and oppressive system that considered them little more than property.
-- Carlos Wilton, Lectionary Preaching Workbook [Series VIII, Cycle B] (CSS Publishing, 2006)
* * *
The name Pop Warner is synonymous with developmental youth football in America -- like Little League baseball, Pop Warner Little Scholars, Inc. is the country's largest administrative organization for football for middle-school age kids. Recently the national organization suspended two coaches for the Tustin Cobras, a team from the city of Tustin, in Orange County, California, amid allegations that they encouraged their players to intentionally injure opposing players.
Darren Crawford, the Cobras' head coach, and Pat Galentine, the team's president and offensive coordinator, were accused of instituting a bounty system -- paying their players $20 to $50 for hard-hitting tackles, especially ones that remove the opponents' star players from the field with an injury. This scandal evokes the shadow of the NFL's New Orleans Saints scandal -- except that the Cobras' players are 10 and 11 year olds.
Jesus asks us to come and serve him in childlike innocence. Jesus does not instruct us to be childish in our actions.
* * *
The Wall Street Journal has conducted an extensive investigation to determine how often our lives, correspondence, and activities are tracked each day for the purpose of law enforcement and commercial interests. From license-plate readers to a built-in GPS system in our automobiles, from cable TV to e-readers, from cell phones to email, each of us have our activities recorded more than 20 different ways during our daily routines. Today it is no longer criminals, but innocent people who cannot escape living privately and inconspicuously.
As Christians we are being observed and judged by others. It may be more than electronic surveillance, as others watch and speak with us. It would be good for us to live, as Jesus instructed, lives that reflect the innocence of children.
* * *
Often church folk become impatient with children and exclude them because they are inconvenient, immature, or inclined to act on youthful impulses that embarrass adults.
New York City's legendary mayor Fiorello LaGuardia ended up getting an airport named after him because of his compassion and humanity during his tenure. On one occasion he made it clear that he believed the New York police were being too hard on youthful offenders. He tried to illustrate to them the difference between a mischievous prank and true juvenile delinquency. Said La Guardia, "When I was a boy, I used to wander around the streets with my friends and we found a horse tied up to a post. We'd unhitch him, ride him around town, then tie him up again."
One of his officers exclaimed, "Are you telling us that the mayor of New York City was once a horse thief?"
Quipped the mayor, "No, I'm telling you that he was once a boy."
* * *
The grand and glorious images in this week's Hebrews text speak to us not only of God and God's glorious work in Christ, but also of ourselves and who we are destined to ultimately become. The majesty of God and God's perfect reflection in Christ find their glorious counterpart in a humanity set free for joyful participation in the life of God. Here we see God's glory span the space between heaven and earth, bridging the distance between the created and the Creator. And with our lives we strengthen that bridge, making it wider and more visible in this world.
Teacher, farmer, writer, and poet extraordinaire Wendell Berry writes that this bridge is what the world, this old ground aches for in his poem "The Birth." He notes that it is this bridge that creates true life, what some might call rightly ordered living, and what the author of Hebrews calls all things subjected carefully beneath our feet. Berry writes: "[The ground] wants the birth of a man to bring together sky and earth, like a stalk of corn. It's not death that makes the dead rise out of the ground, but something alive straining up, rooted in darkness, like a vine."
* * *
In a recent interview, Klaus Biesenbach, the chief curator of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, discussed some of the criteria for how he chooses an exhibit. Biesenbach identified one of them, saying, "An exhibition should be challenging or disturbing so that it makes you look at the work differently."
Job was certainly one who rejected the simplistic explanations offered to him for his predicament -- a turn of events that was challenging and disturbing enough to make him look at his faith in God differently than he had previously. As one who avoided simplicity, Job was placed before Satan as an exhibit as an individual whose obedience to God was not based on "skin for skin," but on love and faith.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Prove us, O God, and try us;
People: test our hearts and minds.
Leader: For your steadfast love is before our eyes,
People: and we walk in faithfulness to you.
Leader: Our feet stand on level ground;
People: in the great congregation we will bless our God.
OR
Leader: Come to God's table and feast with the saints!
People: We come as God's children, poor and needy.
Leader: Come and share in communion with all God's creatures!
People: We come in unity with one another and all God created.
Leader: Come and share in abundant and eternal life with our God!
People: We come to find our lives renewed and our mission clarified.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
"All Creatures of Our God and King"
found in:
UMH: 62
H82: 400
PH: 455
AAHH: 147
NNBH: 33
NCH: 17
CH: 22
LBW: 527
ELA: 835
Renew: 47
"All People That on Earth Do Dwell"
found in:
UMH: 75
H82: 377/378
PH: 220/221
NNBH: 36
NCH: 7
CH: 18
LBW: 245
ELA: 883
"One Bread, One Body"
UMH: 620
CH: 393
ELA: 496
CCB: 49
"You Satisfy the Hungry Heart"
found in:
UMH: 629
PH: 521
CH: 429
ELA: 484
"Draw Us in the Spirit's Tether"
UMH: 632
PH: 504
NCH: 337
CH: 392
ELA: 470
"O Master, Let Me Walk with Thee"
found in:
UMH: 430
H82: 659/660
PH: 357
NNBH: 445
NCH: 503
CH: 602
LBW: 492
ELA: 818
"Jesu, Jesu"
found in:
UMH: 432
H82: 602
PH: 367
NCH: 498
CH: 600
ELA: 708
Renew: 289
"Where Cross the Crowded Ways of Life"
found in:
UMH: 427
H82: 609
PH: 408
NCH: 543
CH: 665
LBW: 429
ELA: 719
"Take Our Bread"
found in:
CCB: 50
"You Are Mine"
found in:
CCB: 58
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who knows and is known in relationships: Grant us the wisdom to be open to you and one another that we may remember life is found in relationship with you and with our sisters and brothers and all creation; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We come because you have called us, O God, as your children to gather and worship you. In this time of worship we find your claim renewed on us as your children and our relationship with one another affirmed. Grant that we may open our hearts to you and all our sisters and brothers in Christ that your reign may fully come among us. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially our inattention to our relationships with God and our failures to acknowledge our family relationships with all God's children.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We spend one hour a week thinking and talking about you but most of our time we live unaware of your presence. We look around us and see how different some people are from how we perceive ourselves. We fail to see the reality that they are your children, our sisters and brothers. Open our eyes and our hearts that we may see you in our lives more clearly. Open our eyes and our hearts that we may welcome all your children. Amen.
Leader: God loves us and claims us all as dear children. Know that God's love and forgiveness are always ours and that God delights in being known by us, especially when we share God's loving presence with those unlike us.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord's Prayer)
We praise and glorify your name, O God, because you not only create us but you also love us and seek to bring us to the fullness of life.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We spend one hour a week thinking and talking about you but most of our time we live unaware of your presence. We look around us and see how different some people are from how we perceive ourselves. We fail to see the reality that they are your children, our sisters and brothers. Open our eyes and our hearts that we may see you in our lives more clearly. Open our eyes and our hearts that we may welcome all your children.
We give you thanks for all the ways in which you come to us. We are grateful for your presence when we are unaware that you are with us, and we rejoice in those times when we are aware that you are there. We thank you for our sisters and brothers who bear your image and Spirit. We thank you for your love poured out in all creatures and in all creation.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for one another in our need. We hold before you those who have not yet learned that they are loved by you. We pray for those who suffer in body, mind, or spirit. We pray for those who find the world acting hatefully toward them. Even as we know you are with them in their needs, we pray that we may be visible signs of your love to those around us.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father... Amen.
(or if the Lord's Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children's Sermon Starter
Talk to the children about some of your memories of being held on someone's lap. Ask them about their being held. (You might utilize pictures of people holding children in their arms or on their laps. If you have one, show them a picture of Jesus blessing the children.) Tell them that Jesus wanted everyone to know that God loved and cared for the smallest child as much as for the most important adult.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
"Let the Children..."
Mark 10:2-16
Object: a yardstick
Good morning, boys and girls! Have you ever been to an amusement park with rides? (let the children answer) Were you able to ride all the rides? (let them answer) Why could you not ride them all? (let them answer) Some of the rides probably had a sign that said "You must be [this tall] to ride this ride." (Here you can hold up the yardstick and see who is tall enough and who is not.) And maybe you were just not tall enough!
Are there other things that adults can do that children are not allowed to do? (let them answer) Drive a car... vote... teach a class... We could name many things that children are not allowed to do.
One day people were bringing little children to Jesus -- just to have Jesus touch them! Can you tell me if this made Jesus' disciples happy? (let them answer) No! It made them very unhappy. They thought that Jesus was only interested in adult matters and that the children should stay away. They thought that Jesus was wasting his time by having the children around him.
Sometimes people think that Jesus is for adults. But we believe that Jesus is also for children. Jesus was unhappy with the disciples, and he said to them, "Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs." Wow! The kingdom of God belongs to you! You are important people to Jesus! And you are important people to this congregation too! That is why we have Sunday church school and children's sermons and children's bulletins. You are important to Jesus, and you are important to us as a church!
I'm glad Jesus thinks we are all important. Let's talk to Jesus now in prayer.
Prayer: Dear Jesus, you love children; you love us. Thank you. Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, October 7, 2012, issue.
Copyright 2012 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
