Welcome Child – Br. Luke Ditewig

SSJE

Br. Luke Ditewig

James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a
Mark 9:30-37

What were you arguing about? Jesus asked. Perhaps best scout for new outreach and lodging sites. Expert at crowd control. Food and goods purveyor. Scripture knowledge. Who is Jesus’ favorite. The greatest disciple.

Playful jostling can turn to comparing power and privilege, background, connection, and status. We wrestle and worry over: what am I worth? Am I enough? What do I have? What if Jesus asked you and me: What were you so anxious about?

Jesus said: “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” Servants were last, and the servant of all was the servant at the bottom with the least. This upends us seeking power, access, security, and more than we need.

Jesus “took a little child and put it among them, and taking it in his arms, and [Jesus] said to them ‘Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.’” Like servants, children had no status or power. Let go of ego. Don’t cling to gifts, abilities, or background.

Jesus came to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance. Jesus is the Good Physician for the sick.[i]Jesus-followers have troubles because they are human and needy. James wrote to an early Christian community struggling how to follow Jesus in daily life: Who is wise among you? Show it by how you live.

Imagine what prompted James to write this. Perhaps people thought they were wise, who knew a lot, had ideas, good, no great, ideas, and touted their great ideas, and listed their achievements. “Show wisdom by how you live,” James writes. Envy and selfish ambition lead to trouble. “But wisdom from above”—from God—“is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy.”

Who have you seen live this way? Acting peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy. Might they also acknowledge their own need, ask for help, and be vulnerable? Perhaps elders, a parental figure or teacher. How about a child? Peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, dependent, asking for help, vulnerable.

Children and youth surprise with an honest openness. We host youth groups here and tell them about our life. Middle schoolers are the most fun. They ask questions older youth, collegians, and adults shy away from. Children are less inhibited. Elsewhere in the gospels, Jesus tells adults to be like children. Jesus prays thanks that God gives revelation to infants, not to those who think they know it all.

Children have a kind of unencumbered wisdom. They ask for help or cry and flail for help. They then slump receptive to love and care given. Children are also present to the moment, engaged with what right here. Adults have the benefits of impulse control, self-regulation, and self-reflection. To live well we choose to be present, not just think but play and create. We are saved by grace, a gift, not earned or deserved. Children model the receptivity of being saved while adults are born again for a childlike perspective receptive to grace.[ii]

Competition is helpful for creating and improving. Trying to be great and greatest, we often abuse power. We hurt and kill one another both humans and non-human neighbors. “Where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind.” Our fragile mother earth bears the wounds of our ambition as well as the wonder of our Creator.

Welcome the little, last, and least, what we tend to overlook, not see, not stop: people and every creature, every created thing. Take a cue from children. Stop to crouch down on the ground. Attend with all your senses. Those of you in-person were invited to take a small thing as you arrived, a cardamom pod or star anise. Please look at it. Those of you online, gaze any small object near you or look at a plant or leaf. Perhaps hold it in your hand.

With childlike curiosity and wonder, gaze at this. Notice shape, texture, smell, maybe even taste with your tongue. Greet any memories this evokes. Give thanks.

Dear children of God, welcome those who are little and last among all God has made. Doing so, we welcome God who loves us all.

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[i] Mark 2:17

[ii] Brian Edgar (2017) The God Who Plays. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, p20.