Let Them Come! (Mark 10:13-16)

 Sermon: “Let Them Come!”

The disciples were trying to manage things. I respect that. Maybe they thought they were trying to protect Jesus, or at least, protect his image, his reputation. They wanted to see him respected. They wanted him to be seen as someone worthy of honor.

I respect that.

And, in their society, men who were respected and worthy of honor couldn’t be bothered with spending time with little children.

Spending time with children is for less important people. That’s what they thought.

So they tried to stop the children from coming to Jesus. They tried to control who was allowed to come into his presence. 

And, in some ways, as often happens in these situations, I think they tried to control him.

I think their intentions were good. Mostly. They just didn’t understand: Jesus didn’t belong to them. And Jesus would not be conformed to the expectations of society. 

Jesus would be nothing less than who he would be.

This story is about more than just Jesus’ love of children. It’s about the ways we try to control Jesus, or the ways we try to control who has access to Jesus. 

Who is worthy of coming into Jesus’ presence? Who is qualified to be a part of Christ’s community? Who is worthy enough to enjoy that close fellowship, that intimate fellowship, to touch Jesus and be touched by him, and to receive his blessing?

Throughout the history of Christianity, the church has struggled with that question. 

On the one hand, the answer seems obvious: everyone is welcome in Christ’s presence. Right?

But on the other hand, the church has felt it was necessary to manage who had access to Jesus. The church has felt it was its duty to control who has access to the Lord’s Table, where the presence of Christ is most intimately revealed to believers.

Every important person has people who control who has access to that person. Celebrities, presidents, CEOs. Shouldn’t it be the same for Jesus?

And so, one of the roles the church has played over the years is the role of gatekeeper.

This, it has done in various ways over the years.

At the dawn of the 19th century, in Scottish Presbyterian churches, communion was only celebrated twice a year. 

And when communion was celebrated, one couldn’t just show up. In the days and weeks leading up to the communion service, church members were required to meet with the presiding minister. The minister would evaluate them, and determine if they were in good enough standing to receive communion. If the minister decided that the member was worthy to receive communion, the minister would give the member a token which the member would have to present at the communion service if they wanted to receive the bread and the wine.

Anyone who did not have a token would not be welcome at the table.

The communion service was a major event that took most of the day. First, there was the sermon, a lengthy discourse about how those who have been approved would bring God’s displeasure upon them if they refrained, and how those who are unfaithful—those not approved—should keep away from the table.

Then, the congregation came forward—not all at once, but one small group at a time. At the front of the sanctuary, they gathered, and a tray was passed around, and one by one they dropped their tokens into the tray. 

And then, they partook of communion.

At one such service, a 21 year-old named Alexander Campbell sat in his pew, holding his token. He watched as one group after another went forward for communion. 

Alexander was troubled, and perhaps a little angry. He thought it was wrong to deny anyone the opportunity to receive communion. In his mind the token was a human invention that did nothing but divide people from one another and separate them from God. And no one, he believed, should be denied communion.

As the story goes, Alexander Campbell waited until the very last group of people was called forward, wondering what he should do.

When the last group was called to the table, Alexander Campbell stood up, walked forward, and approached the table. The tray was passed around, and each worshiper placed their token in it. When the tray came to Alexander Campbell, he violently threw his token in the tray, so that it made a loud clang that echoed throughout the sanctuary; and then, without partaking of communion, he stood up, turned, and walked out of the church building, resolving that he would find a way to break down the barriers that only allowed certain people to encounter the presence of Christ at the communion table.

A few months later, Alexander emigrated from Scotland to the United States. He met up with his father, Thomas Campbell, who had already journeyed to the U.S. He shared his thoughts with his father, and was surprised to learn that his father had begun having similar thoughts. 

On separate continents, both Alexander Campbell and his father, Thomas Campbell, had come to the same conclusion: that all Christians are a part of the one church, and that therefore all Christians should be welcome at the table.

Together, Thomas and Alexander—father and son— began discussing how to rid the church of these barriers which divided people and prevented people from being welcome at the Lord’s Table. Eventually, these would help start the movement that became the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).

Today, over 200 years later, we in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) still identify ourselves as a movement that welcomes all to the Lord’s Table, as God has welcomed us.

We have long proclaimed that the table is an open table… and we (to be honest) are still learning what that means. Not too long ago, many congregations, even in our denomination, did still discourage children from partaking of communion, saying that one should only partake of communion after one has gained an adequate understanding of what this table and this meal signify. And so, many congregations had children wait until they were baptized before receiving communion.

But, reflecting on our heritage, and after paying attention to how Jesus welcomed people, even children, into his presence, this began to change.

This was something we talked about when I was a seminary student. My theology of worship professor, Keith Watkins, liked to say that the Lord’s Supper was a meal of great thanksgiving, not all that different from the Thanksgiving meal many of us celebrate the fourth Thursday of every November. 

And at that Thanksgiving meal, the one we celebrate in our homes, we don’t tell children that they can’t sit at the table, or that they can’t have any turkey, or sweet potatoes, or stuffing, or pumpkin pie, until they are old enough to fully understand why we celebrate Thanksgiving. No! Children get to eat, just like the adults do; they get to enjoy all the blessings of the day just like anyone else… and the hope is that they will learn to understand the importance of Thanksgiving, and the importance of gratitude, through their participation.

And that is how it is in most Disciples congregations today, when we gather at the Lord’s Table.

All are welcome. All can approach the table and receive Christ’s blessings. Children and adults. Disciples, as well as people of other denominations. Even people of other religions and no religion are welcome, if their hearts are sincere. 

I am deeply saddened every time I visit a church where all are not welcome at the table. I am saddened when I am told, “only members of this congregation, or this denomination, can receive the elements. All others can receive a blessing, but the elements are for members of this church only.”

I am saddened, because other than that one thing, I have respect and admiration for the church I’m visiting. If it’s a friend or family member who invited me to join them for worship at their church, I am grateful for the invitation and the love and the welcome. I am grateful that we can be united in our love for Jesus and our desire to follow him.

But then, to be told that I’m not welcome to receive the elements… it hurts.

And I’m saddened, because it is a division that mars the unity we have in Christ. I believe that it is Michael Kinnamon who likes to say that we don’t pray for a day when the church might be one—the church of Christ is one! Right now! It’s just that we often fail to recognize it.

That’s why the Disciples of Christ identity statement I alluded to earlier says that “as part of the one body of Christ, we welcome all to the Lord’s Table, as God has welcomed us.”

As part of the one body of Christ…

We are part of the one body. We don’t claim to be the whole body of Christ. We recognize that there are other parts of the body of Christ. There are Presbyterian parts and Methodist parts and Roman Catholic parts and Eastern Orthodox parts of the body of Christ. We are all parts of the ONE body of Christ. 

And our failure to recognize this is a sin. When we fail to recognize the one body of Christ, we are dividing the church that Christ has made whole. 

World Communion Sunday is a day to recognize that all those who gather around the Lord’s Table are, together, the one body of Christ. 

On every continent: North and South America, Asia, Europe, Africa and Australia: we are one. 

In every denomination: Protestant, catholic, whatever. We are one.

People speaking every language: Korean, Swahili, Urdu, Arabic: we are one.

People in every time: all those in generations past, present, and future. All those who have died and gone to heaven, and all those who still dwell on earth. At this table, we are all one. We are all united in Christ.

Because there is just one table around which we gather. This here, is a representation of that one table. In some churches, their table is rough, and hand cut, perhaps made from plywood or even boxes stacked and covered with a cloth.

In other churches, the table is ornate; something worthy of royalty.

And yet, they are all really just representations or manifestations of the one table of Christ; and it is around this one table of Christ that we all gather.

I don’t always agree with what others think or preach in other parts of the one body of Christ; but I cannot deny that we are one body, that we are part of the same church, and that we worship the same Savior, and that God calls us to act as one body, united in Christ Jesus our Lord.

No More Lies (Esther 3)

 How many of you know the story of Esther? Esther only appears once in the entire 3-year lectionary cycle, on this, the 19th Sunday after Pentecost. And what the lectionary gives us are some random verses from chapter 7 and chapter 9. If I were to just read those verses, we’d miss so much!

This is a fascinating, exciting, and entertaining story. We don’t have time to read all of it in worship. I encourage you to do so sometime on your own. Or, if you ever get invited by a Jewish friend to attend a Purim spiel, something most Jewish congregations do in late winter, do so, for it’s a fun, hilarious, and entertaining reenactment of the story of Esther that they do every year.

For today, though, I’m going to start by reading some verses from chapter 3, reading from the Common English Bible today, and then move through the story from there…

The King promoted Haman above all the officials who worked with him. All the royal workers at the King’s Gate would kneel and bow facedown to Haman because the king had so ordered. 

But Mordecai didn’t kneel or bow down. When Haman himself saw that Mordecai didn’t kneel or bow down to him, he became very angry. But he decided not to kill only Mordecai, for people had told him Mordecai’s race. Instead, he planned to wipe out all the Jews, Mordecai’s people, throughout the whole kingdom. 

Haman said to the King, “A certain group of people exist in pockets among the other peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom. Their laws are different from those of everyone else, and they refuse to obey the king’s laws. There’s no good reason for the king to put up with them any longer. If the king wishes, let a written order be sent out to destroy them, and I will hand over ten thousand kikkars of silver to those in charge of the king’s business. The silver can go into the king’s treasuries.”

The king said to Haman, “Both the money and the people are under your power. Do as you like with them.”

Haman hated the Jews. The scripture says that Haman became angry after Mordecai refused to bow down, but I think Haman was just looking for an excuse, a reason, to carry out his cruel intentions against the Jews.

 The Jews were different. They talked differently. They acted differently. They dressed differently. They worshiped differently. 

All that bothered Haman; all those differences made him anxious; and rather than take the time to understand those differences, Haman made up lies about the Jews, saying that they were a threat to the kingdom. 

They weren’t a threat, but Haman repeated those falsehoods to the king, and convinced the king to approve Haman’s plan of genocide.

Now, this is a tragic, dreadful way to begin a story. But if you read the whole story, you’ll see that it is tempered with humor and irony, and that the story itself is actually quite entertaining, especially when Haman’s whole plan backfires on him in hilarious fashion. 

Because, yes, the villain gets his due. Haman is defeated, and his reign of terror comes to an end.

But.. unfortunately, animosity and hatred against those who are different did not end with Haman. In every generation, people have felt threatened by those who were different… I know some of our small groups are doing a study in conjunction with our kindness campaign, and one of the lessons is about how our anxiety can lead us to feel threatened by those who are different.

And when some feel threatened or anxious by those who are different, that can lead to words of hate, and acts of violence… just like it did for Haman. 

In the 1840s and 1850s, Irish immigrants were coming to the United States in large numbers. Anxious Americans felt that they needed to save the nation from going broke to pay for “Paddy and Bridget,” who were arriving in unprecedented waves.

And they didn’t hesitate to make up stories and spread lies to turn people against the Irish immigrants. Just like Haman made up lies about the Jews, to turn people against them.

Meanwhile, in my home state of California, the gold rush brought tens of thousands of immigrants from China. According to an article on the Library of Congress website, “The Chinese immigrants endured an epidemic of violent racist attacks, a campaign of persecution and murder that today seems shocking. From Seattle to Los Angeles, from Wyoming to the small towns of California, immigrants from China were forced out of business, run out of town, beaten, tortured, lynched, and massacred, usually with little hope of help from the law. Racial hatred, an uncertain economy, and weak government in the new territories all contributed to this climate of terror and bloodshed.”

A lot of the attacks directed toward the Chinese began with made-up lies about what the Chinese immigrants were eating. In California, during Gold Rush times, people claimed that the Chinese immigrants were eating cats and dogs. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

Hatred toward people who are different is seen in our own time, with hateful rhetoric and even violent crimes being committed against Muslims, Mexicans, and other immigrant groups. They are labeled “thugs,” “dangerous criminals,” even though immigrants—even undocumented immigrants—actually commit fewer crimes than U.S. citizens, according to data collected from law enforcement agencies. 

But that doesn’t stop the Hamans of our time from spreading their lies.

As I said, in the book of Esther, Haman doesn’t come out on top. In this Bible story, the villain doesn’t win.

Because it just so happened that Mordecai—the Jew Haman hated the most—had a younger cousin named Esther. (You knew there was going to be an Esther, since that’s the name of the book!)

Esther’s parents had died, so Mordecai raised Esther as his own…

…Until the day that the king decided he needed a new queen. The king chose Esther; she became his new queen.

Throughout all this, Esther kept secret the fact that she was a Jew, and she kept secret the fact that Mordecai was her cousin.

When Haman got the king’s approval to begin killing the Jews, Esther realizes it was time to reveal her truth, and intercedes with the king on behalf of the Jews.

What a difficult decision that must have been! When you read the story, Esther’s fear is obvious. She doesn’t know how the king will react. 

Her hope, of course, is that the king will stop the genocide when he realizes that the Jews are the kin of his own queen. But the king could just as easily decide that Esther should join the Jews when they are rounded up and killed.

Despite her fear, Esther approaches the king, and offers to prepare him a lavish feast. And she invites Haman to the feast. 

And during the feast, the king says, “Queen Esther, what is your request? What is it that you want to tell me?”

And Esther says, “If it pleases the king, let the king and Haman come to another feast that I will prepare tomorrow night.”

Did she lose her nerve? Was it part of her plan? I don’t know.

But the following night, the king and Haman both return for another night of feasting. 

And again, while they are feasting, the king asks: “What is it, Queen Esther? What is your request?”

And Esther says: “The lives of my people are in jeopardy. I and my people have been sentenced to be destroyed, to be killed, to be annihilated.”

And the king, startled into compassion for his Queen and her people, asks, “Who is he, who has presumed to do this?”

And Esther looks at Haman and says, “A foe and enemy, this wicked Haman!”

And then the king orders that Haman be executed on the very gallows that Haman had prepared for Esther’s cousin Mordecai… and thus, the Jews are saved.

But it wouldn’t have happened without Esther’s brave decision to speak out on behalf of the Jews. 

We need some Esthers today, to speak out against the malicious lies of all the Hamans, lies intended to divide people, lies that tear us apart, lies that seek to destroy those who are different from us.

Some of these lies are obvious, but some are so deeply ingrained in us that we don’t even realize that they are lies.

I’ve mentioned before about how, when I was teaching, I’d have to question the assumptions I sometimes made about my students. Why did I react one way with one student, and another way with another student?

And I’d search within me, to see if there is some hidden lie within me, a lie that had been passed down from previous generations, prompting me to act in a certain way. If there was a lie there, I’d want to know, so I could work to replace it with truth.

Fortunately, I’ve learned to engage in this sort of self-reflection, because of the trainings and events I’ve attended that were put on with the support of our church’s pro-reconciliation, anti-racism ministry. 

Some years back, our denomination, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), made a commitment to be a pro-reconciliation, anti-racist church. And we knew that this work needed to start within.

What lies did we as a church believe and accept, even if we were doing so unconsciously?

We knew that the demographics of our leadership didn’t match the demographics of our membership, and we were willing to ask why. Clergy of color, for example, were finding it harder to find ministry positions than white.

What lies were we living out?

And we began a process of discernment and action, to uncover the lies, to reveal the truth, and to more faithfully work towards God’s kingdom where there are no distinctions in terms of prejudice. “Neither Jew nor Greek, male or female.”

And that work continues today. It will continue as long as there are Hamans in this world, spreading their lies about people who are different.

That’s why today and next week, many Disciples congregations throughout the United States and Canada are highlighting the work of our reconciliation ministry. 

From 2003 to 2005, our Disciples General Minister was Chris Hobgood, who was a passionate promoter of our pro-reconciliation, anti-racism priority. Every other priority, he said, falls under this one. 

At the time we had a priority of establishing 1,000 new congregations by the year 2020—a goal we achieved, by the way.

Chris Hobgood said that unless we prioritize being a pro-reconciliation, anti-racist denomination while establishing those congregations, then we would end up establishing 1,000 racist congregations. 

In his brief time as leader of our denomination, he did a lot to further pro-reconciliation, anti-racism work, and our denomination is certainly a much better and more faithful part of Christ’s church because of it.

He was an Esther for our church, confronting lies with truth, holding us accountable for the ideas we have and the ideas we share about people who are different than we are.

Today, our current General Minister and President, Terri Hord Owens, continues to call us to emphasize the work of racial reconciliation. She points out that we’ve been saying, for many years now, that we are pro-reconciliation, anti-racism; so let’s be who we say we are. Let’s be the church we say we are. 

Let’s work for justice for all God’s children. Let’s confront and challenge the lies that are told about our siblings in Christ who just happen to be of another race or culture. And let’s continue this work until there are no more Hamans in our world, spreading lies, speaking words of harm. 

We will be, as the prophet says, repairers of the breach. We will be uniters, instead of dividers. Instead of harm, there will be healing. Instead of lies, there will be truth. Instead of hate, there will be love.