Nothing...
Welcome to worship! My name is Danny Bradfield, my pronouns are he/him/his, and I’m pastor of Bixby Knolls Christian Church. I am so grateful for your presence here today. I remind you that if you want to know more about what’s going on here at Bixby Knolls Christian Church, let us know your email address so we can add you to our email list. We send out emails - usually just once a week - with info about worship and other activities taking place here and in our region.
It’s been a busy week for me… I’ve had a few substitute teaching jobs, and I’ve learned to say no to others, because the schools are in desperate need of subs right now, and I could easily say yes to too many. As it turned out, the last period of students I had on Friday afternoon were especially challenging. Like everyone else, I suppose, they were ready for the weekend...
Remember when you were a kid… (for some of us that’s longer ago than for others)... and your teacher or your parent came in and said, “What are you doing?” … and you replied: “nothing...”
Well, it wasn’t nothing, was it?
Obviously, you were doing something… Probably something you shouldn’t have been doing...
Or maybe you were arguing or fighting with a sibling or a friend… and your parent says: “What are you fighting about?”
Nothing…
Well, obviously, you were doing something, fighting about something, and it was something you shouldn’t have been doing or shouldn’t have been fighting about… and you knew that you shouldn’t have been doing that, you knew it was wrong, or childish, or immature… your parent didn’t even have to tell you.
You already knew.
And as a parent or teacher, many of us have been on the other side of that interaction. We see a child doing something they know they shouldn’t be doing. We say, “What are you doing?”
And they say: “Nothing.” Because they know what they are doing is wrong or immature.
And they know that we know what they were doing.
And we know that they know that what they were doing was wrong.
So... nothing more needs to be said.
The disciples were arguing about which one of them was the greatest. They knew it was wrong. Jesus knew that they knew it was wrong. Jesus asked them, “What were you arguing about?” And they said, “Nothing…”
2. What more to say?
Now, because I’ve been so busy - not just with teaching, but with two different all-day trainings I had to take in the same week - it’s been hard to find the time to figure out just what I want to say in this sermon.
It’s also been hard, because I read the scripture, and I hear Jesus’ words that the greatest must serve, that the one who wants to be first must be last and a servant to all, and I think: “What more needs to be said?”
It’s like the story of the seminary student who was terrified to preach his first sermon. But the day came, so he stood up in front of his professor and his classmates, and he said: “You all already know what I’m going to preach on, so there’s no point in me preaching it.” And he sat down.
The professor said to him, “I know we are your professor and classmates, but you have to assume that we don’t know, and preach to us anyway. Try again tomorrow.”
The next day, that student got up to preach and said, “You don’t know what I’m going to tell you, so me telling you won’t change anything…” and he sat down.
The professor said to him, “OK, let’s assume that some of us do know and some of us don’t. Try again tomorrow.”
The next day, that student got up to preach and said, “Some of you know, and some of you don’t know; so, those of you who know, tell those of you who don’t.” And he sat down.
I feel a little bit like that student today, because Jesus teaching that the first must be last, and that we need to welcome and serve the lowly and not just those who are great - those who are like a child - is great stuff… but you already know that. And you live that out, in the ministry of this congregation, in the way you do welcome everyone, and not just those who are “important;” and you do serve others with love, those you know, those in our church family; as well as those you don’t know, supporting people in our community and our world through special offerings and outreach efforts and other activities.
So… what more do I need to say?
3. Welcome
How about this: This week, President Biden came to Long Beach, and a lot of people got all excited, and did all they could to give the president a warm welcome. So maybe this is a good time to ask: would they have gotten themselves all worked up and done just as much to show a great extravagant welcome if the person coming to visit was a “nobody?”
Did the custodian who cleaned the space where Biden spoke get made to feel just as welcome, just as important?
Did the hotel workers who cleaned the president’s hotel room in downtown Long Beach get made to feel just as welcome, just as important?
What more do I need to say…?
I guess I could talk about myself, and my own reaction when I get noticed by important people. I tweet something, and sometimes our General Minister Terri Hord Owens likes it and comments on it and retweets it… that gets me excited… more excited than if someone I don’t know or don’t care about likes something I post online…
And last spring, when several hundred people gathered on the beach in support of the LGBTQ community, several of us from BKCC were there; and the mayor of Long Beach came up to me and recognized me and asked how the church is doing… that gets me excited… more excited than if someone I don’t know or don’t care about recognizes me and says hi to me…
In fact, someone did come up to me the other day to say they’ve seen my posts on social media and that they liked them, and I thought, “that’s nice,” and I tried to quickly get away.
I didn’t exactly show the same level of love or kindness or appreciation to this person that I did to the mayor or the general minister...
And if the mayor were coming to church, or if the General Minister were coming to visit us, would we do more to welcome them than we would a visitor we don’t know who shows up one Sunday for worship?
I’m sure we would.
So maybe we don’t know - and I mean really know - this teaching of Jesus as well as we think we do.
And I’m not saying we shouldn’t welcome the mayor or the general minister or the president… but maybe, even we need to work on how we welcome others - those who are less important. You know, like children in the first century.
4. Welcoming the one not noticed
In the first century, parents loved their children, just like parents do today. But children weren’t considered important members of society. They didn’t belong in public, especially in the presence of someone important, someone like Jesus.
So when Jesus says to welcome the children, he’s saying to welcome those who are overlooked. Welcome those who are considered least important in society. If you’re going to host an extravagant welcome celebration for an important politician or famous personality, do the same for everyone else.
If you’re going to get excited that your post on twitter or facebook was noticed by someone important, be sure to also notice and get excited when someone less important notices.
Isn’t that the lesson here?
Here’s another, somewhat related, story about Jesus, from Luke 14:
7 When Jesus noticed how the guests sought out the best seats at the table, he told them a parable. 8 “When someone invites you to a wedding celebration, don’t take your seat in the place of honor. Someone more highly regarded than you could have been invited by your host. 9 The host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give your seat to this other person.’ Embarrassed, you will take your seat in the least important place. 10 Instead, when you receive an invitation, go and sit in the least important place. When your host approaches you, he will say, ‘Friend, move up here to a better seat.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests. 11 All who lift themselves up will be brought low, and those who make themselves low will be lifted up.”
We like to be noticed. We like to notice people who notice us. We like to notice and show hospitality to important people who notice us, or in the hopes that they will notice us.
But God notices the things we do for the least of these, the less important people in the eyes of society, the people who have been ignored and made invisible by society.
And when we seek to make ourselves less important, so that the light of recognition can shine more brightly on others, then God will shine recognition upon us.
5. To Walk Humbly
I mentioned that I took part in two all-day trainings. These trainings took place via zoom - one last Thursday, and one last Saturday - and they are required for me to keep my ministerial standing in the Pacific Southwest Region.
One of the trainings was a pro-reconciliation, anti-racism training. And the other also touched on issues surrounding race.
And one thing I’ve learned when it comes to issues of race and racism, is that a white male like myself has to approach the issue with a bit of humility.
This is a time for me to listen and learn. Because I have much to learn. In fact, we as a church still have much to learn as we seek to follow Jesus’ teachings - especially those about welcoming those who have long been made to feel unwelcome.
At one point in our conversation, it was mentioned that our Disciples of Christ mission statement could be seen as problematic. Our denomination has a mission statement that says we are “to be and to share the Good News of Jesus Christ, witnessing, loving and serving from our doorsteps to the ends of the earth.”
It was pointed out that that phrase “from our doorsteps to the ends of the earth” elevates us to a level of importance because it assumes we have all the knowledge, that we have possession of the gospel, and that ministry flows in only one direction: from us, to them. That implies that they (whoever “they” are) are less knowledgeable and less holy, and that they need us to help them grow in knowledge and become more holy.
It prevents us from humbling ourselves and allowing those at the ends of the earth to minister to us and teach us.
Now, I had never thought of this statement in this way. My first reaction was to say, “...but it’s biblical!”
But for those earliest disciples, who were given the task to proclaim the gospel “to the ends of the earth,” they were in a position of disadvantage. They were persecuted, they were outcasts, and they were oppressed by the empire.
For us, our situation is just the opposite. For a Christian denomination in the United States, we are not persecuted, we are not outcasts, and Christianity is not being oppressed by the government.
So maybe we need to humble ourselves a bit and reconsider the wording of that statement, given our context.
As it turns out, our denomination’s global ministries division is very good at serving others with humility. Our mission workers who travel around the world see ministry as a two-way street. The people they work with in far-off places have as much to teach us as we have to teach them.
But we have to be willing to listen. Two of our global ministry workers - Nishan and Maria Bakalian - are taking a short break from their work in Lebanon and are visiting congregations in southern California to share what they’ve learned; and they will be here ten days from now, on Wednesday, September 29.
I’m working on organizing an informal gathering for us to welcome them and learn from them. I really didn’t plan for this sermon to be one long advertisement for their visit - in fact, I didn’t even make the connection until just yesterday, as I was finishing work on this sermon.
But gathering to hear what they have to say, welcoming them for one evening, and learning from them what the people of Lebanon might have to teach us - isn’t that the type of thing Jesus is talking about here?
So let me know if you want to come. I don’t know yet where we’ll meet - I’ll figure that out this week. But I need to know who’ll come; who will join me in welcoming them, and learning from them, about how we can be better servants to people in places all over the world.
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