On Sunday, January 21, 2018, I shared this sermon at El Faro: the Border Church, our weekly celebration of communion at Friendship Park, the historic meeting place on the US-Mexico border.*
I once heard someone remark that when little children presented themselves to Jesus' disciples, Jesus did not tell the children to become like the disciples. He told the disciples to become like the children. It seems to me there is a lesson in this for people in positions of power in Washington, D.C., who are now charged with determining the fate of some one million so-called "Dreamers," young people brought to the United States as children by their parents, now at risk of deportation.
Only a small number of members of Congress have ever sat down to break bread with a Dreamer. Even fewer have visited Mexico to visit with somebody who had been deported and separated from their loved ones. So the sad truth is that policy is being made in our country by people who do not understand what they are talking about, and who do not know - and do not care to know - the people whose lives their decisions will affect.
Many of these same people would insist that the United States is a Christian nation. But that, to my mind, is the wrong question. It is a hypothetical question that leaves us talking in abstract terms. The real question is whether our nation can figure out a way to reflect the best values of the Christian tradition - that is the real question for those of us who say we are trying to follow Jesus. Does our nation create laws and systems and structures that reflect the values of Jesus?
Right now, the answer to that question is clearly no. The way I read the story from Matthew's gospel, when young children want to come and offer the blessing of their lives, only the ignorant would want to set them apart, to reject them, to "send them back."
When the ignorant try to do this kind of thing, Jesus rebukes them. And Jesus says, "let the children come to me." So until such time as our government will look with favor on these young people, who come to this country wanting to share the gifts of their lives -- the gifts of their hands, their hearts, their minds, their futures; these young people wanting to offer a blessing to the nation of the United States -- until our government can say, "let the children come to us," our nation will be a long, long, long way from the gospel of Jesus Christ.
"Let the little children come to me."
*The sermon was delivered across the border wall from a distance, because the meeting place adjacent to the border was closed to the public by San Diego Border Patrol, in the wake of the shut-down of the federal government. It was delivered from the United States by a wireless microphone, connecting to a base in Mexico. This required that it be preached in short phrases, to avoid feedback and disruptive echo.
"Then people brought little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked them. Jesus said, 'Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.' When he had placed his hands on them, he went on from there." - Matthew 19:13 - 15
I once heard someone remark that when little children presented themselves to Jesus' disciples, Jesus did not tell the children to become like the disciples. He told the disciples to become like the children. It seems to me there is a lesson in this for people in positions of power in Washington, D.C., who are now charged with determining the fate of some one million so-called "Dreamers," young people brought to the United States as children by their parents, now at risk of deportation.
Only a small number of members of Congress have ever sat down to break bread with a Dreamer. Even fewer have visited Mexico to visit with somebody who had been deported and separated from their loved ones. So the sad truth is that policy is being made in our country by people who do not understand what they are talking about, and who do not know - and do not care to know - the people whose lives their decisions will affect.
Many of these same people would insist that the United States is a Christian nation. But that, to my mind, is the wrong question. It is a hypothetical question that leaves us talking in abstract terms. The real question is whether our nation can figure out a way to reflect the best values of the Christian tradition - that is the real question for those of us who say we are trying to follow Jesus. Does our nation create laws and systems and structures that reflect the values of Jesus?
Right now, the answer to that question is clearly no. The way I read the story from Matthew's gospel, when young children want to come and offer the blessing of their lives, only the ignorant would want to set them apart, to reject them, to "send them back."
When the ignorant try to do this kind of thing, Jesus rebukes them. And Jesus says, "let the children come to me." So until such time as our government will look with favor on these young people, who come to this country wanting to share the gifts of their lives -- the gifts of their hands, their hearts, their minds, their futures; these young people wanting to offer a blessing to the nation of the United States -- until our government can say, "let the children come to us," our nation will be a long, long, long way from the gospel of Jesus Christ.
"Let the little children come to me."
*The sermon was delivered across the border wall from a distance, because the meeting place adjacent to the border was closed to the public by San Diego Border Patrol, in the wake of the shut-down of the federal government. It was delivered from the United States by a wireless microphone, connecting to a base in Mexico. This required that it be preached in short phrases, to avoid feedback and disruptive echo.
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