View today's sermon on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GDe5egUGJ4

1 Thessalonians 2:9-12

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

9 You remember our labor and toil, brothers and sisters; we worked night and day so that we might not burden any of you while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. 10 You are witnesses, and God also, how pure, upright, and blameless our conduct was toward you believers. 11 As you know, we dealt with each one of you like a parent with his children, 12 urging and encouraging you and pleading that you lead a life worthy of God, who calls you into God’s own kingdom and glory.

Mark 10:13-16

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

13 People were bringing children to him in order that he might touch them, and the disciples spoke sternly to them. 14 But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not stop them, for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. 15 Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” 16 And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.

Fatigue. So much fatigue. Election fatigue. Climate change fatigue. COVID fatigue. War fatigue. 

Our technology allows us to know immediately and specifically what is happening in other communities, other states, other countries, other continents. This can bring great sorrow and certainly contributes to our fatigue. Amidst the fatigue, amidst the pain, we are called to hope, we are encouraged to cultivate joy in our hearts and minds. 

This morning we celebrate World Communion Sunday. We celebrate along with people on every continent, speaking a multitude of languages, eating and drinking a wide variety of foods and beverages. We celebrate our differences and we acknowledge how much we have in common. 

One of our most basic of commonalities across cultures is our need for nourishment, for food and drink. We all need to grow and harvest and distribute food, no matter where we are in the world, in hope that all are able to thrive and survive.

Our first scripture reading, Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians speaks to our common labor and toil. Perhaps these first disciples spent time in agricultural fields or vineyards planting, tending, and harvesting chickpeas or grapes. Paul reminds his readers that while living in Thessalonia he and other followers of Jesus were teachers; as parents to children, urging and encouraging and pleading that they all come to live a life worthy of God. I can easily imagine that Paul and his followers were fatigued. They likely spent copious time working for sustenance as they also worked to bring people together to know God’s love. Paul is writing to encourage others, and like most preachers, needs that same encouragement himself. 

Our second scripture, from the Gospel of Mark is an illustration. Jesus was not impressed that his disciples were guarding him from those that they did not find worthy. Jesus uses the example of children, who occupied the lowest status in society, as a symbol for how one should prepare for the kin-dom. “Let the children come to me; do not stop them, for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.”

If I spoke on this text previously, I likely highlighted the innocence of children and how child-like innocence keeps us closer to God. However, reading the passage this week, I believe that Jesus was not highlighting the innocence of children but the marginal status of the children. Societal norms were that children should be seen and not heard. Jesus is sympathetic to the marginalized in society, including children, but not only children. Verse 14 asserts that the kin-dom of God belongs to all that are marginalized. Marginalization results in hunger and starvation when resources are lost due to catastrophic heat or flooding.

Marginalization results in loss of homes and loss of homelands when war and famine force mass exodus. Marginalization results in suffering as hate crimes based on gender, religion, country of origin, and many other biases are perpetrated. 

We continually ask ourselves, “How can we help?” “What can we do?” Are we to suffer with them? Are we to live on the margins? 

There is no glory in suffering. Jesus isn’t asking us all to suffer on the margins of society. Jesus is insisting that the way of the kin-dom is that no one suffers on the margins of society. 

Whether economic margins of food and housing insecurity, or climate margins of higher temperatures and rising ocean waters, or any other imbalances of power, this kin-dom that we live in is meant to shelter and nourish and protect all, not only some.

Our Communion table this morning, in addition to our traditional sourdough bread of Roberta’s and some gluten-free crackers, contains representations of foods from Sudan, Ukraine, Israel, and Haiti. We know from our news feeds that these places are a living hell.  How do we hold hope of a better tomorrow? The scripture points the way. Treat the marginalized with the same love with which a parent loves a child. When a parent loves a child they provide not only love, but also food, shelter, clothing, education, protection. It is so painfully simple it is ridiculous, but it is the only way. Love is the only way forward.

We are to enter the kin-dom, not alone, but together. We are to enter the kin-dom not as Jews, Christians, Muslims, Sikhs, but as children of God. Not as citizens of a particular country but as individuals dedicated to a life with God’s love at the center. 

As we celebrate World Communion Sunday let us hold in our hearts those whose freedoms and liberties and very lives are in grave danger. Our prayers are necessary. Our hope is necessary. We will be part of a ripple effect felt around the world this day. 

Rev. TJ Mack – October 6, 2024