Sunday, April 15, 2018
Sermon Audio
Full Service Audio
 
The Discipline of Being with Children
By The Rev. Lorraine Hill
Sunday, April 15, 2018 - 9;15 am
Reading: Mark 10:13-16
 
Welcome to the final day of this weekend’s Being Christian conference, where we’ve been exploring the principles presented in the book Faithful Presence written by our guest speaker, David Fitch. In this book, he explores the “Seven Disciplines” that he identifies as those ancient Christian practices that shape the church’s presence in our communities. Many of these “disciplines” he identifies are not new to Christianity: the Lord’s Supper, prayer, proclaiming the gospel, taking care of the vulnerable. But Fitch makes us think about what it would mean to reclaim these ancient practices of the church in a way that honours our uniquely Christian identity, while placing them squarely in the context of our contemporary culture.
 
The session happening right now, during the 9:15 service is on “The Discipline of Being With Children.” And at 11:00, Professor Fitch will be speaking on “The Discipline of Proclaiming the Gospel.” Following that, we will have a closing session, where Fitch will make some final remarks, and there will be a time for some final questions. If you ordered lunch when you registered, they will be available for pickup in the auditorium today. If you didn’t register for the conference, but you would like to sit in on this closing session, you’re more than welcome.
 
Let’s begin by praying together: Father, you are here; you are always here, you are always with us. We long for that deep peace and assurance that comes from a confident awareness of your presence. Help us now to look for your presence in small, sometimes fidgety, delightful little packages; for we know that unless we become like one of them, we cannot dwell in your kingdom. And now may the words of my mouth, and the mediation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, as you are our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
 
When I was 6 years old, I started to get picked on a lot at school. I didn’t know why, but other kids would call me names and say mean things, and it was very hurtful. As children tend to think everything must be their own fault, I thought the reason this must be happening was just that I was inherently unlikable. 
 
But in the evening, when my Dad got home from work he would sit in his armchair and put his feet up on the ottoman, and watch the news before supper. And my little 6 year old self would crawl into the crook of his arm and rest there from my day’s troubles. 
 
I was probably more chatty than my Dad would have wished, as he was trying to watch the news and relax after work; but if that was the case, he never let on. He listened to me chatter away, and I remember he used to absent-mindedly stroke my hair, tucking it behind my ear; and in that moment, I felt absolutely and utterly loved. To this day, those memories represent my understanding of God’s unconditional love.
 
My parents didn’t put me into any sports programs or private school (although they did have the foresight to put me into the French Immersion stream at our public school). I never went to summer camp. I did take dance lessons for six years, but to be totally honest, I barely have any memories of my classes – my only memories are of forgetting the new choreography that one time I was chosen to be the dance lead; and of marching in a parade and missing my baton toss at the top of the hill and watching, mortified, as it rolled away from me down the hill.
 
My fondest childhood memories are not all that spectacular, actually. My very happiest moments as a child were when my Dad and I used to go for walks after supper. We’d walk up the gravel road from our house, and I’d chatter away and my Dad would listen – you’re probably noticing a pattern here! – And about a km up from our house there was a herd of cows, and I’d stop to pick some long grass to feed to them through the fence. One time, the long grass I was holding onto drooped down onto the electric fence…if any of you grew up in the country and know about electric fences you can imagine the charge I got out of that! 
 
And my Dad told me the story of when he was a child, and he and his school buddies used to stand in a line, holding hands, and the first guy would grab hold of the electric fence, so that the current would go through them all and down to the last guy, who really got the worst of it! (See all the fun these kids with their PlayStations are missing out on!)
 
I have a lot of great childhood memories that revolve around Sunday School and church activities. That was where I spent a lot of time with my Mum and whenever I go to that church now I see her everywhere; but what I remember with so much appreciation is that, while the kids at school picked on me relentlessly, the kids at church were nice to me. 
 
What stands out even more to me, though, was that at church adults other than my own parents and relatives knew me, took an interest in my life, and gave of their time to teach me important lessons, both in class and out. I’ll never forget Mrs. Shoemaker, one of my Sunday School teachers: one week when I forgot to ask my parents for a quarter for the offering, I found a penny on the ground and was embarrassed when I had to tell her it was all I had, and she made me feel it was the most important contribution ever.
 
And then there was Mrs. Thiessen, an elderly lady who offered to teach me to knit. (My own mother knew how to knit!) So after school once a week, I’d go by, and she always gave me tea and cookies, and she helped me knit my first pair of slippers (and probably my last). The knitting didn’t particularly stick at the time, but to this day, whenever I go by Mrs. Thiessen’s house I remember how nice it felt to sit at her table, and how special I felt because I wasn’t even her family, but she made time to teach me to knit.
 
At church, I belonged, I was known, I was cared for and I was part of a community that included young and old and in between – a cast of wonderful and wacky characters who are still vivid in my memory and who – each in their own way - showed me what God’s love is like and how faith in Christ is lived out.
 
If I overcame the bullying I experienced at school, it was not because of certified programs in sports and arts, all scrubbed and polished with leaders who have been properly screened and trained and scrutinized. It was because a number of ordinary people – particularly adults, including my parents, but not exclusively my parents – a number of adults wanted to spend time with me, took an interest in teaching me, and cared enough to get to know me. 
 
To this day, I remember the names of the men and women at the church who made time for me and all the children in the Sunday School, who taught me about God’s love because they cared about us. These were not people who were Bible scholars or professional teachers. They were simply kind people who cared. And to be honest, I don’t even remember the actual lessons they taught to the class, although I suppose I absorbed all the usual stories you learn in Sunday School. I do remember some of the songs… But what I remember is their kind and caring presence of these people, these adults. 
 
Each one of us has that amazing opportunity to be present to our community’s children in this very same way; to make a difference in the lives of children just by being there; and every one of us has the opportunity to experience for yourself the presence of Jesus in and through our children. 
 
As Fitch says, “the practice of guiding children has always been a central fact of the life of the church” (p. 133). Children matter in the church because they mattered to Jesus. They matter so much to Jesus that he says - as we heard in the scripture passage that Peter read for us – that for us to experience the Kingdom of God we must become like them. Instead, I think we try to make them become like us. Children are constantly imitating what they see adults doing; but Jesus says we must become like them; and the way we become like them is by spending time with them, on their turf, where they are free to be themselves. We observe them; we imitate them.
 
I have to admit that last fall, after being at TEMC only a month, I was quite surprised to find that in a church this size the Sunday School was struggling to find just 4 or 5 people to teach classes. I had assumed there would be lots of teachers. This is not a critique, just an observation, and it made me curious. I’m sure there are a number of reasons for this, and I’m still trying to discern what they might be (If you have any insights, I’d be happy to hear them). It does reflect a fairly common trend in the church that has come about as we’ve turned children’s ministry into a program that only a few are involved in. 
 
Often, over the years, I have heard people in other churches say, “I taught Sunday School when my kids were little, now it’s time for the younger parents to take their turn.” Aside from the fact that God doesn’t set age limits on the people he calls to serve, I observe three problems with viewing children’s ministry as solely the young parents’ responsibility: 
 
First, the number of young parents in our congregation are fewer than in previous decades, and many more families have both parents working full time during the week; these parents already have the daily task of nurturing their children’s faith, as well as all other areas of their development, and it is the church’s role to support them in that nurturing role; if they are teaching Sunday School week after week, we’re not supporting them by giving them the opportunity to have their own faith nurtured so that they can resume their responsibilities encouraged and uplifted. 
 
Second, as I mentioned previously, the children benefit immeasurably from seeing examples of faith outside of their immediate family circle. The church has such a wonderful diversity of gifts and experiences to share with the children.
 
And third, of course, is the rich diversity of gifts and experiences that the children have to share with us; how richly rewarding it is for all of us to be in the company of children and to experience the delight of their own growing faith. I’ll say more about this later.
 
What I’m trying to say is that it is not just the responsibility of some to teach the children. We are all responsible for raising up the next generation of Christian disciples. Whenever we baptize a child or confirm a teenager, it is a covenant of mutual commitment between the parents and the congregation toward the child and towards one another, all grounded on the Lordship of Jesus Christ. When we baptise a child:
 
 
Minister:    Congregation and friends, will you join with these parents on behalf of these children, by welcoming them as members of the church and by sharing your leadership, prayers and resources on behalf of their Christian nurture and education? (Response: We will, with the Spirit of God as our helper and guide.) Every person in the congregation stands up and vows before God to join with the parents in the responsibility and blessing of sharing faith with children.
 
That’s why I was especially intrigued when I read in Faithful Presence of the decision of the Life on the Vine Christian Community to ask each and every member of their faith community to spend time with their children once every few weeks. He writes “All adults were asked to be in the children’s ministry a minimum of once every eight weeks [!]. They were asked to be present with our children, to know them, to be changed by them. This resulted in a community where our children could grow up recognizing Jesus not purely as a historical person and a doctrine, but as someone present to us in our daily lives.” (p. 136)
 
What this approach accomplishes is that the children experience the full richness and diversity of faith that is present in our congregation, and as they hear the life stories of individual believers, they get to see firsthand the work Jesus does in the lives of real, flesh and blood people. It made me wonder what a similar approach might look like here, in our church: if even 10 % of those who attend worship regularly would give 5 or 6 hours out of their whole year to be present with the children, how much it would enrich the life of the church and each person in it!
 
Fitch writes, “Years later, after leading our community in this way, we discovered that some adults (and teens) went to the children’s ministry classrooms even when it was not their week to be with the children. They had experienced the real presence of Christ there and wanted to return.” I would invite, encourage, maybe even challenge each of you, on any given Sunday, to just go up when the children head to the East Chapel, and sit with them and the teachers as they sing and hear the story lesson for the day, and just see if you don’t feel the presence of Christ in that room.
 
In the book of Matthew, Jesus says, “whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.” When make space for a child to experience the presence of Jesus, we also experience the presence of Jesus. As Fitch writes, when we welcome a child with patience and openness and genuineness, and we are attentive to the presence of Christ in that encounter, in that welcome – also while drawing the child’s attention to the presence of Christ - then we open up a space for God to work. “It is a space where God in Christ not only transforms children’s lives but the adults in the space as well” (p. 35).
 
For the most part, here, I’ve focused on the Discipline of Being With Children as it pertains to the church community, but as with all aspects of the faith, it raises so many questions about how we faithfully attend to the presence of Christ in all our encounters with children, whether their your children, your grandchildren, the squirmy child on the streetcar, or the crying child in the doctor’s waiting room. Do we look for the presence of Christ in those children, so that we might experience him for ourselves as well? Do we fill children’s days with activities and distractions, or do we open up a space to just BE together? 
 
For those who have been attending the conference, what I’m wondering about is what we can do to tend to the presence of Christ in the dotted circles and half circles of our lives (but I know that some of you here this morning won’t understand that reference). That will have be a topic for a future sermon, or if you have any thoughts during the final session, you can share them at that time.
 
Fitch writes, “The church brings all its gifts to the space of ministry with children. And all who can lower themselves to be present with a child will experience Jesus and his kingdom like nowhere else” (p. 137). Jesus was most often to be found among the smallest, the least, the poorest and most vulnerable, and we have a much fuller experience of the presence of God when spaces are opened up in our lives to be present with children. Amen.
 
 
The Discipline of Proclaiming the Gospel
By Dr. David Fitch
Sunday, April 15, 2018 - 11:00 am
Reading: Luke 10:1-20
 
Several years ago now, a group of us were leading a church in Chicago. We’d been spending time with people without homes, and a man on the streets named John, had come into a crisis in our neighbourhood. He was caretaking for his grandson, Jake, and because of some circumstances that he found himself in, he was kicked out of his apartment and had no place to go. 
 
A group in our church helped. They found both of them a temporary home, and then, as we got to know them, they had a place in the basement of one of our families’ homes. 
 
There was a series of issues going on here. John’s daughter – Jake’s mum – was a heroin addict, John had severe asthma, he couldn’t go to work as a plumber anymore. He was awaiting disability. John loved his grandson, but he felt resentment towards his daughter for, in his opinion, not being a good mum to Jake. John resented that he couldn’t move back to his place of origins in central Illinois. 
 
Six months later the leaders of our small community gathered together to discuss how to guide John and Jake’s situation. There was an apartment available in town, maybe we could make a down payment. We could help him apply for disability, we could help John with his granddaughter. Some of us knew how to navigate the school system really well, because we had children in it. But then the conversation took a turn. It’s like a whole set of problems started coming into focus. Some asked, well, what about Jake? Should John give Jake into adoption? What about the apartment, and medical issues for John? And won’t we be encouraging him to take a lease, if he really wants to move back to central Illinois? And what about Jake’s mum? How are we – how will this distance John from Jake’s mum, an already strained relationship? So there was a bit of tension in the room.
 
Now notice a couple of things going on here: we as a group of people, were concerned for justice and for healing and seeing – we were seeing everything in terms of problems to be solved. We wanted to get to solutions. There was no sense here that God was at work in all these circumstances. It was beyond our imagination. 
 
There was no imagination that maybe Jesus is Lord, and he’s not only Lord of the world, but he’s Lord of this situation and he’s involved in everything – everything going on in John and Jake’s life. There was no gospel here. 
 
Maybe, just maybe, Jake, the grandson, is the person God will use to heal the relationship of father and daughter. Maybe these situations are all that God will use to call John deeper into the Kingdom work in the places he already lives – just maybe God will use John and Jake in this apartment building to bring others into his Kingdom, to break out Kingdom, reconciliation and renewal of all things there. There was no gospel here. 
 
But notice most of all, we who were discerning all these issues and doing all this talking, we were doing it without Jake or John in the room. We were not listening to John, we were not listening to Jake, we were not discerning what God was already doing here in these lives of these precious people. There was no opening up of space. We were not being present to God’s presence in this situation that had a lot of problems and issues. There was no gospel here. 
 
In the text that we read this morning Jesus says, “Go to the seventy and be present” – go, be present – “and then only then proclaim the gospel, the Kingdom is here, and make space for God to work.”  Go and be present, then proclaim the gospel and make space for God to work. 
 
The first thing Jesus tells his disciples to do, is go and be present. He says, I’m sending you to towns and villages, but first go and be present – verse 3, “Go, see, I’m sending you out like lambs. Lambs in the midst of wolves,” vulnerable, humble, not in control. Be present means to be vulnerable. 
 
Verse 4: “Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals.” Go needy, don’t bring your money. Divest yourselves of power and position, go be present to what I am doing. Verse 5, “Look for a person of peace, do not force yourself on anyone.” Don’t be coercive, relax, chill. Open space. 
 
Verse 6, “When you find someone, remain” – remain in the house. Verse 8, “Eat what’s set before you” – you are not in control. Eat what’s set before you, be a guest. Go and be a mum, don’t take control, take the pressure off, eat what’s set before you, be present. There’s no greater presence than being around a table with somebody. Verse 7, “Don’t move from house to house,” don’t get edgy, be patient. 
 
So often we are tempted to enter a place with a ready-made solution with our already-prepared speech with – we come loaded for bear, but Jesus says, no, this is not your work. Go and be witnesses to Me and what I’m already doing. Go vulnerably, listen and tend to what I’m doing and have faith that I will bring people to you.
 
I go to this bar every Wednesday night. I don’t know if that’s appropriate to say from this esteemed pulpit. It’s okay? I only have one. But every Wednesday night on my way there, I’ve learned to pray the Epiclesis prayer, the ancient prayer in the Latin mass, where the priest, before the wafer and the cup, invokes the Spirit to make Christ’s presence real in this place.  In the same way, I’m on my way to Potbelly Bar, praying, “Lord, be present. Help me to be present to your presence. Make yourself known in this place.”
 
Then I just go sit there, just  sit there in this wonderful place, this arena where people are coming together for all sorts of reasons, all sorts of purposes. Some of them quite lonely, some of them quite desperate, some of them struggling, some of them just going to have a good time and celebrate, and I am there for the conversations and the places that open up through that prayer. 
 
One of the issues that night in Chicago was, we had not become present to John and his grandson and John’s daughter long enough to listen, enough to discern what God was doing, and to join in with it.
 
God calls us to go and be present, in our neighbourhoods, in our homes, in this place, and then proclaim the gospel. In verse 8, Jesus instructs them, he says, “When space is opened up” – he doesn’t actually use that language, but that’s what he means – heal the sick, and then say, Kingdom of God is coming, Kingdom of God is here, is nigh, is breaking in.
 
When space is opened up, God reveals himself, and then notice, Jesus tells them to say this rather declarative statement, “The Kingdom of God has come near.” Or, it’s a hard word to translate from Greek, but it’s more like, it’s breaking in, it’s beginning, the space is opening up. Don’t explain this – don’t try to do a theology explanation on somebody in Potbelly Bar – just say, “Hey, I believe God is at work in this.”  I see him working – he is Lord over this. Can you see it too?
The gospel is an announcement of a new world breaking in. The gospel, according to 1 Corinthians 15, the Apostle Paul kind of heads it up, this is the gospel. It’s one of the clear statements of the gospel. There’s many, but this is a good one. 
 
The Apostle Paul says that the gospel is the announcement that God has fulfilled the promise of Scriptures to make the world right in Jesus Christ. He has died for our sins. By his death and resurrection and ascension, he has defeated the effects of our sin, even death. 
 
He now sits at the right hand of the Father, ruling over the whole world, and his Kingdom is being established.  In verse 25 he says, “and he shall reign until all enemies are made subject, until all evil is made subject. All who respond to this good news and repent and receive forgiveness and enter into the Kingdom, are invited to join God in what he’s doing in the world to reconcile the world to himself. And we shall receive power to become the children of God.”
 
Folks, in one sentence, the gospel is, Jesus is Lord, and he’s Lord in all situations. He’s working for his purposes. Will you submit to him? Will you see him, will you enter into his Lordship and allow him to work? He does not come coercively, he will not stop everything and just set into motion. He asks us to make space for him, because he’s Love and he’s Presence.
 
We live in a world where sometimes psychologists tell us people don’t change. We live in a world where the government statistics tell us, hey, these are the cycles of poverty, they cannot be overcome. We live in a world where most modern people don’t see the supernatural. The supernatural has been stripped out of our society and out of our lives.
 
And so, if I don’t do it, man, it won’t get done. If I don’t change something, it won’t be changed. And if things don’t go right, and things go south, and what I was hoping for wasn’t working, what else is there? So we have a world that longs for hope, we have a world that longs for a new possibility, a new world. Jesus is saying the gospel is a new world that’s being born, it is the Kingdom of God, through my Lordship and through my presence.
 
He says t “Go, and be present, and then proclaim the Kingdom’s breaking in.” Can you see it? Open space for my work.
 
The gospel is so big, it is so all-encompassing. There is not a piece of this world that would not be touched by his gospel, yet people can’t see it. We’ve architected the presence of God out of our lives, and God is love, and he will not coerce. He asks us to make space, submit to him, and let him work.
 
Anyone here have a hard time trusting dentists? I am normally a very trusting person, like lawyers and politicians, no problem, but dentists. You know, what are you going to do with those miniature metal ice picks? If I have three great dental appointments in a row, no cavities, everything’s perfect, I’m thinking, “Dude, you’re setting me up for the next appointment. I need to change my dentist and put this on a Yelp review; you have too many good appointments.”
 
I had a dream about a dentist. The truth of your paranoias come out in your dreams, they say. I went to a dentist and I was expecting a cleaning, and I got five fillings, and I said to the dentist, “What happened?”
 
And he said, “Well, you’re right, you needed a good cleaning, but I don’t know how to do cleanings, I only do cavities, so I did five of them on you and I hope you’re happy.”
 
Every preacher’s got a vulnerability. But many of us come into every situation with one solution, one, like, gospel, one little carefully crafted thing that we do well. Like that dentist – the person needs a cleaning and we want to do the cavities.
 
Jesus says, “Go connect, be present. Tend to what I’m doing, and then proclaim, I see Jesus as Lord, I see him working, I see him bringing his Kingdom.” Do you see it too? It’s an announcement of a new world being born.
 
God is calling us, God is calling Timothy Eaton Memorial Church to go and be present into all these little nooks and crannies, all these places where people are sitting with that look in their eye, and they’re saying, I’m longing to be known, I’m longing to be loved, I’ve got issues in my life and I don’t have anywhere to go. Go and be present, listen long enough to say, “Oh, I see God at work. I see Jesus is Lord and he’s taking you here.”  Can you see it? 
 
The disciples returned in verse 17 and they said, “Lord, in your name, the demons submit,” and Jesus said, “I saw Satan fall like lightning.” I saw the Kingdom of God breaking in. “Behold the authority to tread on snakes, scorpions, nothing will hurt you “– this is the kind of power God, through Christ, wants to release into our lives, into this church, into our neighbourhoods, into the coffee shops, into the childcare, preschools. Into the bowling allies, into the hockey rinks – that probably needs a little more explanation.
 
Everywhere we go, space can be opened up. According to this text, we know those who submit and open up space for the reign of Christ to take shape in and over their lives, a space is opened up for the Kingdom, and Jesus shall reign in this space. But you see, Jesus needs witnesses. Our God will not coerce – we must go, and we must open space. In this text he says, those who welcome you, welcome me. The question is not whether Jesus is already there or not, it’s whether he will be recognised.
 
Jesus says, “Do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” He’s saying something like this, okay, don’t get too excited over yourself, don’t get too proud of yourself, don’t think that this was your power to control. 
 
This is such a problem in our lives. We think we’ve got Jesus and we think we’ve got him figure out, don’t we? Now we’re going to go tell everybody who Jesus is and what he wants them to do. 
 
Jesus says, “Don’t think this power is in control, rejoice instead, that your names are written in the Book of Heaven.” You have been privileged to be participants in the very power, the very authority and reign of heaven itself, the seat of God’s rule. 
 
This is the privilege that we have been granted. This is the privilege that we have in Christ. All who submit to Jesus as Lord, who are subjects of the King, God has enabled us to open up space for the Kingdom of God, wherever we go. Go and be present, and then proclaim the gospel, and make space for the power of God to break the chains that bind, that heal people’s souls, that transform bodies, reconcile relationships, change governments.
 
After that meeting in Chicago, we met with John, we met with Jake, we started working out issues together, we started being with them, and they moved into an apartment building and I saw relationships healed. I even saw a Bible study start in that apartment building. I saw racial divisions in that apartment building unwind with John. God used John and Jake in ways none of us in that earlier meeting could have ever imagined. 
 
This morning here in Toronto, I believe we’re sent out to open up space for God to do things we, or them, or anyone, could not have imagined, because it is an announcement of a new world being born. 
 
As agents of God’s Kingdom, let us go open space for doing things, for God to do things beyond our imagination. Go and be present. Proclaim the gospel and make space for God’s power to be revealed in this great city of Toronto. Amen.