Proper 17B/Ordinary 22B/Pentecost 15 September 2, 2018
Luther Memorial Church Seattle, WA
The Rev. Julie Hutson
Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9 + Psalm 15 + James 1:17-27
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Beloved, grace and peace are yours through the God who creates, saves, and sustains us. Amen.
It’s you I like, it’s not the things you wear. It’s not the way you do your hair, but it’s you I like.
Anyone know the artist? (Fred Rogers)
When I was young I watched Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood and later my own children did as well. What about you? So, I was especially eager to see the movie that is out now called “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” Bruce went along with me recently, even though his exposure to the Neighborhood of Make Believe and King Friday and Daniel Strip-ed Tiger is not as extensive as my own.
This is not the first sermon in which I’ve looked to Fred Rogers for inspiration. He was an ordained Presbyterian minister, but his congregation was barely old enough to tie their shoes. Fred Rogers passionately believed that his ministry in the world was to the children among us. He encouraged them in song and story and unflinching honesty. He told them, in many ways, how valuable they were.
I wonder how many of you know that Luther Memorial, this congregation, has its beginnings with children? In the late 1940’s, it was determined that this area of the city, which was mostly fields and wide open spaces, but was seeing an increase in homes being built and families moving in….it was determined that this was an area that was ready to have a Sunday School. Not a church, not a congregation, but a Sunday School for children. Bernice Johnson was hired to canvas the neighborhood and invite children to gather to learn more about the stories of Jesus.
Our beginnings as a community of faith embodied this call from the reading from Deuteronomy today: that we make the stories of the faith known to our children and our children’s children.
Next Sunday is the Kick Off to our program year, when Sunday School resumes and confirmation classes aren’t far behind. And do you know, even after all of these years, teaching our children is one of the greatest privileges of my ministry. For one thing, it’s how I keep up with what the acronyms mean in the world and it’s also how I learned to use Snapchat. But beyond that, here’s why I do it…so that the Church I know and love and the Church I believe has a story to tell ….doesn’t fail another young person. That we don’t miss the chance to tell the old, old story of Jesus and his love. This story of love is the story the children need to hear. It’s the story we need to hear. We do not need to hear the story of rules and laws and judgment, which is somehow what the story of Jesus has turned into in some denominations. We need to hear the story of Jesus and his love. And we need to hear repeatedly that this love is for us and for all people.
The Church is a complicated place. It always has been. It’s easy to confuse the Church with God and that’s a dangerous thing. The Church is the people who gather in community in order to worship God and tell the story of the risen Christ. Much is being made these days of the shrinking Church and there’s no question that it’s shrinking. Not just here…but everywhere. But I don’t believe for a minute that it’s shrinking because people have stopped believing in God. I believe it’s shrinking because sometimes we forget to keep the main thing the main thing. Sometimes what we teach our children isn’t that Jesus loves them. That should be the first thing we say to them every day…I love you. Jesus loves you. And if we said it before they went to bed at night it couldn’t hurt. And if we said it to each other, especially if we’re going through a hard time…instead of launching into platitudes what would it be like if we just said “I love you. Jesus loves you.”
There’s a song from the neighborhood about that too.
There are many ways to say I love you. There are many ways to say I care about you. Many ways. Many ways. Many ways. To say I love you.
Jesus loves you. I love you. Teach this to your children and your children’s children.
But what about the rules? What about the regulations? Jesus had a few things to say to the Pharisees in our Gospel reading today, when they asked him why his disciples weren’t washing their hands before they ate. The Pharisees are such a foil throughout scripture. They always want to trip Jesus up with trick questions about rule following instead of love. Jesus lets them have it today. He calls them hypocrites and reminds them of what we all know to be true. That even if we follow every rule and obey every law ever written but our hearts aren’t full of love first, we aren’t living as God intended for us to live.
Some days, it’s not so easy to act from a place of love first. Days when the neighbors are dumping their used furniture on our lawn. Days when this place is being used, not as a place of refuge, but as a place where dangerous activities are taking place. It’s frustrating to me, as your pastor. And I know it’s frustrating to you, too. And I’m not making excuses, but I wonder if anyone ever told those folks…. It’s you I like. Jesus loves you. I love you.
The world seems a hard place to find love these days. It’s very tempting to imagine that to be a new thing, but we only have to read history or even Scripture to know that it’s often and always been so. And it doesn’t help that we are quick to offer correction or reproach or critique or even our own opinion before we look at each other and before we look at ourselves and offer a word of love first.
And the Deuteronomist believed that the first people we ought to share the stories of God, who is love, with are the children.
Our children stand at a liminal space…a threshold between who they are now and who they are becoming. There’s no such thing as someone else’s child, by the way. We are to love and care for all children. For all the vunerable and at risk, as the writer of the book of James reminds us in our second reading today. The very best of being the Church together is caring for those at risk. In Biblical times that was the orphan and the widow. Who is it today? Is it the aggressive panhandler? Is it the addict leaving his needles on our back porch? Is it the women of the Me Too movement or the women too afraid to speak? Is it the transgendered youth? Is it the family sleeping in their car? How do we tell them that Jesus loves them? How do we show them?
In just a few months we will have a whole building of new neighbors. We can be sure that it will be a blessing and an adjustment for us all. But already, quilters are quilting love for them. That’s a way to say We love you. Jesus loves you. And there will be other opportunities. They are manifesting themselves before our very eyes.
Many ways. Many ways to say I love you.
This community is a gift at its core, not because we are perfect and not because we’ve figured it all out. We still disappoint one another. We still let each other down and frustrate each other. I will forever be an obnoxious Alabama football fan, working it into a sermon even if it’s not until the last page.
But this is a community built on the love of Jesus. Love that sees us as perfectly made in the image of God and embraces us with each new morning. Let’s share that love with all the children of God….no matter how old they are or where we find them.
And don’t forget the one you see when you look in the mirror.
But it’s you I like–
Every part of you,
Your skin, your eyes, your feelings
Whether old or new.
I hope that you’ll remember
Even when you’re feeling blue
That it’s you I like,
It’s you yourself,
It’s you, it’s you I like.
Jesus loves you. So do I.
Amen.