(Scriptures: Psalm 103; James 3:13-18; Mark 9:30-37)
Well, first of all, let me begin by saying happy 151st anniversary, Emanuel Church! One of our windows shows Jesus welcoming the little children. That window was presented by George and Katherine Pfirmann. While today’s Gospel reading is not the one that inspired this window – you’ll be hearing that reading from Mark’s Gospel in a couple weeks, with the well-known words “suffer the little children to come unto me, and do not forbid them, for of such is the kingdom of heaven”– the window fits the theme of today’s reading as well. I also think that window says something about who this congregation has been – we’ve been a place where children are welcome.
In today’s reading from Mark’s Gospel, the disciples weren’t thinking about children – in fact, mostly, they were thinking of themselves, not an unusual circumstance. Peter, James, and John had just watched Jesus’ transfiguration up on the mountain, when they caught a glimpse of his glory. Back down in the valley, they had just watched Jesus cast a demon out of a young boy. Now Jesus had just been teaching the disciples that he would be betrayed, and suffer, and be killed, and rise again on the third day. We’re told that, after they arrived at Capernaum, Jesus asks what the disciples had been arguing about on the road, and the disciples, who had been quite chatty to this point, go silent – full stop. At the same time Jesus had been talking about his upcoming suffering, the disciples were dreaming of their own upcoming glory. Clearly they hadn’t heard a word Jesus had been saying, or if they heard, nothing had sunk in.
Jesus recognizes a teaching moment when he sees it, and so he sits the disciples down and tells them, whoever among you would be the first of all must be the last of all and the servant of all. And then Jesus gives them a mental picture to put with his words – a little child, with the words, “whoever welcomes a child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me, but the One who sent me.” It’s a sweet picture – certainly we get warm fuzzies looking at our stained glass window showing Jesus with the children, but what we may miss is that in the society of Jesus’ time, in a society in which status and power and honor were much sought after, children were the lowest status members of the household, considered entirely expendable. There was no ethic of saving “women and children first” in that culture - after all, it was routine and even expected that not all children would live to adulthood. So in this teaching Jesus was, once again, turning the priorities of his society upside down, putting the highest value on those whom the surrounding society valued least.
I think that at least part of this teaching has gotten through to our society. Our society is much more protective of children than that of Jesus’ day. If you don’t believe that, try passing a school bus with its flashers on while school children are boarding – it’s a major traffic offense. When a child boards a school bus, all traffic comes to a halt. And rightly so.
This teaching – “whoever welcomes a child in my name welcomes me” - also motivated early pastor Emanuel Boehringer, who was not content to wring his hands at the number of children orphaned by the Civil War, but felt compelled to do something to make things better for them. Caroline Engel was the first of many children welcomed by the Rev. Boehringer and his wife. When they welcomed Caroline Engel, they welcomed Jesus himself, and when they welcomed Jesus himself, they welcomed the God who sent Jesus. Almost 150 years later, Bethany Children’s Home is still providing safe space for at-risk children, and welcoming children in Christ’s name.
Over the past 150 or so years, Emanuel Church has seen our membership grow from a nucleus of 34 founding members. Over those 150 years we’ve welcomed many children – I remember all those many, many confirmation photos – your confirmation photos - over our church’s history, that were shown at our 150th anniversary last year, with a recording of Florence Werner’s organ music in the background. For many years, we also had a flourishing Girl Scout program, and the Girl Scouts still hold training sessions here from time to time. Now we’ve returned to roughly that same number we started with - we have maybe 30 on the membership rolls these days. It’s been a few years since we’ve had a confirmation class – though I live in hope that I’ll see the day when we’ll once again be ordering curriculum and certificates for confirmation. But, after a few dormant years, we have Sunday school again…..and so we’re still welcoming children in Christ’s name, even though these days, it’s mostly one or two at a time.
Our congregation made its most public statement of welcome to children – and therefore of welcome to Jesus - not when the congregation was at its height, but early on, when membership totals were small and money was limited, when we’d just erected this building and were really just getting started. And now we’ve come full circle – once again our membership totals are small and our finances are limited – so maybe it’s time once again to dream big, like this church’s founders and early pastors did.
What are your dreams for Emanuel Church? We can be proud of all we do to care for our graveyard, to honor our foremothers and forefathers, but Emanuel Church is more than a cemetery maintenance society with organ music. Emanuel Church is not a museum to the past, but a living witness – a living witness - to the Risen Christ, where the fruits of the spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, and faithfulness – can be found in action.
What would Emanuel Boehringer do if he were pastor here today? The American civil war is long over, but wars are raging in other places around the globe. Many children are separated from their parents, not by the war, but by family strife, by alcohol and drug abuse, by an economy that forces both parents to work multiple jobs in order to feed, clothe, and shelter their families. While we have outlawed child labor in the United States, children live in servitude in other places around the globe, and even in some of the offshore US territories such as the Marianas Islands which have been exempted from US laws prohibiting child labor. Much closer to home, right here in Pennsylvania, our country’s continuing addiction to fossil fuels threatens the environment, as the process of extracting natural gas from the Marcellus Shale formation via hydrofracking has led to unnatural destruction of mountaintops and contamination of wells, aquifers, and municipal water sources, threatening not only natural habitats and home values, but health and life itself. Right here in Philadelphia, our water supply may be threatened. Not just parents, but all of us, have cause for concern – into what kind of world have we brought our children? In what kind of world will our children growing up? What kind of world are we bequeathing our children?
Despite the looming threat of the Civil War, when it wasn’t immediately clear whether America would continue as one country or break into two, a little cluster of 3 dozen or so German Reformed immigrants, barely off the boat, trusted God sufficiently to establish this congregation, to call a pastor, acquire land, and erect this building. In the midst of the Civil War, in 1863, when the fighting had drawn as close to home as Gettysburg, PA, Emanuel Boehringer and his wife trusted God enough to welcome Caroline Engel into their home, and to share with the congregation their vision for the Orphans Home of the Shepherd of the Lambs – which we now know as Bethany Children’s Home.
So, in a world full of threats, God isn’t calling us here at Emanuel to solve all the world’s problems. He’s calling us to welcome Caroline Engel – or Caroline’s sisters and brothers in our midst today. And by welcoming them in the name of Christ, God is calling us to welcome Jesus.
How can we welcome Caroline Engel? How can we welcome Jesus? At the most basic level, we can welcome and be supportive of those families with young children who come our way, and invite others to be with us. We can continue to support the food cupboard, so that families, with or without children, in our midst can eat. What else can we do to welcome Caroline Engel, to welcome Jesus? Could we host an afterschool program here, or a daycare? That may be a little ambitious – but not beyond the reach of reality. If any feel a call to be Girl Scout leaders, I can give you the email and phone number of our former Girl Scout leader – she said that if we could find some leaders, she could help us start up a Girl Scout troop again, and nothing would make me happier. We could reach out to our local schools to see if some way we could partner with them. Beyond donating to the food cupboard, we can get involved in neighborhood organizations – maybe the Bridesburg Boys and Girls Club – that improve the quality of life for children. And as individuals, we can support policies that promote peace and put the long-term well-being of the environment – of the planet, of the world our children will inherit – ahead of short-sighted policies aimed at improving corporate bottom lines for the next quarter.
Then Jesus took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, ‘Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.’ May Emanuel Church continue to be, as we have been for 151 years, a place where Caroline Engel and her sisters and brothers are welcome, where Jesus is welcome, and where we continue to welcome all who come our way in Jesus name. Amen.
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