Preached on September 30, 2018 at Grace and Canadochly
Preaching text: Mark 9:38-50
We seem to be running with a theme again in our Gospel lessons. Last Sunday, Jesus brought to us one of his famous illustrations of the kingdom of God that used children as an example for us to emulate and follow. Today, he does something similar, offering a stern warning to those who would bring harm to children and their journey of faith by saying “it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea.” Jesus is getting his best mafioso on and claiming that if you harm a child, or cause one to struggle, you should “sleep with the fishes.”
Most of us may chuckle at that image; Jesus as mob boss. We may also chuckle at the warning. Who of us would ever wish harm to a child? Most of us are parents and some grandparents. We love our kids and would never wish ill on any of them. I think of Emily, now 15. She’s one of the most amazing people I know. She’s smart, clever, creative, headstrong, opinionated, strong, and beautiful. The whole package. Watching her grow into an adult has been a delight and a privilege. I want what’s best for her. I want her to have the best life she can.
I suspect that’s true of all of us who have raised children or are now watching our children raise theirs. But then, I look at the world we are leaving as their inheritance and I pause. I truly wonder if we want what’s best for them after all. Because I am ashamed of what we are leaving them, what they are receiving from us as a legacy. The mess that we have made that we are demanding they clean up.
We’ve got massive flooding in the Carolinas. Record wildfires in California. Three thousand dead last year from a hurricane in Puerto Rico. Heck, even locally, we’ve had three 10-year floods in five months. The evidence of climate change is becoming irrefutable, but our leaders? It’s not real. It’s a conspiracy. Of course, many of them are well-paid via campaign contributions from the fossil fuel industry and we all know how important that is. Oil and gas profits matter. My daughter’s life, future, and dreams, not so much.
We continue to see a plague of mass shootings. Schoolchildren run drills to prepare them in case of an “active shooter.” There have been rallys calling for changes, any changes, that might stem the tide of slaughter, but our leaders again do nothing. Of course, many of them are well-paid via campaign contributions from the NRA and from the firearms industry and we all know how important that is. Their profits matter. My daughter’s life, future, and dreams, not so much.
We gripe and complain about the behavior of millennials, those adults who were children not so long ago. We talk about how lazy and entitled they are, but also we refuse to look at the facts. They go to school and pay 30x what their parents’ generation paid for college. They try to buy homes and find the housing market is 10x what their parents paid. And god help them if they get sick. And the jobs we offer them? Minimum wage, with no benefits. Yeah, they’re so entitled. And the generation that follows after them, my daughter’s generation? What about her? What will she have to pay for the basics of the American Dream when her life, future, and dreams clearly don’t matter.
I think about Sandy’s grandson. He’s such a fine young man and he brightens this space whenever he is here. But I’m frightened for him. I’m scared because there are SO many people out there to whom he is nothing but (forgive my language) a nigger. And those people think they are entitled to deny him his right to vote, his right to have a home of his own, his right to a job, and, in the worst case, they just might pull out a gun and shoot him for no other reason than his skin color. And these people who would do this are called “very fine people” by our leaders because white comfort and white privilege matter, but not the lives of young black men.
And then there’s this farce in Washington that we’ve been watching all week. Where wrinkly corrupt old men are bending over backwards to say that rape is ok, that women deserve it when it happens, that men should be excused because “boys will be boys” and he was drunk “so it doesn’t matter.” My daughter is listening to that, listening to being told it’s okay for someone to violate her. People who have been so violated and are carrying that pain with them everyday are listening to that. All so the privilege of being a man must be upheld, and the lives and sexual autonomy of women like my daughter don’t matter.
Of course, we know why that circus is going on. All so one side can get the vote they want on the SCOTUS for abortion. I don’t talk about abortion much; I feel as a man I don’t really have a say in the autonomy of women’s bodies. But since we’re talking about causing no harm to children, perhaps I should speak to it. It seems to me that there are better ways of addressing the issue than making dirtbag excuses to cover for a flawed SCOTUS nominee. Perhaps we should make a better effort to prevent unwanted pregnancies by making birth control more widely available. Or, in those cases when there are unwanted children, making adoption more easily and readily available, particularly for LGBT couples who want children.
It’s that time of year when actor Neil Patrick Harris and his husband post their yearly Halloween pics with their kids. They’re always so creative with their costumes, but do know what I see when I look at those pictures? I see a loving family. You know what else I see? I see two kids who weren’t aborted because they had a loving home to welcome them in. I don’t think Emily is LGBT, but if she were, I’d want her to have every chance to have a family of her own. Because her life matters to me, no matter who or what she is.
Are we feeling the millstone? I am. What kind of world are we leaving our kids anyway? Is this really what we want? Is this really what Jesus would want us to do? I talk a lot in here about changing the world, about making the world a better place for all people, because I believe wholeheartedly that’s what we’re called to do and be as the Church of Jesus Christ. But it’s one thing to motivate ourselves into that calling for strangers we will never know. It’s another thing entirely when we’re talking about our children and grandchildren. Once we’re gone, this world will be theirs, what’s left of it anyway.
Jesus loves the little children. When we were little children, it was one of the first things we were taught in this place. It’s past time we made that real, for all the children of the world who will inherit what we leave behind. If we love our kids and grandkids, and I believe we do, we owe them better than this world we are creating, a world of hate, greed, and selfishness. They deserve better than that from us. And Jesus, I think, would agree. Amen.
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