Hey There is This Church...

This week began a new year for our afterschool ministry, the Dove's Nest. Last year we welcomed a little more than 40 kids each week and have navigated our first year together. Over the summer we gave things a fresh coat of paint, did some planning, picked up some new volunteers. And I was feeling ready to start a Bible club come October because some of our kids want to talk about Jesus and what it means to follow Him. And as we made our usual contact with the schools, I was feeling like we had this thing NAILED! We were lookin' good and ready to go.. The neighborhood was eager, the kids were excited. And that first day we had 36 kids. More than first days of the past, but before we could wonder what that meant we got to Day Two and it was like the sky opened up and rained kids. Almost Sixty of them. They just kept coming! An amazing thing! We had prayed to be able to reach out to our neighbors and here it was! But sixty kids was overwhelming. I was away with other obligations and when I opened the door to come downstairs I could hear the noise, and then I saw the almost pandemonium. It was just about too much.


There was lots of prayer, and Carmen and I did quick brainstorming, creating entirely separate spaces for homework and reading from the areas for eating and games and crafts. I found that moving furniture is quite therapeutic when thinking about big things with God. A lot of worry, trying to stay sane, and think about safety and our mission as the church. And wouldn't you know that Jesus is talking about welcoming children “Whoever welcomes a little child welcomes me.” “Let the little children come to me.”



If you’re like me you’ve seen these sayings with cherubic children dressed immaculately, with perfect hair and blue eyes, depicted in pictures in the Sunday School. Innocent, trusting, attentive, and delightful children at the knee of a fresh and glowing gentle Jesus.

Yet this was not the world of children in Jesus’ day where 30% would die by age six, and 60 percent were gone by age sixteen. They had no status, subject to the will of others, sometimes seen as one more mouth to feed, or an afterthought. Although children represented the future, they had to survive the present- hunger, disease, and dislocation. Even worse some would lose one or both parents. Then there was no safety net. The orphan was the weakest and most vulnerable member of society. Being an orphan was almost certainly a death sentence. Children were always on the margin, affected by all the squabbling of others looking to be the greatest, by adults acting out disputes in ways we call “childish” – those things we hear of the gospel and James this day.

And for our kids here, some of the statistics are different but much what they face is the same today. They’re hungry, and insecure, and longing for a future, caught in effects of the decisions of adults. The fray of school budget cuts. Shuffled around because landlords in Nueva York told their parents it’s cheaper to live in Reading, but not about the lack of jobs. They take your money and run, til you find yourself locked out when the landlord was finally "sheriffed" for failure to pay taxes, and you’re scrambling. Some kids are here because no one is home or wants them home. Some are so far behind but hope we’re their resource for change. Some are so desperate for attention and love they’d stay forever if we let them. Some are so hurting, with desperate needs, but money is in short supply. Facing hunger and need and dislocation.
And the school, taking us at our word that food and tutoring and literacy matter said-

 "Hey, there is this church..."
To the powerless- Hey there is this church. Our church at 4th and Windsor.

Where God is sending kids and telling us to welcome them. Jesus keeps telling us to welcome them.

Because there is this church.

It is not lost upon me that Jesus keeps placing children here saying, “Look.” Draw near to what God is showing.”

The child in the gospel shows us God’s grace. This is what it means that Jesus loves them. The little children are more than just something to be managed they are grace breaking in. Being servants in this way truthfully takes everything we’ve got. It tests our patience, our resources and capacity for the things we think we shouldn’t have to do. And to see just how long our arms can stretch to embrace them. Yet Jesus says see them, welcome them, feed them, lift them up.

We have a history of this in this church- 101 years of meeting needs even when it seemed hard. From starting a Sunday school because people needed it, to building a church. From drawing orphans from the Childrens' Home  to caring for the myriads of children in the neighborhood. People have told me with a gleam in their eyes that we used to just open the doors and the children came.
God is still sending the children of the neighborhood through these doors. And the challenge is to see them  not just something for us to manage but for us to see in them and to share with them God’s grace.

We are the powerless who cannot earn our salvation, but are blessed by our savior. And then we’re reminded that Jesus’ words to keep welcoming “little children” are a challenging task for those already graced.
To love like Jesus- to keep embracing and keep serving as God continues to appear to the world in the small and powerless.

This past week it was not easy. After moving a lot of furniture I was feeling stooped low. And yet this is where I saw God. An old rabbi once said that to see God you must stoop low. We see God when we continue to stoop low, draw near and share God’s embrace. This past week I watched our people stoop to hug a boy so angered by another who taunted him he wanted to punch someone’s lights out. They embraced him and helped him to let it go. And I watched as little ones almost too small to get their meals were lovingly embraced by volunteers stooping to help them not get knocked over by the herd. As someone stooped to clean the mess another left behind for the umpteenth time. Cleaned it up so no one would slip. And I watched a girl with learning disabilities struggle to read and share a hug as she confessed she was panic stricken to read it at all but glad someone let her.

Jesus placed kids in our midst and this is a glimpse of what God is up to in our dedicated volunteers.
I saw God in them and in the children. God is here!!

There ARE still so many...

There are still just too many "little children"

As I read the lead in to today’s gospel I told you how those disciples empowered by Jesus to preach and heal and cast out torment were so mystified by why they could not help one boy and Jesus’ response was that this one takes prayer. As we contemplate how we will indeed welcome all the children, it does take prayer. So my prayer is that you will help.

Can you help to listen to a child read, or check homework or just listen to someone tell about their day?

Can you reach out to others you know and ask if they can join us in this ministry?

Most importantly, you can pray- pray that God will send not only the children but the hands to embrace them. Pray for our volunteers- I know they will be thankful.

God is still sending children.

Because there is this church.

This day as we celebrate the grace of our history

let us also pray God’s grace and guidance to keep stretching our arms and hearts wide in welcome.

School is in Session- Part II

There are many things I am learning during my internship in the city at the Pulpit in the Sky. One of the recent facts I learned is that there are 900 homeless children attending school here in the city school district. I cannot even begin to fathom that there are 900 children, some of whom may be the children I see at the free breakfast in Sundays. What kind of a life must this be? To have nowhere that is permanent? To always be on the move? I recently posted about the need for uniforms for school- there is also a need for shoes. Which leads to another fact.
Not every child can attend school because they do not have shoes that they can wear. They may not have shoes that fit, or shoes that are not flip flops. Another obstacle to attending school. What kind of life is this where children need such basics- laundry detergent, personal care products, school clothes, food to eat and shoes? What does it mean to spend your days walking without?
In this week's lectionary, we find ourselves in the midst of Jesus' teachings on cross living-what it means to live and walk in discipleship of Christ. “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it."

In the extreme this teaching can be about true loss of life. But particularly as we conclude a holiday which honors the laborers, in a nation where we celebrate industry, what does "our life" mean for many of us? We have transformed culturally from a nation where those with the physically demanding jobs, children, and immigrants struggled for decent work conditions, fair wages, reasonable work hours, and limits on how young a worker can be. The labor movement spawned the honor of these people on Labor Day. A day where we honored those whose struggles could have been overlooked by the captains of the industrial revolution. We however, have turned this day into a shopping extravaganza- there are so many circulars for enticements to consume that the paper lies bloated on the front doorstep. And in our own lives at the end of the last summer cookouts and shopping, do we find ourselves lying around a little bloated too? What would it mean to us to consider denying ourselves, to consider losing such a life? What does it mean to walk without, is what we would would be without worth more than what we would gain?

Losing one's life is not about glorifying poverty and want. Instead, "taking up our cross" requires and compels us to see who is in need, and to address the needs of "why." "Taking up our cross" requires and compels us to stand with those whose "life" is not ours and to lift them up. One of the small ways here at TLC we are working to do this is to gather shoes. Shoes for the 900 pairs of feet that need them so that every homeless child has a new pair of shoes for school. Not just because they need shoes, but also because we all get joy and dignity when we are treated like equals, not cast aside.

In two weeks we will present shoes and money for shoes at the altar so that others may gain a little life, dignity and equality. May these shoes bless the lives of those they touch. May this living teach and inspire us to the many other ways we can continue to walk in the path of cross living.

Eyes Front

I am putting together a multicultural independent study project for J-term, which I hope will take me to working at Water Street Rescue Mission about a half hour from my house. And in that half hour drive, my car will transport me from a homogenous bedroom community/small town that can still feel like 1950's America, to "the City." Having done most of my growing up in Pittsburgh, I know that "the City" is not on the scale of Pittsburgh and certainly not the size of the major US cities.
But, as far as I can tell, poverty is not exclusive. Extending across ethnic, racial and gender barriers, it robs people of their dignity.
I am finishing up exegesis on a sermon on Luke 15 for an assignment, so my focus really is on the lost. The Mission, houses men and women and children, in short and long term programs, as well as offering medical and dental clinics.
I visited their blog, http://lifeatwsrm.blogspot.com/.
One of the entries by a staff person, was entitled "Eyes Front." I lift it up to you and also lift up the work of shelter projects across our country that are in many ways the hands of God for the least and the lost.

"Did you ever walk by someone who lives on the street and look the other way, hoping they wouldn’t notice or, God forbid, speak to you? The temptation to react this way is huge, and society teaches us that this is an acceptable reaction to poverty and homelessness.

We’ve become so comfortable with poverty and homelessness that we hardly notice their end results. As a former resident of Chicago and Boston, my ability to see without noticing became finely tuned, although having this ability didn’t alleviate the nagging feeling there was more going on here than meets the eye.

I have the opportunity to interact and work with our clientele on a daily basis and I can tell you that each one of them has a life history filled with many of the same things as you and me. The biggest thing that usually separates us is a few decisions along that way the either of us could have made differently.

I recently had the privilege of having my teenage step-son (Daniel) spend a day with me at the mission. During that day, he spent several hours working with one of our clients (Don) and the two of them developed a real connection. As we were driving home that day, Daniel said to me “I really like Don. We had a great time together, he’s a great guy!” I agree; I’ve had the opportunity to get to know Don and he is a special person. The next thought that came into my head was: how would Daniel and I have reacted to Don if we’d met him on the street instead of at the Mission? It’s upsetting to me that there was a time when I would have discounted Don as a person and just walked past him while trying to avoid looking at him.

We can’t all work at a rescue mission, nor should we, but there is more you can do. I invite you to take a moment to consider your reaction to poverty and homelessness, based on only one idea: there’s a real person of God’s creation under the rags, the smell, and the dirt. It’s very likely that this person under the rags is someone that could have a real impact on Daniel, me, and you if given the chance. You don’t have to give money, cars, or even your time to our clients or those still on the streets, but I invite you to consider giving them your love, respect, and most of all, your prayers. Look them in the eye and say hello, you might be surprised at the good it does for both of you."

- Scooter Haase, Operations, WSRM