And finally, I bring you greetings. I bring you greetings from Moses and Jesus. I do, really. They have left things that they want you to hear, in the word that comes to us in the stories of scripture. They both cared about children, and bring us the word about children. Moses remembers, and the community around him remembers, his own childhood. They remember that he was a child at risk. A child who stood in harm’s way. He was a child of slaves. He was a child whose very life was at danger because he was a child of slaves. A child of an oppressed people.

 

And what Moses wants to say to us, and the community around him in the book of Exodus in remembering his childhood, is a word to us about what we might also do as we partner with God in raising of children. Moses wants us to remember his mother. I know that because it’s the only story we have about his childhood. The story of his mother who, when she knew that her son was in harm’s way, made a basket out of reeds, covered it with pitch and tar so it would float, and found within herself the courage to place her son in the basket and push him into the river a bit, so that there would not be any association between she and he, so that his life would not be at risk because of that association. But she didn’t leave. She didn’t remove herself from the picture. Instead, she took Moses’ older sister, who must have been one smart gal, and had her stand at a distance where she could watch what happened to that baby in the basket. She saw Pharaoh’s daughter come, and they heard the baby crying. Which is one of the reasons why I’m okay with children crying in worship. If it’s good enough for Moses, it’s good enough for me. When they heard the baby crying, they did not kill him. But being touched by his need, they found him and brought him into their own home. And Moses’ sister came up and said, “You might need a good nanny for that baby. I think I know of one.” She went and got her mother, the baby’s mother, who was able shrewdly to work her way back into the baby’s life in that manner.

 

The word from the Old Testament today, for those of us who have to partner with children, particularly with children with special needs, I think, is this. Courage. Courage. Courage. Think of the courage it takes to bring your own children, when you have been a part of that process, to school for the first time. Whether it be this preschool or another. You remember, those of you who have done that, what that’s like. The wailing and the tears that are an authentic part of the grief in it. It takes that courage to let go, to cast off, so that they can begin the journey that God intends for them, and grow into the people that God intends for them to be.

 

Defined in the example of Moses’ mother, an example of courage, who looked inside herself and found discernment, the courage to discern when she had to take a step that was not one that she would have chosen on her own. Who looked inside herself and found creativity, a means for getting through this difficult circumstance. Even as Nancy illustrated for us twenty-five years ago, creativity to start a school, particularly at that time, with special needs, as a way of not abandoning them in the midst of that issue, that crisis. And then found within herself, Moses’ mother did, the capacity to change. The capacity to take on a new role. In that casting off and letting go, she did not leave, but rather found a way inside herself to become a new role in the life of this child.

 

I think the Bible, out of the story of Moses, calls for that capacity from us as well. Courage and creativity and the ability to find the capacity to change as their needs change in relationship to us.

 

The second reading is from Jesus, who wants us to remember, I think, because he had the community remember it so, that he was willing, much to the surprise of his disciples, to stop his own sermon and give up a good five minutes of a worship service that children might feel welcomed in it. And I want to tell you, I understand the tenacity and commitment that that kind of sacrifice takes.

 

But it’s what the Bible tells us he did. The disciples were indignant that they were trying to take time away from Jesus’ work. But he stopped them and said in some way, we must all become like these children if we are going to be a part of God’s family. Then he said in his actions to them, “We have to create space for children.” That’s the greeting from Jesus, I think. The welcoming of them creates space for them. The space of time, the space of facility, the space of beings. Create space for them. To bless them in some way, we have to be willing to receive them. To tolerate their childishness. To share our goods. To open our facility to recognize the blessing given us.

 

Jesus blessed them as a way of recognizing what a blessing they were to the community. I don’t know of another congregation that’s more called to partner with God in the raising of children, although it is a mystery to me precisely why God keeps calling you that way. But indeed, it seems to be the case. Witness the Moores and the Cassidys, bringing forward children and entrusting them to this congregation again this morning. Witness all of the parents here who have brought their children with their needs, to us in our school, in the belief that we might be willing to be God’s agents in partnering with them in the raising of them.

 

Today, perhaps more than at any other time, the church not only here but around the world, is called to be a blessing to children, so that when we dig wells in Uganda so that children may drink, we are seeking to welcome them in the name of Jesus. And when we create space at the Judeo-Christian Clinic so that children might be treated, we are seeking to welcome them in the name of Jesus.

 

And when we insist that there be in our midst a preschool that receives not only normally developing children, but special needs children, and we pour our lives as teachers, as directors, into the sustenance and creation of that school. When we surround it as a congregation and pray for it, we are welcoming them in the name of Jesus, who said, “Receive the little children, and bless them.” And then he said to them, and these are powerful words, “Whoever receives one such little child in my name, welcomes me.” Welcomes Jesus, himself. I think he meant it.

 

Thanks be to God for the ministry of this preschool. Thanks be to God for all of those who have poured their lives into its work. Thanks be to God who calls us into partnership with God in the work of shepherding children amongst us here, and in the community, and in the far reaches of the world. Those children belong to God, too.

 

Thanks be to God who blesses us, not just with one age, not just with the blessing of being fifty, but with the blessing of each passage in life. Truly, one generation witnessing and teaching to another.

 

Let us be called to prayer.

 

 

©John T. DeBevoise 2006