Penny has me hooked on watching house shows. We love watching how designers are able to take an existing home and create more living space for the people who live there.
Sometimes they will do this by removing a wall to open up the room or repurposing a corner in the house where there is a lot of wasted space. And the best part of these shows is the look on their faces when they have the big reveal. A lot of times, we fast forward through a lot of the show just to get that part.
You’ve heard of the phrase, “I need some space.” We all need space. We all need enough room where we don’t feel crowded. There is something about getting rid of the clutter in our lives to help us feel more at peace.
Jesus was incredible at creating space for people. I think this is why people were so drawn to him. He was able to make room for them.
In our Gospel reading for today, we have another example of Jesus creating space for people, this time for children. And I love how Mark sets up this story. Just before this story of Jesus welcoming the children, we have the story of the disciples arguing with each other about who was the greatest.
This is that classic example of adults acting like children. The disciples were arguing with each other about who is more important.
This ties in with our James New Testament reading where James asks the question, “Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from?” I can’t help but to wonder if this is the same James, the disciple who was in that same group arguing about who was the greatest. My hunch is that James was speaking from his own experience.
After Jesus calls the disciples out on being so childish, instead of giving them a lecture about what it means to be one of his disciples and acting more like adults, he does a little visible demonstration instead. Jesus takes a little child in his arms and says, “Whoever welcomes me, welcomes not me but the one who sent me.”
That’s an interesting word that Jesus uses here. “Welcome.” In the original Greek, the word, “welcome” refers to exactly what Jesus was doing here, providing space for someone, in this case a little child.
Think of a grandparent hugging their grandchild for the first time after several months of being separated because of living far away from each other. Think of parents hugging their son or daughter after they have been away at college for several months. This is the kind of genuine, authentic welcome that Jesus means when he uses the word, “welcome.”
In all my years serving as pastor, I have never heard people in a church say that they are not a welcoming church. And that’s probably true. Most churches are welcoming. OK, there might be a few out there who really aren’t, but for the most part, I do think that churches are welcoming.
But do we really welcome in the way that Jesus means here? This scripture has led me to rethink what it means for us to be a welcoming church. If welcoming means that we join Jesus in giving space for people to have enough room to feel safe and grow, that takes it to a much more meaningful level.
To be a disciple of Jesus means that we create space for others. Jesus is showing us that being a disciple is closely associated with being welcoming of others. When we create space for others, we are giving people room to grow and flourish.
I love our Call to Worship this morning that is based on Psalm 1. The psalmist says, “Happy are those who follow God. They are like trees planted by streams of water which yield their fruit in its season.”
That’s a great image of what we are called to do for others. Create space for others so that together, we can flourish and grow in our faith.
This story of Jesus welcoming a child is is a story of creating space for others. It’s what it means for us to be Jesus’ disciples. It’s what it means for us to be a welcoming church.
In Jesus’ day, children were ignored and seen as nuisances. And sadly, even today, children are not always shown love and nurture. But this was especially true in Jesus’ day, since he was living in a Roman/Greco culture where the treatment of children was very cruel by our standards today.
So, when Jesus took a child into his arms in order to demonstrate to the disciples what it means to be welcoming, his point would have been well taken. Being welcoming is about giving space to people who have not been given the space they need so that they can grow and flourish in being who God is calling them to be.
Jesus’ inclusive love for all people was demonstrated in so many ways throughout his ministry. Jesus traveled to many places where people didn’t feel welcomed.
Jesus offers us example after example in how he welcomed all people and shared God’s unconditional love with them. Just here in Mark’s Gospel alone, in the chapters preceding today’s reading, the first thing Jesus does is he calls on a bunch of common fishermen to become his disciples. He welcomed them.
Jesus then heals a man with an unclean spirit, a woman sick with a fever, a leper, and a paralytic man. He welcomed them.
He ate dinner with people who were considered sinners and unworthy to be included in God’s family. He welcomed them.
He healed another man who had a withered hand, and he did this on the Sabbath which was considered a major religious violation. He healed many others as well. He welcomed them.
When his mother and brothers were calling for him, he looked at the crowd and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers.” He welcomed them.
When the disciples were caught in a storm and they thought the boat was going to sink, he calmed the storm and saved them by saying, “Peace, be still.” He welcomed them.
When they made it to the other side of the lake, he then healed a man who had an unclean spirit, healed a young girl who was near death, and restored a woman who had been sick for twelve years. He welcomed them.
He fed a large crowd of people with just five loaves and two fish and even had twelve baskets of leftovers. He welcomed them.
I’m now in chapter 6 where Mark tells us in his own words, “And wherever he went, into villages or cities, or farms, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak and all who touched it were healed.” He welcomed them.
A non-Jewish woman came to him begging to heal her daughter and Jesus healed her and then he healed a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech. When he was healed, the man said, “He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.” He welcomed them.
Where are we? Oh, yes. Chapter eight. Once again, he feeds another great crowd of people with a little bit of bread and some fish, and this time there were seven baskets of leftovers. Jesus welcomed them.
Hey, we’re finally in chapter 9! He invites some of his disciple to follow him up a mountain and they watched the most incredible thing where he, along with Moses and Elijah, those two ancient figures from the Old Testament mysteriously appear and are transfigured with Jesus.
Jesus gave them a front row seat in seeing a glimpse of heaven that they would never forget! He welcomed them.
Just barely down from the mountain, Jesus heals a man’s son who was unable to speak since childhood. He welcomed them.
And this brings us to today’s story. Let me catch my breath. Taking a child into his arms, Jesus tells his bickering disciples, “Whoever welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me, welcomes not me, but the one who sent me.” He welcomed them.
Jesus’ welcomed everyone throughout his ministry and he calls us to be welcoming as well. When we welcome people and give them the space they need to feel loved and accepted with no strings attached, that’s when people can flourish and grow in their faith.
Anne Lamott is one of my favorite contemporary Christian authors. She is originally from the Bay area and grew up with very little exposure to organized religion. But in 1985 when she was 31, she decided to try out a Presbyterian Church one Sunday morning.
Hungover, she listened as the congregation sang old spirituals and she kind of enjoyed hearing those songs, so she stayed there, and in her words, “the people didn’t hassle me.”
She goes on to share in an interview, “They didn’t try to get me to stay or to sign up for a bible study, and most important, they didn’t threaten to come and have a home visit and get to know me more, because I would have so run screaming back to my cute little life. They just let me be there at a time where I didn’t really have much sense of belonging anywhere or of being OK, because I was pretty hung-over most mornings.”
She goes on to say that she went to that same church “for months and months and months without staying for the sermon because it was too bizarre to hear the Jesus beliefs. Then a year later, I just started to feel like Jesus was around me. I would feel His presence. God was like this little stray cat. You know, I would kind of nudge him with my feet and say, ‘No,’ because you can’t let him in, because once you let him in and give him milk, you have a little cat, and I didn’t want it. I lived on this tiny little houseboat at the time, and finally one day I just felt like: ‘Oh, whatever. You can come in.’ And from that day on, which was almost 22 years ago, I have really felt a relationship or friendship with Jesus, a connection to him.”
Anne Lamott experienced Jesus’ welcome through the love and openness of that little Presbyterian Church.
In one of the churches I served, someone who was new to our church sent me this wonderful reason why she and her husband enjoyed coming to church every week. It has stayed with me ever since.
She wrote, “Thank you for helping to create a space for us.”
And my response to her was… “You are welcome.”
