Wisdom 1:16-2:22

Psalm 54

James 3:16-4:6

MARK 9:30-37

Sermon – September 24, 2006

“Jesus took a little child and put it among his disciples, and taking the child 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.’”

I spent August of 1994 on Sabbatical in the Holy Land. We saw a lot of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Qumrahn, Masada and the wilderness of Judea, and we climbed Mt. Sinai where Moses received the Ten Commandments from God. By the time we got to Galilee, I (and perhaps we) had reached that “sophomoric” stage of feeling like we’d really been places and done things already – “So impress me.” What could equal what we’d already seen?

The biggest attraction in Nazareth – the one all the tour buses stop at – is a beautiful Roman Catholic basilica built on the traditional site of the annunciation – the appearance of the Angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary to tell her that she would be the mother of Jesus. We stopped there only briefly.

Then we walked down a narrow, far less-trafficked street, where our guide knocked on a door with a sign no bigger than a business card: “The Sisters of Nazareth,” a Roman Catholic teaching order.

We were led in, and the Mother Superior told us about her nuns, their school, and its history. In the mid-19^th century, the Pope wanted to strengthen the Roman Catholic presence in the Holy Land by sending in teachers, so a group of sisters came from France to establish a convent and school in Nazareth. They found a likely site, which the real estate agent said was “perfect for them – right over the tomb of the saint.”

The Mother Superior at the time rolled her eyes and thought to herself, “Just because I’m from out of town and a nun, this guy thinks he can jack up the price by telling me a tall tale.”

After he closed on the sale, the real estate agent said, “Reverend Mother, you have no idea how much trouble I have had selling this property. I’ve taken it to closing three times before this, and each time something has happened. It’s almost as though it was being saved for you.”

Still, the Reverend Mother had no curiosity about the history of the property.

Until one day, workmen were doing some repairs in the basement – what they thought was the basement – when one of them got his foot caught in a hole in the floor. Pulling it loose, he broke off a piece of tile, which dropped – for several seconds before landing.

“Reverend Mother, this isn’t really the basement.”

It’s important to know that in ancient times, towns which were inhabited for a long time were periodically rebuilt on the ruins of what had come before, so that you end up with a layer cake of remains of towns and houses going back hundreds of years. Or thousands of years. So if you want to find history, you go down.

It’s also important to know that in Roman times, Nazareth was a very small town, with a couple of hundred or so people.

So, they dug down, below the supposed basement. And as she explained the history to us, the Mother Superior of 1994 led us down the staircase which had been built recently to make access easier for people like us. Let me walk you down too.

First, the archeologists found the ruins of a Crusader-era church from the 12^th century. The Crusaders liked to build churches on special, holy sites, not just random places.

The next level down, the archeologists found the ruins of a Byzantine-era church from around 600 A.D. This is significant especially because the Byzantines and the Crusaders did not always agree about the location of holy sites.

At the next level down, the archeologists found the tomb of a bishop, with his bishop’s ring still on his skeleton. In ancient times, people did not bury bishops just any old place.

Then, they came to a level with undisturbed, packed earth. This is significant for assigning a date to what lay below.

Under that floor, they found early First century pottery, and the remains of a house – the kind of a house a solid, working-class family might have lived in, in the early First century.

At this point, our group became very, very quiet and almost tip-toed on the floor – right next to the place where, we were told, the archeologists had uncovered an ancient cupboard, carved out of the stone walls…and smelled incense.

Perhaps that was where a certain solid, working-class family had stored the incense they had been given in their previous home by one of three mysterious visitors from the East.

And then, we slowly walked down to the real basement, and we found, carved out of bedrock in the ancient style, a tomb. It is a small room with large niches carved out of the walls, each big enough for a body. The door to the tomb was a large stone, carved like a giant manhole cover, which would have been rolled across the entrance.

This was the top-of-the line for First century tombs for Jews, something for either a rich person – and the house above was not the house of a rich person – or carved by someone who knew how to do it himself.

And here it’s important to know that expert stonemasons were also often workers in wood as well, and the word for their profession is usually translated into English as “carpenter.”

How many carpenters/master stonemasons would a village of 200 have had?

Almost certainly, as we stood there looking at that work, we were looking at the work of Joseph, husband of Mary, adoptive father of Jesus Christ.

Which meant, as we walked reverently back up to the First century first floor, that we were in Jesus’ boyhood home – where he ate his mother’s cooking, played on the floor we were walking on with his toys, learned carpentry from his father, learned the stories of his people Israel, which he already knew.

And do you know what the nuns do upstairs, way back in the 19^th or 20^th century building several levels up?

They run a school. A school for children who are deaf, or blind, or both. For children of any faith. Most of them are Muslim.

That real estate agent was right. That site was being saved for the nuns. What better use can you imagine for the site of Jesus’ boyhood home than as a school for handicapped children of all faiths? “Let the children come to me, for of such as these are the Kingdom of God.”

God could have become incarnate in some other way, for to God all options are open. Jesus could have appeared mysteriously – out of thin air, as it were – as a full grown adult. But he did not. God chose to become incarnate in the womb of Mary, to be born, to have a briss like all Jewish boys, to grow up and then to launch his ministry to the world as an adult.

Perhaps one reason God chose this path was to impress upon all of Jesus’ followers the importance of children. They were not much valued in the ancient world and in many places and times since. But those of us who follow Jesus should remember to treat every child with the love and respect we would show to that little boy who played on that floor in Nazareth should he walk in these doors.

After all, Jesus told us, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.”

Perhaps a child we’d welcome might have an unusual background, perhaps one not favored by traditional people. Just like Jesus, who was born less than nine months after Joseph and Mary were married. No one but them knew the story of Jesus’ conception, so in a small town I’ll bet they endured a lot of gossip.

Perhaps a child we’d welcome might have been adopted! Just like Jesus was. Conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus was officially adopted by Joseph when he named the boy at his briss. Only Joseph and Mary knew the back story, but Joseph knew the significance of what he was doing. So, adopted kids here, you’re in very good company!

Perhaps a child we’d welcome had been a refugee. Just like Jesus was. Matthew’s Gospel tells us how Joseph, Mary and Jesus had to flee to Egypt to escape the murderous designs of King Herod, and then relocated after Herod’s death to a new home in Nazareth. Refugees, you’re in very good company!

Or perhaps a child we’d welcome would blend right in as a “typical” kid, although what that means I’m not sure. Our mission is to welcome all children, in the name of Jesus.

And so we take our ministries with children seriously, in a joyful way. Our Diocese requires background checks for all church employees and all Youth Advisors, because we are committed to a safe environment for kids. All employees, Youth Advisors and Wardens are required to have a full day workshop in Abuse Awareness as well. Child abuse and sexual misconduct are terrible sins, and Christian churches, for too long, too often turned a blind eye to both. Safety in the broadest sense is vital, and so we are fanatical about permission slips for youth events off of these premises and about having at least two adults for every youth event, and having windows in the doors to our classrooms. These are simple but vital things.

But loving and “respecting the dignity of every human being,” in the words of the Baptismal Covenant, goes far beyond doing the minimum, to include creating an environment for spiritual growth for all ages. And so we have “kid-friendly interactive” services all summer when Sunday school is not in session, and also at Christmas, Ash Wednesday, Good Friday and Easter. So we have a wonderful Vacation Bible school which had over 100 kids participating last summer, a dynamic and creative Sunday school, Communion class and Confirmation classes, and a burgeoning youth ministry which includes but is by no means limited to Youth Group.

And we put our commitment to kids as well as others into the design of our building. This sanctuary (which is just four years old) was designed to hold more people by being wider than our old sanctuary (so the altar would not be remote from the people) and with plenty of space up front for interactive sermons, pageants and plays, and (last week) – baptisms of triplets!

In response to the survey we did within the parish, we made sure our architect included a “Quiet Room” just behind the sanctuary, where people could see and hear the service but, behind two layers of plate glass, are unlikely to be heard. So all ages can come to church. And we brought in 17 truckloads of fill to this parking lot nearest the church to bring it up to the grade of this floor and make the building easily handicap-accessible. Which means that not only people with wheelchairs and walkers can enter easily – but also people with strollers.

We have recently started a support group for Parents of Adolescents, and from some conversations I’ve had recently, perhaps we are being called to start one for parents of “special needs” students. Perhaps one for single parents as well. We have offered free child care for past parenting classes and we can again. We may start a “Mommy and Me” group as well.

And today, we are celebrating a really tangible way in which we have shown our enthusiasm for ministries for, with and by children by dedicating the renovations which have turned our former sanctuary upstairs into quality classrooms and have improved our downstairs facilities as well.

This “Habitat for St. Barnabas” project would not have been possible without generous commitments of time and talent by two dozen parishioners, whose names are in the bulletin insert. We simply could never have afforded to pay a general contractor to do everything. It would not have happened without our workers.

As it is, the renovation still cost $75,672. And no, despite some thoughtful gifts for which we are very grateful, this project is a long way from paid for, as we have a $68,000 loan to pay off. But it’s a commitment we decided to make. As one vestry member said, “Some churches say they care about kids. We do.”

And not just the kids who walk or are carried in our door. We also give regularly to the women and children who are survivors of domestic violence and are served by the shelters in Middlesex and Somerset counties. We do this all year round, with special efforts made by Vacation Bible School. Those shelter kids, and those in the Ozanam family Shelter in Edison, are also served by our annual school supplies drive in August, and by our “Mitten tree” in December.

And not just the kids who are local. This summer two of our teens, Kyle Johnson and Laura Pospiech, spent a week in El Salvador as part of our Diocese’s Youth Mission trip, working with our sisters and brothers in Christ in that Central American country.

Today we will also have a presentation about our Third Annual Healing Mission trip to Kenya, under the auspices of Global Outreach for Addiction Leadership. The objective is to continue to work with the churches of Kenya to build understanding of addiction as a treatable disease with medical, spiritual, emotional and social dimensions, so that more people can become and stay sober and clean. Reducing or treating alcoholism and other addictions can reduce promiscuity and so reduce the spread of H.I.V./A.I.D.S.

And so part of our work as a congregation is to labor so that more of the children of Kenya will not become A.I.D.S. orphans as too many already are, will not live in homes devastated by alcohol and other drug abuse, but will live and grow up experiencing the love of God through those who touch their lives with God’s healing through the ministries of many people, including those sent out from this place.

All children matter. And all adults.

Let us thank God for the opportunities God has given to all the people of St. Barnabas to show their love for Jesus by caring for all children, near and far. This clearly is one of our core values as a congregation.

We may not be on a site of such historical significance as the one occupied by the Sisters of Nazareth – but every Christian church is a holy site. We may not have the work of Joseph, carpenter and stonemason of Nazareth, in our building – but we do have the work of our own carpenters, electricians, plumbers, HVAC expert, dry wall builders, low voltage wirers and others in our building, all done so that we may welcome more children and their parents to much better facilities, to the glory of God.

Jesus said, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.”

(The Rev.) Francis A. Hubbard

St. Barnabas Episcopal Church

Monmouth Junction, New Jersey