Wednesday Sermon: Don’t Trip Up the Children – Pope Francis and the Golden Rule

Last updated on: September 30, 2015 at 11:38 am by Tom Truby

Wednesday Sermon: Don’t Trip Up the Children – Pope Francis and the Golden Rule 2015-09-30T11:38:28-05:00 Tom Truby

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Photo: Pope Francis, Flickr, Jeffrey Brunno, Aleteia Image Department, Creative Commons License, some changes made.

Pastors have a frequent question when they begin to discover mimetic theory. “That’s great. But how does it preach?”

Reverends Tom and Laura Truby show that mimetic theory is a powerful tool that enables pastors to preach the Gospel in a way that is meaningful and refreshing to the modern world. Each Wednesday, Teaching Nonviolent Atonement will highlight Tom and Laura’s sermons as an example of preaching the Gospel through mimetic theory.

In this sermon, they discuss Pope Francis’s visit to the US. The Pope offers us an exemplary model for how to welcome the vulnerable into our midst. As they point out, so often we create hell for one another, but Jesus offers the alternative. Reflecting on Jesus, Pope Francis, and the Golden Rule, Tom and Laura write, “When we focus on the children and make them the key to what we do and how we do it, we can’t help but get it right. When we see the streams of refugees pouring into Europe or moving toward our southern border and see the faces of the children and let our hearts be moved by them, they reveal the face of Christ.”

Year B, Pentecost 18, Proper 21
September 27, 2015
Thomas L. Truby and Laura C. Truby
Mark 9:38-50 (The Common English Bible)

Don’t Trip Up the Children

It has been a strange and powerful week for me. On Thursday and Friday morning we got up early to watch the Pope speak before Congress and then at the United Nations. Each morning I found myself weeping as I listened. I don’t know why.

The Pope comes down the street in a white jeep waving and smiling at the crowd. A young child escapes adult supervision and runs into the Pope’s path to greet him. A gentle policeman captures the girl and carries her back to the edge. The Pope stops and motions for the girl to come to him and she does. She says something; he listens, blesses her and releases her to return to her family. I dissolve in emotion and feel embarrassed at the same time. I think of Jesus saying let the children come to me and do not prevent them.

Pope Francis speaks to congress. A strange reverence for life and all of humanity settles over the place and everyone listens. The spirit of listening is contagious and the Pope’s labored English causes everyone to lean forward and listen for all they are worth. Vice President Biden smiles and looks solemn by turn on one side of the Pope and Speaker of the House, John Boehner, weeps, blows his nose and wipes the tears from his eyes on the other. Something unusual is happening here and I find myself weeping too.

On Friday we discover that John Boehner has decided to resign from Congress at the end of October. Now we understand his tears and where he found the strength to sacrifice his own career. He can’t go on. He wants the fighting in Congress to stop and so he resigns hoping it will help to end it.

The Popes message is simple and very profound. He is reminding us of the Golden Rule and how all of us were once emigrants. He asks us to notice the faces of individuals as they look at us with pleading eyes and to not turn away. He reminds us they are as human as we and equally loved. The most powerful human legislature in the world listens, themselves each so tired of their constant warring but all caught in it. For a moment all of that is transcended and their rivalry with each other forgotten as they all feel the call of something bigger than winning and political parties.

When Pope Francis finishes his address to congress he makes his way toward the balcony. Thousands of people are gathered below chanting “Papa” the Spanish term of affection for him. Speaking in Spanish he prays a blessing from the balcony for the children, he focuses on them as the most important. What a way of welcoming the vulnerable and making them the center!

When we focus on the children and make them the key to what we do and how we do it, we can’t help but get it right. When we see the streams of refugees pouring into Europe or moving toward our southern border and see the faces of the children and let our hearts be moved by them, they reveal the face of Christ.

Jesus spoke to this in today’s gospel. He speaks for all the children, all the vulnerable, all those with fresh hope he does not want us to disappoint. With stern tenderness he says, “As for whoever causes these little ones who believe in me to trip and fall into sin, it would be better for them to have a huge stone hung around their necks and be thrown into the lake.” The little ones look to us believing we will be tender. They can’t imagine that our hearts could be hard, turn away, deny them their need or endanger their right to exist. If we do turn away we trip them and they fall into the sin of bitterness, hatred, cynicism and the desire for revenge. In this way we participate in creating all sorts of social problems. We set the alarm clock that will go off at some point in the future.

This is why Jesus speaks so strongly against tripping up children. He struggles to find language vivid enough to get through to us. If what you are doing to children in the activity of your hand is actually doing them harm, cut off your hand. “It’s better for you to enter into life crippled than to go away with two hands into the fire of hell, which can’t be put out.” Jesus is not talking about a hell of the here-after. He is talking about the hell humans create for ourselves in a world grown so hard and brutal we all live in fear and the finer things we love become endangered. How hard these fires of hatred are to stop once they get going! Each side sees the other as evil and it lasts for generations.

“If your foot causes you to fall into sin, chop it off.” If our adult movements take the vulnerable to places that do them harm, we take them toward their own destruction and destroy our own humanity in the process. If that is what you are doing chop off your foot! “It’s better for you to enter life lame than to be thrown into hell with two feet.” Hell is the smoldering garbage dump outside of Jerusalem—an image of the world when we ignore children and their needs. It’s a flame that does not go out since children full of hurt and anger at being ignored grow into adults who, unless they learn to forgive, make it their goal to repay those they see as thwarting them.

“If your eye causes you to fall into sin, tear it out.” The eye is the organ through which we see all of life. If we see the children of the world as rag-a-muffins not worth our time or investment, or as collateral damage in our wars for the protection of our security, we seed a harvest of brokenness and dysfunction, chaos and violence. Get rid of that way of seeing. Tear it out! It’s better for us to enter God’s kingdom with one eye than to be thrown into hell with two.”

Hell, for the writer of Mark, is that place where worms don’t die and fire never goes out. It’s the canyon outside Jerusalem into which wet-waste was dumped and bred flies, and burnable waste was left to burn night and day. What an image for a society that does not love and care for children, all children, the world’s children. It’s the canyon the Pope is warning us away from when he encourages the care of all families and the protection of our planet home.

The integrity of who we are as individuals and as nations will be tested. We will all get to see how we measure up to the temptation to abandon the little ones. Europe is struggling with this even as we speak. We are now in the biggest refugee crisis since WWII. How we respond will reveal what we are made of, gold or straw.

We are the salt of the earth and salt is good but if salt loses its saltiness, how will it become salty again? Suzanne Ross says the answer is right in front of us, as close as the tiny hand reaching up to hold ours.

If every decision is viewed through the lens of its impact on children will it make a difference? When Jesus put the child in the center of the feuding disciples he suggests that children can save us from our rivalry with each other.

If we put the care of children at the center of our policies we will be savory salt. The gospel lection for the day ends with these words. “Maintain salt among yourselves and keep peace with each other.” The saltiness of caring for the earth and its children will go far. May we be that salt! Amen.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

September 29, 2015

Doing Good, Becoming Evil: The Pope, Elijah and Moses

Next Post

October 1, 2015 Pope Francis, Kim Davis, and Progressive Purity Codes

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Atonement and Current Events Curriculum Faith and Families Interviews Jesus the Forgiving Victim Lent Montessori politics Reviews The Bible Explained Uncategorized Valentine's Day Wednesday Sermon Who is God?

Select a Month July 2020 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 January 2014 December 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz