Matching Gifts

Scripture   2 Corinthians 8:7-15   

8:7 Now as you excel in everything--in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in utmost eagerness, and in our love for you--so we want you to excel also in this generous undertaking.  I do not say this as a command, but I am testing the genuineness of your love against the earnestness of others. For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.

10 And in this matter I am giving my advice: it is appropriate for you who began last year not only to do something but even to desire to do something-- now finish doing it, so that your eagerness may be matched by completing it according to your means.  For if the eagerness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has--not according to what one does not have.

13 I do not mean that there should be relief for others and pressure on you, but it is a question of a fair balance between your present abundance and their need, so that their abundance may be for your need, in order that there may be a fair balance.  As it is written, "The one who had much did not have too much, and the one who had little did not have too little."

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It was about the year 50.  The church in Jerusalem was experiencing extreme persecution.   Many had scattered, getting far away from the city, but others remained.  We don’t know for sure what it was like, but we can assume that life was pretty difficult for Christians in Jerusalem.  If they were known to be Christ-followers they were considered blasphemers, and in Jerusalem, blasphemy could get you stoned to death.  The Church was kind of underground at that point, and known Christians needed to keep their heads down, because those who didn’t  - well, the martyrdom of Stephen comes to mind.   Christians in Jerusalem were living in poverty, and Paul wanted his churches in Asia to help.   Even though they were far away from Jerusalem - some 1,250 miles, about a 3 month walk - Paul wanted the Christians in Corinth and in the other cities where he had started churches, to take up collections for the poor of Jerusalem which he would then deliver.     He didn’t say, “Let’s go to the Dollar Tree and gather things they will need because they are poor.”  He didn’t say, “Gather up your extra stuff and give it to me so I can take it to them.”   He didn’t say, “Make a collection of all the non-perishable food items you can find, and I will make sure they get food.”  He didn’t even say, “Let us send our brothers and sisters in Jerusalem our thoughts and prayers.”  He said, “Give money.  There is a great need for money.” 

He said, don’t give so much as to impoverish yourself.  Because then they would have to take up a collection for you, and that’s pretty much not what we are aiming for.  But give what you can afford, over and above what you are already giving to your congregation.  If you are eager to give, and I know you are eager to give,  let your giving match your eagerness, out of what you have, not out of what you do not have.   Let your giving match your eagerness . . . let your eagerness to help and your money be matching gifts.  

No one told Paul he had to take up a collection for Jerusalem.  He didn’t get a directive from the church leaders back in Jerusalem.  He just thought it would be the right thing to do. Maybe because he had been an instrument of their persecution himself at one time.  Although that would really only be a compelling reason for him to give personally, and not applicable to all the Asian churches.  According to some scholars, the idea of the Gentiles supporting the Jewish Christians, the people who had sent Paul to them in the first place, not as clients, but as equals in God’s eyes, was pretty radical.  In those days, gifts tended to be either sort of required tribute from client to patron or rewards from patron to client - both of which would be made very pubic.  The idea of sending a gift without expectation of reward or some concrete sign of approval was totally counter cultural.  Sort of like Job’s faith in our message last week.  He freely gave God the gift of his faith even without reward, even when everything was going wrong - which is not at all what was expected of him - except by God, of course.  God expected this, because God knew Job’s heart.  He accepted Job’s faith as an act of worship.  

In Paul’s mind, the act of giving is an act of worship.  When you give, when you help someone who needs your help, then you are worshiping God.  The offering we receive on Sundays is not simply one of the many ritual things we do during worship, like lighting candles and singing.  According to Paul it is one of the necessary aspects of worshipping God, a heartfelt human response to God’s grace and blessing.

A heartfelt human response to God’s grace and blessing.  It is what happens in your heart when you hear of a family losing everything in a fire, or a city being destroyed by a hurricane, and you say, “How can I help?”  Even if you don’t have much yourself, you still want to know, “How can I help?”

If you are on Facebook you may have seen a post about financial difficulties in this church.  Just so you know, this week the budget team met, and said  “We have no savings left.   Sunday offerings are lower than we had hoped.  Payday is Friday, and we can’t pay our staff. And even if we come up with the money for this paycheck, we won’t make the next one.  What shall we do?”    We started throwing ideas around of ways to raise money and ways to save money.  If we have your email address you’ll get an email soon with the list of fundraising ideas and a request to either help out with one or more of those, or to give us your ideas.   A list of recommendations will be given to the Board at the next meeting which include some staff cuts.  If the Board agrees, two paid positions will become volunteer positions, and two will have their hours cut in half.  If you are on Facebook, you may have already heard some of this.   Meanwhile, this payday, one person declined their paycheck, and two others are holding theirs until after today’s offering is deposited in the bank.   

So can we talk about churches going through difficult times?  Can we talk seriously about money without y’all going all, “They only ever ask us for money” on me?   One of the reasons that we are in the current situation is that maybe we don’t ask for money as intentionally as we should.   Yes, we have a stewardship moment every Sunday, and I spend all of October preaching about stewardship, and all those messages usually goes something like “It is good to give of your time and talents and money.”   And it is good to give of your time and talents.  Most of the work of the Church is done by volunteers - people who give of their time and energy and creativity to feed the hungry, rescue dogs, help the homeless, decorate the sanctuary, take care of church business by serving on Boards and committees, praying with those who need prayer, visiting the sick, teaching our children, taking meals to shut ins, singing in the choir, presiding at worship, repairing things that need to be repaired . . . all of the oh so many things that are part of the mission and ministry of the church are done by people who give unstintingly of their time and abilities.  We use supplies which can be donated by anyone - copy paper and toilet paper and soaps and candles.  

If we were a house church, like the churches in Corinth and Antioch and Rome and Jerusalem, that would be all we needed - time and talents and some donated items.   But we’re not a house church.  I don’t know anyone in this congregation with a house big enough to fit all of us on a Sunday.  So we have a big, beautiful building.  And along with that building come PG&E and CalWater and Waste Management and property taxes and insurance and business licenses . . . and salaries.   And those things require cash money.   PG&E doesn’t barter.  CalWater does not accept thoughts and prayers.  Donations of food won’t pay my student loans.  There is a great need for money.

We, as a congregation, are facing some hard times and hard questions.   We want to build a new building - a wonderful new building where everyone will be able to come in and worship, where we can open our doors to all kinds of people and help agencies, where we can truly be Christ’s hands and feet, making the Good News more accessible to everyone.  But first, we have to get through our current difficulties, and finding the best way to do that may be harder than we like.  There will almost certainly be sacrifices to be made. So we need to pray, all of us, for discernment going forward.

One of the things I have said before - and that Paul said way before me - is that your giving should not make it harder for you to pay your own bills, and buy your own food.  Some of you really don’t have any money to give.  Again I say, you can only give out of what you have, not out of what you don’t have.  Let your eagerness to help go toward helping out at fundraisers, or encouraging others.  The time will come when you can, and that is all we can ask.

But if you can increase your giving by even one dollar a week - that one dollar really would make a difference.  It’s a roll of stamps or a case of copy paper.  If you typically give only when you attend and you aren’t going to be here one week, consider putting aside the money you would give if you were here, and bring it with you next time.  Consider making your church offering part of your monthly bills - and when you write the check or money order or whatever for PG&E, write one for First Christian Church at the same time.   Whatever you give, let your eagerness to help match your giving, so that your gift is an act of worship, a heartfelt response to God’s grace.  Let your eagerness to help and your money be matching gifts.  

My brothers and sisters, never forget that everything we have belongs to God.  The gifts and talents that we use when we volunteer to do God’s work in the world come from God.  The education and abilities that we use to earn the money to live on come from God.   Even the faith that we have, that all will be well, that with God all things are possible - even our faith comes as a gift from God.  So when we give, no matter what we give, we are simply giving back what already belongs to God.   Let us stand and sing together, We Give Thee But Thine Own.

Who do you think you are?

Scripture Job 38:1-11

38:1 Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind:

38:2 "Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?  38:3 Gird up your loins like a man, I will question you, and you shall declare to me.

38:4 "Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding.

38:5 Who determined its measurements--surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it?  38:6 On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone  38:7 when the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy?  38:8 "Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb?—  38:9 when I made the clouds its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band,  38:10 and prescribed bounds for it, and set bars and doors,  38:11 and said, 'Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stopped'?

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When everything was going wrong - I’d lost my job, I was getting evicted, I had no where to go - I cried out to God and said, “Why me?  What have I done wrong this time?  I’m really trying to do all the right things.”  People said to me, “Read these very uplifting Psalms.  They will help.”  So I tried that, and the nice uplifting Psalms people suggested just made me more angry and more upset.  I wasn’t in the mood to listen to people saying how wonderful God was when I was in the depths of depression and despair.   I told my pastor and she said, “Read Job.”   So I did.  And OMG - Job was exactly what I needed.  I mean, compared to Job, I was doing very well indeed.  My problems were nothing, compared to his.

All those terrible things happened to him.  He lost everything - worldly possessions, family, health - even though he hadn’t done anything wrong.  And his friends all decided he must have been guilty of something or all these awful things wouldn’t be happening to him. They, of course, had no way of knowing that this was a test - because Satan didn’t think anyone would remain faithful to God unless they received rewards for their fidelity.   He was wrong.   In chapter 26, Job had finally had enough of his friends’ assumption that he must be guilty of something and he began to defend himself.  He listed all the possible sins and his innocence of each and every one.  He boasted of his generosity to the poor, of his care for the oppressed and the afflicted.  He spoke proudly of his devotion God and to his family.  When he finished (6 chapters later), having made it pretty clear that he believed himself to be totally righteous and blameless in every way, and never, by the way, blaming God in any way for his current situation, his friends had nothing to say, but another man, a younger one named Eliju, did.  He had sat there silently, listening respectfully, as his elders spoke, but when they were silent in the face of Job’s words, he called Job to account for having such pride in his own righteousness, exalting himself instead of God.  

And when Eliju was done God spoke, out of a whirlwind that suddenly appeared before the men, saying:

Just who do you think you are, Job?   You think you know so much about me and what I will and won’t  and can and can’t do  . . tell me, how did I contain the oceans?   And where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?   Was it you who caused the stars to sing, and the residents of heaven to shout out with joy?    I don’t think so.   You sit here bragging about your righteousness, about how good you are, about your obedience to the Law, as if it’s a big deal, somehow.  You brag about how faithful you are to me, your God, and I appreciate your fidelity, I really do, but let me tell you something, Job.  You are only doing what everyone is supposed to do - you are not all that and a bag of chips.    

There has been a great deal of uproar lately over the separation of children from their families when the family has been caught crossing our southern border illegally.   There have been demonstrations resulting in many arrests, including a number of my friends and colleagues here in the Northern California region and around the country.  There have been horrible things said on Facebook and other social media, and lots of “fake news” coming from both directions.  The cages holding children we have seen pictured are not in use by Immigration anywhere - they were pictures taken at a demonstration and then mis-used on Facebook.  The 2,000+ children being held in detention facilities have not all been kidnapped to help criminals cross the border.  Anyone trying to point out a middle path in the argument gets attacked from both sides of the issue - as has happened to me.  I have been called a hate monger from the right and a defender of immorality from the left, mainly because people made assumptions not backed up by the actual words I used.  This, by the way, is why I mostly just post cat pictures.  The middle position is rarely appreciated.  Both sides are happy to use scripture to make their points.   And I find myself wondering where “love one another”  fits in.  

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is a lifetime United Methodist, a Sunday School teacher and leader in his local United Methodist congregation, and some years back even a delegate to the General Conference.  This week over 600 United Methodist clergy and laypersons have signed a letter charging him with: child abuse, immorality, racial discrimination, for his implementation of these policies, and “dissemination of doctrines contrary to the standards of doctrine of the United Methodist Church” for his citation of Romans 13.   I will point out that it is usually a bad idea to use one sentence which appears one time in one of Paul’s letters to defend anything. This is called proof texting and has been used to defend everything from slavery to the internment of the Japanese to jailing people for being gay.  It is an especially bad idea if you happen to be a Sunday School teacher, because you should know better.  For although Paul did say “obey your government” once (and not without some limitations as to what that obedience entailed), God said ‘take care of the widow and orphan and alien among you” repeatedly.  

Deuteronomy 27:19 says “Cursed be anyone who deprives the alien, the orphan, and the widow of justice.” All the people shall say, “Amen!”

Jeremiah 22:3 Thus says the Lord: Act with justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor anyone who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place.  

Exodus 22:21 You shall not wrong or oppress a resident alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.

And yes, there is a difference between a resident alien and someone just arriving.   I think that detail may have been overlooked by some.  

Regardless - I believe it is wrong to separate children from their parents.  I have seen what happens to children here in the US who are removed from their parents and end up in the system for whatever reason.  Most of them end up in much better situations than those the immigrant children are living in right now. But no matter how good the living situation in foster care or whatever, they are still adversely affected by that separation for the rest of their lives.   I don’t have any solutions.  I’m not really sure why families without documentation can’t simply be returned back over the border when they are caught.  I’m not sure why the courts decided that it was unlawful to detain families together, as they did when the previous administration implemented that particular policy.  I’m certain  there are reasons I don’t understand, and may never understand.  I’m not sure what the absolute right way to go forward might be - right for the people seeking a new life, and right for the United States.  I’m simply going to pray for a solution that doesn’t include lifetime psychological and spiritual damage to the children involved.  And that doesn’t force women and children to return to situations where their lives are at risk daily.  I’m going to continue writing letters asking our leaders to find that solution - quickly.  

One thing I am sure of is that God will walk with us toward the solution, if we let him.  If we don’t decide we know more than God does. If we don’t decide that God loves some of us more than others.   If we don’t draw a line in the sand that makes coming together to find the best way forward impossible.   I am afraid we are really close to that point - the point where conversation is impossible, where listening to one another is impossible, where we have no interest in anything but defending our own rightness and our own righteousness . .  like Job.   And we know what God said to Job.  

I believe that we will find a solution if we work together, if we use our eyes and hearts to see Jesus in every person - not just the people we love, not just the immigrant children and their families, not just the people who agree with us.  But also those with whom we disagree, especially those in leadership, who themselves may well be hurting in these situations but see no other way forward.  We do not know what is in the hearts of others, but we do know that our Lord is present in each and every one of us.  

My brothers and sisters, please stand with me and sing:  "Open Our Eyes, Lord"  

Open our eyes, Lord. We want to see Jesus

to reach out and touch him, and say that we love him.

Open our ears, Lord, and help us to listen.

Open our eyes, Lord.  We want to see Jesus.

I didn't do it!

Genesis 3:8-15 NRSV

3:8 They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.  3:9 But the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, "Where are you?"

10 He said, "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself."

11 He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?"

12 The man said, "The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate."

3:13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this that you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent tricked me, and I ate."

3:14 The LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, cursed are you among all animals and among all wild creatures; upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.  3:15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel."

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When I was little, I was the good girl.  Not because I was so well behaved, but because I was really pretty good at getting my sister to do the thing.  For example, when I wanted a cookie I would talk my little sister into climbing up on the counter to get to the cabinet where Mother hid the cookies.  We invariably got caught - we weren’t exactly cat burglars - and my mother would be quite sure that I was involved, but it was always Patty who literally had her hand in the cookie jar.  Sometimes we would just try to look innocent when Mother discovered some mischief or other - like the time she walked into the kitchen and we were both covered in flour - but that pretty much never worked, because she knew us.  She knew that bag of flour didn’t just fall off the counter while she was on the phone.  Sometimes we hid, because we knew we were going to be in trouble, but she always found us.  And if one of us tattled on the other, that one got punished for tattling while the other got punished for the thing, so it didn’t really do a whole lot of good to try to blame each other for whatever.   

In today’s passage, God says, “Why did you do this?”  Adam blames Eve and Eve blames the snake.  “It wasn’t me - I didn’t do it! It was their fault.”  Well, Adam, yes.  You did do it.  And Eve, you did it, too.  The snake talked you into it, but you still did it.   God had been hoping that these two would be obedient, and satisfied with everything they already had.  I mean, they were in Eden!  Food fell off trees into their hands.  Nothing threatened them.  There were no dangers.  Only beauty surrounded them.  All they had to do was avoid the fruit of one tree.  But they decided that listening to the snake was a good idea, and so they ate.  They did the one thing they were’t supposed to do.  And then, they didn’t want to take responsibility for their behavior.  They wanted to shift the blame onto someone else.  So Adam blamed Eve, and Eve blamed the snake.  And God punished them all - because they were all responsible.

A lot of bad theology has come out of this passage.  When I was growing up I was taught that women are inherently sinful - more sinful than men - because Eve was the first sinner and she tempted her husband to sin along with her.   He would have been fine if she hadn’t tempted him, so Adam’s sin is all Eve’s fault.  There’s a problem with this way of thinking.  For one thing, it takes all the responsibility away from Adam.  For another, this way of thinking allows people to  blame the victim in crimes such as rape.  “She must have tempted him somehow.  It’s the woman’s fault. It’s always the woman’s fault.”  The man’s unacceptable behavior is overlooked, while the woman has to defend herself.  We are still dealing with this in our justice system and in the way we talk about victims of abuse and sexual assault. It is changing, slowly, but we are still dealing with it. That is not what happens in this passage, mind you.  But it is a mind set that has arisen out of it.  

This passage is all about personal responsibility.    The snake said, “Hey, do this thing you aren’t allowed to do.” and they said, “Oh, ok.”  They could have said no.  They should have said no.  But they said yes, and then tried to put the blame for that first sin they committed somewhere else.  And I suspect that their punishment in part resulted from their second sin - the hiding and the blaming others.

And because they did this thing, because they ate the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, we know the difference between those two things.   We know what is right and what is wrong.   We might not be born knowing these things, but we are taught the difference.  We learn from our families, from our teachers in school, and from church folks, what is the right way to live.  “Don’t bite your sister.”  (Yes, yes, I did.  While we were in the bathtub.  And I got spanked.  Never did it again.)  “Don’t take things that aren’t yours.”  “Be nice to other people.”   “Help others.”  

Zoe Thompson, you are about to be baptized.  As of today this knowledge of Good and Evil will become even more important to you.   In a few minutes I am going to ask you if you repent, really repent, of all the things you have done so far that you are not supposed to do.  I am going to ask you if you will renounce evil - if you will say no when someone wants you to do something that you know is wrong.  From this day forward, you are responsible for keeping those promises. From this day forward, you will be responsible for your own behavior - not blaming anyone else, but taking full responsibility for every thing that you do.   

Baptism doesn’t change us into different people.   It doesn’t make us perfect.  It doesn’t take away  What it is, is a commitment to do the right, be like Jesus as best we can, and take responsibility for actions.    We’re not going to be perfect, because we are human and we are prone to error. We are going to do things that are wrong, even things that we know are wrong.  And we will be forgiven - as long as we are honest with God, confessing whatever we have done wrong and making amends for our mistakes. 

Today, Zoe, you are making a commitment to God, to  yourself, and to this congregation, to be a Christian in every way - to dedicate yourself to Jesus and to the love of all of your brothers and sisters.  Today you become an adult in God’s eyes, and in the eyes of the church, for you are taking the biggest, most important step that we, Disciples of Christ, ever take - you are stepping into that baptistry a child and coming back out of the water a Christian, dedicated to living your life in Christ from today forward.   Come with me now, to prepare for your baptism, while the congregation sings “Standing in the Need of Prayer” from their hymnals page 579.

 (Disciples of Christ baptize by immersion.  A video of Zoe's baptism may be available on selmadisciples.com. later today.)

But I'm too busy!

Deuteronomy 5:12-15 NRSV

5:12 Observe the sabbath day and keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you. 

5:13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work.  5:14 But the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God; you shall not do any work--you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you. 

5:15 Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day.

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Observe the sabbath day and keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you.    

We know that observing the Sabbath day is important.  Our very first example of Sabbath observance comes in the book of Genesis, when “God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.”  We really do think that Sabbath is important.   And yet, we don’t really observe it.  So, let’s talk about keeping Sabbath.

Sabbath (Shabbat in Hebrew) is Saturday, the seventh day of the week.   The Jewish people were really serious about doing no work on the Sabbath - many still are.  Even today rabbis continue to study and determine which things are and are no the kind of work one may not do on Shabbat.  Turning on electric lights, for example, is like lighting a flame, so that may not be done.  Putting in false teeth is still being debated.  (Leaving them in overnight is the preferred option.) There have been times when I was talking with my orthodox Jewish friend in Jerusalem early on a Friday morning and he will suddenly say, “I have to get off the phone.  Shabbat begins in 5 minutes.” Which means it’s about to be sunset in Jerusalem and he has to make sure whatever lights need to be turned on are on before the sun goes down, and that computers, phones and tv are all turned off.  His wife will have all the cooking for Friday night and Saturday done before sunset.  Saturday morning, he and his family will walk to shul (synagogue), which is no further than 2,000 steps or 2/3 mile from their home.  When they get back home, they might read Torah or play games with the children, but none that require work, like putting together a jigsaw puzzle or writing down scores.  They are serious about observing Sabbath.  

We don’t actually observe the Sabbath.  Rather, we worship on Sunday, which is called the Lord’s Day, because it is the day the women came and found the tomb empty - the day of the resurrection.  The earliest disciples went to Temple on the Sabbath, and gathered together on the 1st day, the Lord’s Day, to learn about Jesus and share a meal.  As the decades passed and more Gentiles joined the church, it simply became the norm for Christians to worship on the Lord’s Day.  So worship day and Sabbath aren’t really the same thing for most Christians - although our Seventh Day Adventist brothers and sisters do worship on the actual Sabbath.    What has happened, though, is we have kind of shifted what we mean by Sabbath.   There are a lot of people who believe that Sunday is the Sabbath.  It’s not.  But it is the day we, Christians, worship God.

There was a time in this country, not all that long ago, when churches had morning and evening services and everyone went to both.  When Sunday was dedicated to worship and rest and family time, and the acceptable recreations for Sundays including reading edifying books, family dinners, and playing games.   Most stores and businesses weren’t open on Sundays, although many restaurants were.  I remember when 7-11 stores were the only places open on Sundays.  Today, of course, malls and stores are open on Sunday, kids soccer leagues play on Sundays, and of course, major league sports of all kinds fill the airways. And that is partly because fewer people actually go to church today than did, say, in the 1950s.  And it’s partly why fewer people go to church than they did, say, in the 1950s.  I both love and hate that malls and stores are open on Sundays, because it’s convenient for me (after worship), but it also means that in many cases, people who might want to be in worship today can’t be, because they have to work.   (That whole soccer thing . . . I have a friend, a pastor, married to another pastor, whose daughter played soccer on Sundays instead of going to church.  I know, right?  But there wasn’t any other day to play, and she was really good.)  

I get my hair done at Urban Cuts, the new barber shop over on High Street, and the owner is very proud of the fact that he works 7 days a week.  He goes to the gym most days, and works the shop from open to close.   He’s about to get busier because he’s opening a new shop in the Hanford Mall, and he’ll be running back and forth between the two.  I keep telling him he needs to take some time to himself.  He says “I’m too busy to take time off.”  He’s young and fit.  He can do it, but still.    Even God needed a day off!

For you students, the ones who are heading off to college or graduate school, or who have jobs lined up and are ready to begin your career . . . take some time for yourself.  And before you say, “I’m too busy to take time off!” . . . I get it, I do.  Because I’ve been in college and grad school and holding down jobs while studying and writing papers and serving a church and coming home to a husband to cook and clean for and all of that. I graduated from seminary on a Saturday, was ordained the next day, and was on my way to my first church two days after that.  I did not rest in between (because I don’t think driving across country is restful), so I know it’s not easy.  But even God needed a day off. 

So many of you, here in this room, as so busy that maybe the only restful time you get is the hour or so you spend here on Sundays.  You have jobs and family obligations and volunteer responsibilities.  You spend all of your time and energy taking care of others, and when I ask you about taking some time for yourself, you tell me, “Pastor, I’m too busy.  I just don’t have time to rest.” But dang, people.   Even God needed a day off!

And then there are my clergy brothers and sisters, who work in the Lord’s vineyard every day, from before sunrise until they are ready to drop at night.  There is so much to do, so many to minister to, hungry to feed, naked to clothe, prisoners to comfort, so much suffering to help with, so many who need to hear the word of God at the lowest times of their lives.  They work and they work, and they never rest.  I admire them greatly, but I also confront them about their own health and well being.  “Take some time off,”  I say.  “When do you rest?” I ask.  They say, “I can’t take a vacation.  I’m too busy to take off even a day!” And they  tell me they have to work all the time, because Satan never rests.   And they ask me, when I tell them I am taking a day off, or going on vacation, how I can take time away from the Lord’s work.  My answer to them is twofold.  One, if they’re taking the devil as their model they are looking in the wrong direction.  And two, even God needed a day off!  God told us to rest, to take time from our work, even church work.  

God said, “Six days you shall labor and do all your work.  5:14 But the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God; you shall not do any work--you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you.”  

It feels a bit awkward to read those words while acknowledging that I don’t follow this commandment, and that we would all probably find it way too difficult to spend an entire day every week doing no work, nor causing anyone else to work. (Like people working in stores and restaurants, for example - including internet shopping.)  I mean, I am the one who is supposed to tell you all to obey the Commandments.  But our world is so different today.  I know you don’t have a whole entire day to read the Bible and pray and meditate, listening for God’s words in response to your prayers.  I don’t have that, and those things are kind of in my job description.  But on my day off, like yours, there’s still laundry and shopping and doctor’s appointments and all of those other things to do.  (Of course, my friend in Jerusalem and many other Jews around the world, including the US, do manage it. . . )  

However, I can usually find an hour in my day.  Just one hour.  And maybe you can too.  And maybe during that hour you can take the One Hour Sabbath suggestion attached to your worship bulletin and do those things.  Christopher McCauley, who wrote that, is a spiritual director and was one of my teachers when I was studying Spiritual Direction.  I admire him greatly.   Keep in mind, though, that he is a contemplative.  His suggestions may not suit you.  And if they don’t, that’s ok.  Don’t try to do a form of Sabbath rest that isn’t restful for you.  If the suggestions there don’t work for you, maybe you can just turn everything off for an hour.  Read a book.  Go for a walk.  Play with your kids, or pets.  Do whatever brings you peace.  Whatever allows you to really rest.   Whatever allows you to find a closeness with God.  Take Sabbath time, keep it holy.  Don’t say, “I’m too busy.”  Because even God needed a day off.

Who will go?

Isaiah 6:1-8 NRSV

6:1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple.  6:2 Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew.  6:3 And one called to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.”   6:4 The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke.

6:5 And I said: "Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”  6:6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs.  6:7 The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: "Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out."

6:8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I; send me!”

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Many are called - 

From 1940 until 1973, during both peacetime and periods of conflict, men were drafted to fill vacancies in the United States Armed Forces that could not be filled through voluntary means.  To put that in historical context, the draft began in August 1940, when America was not yet involved in the 1-year old Second World War, because President Roosevelt considered it a prudent step to train American men for military service, just in case.  It continued through the Korean War and ended in January, 1973, a few months before direct U.S. military involvement in Vietnam ended.  During that time period roughly 13,500,000 draftees entered the Armed Forces.  There were also many volunteers, many of them men who had received their draft notice and preferred to serve in a different branch of the military than the Army.   Many were called, indeed.  And most answered that call, serving with honor and distinction.   Today our military is once again all volunteers, men and women who have heard and answered the call to serve our nation in uniform.  However, registration for the Draft through Selective Service is still required of all men ages 18-25 - both citizens and immigrants living in the U.S.   This weekend, we honor those men and women who answered their nation’s call, and served and have died.  We remember them with dignity and with all the honor they deserve.  

People are called to all sorts of different work.  We often think of teachers, doctors, dentists, fire fighters, police, social workers, community organizers, and others whose lives are dedicated to helping others as having a calling, or vocation.  Ministers.  Even attorneys and politicians - I know.  I know all the jokes about attorneys and politicians.  But truthfully, many serve because they sincerely want to be of service to their community.   One young person I know went to law school so he could help protect the environment.  Another so she could help protect those who can’t help  themselves.  Many of these who know they are called to a particular field have gifts that make this a obvious choice for them.  For others, however . . . 

Something Gary Woods said in his message last week struck me.  He said that if we simply use our gifts in God’s service then it’s all about us, not about God.  I disagree, in that it was God who gave us those gifts in the first place. But there’s also the matter of God sending us places where we have to call on gifts we didn’t know we had.  For example - When I got to college, I really didn’t like math. And I was willing to swear that my dislike of math stemmed from the fact that I was in Mr. Hornberger’s Algebra class when we were told that President Kennedy had been shot.  So when I got to college and had to take a math class I found something called Math for Non-Math Majors, which was like a Math Sampler.  There were the usual algebra, calculus, and geometry, but also fractals and logic and number systems and optical illusions.  It was cool.  But the coolest thing was the instructor.  She was not your typical Math teacher.  She told us that her calling in life was to help those of us with Math Phobia get over it. And she told us why.  You see, she hated math.   She was a dancer, who majored in Dance in college.  And in her college, Dance majors did not have to take math!  But after graduation, discovering that it is difficult to make a living as a dancer, she started substitute teaching, where she discovered that the most urgent need by far was for math teachers.  So she bit the bullet, went back to school, and became a math teacher.  And discovered the joy of opening the eyes of students to the beauty of Math.  She went back to school again so she could teach math at the college level.  Math was not her gift - dancing was.  But she received a call to do something she really didn’t want to do, and thus improved the lives of many - including me.  We really never know what God has in store for us.  But we do know that no matter what God calls us to do, the gifts and talents we need will be provided.  

And then there’s me. I was a secretary.  I was good at it.  I liked being a secretary.  I liked having someone  else in the position of authority.   I disliked being the person in charge.  I was terrified of speaking in front of people.  Then one Sunday in church, while Pastor Betsy was preaching, God said, “You need to be doing this for me.”  A few weeks later, when I was talking to women in the County Jail about changing their lives so they didn’t have to keep going back to jail, God said, “You need to be doing this for me.”  I did not want to be a minister. I kept not wanting to all through college and a year or two into seminary.  Oh, I was willing to do what God said, but I didn’t have to like it.  Likewise, after leaving Chapman University, as much as I loved Chapman, I did not love California, and I swore I would never come back.  And so, here I am.  In Selma, California, serving as your pastor.  Not where I thought my gifts and talents would take me.  Certainly not my plan for my life.  But it is, apparently, God’s plan for my life.  And I wouldn’t change a thing.  I love what I do.  I can’t imagine doing anything else.  

Last Friday afternoon a colleague of mine was on his way to work when he ran into a police roadblock. Later he would write about his experience. 

 “As I sat on the highway, the radio announcer shared there was an active shooter. Soon, our daughter Emily sent me a text. Suddenly I realized I was stopped on the highway because the crime scene was growing and traffic had been stopped. I was within a mile of the school, looking behind, and realizing, that they were diverting traffic away from the area.  [A little later]  The police who had stopped the traffic were … going from car to car, asking where those of us who ended up within the blocked area were heading, so that they could then direct which way to go.

When the sheriff's deputy had me roll down my window, he asked, "Are you a parent?"

I replied, "No, I'm a hospice chaplain on my way to visit a patient."

He then looked at me and said, "We could sure use you at the Junior High."

I didn't hesitate. I said, "Sure, where do I need to go?” 

His boss would share later that day, "God had a divine plan." What's the chance of a hospice chaplain being in a line of cars in front of a school where death seemed to be everywhere?”

Todd Williams could have gone to work, to comfort the dying in their homes and hospitals. That is his calling, after all, and his job.  Instead, he went where God called him that day.  The folks in hospice care needed him.  But not in quite the same, immediate way that he was needed at the High School in Santa Fe, Texas.

We never know when God is going to call us to drop whatever we thought we were supposed to be doing and go someplace else entirely.   We never know when someone is going to say to us, “We could really use you over there.”  

Isaiah was very sure he was not worthy of being where he was, seeing what he was seeing, and hearing what he was hearing.  But God found him worthy, and acceptable, and just exactly the right person to send.  His doubts were removed, his sins were forgiven, and he stood before God saying, “Here am I.  Send me.”  Let us be like Isaiah.  When we are called, even though we may be quite sure that we are not gifted in the ways that this call requires, let us trust God to know us better than we know ourselves. Let us trust God to know where we are needed. Let us hear that call, and answer that call saying, “Here am I.  Send me.”  

Joyful Celebration

Scripture Luke 24:44-53 NRSV  

 24:44 Then he said to them, "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you--that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.”  24:45 Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures,  24:46 and he said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day,  24:47 and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

24:48 You are witnesses of these things.  24:49 And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” 24:50 Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them.

24:51 While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven.  24:52 And they worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy;   24:53 and they were continually in the temple blessing God.

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I have mentioned before how difficult preaching can be when my calendar tells me we are supposed to be celebrating more than one important event.  Today, for example.  It is the day we celebrate the Ascension of the Lord into heaven and it is Mother’s Day.  Unless you’re Mexican.  Mexican Mother’s Day was on Thursday, May 10th.  Same day every year.  So much easier to remember than the 2nd Sunday in May.  Just sayin’ … Wait.  Do Mexican American mothers get two Mother’s Days?   

This year we hear the Story of the Ascension from the Gospel according to Luke instead of the version recorded in Acts.  In Acts, if you remember, while the disciples are staring up into the sky where Jesus has just ascended beyond the clouds wondering what just happened, two men appear and tell them to get back to Jerusalem and wait, as Jesus told them to.  In this version, they worship him and go back to Jerusalem with great joy (not confusion), and spend all their time in the Temple praising God.  I don’t know about you, but I think I might like this version of the story better.   

Mother’s Day, though.  Every online clergy group I belong to there is filled with warnings about the difficulties of preaching on Mother’s Day.  Because . . consider.  There are mothers and grandmothers here today surrounded by loving families, looking just like all the advertisements on TV and online.  The restaurants will be filled with happy families taking Mom out for dinner, the flower shops are working overtime, and the chocolate industry is ecstatic - not to mention the manufacturers of large household appliances.   And we all want to celebrate their happiness with them.  But for others here, Mother’s Day is a reminder of loss, mothers and grandmothers who have passed or simply live far away, or are in a hospital or nursing home, and are missed on this special day.  Some have or had mothers who were not very loving, or were abusive, or emotionally absent, or physically absent.   Today might be a painful reminder to some that they are not themselves mothers.  Or that they lost their children.  And somehow we, preachers, have to walk that invisible line that helps those who need to grieve, or get past their anger, and yet doesn’t make the happy families feel guilty about their very happiness.   And it doesn’t help when we, as the preachers, fall into that motherless and childless category.  

For me, it feels a bit like living in Psalm 137.  The Hebrews in exile cried out,  “How can we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?”   How can we celebrate a day that brings us pain and stresses us out?   In Brian McLaren’s book Naked Spirituality, an example given of God’s love was the mother who takes her child’s drawing and loves it, no matter what it looks like, and hangs it on the refrigerator for all to see for decades to come. (pg 80) For me, that was a bad example - because my mother took those childish drawings and pointed out what was wrong with them.  This was typical of our relationship.  She has been gone 26 years now, and I am finally beginning to heal from my anger and resentments.  Likewise, I am childless, not by choice, and because I was raised to believe that as a woman my primary job in life is to have and raise children, questions about children can be painful.  It’s better today, but  still painful.  Until I began serving a church I was able to stay at home on Mother’s Day and avoid the pain entirely, but that’s no longer an option for me.  So I have begun to heal, and I am grateful for that - I am grateful that God put me in a situation where I had no choice but to seek healing.  This Mother’s Day, I wear my mother’s pearls, in remembrance.  This Mother’s Day, I celebrate with the families who are engaged in joyful celebration, while also grieving with those for whom today is filled with pain.  

A Public Service Announcement:  Regardless of what I was taught growing up, being a mother is not necessarily the most important thing a woman can do.  Many women are mothers and are really good at it and should be celebrated today and every day.  Others are not - their gifts lie elsewhere.  So please, if you are tempted to try to make childless women “feel better” by telling them all the ways in which they are mother-like, know that this is not necessarily helpful or welcome. For some women I know, it just makes the pain worse.  So, please don’t do that.   (Unless you are telling them what a great Pet Mom they are.  You can always do that.)

I think the disciples must also have been living in a “How can we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land”  moment.  After all, they had just said goodbye to Jesus, their Lord, who had been dead and then returned and now is gone again, gone for good this time, but still alive . . . I mean, they watched him go up into the sky to be with the Father.  He left them behind.  I’m sorry, but that just had to be totally stressful and crazy-making.  Yet they are celebrating.  They worshipped him and went home in joy and celebration, and they spent all their time in the Temple blessing God.    

Not just praising God, but blessing God . . . not asking to be blessed by God, but blessing God.   It seems a bit odd, perhaps, because when we ask God for blessing we are seeking to be strengthened and helped and made better in some way.  Obviously, humans cannot make God stronger or better.  But humans can say things to God that indicate that God is blessed - we can magnify God’s name.  We can exalt God, and speak God’s name with gratitude and admiration.  So this is what the disciples did.  For all the days from the time when Jesus ascended into heaven, they went to the Temple and raised their voices in acclamation of God’s greatness and grace.

Remember that these were people who were fearful when Jesus died. These were people who, until Jesus appeared to them after the resurrection, hid away for fear that they, too, would be taken and killed.  The day has not yet come when the Holy Spirit would fall upon them - that’s next week.  But here they are, fearless, in the most public place in Jerusalem, the Temple, every day, lifting up their voices in joyful celebration of what and who God is.   Not worrying about whether someone might recognize them as having been with Jesus. They went to the Temple daily, telling God - and everyone else present - how awesome and wonderful God is.   They obeyed Jesus’ final instructions, to call for humanity’s repentance and to proclaim God’s forgiveness, beginning in Jerusalem - and they began that work by blessing God, daily, out loud, in the Temple in Jerusalem.   We cannot be in the Temple - or the church - all day every day to praise God.  But we can lift up God’s name in praise where ever we might be.  We can bless God and glorify him with our hearts and our lips, all the days of our lives.  For our God is an awesome God, and worthy of all praise.  

Let us join with the disciples in worshipping our Lord, Jesus the Christ.   Please stand and sing with me, “Come, Christians, Join to Sing.”

Even those people?

Scripture Acts 10:44-48   NRSV

10:44 While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word.  10:45 The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles,  10:46 for they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God. 

Then Peter said,  10:47 "Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?”  10:48 So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they invited him to stay for several days.

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 Peter was staying with friends when he had a vision of all the things an observant Jew like himself wasn’t supposed to eat, and a voice telling him to eat those things - pork, shellfish, snake, frogs legs, cheeseburgers - whatever was against the Law.  He, of course, objected, and the voice said, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.”  This happened three times, and Peter awoke, very confused.  Meanwhile, a man named Cornelius had a vision saying he must get Peter to come to his home, so he sent a message asking him to come.  Now Cornelius was a God-fearer, a Gentile who was a believer but hadn’t yet been circumcised, so when he went to Temple he wasn’t allowed to go all the way inside.  He was welcome, but only up to a point.  Peter, as an observant Jew, was not allowed to go into his home.  But Peter had realized what his vision had meant, so he went into Cornelius’s house to teach his household, and while he was speaking the Holy Spirit fell upon them all in the household, and all were amazed.  So Peter saw to it that Cornelius, his relatives and his close friends, all who were present that day, were baptized.  Even those people.

Even those people.   We are a congregation that proudly proclaims All are welcome here, and we are adamant that All means ALL - everyone.  No matter who you are, you are welcome here.  Well, Cornelius was welcome to the Temple, but only up to a point. Only as far as the Court of the Gentiles.  Today I want to tell you some stories about welcoming.    Just a note - the slides are photos from Google Images - none of them are of the actual persons whose stories I will tell.  

(Slide 1:  Wheelchair person, Transwoman, LGBT youth Pride, homeless man.)

Wheelchair people:  Jo was older - in her 70s - when she started to come to worship with us.  We already had several wheelchair bound folks, young men and women with various disabilities, including 2 with spina bifida, who all lived in the same  group home.  They showed up every Sunday morning and lined up behind the last pew, which had extra room left behind it on purpose so there would be space for our wheel chair people.  When Jo Cooper started to attend she said right up front that she wasn’t going to sit in the back of the bus, and parked herself about halfway down the center aisle.   You see, she didn’t feel like we really welcomed people like her if we relegated her to the back row, away from her friends and family.     Many churches today are re-configuring their worship space to use chairs instead of pews, so that even those people in wheelchairs can sit where ever they want.

Transgender:  I met Eva and her pastor Renee, both of whom are transgender, in 2008 at a rally against Prop 8.  Pastor Renee had started a church for transgender and other folks who felt outcast because of gender identity and/or sexual orientation.  Sometimes they came to visit my congregation, because they lived nearby and our worship was at a different time.  Now you need to understand that my congregation was Open and Affirming, but people still stared at Eva when she came, and asked me (not very subtly or quietly) whether she was a man or a woman.   I want to tell you all that I was delighted at how welcoming you all were when she came to visit me here last year.   You accepted her as she was, and you treated her like any other visitor to this church, and she felt safe here.  That doesn’t always happen for transgender folk - even in church.   

LGBTQ:  There are so many stories, even in this very room, of rejection by families and congregations, of unsuccessful attempts to change their orientation, of having to hide who they are because of the very real threat of rejection by those they love.   Or being told they are welcome but then finding out they are only welcome up to a point.   A family came to me one day to say they were leaving, because of the two young couples who had recently joined the church.  I pointed out that they had been friends with the previous pastor - who was gay - and asked what the difference was between Pastor Dick and the new people.  They said, “Pastor Dick was single and we prayed daily that Jesus would change him.  But we know those men do things that are against the Bible, and we cannot stay in a church where that is accepted.”  When some friends of mine heard that story (from other friends) they said, “And this is why we don’t go to church.  Even when you say we are welcome, we aren’t really.”   It is not like that here.

Homeless:  Charlie was a young man who slept somewhere near the church.  He came to worship every Sunday, and always sat in the back corner, as far away from everyone as he could get, because he was ashamed of his clothes, and of his odor, and that he didn’t have any money to put in the basket.  When we asked him to join us for the fellowship time (and food, cause we had some sort of food every Sunday after worship) he declined for all those same reasons.   No matter how hard we tried, he couldn’t believe he really was welcome.   No one ever really welcomed him anywhere, and he could not believe that we would be any different.  We did everything we could think of to let Charlie and the other homeless men and women who stayed near the church know that they were welcome.  But on those occasions when they did stay and have food, no one ever went to sit with them or tried to start a conversation with them.  Maybe they really weren’t welcome, after all.    

Slide 2:  (Ku Klux Klan, Anti-Fa, Westboro Baptist Church)

There was a Disciples congregation in Indiana - (there are a LOT of DOC congregations in Indiana) that had always had a reputation as a giving church - dating way back to the 1920s! - helping to feed the hungry and care for the sick and poor in their community.  They were sad, though, that they didn’t have the numbers they used to have back in the day.  So they decided to look over their records and see who the folks were who founded the church and paid for the building and bought all the lovely bibles and began their long time mission of caring for their community.  Much to their shock and chagrin, they discovered that the vast majority of their founding members, those good Christian men who built the building and bought the Bibles and started all those great ministries, were also members of the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan.   

My hope would be that the Good News of Jesus Christ would change the hearts of people who live in hate.  Especially those who live in hate in Jesus’ name.  

“He drew a circle that shut me out-
Heretic , rebel, a thing to flout.
But love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle and took him In !
From the poem " Outwitted”  ― Edwin Markham

  

(Slide 3: Unity is our Polar Star, We are not the only Christians)

These quotes are foundational for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).  We believe that all Christians should be united in our belief in Christ, but that we are free to practice our faith and understand Scripture and theology differently from each other, as we are led by God's Holy Spirit.  Thus we have no creed, no list of beliefs we must each swear to, and we can say things like, All means ALL, and be serious about it.

Have you ever said to yourself, or to someone else, “So and so is a Christian person,” and expected that whomever you were talking to then assumed the same thing about that person that you meant when you use that word?  

See, to me, a person who says “i will not bake a cake for a same sex wedding because I am a Christian” is not the kind of person I would describe as a Christian.  Even if they do go to church every Sunday, and give generously of their time and money, and lead the Wednesday Bible Study at their church, I have a hard time believing that that person understands what Jesus was trying to teach.  

But you know, that’s pretty judge-y of me.  That person, even though I totally disagree with their understanding of what will please or displease God, is still a Christian, a person who believes that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the Living God.  That person, even though I totally disagree with them, is welcome here. Is welcome at our Table.   And there are those who are pretty sure we aren’t really Christian, because the pastor is a woman, and because we say All means ALL.  But even those people must be welcome here, if we truly mean All means ALL.   

Peter said, "Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?”   And with those words he ignited a firestorm.  With that one sentence he changed the mission of Christ’s disciples, opening the mission field to even those people - the ones who weren’t accepted in the Temple, the ones who didn’t know anything about Moses and the Law, the ones who were outsiders, unclean, unacceptable and unloveable to the humans in charge.  

But can any human decide who God will love?  Can any human decide who shall be welcome in the church and at the Table?  And the answer is no, because it’s not OUR church.  It’s not OUR Table.  It’s God’s house.  It’s God’s Table.  And there is a place at the Table for that baker, and for the Klansman, and for the anti-fa guy, and for the Westboro Baptist Church and for those who agree with them.  And for the folks who live with disabilities of any kind, and people of any and every sexual orientation and gender identity, and the homeless folks.  And for those of every race and ethnicity and country of origin, and those who speak English and those who don’t.    For everyone born, there is a place at the table.