Skip to main content

Kingdom Come, in the Kingdom of Make Believe?


Parental confession:  my children did not grow up on Mr. Rogers.  They just didn’t fall into that group. They were more Barney and Sesame Street.  This bothered me for a VERY long time.  It bothered me like, how “we ought to be going to church, but we aren’t” bothers some other parents. Is watching Mr. Rogers the same as going to church?  No.  Words matter and Fred Rogers was carefully and fully inclusive; he never spoke of “God” or “sacraments,” but his neighborhood was a study in formation, children’s radical formation where all are welcome, feelings are named, and children are respected.

I think it is Kingdom work to facilitate those same things being found at church.  No, not just at Sunday School – which is usually story telling focused and appropriation tasked.

 I mean, at church:
At coffee hour where there are tables for their size among the adult-sized tables. 
At worship where there are “movement breaks” and welcoming words “just their size.”
At fellowship activities where there are activities for all ages and abilities.
At mission and service events where all hands are welcome.

I think Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood was a study in Formation and value based, -- how to be church.  It respected children where they were and did not “set aside” a space for the children. It was inclusive.  It was welcoming. It modeled a “kingdom come” sort of neighborhood where kingdom work is done by kingdom hands of all sizes. This gave a sense of belonging and agency to children. 

One Sunday, the small church we attended at the time, ran out of bread and juice for communion.  The decision was made to “skip the kids” so there was” enough to go around.” Not in Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood! and apparently not in my son’s either.   My young (preschool) son addressed the worship committee that week and informed them that “Jesus would have given me bread and juice.”  From then on there was a children’s elder who served them, always. It’s what Mr. Rogers would have done, doing what Jesus would do.

It is not a quick jump from that to a small town, Bethlehem, that is too full and there is no room for a mother to have her baby.  Babies don’t pay taxes; they can’t pay innkeepers.  Why make room for them? Enter, baby Jesus in a manger.  There is always room.  There is always welcome.  There is always community.

Maybe some children live in Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood even if they didn’t watch the show?  Mr. Rogers taught us, the grownups, how to form community where it is inclusive, accepting, and welcoming. That seems a Kingdom Come idea, and hopefully not just "Make Believe." 


Peace, neighbor,

Kat.


To hear the Rev. Fred Rogers explain the purpose and intent of his PBS program, see his testimony from May 1969. https://youtu.be/eUDVn4d2Rms
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What shall I give Him, poor as I am...

We made it! Christmas is over!  Well, not quite yet, it isn’t.  There are those pesky twelve days of Christmas.  The celebrating could go on and on, if we let it! Goodness, the tree is looking dry and empty without a load of boxes and bags underneath it. The ornaments that were hung with surprise, joy, and fondest memories now look somehow out of place.  Can we for one moment stop, and think about this?  Think about that first rush of joy when a new child is born, when you first really felt the presence of the living God in your life?  What about the first time a young Sunday School class looked at you in awe of the wonderful stories you were telling them?  That moment sparkled with hope that was bursting with possibility!  Here and now in the “ bleak mid-winter ” of post-New Years, to borrow from  Christina Rossetti and hymn 144 in the Presbyterian Hymnal Glory to God , we find ourselves in the sleep deprived, post-adrenaline rush, vi...
Post a Comment
Read more

True Colors Revealed

Autumn is my favorite time of the year in Indiana.  The trees seem to be painted overnight with reds, yellows, rusts, and browns.  As instantaneous as it may seem, the colors have been there all along.  The daily work of growing, seeding, and shading generated the greens that made summer lush and bright.  However, the shorter days, the cooler weather, and those rainy summer days which we bemoaned have  fed the colors that lay just underneath the leaves’ skin.  The leaves turn, and colors emerge. It is a vibrant festival to the glory of creation where the tree’s true colors are revealed. These shorter days with brighter colors turn the church school calendar to stewardship.  In the Children’s Ministry Program area, the children wonder about how they can help, share, and care for the people and places around them.  Every day that they remember whose they are and the promise they have within them, they are being stewards of God’s creation—the...
Post a Comment
Read more

My name is "Brown" and I live in Memphis-- Yes, this is about Christmas; trust me.

Christmas decorations are up everywhere.  It is now “okay” to have trees, tinsel, and carols up front and center.  These are signs of the times, and a way that we prepare our homes and hearts to celebrate the birth of Jesus.   Music is a BIG part of the holidays for me. When I was pregnant with my first child, one Christmas carol could reduce me to tears.  Every time!  I’ve sung it for over half a century.  It is part of my Christmas narrative, and owns me in some way.  It is “Away in a Manger.” Away in a manger, no crib for his bed, the little Lord Jesus laid down his sweet head. The stars in the bright sky looked down where he lay, the little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay. [i] The part that always got me is the “no crib for his bed.”  He didn’t even have a crib!  What kind of world is it that a baby has to sleep in the dirt? Yes, I was a bit dramatic.  Still…it is a lasting understanding that children should be held and...
Post a Comment
Read more