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

And on the seventh day...

Figure 1 http://www.montreat.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Mountains-2-400x250-300x187.jpg We think of “Sabbath” as a time to NOT DO something.  We stop.  We wait.  We rest.  We sit.  However, that is a lot of work!  I think of Sabbath as “making a space.”  It is an active choosing, remembering, and prioritizing a holy space for God.  It is less about “letting go” and more about “leaning in” to the Breath of the Holy Spirit.  In this context Sabbath is a return to our making.  You see, in the beginning “the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7). It is the breath of the Lord God that stirs dust into human.  It is the breath of the Lord God that makes us living and gives us a life.  Therefore, “Sabbath” – a time for rest and renewal, is an opportunity to reach for that breath of God which gives u...
Post a Comment
Read more

Where is the Love--Guest Blogger Rev. Caroline Dennis

(Spiritual Practices for Families: Giving Thanks) Where is the Love? In December, amidst the wrappings and the shouts of glee, we found a quiet time to come to the manger and contemplate the great Love that God sent, wrapped in swaddling clothes. Here, as sparkling Christmas lights give way to snow and rain and ice, as gathered family gives way to bill paying and schedule keeping, how might we hold on those manger moments when we embraced the Love that embraces us? In these more ordinary days, can we still see the light that leads us to Bethlehem, to the ordinary extraordinary places where Love shows up? Here is my invitation to you, and to your children:  Pause... in the middle of your "what's next" life... to see, hear, touch, smell, taste... all the amazing that is right here and now.  Point it out to one another like we might point out the twinkling lights on a Christmas tree.  Give thanks... for the warmth of the sweater, the wag of the do...
Post a Comment
Read more

“For a time such as this…”

The book of Esther is a difficult one, but it is important.  It speaks of power! There is personal power, royal power, and providential power.  It is a book that can be difficult to discuss with children and anyone who has been voiceless; however, it is not a book exhaulting the victim.  Esther is not a submissive girl who gives up.  She has inner strength and power.  She lives her life and draws on her community.  When the time comes, she uses her wisdom to be a vessel for the will of God.  Her uncle tells her, “perhaps you have been made royal for a time such as this.”  We often skip the “royal,” in our attempt to make the message universal.  However, we forget that we are children of "the king of all creation" and therefore “royal.”  I cannot help wondering how the Rev. Becca Stevens hears the book of Esther? Rev. Stevens works with women who have been commercialized and abused.  She teaches that "#LoveHeals." ...
Post a Comment
Read more