This message was delivered July 20, 2025, at the First Baptist Church of Denver.

A recording of this message is available at https://www.youtube.com/live/ET832j8BKhI?si=VSGsDukIbB-41Mim

Omaha.

You know, it’s really not that bad. Perhaps everyone is upset about Omaha’s existence because they had to endure all of Nebraska to get there. I mean, they’re the site of the College World Series and have plenty of open parking spaces to accommodate. They’re soon to have a new tallest building. They actually have a really cool downtown and decided to repurpose many of their old buildings instead of just tearing them down for parking lots… except for baseball. If you’re a fan of trains, say no more. If you’re a fan of Zoos and overpriced dippin’ dots, look no further. Honestly, Omaha is a cool city. It puts Baptists on trash cans and keeps its convention centers at a mild 65 degrees. It’s a cool city. A friendly reminder that that’s where your youth department and several of your staff were two weeks ago with our larger American Baptist family.

Every two years, the denomination convenes a sort of “family reunion” where we wander aimlessly around an oversized convention center seeing friends and colleagues we haven’t seen in two years. There’s worship, there’s workshops, there’s food, there’s vendor tables full of swag, there’s food, there’s the usual amount of denominational drama, and last but certainly not least, food. Chicken, usually, but the addition of tofu this year was a welcome sight. In 2013, I attended my first of these as a young lad fresh out of high school. I attended as part of a program called “Regional Youth Representatives,” of which my favorite part was the front row seats and the little ribbon at the bottom of my name tag. We were taken around Kansas City to important historical museums and to an American Baptist-affiliated community center to paint bathrooms. We were toted around the convention center and placed at a special table and place in every moment. It felt like we were royalty, and the experience of having almost 2,000 fellow believers worshipping in one space was one that I’ll never forget. Two of the youth that I met in that excursion were at this event, not as attenders, but as pastors-in-training. They, along with me, are witnesses to the fact that when you care for youth in the present, they will actually be the future too. We had a wonderful time in Omaha. I want to say clearly that our youth were excellent every step of the way, and I think I speak for Nancy in saying that seeing our youth grow together as friends and as believers in Christ was worth every penny, every second, every gallon of gas, and every extra hour of being awake because lights out time really just means being quiet enough to avoid a “GO TO BED” from downstairs. The messaging that they heard at this event was worth hearing and was relevant to our experience including within this very church. They met many of my own friends and colleagues that I have come to know, all of whom seek justice and care for the least of these just as we do. They saw what I believe to be a positive expression of the broad diversity of our American Baptist family: theologically, politically, racially, musically, gender and sexuality, and so much more. This experience and the positives that came from it are because of you and your direct commitment to the youth of this church. I planned this trip many months ago with a simple desire to take the youth department on a trip that every church youth needs to go on at least once in their life, and $500 of my own money to do it. I believed from the start that we could raise enough money to pay for their registrations, but you proved immediately that you could do better than that. You, as a congregation, were able to fund not only their registrations, but also their accommodations and two of their meals, during one of which our youth got the opportunity to speak. You believed in my vision and proved to me once again that God, through each of you, finds a way even amidst financial challenges. God found a way, you found a way, and to say that we have been blessed by your generosity and your support is an understatement. You care about us – your youth and your staff – and for that, I truly say thank you. Thank you. [potential location for a general testimony] But I’m also deeply disappointed and hurt by something that we experienced at this event. It’s this:  It seemed that everywhere we went in the convention center, whether it was during a meal, in a workshop, receiving random scuttlebutt gossip later, that everyone was giving us a resting face that was filled with little other than active disdain. I felt this feeling most sitting at a workshop with the youth and at the table was an elderly couple that was trying and failing to hide their emotions, and honestly, it was stressing me out. There were, admittedly, certain innocuous youth behaviors that I let slide just to see the frowns deepen ever so slightly. But their frowns, even before I intentionally extended them a bit, were not subtle. The frowns of other attendees as we passed them joyfully singing Christmas carols were not subtle. The frowns on certain people as we passed them within one of the lunches that we were pulled out of early because of a schedule change were not subtle. These disciples – church people – were not subtle as they frowned not just at the youth themselves but also the people that brought them there, as if we were invading some kind of sacred secret club. No doubt, this has been happening for thousands of years. People were bringing children to Jesus in order that he might touch them. People – normal folks with kids actually of various ages, not just the little ones, were bringing their youth to Jesus so that not only they might see him but that they might be blessed by him. This was as common of a practice as bringing a youth group to a church function that was described as being a family reunion is. Children throughout antiquity were seen as part of the least of these. The expectations placed on their future were exceptionally low given that they might die at any given moment from any range of unknown problems. For many, time was not worth spending on youth because it would go to waste in their inevitable tragic death for entirely preventable reasons… but not at the time. Lest we forget that parents and powers and principalities had control over the life of children, and that at any given time in any given culture, one sex was preferred over the other and there was no fear in throwing the other in the river, or worse. Brutal, you know. And yet – it is within this context that Jesus is not just angry but indignant at the disciples who are  towards the parents and subsequently their youth. He has righteous anger, an anger that is fueled not just by the situation but at this apparent systemic injustice that has occurred with just a frowny face and a stern word. Jesus is upset and in his response he is terse. Let them come to me. Do not stop them. They will receive the Kingdom of God. Jesus doesn’t use his usual parables and roundabout reasoning here. The message is clear: I see you. We see you. This passage at its core does suggest that in order to enter the Kingdom, or as we often like to say, the kin-dom of God, you have to receive it like a child – in such a way that is without question and without barriers. Jesus is not suggesting here that being a child is great, because it actually sucked in society in that time and place. But rather, he’s saying that we should be like children and approach Jesus often approach random strangers: without consideration for safety and security and only out of concern for a dude who looked kind of friendly. The parents knew who Jesus was, but the kids didn’t, and yet they jumped into his arms without hesitation. Concerning, but the lesson is valid and it underscores Scott’s point from last week: with just a little bit of faith, we can enter the kin-dom of God. But there is another lesson here, and it’s as visible as the frowns of the other attendees in Omaha. It’s that you and I are seen. Resting frown face is not subtle, and the groanings of the disciples was not subtle. All the disciples had was just “stern” language towards the kids and that was enough to push Jesus to the most angry that he gets in the entire New Testament. This is indeed the only time that Jesus is described as being indignant, although there are several times that the disciples and others are described as indignant. Nothing makes Jesus more angry – not the money changers in the temple nor his own death by human hands makes Jesus more angry than what seems to be a relatively minor “stern” word. But that’s the thing – the youth saw that. The youth saw that their presence was not met with joy but with unwelcome. They were frowned at and spoken to strongly not because of anything they did, but with their sheer existence, only because of their age and low status in society. So too it was in Omaha. As we passed through the halls as what I would describe as a model youth group, others looked at us just because our joy included voices that were marginally louder than the otherwise virtually silent convention center. Others looked at us because we were dressed comfortably but respectfully – but perhaps that wasn’t good enough. Others still looked at us because we were “disruptive” by “leaving early” not because we wanted to but were forced to by others’ poor planning. Even more looked at us as the youth exited the room frequently to engage in totally ridiculous behaviors such as going to the bathroom. It was not subtle, it was overt and obvious, and I personally have never felt more objectively unwelcomed by other attendees of an event than I did at this one. If I felt this, I have no doubt that our youth did too. We see you. We hear you. We are people too. No longer should we be considered less than because of our youth. We live longer now and are, in fact, the future not just of the world but also of you. If we are not welcomed and cared for and dare I say have a highway paved for us now, then we won’t be there later, and we won’t care about the institution that continues to claim that youth are the future but fails to witness to them now. The system here gets out what it puts in. When it puts in effort, it gets out effort. You, this congregation, have put in effort in so many ways for these youth and the fruit of this effort can be seen exceptionally clearly. I want to invite Maya up to the pulpit at this moment, who is a witness to the fruit of the seeds you have sown. [Maya shares regarding her experience at the Airbnb where anxiety over a perceived gun got the best of her, but her friends and dad comforted her. She felt seen and heard.] All we want is to be seen and heard. Not judged, not attempted to fix, just heard and seen. And that’s all Jesus wants for us, too. All the parents in our passage wanted for their youth was just to be touched by Jesus – to be seen. Jesus had one better, though – he “took them up in his arms.” Once again, the Greek word used here for embrace is only used in reference to the youth. Jesus wants all of us, sure – but the youth are embraced. Friends, know that each of your actions and emotions are seen and heard especially by our youth. What you do now will pave the way for our youth, and whether that road is an interstate or an unmaintained gravel road only passable seasonally is up entirely to you. Jesus seems to want an interstate, and interstates are an investment. But the value of Interstate 80 to our drive to Omaha cannot be understated, and I praise God that you paved the way for us to travel that road. Now make it wider.

May it be so.

Amen.