Good morning. I’m happy to be here today and to have this opportunity to worship with you and to share some of my thoughts with you on this Children’s Sabbath. I came to Baltimore over twenty years ago to live in a Methodist parsonage just a few blocks from here. My husband was fresh out of seminary and was sent by his bishop to St. Matthews United Methodist Church at Monument and Bouldin Streets; I came with him. Although my husband is no longer at St. Matthew’s, we continue to live in the neighborhood over on Baltimore Street. This is our community.

Since coming to Baltimore, I have worked as a social worker. I’ve worked with children and their families in various places including Kennedy Krieger and Sheppard Pratt. Since January, I have been working for Episcopal Social Ministries, spending my mornings with the children of The Ark Daycare right downstairs. I am delighted with the opportunity and grateful for the privilege of spending my mornings in such a special place with such extraordinary people. I feel challenged every day and exhausted at the end of each morning. Little people are very demanding, in general; those who attend The Ark are particularly challenging to those of us who care for them downstairs. These children have lived long lives in just a few short years. Many have experienced much more in three or four years than anyone would want to in a lifetime. Sometimes I wonder how helpful I can be to them.

This morning’s lesson from 2 Timothy is one that I should have been reading daily since last January when I first came to The Ark. Its message is simple and clear to those of us who have had the opportunity to be raised in the Faith. We were taught in childhood all that we need to know to live appropriately. Our job as adults is to remember it and to share what we know with others.

My job, then, is to share what I know with the children downstairs, to help them understand what I was taught at their age. God is Love and God is always with us. God wants us to love one another. In practical terms for preschoolers, this means that The Ark is a safe place where they can be cared for. The staff will protect them and will help them learn to get along with each other. There is no hitting here. You can learn to use words to get what you want and to express your needs. There is no hitting here. Grownups can help you get what you want and need without your having to hit and grab; others can get what they need, too.

"Not hitting" is a hard lesson to learn, but it is very basic to living a life in Christ. It is a very difficult thing to learn when one looks at the state of the world in which we live. We all know that children learn from what they see and experience and adults in this neighborhood hit. Adults throughout Baltimore hit; adults throughout Maryland and across the USA hit, and our government hits. It hits big; it goes to war. "Not hitting" is difficult to learn; it seems that some never learn that lesson. Big and powerful elected officials haven’t learned that lesson. But I feel that it is my responsibility both as a social worker and as a person of faith to help the children of the Ark learn peaceful ways to interact, to deal with frustration, and to get their needs and desires met. I try to teach by example and by giving children the words to use when they don’t know what to do or say other than to hit. Sometimes that is not enough for some of the children.

Recently, one of the boys was very disruptive downstairs, running around, interfering with other children in their play. He was grabbing toys, hitting children and being unresponsive to adult limits. Finally, I picked him up as he struggled to get away, but I held him close and brought him up here right to the back of this church where I sat with him in the rocking chair. He was angry and sad and overwhelmed by his emotions not knowing what to do with himself. His mother had gone away for a 30-day inpatient drug treatment and he was staying with relatives who didn’t seem to know him. Some days, he was brought to daycare by neighbors, strangers to him, who didn’t even know his name. His frustration, fear, anger, and sadness were palpable. He is only four years old, but still, there is no hitting here. There are other ways to let people know you are hurting and needing love and attention. I have a hard time helping a child in such pain learn this, in spite of my example and my words. I can’t do it alone. There is a reason The Ark is located within this building, housed by this congregation. The children find comfort in this place and begin to heal within these walls. God’s presence among us is experienced, in this place, by the children of The Ark. My little friend, the boy full of pain, the boy who fights the other children and is not responsive to adult limits and rules, rocked in my arms for twenty minutes in that chair in this sanctuary. Together, we experienced God’s presence and my little friend’s pain was eased. He was able to go downstairs and rejoin the other children and play calmly for the rest of the morning. I know that his healing will continue. Let us pray.