In any event, Jesus knows what they're up to and decides to teach them an important lesson about leadership. Leadership isn't about power and status, he says, but about service. More specifically, a true leader serves those whom society expects will serve it: slaves and children. A servant-leader is open to the most vulnerable members of a community, and welcomes them just as he or she would welcome Christ.

At Saint James, we, too, are called to serve the most vulnerable among us, welcoming all people as we would welcome Christ. In particular, Saint James has for the past two decades dedicated itself to being "a place for children," in keeping with Jesus' words from the gospel this morning: "Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, 'Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.'"

As the religion teacher in the Academy and in my work with the parish youth through Head to the Heart, Regional Youth Group, and one-on-one, I can testify to the fact that when we welcome each young person as Christ, amazing things can happen. When we welcome a child in Jesus' name, we open ourselves to the presence of God in our lives. But as long as we have our minds set on adult concerns such as status and power, we run the risk, like the disciples, of failing to notice the full impact of what Christ has to say to us in the moment.

Last Sunday we had our first Head to the Heart theme event, to which both parents and youth were invited. At the beginning of the event, we stood in a semi-circle and recited the Apostles' Creed. Then families came up to me in the center of the circle to renew their Baptismal promises. Of each I asked one of the questions from the Baptismal Covenant, such as: "Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?" or "Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ?" and they responded, "I will, with God's help," just as we do in church whenever there's a baptism. As each family came forward, the others in the semi-circle prayed quietly for that family, that they would be given the grace to keep the promises they had made. At the end of the event, we stood in a circle around a basin of water on a stand, and families again came forward, this time blessing each other by dipping their thumbs in the water and making the sign of the cross on each other's foreheads, saying, "Remember that you were sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism and marked as Christ's own for ever; and may Almighty God create something wonderful and new in you this year."

I was moved by the love and care these families demonstrated toward each other in those moments. Renewing their baptismal covenant and remembering their baptisms set the stage for where we are headed this year, for we are on a pilgrimage to confirmation, a pilgrimage that itself leads to another pilgrimage once our youth have been confirmed and find their place among us, sharing equally in our ministry communities as young adult members of the church.

At Head to the Heart, I emphasized the role that parents play in nurturing the faith development of their children, for by our actions we teach our children what to value. Let me give you an example: One mother in this congregation has taken her son to volunteer at the Ark. The Ark, as many of you know, is a preschool and daycare center for homeless children. Due to financial constraints, they had to move out of their location in east Baltimore and take up temporary quarters during the summer at another Episcopal church on the other side of town. During the school year, however, that church uses its space for its own after-school programs, and so at the beginning of September, this preschool for homeless children was itself homeless. This mother recounted to me that recently she was in the car with her son, who has just started 6th grade, and they were playing a game of "What if?" She asked "What if you won millions of dollars in the lottery-what would you do with the money? The boy replied "The first thing I'd do is buy a permanent home for the Ark. And the second thing I'd do is buy a Maserati."

I wouldn't mind owning a Maserati sports car myself. But let me tell you, I'm glad that young man put owning the car second, for he lives in a society that values such status symbols above preschools for homeless children. We may give a lot of lip service to valuing such social ministries, but all too often, when it comes down to putting our money where our mouths are, we instead put it where our hearts really are: in things, not people. As Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." That this boy's heart was with those homeless children first, and not second or third or fourth, demonstrated not just where his treasure was, but where his parents' treasure was, as well.

By our actions we teach our children what to value, and when we're lucky, our children return the favor. Of course, we have to be open and attentive to what God might be trying to say to us through our children. We have to welcome them in the name of Christ, for as Jesus said, "Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me."

Those of us who do welcome and listen to children know that they have an awful lot to teach us about what to value. This is not to say that children don't want sports cars or to be the best at soccer or lacrosse. Children also learn to value status and power early on; but if they are given opportunities to encounter Christ during their childhood and teenage years, we are more likely to encounter Christ in them. That is why I treasure the charge I've been given to nurture the young people of this community in their faith, and why I hope that parents will take seriously the promises they have made to their children in their baptismal covenant. Anything less is to fail to welcome Christ.

Just last month, a teenager named David in our community died in a car accident. He was not a member of our parish, but he was a friend and neighbor to several parish families, and particularly their children. David had a deep personal faith that carried over to his interaction with these young people, and his life was a blessing to many. His death was devastating to those kids precisely because he was such a caring person, and I know that his loss is deeply felt. I had the chance to spend time with several of our community's young people in the days and weeks immediately following David's death, and I was moved by the depth of feeling they displayed. I was glad they could rely upon the spiritual resources of this parish family, and that they knew by experience that when the floor feels like it's dropping out from underneath them, they have a foundation of bedrock to keep them from the abyss of despair. Those who are Academy students knew this in large part by how we responded to the crisis of September 11th, the second anniversary of which we observed just ten days ago at Back to School Night. I'm sure many of you have stories of your children or grandchildren or other youth in the community who have taught you something about the power of faith and the need for a spiritual home, whether in times of crisis like September 11th or the death of a loved one, or simply in the course of everyday life.

In the next few minutes, I'd like to put you all on the spot. Too often do preachers expect congregations to be passive recipients, when there is a wealth of stories in the congregation itself that illustrate far better than the preacher could how Christ has been made known to them. So I'd like to ask anyone who feels moved to do so to stand up and tell us a story about their children or grandchildren, or about any young people in this community, who have opened them up to the presence of God in their lives.

[Congregation may share their stories, if any…]

[No takers? Don't be shy. Take a moment to reflect. I know how much parents and grandparents love to tell stories about their children, and I hope that if a story doesn't occur to you now, one will come to mind later in the day or during the week.]

In closing I'd like to tell one final story myself. Though I'm not a parent, I've been a teacher for going on five years now. Before I came to Saint James, I was the chaplain and religion teacher at Washington Episcopal School. I taught a weekly class to every grade in the school from Nursery through 8th. At the end of the very first week of school in my first year of teaching, a mother came up to me at carpool and said: "Last night my son Sam," (who was in Nursery, by the way), "asked me after dinner, 'Mom, can we read from the God book tonight?' So I said 'Sure, Sam,' and got the Bible storybook off the shelf and read him a few stories, which made him very happy. At the end, I asked him, 'So why are you interested in the God book all of a sudden?' and Sam said to me, 'Because God visited my class today.'" Meaning me. While I'm flattered that a three year-old might mistake me for the Almighty, I'd like to think Sam was telling the truth insofar as he was able to encounter God through the story I told in his class. For my part, I, too, was visited by God in that Nursery class. I met God in Sam, and I have looked for God in every child I've welcomed since then.