March 18, 2007
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on the Journey: Remember that day last week when it was 70 degrees and people emerged from their hours as if they had been hibernating for months? That day, I turned onto my street, and I had to be careful and stop a few times before turning into my driveway. There were children everywhere, and I had to wait until the teenage boys finished their footrace. Jesus said, "let the children come to me" (v.16). Do we hear Jesus? There is too much disrespect for children in our world, too many people believe children exist to be exploited and harmed. A man in Florida has been convicted and sentenced to death for the assault and murder of a little girl. A man in on trial here in town for the same horrific crime. A child was murdered in Atlanta this past week, and those are just the cases we have heard about in the news. And there has been the spectacle of the late Anna Nicole Smith. We watched, despite of ourselves, mainly because there was nearly non-stop coverage about it, the battle over where Anna Nicole Smith would be buried, and now we will see whether we want to or not, the drama played out over who her baby’s father is. Jesus says, "let the children come to me." We have been during this Lenten season traveling with Jesus as he makes his way to Jerusalem and the cross. In Luke’s telling of the story, Jesus travels slowly, it takes ten chapters for him to get there. Along the way, he meets some interesting people, always teaching, always healing, always being who he is as God’s chosen Messiah, inviting people to join him as he makes his way to the cross and all that lies beyond it. Many would go with him, but, their lives are too full, they do not want to be uncomfortable,, they want to wait until everything else is taken care of, or until their lives are completely together, or they don’t want to give up or take on anything else. Last week Zacchaeus showed us the possibilities of being known by Jesus, of being a disciple of his not once our lives are all together, but right in the middle of its messiness. It may be that we will never believe ourselves truly good enough to be disciples of Jesus. But the great good news of Jesus Christ is that he believes in us. The old saying is true, "he loves us enough to take us as we are, and he loves us too much to leave us that way." Today our companions on the journey. "Let the children come to me." There they were, right after Jesus and the disciples have witnessed a tax collector and a Pharisee, a leader of the religious community and a man considered an outcast at prayer. The Pharisee looks around and full of his own righteousness, says, "thank you God, that I am not like the rest of these people. I tithe, I fast, I’ve got it all together." The tax collector said simply, "have mercy on my, a sinner". Jesus says, "for everyone who exalts him- or herself will be humbled, and whoever acts humbly will be lifted up" (Luke 18. 9-14). Now the most humble and in Jesus day, the most low-status of all, the children are literally lifted up to Jesus to Jesus so that he can bless them. Imagine the scene: "Parents are bringing babies, and letting their toddlers run up to Jesus, and Jesus would, with great joy, scoop them up and pray for them. When Jesus did this once, other parents saw it and came down toward the front. They wanted this for their children too, for their children were often with them in the audience" (www.jesustalk.luke18_15-17). Their presence so close to Jesus was disturbing to the disciples who began telling parents to keep their children in check so that they would not run around and bother Jesus. And they were not polite about it, they spoke harshly to the parents bringing Jesus. They had two reasons for trying to keep children away from Jesus. First, according to Fred Craddock, the disciples believed the children were a distraction. "Jerusalem lay ahead, controversies were afoot, Herod Antipas was threatening, and in the minds of the disciples the kingdom was very near (Luke 19.11). These are momentous days, tensions mount, and God’s business is being conducted; remove the children. Investing time and attention on them brings no immediate dividend; children underfoot can delay the kingdom" (Interpretation series. Luke. Fred Craddock. Louisville. John Knox Press, 1990, p.210). The other reason for their desire to shoo the children away was that they lived in a time that was not nearly as child friendly as our times are now. Then children were considered dependent, immature people; they were kind of miniature adults to be provided for until they could go out and work or be married off. We know now that children have value for the same reasons we do, they are created in the image and likeness of God, they are loved by God, and they are worth the world to God. Our responsibility as adults is to do what the people at my home church did for a generation of us, you may have a story like mine so you know those church women and men who loved us, nurtured us, taught us, told our parents when we behaved badly, and told our parents when we behaved well. They comforted us when we fell, or were hurt, just like my Sunday school teacher did when I was three or four years old, and somehow managed to slam the lid over the piano keys down on my hands. She was there to dry my tears, and to make sure no fingers were broken. Jesus says, "let the children come to me." Marian Wright Edelman is the daughter and sister of Baptist pastors, and the author of the books The Measure of Our Success: A Letter to My Children and Yours, and Guide My Feet: Prayers and Meditations on Loving and Working with Children. She is the founder and president of the children’s advocacy organization, the Children’s Defense Fund, and she knows these verses because she grew up in the church. She has heard these verses just as we have and she knows that Jesus welcomes the children with three short sentences. "Let the children come to me". Jesus does not distinguish among the children, he states no preference for race, age, orientation of their parents or of the children. He does not have an income or education, or residency requirement. All are eligible for blessing. Let the children come. "Do not stop them". Get out of the way so that a generation can be blessed by Jesus. Better yet, bring the children with all of their laughter and joy in life. Help them to feel good about life and about their place in the world. Remember they are not just future adults, they are full personality people who deserve to be treated with respect and who need to be taught to respect others. They are not blank screens on which we project our frustrations, unfulfilled needs, hopes, and dreams. They are gifts to us from God. Do not stop them. And Jesus says, "it is to people like these that the kingdom of God belongs." Edelman has a preferred candidate for President, and while she knows her candidate has no chance of being elected, she hopes the candidate’s issue will be addressed by the eventual winner of next year’s presidential election. Who is the candidate? According to the Children’s Defense Fund website, it is not anyone named Clinton, Edwards, Giuliani, McCain, Obama, or Romney. It is instead a ten year old girl named Susie Flynn who has just one issue – health care for children. A recent newspaper article lays out her concern. "Supporters say she knows her numbers: Congress can provide health insurance to all children in the United States for the equivalent of 16 days of military spending, three and a half months in Iraq, or five and a half months of the tax cuts to the richest 1 percent of all Americans. "There are more than 9 million children in the United States currently without health insurance, and the Children’s Defense Fund, which last week launched the "Elect Susie" campaign, believes some of the nation’s elected officials are not doing enough to solve the problem. So, the CDF announced the fictional campaign to build awareness of this crisis and of the CDF’s proposal to provide all children in America with health insurance. This life and death issue shouldn’t be ignored. "Talk to relatives of the 12 year old Maryland youngster, Deamonte Driver, who died recently from complications following a toothache. According to news reports, the boy died after not being able to get an $80.00 dental procedure because his mother had allegedly lost her Medicare coverage" (www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article). I am sure most of you have heard the story of how the infection from an abscessed tooth spread to the young man’s brain and eventually took his life. But for an $80.00 procedure, in the most advanced, wealthiest, we can do anything we set our collective minds to country on earth. Jesus said, "let the children come to me". We can respond positively when we hear Jesus say one more thing, that if we cannot receive the kingdom, if we cannot celebrate the reign of Christ as a child does, it will be closed to us. What does Jesus mean? "Let the children come to me". He means that we claim the prayer that Marian Wright Edelman offers. It is a prayer to live so that the children who are watching us can learn good lessons from us. Even if we have no children of our own, we can still pray it, because we all know children and teenagers whom we love and for whom we want the best. The prayer simply says: "God, help me to be honest so my children will learn honesty. Help me be kind, so my children will learn kindness. Help me to be faithful so my children will learn faith. Help me to love so my children will be loving" (from the back cover of Guide My Feet: Prayers and Meditations on Loving and Working with Children. Boston: Beacon Press. 1995). He means that he wants the church to mirror the kingdom of God to which Jesus says people with a child’s attitude belongs. He is not calling us to be childish. Rather, the call is for us to be child-like. Because it is the open attitude that little children have that God desires. So he welcomes and blesses a sense of wonder, of awe, of love and openness to the goodness and graciousness he holds for us. He welcomes and blesses an absolute sense of trust that the one who lives and dies and was raised to live again for us is with us now and always. And he welcomes and blesses a sense of hospitality that thanks God that we found a place here and so we welcome others into our congregation. We want to be the ones who offers a seat next to us, a place at the table, and an opportunity to share all that we have here. He welcomes and blesses a sense of playfulness. Yes, the church is a serious place, especially in the Lenten season, but it also a place of joy and laughter. Jesus welcomes and blesses this place where we learn about Jesus through story and song and prayer and where children and adults can by their actions teach the love of God. We want to show by all that we do that we are glad to serve God and to be true disciples of Jesus in the world. Jesus said, "let the children come to me". There are children who are failing today, they are failing at school, at work, and at home. I know that sometimes parents do all the right things, and their children still get lost, but, I dare say that for every child who is failing, there is an adult who by their own neglect, or violence, or untrustworthiness has failed them. And there are children who are healthy and doing well today. They live in the United States and Canada and Iraq and Israel in England and Ecuador and in every country all over the world. They will grow into adulthood and they will be safe and loved and nurtured. They will run companies, and lead churches and governments, and show up for work in offices and factories. They will create and love their families. They will build communities and nurture the next generation of children because today, adults are loving, nurturing, and mentoring them now. They will know what it is to embrace the realm of God and to spread the love of God and of people that has been handed down to them. "Let the children come and do not hinder them, for the kingdom belongs to such as these" (Luke 18.16). Thanks be to God. Amen.
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Broad
Street Christian Church
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