Today I Semoned. I used this passage to reflect on my work with Children...
Luke
18:15-17 (NIV)
The Little Children
and Jesus
15 People were also bringing babies to Jesus for him
to place his hands on them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked
them. 16 But Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let
the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God
belongs to such as these. 17 Truly I tell you,
anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will
never enter it.”
When I was asked to preach on the theme of Light I knew
right away that I wanted to preach on this story and about my work with the
children. I wanted to do this for a few reasons. One, because I think it’s
important that all of you know what’s happening back there with our kids. This is an opportunity for me to share
with you the philosophy we use in our work with the children.
And because for me, they are the light. Being with the kids,
in all their chaos, loud and boisterous ways can light giving. They shine with
happiness and energy that is uncontainable. Some would say overwhelming,
uncontrollable, and there are days, yes, where I question why I do this job.
But then I remember this story of Jesus accepting the
children for who they are, honouring them by respecting their innocence and
then I know why I do what I do.
Recently I read an article about Children and the Church
titled– Jesus Welcomed the Children and Taught the Adults.
Subtitle – “We welcome the adults and teach the Children.
Someone’s got this backwards and I don’t think it was Jesus”.
This was and is a very powerful statement for me. It’s what
I think about when planning CC.
Just ponder that for
a moment. Jesus welcomed the children and taught the adults. We, traditionally,
do the opposite.
When we look at this story of Jesus welcoming the children
it seems a very straightforward pleasant little tale. That’s how we generally
teach it to the kids. However with we pull back the focus, open up the lens to look
at what’s going on around it in scripture it starts to get a little more
complicated.
This story is present in 3 of the 4 gospels – Matthew, Mark
and Luke; which lets us know that for the writers – this story was really
important.
In all of 3 of
gospels the story that immediately follows it is Jesus talking to a very rich
man, who is asking how he can enter the Kingdom of God. Jesus famously tells
him to give away all that he owns and that a camel will walk though the eye of
needle before a rich man will enter the Kingdom.
In Matthew and Mark the story that comes before this tale of
the Children, is a story is about the Pharisees testing Jesus on his
understanding of Jewish Law, namely divorce. Pretty dense material. The
Pharisees are the scholars, the highly educated men who study the Torah, the
Law, their entire lives.
In a time when people lived with in a very structured class
system these men, along with the very rich, were at the top. Jesus was not
educated by the these men; he is not from their class, so his knowledge is circumspect.
They want to show the crowd his ignorance, by challenging him to almost a duel
of knowledge. It’s very intense.
Luke goes one step further. In his gospel the story that comes before the one
with the Children, is one about a Pharisee and a Tax collector. In this story a
Pharisee goes to the temple. He is confident in his righteousness, looks down
on everything else. He prays – “God, I am thankful I am not like other people-
robbers, evil doers, adulterers, or even a tax collector. I fast twice a week,
I give a tenth of all I get.”
But the tax collector (one of the lowest classes of people,
mind you) stood at a distance, won’t even look up to heaven, beat his breast
and prayed. ‘God have Mercy on me. I am a sinner.’
Jesus tells the crowd that this tax collector found favor
with God, not the other one. Those who exalt themselves will be humbled and
those who are humble will be exalted.
Jesus’ teachings are full of these contradictions. Which for
us, because we’ve heard them most of our lives, just make sense. We also don’t
live in the same regimented class system. But we have to remember that for most
of the people listening to Jesus talk- have never in their lives even
considered such a concept.
You are born into a station in life, which has a level of
value. This station will not change, cannot be changed and people of a higher
station have more value. Rich men, Scholars are all more important than everyone
else. They matter more.
Tax collectors? They
are practically the worst because they’ve betrayed the Jewish people and work for
the Romans. And then the poor – they’re right there at the bottom. So telling
the crowds that a tax collector has found more favor with God and the very rich
should become poor – is completely incomprehensible.
There are 3 groups of people in Jesus’ world with less value
than the tax collectors: women, slaves and children.
In that order.
Many of us grew up in the days of “Children should be seen
and not heard”. Let’s remember that in Jesus’ time, Children weren’t seen either. Children did not go to the
temple; children did not go where adults met to talk about adult things. And
even more so Children were not seen as people. They, like slaves, were the
property of their parents. They had no
value.
So this story, while it seems like a breath of fresh air in
between two very dense and serious teachings, is actually very controversial.
When we read it to children, it lightens the mood from the
very serious to something more cheery. We imagine the children sitting on Jesus
lap, smiling. The tune of ‘Jesus loves me this I know’... fills the air...
But we forget that the disciples are really upset. They are
really mad that there are children present. This is serious stuff happening
here and the children with their smiles and their laughing and their innocence
is really getting in the way, isn’t it?
These adults, they’re here to learn, to understand how to be
a part of the Kingdom of God. To understand this path that Jesus walks on, which
is amazing. A place where everyone will
have a place at the table, the meek will inherit the earth, the rich will be
humble and poor will have food.
There’s no room for the children though, this is grown up
time.
And what does Jesus do? Does he send the children away? Tell
them to come back another time? No. He calls them to him. Tells the disciples
that the Kingdom belongs to them, the children, and that they must be like
children to enter it.
And the disciples don’t get it. They really don’t. But that’s a pretty common theme in scripture
for the Disciples to not understand what Jesus wants them to understand.
I think we understand thought. We don’t need to learn that
children are people and have value like the disciples did, so we’re one step
ahead already.
And I think that we can appreciate the idea that Children
are well suited to understanding the Kingdom of God. They are innocent, curious
and accepting of the simple things. And Jesus really wants the disciples to
understand that it is simple. The kingdom – a place where everyone is equal,
loved and welcome.
We adults, we can complicate matters. We make these concepts
difficult or tricky to understand because the adult world feels so complicated
sometimes. There’s something in us adults that what it to be hard, because if
we have to work at it, then the achievement of it has more value. Which is probably what the disciples expected.
Children aren’t like that. We tell them ‘God is Love’ and
they say – okay. We hear ‘God is Love’ and we add on amendments, conditions,
and regulations to that Love. We make up
rules for how and when and where we can let God love us.
When I was a child here, (this is the church I came to as a
child) I learned that God and Jesus loved me. I learned that there was nothing
I could do that would stop God or Jesus from loving me. If I got scared; God
was there. If I was sad; God was there. I was never alone or abandoned.
I don’t remember how I learned that. I don’t remember the
details of my time in Sunday School (we still called it that), but I learned
the message.
I learned that when I walked into this building I was
welcome, I was loved, I was safe and every person in the building cared about
me. Again, I don’t remember how I learned that. But I did.
So when I think about how to run Children’s Community I
remember that and I remember that Jesus blessed the children and taught the
adults.
Over the past year in CC we’ve been shifting our focus in
how we lead the children. We’ve shifted language from teacher to leader, because
we want to lead the children in their own learning.
When we step back and encourage the children talk about God
rather than teach them about God,
amazing things start to happen. We hear them talk about God with an innate
understanding that comes from deep inside. We’ve seen that what we need to do
is simply give them words for feelings they have, but don’t know how to express
and then we learn some awesome things about God and the bible.
We learned that for David, Goliath wasn’t a ‘real’ monster,
just something really scary in David’s life that he needed to overcome. We learned from a 5 year old that when Saul
was blinded on the road to Damascus, the light of Jesus changed him so much he
had to change his name. To Paul.
We learned from an 8 year old that God is like Pi. Not pie
we eat, but the number Pi 3.14 and onwards to infinity. God is like Pi because
God is infinite.
And last week, when we learned about the story of Jesus welcoming
and blessing the Children, we learned from our children that they feel welcome
here. They feel loved and safe and welcome.
We didn’t teach that. We haven’t sat them down and lectured
– you’re welcome here! Rather, we’ve met them at their level. We’ve respected
them for who they are. Yes, we’ve asked them to adjust their behaviour – to keep their hands to themselves, listen to each
other, take turns – but not change them fundamentally, not change who they
are. They have learned that who they are
has value and they are loved.
My hope is that by keeping this story of Jesus respecting
the children as children; (for his blessing their excitement to be alive and
blessing their curiosity and wonder) in the forefront of our minds we can
continue to be a church where the children grow up knowing it is a safe place.
A second home, a place where they are welcome and cared for. If we accidently
teach them something about Jesus and the light along the way, well that’s
pretty good too.
I’ve painted a rather idyllic picture of Children’s
Community for you here today. Anyone who’s spent time with our kids knows that
‘organized chaos’ might be a better term for what happens back there while
everything is serene in here. It can be crazy making when we let it. So I try
not to.
It’s not easy to see the chaos as divine light. But I try
and I encourage the other leaders to as well. We’re in the season of Epiphany –
a season that means light. We hear about the star leading the Magi, we’ve
talked about the Candle and the light of Jesus that shines around us; shines
within us. That’s how I see our kids – full of light, light that is so bright,
so full of energy that it bursts out of them like a star shining in the night.
While I would like them to keep their hand and feet to themselves in CC, I
don’t want to tame that light. I don’t want to stop them from shining, because
they are the light of the world.
Jesus knew that. He blessed them, gave them the kingdom;
Loved their light. So that’s what we do. Let’s continue to do the same.
