Confused and Conflicted?
The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson
Manassas Presbyterian Church
Manassas, Virginia
September 29, 2013
Confused and Conflicted?
Mark 10:13-16
“Let the little
children come to me.”
Jesus and children, wrapped in an embrace,
wrapped in love.
Wiggly children all around our Lord;
one lucky child in his lap,
probably thinking to herself
that she’d rather be back down on the ground
with the others.
“For it is to such as
these
that the kingdom of
God belongs.”
Jesus’ beloved disciples,
ever protective of their Lord,
trying to keep the children away from him,
so that they wouldn’t pester Jesus,
so Jesus could teach without interruption.
How could he teach, preach,
do anything,
if every parent was intent on
bringing their child to Jesus for a blessing,
if other children in the crowd were running up to him
to see what the excitement was all about?
But then, over the boisterousness, the commotion,
the disciples heard Jesus’ voice,
calm but firm,
“Let the little
children come to me.”
The disciples surely must have
looked at each other quizzically,
baffled, each man thinking to himself
perhaps Jesus was going to call the children forward
and then say to them,
“All right children, time for you to sit quietly;
time for you to have listening ears,
for I have a lesson for you.
I have a lesson for your parents;
I have a lesson for everyone gathered here.
It’s time now to be quiet,
hands folded in your lap.
It’s time to show me and your parents
that you are good, obedient children,
ready to listen.”
The disciples stopped holding the children back
and they came rushing forward,
boys and girls of all ages,
filled with excitement.
“Do not stop them,” they
heard Jesus say,
“for it is to such as
these
that the kingdom of
God belongs.”
Can you imagine how confused
Jesus’ disciples must have been?
First as our Lord told them not to hold the children back,
to let the children come to him,
and then as he said to them,
“it is such as these
that the kingdom of God belongs.”
How can the kingdom of God belong to children?
Doesn’t the kingdom of God belong to those
who live out their faith,
who grow in knowledge and wisdom,
who learn Scripture and live by the Word,
those who say their prayers, who confess their sins,
who honor the Sabbath and keep it holy?
Children don’t do any of those things.
In time they will, if they are taught well.
But how can the kingdom belong to the young,
the inexperienced,
those without knowledge,
those too young even to understand
what it means to follow Jesus?
Jesus’ words surely must have confused
and confounded every adult:
“Truly I tell you
whoever does not
receive the kingdom of God
as a little child will
never enter it.”
In his letter to the church at Corinth
written some 25 years later,
Paul seemed to reject Jesus’ thinking, writing,
“When I was a child, I
spoke like a child,
I thought like a
child,
I reasoned like a
child;
when I became an
adult,
I put an end to
childish ways.”
…“Brothers and
sisters,
do not be children in
your thinking;
… but in thinking be
adults.”
(1 Corinthians 13:11; 14:20)
Who wants to be like a child?
Doesn’t everyone long to grow up?
To become an adult?
To be treated like an adult?
To have all the freedom adults have?
As an adult, no one tells you what to wear,
or when to get up,
or when to bathe,
or what to eat,
or when to go to bed.
So, which is it?
Are we to be children,
or are we to put an end to childish ways,
and think like
adults?
It would seem that once again
where we want the Word of the Lord
to be clear, it is muddy,
conflicting and confusing.
Once again, we have the hard work of discernment,
of interpretation,
the hard work of thinking through
the words we hear and read.
Of course we are expected to grow up in maturity.
Of course we are to grow in knowledge and wisdom.
Of course we are to grow from child to adult.
But yet, there are traits and characteristics of children
that we should hold onto,
the best of a child,
traits that we tend to lose as we get older,
Traits like tolerance,
acceptance,
innocence,
joyfulness,
generosity,
even playfulness.
Children are so much more tolerant and accepting
than adults.
A child of 3, 4, 5 looks right past
skin color, accents, ethnicity,
where a person might have been born,
what a person wears;
traits and characteristics we adults
often build into barriers.
If you should ever want to see these
wonderful characteristics at work,
you have only to stop by here
any day of the week between 9:00 am and noon
and look in on any of the classrooms of our Early Learning
Center.
I think you’d be amazed by the incredibly diverse group
of boys and girls who come here each day,
who come to play and learn and laugh and sing.
They come here and become friends,
learning to share, to get along,
to look after one another,
to be nice to another.
In fact, our Early Learning Center was built on a foundation
of tolerance and acceptance and openness.
The leaders of this church pointedly rejected
the “whites-only” ethos
that was still prevalent back in 1963,
when they adopted a policy
that opened the doors of the school
to any and every child.
It is a foundation we have built on for 50 years,
helping the 6,000, 7,000 children who have
gone through our Early Learning Center program
to learn the lessons of tolerance and acceptance,
openness and inclusion,
lessons our Lord Jesus Christ teaches all of us.
No child is born a racist;
no child is born a bigot;
no child is born hating;
no child is born intolerant.
These are all traits children learn,
learn from parents and family;
learn from friends and from others,
learn sometimes even learn in churches.
Intolerant, racist, sexist adults still spread their poison,
as we witnessed just a few weeks back,
after a lovely young woman from the state of New York
was crowned Miss America.
The talented, gifted young woman was born in this country
to parents who’d come here from India.
The ignorant, the shameful
raged over social
media
that her skin color was different,
that she could not be a real, a true American.
Children don’t act that way;
adults do.
Children act that way only if
adults teach them such vile behavior.
“Receive the kingdom
of God as a little child.”
Receive the kingdom of God
with acceptance, grace,
forgiveness, love.
Children are innocent;
children don’t care about power.
They welcome all,
they forgive easily,
they look past differences,
they share,
they play.
These are the traits children have,
that God graces us all with,
traits we lose, we ignore
as we grow older.
There is another trait that children have –
children are also obedient –
at least more often than not.
Yes, as they get older they rebel,
push back, push boundaries.
But isn’t that exactly what we do to our Father in Heaven:
we who are called by God to be obedient children,
don’t we rebel, push back, push boundaries,
as we turn from God’s will, God’s way
in favor of our own will, our own way?
To grow in maturity in faith
is to learn the joys of obedience,
to learn to put our trust completely in God
as we follow our Lord Jesus Christ.
To grow in maturity in faith is
to learn not to be a rebellious child.
To grow in maturity in faith
is to hold the very best of those traits
we were born with,
traits we have as children,
even as the years pass
and we turn from children to adults.
If you need to re-learn, refresh those traits,
traits you had, but that have got rusty,
all you need to do is spend an hour with children,
especially the children here in our Early Learning Center.
Watch them,
learn from them.
And then you’ll understand why our Lord says to you and me,
“For it is to such as
these
that the kingdom of
God belongs.”
AMEN
posted by Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson @ 11:00 AM
