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