Sermon for October 7, 2012

First Presbyterian Church, Willmar, MN

October 7, 2012

Sermon: “Childlike”

Mark 10:13-16

When reading scripture, context means everything.  Paul frequently speaks of new Christians as little children, signifying that just as we grow and mature as biological entities, so too we must grow into the fullness, the maturity, of our Christian faith.  

Such talk is at the heart of the age-old theological debate about salvation, justification and sanctification.  We are saved by the grace of God and the triumphant sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  In that sacrifice and triumph we are justified before God.  And then some would argue that we are sanctified – made holy – at that same moment.  Some would argue that sanctification follows the other two as we grow into the maturity of our faith and move closer to the person God intends us to be.   The New Testament gives support to both arguments. 

But that’s not for today.

Paul usually speaks of childhood as a starting point.  In the much over-quoted 13^th chapter of I Corinthians he says; “[1 Corinthians 13.11] 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.”  Paul wants us to grow up!

Sometimes Jesus also speaks in terms of children and childhood.  In today’s Gospel lesson Jesus is advising us to be more childlike, not less.  He says: “[Mark 10:15] Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.”  That’s a metaphor that Jesus uses several times: we need to be more childlike when we embrace the kingdom of God.

To serious religious scholars of Jesus’ time – and perhaps even today – the enthusiasm of children was a distraction.  Children weren’t evil, but they did get in the way of “serious” religious practice.  Given the way some congregations react to having children in worship, it’s clear that many Presbyterians still think that way.  

As he so often did, Jesus turns the common sense of his time on its head.   Children were totally dependent on the adults in their lives to provide for them.  They bubbled over with enthusiasm and weren’t properly prepared for the serious study of religion.  If you were trying to do serious things, like study scripture or conduct business, children cold be major distractions. 

And Jesus says that we must become like children.  We must “receive” the kingdom of God the way a child receives a gift or a blessing.  If we don’t “receive” the kingdom in that way then we shall never enter into the kingdom. 

I used to travel a lot on business.  I can’t tell you how many times I have gotten on and off airplanes, although I’m pretty sure that I got off as many as I got on.   I certainly don’t remember how many airports were involved.  Unfortunately I never lived really close to an airport and it was never easy or convenient for my family to meet me coming off a plane.

Sometimes while waiting to board a plane that had just landed, I’d look up from my computer or my reading and just watch families greeting their loved ones coming off the plane that I was waiting to board.  

Minutes before the doors would be opened to let people off, any waiting children would get anxious and excited.  And then as the departing passengers came down the ramp the children would start jumping and yelling trying to find their mother or father or grandparent or sister among all the people coming down the ramp.  As the moments of disappointment passed, the children would become more and more agitated until finally they would see the one they were looking for. Then it was usually impossible to stop them from running forward and perhaps even jumping into the arms of the person that were waiting for.  That’s how the children “received” the loved one they were awaiting!

This morning we are going to celebrate the Lord’s Supper.  On this Sunday in particular we are asked to remember and reflect on the fact that Christians all around the world today are coming to the banquet that the Lord has set out for us all.  This is the place where we practice what it’s like to live in God’s kingdom.  To use the words of the Gospel lesson, this is where we are called to enter the kingdom of God. 

Before you can appropriately enter into it, you must receive it, welcome it, embrace it as a totally dependent creature, a little child,  bubbling over with enthusiasm anxious to finally welcome God home again with you.  We must bring God into our homes, into our hearts and out souls, if we are to enter God’s kingdom.  And Jesus tells us: “[Mark 10:15] Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.”

COME RUNNING, COME WALKING SLOW
COME WEARY ON YOUR BROKEN ROAD
COME SEE HIM,
SHED YOUR HEAVY LOAD
ALLELUJAH [“Come Darkness, Come Light,” by Mary Chapin Carpenter]

Amen.