As a Child
Text: Mark 10:13-16
Two weeks ago I talked a bit about anticipating my daughter’s first full day at school. Megan was very excited, and consistently looks forward to the days in the week that she gets to go to school and learn. Initially I began asking her about how her day was, and she usually smiles and says “good.” –and that’s about it. I ask, “did you enjoy your day?” and she replies simply “Yeah.” –but getting her to volunteer more information is sometimes a bit of a challenge. It’s not that she hasn’t done a lot, but there’s often so much going on that she can’t really focus one thing or another. Not only that, because Sarah is the one who more often than not picks her up from school, she’s had a chance to talk about all the exciting things right then and there. It’s very immediate! Sarah also tipped me off that perhaps instead of asking her how her day was, to be more specific and ask what her favourite part of the day was. So I tried that, “What was the favourite part of your day, Megan?” She looked up from her colouring book at said “Lunch!” and went back to work.
A week ago Friday, I got the chance to pick her up myself, so I would have the chance to actually be there when her whole day was still fresh. It would be my turn for her to talk. Except I found out that she had gotten upset and kicked a teacher… and at least initially wasn’t keen on talking about it. “Great,” I thought to myself, “our daughter is heading into that fine tradition of being a Preacher’s Kid.” Fortunately, it seems this was a blip… Megan has actually been better about listening and paying attention… and I even managed to get her to talk about why what she did in class was wrong.
Perhaps the reason I bring this up in such detail is the story from Mark’s gospel. Last week, we came through some very difficult very harsh sounding words that were ultimately a warning against religious leaders misleading others, or faith communities that turn a blind eye to fraud. Mark then moves into some other sayings from Jesus, and in particular this rather famous one about children.
“Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.”
For those of you who grew up with the King James Version, you may know it as, “Suffer the little children to come unto me…” In this case, the use of the word “Suffer” has changed over five hundred years. It simply means to allow children to come to Jesus… don’t get in their way.
But there’s that line again… Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.
It’s funny… we take this passage as being almost sentimental in how we read it. It has become a motherhood and apple pie issue at least at one level, that Jesus welcomes the children… and we know the story well… but we have lost that sense of how completely revolutionary this really was in the day and age of Jesus.
At the time children were considered to be bothersome to important people doing serious business… Maybe you’ve heard the saying that children should be seen and not heard… well, in this case it was neither seen nor heard.
When Jesus allows the children to see him, he is cutting against a number of cultural taboos. Children weren’t clean, and not just physically either… God knows what they’ve gotten into and what they’ve touched! He welcomes them into the midst of the disciples… and then has the gall to say that children have a better grasp of the kingdom of God than the rest of them do.
But he’s right!
As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I think we’ve tried to domesticate what Jesus was saying about the faith of children. We have been taught that it means we should be blindly accepting of everything that church leaders tell us. To be honest, I think Jesus would be horrified with that.
I don’t know about your experience with children, but mine has been a rediscovery of my own childhood. My daughter does not accept stuff blindly. She does not accept everything that her parents say as gospel… she is inquisitive about the world and wants to know why. She wants to see how things work, she has this sense of awe and wonder that somewhere along the line we have lost in our efforts to be serious about life… She is constantly experimenting and observing and trying different things out… you should see her at a sink! She watches how the water flows out of the tap, how it cascades around, how it changes when she has the water flow into a cup… and how it interacts with soap and other objects. She is learning when she does this… and all I can see is the water on the counter, the floors, and once even on the ceiling. She, on the other hand, has spent time learning how water works.
I can’t help but ask if Jesus was talking about a child’s natural curiosity and wonder of the world around us when he proclaimed this… If we think about it, not once does he say that children are unquestionably obedient and accepting. This is something that we’ve been taught when we are older… What Jesus does say is that anyone who does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will not enter it… he says nothing about blind obedience or acceptance. I can’t even go so far as to say that children are unquestionably trusting either… Megan constantly checks on me to make sure I’m doing what I said I would do. It keeps me honest more than anything else…
So maybe Jesus really was talking about children’s natural sense of wonder and awe when it comes to the world around us… and the want and need to ask all kinds of questions. It really puts a new spin on things, especially when Jesus uses a child as a model for our faith. Maybe the point that Jesus was trying to make is that we should be a little less serious about ourselves, and more in awe of the world around us.
Last night, as I was helping Sarah load Megan into the car following our supper at the Clarkson Festival, the torrent of rain that we had gave way to a beautiful sunset. Sarah had parked on the far side of the parking lot… and when I turned around and looked back towards the church I saw an extremely bright rainbow coming down over the church. For a brief moment, I was the kid… and was able to share that with Megan who was simply delighted in the colours in the evening sky. It was simple… really… a moment of awe and wonder… and maybe that’s what Jesus was getting at.
Two weeks ago I talked a bit about anticipating my daughter’s first full day at school. Megan was very excited, and consistently looks forward to the days in the week that she gets to go to school and learn. Initially I began asking her about how her day was, and she usually smiles and says “good.” –and that’s about it. I ask, “did you enjoy your day?” and she replies simply “Yeah.” –but getting her to volunteer more information is sometimes a bit of a challenge. It’s not that she hasn’t done a lot, but there’s often so much going on that she can’t really focus one thing or another. Not only that, because Sarah is the one who more often than not picks her up from school, she’s had a chance to talk about all the exciting things right then and there. It’s very immediate! Sarah also tipped me off that perhaps instead of asking her how her day was, to be more specific and ask what her favourite part of the day was. So I tried that, “What was the favourite part of your day, Megan?” She looked up from her colouring book at said “Lunch!” and went back to work.
A week ago Friday, I got the chance to pick her up myself, so I would have the chance to actually be there when her whole day was still fresh. It would be my turn for her to talk. Except I found out that she had gotten upset and kicked a teacher… and at least initially wasn’t keen on talking about it. “Great,” I thought to myself, “our daughter is heading into that fine tradition of being a Preacher’s Kid.” Fortunately, it seems this was a blip… Megan has actually been better about listening and paying attention… and I even managed to get her to talk about why what she did in class was wrong.
Perhaps the reason I bring this up in such detail is the story from Mark’s gospel. Last week, we came through some very difficult very harsh sounding words that were ultimately a warning against religious leaders misleading others, or faith communities that turn a blind eye to fraud. Mark then moves into some other sayings from Jesus, and in particular this rather famous one about children.
“Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.”
For those of you who grew up with the King James Version, you may know it as, “Suffer the little children to come unto me…” In this case, the use of the word “Suffer” has changed over five hundred years. It simply means to allow children to come to Jesus… don’t get in their way.
But there’s that line again… Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.
It’s funny… we take this passage as being almost sentimental in how we read it. It has become a motherhood and apple pie issue at least at one level, that Jesus welcomes the children… and we know the story well… but we have lost that sense of how completely revolutionary this really was in the day and age of Jesus.
At the time children were considered to be bothersome to important people doing serious business… Maybe you’ve heard the saying that children should be seen and not heard… well, in this case it was neither seen nor heard.
When Jesus allows the children to see him, he is cutting against a number of cultural taboos. Children weren’t clean, and not just physically either… God knows what they’ve gotten into and what they’ve touched! He welcomes them into the midst of the disciples… and then has the gall to say that children have a better grasp of the kingdom of God than the rest of them do.
But he’s right!
As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I think we’ve tried to domesticate what Jesus was saying about the faith of children. We have been taught that it means we should be blindly accepting of everything that church leaders tell us. To be honest, I think Jesus would be horrified with that.
I don’t know about your experience with children, but mine has been a rediscovery of my own childhood. My daughter does not accept stuff blindly. She does not accept everything that her parents say as gospel… she is inquisitive about the world and wants to know why. She wants to see how things work, she has this sense of awe and wonder that somewhere along the line we have lost in our efforts to be serious about life… She is constantly experimenting and observing and trying different things out… you should see her at a sink! She watches how the water flows out of the tap, how it cascades around, how it changes when she has the water flow into a cup… and how it interacts with soap and other objects. She is learning when she does this… and all I can see is the water on the counter, the floors, and once even on the ceiling. She, on the other hand, has spent time learning how water works.
I can’t help but ask if Jesus was talking about a child’s natural curiosity and wonder of the world around us when he proclaimed this… If we think about it, not once does he say that children are unquestionably obedient and accepting. This is something that we’ve been taught when we are older… What Jesus does say is that anyone who does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will not enter it… he says nothing about blind obedience or acceptance. I can’t even go so far as to say that children are unquestionably trusting either… Megan constantly checks on me to make sure I’m doing what I said I would do. It keeps me honest more than anything else…
So maybe Jesus really was talking about children’s natural sense of wonder and awe when it comes to the world around us… and the want and need to ask all kinds of questions. It really puts a new spin on things, especially when Jesus uses a child as a model for our faith. Maybe the point that Jesus was trying to make is that we should be a little less serious about ourselves, and more in awe of the world around us.
Last night, as I was helping Sarah load Megan into the car following our supper at the Clarkson Festival, the torrent of rain that we had gave way to a beautiful sunset. Sarah had parked on the far side of the parking lot… and when I turned around and looked back towards the church I saw an extremely bright rainbow coming down over the church. For a brief moment, I was the kid… and was able to share that with Megan who was simply delighted in the colours in the evening sky. It was simple… really… a moment of awe and wonder… and maybe that’s what Jesus was getting at.
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