Sermon: A little Child shall Lead them

A Young Child Shall Lead Them

Mark 10:13-16

Flying kites, picking flowers, laughing, smiling, dressing up as super heroes, using the imagination, dreaming sweet dreams. These adjective convey the notion innocence. When we hear these words we most often think of children. We think of childhood as an innocent, fun, playful period of life, not consumed with many worries. Certainly children like this have no need to be brought to Jesus, what problems could they possibly have that they would need to be blessed by Jesus. Anyways, Jesus is far too busy a man and too important with more important tasks then to be bothered by little children. At least this is the way that the disciples thought. Eugene Peterson’s The Message translates the reaction of the disciples in this situation using the phrase “the disciples shooed them off.” The disciples shooed them off as if they were flies swarming around fresh fruit. The disciples reprimanded them. Now it is not certain whether the disciples were rebuking the children or those who were bringing the children, but in either case the children were viewed as unimportant, unworthy of being touched by Jesus. They were treated as “non-persons.”

This action by the disciples is by no means anything new. The disciples have often rebuked people earlier in this Gospel including Jesus. But on this occasion, Jesus becomes angry. Not just annoyed or displeased, but infuriated with the disciples actions. He tells them “do not forbid the little children to come to me.” Some may think that Jesus’ response to the disciples is a little sharp, but at this point Jesus’ reaction to the disciples is understandable on two levels. First, after all this time the disciples still do not understand Jesus’ ministry. Jesus’ ministry is inclusive, not exclusive. Furthermore, Jesus feels that the children are too important not to be brought to him to be blessed. Secondly, Jesus tells the disciples that these children are the ones whom the disciples should aspire to become like. He says that “unless you become like a child you will not enter the kingdom of God.” These children are the roles models for the disciple’s entrance into the kingdom.

Does this mean that we get to act in childish ways? Does this mean that we get live care-free in a world of imagination? Does this mean that we get to dream sweet dreams? Does this mean our biggest responsibility is to play, fly kites, and pick flowers? I do not think this is exactly what Jesus had in mind, but it is not all together wrong either. Becoming like a child does not mean that we should act silly all the time. It does not mean that we should ignore our everyday responsibilities. It does not mean that we should live in a world of imagination disregarding reality. However, these ideas do tell something about becoming like a child; those ideas are simplicity and dependence. Children live with a certain degree of simplicity in their lives. They are not concerned about status or rank. They do not live with ideas of self-importance or self-empowerment. Rather, they purely live taking in the world, learning from God’s creation, asking questions, and turning to God and their parents when they are in need. This is precisely how the disciples should live; this is precisely how we should live.

Instead of a child always looking up to us as a role model, maybe we should start looking up to a child and let the child be the role model for us, so that we may receive the kingdom of God in the manner that Jesus teaches to us. As children unconditionally accept God’s grace and receive God’s kingdom, let us do the same. Let us throw aside idioms such as “pull yourself by the boot straps” and instead turn towards God for help. Let us have the simplicity and dependence of a little child who believes because she allows her heart to be open to God’s love and embrace.

To illustrate this point further, I was walking around our Seminary’s track outside. About my third time around I noticed a family of four out for a stroll. They stopped and sat by the labyrinth. The two parents and their younger infant were sitting at the edge of labyrinth while their four or five year old son was walking the labyrinth on his own accord. He would stop every now and the then and look into the sand, at times picking up the sand. Other times he would jump or run following the path laid out and yet other times he would run around the outer most circle of the labyrinth. All the while his parents were watching him from their seated position. This in itself is an amazing example of the simplicity, the dependence upon God and the grace and love of God which the child embraced. I thought this image couldn’t get any better, until that same young boy, went over to his dad reached out his hand, took hold of his dad’s hand and made his dad get up. The small boy got his dad up from his seated position on the outside of the labyrinth and led his dad to the beginning of the labyrinth. Together they walked the labyrinth. That small boy was a role model for his father, that small boy was teaching his father the importance of faith. That small boy, whether he knew it or not was exemplifying exactly what Jesus was teaching the disciples.

Now the story does not end here, for Jesus was a superior teacher and did not stop with just a verbal lesson for the disciples, but he followed it up by a visual example. Showing the disciples just how important children are, Jesus “took the children up into his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.” Jesus embraced the children, engulfing them into his loving arms. He laid his hands on the children, not for healing, but for a blessing, a blessing that Adela Collins believes is a “concrete benefit to the children.” This is an event some scholar’s remark as something a child is not likely to forget. It is also an extreme mark Jesus’ love for the young members of a community, accepting the children, and naming the children as a part of God’s kingdom and thus children of God.

As we celebrate Loren’s baptism this morning, let us approach this font like a child. Let us play in the waters of baptism remembering that it was through these waters that we were cleansed in body, mind and spirit. As we hear and see the water bringing poured into this font may we be reminded that the waters of baptism washed away our notions of self-empowerment, status, and rank, leaving us instead with the same simplicity as that of a child whose heart is open to God’s love and grace. Let us have faith in God and depend on God as a child depends on its mother and father. As we celebrate the sacrament of baptism and as we each remember our own baptism, let us also remember that it was through this water that God embraces us in love, that God gives us grace, that God marks each of us as God’s children and that we were all engraphed into the body of Christ forever!

Amen!