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The
Inconvenient Truth
About The Kingdom
by Reverend Rich Smith
September 24, 2006
Mark 9:30-37
In some faith traditions it is customary to be able to
identify the exact moment of one's conversion, that instant when the
lights came on, the past was put away, and nothing was ever the same
again. They call it being saved, or being born again. In our own
tradition it doesn't usually happen quite so dramatically or abruptly
-- we typically experience something more like evolution, a growing in
faith, a process, and there is usually not one particular instance when
everything changes -- at least we don't insist on it.
But there are moments when changes do occur, and if you were to ask me
if I have had anything like a conversion experience in my life, I would
have to point to that moment some 18 years ago when I agreed that our
family could get a dog!
For the first thirty-seven years of my life I really didn't care for
dogs at all. We didn't have one when I was growing up. There were five
kids in the family, and my father insisted that we could not acquire
anything else that had a mouth. As each child left home, they were
replaced by a cat. Not having owned a dog, I was always somewhat
prejudiced against them, a feeling reinforced when I went to seminary
and learned that every single scriptural reference to dogs is negative.
For example, in the new Jerusalem described in the book of Revelation,
that heavenly city of God's Kingdom, dogs are not allowed in. They are
relegated to that place outside the city walls, along with all manner
of murderers, sorcerers, and idolaters. And earlier the Psalmist cried
out, "Deliver my soul from the sword, my life from the power of the
dog!" And of course it’s pretty obvious that "DOG" is "GOD" spelled
backwards!
So, you see, actually owning a dog, allowing one into my house, making
it a member of the family was just not something I was constitutionally
inclined to do. But now we have been a dog-house for nearly 2 decades
now. Our first dog, a free-to-a-good-home, terrier-scotty-poodle mix
named Sadie stayed with us some 16 years; a few months after her demise
we took in Gracie, and after the cat died we got a second dog whom we
named Bentley, and I suppose I’m getting used to the idea of being a
dog owner.
Now you may wonder what changed. How did I overcome my early training
and prejudices against dogs? What kind of conversion experience did I
have? Was it a revelation from God that said dogs are okay now? Did I
manage to overcome my elitist preference for cats? Am I getting soft as
I grow older?
What changed my mind and caused me to say, "Okay, let's get a dog" was
that I became convinced that it would be a very good thing for my
children! That, and the fact that they finally were able to give the
correct answers to three very important questions: Who will feed the
dog? Who will bathe the dog? And, who will clean up after the dog? I
realized that by experiencing both the responsibilities of owning a dog
AND the unconditional love that a dog provides (it loves you no matter
what), they would grow and become better, more self-assured and
fulfilled human beings. Their own self-respect and self-esteem would
benefit. And it did.
So, I guess you could say, I did it for my kids. But of course they’ve
been out of the house for several years now, and like I said, we not
only kept the dog we added another. So, let this be a sign of hope,
that you can teach an old dog new tricks, that even the most stubborn,
opinionated, recalcitrant, hidebound person like me can change.
You know, we start out changing our children -- many times a day -- but
they also change us. They never come along at a convenient time; in
fact, if we waited for the perfect time to have children, we'd never
have them -- that time when the world is in order, when we could afford
it, when we feel fully prepared. There's never a perfect time and they
are always inconvenient. But they are a gift nonetheless. And they do
come and change us.
Children are born with a disadvantage, most of them, in that they come
to parents who have absolutely no experience at being parents. And so
we do everything we can to make up for that, and give them everything
we possibly can, so that their lives will be full. Unfortunately, a lot
of us -- because we can afford it -- over-indulge our kids, giving them
more material possessions than they need, a convenient but poor
substitute for the love we should give them in other ways.
In the Gospel of Mark, there are two occasions where Jesus welcomes
children. In today's lesson, in response to the disciples' argument
about "Who is the Greatest", Jesus said to them, "Whoever wants to be
first must be last of all and servant of all." Then he took a little
child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to
them, "Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and
whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me." In other
words, if you want to see greatness, look no farther than a child!
And in the very next chapter, there is the beloved story of how people
were bringing children to meet Jesus, while the disciples objected --
they still didn't get it. But Jesus said, "Let the little children come
to me and 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." And he took them up in
his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them. It was his way of
saying: these little ones are important -- in their innocence, their
openness, their wide-eyed appreciation of the world, their
vulnerability. They are what the beloved community of God is all about,
and the inconvenient truth about that community, or kingdom of God, is
that it belongs not to us but to children!
I think we can take our cue from Jesus, and welcome children into our
midst, for they are a gift and they have much to teach us, and much to
bring to us. Of course, they are an inconvenient gift, because they
also have many needs, and we can provide some of them. Our first
responsibility is: Do not abuse their trust. The scandals of the RC
church remind us how important that is. Our BCE has adopted a “Safe
Church Policy”, which you could ask Amber or any BCE member about.
Beyond that basic commitment, there are at least three things we can
give them, as part of a caring community of faith.
The first is a sense of belonging, of being wanted, of feeling accepted
and valued. Surely this is what those children whom Jesus took in his
arms must have felt. I used to have an office that looked out on a
playground, and I witnessed a lot of children and their parents, and
saw a lot of positive interaction and nurturing. But every once in a
while I was shocked to observe a parent carrying a screaming child off
toward the parking lot, and the parent was screaming too, perpetrating
verbal child abuse, saying things that must have made the child feel
very unwanted, and guilty for even being alive. Of course we all feel
angry at times, and it's even justified once in a while, but surely
there is a way to communicate that anger without attacking the child.
In the end, we must always communicate to each child: "You are special,
unique, loved, wanted, and valued," just as Jesus did! And in our life
as a church, we can welcome children, by making them a real and valued
part of our life together, and by making sure that the facilities we
provide for their use are as well cared for as they ones we provide for
ours. The church I grew up in did not even build its permanent
sanctuary until it had been in existence for eighteen years, and after
it had built three separate buildings devoted to Christian Education.
It took care of its children first, because it believed Jesus, and
adopted his attitude. It met their need (my need!) to be welcomed and
provided a real sense of belonging. It is my conviction that we will be
a strong and vibrant community of faith only if we make children our
priority, and welcome them just as Jesus did!
The second thing we need to give our children (that they need) is a
combination of a sense of identity (in relation to others) and a sense
of responsibility (to others). Identity and Responsibility. At its
heart, that is what Christian Education (faith formation) is about.
Through the biblical stories, we teach children the Christian story,
our faith story, all the way back to its roots in creation and the
wandering of the tribes of Israel -- through the life and witness and
resurrection of Jesus -- to the early church -- and at last to the
modern world where Christ's people still try to do the work of God. And
we invite them to be part of that story as well, so that an important
part of their self-understanding -- their identity -- is that they are
part of the people of God. And as a part of that, they are responsible
to others. They are not Christian in isolation, but only as they learn
to love other people, and care for them (even people they may not
like!). We try to teach them that being a Christian is not primarily a
means of achieving success in life, but of redeeming the world, helping
it to be more like the kingdom of God. After all, Jesus said that those
who would be greatest must be servants of all. I know that's a hard
lesson to learn in a culture that measures self-worth by success and by
material possessions. But again, we can teach that as much by our own
example as by anything else. As I have discovered, "Faith is CAUGHT,
not taught!"
A sense of belonging, a sense of identity and responsibility:
inconvenient but necessary gifts we can give our children. And finally,
what we need to give our children is a sense of HOPE! Children become
aware of things very early on in life, and they pick up a lot of things
we don't tell them directly. They learn that the world is a scary
place, a dangerous one, that there are a lot of things out there that
threaten their future. They are like little flowers that if given the
gifts of sunlight and warmth and nutrients will flourish and grow and
blossom into all they are meant to be, but which can also easily
despair and wilt. They are resilient, but also fragile. If we can
remain hopeful ourselves, as our faith calls us to be, and communicate,
that no matter what happens, we will not let them go, and that we are
doing all we can to make this a better place for them, and all God's
children, then they will be given the hope they need to grow up.
I remember one time when my Dad took me fishing. We had hiked a mile or
two from our car, down into a great canyon with a beautiful trout
stream. Suddenly, we were caught by a surprise thunderstorm. With the
wind and rain all around, and lightning striking very close, it was
quite scary, and I was terrifed. But not my Dad! He calmly took my hand
and let me to some thick brush, where we sat and waited for the storm
to pass, which it soon did, and in that more secure environment I even
began to enjoy the lightning show and the wonders of nature. I remember
thinking, "Hey, my Dad is here with me. Nothing is going to happen. He
wouldn't let it." I felt so safe and calm, and full of hope. That this
happened when I was 38 years old should not negate the point: that we
need to give our children hope by doing hopeful things ourselves!
It was this conviction that led me to add a new question to the
baptismal services I perform. Besides asking the parents to affirm
their faith in God, and to prayerfully and deliberately nurture their
children into that faith, which is quite traditional and customary, I
also ask them to promise to do their part to make the world a better
place for not only their child, but all of God's children. It is a vow
that says, we are not raising our child in a vacuum, that my private
faith and my leading them to believe in God is not enough, but that the
world is now our responsibility, and how we live in it and how we treat
it is what will give hope and a future for our children and all
children. As someone once said, we do not so much inherit the world
from our parents as we do borrow it from our children. And so we need
to do those things that will give them hope!
So we will do almost anything for our children, if we believe it is
what they need -- things even more serious and momentous than getting
them a new dog (though for me, that was a good start!) There are
certain Native American communities that have a traditional ceremony
that they enact whenever important decisions need to be made, known as
the Medicine Wheel. Different members of the community sit in a circle,
and represent various aspects of their life. Depending on their
position in the circle, they speak for such things as the trees, the
lakes, the buffalo, and so on, and their task in the medicine wheel is
to say how a particular decision would affect those things. If this is
done, would it be a good thing for the birds? For the streams? At the
center of the wheel are two elders, a grandmother and a grandfather.
They represent the children of the community. About every issue they
ascertain whether or not it would be a good thing for the children. And
unlike all the others, they are the only ones who have veto power. If
it is ultimately not good for children, it will not be done. Not a bad
way of making decisions and determining the future, if you ask me!
And so Jesus called children into the midst of the disciples, just as
he calls them into our midst today, a manifestation of an inconvenient
but much-needed truth. These are the greatest of all, he says. These
are what the kingdom of God is all about. "Whoever welcomes one such
child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me
but the one who sent me."
Last updated Wednesday, Februrary 29, 2008
1
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