These
past two weeks have really been a lot of fun for me as pastor.
First, what a joy it’s been to anticipate today’s service, with the
baptism of two of our children, Catherine and Charlotte, and our liturgical
celebration of the Presbyterian Church’s observance of the Year of the Child.
And second, I’ve been getting a chance to plan ahead and live a bit in
the future, and—here’s the fun of it—what I’ve been planning ahead on
and living a bit in is those wondrous church seasons of Advent and Christmas.
So
these past two weeks while I’ve been thinking through this sermon for the Year
of the Child I’ve also been planning ahead for Advent and Christmas.
And yes folks, it is true, and let me be the first to remind you—there are
just 50 shopping days left until Christmas!
Anyway,
last week it suddenly occurred to me just how appropriate it is that right in
the very middle of our denomination’s observance of the Year of the
Child—between last July and next June—there fall these seasons of Advent and
Christmas, when, amidst all the commercial pressures coming at us from secular
society, the church’s task is to keep our focus on the Christ Child.
How
appropriate it is that our celebration of the Christ Child will stand at the
very center of our Year of the Child. For
I’m convinced that the more fully we can grow in our capacity to love the
Christ Child, the more fully we’ll be able to grow in our capacity to love all
the other fresh images of God in our world!
I’m convinced that the more fully we can grow in our capacity to love
the Christ Child, the more fully we’ll be able to grow in our capacity to take
action on behalf of others of God’s children.
I’m convinced that the more fully we can see the Christ Child in the
likes of Catherine and Charlotte, the more fully we’ll be able to see the
Christ Child in every infant and child, of whatever race, ethnicity, or creed,
and the more fully we’ll be led to offer to each infant and child our pledge
of nurture and support.
In
planning ahead for Christmas Eve, I was naturally led to reread that much
beloved carol, “Away in a Manger,” where I encountered afresh its third
verse—do you remember it?
“Be near me, Lord Jesus; I ask Thee to stay
Close by me forever and love me, I pray.
Bless all the dear children in Thy tender care,
And fit us for heaven to live with Thee there.”
“Bless
all the dear children…” Yes,
bless ’em all. And to that sung
prayer of ours, may we add—today and Christmas Eve and always—these words,
too: “Lord Jesus, make us instruments of Your love for bringing that blessing
of Yours tangibly to all the children of our world.”
The
image of “Jesus blessing the children” derives, of course, not from the
Christmas Story but from this morning’s Second Lesson.
In
the culture of Jesus’s time, children were deemed “non-persons.”
They were expected to remain invisible to the public eye.
But in this lesson some mothers venture outside of their homes and dare
to bring their daughters and sons of various ages to be touched and blessed by
the renowned rabbi, Jesus.
The
adult followers of Jesus are scandalized by this action.
How dare these women and children interrupt the truly important work of
Jesus’s ministry for such an inconsequential matter!
So the disciples speak sternly to the women and children and physically
bar their way to Jesus.
But
when Jesus sees what’s happening, he becomes angry with the disciples and
calls out, “Let the little children come to me; don’t stop them!
For it’s to such as these that God’s reign belongs.”
And
when finally the disciples step aside and allow the children to be brought
forward to Jesus, he doesn’t just touch them briefly and then send them on
their way. No, Jesus warmly
embraces and hugs each one of them and then places his hand on their heads in
blessing, as you saw me do this morning, in Jesus’s name, for Catherine and
Charlotte. What comes clear in this
scene is that Jesus doesn’t just tolerate children.
He actually likes them! And
he furthermore understands that his relating to children is not tangential to
his ministry but quite central to it.
You
see, the disciples, in seeking to send these children away, haven’t just made
a small error in judgment. No,
they’ve shown that they’re missing the whole point about Jesus’s ministry.
For Jesus’s ministry is precisely about welcoming ones such as
these—the powerless, the vulnerable, the weak, those often considered a
nuisance. Jesus’s ministry is
about bringing everyone in, and not at all about keeping some out.
Jesus
here demonstrates so clearly to his would-be followers that the way we treat the
youngest and least among us is a good measure of the quality of our
discipleship.
And
so the questions for us to ask ourselves this morning are these:
Have we as followers of the Christ Child and of the grown-up Jesus placed
the well-being of children at the heart of our discipleship?
And if so, how is it then that we continue to let it happen that so many
children, both in our own nation and around the world, are born without proper
pre-natal care, grow up without pure water, adequate food, or proper attention
to medical needs? How is it that so many children mature without access to
effective public education, and have to contend daily with the threat of
physical violence? How can we
tolerate letting these conditions continue?
As
we vote next Tuesday, as we offer our stewardship pledges next Sunday, and as we
prepare for our observance of Advent and Christmas and the Christ Child, let us
remember that a central part of our Christian vocation is to love and bless and
support and nurture the children of our nation and world.
Now,
when I was a child, one of my favorite songs to sing was “Jesus Loves the
Little Children.” Some of you
already know it, and the rest of you are about to learn it!
May
I ask all the children still here to please come up front now and to join me in
a semi-circle around the baptismal font? And
may I ask the rest of you to join with us in learning this song?
“Jesus
loves the little children, all the children of the world.
Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight.
Jesus loves the little children of the world.”
Bless
’em all!
Let
us pray:
O
God, help us to grow in our love for the Christ Child and in our commitment to
help those whom Jesus loves and blesses—all the children of the world.
Amen.
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