| Sunday Sermon - June 1, 2008 Let the Children Come It was quite a party! There were 200 children from all over the United States! They came to Houston, Texas on a Sunday night. Ranging in age from 3-13 years, the children all had one thing in common: Each of them was living with cancer. Now they were together at a party sponsored by the American Cancer Society. They were together at the plush Four Season Hotel in downtown Houston. They were together in excitement when a special guest arrived! Casually attired in an open collar sport shirt and sport coat, the President of the United States quickly became the center of attention in the crowd of children. “What do you do? What kind of car do you drive? How old are you? How much do you weigh? What is your bowling average? Do you like your job? Do you hope to keep it?” Those were the questions the children with cancer asked President Bill Clinton Sunday evening, February 6, 1994. One of the children, 3-year-old Timothy West, a leukemia patient from Anchorage, Alaska, gave a big bear hug to the leader of the free world. I was living in Houston at the time and I remember the front page of the CHRONICLE carried a color picture of the President surrounded by colorfully clad boys and girls, each with the artistic creation of a face painter emblazoned on a cheek. Mr. Clinton himself was grinning from ear to ear as a small African-American child sat in his lap and reached up to touch the President’s face. Go back with me 2,000 years. A similar scene is recorded in scripture. The most powerful person in the world was surrounded by children! Mothers and fathers of the children, perhaps some of them suffering with cancer or other diseases, were bringing their sons and daughters to Jesus of Nazareth that he might touch them. When the children were brought, the disciples of Jesus got mad. They started to act like the President’s Secret Service bodyguards. They tried to shield and protect Jesus. They thought he was tired, that he did not need or want to be disturbed. They loved Jesus and knew that touching and healing others took its toll on him. So the faithful followers of the Lord began to shout, “Get those kids out of here! Jesus doesn’t have time to be messing with little children! The Master is tired and needs his rest!” When Jesus saw the boys and girls being pushed aside, he was upset with his disciples. In fact, he declared to them in no uncertain terms, “Let the children come to me; don’t try to stop them. For to such little ones belongs God’s kingdom. And I tell you this: You have to receive the kingdom of God as a little child to really know what it is all about.” Then, in perhaps what is the most tender picture anywhere in the Bible, St. Mark tells us Jesus “took the children up in his arms, laid his hands on them and blessed them.” First, by saying “Let the children come,” Jesus is declaring that CHILDREN BELONG! Our Lord is asserting unequivocally through words and actions that children belong, they have a prominent place in God’s family!
Children belong in worship because of what they both give and receive here. If it is true what developmental psychologists tell us that a majority of our personality and approach to life is determined by our experiences in the first 4-6 years of life, then what better place for children to be than in worship? The ancient writer of Proverbs knew this when he wrote, “Train up a child in the way he should do, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” A contemporary corollary to that wisdom saying is, “Train up a child in the way he should go – and go that way yourself!” Children are God’s good gifts who belong to God’s family. Here they not only learn the Lord’s Prayer and the Doxology, but also they learn to love God as God loves them, and to love their neighbors as themselves.
In saying “Let the children come,” Jesus is also emphatically saying CHILDREN ARE VALUABLE! Inside these holy walls we say children are important, significant, and valuable. But what happens outside this house of God gives another message. The world may say it loves children, but the numbers are alarming:
A recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association revealed that most children who are killed in alcohol-related car crashes are riding in the car with the drinking driver, and are not passengers in cars hit by drunken drivers. And who are these intoxicated adults who kill children in these crashes? As you can sadly deduce, 64% of them are the parents or caregivers of the children. Only 18% of the 5,555 children killed in the crashes studied were wearing a seatbelt or were in a safety seat. How Jesus must weep with families who have to bury a child! Children are valuable, Jesus is saying in this text! We are called to do all we can in the church and the community: Can one person make much of a difference with children? When I was the pastor of Bellaire UMC in Houston, we had a member named Betty Stephenson. Betty was an anesthesiologist and was elected president of the Texas Medical Association. Dr. Stephenson helped launch a campaign called, “A Shot Across Texas.” It was an immunization effort to ensure that all children across the Lone Star State were vaccinated for mumps, measles, diphtheria, and whooping cough. This Methodist physician was following in the footsteps of the Great Physician, living out her faith and doing something concrete out of the conviction that children are valuable. Third and finally, in word and deed, Jesus is saying, CHILDREN ARE ROLE MODELS! Children have much to teach us about innocence, trust, vulnerability, openness, simplicity, spontaneity, creativity, and honesty. One Sunday morning at a small rural church in North Carolina, a kindergarten girl saw the pastor leaving to go to another church on the preaching circuit. “Where are you going?” she asked. Children bring life and hope to others. Remember the story in John 6 when a child shares his lunch with Jesus. Jesus takes, breaks, shares and multiplies the boy’s gift so that a hungry crowd is fed. Life and hope were given through Christ and the child! Jesus said, “Let the children come…for whoever does not receive my Father’s kingdom with the openness, the trust and the joy of a child will not enter it.” Friends, children are role models to us! They remind us of Jesus’ lesson, there are no grown-ups in heaven – only those who see life and God with the eyes of a child! In his book God Must Have a Sense of Humor, David Steele has a poem entitled “Let the Children Come.” It sums up well this service and message by the same name: In her place a young child is delightful, The office is no place for children Some children came searching for Jesus. So they tried to get rid of the children, “Let the children in,” Jesus shouted,
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