Year B Proper 22 2024 Like A Child

 Year B Proper 22, 6 October 2024

St. James the Less, Ashland, VA on retreat at Shrine Mont

“Like a Child”

Collect: Almighty and everlasting God, you are always more ready to hear than we to pray, and to give more than we either desire or deserve: Pour upon us the abundance of your mercy, forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things for which we are not worthy to ask, except through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ our Savior; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:5-12

Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word. When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

Now someone has testified somewhere,

“What are human beings that you are mindful of them,

or mortals, that you care for them?

You have made them for a little while lower than the angels;

you have crowned them with glory and honor,

subjecting all things under their feet.”

Now in subjecting all things to them, God left nothing outside their control. As it is, we do not yet see everything in subjection to them, but we do see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father. For this reason Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters, saying,

“I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters,

in the midst of the congregation I will praise you.”

Mark 10:2-16

Some Pharisees came, and to test Jesus they asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.” But Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, “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.” And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.

Good morning, friends! Isn’t it wonderful to be on God’s mountain! We have so much to be thankful for, and much of that is the luxury of being together with family and dear friends in a place we cherish.

This morning’s Gospel reading is mostly about divorce, which for those who have experienced it is heartbreaking and hard, and for those outside that experience it is easy to misunderstand or to judge. I do not think that was the point of what Jesus was trying to say, most of it the metaphysical nature of intimacy, and the outcome of a lack of love and compassion on our part.

But before we miss it, I do want to focus on the final section of what Jesus says in today’s readings, and look at the nature of faith.

People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, “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.” And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.

“Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.”

God’s Kingdom is a gift, a precious gift. A gift we may dismiss, or overlook, or take for granted. It is a gift because it is received. It is something which we are given. We do not earn it, nor do we deserve it. It is something beyond all that. 

It is given because we are loved.

So often, people see those of us who have a life of faith as being restricted or repressed. But the rule of God, the Lordship of Christ in our lives are the gifts of how we can live a life of best practices and full of joy and love.

We are not hindered, but we are delivered from heartbreaks and ramifications of bad choices by following God’s rule in our lives. The Kingdom, and all its implications, is a gift. A gift we can receive. And Jesus says the thing we have some say over to receive said gift.

“Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.”

So that begs the question, how does a little child receive?

We have all experienced or seen videos of a kid on Christmas morning tearing into her presents. Excited beyond belief. Ripping open the paper and then celebrating, maybe even dancing with the present before it is even out of the box. 

When was the last time you did a jig for the Rule of God in your life?

Sometimes a kid is speechless, in shock of disbelief that this is actually theirs. 

The child has to be encouraged to open it up, and that it is real and it is theirs. Disbelief is another acceptable childlike response to receiving a gift.

Sometimes, too, I have seen a child stop, set the gift aside, and go straight to the giver and hug them. A cuddle in direct response to the overwhelm of joy. The gift is so great the thanksgiving must be immediate and direct. This is another way a child can receive the immediacy of the gift.

Now the jig, the shock, or the affection may be the immediate responses. But what are the long-term childlike ways of receipt?

A child takes it literally and directly. There is no overthinking, or picking intentions apart. It is direct and assumed as real and good and true. A child receives without guile or worry. A child just takes it. And she is appreciative and happy about it.

How might we receive the Kingdom of God like a little child? What do we need to do? Or more importantly, how do we need to be?

Because that is why Jesus came. It is why Jesus needed to come. When Moses gave God’s Commandments to the people, it was about what to do. Do this, and don’t do that. And that only got us so far. It got as far enough to know that we needed something more. We didn’t need to change so much what we did or did not do, but we needed to change. The Us part. We needed to be different. We needed a way to change who we were.

And Jesus came to enable and encourage us to do that.

In our Hebrews reading it speaks to Jesus, and how he is apart and different from all the prophets who came before. He was singular in that instead of just speaking for God, he became a testimony to the nature of God, a very reflection of God in who he was and what he did. And Jesus did it all to bring us home. As our Hebrews reading closes:

It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father. For this reason Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters, saying,

“I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters,

in the midst of the congregation I will praise you.”

We moved from creatures, created by God, to be siblings with Christ, sisters and brothers of Jesus, welcomed home to our eternal home.

We have become new creations through Christ, and in Christ, and for Christ. Wow! Just wow! I could dance a jig, or fall down in holy awe, or run to Jesus and give him a huge hug. One of my favorite hymns…

I will arise and go to Jesus, he will embrace me in his arms.

In the arms of my dear savior, oh, there are ten thousand charms. 

Recently I was reminded of all of this. I have been back from my sabbatical for a week. My body may finally be back in this time zone. I walked across Spain on a pilgrimage that faithful people have been doing for a thousand years. St. Francis actually did it, blessed Francis whose feast day was Friday. For a thousand years people have been doing the Camino de Santiago, the Way of St. James. I started in France and walked over two mountain ranges over a month and a half. I got blisters and infections, and kept going. On doctor’s orders I stopped for a spell, but then continued on, and made it to the destination. 

As I was going I read through the Gospels, and early on I read Matthew’s Gospel. In Matthew Jesus quotes Hoseah, saying, “I require mercy not sacrifice.” In fact, he cites this quote twice (9:13 and 12:7). That really hit home. I had to remind myself that yes I was walking this ancient pilgrimage as an act of devotion, but the pilgrimage was not about walking. The pilgrimage was about getting in touch with Jesus. Jesus requires me to have mercy on me and not sacrifice my health for this walk. I reminded myself of that when I grabbed a bus, or a train, or a taxi some days. I still did 78% of it, and I still have all my fingers and toes, thanks be to God. But what it was all about was giving myself a time and space to be who I am in Jesus, and not worry about minutiae of rules, the Thou Shalts and the Thou Shalt Nots. When I am more worried about the doing I am putting the cart before the horse.

It is like when one is learning to dance. You have to look at your feet at times, and count out loud. But to really dance, you have to be a dancer. It has to become who you are, instead of something you do. To really swim you have to be a swimmer. To really be a Christian, you have to come to it like a child.

Ask a kindergarten class, who is a dancer, and most of the kids will raise their hands. Ask them which of them is an artist and most will raise their hands. Ask which of them is a good singer and again, most think they are. They have not become jaded and forgotten their original belovedness and the possibility of being anything that thrives in childlike optimism.

A story is told of a boy who would ride his bike up and down the top of his fence. Somehow, some way, he got his bike up there and rode up and down, back and forth, not thinking about it. And then one day someone came by and screamed, “Hey kid, don’t you know it is impossible to ride your bike on top of a fence?!?!?” And after that day, he never could again.

“Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” 

Jesus came to give us a gift. A gift that we can only receive if we receive it like a child. We accept it however we are wired, but we take it for what it is, and for who we are. It changes everything for us if we will let it. We are new creations and we have the authority of being Children of God whose Father has all authority and power and glory and honor and dominion, our Dad is a Dad of Abundance and we have all we need. We just forget it at times.

A kid does not worry about the bill at a restaurant. If Dad took them there, they will get what they need. A kid takes it on faith. When will we learn that lesson?

Friends, as we enter into the life in the Kingdom, and we let God’s Rule take over all that we are and all that we do, we have nothing to Fear, and we can have the Audacity to have Hope in a dark and hurting world. We know how the Story ends. And they all lived happily ever after. It may sound like a Children’s Story, and maybe it is. But unless we receive it like that, can we ever enter the Kingdom of God? 

Think on that. And maybe just take it on faith. Amen