Pastor's
Weekly Sermon
Welcoming Life Like a Child
Rev. Janice C. Kemp
Mark 10:13-16 (Common English Bible)
13 People were bringing children to Jesus so that he would bless them. But the disciples scolded them. 14 When Jesus saw this, he grew angry and said to them, “Allow the children to come to me. Don’t forbid them, because God’s kingdom belongs to people like these children. 15 I assure you that whoever doesn’t welcome God’s kingdom like a child will never enter it.” 16 Then he hugged the children and blessed them.
If we close our eyes and imagine this scene, can’t we just see Jesus and the children? Children running to meet him, eager to experience him. Reaching out to touch him, maybe hugging his legs, holding up their arms, asking to be held, laughing. Maybe some hanging back trying to overcome their shyness before joining in. And Jesus reaching out to include them too. It’s a feel-good scene full of good vibes – young and old sharing a beautiful, delicious moment of life. A moment full of love and blessing. Hugs all around. The good stuff of life.
Do you find yourself wanting to linger with this for a bit, savoring the experience? Savoring is wonderful. I recommend it, but we can’t stop here. There’s more. Jesus has a message for us that we’ll miss if we don’t listen to the rest of the story. After he tells the disciples to let the children come to him, he continues with these words: “…God’s kingdom belongs to people like these children. Whoever doesn’t welcome God’s kingdom like a child will never enter it.”
Suddenly I am feeling like an overgrown, big kid outside the candy store, nose pressed to the window, wistfully gazing at the little kids having fun inside. Jesus’ words make me wonder, “What is it that they have…that I used to have but have lost…and need to recover? What is it that the children have and that I need so I can join the party?” Are you wondering too? This is what I want to explore together.
But first, if we want to understand Jesus’ message for us, we need to know what he means when he speaks of God’ kingdom. He’s not talking about a place we go after death. God’s kingdom is our world, the one we live in, when the world is operating as God desires, when God’s will is being done. It’s when all of creation is thriving…the two leggeds, four legged, winged, and legless. It occurs when God’s original blessing is the lived experience of living things... When people love and respect one another, when people experience peace and justice and freedom, when all have everything they need to be healthy, happy, safe, and whole. It’s the kingdom Jesus taught us to pray for…”Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Jesus spent his life teaching us with his words and showing us with his actions how we can participate in bringing God’s kingdom into our real world today. In this story shared by the Gospel writers of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Jesus tells us something new we don’t find anywhere else in scripture. And children are the clue. So let’s think about children. Especially let’s explore how children welcome life.
Can you remember when mud was a joy rather than a mess? When sand in your shoes meant you’d just returned from a wonderful adventure? When your imagination let you see the delights you take for granted now? When puddles existed to dance in with wild abandon accompanied by happy shrieks and laughter? When imaginary friends were real?
Can you remember when the world was a great big mystery just begging to be tasted, touched, and examined with all your senses until its deliciousness was fully known? When curiosity was an itch that just had to be scratched, and delight and laughter were natural responses when it was? When amazement, wonder, and joy were life companions? When learning new things was as much the stuff of life as peanut butter sandwiches? When growing was a goal in life and a new mark on the wall evidenced it was happening? When having a crayon and a piece of paper meant you were an artist and creativity flowed freely?
Children are tapped into the goodness and blessing of being alive, what we might call the deliciousness of life. God intends for us all. But in the process of growing up life happens. We get messages that, in THIS world the goodies are for someone else. Frustrations, disappointments, pain, and loss take their toll. Being “tapped in” morphs into being “numbed out.”
Here’s the good news! Numbed out isn’t a terminal condition. Goodness and blessing are still there, waiting for us. All we have to do is shift our attention to create the opening that allows the reconnection, the reawakening to the truth we knew as children.
A week ago I experienced such an opening as I was mulling over Ayla’s art[i] and the message for this service. I was listening to the radio while I was doing dishes when a favorite program, This American Life, came on. Entitled “The Show of Delights”[ii] this episode was entirely made up of stories about delight. First there was the story of a child filled with anticipation and delight that he was about to board the schoolbus for the first time. Then a story of a widow who found her way from the years-long grief back to a delight-filled life. Then three more stories, each a variation on the theme of delight. By the time I had listened to the whole program, I, too, was experiencing utter delight. By shifting my attention, this program had created an opening for me. As I have kept my attention on delight this week, I have notice many things I might have otherwise missed in my busyness.
Award winning poet Ross Gay also learned about the power of attention when he spent a year paying attention to delights. Starting on his birthday, he tried to identify something delightful in each day. Then he wrote about his experience. Just a brief musing. Handwritten, unedited. Sometimes he shared these with friends. Sometimes he skipped a day. It wasn’t long until he found that he was noticing more and more delights. He writes of his experience that year: “I felt my life to be more full of delight. Not without sorrow or fear or pain or loss. But more full of delight. I also learned this year that my delight grows – much like love and joy – when I share it.”[iii]
The stories of Ross Gay and the people on This American Life demonstrate that where we put our attention is what we open to in our experience. Here’s a challenge to help you open to the delightful wonderfulness of life: I invite you to take that piece of candy[iv] you selected this morning, and put it somewhere in your home that you will see it. Let it will remind you to put your attention on what is delightful, uplifting, or wonder-filled in your life. Be open to discovery. Then, if you can wait that long, on Valentine’s day allow yourself to experience the deliciousness of that piece of candy. As you savor it, remember what Ayla has told us in her child-wisdom. The three things we need: Love, Hope, and candy (that is, experiencing the deliciousness of life). Maybe you’ll want to continue to practice attentiveness even after the candy is gone.
Believe that reawakening is possible, and practice attentiveness with anticipation. The late American poet, e e cummings wrote eloquently of his own reawakening from darkness to the fullness of life. May his words help you live into your own reawakening.
i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes
(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)
how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any—lifted from the no
of all nothing—human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?
(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)
The children’s ear are awake and their eyes are opened. May it be so for all of us!
[i] Ayla is my 7 year-old grand-niece. During the “Time for the Young at Heart,” we looked at a crayon drawing she made for me. It has a ring of hearts and flowers around a blue bird with a yellow tail. The words on the tail say,”The three thangs you need: Love, Hoe and cindhies.” We decided that last word was her way of spelling “candy.” I am interpreting this word to stand for all that makes the experience of life delicious and wonderful.
[ii] This program is available on the internet at thisamericanlife.org, #692, “The Show of Delights.”
[iii] Ross Gay. 2019. The Book of Delights. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill. Algonquin, NC. Quote from the Preface, xii.
[iv] As part of Time for the Young at Heart, we passed out pieces of candy both to celebrate upcoming Valentine’s Day and to give us a reminder of Ayla’s words.
Rev. Janice C. Kemp
Mark 10:13-16 (Common English Bible)
13 People were bringing children to Jesus so that he would bless them. But the disciples scolded them. 14 When Jesus saw this, he grew angry and said to them, “Allow the children to come to me. Don’t forbid them, because God’s kingdom belongs to people like these children. 15 I assure you that whoever doesn’t welcome God’s kingdom like a child will never enter it.” 16 Then he hugged the children and blessed them.
If we close our eyes and imagine this scene, can’t we just see Jesus and the children? Children running to meet him, eager to experience him. Reaching out to touch him, maybe hugging his legs, holding up their arms, asking to be held, laughing. Maybe some hanging back trying to overcome their shyness before joining in. And Jesus reaching out to include them too. It’s a feel-good scene full of good vibes – young and old sharing a beautiful, delicious moment of life. A moment full of love and blessing. Hugs all around. The good stuff of life.
Do you find yourself wanting to linger with this for a bit, savoring the experience? Savoring is wonderful. I recommend it, but we can’t stop here. There’s more. Jesus has a message for us that we’ll miss if we don’t listen to the rest of the story. After he tells the disciples to let the children come to him, he continues with these words: “…God’s kingdom belongs to people like these children. Whoever doesn’t welcome God’s kingdom like a child will never enter it.”
Suddenly I am feeling like an overgrown, big kid outside the candy store, nose pressed to the window, wistfully gazing at the little kids having fun inside. Jesus’ words make me wonder, “What is it that they have…that I used to have but have lost…and need to recover? What is it that the children have and that I need so I can join the party?” Are you wondering too? This is what I want to explore together.
But first, if we want to understand Jesus’ message for us, we need to know what he means when he speaks of God’ kingdom. He’s not talking about a place we go after death. God’s kingdom is our world, the one we live in, when the world is operating as God desires, when God’s will is being done. It’s when all of creation is thriving…the two leggeds, four legged, winged, and legless. It occurs when God’s original blessing is the lived experience of living things... When people love and respect one another, when people experience peace and justice and freedom, when all have everything they need to be healthy, happy, safe, and whole. It’s the kingdom Jesus taught us to pray for…”Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Jesus spent his life teaching us with his words and showing us with his actions how we can participate in bringing God’s kingdom into our real world today. In this story shared by the Gospel writers of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Jesus tells us something new we don’t find anywhere else in scripture. And children are the clue. So let’s think about children. Especially let’s explore how children welcome life.
Can you remember when mud was a joy rather than a mess? When sand in your shoes meant you’d just returned from a wonderful adventure? When your imagination let you see the delights you take for granted now? When puddles existed to dance in with wild abandon accompanied by happy shrieks and laughter? When imaginary friends were real?
Can you remember when the world was a great big mystery just begging to be tasted, touched, and examined with all your senses until its deliciousness was fully known? When curiosity was an itch that just had to be scratched, and delight and laughter were natural responses when it was? When amazement, wonder, and joy were life companions? When learning new things was as much the stuff of life as peanut butter sandwiches? When growing was a goal in life and a new mark on the wall evidenced it was happening? When having a crayon and a piece of paper meant you were an artist and creativity flowed freely?
Children are tapped into the goodness and blessing of being alive, what we might call the deliciousness of life. God intends for us all. But in the process of growing up life happens. We get messages that, in THIS world the goodies are for someone else. Frustrations, disappointments, pain, and loss take their toll. Being “tapped in” morphs into being “numbed out.”
Here’s the good news! Numbed out isn’t a terminal condition. Goodness and blessing are still there, waiting for us. All we have to do is shift our attention to create the opening that allows the reconnection, the reawakening to the truth we knew as children.
A week ago I experienced such an opening as I was mulling over Ayla’s art[i] and the message for this service. I was listening to the radio while I was doing dishes when a favorite program, This American Life, came on. Entitled “The Show of Delights”[ii] this episode was entirely made up of stories about delight. First there was the story of a child filled with anticipation and delight that he was about to board the schoolbus for the first time. Then a story of a widow who found her way from the years-long grief back to a delight-filled life. Then three more stories, each a variation on the theme of delight. By the time I had listened to the whole program, I, too, was experiencing utter delight. By shifting my attention, this program had created an opening for me. As I have kept my attention on delight this week, I have notice many things I might have otherwise missed in my busyness.
Award winning poet Ross Gay also learned about the power of attention when he spent a year paying attention to delights. Starting on his birthday, he tried to identify something delightful in each day. Then he wrote about his experience. Just a brief musing. Handwritten, unedited. Sometimes he shared these with friends. Sometimes he skipped a day. It wasn’t long until he found that he was noticing more and more delights. He writes of his experience that year: “I felt my life to be more full of delight. Not without sorrow or fear or pain or loss. But more full of delight. I also learned this year that my delight grows – much like love and joy – when I share it.”[iii]
The stories of Ross Gay and the people on This American Life demonstrate that where we put our attention is what we open to in our experience. Here’s a challenge to help you open to the delightful wonderfulness of life: I invite you to take that piece of candy[iv] you selected this morning, and put it somewhere in your home that you will see it. Let it will remind you to put your attention on what is delightful, uplifting, or wonder-filled in your life. Be open to discovery. Then, if you can wait that long, on Valentine’s day allow yourself to experience the deliciousness of that piece of candy. As you savor it, remember what Ayla has told us in her child-wisdom. The three things we need: Love, Hope, and candy (that is, experiencing the deliciousness of life). Maybe you’ll want to continue to practice attentiveness even after the candy is gone.
Believe that reawakening is possible, and practice attentiveness with anticipation. The late American poet, e e cummings wrote eloquently of his own reawakening from darkness to the fullness of life. May his words help you live into your own reawakening.
i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes
(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)
how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any—lifted from the no
of all nothing—human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?
(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)
The children’s ear are awake and their eyes are opened. May it be so for all of us!
[i] Ayla is my 7 year-old grand-niece. During the “Time for the Young at Heart,” we looked at a crayon drawing she made for me. It has a ring of hearts and flowers around a blue bird with a yellow tail. The words on the tail say,”The three thangs you need: Love, Hoe and cindhies.” We decided that last word was her way of spelling “candy.” I am interpreting this word to stand for all that makes the experience of life delicious and wonderful.
[ii] This program is available on the internet at thisamericanlife.org, #692, “The Show of Delights.”
[iii] Ross Gay. 2019. The Book of Delights. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill. Algonquin, NC. Quote from the Preface, xii.
[iv] As part of Time for the Young at Heart, we passed out pieces of candy both to celebrate upcoming Valentine’s Day and to give us a reminder of Ayla’s words.
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