“Children and God's Grace ”    2011

Deuteronomy 6:1-9           Matthew 18:1-7

 

Deuteronomy 6:1-9

6Now this is the commandment—the statutes and the ordinances—that the Lord your God charged me to teach you to observe in the land that you are about to cross into and occupy, 2so that you and your children and your children’s children, may fear the Lord your God all the days of your life, and keep all his decrees and his commandments that I am commanding you, so that your days may be long. 3Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe them diligently, so that it may go well with you, and so that you may multiply greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has promised you.  4Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. 5You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. 6Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. 7Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. 8Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, 9and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

 

Matthew 18:1-7

18At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 2He called a child, whom he put among them, 3and said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me. 6“If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were fastened around your neck and you were drowned in the depth of the sea. 7Woe to the world because of stumbling blocks! Occasions for stumbling are bound to come, but woe to the one by whom the stumbling block comes!

 

In his book, What's So Amazing About Grace,

            Philip Yancey describes God's grace by retelling this parable:

 

A young girl rebels against her parent's strict rules and morals.

            She hates them for over-reacting to her nose-ring & tattoo,

                        for objecting to her music and the length of her skirts…

            …so seething with anger and rebellion, she runs away one night.

 

In the city,   she is befriended by a nice man with a big shiny car.

            He offers her a ride, buys her lunch, gives her a place to stay,

                        and some pills and a few drinks that make her feel better

                                    --- better than she's ever felt  before…

            … and she thinks, how stupid and prehistoric

                  that her parents kept her away from all this fun for so long.

 

            This grand party-life continues for a while ...

                        the nice man with the big car teaches her what men want,

                                    she’s young, cute, and has  money, drugs, new clothes…

 

…  she's got no complaints,   and her parents' back home seem like

            a lifetime away,  -just a distant and over-restrictive past.

 

but the wild times & this fast life eventually do catch up with her;

            it takes more and more drugs to keep happy,

                        and some of the men she meets aren’t really very nice.

 

            She becomes ill and sickly,  looking older and street-worn -->

                        customers find her less attractive, less willing to pay,

                                    and money becomes harder and harder to come by.

She is surprised at how quickly

       that nice man with the big fancy car has turned mean and vicious.

 

More time passes, her illness and cough continue to get worse -

            and keeping up with her addiction finally becomes too much,

                                    and the nice man with the big car discards her;

                                                            she's thrown out into the street

                                                                 with no money and   no hope and   no future.

 

She sleeps out on a metal sewer grate just to keep warm,

            and her pitiful condition continues to worsen as she weakens.

                        She is alone, filthy, sick, hungry, needing a fix

                                    and has little or nothing left to offer in trade.

 

            In her sorrow, in her isolation, and her broken despair;

                        she sobs as memories of home flash through her mind ---

 

Feeling all alone and broken, she whimpers, remembering  .....

                    that even her dog back home eats and lives better than this

                                    and in that moment,   all she wants   is to go back home.

 

Finally she calls home, but gets only the answering machine,

                                                            so she hangs up without leaving a message ...

            She tries again,

                        the machine again, she hangs up leaving no message.

 

Finally, on a third and desperate try, she hears the machine again,

           but this time, she leaves a message

                        “Dad, Mom .... it's me ....

                                    I was wondering about maybe coming home ....

                                                I’ll be on a bus, tomorrow night, about midnight;

                                                            and if you’re not there, I’ll understand,

                                                                        ... and I guess, I’ll just keep going…”

                                   

On the long bus ride home, she recognizes serious flaws in her plan -

            what if her parents are out of town or they miss the message?

 

                        or if by now, having written her off as hopeless and gone,

                                    they don’t want her back ... not the way she is now ...

                                                not after all that she has done.

 

Nevertheless, she tries to imagine the scene   and prepares for it,

            just in case they do get the message and they do decide to come.

 

                        She rehearses several versions of her apology,

                                    how she will beg for just a place to rest a while...

                        and as the bus nears the station, her apprehension grows.

 

The bus arrives, pulls up to the station and stops,

                                    the driver calls out -- “15 minutes --”

            trembling fearfully she hesitantly gets up, steps out,

                        and walks into the terminal, not knowing what to expect.

 

But all her careful rehearsing   doesn’t prepare for what she sees:

 

            there's a large group, maybe thirty or forty people;

                        her parents, brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles,

                                    her grandparents and even her great-grandmother,

            all with silly hats and noise makers and streamers

                        all smiling, standing with balloons

                                    under a huge bright banner that says, “Welcome Home”.

 

Then and from out of the crowd, her father rushes up to her

            and choking through tears she begins, “Dad, I’m so sorry …”

 

But he interrupts her:  “hush child, -- we’ve no time for that …

            we’ll be late for the party --

                        there's a big banquet ready and waiting for you at home ” 

 

**      Grace is about joy and welcome, and it doesn’t  demand or say:

                             “well,  I hope now you’ve learned your lesson”

 

If you have read through almost any of the parables that Jesus told,

            you can't miss seeing the pattern,

                    of acceptance and invitation to sinners, to the unworthy

                                    as bold expressions of God's love, mercy and grace

                                                especially to the most undeserving and outcasts

              - prostitutes, sinners, tax collectors, thieves, Samaritans.

 

Again and again, He demonstrated the truth that God's love

            is absolutely unearned, entirely gratuitous and uncalled for,

                        as if    even the worst sin or failure could be forgiven ---

 

*  which in fact, is the very essence of our Christian faith,

                   because our God, our loving and merciful God,

                           is the God of infinite  & undeserved   second chances.

        

But too often, rather than demonstrating and talking about

            our gracious God who loves us, even as we are,

                        the church has portrayed God as reluctant to forgive,

                                    and demanding repentance before forgiveness & mercy.

 

Too often the message  associated with the Church and Christianity

            is harshly judgmental, coldly mean-spirited and angry

                        which distorts the true message of God's love for us all…

                                                … that the mission of Jesus

                                                            was God's grace for undeserving sinners.

 

The message we are called by God to live, to reflect and make known,

       and the wonderful truth that Christians are called to proclaim:

                        is that God loves us, loves us each and every one of us,

                             regardless of our sins or mistakes or failures,

                                      regardless of our situation or trouble we are in.

 

When we are aware and accept grace as God's promise and truth for us,

            that truth   of God's unrelenting love and desire to bless us,

                        that same grace   has the power to grow and transform us,

                                    into living better, more joyful and meaningful lives.

 

And whether we respond to God's love with faithful obedience or not

            yet God still loves us; regardless of whatever we may say or do.

 

In love,

            God continues to say, 'yes',  even when we are screaming, 'no'.

                        … and that wonderful and undeserved loving grace

                                    is rooted in the very nature and  being of our God…      

     … which means that no amount of trying will make God love us more,

              and no amount of sin or failure will make God love us any less…

 

…   and I know of nothing in this world,

            that better illustrates that truth about God's gracious love,

                        than the baptism of an infant or a young child.

 

What more than the baptism of an infant or child symbolizes

          and bears witness to the truth that God's love lays claim to us,

                even before we have knowledge or can respond with any faith?

 

Infant baptism uniquely gives expression to the ultimate truth,

            that we are saved by grace, by God's grace alone

                        quite apart from our own good works or any deeds of faith.

As we read in  Titus 3:5

            … he (Jesus) saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy, through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.

 

The babies and young children that we baptize

            haven't repented or done anything to deserved God's love…

                  … therefore, whatever it is that happens at their baptism

                          it's entirely God's doing, and it's all about God's love.

 

Baptism is a wonderful mystery that signifies

            something awesome that God has already decided & accomplished,

                  and in response, we,

                                    parents & congregation, vow that over time:

 

                        faithfully, to make that truth  of God's love known to them,

                            to provide an environment reflecting God's love & mercy

            so that all our children will learn and respond to God’s grace.

 

**        That is the essence of what we swore to God    that we would do.

           

            So,  how are you     going to fulfill your promise?

 

How are we going to train these children in the Christian faith

            so that they will know of God’s infinite love, grace & mercy?

 

Consider your own past, persons of inspiration when you were young,

            and who were the meaningful - influential adults in your life?

 

Who were the grownups who took an interest in you,  

     in your faith-journey, your character & spiritual development?

            Who do you remember,   and what do you remember most about them?

 

For me, Harold Kurth was a dedicated Sunday School teacher.

            We were a pretty rambunctious group of Jr. high boys --

                        a difficult class --- at a difficult age…

           

            … until the week that he brought in some of his wood carvings,

                      some whittling knives and rough cut-outs for us to carve,

                                    and the patience to teach us how to do wood carvings.

 

So we would whittle and sand, listen while he taught Bible lessons;

            and with our hands busy,  we learned about the Christian faith.

 

            But looking back, what mattered and most nurtured our faith

                        really wasn't the SS lesson or the Bible knowledge,

                             it was his time, his effort and personal interest in us.

Harold visibly lived out what he believed,

          and genuinely cared enough to teach us   Christian character,

                   --- and by what he did,   he gave credence to his words.

 

That is the way that faith, a living and personal knowledge of God,

            is passed down through the ages and the generations,

                        and is interwoven into the very fabric of our lives.

We read about this in   Deuteronomy 6:6-7

            Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart.  Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise.

 

Children learn faith, to claim God’s love & grace for themselves,

            by observing how others around them  live out their faith,

                        and especially by seeing how those whom they know & trust, 

                                    relate to God and reflect his love in their lives…

     …  which places an awesome responsibility & trust upon each of us…

 

… as Jesus explained in     Matthew 18:5-6

            Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.   If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me,  it would be better for you if a great millstone were fastened around your neck and you were drowned in the depth of the sea.

 

So we are commanded to teach by modeling and by demonstrating

      talking about our faith journey & by answering their questions,

   so that by seeing our life of faith, they will make it their own,

            and come to experience God for themselves in their own lives.

 

So the task of both family  and Church,   is to demonstrate & model

            the truth and depth of our Christian faith by both word & deed,

                        that is,  by our example and by the choices we make in life;

*    for it is by how we live that we truly demonstrate and prove

                        that our words of faith and integrity have really meaning.

 

I believe that the significant task of this church and congregation

            is to create a caring and  faith-nurturing   environment

                        where we do faithfully reflect God's gracious love

                                    by welcoming all and being attentive to human needs,

            especially an environment

                        where children can grow and experience God's grace.

 

Our call is to intentionally and actively demonstrate

             God’s love and grace in every way we can

                        by serving as   caring dispensers of God's love & grace;

            and nothing that we'll ever do  will matter more than

                        our loving influence and compassion shown to children

                                    as a faithful reflection of God's own gracious love.

            As Jesus said: Matthew 18:5

                        Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.