Text: Luke 18:9-17
Facebook live: Salvation in Christ is all gift!
17 Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”
It has been said that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those, who in time of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.
Source Unknown.
Robert Fulghum wrote in the Kansas City Times, "Most of what I really need to know about how to live, and what to do, and how to be, I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sandbox at nursery school.
"These are the things I learned: Share everything. Play fair. Don't hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don't take things that aren't yours. Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody . . . When you go out into the world, watch for traffic, hold hands, and stick together." - Hugh Duncan.
17 Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”
So, what is a child, what is faith, and - what is childlike faith?
Well, Webster says of a child: It is an unborn or recently born person; a young person especially between infancy and youth; a childlike or childish person; a person not yet of age; a son or daughter of human parents; one strongly influenced by another or by a place, or state of affairs.
And about faith Webster says: It’s a strong belief or trust in someone or something; belief in the existence of God; strong religious feelings or beliefs; a system of religious beliefs; fidelity to one's promises; sincerity of intentions; belief and trust in and loyalty to God; belief in the traditional doctrines of a religion; firm belief in something for which there is no proof; complete trust.
So, picture if you will a young child standing on the side of a pool; not yet of age to swim and having not been taught how, but being strongly influenced by dad’s call to jump and that he will catch them.
The child too has strong feelings and beliefs, that if dad misses or drops me, “I will hit the water and I’m going to sink as fast as the stones I’ve dropped in the pool at the deep end!”
But dad has promised to catch them and so they place their trust and intentions … complete trust and loyalty in dad … though there is no proof. As the child jumps, dad catches … confirming their faith in the object of their safety - the one who will not let them fall.
It is true as well with our heavenly father. As St. Paul writes in our epistle lesson for today:
18 The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. 2 Timothy 4:18
It is his promise.
So, where do we today place our trust?
What or in whom is the object of faith for the Christian?
Is it in our self?
Is it in our parents?
Is it in the church or religion as a whole?
Is it society and political power?
Is it strong or weak like a child?
15 Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them.
For those of you who attended Pastor Keuning’s Bible study a few weeks ago, he taught on the faith of infants. He explained that the word child in Greek can have different words to address different ages and meanings.
Paidion: a child, normally below the age of puberty
Teknion: a little child (small, a child or offspring)
Brephos: a very small child; the meaning even extends to an as-yet-unborn child or fetus.
Infants or babies can’t come to Jesus so the “they” - probable refers to their parents or responsible adults who were bringing them to Jesus. Much like we continue to bring those gifts of God given to us, those little boys and girls, who are brought as infants to the waters of Holy Baptism … where God himself marks them as his child. Or, even as those children who are brought to God’s house in the womb of their mothers as they await the time of their birth, as we will soon await the Nativity of our Lord conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the blessed virgin Mary.
As we compare this part of our reading with the earlier part dealing with the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. We see the strength of the Pharisee, who standing in his own strength, might, and faith brags:
12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’
In a sense saying, “God! Are you not pleased with me and all that I do and have done for you?”
He stands proudly by himself, covered in his own righteousness and he calls out so that all can hear and see just how righteous he is:
“… thank you … that I am not like other men ... extortioners, [those who get things through any way or any means that they can] unjust, [the opposite of the truthful and fair are those who are unjust. Those who give you what you don’t deserve rather than what you do deserve, adulterers, [those who defile their marriage or live contrary to what God has commanded] or, even like this tax collector. [this poor tool of the government sent to extract all that is rightfully mine, we might suppose.]
Do we at times think the same? Are we at times not also, the Pharisee who looks at ourselves against the other Christian believers that we see, thinking how pleased God is with us and our good prayers, good works, and duty that we give to God? I know I have, and maybe you have too?
Well the truth is, like the Pharisee, we can have big faith in me, myself and I.
We can see our own wisdom, reason and understanding as a greater than that of the Lord and his word – especially for a child. To give value only to those children who have already been born, [teknion in the Greek], as opposed to the [brephos] the word the Lord uses in our text for infants or even those still in the womb – like my little grandson Jackson Albert Tkac who awaits his own nativity and coming forth – though we have his picture in unbelievable clarity through the technology of an enhanced ultrasound today.
In the account of the visit of Mary to Elizabeth in Luke chapter 1:
40 and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41 And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, 42 and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 43 And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby [brephos] in my womb leaped for joy.
The song we sing that most clearly shows the childlike faith that Jesus is talking about was written in the mid 1700’s by:
Henrietta L. von Hays.
I am Jesus little lamb, Ever glad at heart I am;
For my Shepherd gently guides me,
Knows my needs and well provides me,
Loves me every day the same,
Even calls me by my name.
Childlike faith clings to the savior as a child to his mother; knowing that every need is provided for them by God daily, and that he lovingly calls each one of us by name – from eternity past, in the womb, in life, and as we await death we remain his little lambs.
Day by day, at home, away, Jesus is my staff and stay.
When I hunger, Jesus feeds me,
Into pleasant pastures feeds me;
When I thirst, he bids me go
where the quiet waters flow.
Every day our childlike faith is place in him. Whether hunger or thirst, we can find the pleasant pastures of rest in him as we daily remember the quiet waters of our own baptism of forgiveness where our sins have been washed away.
Who so happy as I am, Even now the shepherd’s lamb?
And when my short life is ended,
By his angel host attended,
He shall fold me to his breast,
There within his arms to rest.
Our joy with childlike faith is in the good shepherd Jesus who will, even as our life comes to a close [Bill Wilstermann] and we look to him through the eyes of old age, comfort us all in his loving arms where we will rest with him in eternity.
Jesus says:
“Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. 17 Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” Luke 18:16b-17
New verse that I felt compelled to add.
I am Jesus little lamb, in my mother’s womb I am;
Christ my Shepherd knits and feeds me,
Sees me grow, he cares and leads me,
Loves me every day the same,
Always calls me by my name!
It is by God’s Grace, Mercy and Spirit that we too can receive his Kingdom with that blessed childlike [brephos] faith. May we, by that same Spirit, pray to always remain in the one true faith as a child who is Jesus’ little lamb.
In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment