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This sermon is about being like a child—for that is what it takes to receive and enter the kingdom of God, says Jesus. This week, I wish I could be a child—with the innocence and naivete that childhood brings. This week, I wish I could be a child—and not understand what pain and heartache it must be to lose a beloved, especially a child. This week, I wish I could be a child—so that the feeling that something needs to be done in the wake of all these shootings didn’t weigh so heavily on me. But we aren’t children. We are not innocent. We do understand grief and pain. And we should feel spurred to action. So in that context, what is Jesus talking about?
Today’s scripture lesson was already a difficult one before the events of this past week. It has been used in hurtful ways for ages.
--Jesus’ words seem to suggest that divorce was only created because we couldn’t do the hard work of making marriages last, and so, many in the church decreed that you couldn’t or shouldn’t get a divorce.
I don’t think that was his point.
--Jesus’ words seem to only envision a marriage between one man and one woman—and this has been used to pummel the gay and lesbian community.
I don’t think that was his point either.
--Jesus’ words, these words, have been called “texts of terror”—because they have been used to create a monolithic vision of family—one man, one woman, 2.5 kids—TOGETHER FOREVER. How many of us fit into that conception? And if we don’t, what then?
I don’t want it to seem that I am skirting a difficult text. But the more I looked at the stories that led up to this text, the more it seemed that Jesus was really not interested in having these lawyerly arguments. He is much more interested in us being children of God—and even more so, being like a child, period.
Let’s review.
Mark 9:31ff. Jesus has been telling his disciples: “The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.” But they don’t want to hear this, so they spend the journey to Capernaun arguing who is the greatest among them. When Jesus finds out, he says “Whoever wants to be first must become last and servant of all.” And to prove his point, he grabs a nearby child, holds the child close, and says, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name, welcomes me.”
Mark 9:38ff (last week’s reading that Rev. Ralph illustrated so well). The disciples come to Jesus and want him to put a stop to someone healing in Jesus’ name without being a part of their group. Jesus doesn’t seem terribly upset. But he does mention “If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believes in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea.”
Now today’s reading. Mark 10:2ff. The Pharisees try to create a “gotcha” question that will get Jesus in trouble. So they pick the issue of divorce. Remember in other accounts we have “gotcha” questions about taxes, about healing on the Sabbath, and even about a woman marrying man after man after man (since they all died)—and whose wife would she be in the afterlife. In other words, the Pharisees weren’t really interested in Jesus’ teachings—they are interested in tripping him up.
The disciples aren’t much better. They are still talking about the subject in private. But notice that Mark has again inserted a story about a child. It seems while the disciples were having these “adult” discussions, people were bringing little children to Jesus to have them blessed—and the disciples were shooing them away.
Jesus gets mad. “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 takes the children in his arms and blesses them.
I’ll return to where I started. This sermon is about being like a child—for that is what it takes to receive and enter the kingdom of God, says Jesus. Being like a child means being focused on what is important.
Let’s take an incident that many of us smiled at on TV last weekend. A little child wanted to be blessed by the Pope. It didn’t matter that there were barricades. It didn’t matter that there was security. It didn’t matter that there were thousands of others who also might have wanted a blessing. She acted like a child, squeezed through the barricades, and ran toward the Popemobile. Security swept her up, but Francis, like Jesus, asked that she be brought to him. And she wanted the blessing, not for herself, but for her family that Francis would speak up on behalf of those who have entered this country without permission.
That is the type of behavior, I think, that Jesus is pointing to. Be like a child.
In your audacity to believe that you can do what needs to be done, be like a child.
In your hope that things can be better in our world, be like a child.
In your refusing to be deterred by systems or economics or anything else blocking your path, be like a child.
In not giving up, in allowing your heart to be wide open, be like a child.
We too often get wrapped up in the minutiae of a problem. We too often get overwhelmed by the gravity, or the scope, or the complexity of what we are facing. We too often get sidetracked by thinking, and talking, and controlling. That is what adults do. We have seen too much. We have been disappointed too many times. We sometimes forget to believe, to hope, to dream.
That is why I don’t think this passage is about divorce, or who can get married. Those are very adult problems—ones that we are still arguing about 2000 years later! Is that what the kingdom is about? No, says Jesus. The kingdom, the reign of God, the community of God, is about people. The people who are on the margins. The people who are forgotten when we get caught up in our adult discussions. The widows, the poor, the sick, the children. Those who reach out for Jesus at every opportunity. Those who desperately want a blessing.
Jesus says, We should be more like them.
In fact, Jesus says, we can only enter the kingdom if we are like them.
So this week, may we find time to do what it takes to get closer to God:
May we Be like a child.
Alleluia. Amen.
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