I wonder if any one here is an autograph hunter, or if anyone has an autograph from some particularly well known?
I wonder if you, like me, have seen at the end of tennis matches at Wimbledon, people – often youngsters lining up at the entrance with programmes and big tennis balls for the players to sign as they leave the court. Two things have always intrigued me about this. The first thing is that usually the player will take a pen off the first person to ask and then use the same pen to sign everyone’s things – but then how does the pen get back to its owner? The second thing is the grace that must be required to sign autographs if you’ve just lost the match. It’s fine for the winner, but if I’d just been knocked out of Wimbledon, the last thing I’d want to do is to sign autographs.
I suspect the same is true if you’re a well known person and you just want to have a quiet evening out with friends or family. I imagine it gets wearing for people to coming over all the time and asking for autographs or to take selfies with you. I should think the temptation to have a minder who discourages people from disturbing you would be quite strong.
I wonder if that’s what the disciples thought they were doing. They were Jesus’ close friends and followers. They were part of his team. They travelled round with him, listening to him, watching him, learning from him. They had chosen to leave their homes and their work and follow him because they believed that he was important, that he had important things to say. Perhaps they felt protective of him, to allow him to focus on what they thought were the important things and the important people.
But, they hadn’t been listening carefully enough to Jesus’ priorities. Last week we were looking at the chapter before this one in Mark’s account of the good news of Jesus’ life. We heard about how the disciples had been arguing about which of them was the greatest, and Jesus invited a youngster to come and sit with them, and he said to them, “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me.”
It couldn’t have been much clearer, could it. Jesus is all about welcoming little children.
And now, just a little while later, we find parents bringing their children to Jesus so that he could bless them. And what are the disciples doing? Have they learned the lesson Jesus had been teaching them about welcoming children? Not really. They were telling the parents off, and sending them away. So Jesus tells them again. “Let the little children come to me, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” And he took the children in his arms and blessed them.
This has obvious applications for us today. We’re delighted to be able to welcome Mason and his family today, for his baptism. It’s great to be able to welcome his family and friends, and all this youngsters to celebrate Mason and to pray for God’s blessing on him. As I said last week, here at All Saints we love to welcome children and to help them experience all the good things that God has for them. We love to support families of all kinds of shapes and sizes as they explore what it means to follow Jesus in every day family life.
But Jesus doesn’t want us to stop at welcoming children and their families. He goes on to say something else. He says, “Anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”
It’s not enough for us to welcome children, we also have to realise that we have something to learn from children about how to receive the good things that God has for us.
That is what the kingdom of God is. The kingdom of God isn’t a place – it’s not like the United Kingdom. The kingdom of God isn’t heaven – it’s not a place we go when this earthly life ends. The kingdom of God is wherever there is someone who follows Jesus as their King. Wherever and whenever someone lives out the values of God’s kingdom. Jesus said that there are two instructions that are at the heart of what it means to follow him. They are to love God with all that we are, and to love those around us as we have been loved.
In the baptism part of the service, Mason’s parents and godparents made decisions on his behalf. Decisions to turn away from sin – all the wrong things we do, and to receive God’s forgiveness, and committed to bring him up as someone who follows Jesus, and lives as a subject of God’s kingdom here on earth. That’s what all Christians do. We fail, we don’t always get it right, but when we do, we come back to God, confess what we’ve got wrong, and are forgiven, and move on.
Sometimes living as a part of God’s kingdom is hard. People will misunderstand us, and may ridicule us. It will mean living differently to those around us, with different priorities. But my experience, and the experience of countless millions of people around the world and over the centuries, is that it is also a source of great blessing. What could be better than living a life of freedom from shame and guilt, living a life of meaning and significance, living a life knowing ourselves to be loved and called to love others.
And what does Jesus say about how we can receive this? Like a little child.
This doesn’t mean childishly. We all know that children are not always sweetness and light. They can be stubborn, difficult, and through spectacular tantrums. Though, to be fair, so can some adults. If Mason was to remain the age he is now, there would be something wrong, we expect that he will grow up and mature, physically, emotionally, spiritually. And the same is true for Christians – we are to become mature. Even so, there is something about being child-like that remains important.
And I’d like to suggest three things that I think children are generally better at than adults, that are important.
The first is a sense of wonder. Children tend to find every aspect of the world fascinating. It can mean that a walk to the shops takes much longer than we planned, as they stop to examine every leaf, stone, and stick. They are new to the world, and the world is new to them, and everything is wonderful. It seems to me that we can lose that as we grow older. We stop seeing the world around us, in its infinite variety and beauty. We lose the wonder at a simple leaf – it’s beauty and sheer elegance. And as we lose this wonder, we maybe lose an appreciation for the creativity and power of the one who created it all, our Father, God.
The second thing is a willingness to trust. Unless they have had a very bad start to life, most children have a sense of trust. They accept that other people want to do them good and will look out for them. Sadly this is not always true, and as we grow, we can grow a shell of cynicism and mistrust.
Then, when we hear the claims of Jesus, that it is possible to be forgiven, to be blessed, that God loves us and longs to welcome us home, we look for the catch. We struggle to trust that God is good and loves us.
The third thing is the ability to receive things as a gift. This, perhaps is linked to the last thing. If someone offers a child something nice, they will usually take it. No questions asked. They have no sense that they have to earn it, or pay back the favour. We aim to teach them to say thank you, but somehow also, as we grow, many of us find receiving gifts, freely given, difficult. And this is what Jesus offers us. As John writes in his letter – see what great love the Father has lavished on us – that we should be called children of God. This is not something we deserve, or which we can earn. It is the free gift of God to us, his children.
It may be that this is the first time that you’ve heard this invitation from God, to come and live as one of his children, with Jesus as king. It may be that you’ve heard it before, but today something has changed, you want to say yes to Jesus for yourself. You want to recapture that sense of wonder at the world, you want to learn to trust with childlike faith, you want to receive this free gift that God is offering you. If that is you, then I encourage you to spend some time with God, saying yes to Jesus, and receiving all the good things that God has for you.
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