2013-05-05 Playtime at God's House
Luke 18:15-17
New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
Jesus Blesses Little Children
15 People were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them; and when the disciples saw it, they sternly ordered them not to do it. 16 But Jesus called for them and said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. 17 Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it."
Matthew 11:16-19
New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
16 "But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another,
17 'We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;
we wailed, and you did not mourn.'
18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon'; 19 the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!' Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds."[a]
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So, in our first scripture, we find Jesus, welcoming the little children. Those little greenhouses of disease. He's actually touching them.
He says, "Let the little children come to me."
And his disciples' say, "Oh, grow up!"
And then, Jesus is criticized for having too much fun with the wrong kind of people. The religious leaders call him names. "Loooook! A glutton-ah and a drunkard-ah!"
They're telling Jesus, "Oh, grow up."
"Oh, grow up."
Because growing up solves ALL your problems.
"Oh, be serious!"
Because being serious makes EVERYTHING better.
As a religious person, it seems to me that religious people tend to think religion's better when you're really serious.
Jesus saw things backwards. He said being grown-up and serious IS the problem. Jesus said that if you want to see (and maybe even solve) the big problems of life and death and faith and stuff - you have to "become as little children." (Matt 18:3)
On the Sunday when the kids are singing and playing and speaking and praying, and leading us in doing these, I thought it would be a good time to ask, "Did Jesus really mean that?" And if so, what does "becoming as little children" really mean?
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I don't know about you, but I think the world has a lot of problems. (You agree?) Surprise! Most of the problems weren't made by children. Mainly by grown-ups who should have known better.
Children didn't bankrupt the mortgage industry, or sell arms to Iran. And despite the fact that none of them can remember to turn off a light when leaving a room, children didn't create the energy crisis. Grown-ups made the mess. And we're good at that. Cleaning them up? Not so much.
And the world's messes are complicated. I mean, where do you start? We wring our hands and wonder, "Who's in charge?" "What are the rules?" Nobody knows. (Am I right?)
How are we gonna fix this? Who knows?
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A lot of the time, religious grown-ups will say, "You just need to trust in the Lord. You just need to have a childlike faith and trust that everything's gonna turn out for the best."
I'm all for trusting the Lord. And I believe that in the end, God will triumph over the forces of darkness. But passive head-patting doesn't square with what I know about Jesus. In the Bible, Jesus never, ever sits idly, wringing his hands and waiting for God to make everything alright.
He slams over the moneychangers' tables. He stands up to the Pharisees who call him names. He doesn't tell the sick, "Just pray for better healthcare"; he goes out and heals them. No doubt Jesus trusts in God. But it's not the clueless drifting of someone lost in la-la-land, trusting that the bedroom will be cleaned by elves and that "A"s will be given if he or she just believes.
Jesus goes out and confronts problems, calling out the grown-ups who cause them, and calling up followers to do the same.
So when the disciples come and tell him he needs to "grow up," when the Pharisees come and tell him to "get serious," Jesus points out that the kids are not the problem.
Maybe childlike ways are the solution. And it's time we get to remembering.
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Before we had our girls, I thought this was a cliché. I had heard people talk about giving a little child a toy, but what is it they really play with? The box! I always thought, "Yeah, right." But it's true!
And when you think about it, a box is SO much better. You can do anything with a box. All it takes is a little imagination. You can put it on your head and be Iron Man. You can make a house, and draw windows, and cut doors. You can put your little brother inside it. And tape up the lid. Print out labels and leave him for UPS.
There's a new study that talks about this, but puts a new spin on the implications. I've got the cites on the blog if you want to read it.
Little children, like, kids under 5, are natural born explorers. We know this. They live in curiosity. They use their imaginations the way their parents use cell phones: All the time. Everywhere they go.
What the research found, though, is that about the age of 5, give or take, something changes in our brain chemistry. We change. We change from "explorers" of our environments to "exploiters."
Now, "exploiters" is a harsh word. That doesn't mean that at age 6 our kids start exploiting us. Although if you've ever tried to logically explain to a 6 year-old why he or she doesn't need an iPhone, you may have felt exploited. "But I'm the only person in second grade who doesn't have one."
Around the age of 5, we change. Suddenly, the box isn't nearly as interesting as what's inside. And what's inside reshapes our imagination, directs it, teaches it to conform to the product and its limitations.
For instance: It's fun to play with one of those expensive dolls that looks like you. But what if she wants to dress up and go dancing at the club? She needs a new outfit. Ca-ching! And what if she turns her ankle? She needs a doll-size wheelchair from Amazon Prime.
Around the age of 5, and continuing into adulthood, we set aside the natural, God-given explorer. We put away childish things. We change - from creators to consumers. We look at the box, and instead of asking, what can it be? we ask, "What's in it?"
"What's in it FOR ME?"
We exploit our environment, instead of exploring it.
And wow. How many problems have come from exploiting our environment? How many problems come from exploiting other people? We don't mean to. But it's complicated.
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Another thing this study shows is that little kids are experts at solving problems with more than one right answer. They still have their God-given talent for combining different things to come up with creative solutions.
You hand a little child a ball of string, a roll of tape, three paper towel cores, and a paperclip, and he or she will use them - ALL of them - to come up with something amazing. Little kids naturally solve problems by using the word, "And."
"Look, Daddy. This, AND this, AND this thing over here, when you put them all together will make… a new back porch and an in-ground pool." (If only they could be trusted with power tools.)
It's kind of the MacGyver, Tony Stark thing. Take what's available and create something amazing.
(I noticed I didn't name any women superheroes who take what's available and create something amazing. And then I remembered, Mother's Day is NEXT Sunday.)
Anyway. But around age 5 - give or take - instead of solving problems with "And", we start solving problems with, "Or." And this sticks, way into adulthood.
We see problems as, either this solution, OR that one. Either this is right, OR that is. Right or wrong. Working or broken. Black or white. Good or bad. Either-or. My way or the highway.
We turn into "ORs."
Now. Ask yourself: What kind of problem-solver are you? How do you see your environment? How do you look at the world? Do you see the stop signs? Or the open road?
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And yet, there's hope. There are those who hold onto childlike ways. And, like children, they can be kind of irritating. We call them, artists. Inventors. Poets. Innovators. They get called names, just like Jesus. Nerds. Nutballs. English majors.
But when your resources are scarce, isn't it great to have a neighbor who can take discarded PVC and six rolls of duct tape, and build something amazing? When you can't say how you're feeling, isn't it so good to hear a song that makes you say, "Yes! Someone understands me!"?
"Imagination is more important than knowledge," said Albert Einstein. Look around at this complicated world with all its screwed-up problems. "Oh, grow up," isn't working so well.
But Jesus called for them and said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. 17 Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it."
If we're ever going to make this world more like the kingdom of God, we're going to have to be more like little children. We've gotta stop exploiting and consuming, and remember how cool it is to be an explorer, a creator. Who can take randomness and make something awesome. That's how the kingdom of God always gets built.
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Because the rules say you're supposed to title these sermon-things, I came up with, "Playtime in God's House."
And as soon as I saw it, I thought, "That's stupid."
I thought, "That sounds sacrilegious."
I thought, "Somebody's gonna roll their eyes and say, 'Oh, grow up.'"
And, that somebody was me.
That voice inside my head that says, "Church is supposed to be... serious."
"Oh really?" Said another voice inside my head. (It's kind of noisy in there.) "Oh really? Church is about being serious? Is this the church of Jesus Christ you're talking about? Because, he said if you really want to be his follower, you've gotta become -"
"Oh, I know!" Said the grown-up serious voice. "Be quiet! Don't you know that's the number one rule in church? Just be quiet."
"Yeah," said the childlike voice. "Guess I was being pretty immature."
But then, when the grown-up voice was talking on the phone, I snuck the title in just to irritate him.
If we’re going to make this world more like the kingdom of God,
it’s going to take a lot of people remembering how to dance and play and think like little children.
It’s going to take the work of remembering how to solve problems as little children.
Remembering that it’s not only OK to dance, but also to put together some new steps.
Wouldn’t it be great if the church of Jesus Christ led the way?
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