Come & See The Rev. Dr. Arlene K. Nehring Eden United Church of Christ Hayward, California January 19, 2013 John 1:29 42 (NRSV) When my 25-year-old niece, Susie, was two years old, my sister Marlene called me on the phone and asked me for some advice. What do you make of this situation? she asked. While I (Marlene) was taking a shower this morning Susie burst into the bathroom shouting, Mama, Mama, come quick! Jesus is in the living room! After a brief pause, she said, Dennis (that s my brother-in-law) wants to know what you ve been teaching our children. Well, I said, probably the same things you have. Then she asked again, What do you make of this situation? I opined that Susie s behavior was demonstrating a very age appropriate sense of wonder and awe, and offered as an example a summary of the work of a British pedagogy named Edward Robinson. I went on to explain that Robinson has done a huge longitudinal study of children s experiences of God, and he has concluded that most children are born with a sense of wonder and awe that enables them to be more open and aware of the divine compared with grownups. 1 Unfortunately these innately good qualities that children are born with, Robinson argued, are often drummed out of them by the time they graduate from high school. Consequently, Robison said, educators and parents need to make a special effort to counter views that discredit other types of knowledge. 2 OK, swell, Mar said. I studied child development, and I took a religion class in college. I get this. But what should I tell Dennis? He was an Ag major. Tell him that Susie is normal, that it s good to encourage her sense of spirituality, and that you are great parents. 1 Edward Robinson, Original Vision: A Study of the Religious Experience of Childhood, fourth ed., Oxford: Religious Experience Research Center, 1996. 2 Ibid. The Rev. Dr. Arlene K. Nehring, Come and See, 1/19/2014, p. 1 of 6.
II Unfortunately, many of us have had our sense of wonder mostly drummed out of us through our experiences of higher education, which have emphasized the primacy of facts and a preference for scientific methodologies. As a result, modern audiences bring questions and concerns to the gospels that were never at issue for the original biblical audiences, and so our modern questions and concerns promote what theologian, Houston Smith, calls fact fundamentalism. 3 Houston describes two types of fact fundamentalists. One type he calls religious skeptics, and the other he calls conscious literalists. Religious skeptics focus on the factual inconsistencies and improbabilities of certain gospel stories, and see these examples as proof that the stories are not true. Conscious literalists, by contrast, acknowledge that the gospels sometimes describe circumstances foreign to modern science, and yet they insist, with varying degrees of intensity, that these stories are factual, that the unusual occurrences within them are signs of divine intervention in the world, and that acceptance of the literal truth of scripture is the only faithful interpretation of the stories. 4 In the midst of this tug-of-war between the religious skeptics and the conscious literalists, theologians such as Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan offer a third way of understanding the gospels that is not dependent upon fact fundamentalism. They (and others) propose that the gospels were never intended to be historical documentaries. They were and are, instead, intended to be etiologies, 5 novellas, and parables based in particular historical settings which were told and retold in an effort to convey meaning rather than precise facts. 6 Take the Christmas story, for example. Each of the gospel storytellers knew that their respective versions of the story were subversive in their time. Matthew, Luke, and John were each in their own way making in-your-face pronouncements to Herod, 7 Caesar, 8 and Apollo 9 that these earthly rulers and this lesser god were not in charge of the universe, and that the God of Israel was doing something new in and through the life of Jesus, even if those rulers did not perceive it or embrace it. 10 3 Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan, The First Christmas: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus Birth (New York: HarperCollins, 2007), 29. C.f., Huston Smith, the Soul of Christianity: Restoring the Great Tradition (San Francisco: Harper, 2005). 4 Ibid. 31. The positions of both camps, the religious skeptics and the conscious literalists, are grounded, Borg and Crossan say, in fact fundamentalism that spawned the Enlightenment. 5 Stories about how things began. 6 Ibid. 33. 7 Herod was the governor of Judah when Jesus was born. 8 Caesar was emperor of Rome when Jesus was born. 9 Apollo was the Roman and Greek god of Light when Jesus was born. 10 Borg and Crossan, 37 38. The Rev. Dr. Arlene K. Nehring, God s Beloved, 1/19/2014, p. 2 of 6.
Theologian John Westerhoff, III, offers additional insights into the original meanings of the Christmas stories in his book, A Pilgrim People. 11 Westerhoff explains that all of the Christmas stories in the gospels strive to answer a single question, To whom did God come? The gospels answer, according to Westerhoff, is that God came for all people, [.but that] God came to a particular people, perhaps because only they would recognize God s coming. 12 Westerhoff observes that the shepherds, not the priests, were first to hear and respond to the news of Jesus birth, because, [the shepherds were] longing for a new possibility, waiting in hope, living prepared, open to the mystery of God, [and] they saw what only the eyes of faith can see. 13 To better understand the significance of the Christmas story, it is helpful to know that in ancient society, the shepherds were among those most in need of change, and that in the Christmas parable, the shepherds represent persons in all times and places who are most in need of the changes that God can bring in human lives. The priests, by comparison, Westerhoff opines, represent persons and groups who, in theory, are best positioned to recognize the in-breaking of God s presence, but who do not, because they have made a religion of their routines; they have stopped looking to the future with hope, and they have become doubtful that any transformation could be good. 14 UCC pastor David Butler further pursues this theme about the shepherds openness to God s miracles in his midrash 15 on the Christmas story, in Seasons of Hope, and in so doing, he invites us to become like the shepherds. 16 Butler writes: Those impetuous shepherds, picture them, dancing off across the fields like crazy drunks, to the rhythm of a music no one else could hear. But they were only drunk on the spirit and the magic of a starlit night. Who knows what they saw or what they thought they heard that night? Who knows what voices sang of wonder and wisdom in their ears? But we do know that they responded, cavorting down the hillsides with their feet hardly touching the ground, until out of breath, almost exhausted, they stumbled upon a miracle. Only those few shepherds were there for the birth of a light that banishes the shadows, for the coming of a new kind of leader. Everyone else in town slept through it or never noticed. The rest of the world just went about its business. They never heard any angels. They never felt any magic. But the shepherds 11 John H. Westerhoff, III, A Pilgrim People (New York: Church Publishing, Inc., 2005), 57-62. 12 Ibid. 59. 13 Ibid. 60. 14 Ibid. 60. 15 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/midrash 16 David Butler, Seasons of Hope: Readings for the Christian Year (Cleveland: United Church Press, 1998, 20-21. The Rev. Dr. Arlene K. Nehring, God s Beloved, 1/19/2014, p. 3 of 6.
were ready for a miracle. The shepherds were waiting and watching and willing to follow. We too must ready ourselves for wonder. We must open our minds for mystery. We must widen our eyes for awe and clear our ears for the music of God s word. Miracles await those with watchful hearts. Awe and wonder are most certainly characteristics that we want to cultivate in our children (and reawaken in ourselves), so that they (and we) may grow in awareness of God s presence and act on the Spirit s guidance. But an aptitude for spirituality will not by itself teach children the moral values they need in order to become healthy adults or to contribute to a healthy society. Children also need concrete experiences of adults whom they love and respect embodying these values in their daily walk. III Family therapist, parent educator, and popular author Dorothy Law Nolte wrote and published a poem in 1954 that expresses the importance of parents and guardians embodying their espoused values. This now famous poem, which has been updated several times, is titled Children Learn What They Live, and goes like this: If children live with criticism, They learn to condemn. If children live with hostility, They learn to fight. If children live with ridicule, They learn to be shy. If children live with shame, They learn to feel guilty. If children live with encouragement, They learn confidence. If children live with tolerance, They learn to be patient. If children live with praise, They learn to appreciate. If children live with acceptance, They learn to love. If children live with approval, They learn to like themselves. If children live with honesty, They learn truthfulness. If children live with security, They learn to have faith in themselves and others. If children live with friendliness, They learn the world is a nice place in which to live. 17 17 http://www.empowermentresources.com/info2/childrenlearn.html The Rev. Dr. Arlene K. Nehring, God s Beloved, 1/19/2014, p. 4 of 6.
We don t have to be child psychologists, theologians, or educators to understand the link between the spoken word and lived experience, or espoused values and lived values. We need only think of our own life experiences, and recall the importance of those whose witness has made a significant difference for us. IV This past week, several of the parent leaders from Cherryland school provided an important example for their children (and for all of us) of parent participation in our school community by speaking up at the HUSD Board of Trustees meeting about the need for more robust volunteer policies and programs. Our delegation included 25 community leaders. Three-fourths of the people in our group were children between the ages of 5 and 12. The children who were part of our delegation were remarkably respectful and interested in what was going on at the Trustees meeting. They asked me where we were, why we were there, and what we were doing. They asked who the people were in the fancy suits behind the big desk, and how long we were going to stay. I tried to explain as best I could in ways that were appropriate to their age. The most memorable part of the evening for me was taking in the reaction of a handful of the kids who asked me who was going to speak from the podium in front of the Trustees. I said, Your moms. The children s eyes just about popped out of their heads when I said, Your moms. Without missing a beat, Ashley, a third grader whose mother is the president of the Cherryland PTA, said to me, Pastor Arlene, next time when we come to the school board meeting, can I speak?! Then her friend Alondra piped up, Oh, can I speak too?! Soon thereafter, several other little ones around me started bouncing up and down in their seats like popcorn saying, Me too! I want to speak! Fabulous! I thought to myself. No matter what the school board decides about the volunteer policies and programs, these children have already learned several very important lessons: they have learned that their parents are deeply invested in their educational process. They have learned how important decisions are made in their school community. And, they have learned that they have a voice and power, and they can use these gifts to strengthen their learning experience and their whole school community. The Rev. Dr. Arlene K. Nehring, God s Beloved, 1/19/2014, p. 5 of 6.
V The season of Epiphany and the stories that we read and reflect on in this season build on the sense of wonder and awe that is unleashed with the Christmas stories and that continues to build throughout the gospels as the case is repeatedly made through Jesus teachings, healings, and life example, revealing that he is the Messiah, the divine, God incarnate. Interesting as the depiction is of Jesus incarnation, none of this would matter much if the incarnation were confined to ancient manuscripts. The big news about Jesus incarnation isn t that it occurred once for and all; the big news is that Jesus incarnation continues to unfold in the life and witness of his followers. In this season of Epiphany, my prayer for all of us is that we may approach each day with a Susie-like sense of wonder and awe, and respond to the incarnation in an Ashley- and Alondra-like sense of enthusiasm to say and do the things that we have seen exemplified by Jesus followers. If we dare to do so if we dare to approach life like these little children then I trust that we will experience the revelation of God in the rooms where we live and serve, and that we will be able to inspire others to come and see God incarnate in our midst. Amen. The Rev. Dr. Arlene K. Nehring, God s Beloved, 1/19/2014, p. 6 of 6.