FIRST (SCOTS) SERMONS TIME, TOUCH AND PRAYER Scripture Lessons: Psalm 103; Mark 10:13-16 This sermon was preached by Dr. L. Holton Siegling, Jr. on Sunday, June 17, 2018 at First (Scots) Presbyterian Church in Charleston, South Carolina. Mark 10:13-16 People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, 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 took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them. Leader: People: This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Let us pray Almighty and Everlasting God, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of each of our hearts be pleasing, acceptable, and even joyful in your sight, for you are our Rock, and our Redeemer. Amen. With our son Harrison having recently graduated from high school and preparing to make his way to college in the fall, it is no surprise that very often these days I find myself gravitating to any and all opportunities to be with him and to convey to him certain things about life and living. I recently ran across a Facebook post which offered some fatherly advice to sons, and so I took a couple snapshots and sent the images of what amounted to about 30 some odd rules to live by to both Harrison and Will. There were some good and obvious precepts like: You marry the girl, you marry her family. I can testify to both the truth and the blessing of that wisdom. Other precepts included: When entrusted with a secret, keep it, and When shaking hands, grip firmly and look them in the eye. All of that good, good advice. But my favorite piece of advice on that post, and the one I especially wanted Harrison to notice was the one that read: Call and visit your parents often. They miss you. Hopefully he ll do a better job than I did when I was his age. 1
Friends, on this particular day which has been affectionately dubbed Father s Day, I want us to take some time to think about how we as fathers and mothers how all of us as stewards of the children that are a part of our church family I want us to reverently think about what would be the greatest advice we could give them. And I wonder, would it come packaged as a precious memory that we choose to share or perhaps a vocational insight that would help them to navigate their future work life a little easier? What gift - if we were to call it that - what gift could we give our children that would be of any lasting and enduring significance? Well, I ll give you a hint I don t think that gift would come in the form of a list of do s and don ts. I think that it would come in the form of a relationship but not a relationship with us a relationship with Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior! But what might that relationship look like and how might we be a part of conveying something of that most sacred gift of God s grace to God s children? G.K. Chesterton once said that there were times when he would enter his home in a way totally different from that to which he was accustomed. He would get a ladder, and, like a thief in the night, he would enter through one of the rear windows upstairs. By doing this, he would obtain a new thrill, a new experience, a whole new point of view of his home. From such a vantage point Chesterton noticed that things looked different than before, and he could see with new understanding those things which had, at one time, been very familiar. In advance of this Father s Day, and with my own children in mind, I kept coming back to this morning s New Testament Lesson, and so what I invite all of us to do now together is to enter into this story of God s Word through the upstairs window. Maybe to change pews, as it were, as many of us have done in recent memory. I want us to prayerfully consider our New Testament Lesson from a slightly different perspective, because my hunch is that when we look carefully and closely at the disciples, they re going to look a lot like us. These words from the scriptures are quite familiar. I usually reference them from the King James Version whenever we celebrate the baptism of a child. Suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not for such is the kingdom of heaven. Verily I say unto you, whosoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall not enter therein and he took them up in his arms, laid his hands upon them and blessed them. Those words have always conjured up in my mind s eye the image of Jesus surrounded by children, and he s spending time with them, he s praying with them and indeed it was within that context that Jesus spoke those words; however, if we are to truly understand the full impact of Jesus words, then we will need to take into account what happened just prior to Jesus speaking with them. We are told that people had brought their children in order that Jesus would lay his hands upon them. And if we know anything at all about children, that day could very well have been 2
chaotic. A few of the children may have been pushing one another; perhaps some of the children were running around, playing a first century version of tag swells of energy, occasional squabbles kids being kids, right?! Well, the disciples are human too! And maybe their patience had worn out, maybe they needed some adult time. Whatever the case, the disciples moved seamlessly right into that cultural paradigm which left very little room for children. The disciples, the Bible says, they chose to rebuke the children, and so it seems that those warm and fuzzy words, Suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not, they were not so warm and fuzzy after all. As it turns out that they were actually quite harsh and demanding words. It was as if Jesus were saying: How dare you keep the little children from me. I dare say that even our church family, which does a wonderful job of making room for God s children even we need to hear that message. We who throughout yet another summer have fashioned a wonderful week of Vacation Bible School where our children and their friends will learn about God's love -- even we need to look in the mirror and think about the extent to which we simply create that space for God s children as opposed to actually living in that space, allowing for that mandate to become a part of our reality. You see, and there s a difference to create that space would be to make next week s Vacation Bible School our singular focus to make it a stand-alone week when we honor our children and that week would come and it would go! Living that space, however, would be a matter of demonstrating our commitment to God s children in nearly every aspect of life, and would allow for such a welcome reception for God s children to happen every day of every week of every month of every year! So, tell me do we do that? I ve already affirmed to a great extent we do as a church family. The question that has stayed with me and the one with which I struggle is how good of a job am I doing with that individually? In other words, is it someone else s every day way of life or is it my own? In my own life, I find myself wondering just how often I failed to honor my children by delegating my responsibilities to other people who love and care about them teachers or their wonderful wife. I suspect it s not so different in the life of the church. Like so many ministries in Christ s Church we find our place to serve, we find that area of fulfilment where our gifts for service and the world s needs meet and that s fine in fact, that is beautiful; but, there are some things that all of us are called to do like loving God s children! And we may not prohibit their coming to Jesus, but is it not really the same thing if we do not very intentionally make their coming to Jesus possible? It is like an artist who was painting outdoors the beauty of God s creation. He was at work at his easel set up along a stream when a group of four children appeared and watched every stroke of his brush. He welcomed them and did not at all push them away. Still, one of the children, just amazed at his creation, said to the artist, Mister, can you put us in the picture? 3
That should be the question of every child of God, and our life and our witness should be so creative, so joyful, so engaging that all of God s children would desperately want to be put into the picture of God s grace, which is exactly where God wants them to be. But how did God in Christ do that? Oh, it was very simple! Of all the things Jesus could have done for those children, he didn t preach a sermon he didn t have them sign up for an e- newsletter he didn t love them from a distance! No! He took them up in his arms, he laid his hands upon them and he blessed them. A touching story can be found in the prologue to Leadership Jazz. Max Dupree writes about his granddaughter, Zoe he says: [Zoe] was born prematurely and weighted one pound, seven ounces, so small that my wedding ring could slide up her arm and to her shoulder. The neonatologist who first examined her told us that she had a 5 to 10 percent chance of living three days. When Esther and I saw Zoe in the neonatal intensive care unit, she had two IVs in her navel, one in her foot, a monitor on each side of her chest, and a respirator tube and a feeding tube in her mouth. To complicate matters, Zoe s biological father had jumped ship the month before Zoe was born. Realizing this, a wise and caring nurse gave me my instructions. For the next several months, at least, you re the surrogate father. I want you to come to the hospital every day to visit Zoe, and when you come, I want you to rub her body and her legs and arms with the tip of your finger. While you re caressing her, you should tell her over and over how much you love her, because she has to be able to connect your voice to your touch. Time, touch, and prayer they seem like such simple gifts, don t they? But they can be some of the most important and life-transforming gifts that we can ever give to God s children. Time that s the first thing Jesus did for those children he showed up and literally spent time with them. He didn t have to create time, he certainly didn t waste time he simply set aside the time that was necessary to actually be present in the life of God s children, and it was within that grace that he showed them God s love! Touch Jesus never did spare God s children from his loving embrace. For us, this may come in the form of a pat on the head, a hand on someone s shoulder, a kindly hug, a high five; but, believe you me, our children feel and experience that more deeply than we will ever know. Prayer Jesus blessed them and his prayerful countenance was ever toward their welfare. And, if anyone comprehends the depth of what it means to pray without ceasing it is Jesus Christ, and his prayers undoubtedly included God s children. Oh, if I as a father could give only those three gifts to my children, then I will have given them a great deal! And it is for all of us that we too can be a continued blessing to all of God s precious children and it is a surprisingly simple recipe for Jesus teaches his church that children need and deserve our time and they need to be embraced and they most assuredly need our prayers. 4
My own prayer this day is that God would continually grant unto each of us not only a keen awareness of just how special and remarkable our children are, but also a deep and abiding sense of what an awesome responsibility we have to pass along to them something of the amazing grace and favor and love of God, and how that can be accomplished through simple acts as time and touch and prayer! In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. 5