I've been trying to figure out how to
write this for a while and it might not have the best flow in the world but I'm
sure God won't mind.
In September I gave a sermon on
poverty and how God calls the Church to react to it. I used
the children's sermon to launch a sock collection outreach
project for the Lehigh County Conference of Churches. One of the kids tried to
give me their shoes, because "they [the homeless people] need shoes to go
over the socks." There is just something awe inspiring and full of grace
when it comes to the faith of a child.
But what does it mean to have the
faith of a child? Maybe this is just me but I feel that the Bible can be very
contradictory when it comes to children.
"When I was a child, I spoke like
a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child, when I became an
adult, I put an end to childish ways." I Corinthians 13:11
"Brothers and sisters, do not be
children in your thinking; rather, be infants in evil, but in thinking be
adults." I Corinthians 14:20
"but Jesus said, 'Let the little
children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the
kingdom of heaven belongs'." Matthew 19:14
"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. Truly I tell you. whoever does
not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter
it'." Luke 18:16-17
I'm sticking with Jesus on this one.
Children have an amazing ability to love everyone they meet and they don't
judge based on what someone looks like, their socio-economic status, and their
sexuality. Children, like Jesus love everyone. Children, like Jesus do not put
conditions on their love for others. Children, unlike many adults put feet on
the Gospel. They get it. They don't care about who serves communion, the color
of the carpet, what doxology is used, and who is preaching. Children,
more often than not ask the questions that we as adults are
afraid to ask. After I explained to kids that we were only collecting socks
they just couldn't understand why we weren't collecting shoes to go with the
socks. Looking back I think they were onto something every adult in
that building missed that day. When I led Vacation Bible School at the church
that I grew up in two summers ago, I did a mission project with the kids. The
adults did not think that it was going to work. The kids colored
back-backs to send to children in the developing nations. All of
the adults thought that the kids were going to want to keep
them, because they had to color them, which apparently according to
this logic if you color something it is automatically yours. Not one of
them asked to keep them. In fact, they wanted to know why we couldn't
color more of them. These kids had nothing. I'm pretty sure that some of them
didn't have their own back-packs and there they were asking me if they could
color more of them.
What if we had faith as a child. I
think to often we put away our childish things and think like adults. I know
that I always find myself asking, "What happens if
this doesn't go as planned?", "What happens if too many
people show up?", "What happens if not enough people show up?",
"What happens if we don't raise enough money?" Kids on the other hand
don't think about those things. They come up with a plan and they just go with
it. I taught kindergarten over the summer and my kids ended up writing a letter
to their State. Rep. I did not plan on this happening. They wanted to
"write a letter to the person who makes the rules." So my ten
kindergarten kids wrote about saving trees and protecting animals. They did not
stop to think about things like, "What if we don't have enough paper?",
"What if we can't spell a word?", and "What if they
don't agree with us?" They just did it.
Would the world be a better place if
we all had the faith of a child? Is it possible to challenge the
status-quo and ask the tough questions while at the same time maintaining
the faith of a child?
I say yes! I say yes to having the
faith of a child. I say yes to donating both socks and shoes, I say yes to
coloring back-packs, I say yes for environmental justice. I say
yes to love.
The question that I leave you with is:
Will you join me in saying "yes"?
go in PEACE. live PEACE. be PEACE.
