About a year ago I began preparing to go to a foreign land. A place that I spoke the language better than the natives, a place where I had more rights than they did; it was America. America! Home of the free land of the brave, but I found there was one group that was not born free, they were a group that found themselves with no rights, no voice, yet they weren’t advocating or picketing. They were simply coloring. Talking to each other about pokemon, stuffed animals and birthday parties; they didn’t care about a vote unless it involved a democratic landslide in coercing their desires for happy meals, candy and staying up late. I was preparing for the worst. I didn’t know what I really was going to do, nor did I really know why. But I knew there was a need.
You see, adult organizations reach out to other adults. But the difficulty with that is the offspring of the adults come too. If the adult organization doesn’t have a way to manage the offspring, a crisis for the adult occurs. Either they have to manage the offspring themselves, they have to consider whether the organization is worth getting a babysitter so that they can continue to go. Or they have to stop going. Since church is one such adult organization, this creates the wonder we all call “kids ministry.”
The Bridge was not too different from most adult organizations, and so in the inception it considered its “kid ministry.” Bridge initially was founded as a place for those who have slipped through the cracks of churches, society, and family. Also the main push was to the young and disenfranchised of Portland. Since the majority of people that were coming at first were 16-28 we had a staffed nursary. But no need for a full blown kids ministry. We had the highschool age youth group. And we had various other adult activities.
As more young adults had kids, we found a need to take care of them so that the adults could stay. This is very much like most churches out there. Provide free babysitting, andthey will come. However one thing that we could be sure of is once we found a children’s ministry leader and they started, six months down the road they would leave the bridge. “probably crying” Thankfully they didn’t leave the church, but I’m sure it was sometime before they volunteered for anything again. This was the bridge’s curse for many years. And it would make the ones with offspring secondguess coming here. Because the only thing we had for the kids was some tent somewhere with stuffed animals. And it was a free-for-all.
So… last year I found myself asking the question “right now, where I am, where do I sense the greatest need.” I found this question when I heard about a man who created a bank for people in his home town of india with $27. Apparently it took $27 to loan to 15 different people and get them out of their own financial business hole. They were indentured servants essentially to their own trade. They were a people that were hard workers but were in debt to the suppliers, and had no way to get out on top. This man asked lagit banks for a dollar and 2 dollar loans, but the bank said these poor people would not pay. So he risked his own money. After the people paid him back, he took these stats to the bank because there were others that needed help too. They said “the poor people will not pay back.” So he risked his money. And Again they paid it back. Finally he realized that he could start his own bank for this purpose. And Now it has grown into one of the largest microfinance organizations in india.
So I asked “right now, where I am, where do I sense the greatest need?” And I looked around, I and I said “sh!t.” Because I saw the greatest need with our children. But I didn’t know anything about kids. I didn’t even have any passion for them. I saw them as “the problem that must be solved.” Yet, I did know that if I put my efforts towards it, change would occur. I told Crystal Deborah and Angie. Come the fall I am going to take on the Kids ministry. I felt like saying it was something that was like my own sentence. Crystal said “I’m going to do it with you. I don’t want you to be alone when doing that.” I told her she didn’t need to do that, but she said she wanted to. Then came the countdown to fall. As it was getting closer and closer, I didn’t really know what I was going to do. We asked questions prepared as much as we could but nothing could really prepare me for the work.
I want to tell you about some glasses I’ve been given over the course of the last ten months. My crash course in child culture. I see things differently. And I think it is worth you trying them on for a bit. Because it was apparent from my perspective that children were seen as a nusance to my adult culture. My toes were stepped on, my conversations were filled with frustraitions, with a culture that is actually addressed in the bible… Yet we rarely preach on it.
In the bible children are seen as a blessing, possibly even a commodity. More kids you have the more blessed you are. Psalm 127: 3-5 Sons are a heritage from the Lord, children a reward from him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one's youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They will not be put to shame when they contend with their enemies in the gate.In the bible children are seen as being protected by God. That God cares for even those without parents: Psalm 27:10 Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me.
Exodus 22:22-24 "Do not take advantage of a widow or an orphan. If you do and they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry. My anger will be aroused, and I will kill you with the sword; your wives will become widows and your children fatherless. “
There is much about kids and children in the bible. But I was most interested in little wayne.
Little wayne was trouble. He was a kid in first century biblical times, and he was 8. He got into trouble, when he sassed his mom he would receive the soap in his mouth. He would get his morning teachings with his friends and have to be seperated because he was talking during the lesson. He put a firecracker up a frogs butt and lit it on fire. Him and some friends ran for the river when they got frog turd innerds exploded on their face. Little wayne’s best friend jack was going over to greg and matts house more and more, so he had to kick their ass because Jack was his best friend. Wayne picked up some choice words from his fisherman father. He found if he used them at school the kids eyes would open and it was like a secret power. He found that if he used it at home or in front of the teacher that he would be beat. He’d want to go fish but was too much trouble. His dad’s co-workers called little wayne “little sh!t” because he would come around and bother them.
One day waynes dad was entertaining a really amazing man. He was superkind and really was super welcoming. But didn’t have that creepy come hither look that his uncle had sometimes for his sister. Wayne watched him from the doorway. Apparently they had just come from paying taxes or something. And this is what happened:
Matt 181 they came to Jesus and asked, "Which of us is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?" 2 Jesus called little wayne over to him and put the child among them. 3 Then he said, "I assure you, unless you turn from your sins and become as little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven. 4 Therefore, anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. 5 And anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf is welcoming me. 6 But if anyone causes one of these little ones who trusts in me to lose faith, it would be better for that person to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around the neck.
Little Wayne left but the disciples were perplexed. Little wayne? Humble? How can he be great in the kingdom of Heaven?
I like telling this story with little wayne in it because in my past readings of it, I have envisioned the kid as some sort of alter boy. Holy with a halo and doesn’t do anything wrong, constantly singing beautiful praises about his innocence and God’s purity. But if you’ve ever been around children, you know that kids are trouble. They are a force to be reckoned with and you can’t place this kid on some sort of pure pedistal to live up to.
The disciples had it all backwards at this point, you see their question (even though its not as negitively framed as it is in mark or luke) is implying that the kingdom of heaven is based on the same structure as any other kingdom on earth.
Their question has something at the core of it that is a competitive strain that is not how the kingdom of heaven functions. The Kingdom of heaven functions almost negatively to an earthly kingdom. Here you must have pure royal blood, there you must be adopted. Here kings are the highest rank, there the King is the lowest. Here the kings are clad in the jewels and everything lavish and extraordinary; there the king is clad with the woulds of suffering and sacrifice for others.
So when the disciples are asking who is the greatest, Jesus is showing them how much they don’t get it. Their very question shows their ignorance of the kingdom.
Jesus brings in little wayne, a boy, he wasn’t a pristine little fauntlaroy rather he was a little stinker. He was a little sh!t. A whiner, the disciples knew that he was a problem to deal with, one of those kids you want to shove by the face. He had that dennis the menace smile that makes you want to punch them. He was a problem, a dickweed, a little f*cker, and here he was in front of Jesus. And JC was saying, you need to repent and become like this little sh!t. Jesus knew what he was doing. He was flipping the question on its back and showing its foolishness. Desiring an earthly rank in the kingdom of heaven is like having a kid desire brussel sprouts.
In looking deeper, though he was a little sh!t, little wayne was a part of a class that jesus was specifically interested in. Though he blew up frogs by their anus, he was not filled with malice of adulthood. Though he was interested in keeping the rank of best friend, he was not interested in ranks. Though he sassed his mom, he also was teachable enough to know that soap didn’t taste good. And though he was somewhat independent in hanging out with his friends, he was still dependant on his dad for a place to stay that night. His dad loved him and he knew that he was safe. He was a boy.
Essentially children are amazing reflectors of our own mature responses. They point out our agendas far too well. To control and minimize the damage of a child being in the room. “We don’t pick up the glass bowl, that’s a no touch” To attempt to pursuade them to get out of your face so they will watch 3 hours of TV and let you alone. “Hey I have an idea, lets have you quarentine yourself for the next 18 years until I can put you into counseling, to deal with the neglect.” To preserve the status quo of your adult culture rather than engage at a child’s level. The fact is children are challenging as a culture. And if we are not careful, we wont pick up on the fact that this culture has never experienced our world before. We look at this culture like they are a problem to be solved rather than a culture to be educated.
They are brand new to this country, don’t speak the language, they are developmentally disabled, and have no rights. They need an ambassador. Someone that is their advocate, someone that will help educate them, someone that explains the actions of the adult culture. To clarify when a breach in boundaries has occurred, not to explode or punish for no reason. They have no rights. They stand in our mercy, just like we stand only because of God’s mercy. How would God treat you?
We are part of an adult culture that see’s children as a “problem to be solved” We need to rethink our policy as a culture and begin to see something different. We need the Love of kids to be our policy. We need the desire for children to grow in their spirituality to be our policy. We need to beef up our quest for learning and educating a peoplegroup with no rights, that are at our mercy. We need to strengthen our families so that our children can be whole.
Jesus points this culture right at us to see ourselves as his followers:Children do not desire authority. Children do not regard outward distinctions, Children are free from adult malice, Children are teachable, and Children are willingly dependent upon their parents. They have to be… they have nothing else.
unless you learn to entertain a humble, and modest opinion of yourselves, are not envious at one another, and drop all contentions about primacy and pre-eminence, and all your ambitious views of one being greater than another, you will not find the kingdom of heaven.
When you look through Gods eyes at kids you don’t see the problems of management. You don’t see the frustraition of cleaning up frog intenstines. You see what God sees. You actually see what maybe the disciples have lost… maybe what we have lost.
They were headed in the wrong direction with their selfish ambition. Jesus’ tone is very severe, as much as when He denounces the Pharisees. The strong double negative means that they will otherwise not get into the kingdom of heaven at all, let alone have big places in it.
As you see children today, I would love for you to reflect on your own life. Where you have let you ambition and rank take hold, Or if you are overcome with malice, Or maybe you have become independent from God. Thinking that you can make it on your own.
Have you lost the ability to call God your creator? Have you lost the ability to gather warmth from Jesus in order to heal from your pain?
Unless you can say I love you God and mean it, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. Unless you can say I trust you God, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. You must get back that dependant love of God. You must escape the trap of God as a concept. You must rework your idea of God as your peer or an authority figure, and see him as someone you can actually rely on. Someone that longs to scoop you up as you pretend to sleep in the car, someone that may know, but smiles as they carry you up the stairs and puts you safely in bed. The word Abba that is used before God is strong. It implies a tenderness, comfort and safety. It is a term expressing warm affection and confidence that a child has in a parent that they trust. It has no perfect equivalent in our language. But when we see those eyes of children sparkle towards adults that are respecting them, we can get a glipse of what maybe our response to God can be.
So many of us have been forced to grow up. Forced to live. Forced to leave the innocense of our childhood behind. Forced the cut off our bad relationship with our parents. Twisted by darkness we have left the brightness of our youth behind because that was where we were vulnerable. That was where we were small and overcome by those large towering people. We were at their mercy.
Jesus is here saying to all of us … let the little ones come to me. Let those who need me come. Let those who have been stripped of their ability to say that God will protect me, that God will be my ambassador, that God will be my guide in this cruel adult cuture, Let them begin to call out Jesus. To mean it! To have their heart reach out to be comforted, to be protected, to be finally loved.
I hope you can take these glasses that I have put on today. These glasses that can give you a look into what some think is a stress, and what God sees as a reminder and an entrance into a kingdom. I hope you can take these glasses and honor our children, and those who work with them today.
