Tag: Gospel of Mark

Childish Is Not Childlike

It was the custom for mothers to bring their children to rabbis for a blessing. They wanted their children to receive a divine touch for a good life. That is what is happening in our reading, Mark 10:13-16. This is not an isolated case. It must have happened many times. The Gospel of Mark emphasizes the great crowds that followed Jesus, so it is safe to say that many mothers brought their children on that day. The only problem was their timing.

Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem and his showdown with the orthodox leaders of the faith. At this point in his ministry, Jesus has become a controversial figure. Some loved him. Others hated him. Jesus was in the eye of a great storm. The adults recognize the seriousness of the situation, but the children missed it. Trying to protect Jesus, the disciples tried to dismiss the children. He had enough on his mind. When Jesus saw what the disciples were doing, he does something truly amazing. During that stressful time in his life, he takes time for the children. To Jesus, children were important.

Look at the text with me. Verse 14 quotes Jesus. He said, “Let the little children come to me do not hinder them for to such belongs the kingdom of God.” In verse 15 Jesus says, “I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it.” So, what can children teach us? In this blog, I want to examine three great childlike qualities. They exist naturally in the young, but we need to reclaim them. The first one is gratitude.

Years ago, a baby boy was born blind. Naturally, his parents were devastated. During those dark days, the boy formed a special relationship with a little stuffed teddy bear, which he had never seen. The bear was worn and only had one eye. The boy didn’t care. When the boy was five years old, his parents took him for his annual physical examination. It was at that appointment; their doctor gave them some hope. A new kind of surgery had been developed at the Massachusetts General Hospital, that may give their son sight. Several months later, the five-year-old boy, his worn one-eyed teddy bear and his parents flew to Boston. They met the doctor. The doctor met the boy holding his one-eyed teddy bear. After the boy’s examination, the doctor believed the eye surgery would work. The doctor wasn’t wrong. When the patches were removed from his eyes, the boy saw for the first time. The first thing the boy looked at was his one-eyed teddy bear. The boy’s parents began to cry, and the doctor smiled. Everyone looked at the boy. He held out his best friend in the world, the one-eyed teddy bear, toward the doctor and said, “I have no money to give you. Please take my teddy bear. He has a hard time seeing too! Thank-you!” Today, on the tenth floor of the White Building of the Massachusetts General Hospital there is a display case. Inside that display case is a one-eyed teddy bear. In front of that one-eyed bear is a card that reads: This is the highest fee I have ever received for my professional services rendered.”

The first childlike quality you need to reclaim is gratitude. Adults tend to feel self-important. We tend to feel like we deserve everything we have, because we work hard and take great pride in our accomplishments. That is not the story of children. Untouched, children are naturally humble and thankful for what they have. How grateful are you? The second childlike quality you need to reclaim is love.

Will Willimon (born 1946) served as a United Methodist Bishop for eight years. At one point, he served as Dean of the Chapel at Duke University. He is considered one America’s most known and most influential preachers. He tells the story of one Christmas Eve while he was at Duke. His wife was away helping her sick father, so he was left alone with their children. He rushed his children into the car for the annual Christmas Eve communion service, because he was running behind. Somewhere between their home and the church his youngest daughter, five-year-old Harriet, got sick, the kind that required a bucket! There was no time to go home, so he took his daughter and his other children to the service. He paced Harriet in the last row of the balcony, far away from anyone. He placed his other children near the front. It was the best he could do. He confessed, once the service began, he forgot about them. When communion was served, he looked down and there was his youngest son, seven-year-old William. He took the little wafer and a cup of juice. William then took a second wafer and little cup pf juice. Willimon was going to correct him, but his hands were tied. He was in front of a large crowd. William disappeared for a second but then he reappeared. However, he wasn’t near the front of the chapel. He was in the back row of the balcony sitting next to his little sister, giving her the wafer and the little cup of juice. He sat next to her, and she placed her head on his shoulder. Seven-year-old William taught his father a very important lesson. No one should be forgotten. Everyone deserves some love.

The second childlike quality you need to reclaim is unconditional is love. Adults tend to love selectively. Children love unconditionally. Mother Teresa (1910-1997) once said, “The greatest problem facing the world today is that we draw our family circles too small.” Children love everyone, even those individuals that we have forgotten. How loving are you? The first childlike quality we need to reclaim is gratitude. The second childlike quality we need to reclaim is love. The third childlike quality we need to reclaim is trust.

American author Tim Hansel (1941-2009) told a story about his son, Zac. They were rock climbing, when Tim heard Zac yell, “Hey Dad! Catch me! Zac then jumped and Tim miraculously caught him. For a few minutes no one talked. Then, Tim asked Zac, “why did you do that?” He responded with remarkable calmness: “Because you’re my Dad.” Zac could live life to the hilt because he trusted his father.

The third childlike quality in your life you need is trust. Adults are more independent. We do our best to handle all situations and that is not all bad. However, sometimes our problems are larger than our resources. Untouched, children trust the adults in their lives. How far do you trust God? Abraham Lincon (1809-1865) said, “Let us renew our trust in God, and go forward without fear.”

In the 1930s a prayer was released named “Two Prayers.” It is the perfect ending to this blog.

Last night my boy confessed to me:

Some childish wrong;

And kneeling at my knee

He prayed with tears –

“Dear God, Make me a man

like Daddy – wise and strong,

I know you can.”

Then while he slept

I knelt beside his bed,

Confessed my sins

And prayed with low bowed head,

‘Make me a child

Like my child here-

Pure, guileless,

Trusting thee with faith sincere. And all of God’s people said, “Amen!”

Who Is Jesus?

The Apostles’ Creed, which summarizes the core beliefs of the Christian faith, first appeared in the year 390. It was originally attributed to the twelve apostles, but it evolved from various creedal statements and baptismal interrogations from the early church. It tells us:

Jesus was the only Son of God, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to hell. The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty. From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

It answers our question, who is Jesus? During my time in the ministry, my congregations recited the Apostles’ Creed weekly. I always feared they were saying the words without considering their meaning. That is easy to do. The real question is, who is Jesus to you? That takes us to our scripture reading, Mark 4:35-41.

According to the text, Jesus and the disciples are on the Sea of Galilee. They were sailing from Galilee to the region of the Gerasenes. That Sea of Galilee was infamous for sudden storms and that is exactly what happened. Without warning a storm hits, and the boat begins to fill with water. The disciples begin to panic, fearing they are going to die. However, Jesus was fast asleep. The disciples wake Jesus, and he is surprised by their emotional state. He reprimands them for their lack of faith and calms the storm. The story tells us Jesus had authority over nature. As a matter of fact, Jesus had authority over all creation. That was more than the disciples expected. They had been traveling with Jesus, and they thought they knew him, but their understanding of him was incomplete. You can know someone and not completely understand them. Shocked, the disciples asked a question the world has been trying to answer for generations, “who is this?” In other words, they asked the question, “who is Jesus?” The answer you receive will depend on the person or group you ask. Let me give you a few examples.

If you would have asked Jesus’ cynical narrow-minded generation, who is Jesus, they would have given you some basic information about him. Jesus was a carpenter, the son of Mary and Joseph. However, some questioned if Joseph was his father. Some would have not even answered the question, who is Jesus, at all, because he came from Nazareth. Many looked down on that community. Even one of his own disciples, Nathaniel, before following Jesus, looked down on Nazareth. (John 1:46) If you asked Jesus’ cynical narrow-minded generation, who is Jesus, their answers would have been incomplete.

If you ask other major world religions the question, who is Jesus, they will admit Jesus was one of the most influential people in the history of the world. Hindus generally view Jesus with respect and see him as a spiritual teacher or a manifestation of God. Some Buddhist scholars are emphasizing the similarities between the lives and teachings of Buddha and Jesus. Did you know in the Quran, the sacred text of Islam, Jesus is mentioned twenty-five times? His generous ways caught the eye of Allah, who selected him to be a divine messenger. The Jewish world sees Jesus as an example on how to live. Other major world religions value Jesus, but their answers are incomplete.

If you ask more contemporary world religions, who is Jesus, they will admit Jesus is significant. For example, you can find the teachings of Jesus in earliest writings of Scientology. The Bahai Faith, which tries to find the balance of all world religions, values Jesus. They admit “Jesus is who he says he is.” In the world today there are approximately 100,000 people following a religion called Rael. It is a UFO religion, which believes the world was created by a species of humanoid extraterrestrials. They believe that Jesus was a hybrid mixing extraterrestrials and humans. Many contemporary religions value Jesus but their answers are incomplete. Even atheists, who do not believe in the existence of God, recognize the historical Jesus, who is a moral example and teacher. So, let me ask you the question one more time, who is Jesus? Who is Jesus to you?

When I was in seminary, I had a friend named Mike. He was a wild guy with long red hair and a big heart. He was from the Illinois side of the Mississippi River in the St. Louis area. We lived in the same apartment complex, so we would ride to school together. As we traveled those few miles, we talked and shared our stories. Of all the stories Mike told me, this is the one I remember.

He freely admitted, he was a non-believer during college. The last thing he worried about was Jesus. That all changed one Friday night. He was out drinking with his friends. Completely drunk, he decided to drive home. The expected happened, and Mike got into an accident. He was told later he was cut out of his car by the jaws of life and taken to the local hospital. In the emergency room, he was in an unconscious state, yet he could hear his mother talking to the doctor. She began sobbing when the doctor told her, it didn’t look good. Mike didn’t want to die, so he made a deal with God. If God would save him, then he would serve God the rest of his life. Every time Mike told me that story, he pulled his shirt open to show me the large ugly scars on his chest from the accident. Mike survived and he kept his word. He accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior. In time, he heard God calling him into the ministry and enrolled in seminary. The last time I heard from Mike, he was serving a church in Illinois. Ask Mike the question, who is Jesus, and he will give you the best answer. Jesus is his Lord and Savior. That is Mike’s story.

What is your story? Everyone’s story is different. It really doesn’t matter if your story includes sex, drugs and rock and roll, or if your story includes a loving family and a faithful, patient Sunday school teacher. It does not matter how you came to know Jesus. The only thing that matters is you came to know Jesus as your Lord and Savior. For once you do, you will know the benefits of the Christian faith. You will have a closer relationship with God, know your sins are forgiven, have a purpose for living, and have the promise of eternal life. I have known those things for many years. It all goes back to our question, who is Jesus? Who is Jesus to you? It is a question everyone must answer. Sometime later, Jesus, himself, gave the disciples the answer, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.” (John 14:6) How do you answer the question, who is Jesus? Who is Jesus to you?