A Little Child
A Sermon of The Rev. Dr. David A. Killian, Rector
All Saints Parish
Brookline, Massachusetts
September 21, 2003
Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Text: Mark 9:30-37
I
Two weeks ago we heard the Gospel passage where Jesus spoke the word, "Ephphatha," "Be opened" to the deaf man - and the man was able to hear. Today's Gospel continues the theme, "Be opened," but in a different context. Jesus asks his disciples, "What were you arguing about on the way?" They were embarrassed to admit that they were arguing about who was the greatest. So Jesus took a little child in his arms and said to them, "Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me."
Jesus is teaching that if you want to welcome God into your life, then welcome a little child. A child is the door through which you will draw closer to God. Embrace a child, respect a child, learn from a child -- that is how you will find God. Those of you who are parents know how demanding parenting can be; your children sometimes push you in ways you never imagined. And yet, the Gospels tell us, children are a way that we draw closer to God.
II
Jesus' teaching about children is at the heart of Christian belief. It may not seem controversial to us who live 2,000 years since Jesus promoted the dignity of children, but this was a tremendously radical teaching at the time. In the time of Jesus, children were considered non-persons. They had no rights. Infanticide was permitted in Roman law and a father had life and death authority over his children. One of the major struggles of the Christian church in the early centuries was the effort to eliminate infanticide and to provide legal protection for children. Of course, Jesus wasn't radical only in his acceptance of children, but he went against the grain also in accepting women, Gentiles, publicans, sinners, outcasts, and Samaritans. Jesus' words, "Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me" inspired Christians through the centuries to uplift the status of children and provide for their nurture and education.
How might Jesus's words inspire us today? How about welcoming children from our inner cities to suburban schools through the METCO program? How about supporting charter schools and promoting efforts to help the Boston public schools? How about inner city parochial schools and new schools like Epiphany and Nativity? Those who improve inner-city schools give these children a future and Jesus says whoever welcomes them welcomes God.
If we can improve the lives of poor parents then they will have more resources to care for their children. Here I note the efforts of the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization (GBIO), of which our parish is a member, to get fair wages for janitors and nursing home workers -- because these parents need a fair wage in order to provide food, clothes and shelter for their families.
I think of the Bonda orphanage in Zimbabwe, which our parish supports, which is a home for children whose parents who have died of AIDS. I think of efforts throughout Africa and Asia and the rest of the world to combat the scourge of AIDS.
And I think of our church school and Schola and all of their work to provide religious education for our children. "Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me."
III
A short story by Leo Tolstoy, from Divine and Human, shows how a child is the door and the way. A Russian officer is captured by a group of peasants during the Russian revolution. Despised as an officer of the hated czar, the crowd demands he be killed. The officer, carrying himself with great dignity, resigns himself to his fate.
As they lead him to the town square where he would be hung, the piercing
sobs of a child are heard. "Daddy, Daddy," cries the six-year
old as he pushes through the crowd to get closer to the prisoner. "Daddy!
What are they going to do to you?" Someone in the crowd says, "Go
home, boy -- go to your mother." The condemned officer hears his
son's voice. "He has no mother!" the officer shouts.
At last the boy reaches his father and grabs his father's arm.
The crowd continues to demand: "Kill him! Hang him! Shoot the scoundrel!"
The little boy is terrified. "What are they going to do to you, Daddy?"
"Listen," the father says, as reassuringly as he can. "You
know Catherine, our neighbor. Run to her house. Stay with her. I'll
be there soon." But the boy refuses to leave his father. "They're
going to kill you, Daddy." "Oh, no, this is just a game. They're
just playing." The officer gently pushes his son from him and then
speaks quietly to one of the mob's leaders. "Listen, kill me
if you want and whenever you want, but not in the presence of my child.
Untie my hands for two minutes and hold my hand. Show my child that you
are my friend and that you plan no harm, and then he will leave us. Then...then
you can tie me up again and kill me any way you want."
The leader of the crowd agrees and unties him. The prisoner takes his son into his arms. "Be a good boy now, and go to Catherine's. I'll be home soon." The boy stares at his father for what seems like an eternity. "You'll really come home?" "I will. Go on the Catherine's." The boy seems relieved and obeys his father. A woman leads him from the crowd. When the child disappears from sight, the officer draws his breath. "I am ready. You may kill me now." But something has happened. The spirit of hatred and vengeance that had fueled the crowd's anger is gone. "Let him go," one woman says. "God will be his judge," says another. Soon everyone takes up the chant. The prisoner's captives untie him. Unbound, the proud officer breaks into tears. He puts his hands over his face. And then, like someone guilty, he runs through the crowd to keep his promise to his little boy.
The innocent love of the little boy for his father transforms the anger and hatred of the crowd into empathy and forgiveness. The child is the door. Christ calls us to embrace the uncomplicated but genuine faith of a child. The faith of a child is anything but "childish." The power of such simple faith is its ability to overcome every rationalization, fear, complication, and agenda in order to mirror the selflessness, integrity and generosity of Christ. Only in embracing child-like kindness, compassion, generosity and forgiveness can we attain true greatness in the kingdom of God. Amen.