Title: A Warm Welcome?
Scripture: Psalm 8:1-9; Mark 10:13-16

Sermons are meant to be heard. Listen here.

If you heard today’s text and thought – “didn’t we just hear this?” – you are not experiencing deja vu.  Just two weeks ago Chad preached about Jesus plucking up a child and placing them in the middle of a group of adults. That was chapter 9 of Mark’s Gospel, and in that same chapter Jesus said “whoever welcomes this child welcomes me.”  

Just a few verses later in Mark’s 10th chapter, which we heard today, Jesus is teaching again, and people were bringing their children to him to be blessed.  I love this. As if the people had heard rumors that this Jesus not only accepted children but welcomed them… they eagerly brought their kids to be blessed.  Then, despite what they had already heard just a little earlier, the disciples tried to stop it.  And Jesus, again, reminds them that children are welcome – in fact, children are necessary to being a part of the Kingdom of God.

 

The greek word here, paidion, which means little child, is used three times in these four verses.  But what’s interesting about this word is that in today’s text it can be read in two different ways. The first can be “receives the Kingdom of God like a child receives it” OR “receive the Kingdom of God like you would receive a child.”  Which one is right?  We don’t know.  Short of asking Mark himself, we really only have one clue as to which one he meant, and that’s that earlier verse 37 from chapter 9: “Whoever welcomes a child, welcomes me”

This verse would imply that the second translation “welcome the kingdom like you would welcome a child” is probably the one Mark meant.  

Except that’s rarely the one we use.  

 

That first translation, the one that says we welcome the kingdom like a child welcomes it, is the most common translation of this text, even if Mark didn’t intend for it to be that way.

How many of you have ever heard that we need to have a child-like faith?

When we’re asked to have this kind of faith, it’s usually understood as a faith that is simple, and carefree, and trusting.  Faith that accepts what is taught without doubt or question.  

I don’t know about you, but I don’t know a lot of children that just accept whatever I say as true.  

In fact, most kids I know have one consistent question: why. 

Kids aren’t actually that blindly accepting.  They ask questions.

Lots of questions. 

Child-like faith isn’t bad – this interpretation of these verses isn’t either, but I think it’s time for us to redefine child-like faith.  

 

(intro video)

http://www.theworkofthepeople.com/child-like

Child-like doesn’t mean blind acceptance.  
It doesn’t mean child-ish, as Mcmanus stated.  
It means we never stop growing or asking questions.  

Just as Chad talked about a few weeks ago, questions are essential to our Christian faith and life.

Child-like faith is a faith that wonders. A faith that is curious.  

And we’re going to keep challenging you as Prince of Peace to ask questions.  

So I could end the sermon here.  
I could talk about child-like faith and be done.

BUT – as I said earlier.  There is another way to read this verse.

Instead of exhorting us to have childlike faith – Mark is asking us to “receive the kingdom of God like you would receive a child.”  

And in light of verse 37 from two weeks ago, this makes a lot of sense.  “Whoever welcomes a child welcomes me”, from chapter 9 becomes, “welcome the kingdom like you would welcome a child” in verse 10.

This is very different than having child-like faith – because it calls us to look outside of ourselves.  

 

I was at a conference a few weekends ago and among the 1000 attendees, a few people brought their babies.  One might assume that this is not the greatest place for them, it was in a cathedral style church with high ceilings and pews everywhere and not a cry room in site.  During the opening prayer, I mean, right at the start of two days of talks, one of them made some noise, as babies do, and the pastor who was leading at that time, stopped mid-prayer and said “thank you for bringing your children here and please don’t remove them” and the whole room erupted into applause.  

“receive the kingdom of God like you would receive a child.”  

How do we receive children?
Do we allow them to be themselves?
Do we give them space to dance and be boundaryless, even in this room?  

What does it look like to welcome children in our lives – outside of this place?
How do we act towards the tantruming child in Target?
The one crying next to us on the airplane?
As a mom of a child who has thrown a tantrum in public, I have felt the glares and stares, the judgement pouring off of people.
And then there’s that other mom, who looks at me with understanding in her eyes and says “hang in there” or offers to help, and I feel seen – welcomed, received.  

How do you welcome children?
When Jesus said these words, children were to be seen and not heard, and sometimes not even seen.
They had no status, no power, and no say.
This is absolutely not true today.
We practically revere our children.
We highlight how smart or perfect or awesome our kids are and put pictures and videos of the things they say and do all over the internet.
Birthday parties become elaborate games of bigger and better between parents.
Children are seen and heard everywhere now.

So some people say that this verse doesn’t mean what it did when Jesus said it anymore.  
And I might agree with you – except Jesus isn’t only talking about how we welcome children in these verses.
In verse 14 Jesus says that the Kingdom belongs to “such as these.”
“Such as these” is an intentional turn of phrase.
So while children are the example, Jesus doesn’t mean only children.
“Such as these” means those with similar status.
Yes, we’ve raised children to a higher place in our society.
But there are a lot of others who now fit the criteria.
Jesus wants us to look, really look, at the smallest, the least, the outcast, the ones without a voice, and ask ourselves how we might welcome them.
Because it is how we welcome just those people that brings us the Kingdom of God.
And while we want the Kingdom of God to come, if we’re really honest with ourselves, we want it, but not the way Jesus describes it.
We want the Kingdom of God in the world to be regal and larger than life and instead it looks like a child.
We want the Kingdom of God (with a capital K) to come and take over with guns blazing, taking out all the evil in one fell swoop, but instead it comes in peace.
We want the Kingdom of God to belong to the best and brightest and most powerful and instead it belongs to “such as these.”

We want the Kingdom of God, but we want it on our terms
And today, Jesus reminds us that it doesn’t work that way.
Jesus says that when we welcome each other, when we welcome the least, those on the margins, those most likely to be excluded, THAT is when we welcome the Kingdom of God.

We talk a lot at Prince of Peace about being welcoming.
We say hello, we hold doors for others, we are friendly to those around us in our little pew box.  And if that’s the way to understand it, then sure, I think we’re doing a pretty great job.
But today we have a challenge – because “Being welcoming” has been redefined for us by Jesus.
The Greek word “dechomai” which we translate as “welcome” or “receive”, literally means to grant access or as one definition says, “to not refuse friendship or hospitality.”  

Well.
That’s a lot more than greeting those around us.
And asking if we are this kind of welcoming is a harder question to ask ourselves.  
Who do we refuse hospitality to?
Are we a place where anyone can come in and feel included, embraced, and loved?

The Kingdom of God is not something that is going to happen somewhere far away from here, at some point long in the future.  

The Kingdom of God is possible here and now.
This morning even.  

What does it mean to welcome the Kingdom of God?
Love.
It means love.
It means we choose love instead of hate.
It means we look at others as beloved instead of enemies.
It means we open our eyes and see those around us.
It means we reconnect to our inner child and see people as people – not as something we’ve been taught is good or bad or different.  

The Kingdom of God looks like not refusing access or friendship.
It looks like love.
And how do we know this?
Jesus.
Because God first loved us.
We are going to walk up and hold out our hands and hear “child of God, this is my body, given for you”
Because of love.
Jesus brings the kingdom of God right to us. Into our hands.
Freely, without reservation.
Unfettered access.
Not refusing us.
And then says GO.
We have the ability to bring the Kingdom of God here and now.
Let’s together, welcome it with open arms and hands.

AMEN