First Presbyterian Church
647 East Market Street
Akron, Ohio 44304-1684
330-434-5183

Food for Thought: Let's Not Squander the Opportunity

June 25, 2006

Dr. Mark Ruppert

Mark 10:13-16

There is a story told of a group of expectant fathers who were in a waiting room, while their wives were in the process of delivering babies.  A nurse came in and announced to one man this his wife had just given birth to twins.  “That’s quite a coincidence,” he responded, “I play for the Minnesota Twins!”  A few minutes later another nurse came in and announced to another man that he was the father of triplets.  “That’s amazing,” he exclaimed, “I work for the 3M company.”  At that point a third man slipped off his chair and lay down on the floor.  Somebody asked him if he was feeling ill.  “No,” he responded, “I happen to work for the 7-Up company.”

Children, what a precious commodity.  Children: inquisitive, energetic, full of promise, impressionable, naive, truthful, have so much to live for and to look forward to.  Children: vulnerable, easily swayed, impressionable, not the church of tomorrow but the church of today because if we don’t reach them today we might not have them tomorrow.  Speaking of tomorrow, we start day one of Summer’s Best Two Weeks, our Christian sports day camp that we have been doing since 2000.

Let me ask you a question: how much is one child worth?  That’s right! If you could put a price tag on one child what would he or she be worth?  We talk about the cost to educate a child these days in this levy-laden state whether it is in the public schools or private schools, whether it is elementary or middle or high school or at the college or university level.  But how much is a child worth?  I don’t think we could adequately answer that question because we can’t put a price tag on a child, the amount is unimaginable.  You hope and pray that the child will use all their God-given gifts and abilities to make something of him or herself and become a person who is able to contribute and give back to society and make something of their life.  But you will never know until years later. 

Tomorrow we continue our investment in the youth of our church, the youth of our community, the youth of our neighborhood, the youth who attend Summer’s Best Two Weeks.  If we can reach even just one young person for Jesus Christ, if we can make a difference in just one of those young people’s life, if they can grow up and become a productive citizen then guess what?  It will be worth it.  Those young people who will walk through the doors of this church are precious children of God, and the Church of Jesus Christ must be willing to invest whatever it takes to give them every chance possible to make it: as an individual, as a child of God.  And by the end of the two weeks we pray that they will connect with Christ and give their lives to Him.  That is the goal--to make disciples for Christ so let’s not squander the opportunity.  And even though many of you will not have the opportunity to rub shoulder-to-shoulder with these kids we can all pray for them, for their counselors, for the work crew, for the leaders, for the kitchen crew, for anyone who will have contact with them.

C. S. Lewis, once said this concerning a child and their ability to separate the religious from the secular, “there is a stage in a child’s life at which it cannot separate the religious from the merely festal character of Christmas or Easter.  I have been told of a very small and very devout boy who was heard murmuring to himself on Easter morning a poem of his own composition, which began ‘Chocolate eggs and Jesus risen.’  This seems to me, for his age, both admirable poetry and admirable piety.  But of course the time will soon come when such a child can no longer effortlessly and spontaneously enjoy that unity.  He will become able to distinguish the spiritual from the ritual and festal aspect of Easter, chocolate eggs will no longer seem sacramental.  And once he has distinguished he must put one or the other first.  If he puts the spiritual first he can still taste something of Easter in the chocolate eggs; if he puts the eggs first they will soon no be no more than any other sweetmeat.  They will have taken on an independent, and therefore a soon withering life.” 
I would not want any child to put the secular first but Christ, and Christ alone.

Here in our passage from Mark we find what is known as a pronouncement story.  In other words it is a short vignette where we find a brief setting and an authoritative statement from the Lord.  Let’s set the stage but as we do we have to understand what is yet to transpire.  Jesus is making His way to the Cross, and He is very much in tune with this fact.  And even with this fact playing on His mind He had time for children.  So here we have people- possibly parents or relatives or friends, we just don’t know, but they are bringing children to Jesus for Him to touch them.  Jewish mothers were known to want their children to be blessed by the honored and great Rabbi of the day.  And it was really special to bring your child to be blessed by the Rabbi on their first birthday.  But the disciples have a different idea.  Were these disciples cruel and heartless?  No.  What they were probably trying to do was protect Him.

They knew something was different, they could see the tension on His face, they didn’t know all the particulars but they knew tragedy was up ahead in the distance.  I mean, here we are in chapter 10 of Mark and chapter 11 is tells us about Palm Sunday and where are they, at the cross.  So they wanted to protect Jesus and so they try and shoo the children away, maybe in not the kindest tone of voice.  So what does Jesus do?  He rebukes His disciples.  “Because the significant interaction is between Jesus and his disciples, rather than [His] opponents, the story is clearly designed to function within the community of faith for the instruction of subsequent followers of Jesus.” (Interpretation, Mark, Lamar Williamson, Jr., p. 178)

Doesn’t this passage say a lot about Jesus?  It tells us that even in the midst of tension- the Cross is just around the corner; even in the midst of a busy schedule and people clamoring for His time and attention, Jesus cared for children and they cared for Him.  Children are not stupid, they know when they are loved and they will return love if the first is true.  I love pictures where you find Jesus laughing and enjoying life and I love pictures that show Jesus smiling and surrounded by children. This story sheds light on the humanity of Jesus.

Sometimes, we in the church, have a similar attitude towards children, that attitude portrayed by the disciples in our passage.  There are some churches that hold Sunday school at the same time as worship, in an effort to make worship for adults so that they are not disturbed during worship.  Those children who are apart of churches that exclude them from the service, I wonder if Jesus would be found with them and not with the adults in worship.  And Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me.”
When I was coming out of seminary I vowed that I would not even consider a church that had this type of set up especially since I had worked during college and two years out of college and during seminary with youth ministry. 

We need to visibly let children know how important they are to the life and ministry of the church and not find ways to shoo them away but value them and listen to them.  We need to treat them with respect, for before we know it, they will be the leaders in our churches.

There once was a teacher long ago who valued children to the point that this teacher would take off his hat and bow to them at the beginning of each school day.  Because they were, as he said, the future in our midst.  It is not surprising that one of his students was a boy who’s name was Martin Luther, who went on to lead the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century.

Where else is a young person going to develop their faith than through participating in the life of the covenant community?  And participating means participating. 

I am so glad that here at First Church we take our children seriously.  We invest in them, we support them, we encourage them, why, we even allow them to lead us when we aren’t ready for the task.  I mean it is the young people who had the idea of feeding people on the 4th Sunday of the month and then the adults decided to do it on the 2nd Sunday of the month.  It is our senior highs who have just returned from their mission trip to inner city Washington, D.C. and the impact it has had on their lives is priceless.

If we can make a difference in the life of one child, we have accomplished something.  Don’t forget adults- we were kids once too.  Let’s not squander the opportunity but give it our best shot.  And Jesus said, “Let the children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the Kingdom of God belongs.”  I couldn’t have said it any better myself.  Amen.

Key Points

Introduction: Did you hear them?  Did you see them riding those two wheelers throughout the city this weekend join the some 10 to 14,000 others…?

Founders Day, Dr. Bob Smith and Bill Wilson

The 12 steps

Themes like being ________ with yourself; ________ one’s wrongs, __________ in asking God to remove one’s shortcomings, __________ to those harmed, and seeking to make _________

“Flip” Wilson and Dr. Sigmund Freud

Romans 8:1-11

Two contrasting ways to live out this earthly life

Life in the _______

Life in the _______

Conclusion: II Corinthians 5:17, “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” 

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)