First Reading—1 Corinthians 2: 1-5—The Message
You'll remember, friends, that when I first came to you to let you in on God's great plan, I didn't try to impress you with polished speeches and the latest philosophy. I deliberately kept it plain and simple: first Jesus and who he is; then Jesus and what he did—Jesus crucified.
I was unsure of how to go about this, and felt totally inadequate—I was scared to death, if you want the truth of it—and so nothing I said could have impressed you or anyone else. But the Message came through anyway. God's Spirit and God's power did it, which made it clear that your life of faith is a response to God's power, not to some fancy mental or emotional footwork by me or anyone else.
The Gospel Reading—Mark 10: 13-16
The people brought children to Jesus, hoping he might touch them. The disciples shooed them off. But Jesus was irate and let them know it: "Don't push these children away. Don't ever get between them and me. These children are at the very center of life in the kingdom. Mark this: Unless you accept God's kingdom in the simplicity of a child, you'll never get in." Then, gathering the children up in his arms, he laid his hands of blessing on them.
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God of all, you speak to us in ways we can understand no matter where our paths have taken us. We ask you to pour your Spirit on my words and in our hearts this day. Amen
It’s a great story. You can see Jesus, perhaps sitting on a tree stump, taking a rest from speaking. Mothers and fathers come from everywhere, bringing their children. The kids are running around like crazy, trying to get to Jesus. The oh so serious disciples do what they think disciples are supposed to do. They shoo the children away. “Don’t bother Jesus, he’s a very busy man.” Jesus became very angry at the disciples and he let them know it. “Don’t ever do that again. Let the children come. They are at the heart of everything I say, the very center of the kingdom. They will show you the way to getting in the kingdom yourselves. If you can’t be as simple as these children in your understanding of God’s love, you’ll never get in.” Then Jesus laid his hands on each child and blessed them.
As simple as a child…just like that Jesus puts it all in perspective. That would come as a shock for some of the theologians throughout time who write in words so big and long that it’s hard to believe anyone really understands them. Might also come as a shock to those megachurches who have all the audio-visual equipment of a major motion picture studio so that those in attendance can “feel” the Spirit of God at work in the church. Paul’s words state the nature of the message as clearly as any I can imagine. And it all fits together—we don’t need to impress each other with fancy words or emotional footwork. The message comes through God’s Spirit and God’s power in words so simple and feelings so basic that little children get it faster than the smartest adults present.
You may wonder why I chose these scripture verses to go with our hymn for today “Just As I Am.” The author of this poem later set to music, was Charlotte Elliott of Brighton, England. The story goes that she was a bitter, broken woman. She was soured on the world and all the blows that life had dealt her. She began to believe that a loving God could not have treated her so badly as to make her feel the way she was feeling. One night a Swiss minister visited the home to see if he could help this desperately unhappy soul. She threw a fit right at the dinner table. Her horrified family rushed from the room, but the minister stayed. He said to her, “you’re tired of being who you are, aren’t you?” Admitting nothing (you gotta like this woman’s resolve to be miserable), she asked “what is your cure?” she asked. The minister answered, “the very faith you say you despise.” As they talked, Charlotte began to soften. “If I wanted to begin to believe and find some of what you seem to have, what would I do?” she asked. The minster answered, “you would give yourself to God’s Spirit, just as you are right now, with your fightings and fears, hates and loves, pride and shame.” “Just as I am—nothing to change, just as I am?” asked the skeptical Charlotte. “Just as you are” answered the minister. The fact that her poem, first written as a fundraiser for a school for children of poor clergy families, later became the most famous of all invitational hymns shows what can happen when we stop trying to understand, or earn, or rationalize our way to life in the Spirit of God.
Some of you may have mixed memories of singing Just As I Am at the end of revival services. Many of you never heard the song before as you do not come from a tradition where hymns of invitation were ever sung. Briefly put, the hymn of invitation was sung at the end of the service and the folks in the congregation were invited to physically respond to the minister’s invitation to enter into a life with God by coming forward and doing so publically. So for many, this song immediately takes you back to a little Baptist or Pentecostal church where you may have first begun to think about your walk with God. Whatever the case, the song leads us to look at one very simple message—a message that works for us simple folk. God loves us, just as we are—no need to change—no need to pretend to be something we are not.
Now here is where I think we may have gone astray. Too often, those of us who are GLBT have taken that to mean that we do not have to deny our sexuality and we stop there. It’s true, we do not have to deny our sexuality or deny who we are in order to run to God like the children who were running to Jesus in our Gospel story. And we seem to get that part. It’s all the other stuff we try to ‘fix’ before we feel worthy to be loved by God. It just always kind of amazes me that we get the sexuality thing, and then fail to get the rest of it. We still stop ourselves short of approaching God just as we are and look for what else is wrong with us. This is the message of our song and scriptures—come as you are. That’s all, just as you are.
Now this doesn’t mean that we don’t need to right the relationships in our lives as we prepare our hearts to come to God either in prayer or to the table. But we do this, not because there is anything fundamentally wrong with us, but because God calls us to see that our less than right relationships keep us from experiencing and enjoying our life in God. And here is where the Christian community comes in. Fr. Henri Nouwen reminds us: “The Christian community is a community of people who remind each other who they truly are—the beloved of God. And everything around us is trying to tell me that it is not true. That is a big, big, battle. That’s what we call the spiritual battle. This in not just sweet things, it’s the fight for your identity.”
Many of you have asked me what I think the definition of sin is. And I have told you that I believe that sin is when we begin to believe that we don’t need God or that we are equal to God. When we believe that we don’t need God, we kill by deed or by word. When we believe we are equal to God, we waste the glory of creation on unnecessary opulence. When we believe we don’t need God, we fail to love thoroughly and completely. We place our own needs above the needs of the rest of God’s creation. And, when we believe we don’t need God, we convince ourselves that we are less than what God declared us to be—beloved children of God. Yes, this is what I mean to say. I am saying that I believe that sin enters our hearts when we feel that we are not worthy to be loved by God. When we decide that we know better than God whether we are good enough, rich enough, bright enough, talented enough to be loved by God, we are engaging in sinful reasoning. Today, we are called back to the clear, true, simple beliefs of children.
Unfortunately, life does not allow us stay children in any area except faith. And, in faith, we are called by Jesus, himself, to have faith exactly like a child. This is a great dilemma for us because the forces of life slowly tear away at our child’s heart until as adults we have come to believe the lies we have been told by all those who seek to have us be something we are not created to be. And, more often than not, we are left with no idea of our true identity—our identity as children of God—perfectly created in the image of God, perfectly loved by God, and perfectly sustained in our daily lives through the Spirit of God. And perfectly called to God’s kingdom by Jesus, this man who loved children; this incarnational God who lived and walked and loved among all the other children of God.
One last thing—before you dismiss this Gospel for children and other simple folk, ask yourself where you got the idea that believing in God was complicated and tiresome. I am not afraid to suggest that you got the idea from sometimes well-meaning and sometimes not well-meaning people who thought they knew better than you about who God wants you to be. But this is not so. Jesus, our perfect guide, calls us to look again, to look simply, to believe with a child’s faith; and to know, that just as you are, you are the beloved of God. Amen and amen.
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