Hope Like a Child Luke 18:15-17
We are entering the season of Advent. Advent, we get this word from the Latin “adventus” meaning arrival. Advent, the four weeks before Christmas that we meditate and pray in order to prepare for the birth of Jesus. The four weeks that we study the attributes that comes with Jesus; hope, peace, joy, and love. We start our preparation by looking at hope.
Hope has been in the world since the beginning, Adam and Eve hoped that eating the fruit would make them like God.
In our fallen world hope can be about things we want or about avoiding consequences, but hope in God is different. Abraham believed God when he said that he and Sarah would have a son and it took years for that to happen but scripture says Abraham never stopped believing God.
Hope in God is trust, hope in God is faith. Now Abraham had hope in God and yet had a son Ishmael with the maid Hagar, even though Isaac was promised. Abraham shows us that even the most devote can question and be swayed from God when we don’t see his promises come to pass fast enough for our taste. So how can we trust God, how can we have the kind of hope that is given to us by the birth of Jesus?
I believe Jesus tells us how in our passage today. As adults we leave our childhood ideas behind. We say innocence leaves as the realities of life enter bringing a lack of trust and cynicism. But that was not the way we were created to live. In the garden Adam and Eve had everything provided for them, they knew God would give them what they needed. If they made a mistake it was without the knowledge of right and wrong and not held against them. Things didn’t change for them until after they ate the fruit, until after they grew up so to speak.
Jesus tells us here that our goal should be to go back to the way Adam and Eve were before they ate the fruit. We should be more child-like. Now this does not mean we should not work nor should we avoid responsibilities. We were made for these things. What it does mean is that to trust in God the way he wants us too, to have within us the hope Christ brings, we should strive to maintain a child’s qualities.
“Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the Kingdom of God like a little child will not enter it.” What does Jesus mean by “like a little child”?
Children are accepting.
Verse 16, “But Jesus called the children to him…” Now Jesus is talking to a crowd. And in any crowd there are people of different circumstances. Therefore I believe some of these children are from wealthier families; dressed well, washed. And then there are children from poorer families; disheveled, with torn or dirty cloths; maybe wearing the only cloths they have. And Jesus accepts them all, regardless.
I remember when my boys were little we used to go to Kinderland; a park in Kingston in the afternoons. They always joined a group of other children, and as others came to the park all the kids played together. To the children it didn’t matter if others were white or black, Asian or Hispanic; they were accepted and trusted and all treated the same. As we get older I think we lose this kind of acceptance, we get cynical and distrustful. We can wonder what someone wants from us.
Children are innocent. They see the world as it is presented to them. They believe what they are told without question. I know not everything in the world happens the way we are told it will and that causes our distrust and cynicism. And I admit that on occasion I have told Jen, “I’ll wait and see, I’ve been burned before.”
We lose our innocence when we start to distrust before we are given a good reason too. Proverbs 3:5, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” We need to be innocent enough to trust God even when things seem to go wrong, even when we lose someone.
Romans 3:22, “This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.” To all who believe. There are too many Christians, even ministers who try to limit God’s grace. “You live in a same sex relationship; you can’t go to heaven,” “You’re divorced; you’re living in sin,” “You did a lot of bad things; God is going to punish you.” None of this is true. God’s love and grace is not limited by what we do, it’s limited by what we believe. Have the innocence to believe what God tells you; that simply and solely by your faith, you are redeemed, glorified, forgiven and saved in Christ Jesus.
Children are truthful; if they don’t like something they will say so, if they want something they will say so. My kids could be brutally honest, “Dad, you’re getting fat,” Hard to get angry at them when they were right.
Two of the Ten Commandments say, “You shall not give false testimony…You shall not covet…” These play into truthfulness. Now maybe we don’t blatantly lie to someone but I bet we’ve all edited the truth a time or two. Sometimes this can be to spare someone’s feelings but I know for me there were times it was to spare me the brunt of someone’s anger.
More than this though, when Jesus references truthfulness he also means we should be truthful about him. Has anyone been around a conversation about God as people say he doesn’t exist and you remain quiet because you don’t want to start an argument? Anyone ever see someone obviously having a bad time, maybe the cashier at a store; or see someone on a bench depressed and then not go up and say “God is with you,” or “I’ll pray for you,” because you didn’t want to seem foolish if they said they didn’t believe. Jesus wants us to be truthful in our dealings with others. He also wants us to be truthful about our faith in him.
Children can be awed and amazed. My boys when they were little could watch ants coming and going from an ant hill with total fascination. Jesus wants us to be awed by the amount of the love God feels for you, amazed that he sent his son to the cross so you can go to heaven.
Jesus wants us to be amazed by God’s creation. Children can look in wonderment at a butterfly fluttering past or a fish swimming in a pond. I’m asking you to take time to look at and be amazed at the beauty and complexity of his creation.
Children are teachable. They innately want to learn. My kids seemed to have one question after another. They used to watch the animal planet channel all the time and I used to tell Jen if they told you a gazelle’s tongue turned blue on the third full moon of the year they were probably right. Ok, maybe not that one but they absorbed all that was presented to them. As adults we should look at our lives and the things around us and see what God is teaching us.
Hebrews 5:8, “Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered…” Jesus learned from what he went through in his life. We all can learn when things go right but when things go wrong, a lot of people wonder why God is punishing them. We need to remember that Jesus paid for all our sins and mistakes on the cross, as a holy God he cannot punish us for something that Jesus was already punished for. So I don’t believe God is punishing us. I do believe God uses the hard things in life we all face to teach. I’m late for a meeting and now have a flat tire, could it be I need to slow down and learn patience? The troubles in my first marriage taught me how immature I was, how unyielding I could be, and I learned how to be a better father and a good husband.
This week in Advent is about hope.
Christian hope is not the world’s hope. Christian hope is not wishing God misses something we did wrong. Christian hope is not wishing we can go to heaven by trying to be good but ignoring Christ. Christian hope is a trust, trust in God’s promises, trust in the redemption through Jesus at the cross.
In today’s scripture Jesus tells us how to live God’s kingdom on earth, how to live the hope given to the world at Christmas. Jesus tells us that living out his hope is like living as a child, not living without responsibilities but living with certain attributes.
Christian living is being accepting. We need to ignore the differences between people. It doesn’t matter how someone lives, where they live, what they do for a living, what they look like; do not let distrust and cynicism rule our lives. Ephesians 4:2, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgive one another, just as in Christ, God has forgiven you.”
Christianity is innocence. This does not mean to be gullible or to look at the world through “rose tinted glasses.” It means to live our lives trusting God’s promises. Psalm 37:5, “Commit your way to the Lord, trust in him and he will act.”
Christianity is truthfulness. Live your life honestly and with open faith, don’t hide it from the world. Romans 10:17, “…faith comes from hearing the message and the message is heard through the word about Christ.”
Christianity is living in awe and amazement at God’s creation and in the way he deals with humanity. Hebrews 12:28, “Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and so worship God with reverence and awe,”
Christianity is being teachable. Always be open to God’s word and see his lessons throughout the day. Matthew 11:29 “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls.”
Romans 15:13 is my prayer for you, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace…”
Amen.