Growing Young

Scripture:  Mark 10:13-16

            One of the things I miss most from my younger days are lazy Saturdays.   Growing up my favorite cartoon to watch on Saturday mornings was the Real Ghostbusters.   After cartoons my brother and I mightsit side by side and play Super Mario Bros. on the Nintendo.   Later I might my favorite movie, which was (of course) Star Wars.  I actually did that so much I wore out the VHS tapes twice.  These are some of the childhood memories, that can create strong feelings of nostalgia.  We likely all have tons of similar memories.  However, I have noticed something about these things I have nostalgic feelings for.  A new Ghostbusters movie came out this year.  The newest Super Mario Bros. game is due out on the Nintendo Switch this November. I no longer need to wear out Star Wars movies by watching the same one over and over, because now there is a lot more Star Wars content, like the Acolyte TV series which came out a couple of months ago.  The TV shows, movies, and video games that I grew up did not get left in the past to be childhood memories, they are still being made today. 

Many of the things from my childhood can still be found in new forms, because companies and marketers have learned that nostalgia sales.   When new Star Wars Lego sets, like the Millennium Falcon, are released with a $850 price tag it is clear the market for that toy is not children.   Companies have learned that it is profitable to sell us back our childhood. Consumers over the age of 18 spent 1.5 billion dollars on toys for themselves in the first 1/3 of this year, and the adult demographic is now the most important demographic for the toy industry.  Adults seem to be willing to attempt to hold off the march of time by getting a hit of nostalgia by buying the things that brought them joy when they were younger.    
There is an irony at work here.  When we are children we often cannot wait to grow up and be treated like we are older, but once we grow up we chase and try to recapture the magic of childhood.  There are a lot of people willing to spend money to get that nostalgic rush, a reminder of simpler times, and a few moments of feeling like a kid again.  We grow old quicker than we think we will, and then we desperately want to grow young.  While we can not do this on an individual level, we can do it on a corporate level.  People can not grow younger, but churches certainly can.  This morning’s scripture gives us some important reminders about how we do it. 

            This morning’s scripture is a short little story in the ministry of Jesus.   Despite not having the drama of some of Jesus’ miracles or confrontations with religious leaders, or the depth of wisdom that the parables of Jesus are packed with there is still a lot to discover in the few verses we read this morning.  To understand this scripture and what it means for us today, I think we need to be able to answer two questions.  First, why were the disciples trying to keep the children away from Jesus?  Second, what does Jesus meant that the kingdom of God belongs to such as these? 
The culture that Jesus lived and ministered in, is one that is incredibly different than our culture today.  One of the fundamental ways that American culture of the 20th and 21st centuries is different, not just from the time of Jesus but from just about every previous century is how child centric our culture is.  Clearly parents in previous centuries valued and loved their children, but children did not get as much consideration as they do today.  For example, in a lot of families the weekly schedule is built around the practices and activities of the children above all else. This would have been mostly unheard of in most other times of human existence. Human society of previous centuries did not place the same level of emphasis on children that we see today. 

This was true in the first century as well.  Jesus, as a traveling rabbi, was considered a teacher of the Torah.  Learning from a rabbi was simply not the place of a child.  It was not for them.  This is why the disciples were shooing the children away.  They were following the tradition of the era.  By rebuking the children, they thought they were preserving the solemnity and importance of Jesus’ message.  In just about any other instance of this kind of interaction with a traveling rabbi, the actions of the disciples would have been viewed as correct.  Most rabbis of the time kept their message exclusive, it was only for those who it was meant for-and children were not on the list.

            However, Jesus was not like most other traveling rabbis.  At this point the disciples had not yet grasped that Jesus’ gospel was not exclusive it was fully inclusive.  Because by including children, Jesus by extension also included women who often were also excluded because they had to care for the children while the men learned.  The disciples were engaging in the time honored tradition of gate-keeping, of ensuring the purity of whatever is preserved for those they believe it is intended for.  However, Jesus radically broke from tradition by demanding that the little children should come to him. 

            Unfortunately, churches and Christians communities have historically found themselves more aligned with the disciples on this than with Jesus.  In a lot of places churches have a reputation of engaging in gate keeping.   Sometimes this gatekeeping is harsh and cruel.  It is intentionally excluding people because they do not look or act a certain way.  There are many people, too many people, with many painful stories of how gate-keeping has pushed them away from faith.  Fortunately, this type of gate keeping in churches is relatively rare.   Unfortunately, there is a much more common type of gate keeping that happens in churches.  Most church gate keeping takes place in a seven word phrase that gets used way too much in church circles:  We’ve never done it that way before.  
         
   Churches tend to be change-averse, and on average united Methodists are no different.  That is why the old joke is “how many Methodists does it take to change a light bulb?”   The answer is of course, “Change, what do you mean change? My grandmother donated that light bulb.”  Insisting to always do it the way it has been done, and to never do something new is a form of gatekeeping, because it orients the church inward.  It makes it so the way things are done caters to those who have been present the longest.  Protesting we’ve never done it that way before shuts down the possibilities of new ideas, new viewpoints, and new possibilities.  Ultimately, it shuts the gate on new people. 
 
          The disciples, in line with the culture of their time, tried to gatekeep and keep the children away from Jesus.  Unfortunately, the gatekeeping that happens in churches today can have a similar impact.  We can see this evidence in the demographics.  The median age of the US population is 35 but the median age of a United Methodist church member is 57.  All churches, including ours, will grow older by default.  Churches have to choose to grow young, and one of the first choices they have to make is not to gatekeep by resisting change at every turn.   In their landmark study about churches that are effective at consistently growing young by reaching and including young people, the Fuller Youth Institute discovered six strategies that are common in these faith communities.  

            In their book entitled Growing Young the researchers Kara Powell, Jake Mulder, and Brad Griffin identify one of these strategies of being the one that makes the greatest impact in growing young, and that is prioritizing young people.  It is not possible to prioritize young people and prioritize how we have always done it at the same time.  As the authors write in Growing Young this means prioritizing “young people everywhere.  Even when it means giving up preferences or shifting what in the past may have been considered nonnegotiable.  Even when it means relinquishing traditional authority and power in order to embrace the young.  Prioritizing teenagers and young adults as made the difference between ailing and thriving.”  In other words, one the most essential elements of growing young is we have to be willing to change and maybe even do things differently.  We must put ourselves and preferences between young people and Christ.  We must get out of the way and let the little children come to Jesus. 

​            If a church wants to grow young, if this church wants to grow young, then we must be willing to change.  However, before making changes to programming, structure, or anything like that I think a more fundamental component and possible change has to be in place.   This gets to the second question we need to consider which is why Jesus said the kingdom of God belongs to those like little children.   This morning’s scripture is not the first time that Jesus mentions the little children.  If we flip back just a few paragraphs in the gospel of Mark we find  In Mark 9:33-34 the Disciples had one again been arguing to themselves about who was greater.  Jesus once again tells them “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”   To further illustrate this point, Jesus picks up a child among them and said, “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me.”   It is in this morning’s scripture we learn the disciples had not yet quite learned the point, so Jesus reiterates it.      

            Again, in a first century, patriarchal culture that puts adult men at the top of the hierarchy, a child is the last person who would normally be welcomed.  In this culture, in an argument over who is greatest a child will always be the last picked.  Which is precisely why the kingdom of God belongs to those like little children.   A child in the first century could not earn a place of honor.  There is nothing that a child could do to be allowed pas the gatekeepers into the area they were not permitted.  For a child to gain the kind of access that Jesus granted them it was a gift, it was an exception, and it went against all of the rules.  Jesus said the kingdom belongs to the children, because the children were the lowest rank in the culture of his era.   The Kingdom belongs to children because the kingdom of heaven is not reserved for the greatest among us and it is not reserved for those who prove themselves.  It is a gift of God that is given to those undeserving because of God’s great love.  Our citizenship in God’s heavenly kingdom is a gift of grace through faith not through accomplishments. 

            The kingdom of heaven is a place that leads with grace.   It is characterized by radical acceptance, which means that if we take the message of Jesus seriously, churches should also be places known for the way in which they radically accept, include, and welcome everyone without exception.   I do not think it is a coincidence that the Growing Young research identified one of the six strategies for growing young is to take Jesus’ message seriously.   About this strategy the authors wrote, “According to our research, churches that communicate the gospel of Jesus as the centerpiece of God’s story are more likely to have young people with greater faith vibrancy and maturity.”   A love of God that forgives us, welcomes, and receives of us when we do not deserve it is the heart of the gospel of Jesus.  This should be the primary message that all churches, including us, need to communicate.  Our message should not be why certain people can not come.  We should let the people, all the people young or old, come to Jesus. Find the love of and forgiveness that only he can provide.   

            In this morning’s scripture the disciples were just doing things the way they have always been done.  Jesus signaled that he and the kingdom of God he proclaimed are different.   All are welcome- especially those who are being excluded.  Not only is everyone welcome, but Jesus communicates in this morning scripture, that we must be willing to change how things are done so that the gates of mercy and grace are flown wide open.  So may we not try to function as gatekeepers.  May we take the message of Jesus seriously and may we proclaim the unending love and amazing grace of God.   May we take this message so seriously, that in order to share the message with more people we prioritize young people everywhere and be willing to make changes if we need to.   May we let the children come, and in doing so may we grow young as a church and may we better reflect the kingdom of God here on earth.