Let the Children Come

Scripture:  Matthew 18:1-5; 10-14

 Growing up my Grandma Litherland lived in Tell City, way down in Southern Indiana among the banks of the Ohio River.  When I was young going to visit her was always an exciting prospect, and that is because I knew going to visit her meant we would go to the Tell City McDonalds.  What made that so special was more than just the happy meals, it was that the Tell City McDonalds had an indoor playground.  This was a fairly rare thing in the 1980s.  To this day, I can still remember in detail the layout to that playground.  Unfortunately, I have to remember it because it does not exist anymore.   In fact, there are only a small handful of McDonald’s playgrounds open anywhere in all of Indiana.  In 2020 during the Covid pandemic, McDonald’s closed all their play places, and in most areas they were never reopened.  As individual restaurants have remodeled over the past five years, often the playground have been removed entirely.   While I understand this is a business decision motivated by the bottom line, it is sad to me because I think the world needs more playgrounds not less. 

 Playgrounds are important because they are public spaces that are child-focused and fully centered on the experience of the child.   The history of playgrounds is a fascinating one, and they are fairly recent.  The first playground in the United States was not opened until 1886.  The first playgrounds were created to address the problem of children congregating in busy streets.  Initially playgrounds were seen as tools to craft children into more industrious adults.  They were created to be places where instructional games that taught children the importance of following rules and structure could be taught.  When climbing equipment began being added, many advocated that these spaces provided places for physical training so that children could be stronger workers or soldiers.   However, there were also advocates who saw playgrounds as important places not to train children but to let the kids be kids and just play.  Especially after World War 2, this became the viewpoint that won out and the dominant philosophy behind playgrounds.  While play can offer a variety of physical and cognitive benefits the main point of a playground today is for a kid to play and the equipment is built to prioritize the safety, viewpoint, and fun of the child. 

Playgrounds are a space in our culture where a kid can be a kid.  As we consider the words of Jesus from this morning’s scripture, I think a strong case could be made that churches should also be a place where a kid can be a kid.   Perhaps we also should be built to prioritize the safety, viewpoint, and experience of young people.   In doing so, not only will we be honoring Jesus’ teaching in this morning’s scripture, but we can discover that when we prioritize young people everyone ultimately benefits and grows in their faith. 

This morning’s scripture begins with a familiar theme.  Multiple times in the gospels, the disciples argue about which of them is the greatest.   In fact, in the gospel of Mark, it specifically states that the disciples were arguing about this all the way on the road to Capernaum.   Matthew’s gospel avoids the argument and records the disciples getting straight to the point, and asking Jesus “who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”  

While they might have all secretly hoped Jesus name dropped them specifically, I do not think the disciples were looking for a specific person.  They wanted to know what kind of person was going to get the most honor, the most power, and most responsibility in God’s kingdom.   We do not know what answer the disciples were expecting, but it is likely Jesus caught them all off guard by calling a little child over.   Culturally, the disciples would not have considered a child the greatest at anything.  As biblical scholar M. Eugene Boring points out in the New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary, “Even in first century Judaism, children were often regarded as inferior, without status or rights, treated more as property than as persons and were never held up as a model for anything.”          

 Jesus lifts up that in the Kingdom of heaven that greatness is not measured by the metrics of power, prestige, and wealth that the world uses.   In the kingdom of heaven, the person who willingly elevates others above themselves is considered great, and then Jesus challenges the disciples to put this into practice in verse 5.   There Jesus says, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.”    Jesus is touching on the hospitality culture and honor culture of the time.   To welcome a child, to extend hospitality to them, is to honor them.  This was often done for people who one believed were their equal or their better.  In the culture of the day, a child was not important enough to extend hospitality to, they had not paid their dues or earned their spot to be worthy of honor. 

 Honoring others above yourself and including those who are often excluded are common themes in the bible and especially the gospels.  However, this morning’s scripture goes further.   Jesus does not lift up a child as an object lesson and move on, but he tenaciously sticks with it.  We skipped over verses 6-9 but in those verses, Jesus lifts up that children are worthy of not just being included but being given special care.  Then when we picked up in verse 10, Jesus is still going on about the importance of children.   He tells a parable about how a man will leave the ninety-nine to go find one missing sheep, and that is an example of how God cares about the children.   We learn that in the kingdom of heaven not only are the children just as important as everyone else, but they are prioritized.   They are worth leaving the 99 behind to make sure the one is found and included.  

It is notable that Jesus places so much priority on children when the larger culture of his time did not.   Throughout time this is an emphasis that some students of the bible have really picked up on.   John Wesley, founder of the Methodist movement, picked up on this.  In his study of the bible, he saw that Jesus placed an emphasis on little ones. For this reason,  John Wesley insisted that Methodist preachers should spend no less than hour a week with children.  He got push back by some for this.   Some claimed that spending time with children was a waste because it kept them from the important work of saving souls.  Others claimed they were not gifted at working with kids.  Wesley was just as emphatic with his preachers as Jesus was his disciples when it came to the importance of children and Wesley’s response was “If you do not do this, you are not to be called a Methodist preacher.”

In this morning’s scripture we see a priority placed on young people, and that priority is part of the DNA of the United Methodist Church.   Prioritizing young people everywhere is one of the six essential strategies that the Fuller Youth Institute found is present in churches that succeed at making meaningful and sustainable connections with young people.   In fact, their research found it is the most essential of the core commitments.  In Growing Young they wrote, “A large swath of our nation’s congregations can and do foster many of these core commitments.  They are filled with lovely people doing lovely ministry, They just aren’t reaching young people. For many congregations making the intentional decision to disproportionately prioritize young people is the inflection point between growing young and growing old.” 

 Their research found that a church can take Jesus’ message seriously, it can build a warm community, and it can even empathize with young people and share leadership with them.  However, for churches to grow young and maintain a church culture that consistently engages younger people it has to prioritize them.  I know some of you may have got in that quote the phrase “disproportionately prioritize young people.”   This kind of means what it sounds like.  It means that a church does not commit its energy and resources to young people based on how much of the congregation they make up.  It means that a church commits its energy, time and resources to young people as if they are a priority.   This goes beyond just offering programs for young people.  Again, in Growing Young the researchers wrote, “These churches have made prioritizing young people a lifestyle commitment.  And the young people know it.”  

A church that prioritizes young people everywhere is one that has moved from having programs for young people, to being a church that is for young people.  Like the man in the parable Jesus told, a church that prioritizes young people leaves the 99 to find the one.   I realize that if you are not a young person, then your initial reaction is what about me?    There can be an instant concern that if young people are prioritized then that must mean everyone else is ignored.   That kneejerk reaction comes from an attitude of scarcity.  An attitude of scarcity is one that leaves us feeling territorial and feeling like we have to protect what we view as ours.   However, the kingdom of God is not a kingdom of scarcity, it is a kingdom of abundance.  When the disciples welcome the little children like Jesus said they should, it does not mean there is less space for them.   The kingdom of God does not work like that.   The Growing young research shows that when younger people get a bigger slice of the pie, the entire pie tends to get larger.   The depth of discipleship, the church’s outreach, the church’s friendliness, and overall level of excitement and engagement all god up.  As theologian Walter Brueggemann once wrote, “The power of the future is not in the hands of those who believe in scarcity but of those who trust in God’s abundance.”

 To prioritize young people requires considering how the way we do things do or do not consider young people and then making changes accordingly.   I think Epworth United Methodist Church in Indianapolis gives us a good example of what this looks like.  One of the responses this church made to the Covid-19 Pandemic was to remove their pews and replace them with chairs, this way people could move chairs around the room to maintain social distance from others during worship.   As the more urgent part of the pandemic wound down, the church began to wonder how else they might be able to better use their worship space.  The church had made the commitment to prioritize young people and their families, and this led to discussions about what this looked like in worship. 

The church did not want children to feel like guests or outsiders in the sanctuary, a space that kids often portray as a “grow up” space.  They did not worship to primarily be an adult activity, so they made the space more friendly for children.  Being good United Methodists, the back part of the sanctuary tended to be the prime real estate people wanted to sit in, but they gave this space up for the children.  They put in a Kid’s Zone.  An area that has seating that is made for children, it has activities and toys that engage young children and busy hands.  Instead of having a nursery for fidgety kids to go to, they brought the nursery into the sanctuary so the kids’ do not have to leave.  It has become their space as much as anyone else’s.

I was amazed when I first saw this area, and I talked to the church’s current associate pastor about it.  He communicated to me that even though there might be noises in the sanctuary on any given Sunday, the benefits have been immense.   Parents are able to stay engaged in the service while their kids learn, explore, and participate at their own level. Children feel more at ease, less restless, and more connected to the rhythms of prayer, song, and Scripture. And as a congregation, Epworth is living into its vision of being an intergenerational community that nurtures faith at every stage of life. The Kid Zone has become a visible sign of the church’s commitment to pass on the faith to the next generation, right in the heart of our worshiping space.

 Please hear me, I am not saying we have to get rid of your pew.  I am not saying that.  However, I think the story of Epworth shows us that prioritizing young people might mean doing things differently than we have in the past.   It is worth doing though, because as this morning’s scripture points out, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ prioritized children.  We should too.  So may we take the words of Jesus to heart, may we welcome young people in the name of Jesus, because in doing so we are welcoming him.  May we not have an attitude of scarcity but an attitude of abundance.  May we be willing to prioritize young people everywhere and in doing so may we let the children come.