Receiving as a Child (Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost)

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When I was an older kid, I still remember my parents and grandparents telling me to “act my age” or to stop behaving “childishly.” Maybe this happened to you, too.  And maybe you’ve said such things to your own kids.  

And usually, when we’ve been told not act “childishly” it means that we’ve been acting irresponsibly; or disrespectfully; or perhaps that we’re just not thinking our decisions through very well.  And indeed, when we’re small children, we don’t always understand things as well as an adult (or at least as adults should!); we don’t always grasp the potential consequences of our behavior; and we can act disrespectfully even when we don’t mean to.

And so one of the goals of childhood is to “grow up.” That is, to stop doing things “like a child.” Even in the Bible, adults get in trouble for living in “childish ways” – which is one of Paul’s critiques when he writes to the early Christian community in Corinth.

And yet, in today’s Gospel reading, for the second time in two chapters, Jesus lifts up a little child as an example of how his disciples SHOULD live.  Back in chapter 9, Jesus talked about welcoming others as a little child would be welcomed.  And at that point, you could almost argue that Jesus was talking about how people who consider themselves adults should act with children.

But here, in today’s reading, Jesus says that “whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.”  That is, somehow, in order to enter into the fullness of what God has in store for us, we all need to act “as a little child.”

And as an educated, responsible and polite adult, I kind of recoil against being told to act like a child. And yet, when Jesus calls us to receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he clearly doesn’t mean that we:

• need to be sweet and innocent, the way we like to idealize children when we read the Bible – after all, while kids are often cute, they’re not necessarily sweet and well behaved – we often weren’t…!

• should be simplistic in our faith – that is, since children don’t always understand what’s going on, we don’t have to think much about our faith, either, or at least that’s how some people imagine it (“God said it, I believe it, that’s it!)…

• should behave childishly – as in, irresponsibly or disrespectfully or without regard to the consequences of our actions – notwithstanding the many examples lately of individual Christians and congregations who seem to act like that’s the case…!

Those really aren’t the things that Jesus is trying to tell us. Instead, the key word here in what Jesus says is the word “receive” – whoever does not “receive the kingdom of God as a little child”. 

What Jesus is saying is that, if you want to enter into the fullness of the kingdom of God – both now and in the age to come – you have to be willing to receive it as a gift – not to earn it as a reward.  And that’s what it means to live as a child of God – to understand and appreciate that, like children who depend upon their parents and rely on their love for everything, we expect and rely on God’s love and not our own efforts.

And so, receiving the kingdom of God as a little child means “living childishly” in the sense that we:

• hope for and even expect God’s gifts even though we can’t “earn” them – little children depend upon their parents’ love to give them what they need, and even if chores are expected, that’s not what “earns” a place in the family; and this is what’s behind a lot of these “controversies” we read about – they’re really ways that people want to say, “well, I’ve earned by my place by not messing up one of the “really important” rules…

• grow in our understanding of who God is and what God’s will is for us – like little children, we should recognize our need to keep learning and growing; when we lose this attitude, and think we’ve got it all figured out, we can end up like the Pharisees and even the disciples who believe they can lecture God on what the rules really are, or how they should be interpreted or enforced; and this is maybe why the disciples don’t want to let the kids in – they’re not “advanced” like the disciples are; and often, it’s that kind of attitude that still keeps people away from Jesus…

• act confidently, knowing that even if we get hurt, God will always be there for us – little children often grow and learn best when they’re confident that their parents are watching and ready to help them if there’s a problem, and that’s different than if we live with a sense that we should just duck and cover until Jesus comes; if we’re not really confident in God’s love and forgiveness, we focus on ourselves and how we can be more “perfect” or “mature”…

And the important thing to remember here is that when we’re able to receive the kingdom of God as a little child would, Jesus makes us into people who can share the kingdom of God with others in the world around us. 

And that’s because when we receive the kingdom as gift we haven’t earned, we’re more likely to share it with people we might not think have earned it either.  When we receive the kingdom as an opportunity to learn and grow, we’re able to see new possibilities and new calls from God that we wouldn’t have otherwise.  And  when we receive the kingdom as a promise, we’re able to live boldly and courageously even when we mess up, and no matter what’s happening in the world around us.

Amen.