The Feast of Trinity
On Children’s Sermons *(But Not Really)* Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen. Jesus says in today’s Gospel: “*If anyone keeps My Word, he will never taste death*.” Dear Christian friends: Over at the vacancy, a Christian man recently took me to task because I do not preach children’s sermons. He is a good man, and he was very gentle and respectful in his critique, which I dearly appreciate. His bottom line was, “You have the wrong idea about this, pastor! Children’s sermons get the attention of the entire congregation.” As soon as I get the chance do to so appropriately, I hope to take up the topic of children’s sermons at the vacancy. I am merely telling you about this because it will help you, both with today’s Gospel and with the Athanasian Creed, which we will soon pray. Why Do You Never Hear Children’s Sermons at Grace? A Few Reasons… · First reason: Pastors should preach their regular sermons so simply and so clearly that even a child can understand. Sometimes I succeed and sometimes I fail, but the solution to unclear preaching should not be that we add another sermon to the worship service. · Second reason: I cannot agree with the man who observed to me “Children’s sermons get the attention of the entire congregation.” No. The children get the attention of the entire congregation. During the children’s sermon, everyone cranes their necks, not to see the pastor’s little object lesson, but to see how the children respond it. And children say the darndest things. And everyone enjoys the moment. And people remember the commercials more than they remember the Super Bowl. · Third reason: NO ONE becomes a Christian and NO ONE remains in the faith because of the simplicity of the preaching. No one rejects the Christian faith or sets it on the back burner of their lives because they do not understand. Faith is a miracle of God, and God is good at doing miracles, even in the hearts and minds of our smallest children. That is why we baptize them. Understanding is also a miracle of God, for God’s prophet has said, “*The unfolding of God’s Words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple*” (Psalm 119:130); and again, “*Give me understanding according to Your Word, O Lord*” (Psalm 119:169). John the Baptist heard and understood while still in the womb! (Luke 1:41) Since understanding is a miracle, we should NOT rush to the conclusion that our smallest children cannot understand the preaching of the church, simply they cannot talk about it. Children can certainly learn to ignore the preaching of the church. But that might not be my doing. · Fourth (but not final) reason: We should consider what we Christians are up against, no matter how old or how young we might be. o The world hates us. Jesus warned us that the world would hate us (John 15:18), and the nightly news proves it true. In addition to that, o Many of our fellow Christians can barely stand to be in the same room with us. They do not thank us for our high regard for the Ten Commandments. They do not appreciate our confession of the ancient creeds. They absolutely do hate our good and godly practice of Closed Communion—not because they believe what we believe, but because they resent that anyone would tell them, “no.” In addition to that, o Many people in our own circles we are far too churchy, and that we spend way too much time and energy doing churchy things. And their protests hope to chip away at the faith we have been given. In light of all that we are up against on a daily basis, we should be making the most of every moment in our worship. We should be giving to both child and adult only the best and purest outpouring of the divine Word, which delivers life and salvation to you and to your entire family. In such a weighty task, hand puppets and paper hats might not cut the mustard! Today is confirmation day. Momentarily, five of our young Christians will stand and confess the Christian faith in our midst. They are about to tell us that they have heard the Word. They are about to tell us that they believe the Word. They are NOT in the position to tell us that they have mastered the divine Word. NONE OF US ARE! None of us will ever master the divine Word—not even the pastor—and that is a good thing. Mastery leads to boredom—just ask the child who has played a video game all the way to its end. Mastery leads to contempt—just ask the child who now needs a whole new game system because this one has become boring. Mastery leads to rejection—just look at how cheaply you can buy video games at a garage sale. The Jews in today’s Gospel had become masters of the Scriptures—and their mastery prompted them to reject Jesus as someone who was possessed by a demon. The Christian faith has not been given to these children so that they may become masters of it. The Christian faith has not been given to you and to me so that we may master it, either. The Christian faith has been given to us—by God Himself—so that we may keep it and hold it and nothing more. · As we are about to confess in the Athanasian Creed, “Whoever desires to be saved must, above all, hold the catholic faith.” (That word “catholic,” by the way, merely means “universal.” Whoever desires to be saved must, above all, hold the universal Christian faith that was handed down once by God for all people of all times and in all places.) Take note of the verb: The Christian faith must not be mastered, but HELD. The Christian faith must be held like a small child would hold his teddy bear, even though the child gives no thought to how the bear was manufactured. The Christian faith must be held in the same manner that young woman might hold and treasure a piece of jewelry given to her by her grandmother, even though the child does not yet know full history of the jewelry she wears. The Christian faith must be held in the same manner that many Americans wish to hold their Second Amendment rights, not giving up until someone pries their cold, dead fingers off the stock of the gun. · Jesus promises and swears to each of you in today’s Gospel, “*If anyone keeps My Word, he will never taste death*.” (By the way, that is a pretty emphatic promise, and Jesus means every Word of it: “*If anyone keeps My Word, he will never taste death*.”) Once again, take note of the verb: The Word of Christ must not be mastered, but KEPT. Stated another way, the Word of Christ must be loved, believed and trusted. Even a small child can do such things. Just look at the way a baby treats his mother—and who can really ever understand his mother? How, then, should we think of Christian preaching, especially since children’s sermons are going to stay permanently off the table? Perhaps we can do better than thinking of Christian preaching is only for the adults, but not for the children. Perhaps we should think of Christian preaching as the activity the entire family can enjoy. The forgiveness of sins that is now individually yours in Christ will then become more tangibly the possession of the entire group. We sit as a group and we hear as a group, and then the group goes home to mull over the significance of what was heard. If we could make such a thing happen, then perhaps · our children might grow up and manage to avoid thinking that we are demon-possessed, simply because we remain devoted to the Word of Christ, which promises your forgiveness and life. · our friends and neighbors might accidentally become part of the conversation. Good things could result from that. · the light of Christ will shine a little more brightly in our tiny corner of this darkened world. This is what the prophet Isaiah has said: Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you. And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising (Isaiah 60:1-3).
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