Luke 18:15-17: Membership: To Care that Children are Nurtured in the Faith
Tom, aged 5, opened the big family Bible. He was fascinated as he fingered through the old pages. Suddenly, something fell out. He picked up an old leaf that had been pressed in between the pages. “Mum, look what I found,” he called out. “What have you got there, dear?” With astonishment he answered, “I think it’s Adam’s underwear!”
Mandy aged 5 was watching her parents dress for a party. When she saw her dad donning his tuxedo, she warned, “Daddy, you shouldn’t wear that suit.” “And why not, darling?” “You know that it always gives you a headache the next morning.”
Zachary, aged 4, came screaming out of the bathroom to tell his mother he’d dropped his toothbrush in the toilet. So she fished it out and threw it in the garbage. Zachary stood there thinking for a moment, then ran to the bathroom and came out with her toothbrushtoo. He held it up and smiled, “We better throw this one away too then, because it fell in the toilet a few days ago.”
We have come to the final and perhaps most important affirmation in our Church Membership statement, “To Care that Children are Nurtured in the Faith.” Written in the 1950’s, The Short Guide to the Duties of Church Membership was intended to provide a summary of what is expected of church members. Our Creeds tell us what we should believe. Our membership pledge describes how we should behave. Once a year at Easter, we individually and collectively renew our commitment to Jesus Christ and to one another for the year ahead by reaffirming these disciplines or pledges. Since Easter we have been considering them one by one in our sermon series. I invite you to keep a copy in your Bible, take them seriously, and review them periodically to help you grow to maturity. Please turn with me to Luke 18:15-17 and let us allow Jesus to teach us about the place of children in his church. Observe three things:
To parents, children are a precious gift
To the disciples, children were a pain in the neck
To Jesus, children are a perfect model
The Nurture of Children from Stephen Sizer on Vimeo.