Dr Frank Thomas, "What about the Children?" Exodus 1:15-15 & Luke 18:15

would you just bow with me in a word of prayer and so god our creator our redeemer our sustainer we are grateful to be approaching this hour we thank you for worship for the beauty of worship for the encouragement of worship we thank you for the long history of african-american people who held unto your own unchanging hand to bring us through darkness and disaster and yet because of you we rose victorious we thank you for the children we thank you for the spirituals god we thank you for this pastor this tremendous woman of god at his side we ask now god that this would be the preaching moment for if you don't speak there's nothing the preacher can say if you don't move there's nothing the preacher can do if you don't anoint there's nothing that the preacher can feel you get the glory what we're after is a blessing and we thank you in the name of jesus we pray and let the church say amen and amen amen you all may be seated you may be seated thank you so much dr dates for this very kind and gracious invitation there are many many many people you could have invited to this space and place and you chose to invite me and i am deeply appreciative not only of the invitation but as you get older in years in ministry what matters is the relationship more than the invitations i used to look for invitations now i look for relationships so i thank you for our relationship and the years of discussion and the tremendous ministry that's in front of you here and also around the globe i am deeply appreciative i i love spirituals and i was in a church once and uh sitting next to my wife and i said they sang so many gospel and praise and worship numbers in a row i said if i heard the spiritual i'd shout somebody just sing a spiritual i had to run through this church because spirituals are almost a lost tradition in the african-american church and it's sad to say but i thank god for the beauty of all music i love good music whatever the form from classical to gospel to whatever it is i'm thankful to be in such a rich and warm and i thank my sister for praising worship i am i watched last week the band to get getting ready to come here i wanted to see you know and experience the worship and my wife and i we were blessed by last week's message and last week's music and i want to thank you she sends her regards she is you know at home we are old folks which means we're in the over 65 crowd so we're not quite moving in this pandemic as we once moved i want to [Music] grapple with two texts i i'm always nervous when i hear a preacher announce a bunch of texts i like the preacher to get up and give one text and deal with it so with great nervousness i suggest to you two texts for the sermon the first is found in exodus the first chapter in the 15th through the 17th verse and it reads like this the king of egypt said to the hebrew midwives whose names were shipra and pewa when you are helping the hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool if you see that the baby is a boy kill him but if it is a girl let her live the midwives however feared god and did not do what the king of egypt had told them to do they let the boys live then in luke chapter 18 from the 15th to the 17th verse people were also bringing babies to jesus for him to place his hands on them when the disciples saw this they rebuked them but jesus called the children to him and said let the little children come unto me and do not hinder them for the kingdom of god belongs to such as these truly i tell you anyone who will not receive the kingdom of god like a little child will never enter into it i want to preach something this morning entitled what about the children what about the children the beginnings of this sermon came to me as i sat listening to an amazing new testament scholar explaining what she called a children's reading of the text she said that children are very rarely the center of text and interpretation and more often than not are simply an appendage and an afterthought if mentioned at all she had the audacity to claim that in the american context while we list marginalized people in groups such as blacks women minorities lgbtqi immigrants and latinx we do not mention children children are more often marginalized and left without voices in many places particularly relevant for us in on this black history sunday they are seldom considered in sermons rarely talked about in theology homiletics lectures papers workshops books and readings of the text my ears perked up during her lecture because on may 4th 2018 our first granddaughter august elise dickerson was born to the world upon i thought the world changed when my uh our first child uh anthony william thomas was born and our second child rachel sojourner thomas was born but when rachel gave birth to august elise dickerson when i looked in the face of that child for the very first time the world changed i began to imagine what the world might look like through the eyes of children and the eyes of rachel of august at least dickerson what the world and it was an entree into my heart for a children's reading of the text after listening to this new scholar new testament scholar lecture on a children's reading of the text and the birth of my first grandchild i began to ask what about the children what about the children in this post-truth era lies fake news alternative facts and conspiratorial views of reality that don't even come close to lining up with real facts present a daily challenge for sanity for adults and if for adults how much more so for children what about the children when a covet pandemic runs wild as we struggle to get ahead of it children who are not in school children sometimes don't have food resources support clothing love help if one half of the adult population is depressed or at least anxious and in some form a need of some form of mental health what about the children if we're struggling as adults what about the children as i was preparing this sermon i looked at several lists of the chief challenges facing children all over the globe not just american children but children all over the globe this is what was listed violence through indoctrination poverty life as refugees lack of access to education child neglect child labor child sexual rape and molestation child abuse child prostitution child trafficking and slavery military use of children disease hunger and climate change to name a few what about the children what do our churches have to do with the children what if we got truly busy and active for children what about the children you see if i were to look carefully and critically beneath the sum total of the issues affecting our children what we would find is fear in adults i know this is for some old news but i can never forget donald j trump's despicable and inhumane zero tolerance policy separating separating immigrant children from their families at our southern border it was solely based in european american fear now i'm not crazy enough to think that immigration issues are not tough they are no easy solution to immigration issues it is not possible to let everybody in but neither is it moral to keep everybody out with inhumane treatment that includes putting people and kids in cages the fearful reality for some is that america is changing and by the year 240 euro americans with not sooner than that will not be the dominant group in america there is a massive fear of living in this kind of diversity when european americans don't control all of the levels of power and wealth so we get european white american fear and that fear gets expressed in voter suppression trying to keep black people and others from voting putting kids in cages locking down the border so we can keep so they say the majority what is hard for them and for us all is that life changes the world changes our bodies change our relationships change the church changes the nation changes all things change even the euro-american domination of minority persons it has to change you cannot dominate people forever i hate to admit it and i don't like it either but nothing stays the same everything must change along with many thoughtful people one being david singer in his book the unfettered soul i believe that at the base level of human psyche there are only two fundamental emotions fear and love either we respond to any and all changes or anything else in fear or we respond in love if you choose fear you won't like change if we respond in fear we will do all in our power to create a world that is predictable controllable and safe we will attempt to create a world that doesn't make us afraid so we do everything we can to manipulate life for the purpose of not feeling fear we cannot face the natural unfolding of life because it is not under our control if it's something that we don't understand or something that we don't agree with or something that we don't like something that makes us feel uncomfortable then it is to be shunned ostracized and segregated whatever does not disturb us is okay it's fine it's wonderful that which us disturbs us is violent vicious socialism communism unpatriotic this is the reality of fear when we finally figure out that we can't arrange life so that it does not disturb us we conjure the idea that life is against us we play the role of victim we try to deal with life in terms of competition jealousy fear particularly of that which we do not understand and to deal with the fear we blame and scapegoat all kind of black people all kind of other people we claim they out to get us they out to take our way of life we come to believe that the progress of other people diminishes us other people are the source of our discomfort and they have to be stereotyped walled off segregated dehumanized prejudged hated made less than human in some cases killed ethnically cleansed and exterminated in this fearful environment all politicians have to do is appeal to our fears play to our fears heighten and exaggerate our fears scapegoat minorities the poor women lgbtqi people immigrants blame other people then in a form of mass psychosis we get a court system to adjudicate our fears a legislature to legislate our fears scholars to rationalize our fear media to broadcast and spread our fears and finally a god and a church to divinely sanction and offer cosmic validity to our fears fears have risen around the globe and what's so alarming in these last years is that these kind of fears have been ensconced in the high places of power working on the sermon i can't deliver it yet it ain't right yet but it's gonna be spiritual wickedness in high places exploding in america speaking of spiritual wickedness in high places and the seat of power with massive levels of government machinery to implement his hateful and demonic schemes please allow me to bring the king of egypt to the homiletical stage in our text in exodus 1 the king of egypt was responding in fear and a particularly dangerous kind of fear wielding massive levels of power court systems and legislatures all kinds of political machinery in our text in exodus 1 and the 9th of the 10th chapter it says that a new king arose that did not know joseph and did not know the people of israel the king of egypt said the israelites have become much too numerous they're too large it's too many of them they're voting in such mass numbers we must deal with them shrewdly because if our enemies come up against us they will join with our enemies and destroy us the king of egypt put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor but still the israelites multiplied they came to dread the israelites even more and work them even more ruthlessly but they multiplied the king of egypt got so frustrated that he said to the hebrew midwives shipra and pure that they were to observe hebrew women in childbirth while they were at the birthing stool and if the baby came out a boy killed the baby and if it's a girl let the girl live the bible says that the midwives feared god and did not do as the king said shipra and pure feared god i searched for a simple and a children's reading of what shipra and pure feared god means oswald chambers says the remarkable thing about fearing god is that when you fear god you fear nothing else whereas if you don't fear god you fear everything else i know that we're looking for a deep and profound exegetical analysis of what the world the word fear means in this context here in the bible but children a children's reading of the text says this shipper and pure feared god and did not fear anything else maybe shipper and pure thought that god intended to redeem the world through children and if you kill the children you kill our chances at redemption maybe for shipper and pure children where the center of the world and not adults when they were asked what about the children they had an answer save the children at all costs this was the gospel of shipra and pure save the children at all costs in american culture there was a person named fred rogers i don't know some of us old schoolers no mr rogers a minister and a clergy person the progenitor of the popular children's programming mr rogers neighborhood the new york times columnist david brooks wrote fred rogers he's talking about a documentary on fred rogers he talked about for 30 years mr rogers opened his television television show by going to the closet putting on his sweater changing his shoes it was a show for children as if children were the center of the world he would say things to children like you are special just the way you are he would take their questions and comments with utmost regard no children can't fall down the drains in the bathtub he would sing it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood he had a profound respect for the dignity of each child that was almost veneration he loved and protected children even in the 60s the civil rights era when black children were being thrown out of swimming pools mr rogers had the audacity in the middle of all that to bathe his feet together with a black child on national television the gospel of fred rogers was that children are our superiors unless they are taught otherwise they trust each person they lack guile and children can admit simple pain fear and vulnerability brook says what we need to remember as scholars adults preachers and parents that deep and simple is far better than shallow and complex oh i wish deep and simple is far better than shallow and complex rogers drew on a long moral tradition that the last shall be first that the small will be great that the meek shall inherit the earth that blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see god brook says that trump and those who are globally like trump represent a cartoonish version of the idea that winners are better than losers the successful are better than the weak men are better than women whites are better than blacks americans are better than other nations around the globe and it's not just trump any achievement-oriented success obsessed materialist and consumerist culture can easily swing into pride hubris and fear which produces such violent divisive and hateful behaviors amongst us brook says we live in a time when public kindness is scarce it is as if we we dump our adult fearful slime on children it's as if we dumped our adult fearful slime on children and then try to build them up and entertain them with manic violence rather than a radical kindness exploding guns flipping cars blow-ups daily fare rather than teaching them radical kindness mr rogers asked won't you be my neighbor not these people need to get out of here they need to stay in a place go back where they came from he simply and deeply asked won't you be my neighbor i want to suggest that the gospel of mr rogers is close to the gospel of shipper and pure that the child is closer to god than the adult that the sick are closer to god than they're healthy the poor are closer to god than the rich the hungry are closer to god than those who are filled and the marginalized of god than those who are celebrated losers are closer to god than winners the oppressed is closer to god than oppressors what i hope you know is that this is the gospel of jesus christ that children are closer to god than adults this text in luke 18 says the people brought their children and their babies to jesus and the disciples hindered them one of my favorite preachers uh fred b craddick who says it this way they they the the disciples that parents they were bringing there was something so lovely and so deep and profound and beautiful and true and integritous about jesus that the parents brought their kids to jesus and and the disciples like good deacons wait a minute wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait can you can you get the children out of here i mean we trying to have a kingdom around here can you can you get the kids out i mean babies whining jesus can't even teach babies cry can you get can you get the kids out can you leave the kids at home we trying to had a kingdom can you get these immigrant kids out of america these dreamers we trying to have america can you get these kids out of here they hindered and forbade the children but jesus rebuked them and said do not hinder them do not stop them do not put roadblocks in their way for to such as these belong the kingdom of god in other words how are you trying to put them out and they own the place you're missing it you're missing this they they they own god training and you trying to it be he says for to such belong we love to spiritualize this text and remind ourselves that we must be as little children to enter the kingdom that is one reading of the text the reality is from a children's reading of the text we must be like them because they own it they own the reign of god and while we as adults have to repent to get in it just might be just might be that they're already in i don't know i pause here parenthetically to say to anybody to all the wonderful women in all of our lives who have had a miscarriage and um wow some might ask the question where did the child go i might say for to such belong the kingdom and they're already in to the set of parents who walk into a room and the baby's blue and not breathing rush the baby to the hospital and the baby's gone where does that child go i believe the child goes to the kingdom of god for to such belong little to mere rice 12 years old playing with a toy gun a police officer shows up and in 12 seconds shoots that little boy playing with that little toy water pistol gun where does he go belong in a children's reading of the text when jesus says to such belong the kingdom of heaven he means the reign of god is composed of literal children and the people who are spiritually like children let me say it again children and adults our children are in and adults have to repent and this is strange this is the children's reading of the text the children's reading of the text the reign of god belongs to the children the buildings belong to the adults but the children on the kingdom the leadership positions in the church belong to the adults but the kingdom belongs to the kids the adults set up constitutions robert's rules of orders and bylaws as well they should but the reign of god belongs to the kids the adults have upstairs and big people worship with lights and cameras and beautiful settings in the many churches firstly enough not here the kids are pushed off in the basement dark dank yes how are you going to put the kids in the basement and they own the place the adults have conferences and papers and books and journals but the kingdom is better represented sometimes in the children's literature hand it out in sunday school you cannot hinder the children for the reign of god is theirs fortitus to such belong the poor the displaced the immigrant the stranger this possessed the left out the sick the bereaved the broken and the oppressed to such as these my question is when are we going to have our shipra and pure moment when we going to tell the king no you will not have our children when are we going to announce and implement a counter narrative of radical kindness when will we stand up and say no the gangs will not have our children drugs will not have our children low self-esteem will not have our children sex molestation and violation of far too many of our children especially the world ain't safe for girl children when will we particularly as men rise up and say our homes and our schools and our churches will be a safe place for girl children when are we going to get out in march and protest and stand in solidarity for our children i preached this and got in big trouble because i particularly challenged these homes where so much of the violation while there is the governmental violence and the political violence and mr trump and this one and that one and what the politicians are doing but the politicians couldn't get away with so much if this stuff wouldn't happen in our homes we drop our fearful adult slime on children we we need some shippers and some pures are there any shipper no when i was writing this there's a gospel song that's entitled what about the children i think yolanda adams sings it she asked these words do you remember when we were children do you remember i remember snot nosed kid running up and down the south side of chicago 86th street i remember do you remember when you were children when we were children there were people who loved us without the people who loved us where would we be today do you remember that we the big shots the preachers the deacons the elders the praise and worship leaders the praise choir the praise team the dance team do you remember when we were children and where would you be without the radical kindness that was dropped on you [Music] i remember i remember we moved into 86th street 86 and low back in 1966 you may know something about that space in place it was an all-white block we moved in and they used to i was telling dr dates yesterday that they used to um when my brother and my sister and i would come out they would they would um bring their kids in it got so deep i mean you know kids we and i kept we would say my sister and brother what's wrong with us and then um i'm almost out of here then then my mother got fed up and you know what she did she took a white santa she painted that santa black and in 1966 put out a black santa and you know what that did for my self-esteem you know i know i'm a christian i know i believe in jesus but it was a radical kindness and a decision to decide that nothing was wrong with our color or our hair or the way we speak or the gap in our teeth i wouldn't be standing in front of you today mr rogers went on stage to accept the emmy the emmys lifetime achievement award in 1997. there in front of the star-studded celebrities and the creme de la creme of the glitterati crowd he received the award took a bow and said this so many people have helped me to come to this night some of you are here some are far away some are even in heaven all of us have special ones who have loved us into being would you just take along with me 10 seconds to think of the people who have helped you to become who you are those who cared for you and cared about you and wanted the best for you in life he said ten seconds of silence then he lifted his wrist and he looked at the audience and he looked at his watch and he looked at the audience and he looked at his watch and said softly i'll watch the time there was first a small hoop of giddy and strange laughter from the crowd as they realized that mr rogers wasn't playing around he was not some convenient eunuch but rather a man as an authority figure who actually expected them to do what he asked and so they did one second two seconds three seconds and now the jaws clenched and the bosoms heaved and the mascara ran and the stars fell upon the beglitted gathering like rain leaking down from a crystal chandelier then he said whomever you've been thinking about how pleased they must be to know the difference you feel they've made thank you for allowing me all these years to be your neighbor so many people have helped you to be here today some are here some are far away some are even in heaven all of us who have special people who've loved us into being would you just take 10 seconds at home or in the sanctuary wherever you are to think of the people who have helped you become who you are i will watch the time what about the children this then is the word of god given to the people of god let those who have ears here what the spirit is saying to the church in jesus name amen

Channel: Frank Thomas

Views: 857

Rating: 4.7647057 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: dfpXYfkERi0

Length: 42min 13sec (2533 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 29 2021