“Will our Children Have Faith?”
Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-17
October 5, 2014
Mark S. Bollwinkel
Will our
children have faith?
There may be no more important
question for a church. Our worship can
be inspiring. Our outreach can make a
significant difference in the world.
The way we care for each other makes a huge difference in our lives. We believe that by “Reaching up, reaching in
and reaching out” we grow closer to God and to our neighbors fulfilling Jesus’
greatest commandment (Matthew 22:34-40).
But where
are our children? Very few of us enjoy
their presence with us in church or are involved in a church where they
live. Will they have faith?
Now I don’t
mean “will our children have religion?”
Religion is a good and important tool in our relationship with God but
it is not an end in itself. Jesus
teaches us again and again that there is a huge difference between our
relationship with God and our practice of religion (Mark 7:1-23, Matt. 15:1-28,
Luke 18:9-14). When he heals on the
Sabbath (Luke 13:10-17, John 5, 9) or feeds the hungry on the Sabbath (Mark
2:23-28, 3:1-6, Matt. 12:1-8, Luke 6:1-5, 6-11, 12:9-14), or has a meal (Luke
19:1-f) or conversation with a person considered profane by his religious
tradition (John 4), Jesus draws the distinction between the limits of religion
and the unlimited nature of God.
We want to
introduce our children to the best our religion has to offer to be sure but
will they have faith?
By “children” I mean parents of
five year olds or 55 year olds, biological, adopted or assimilated family or
neighbors. Parent-child relationships
are always complicated and multi-layered but most parents want the best for
their children; health, happiness, prosperity in the things that really matter
in life. One of those things is
spirituality.
In spite of
being “preacher’s kids” Bonnie and I never pushed our sons to do anything in
church they didn’t want to do but always gave them the opportunity to get as
involved as they felt comfortable. Our
sons Matthew and Daniel are now 36 and 33 years old, respectively, both college
educated, the oldest has a Masters Degree.
They are great young men; honest, compassionate, hardworking, ethical. Matthew is married to Sara and Daniel is
engaged to Lindsay, both wonderful young women.
Neither go
to church. But both, when faced with a
crisis or when they have a friend in trouble, will call Bonnie or me and ask us
to pray for them. In fact they ask that
our church prays for them, and we do. Both find spiritual expression their art;
one is a writer and poet, the other a musician and flower arranger. Deep
inside and in their own ways our sons have the seeds of faith planted and
growing in their lives. How it will
blossom religiously is up to them and in God’s own time. They may not go to church right now but when
the chips are down they know that prayer connects them to the Source of healing
and hope. And they know that Source has
a name.
As
important as it is to learn the stories of the Bible, the teachings of Jesus and
the traditions of our church faith may not necessarily result. Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City terrorist
whose bomb in 1995 killed 168 people, grew up a devout Roman Catholic. Teaching a child to memorize a Bible verse or
recite the Apostle’s Creed will introduce them to important ideas but doesn’t
guarantee that they will have faith. Our scripture lesson from the Hebrew
Bible this morning includes the “Ten Commandments”. As this is World Communion Sunday, it is a
text that reminds us of a foundation that the global church has very much in
common and that binds us together.
These are God’s laws handed to Moses on Mt. Sinai
As
mentioned previously, more Americans can name the ingredients in a MacDonald’s Big
Mac hamburger than can name the Ten Commandments. (Katherine Phan, Christian
Post, 10/3/07)
We should,
we must, teach the Ten Commandments to our young. Yet even when etched in stone and memorized
by countless students over the millennia, it has not meant that we can or will
live by them.
The rich
young man who comes to Jesus seeking eternal life has known the commandments
all of this life yet when invited to follow Jesus it becomes obvious because of
his wealth that he has missed the point of the commandments all along, to which
Jesus replies, “It easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than
for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” (Matthew 19:16-26) Religion and faith are two different things.
Will our
children have faith? That is not simply
a matter of reciting Bible verses, it is a matter of being introduced to and
nurtured in the love of God. That
happens when parents, family, friends and teachers model such love not just by
word but by deed. That happens when
forgiveness, patience and kindness surround a child’s life…whether 5 or 55
years old…..as they face the consequences of their failures rather than being
protected from them. Our children learn
faith when they are included and honored and respected as full members of our
fellowship rather than as projects to be molded into our likeness.
At a
worship service long ago, we led an informal Holy Communion circle. Each worshipper was asked to name out loud
one word for “brokenness” in the world as they took the bread of communion,
broke it and handed it to their neighbor.
When the cup came around the circle each person was asked to speak a
word of “hope” as they dipped their piece of bread into the cup. It was
a powerful and moving sacrament.
Casey was
seven years old at the time. He was and
continues to be a bright, bright young man who clearly has a deep sensitively
and loving heart. As the bread came
around to him, he was a little worried that he didn’t fully understand the
instructions. His mom whispered to him
“to name a problem he saw in the world”.
He decided his word was “pollution”.
His family had watched the movie “Arctic Tale” together which gave very
real and powerful images of the effects of climate change on the Artic and the
animals who live there. They are the
kind of family that turns off lights when not in use, walks to school and
drives a hybrid, in Casey’s words, to “help ice freeze in the arctic for the
polar bears”.
When the
cup of grape juice came around for Casey to dip in his bread, he said out loud
“electric motors” for his word of hope.
Whatever
you think of the climate change issue, please note that Casey has been learning
much more than religion at his church and in his family. He is included in the life and ministry of
their fellowship. His words, actions and
ideas matter. He has been surrounded by
love and nurture in a safe and caring environment. Along with his religious education Casey is
learning faith.
We who
receive Holy Communion this morning around the world don’t do so because we
understand what it means, or because we’ve earned it by our piety. We are offered the sacrament not because of
anything we do but because of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. It is in that gift (Romans 5:15 -17) in which we and our children can
discover faith. It is in that gift that
we all can become those who “Reach up, reach in and reach out.”
Our
children will or will not have faith for many reasons but one of them will be
if they see Jesus in the life and love of their parents.
Amen.
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