The theme for our Wednesday evening worship this summer is “Faith Like a Child” and we are invited to reflect on children’s stories in literature, film and television as they illustrate this. As the husband of a Children’s Librarian, I’d have a lot of ‘splainin to do if I didn’t draw a beloved children’s book into this message, and as the father of two girls, I can tell you that a simple tenet of their faiths, and I suspect of many little girls’, was that they would someday wind up as either a princess or a ballerina. When they were very young, say 4, 5, 6 years of age, the preferred career choices of my two, Jessi and Dana, definitely tended towards being a prima ballerina. Katherine Holabird’s Angelina Ballerina with these lovely illustrations by Helen Craig, was dear to their hearts and so also, to mine and Maureen’s.
Angelina Ballerina is about a little girl mouse, one Angelina Mousling, who shared my daughters’ dreams of one day being a real ballerina. So, fixated on her goal was Angelina, that she often lost track of everyday things like getting dressed for breakfast. Now Mr. and Mrs. Mousling, exasperated as they could be with Angelina about things like this, nevertheless deeply treasured her excitement and enthusiasm about ballet and they admired her simple faith that one day she would be a real ballerina. And so, one morning, when Angelina finally did appear at breakfast, there was a beautifully wrapped present for her at the breakfast table. With none of the “Oh you shouldn’t haves” that adult mice would mutter at such a time, Angelina pounces on the gift and tears into the wrapping with a relish that resulted in her upsetting Mrs. Mousling’s sewing basket. She dons the beautiful tutu that was inside the present box and starts right in to dancing. It seems that Angelina never stopped dancing, and soon she found herself enrolled in the class of the great ballet instructor, Miss Lilly. Under Miss Lilly’s gentle and patient guidance, Angelina continued to nurture her childlike faith in becoming a real ballerina, but she also put away childish ways in a sense, focusing her energies on hard work, and so was less disruptive to Mousling family life. Later on, Miss Lilly gave Angelina that gift of encouragement that can often change the course of a young person’s life and, in the happiest of endings, Angelina actually does realize her dream of being a real ballerina and we see her here in the leading role in a grand ballet presented in what kind of looks like a mousey Academy of Music.
What is Faith like a Child?
People were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them; and when the disciples saw it, they sternly ordered them not to do it. But Jesus called for them and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” -Luke 18:15-17
I’m a pushover for the kinds of color plates one finds in Bibles of a couple of generations ago, and in this one from my old Sunday School Bible the artist illustrates the Gospel lesson found in Luke 18, and captures the quality of childlike faith in a way that goes straight to the heart just as Angelina’s story does. It’s as if we say about Faith Like a Child that we may not be able to define it, but we know it when we see it. We see this image as revealing not only the faith of children, but also the way that Jesus regards these little ones. It’s worth noting that it was commonplace in ancient Palestine, long before the time of Jesus, for women to bring their little children to gatherings where priests and prophets were holding forth. Motivated by a mix of faith and superstition, they sought a blessing for their little ones and also, perhaps, hoped that a little bit of that mystical good stuff that the holy one supposedly had would rub off on them and their tykes. Knowing this, the impatience of the disciples may be a little easier to understand. It’s as if they were thinking “Oye, here we go again! Always with the kids! Take ‘em away; give the Master a break!!” But Jesus shuts the disciples down, welcomes these little guys and holds them up as an example of how faith should be. What, do you suppose, are the characteristics of children and children’s faith that Jesus cherishes?
A Few Misconceptions
One of the things most people love about children is their innocence. Could that be it? Well, I don’t think so, because Jesus so often held up in parables and in Gospel accounts, people who were regarded in the world as sinners and outcasts. As Nadia Bolz-Weber pointed out in her electrifying sermon to the youth Gathering in New Orleans in 2010, and as I firmly believe, Jesus knows we are not innocent and loves us nonetheless, going so far as to actually use our hurts and flaws as well as our gifts to build the Kingdom.
Many of us, I suspect, take Faith Like a Child to mean unquestioning faith. However, as Rachel Held Evans pointed out in her wonderful book Inspired, anyone who thinks children are unquestioning hasn’t spent much time around little kids. They are always asking questions “What’s that?”, “Why?” and “Are we there yet?”. Inspired is a wonderful account of a young woman’s continuing quest to reconcile all the complexities and contradictions we find in scripture. Like old Jacob, who wrestled with God, Evans wrestled with questions like how do we reconcile a loving God and the admonitions of Jesus to love our enemies with the many Old Testament accounts of the armies of Israel putting entire populations, including children, to the sword following their God-given victories. If you doubt that such things are there in scripture, just read the account of the aftermath of the Battle of Jericho in Joshua 6:21.
So, if it’s not innocence or an unquestioning nature, what is it about children that is exemplary of the kind of faith that will bring us into the Kingdom?
Ready to Receive Again & Again
One quality that children have, almost without fail, is their readiness to accept gifts without second thoughts. We certainly saw that in the story of Angelina when she joyfully received the gift of her ballet dress and slippers. It’s that childlike quality that could allow us at any time of life to accept the greatest gift of all, God’s grace. We need it every day, and we only have to do as Angelina did with her new dress and accept it as the free love gift that it is, with gratitude but no second thoughts about trying to earn it, and then try live as one who has been so gifted should live. Another quality that we see in these images of children with their mothers, is that children may be rambunctious and prone to getting into trouble, but they also cling on. They hold on tight. Any one of these children might have been, in the moments before these images were captured or imagined, questioning to the point of being a nuisance, or getting into some mischief, but in the end, they always end back up in their parents’ arms. So it could be for us. As adults, as much as we are in sin or doubt, and as much as our faith may mature to the journey, or even the wrestling match that it usually is, that faith like a child is what will cause us to accept grace and keep us coming back and holding on to God for dear life again and again and again.
Lord, only you can give us hands both open to receive every gift and clinging to You tightly. We find peace in your arms. We discover you to be the constant give. In our all mischief, through our incessant questions, Your love remains. Amen.
Sparky Lok has been a member of Saint Luke since 1996. He teaches the 6th Grade Sunday School class, and is a member of the Mutual Ministry and Pastoral Sabbatical Planning Teams. You may also find him helping out as a Stephen Minister, at Feast Incarnate, or as a worship assistant on Sunday mornings.