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Sunday 29 December 2024 The Holy Family/First Sunday of Christmas
Children in Holy Places
1 Samuel 2:18-20, 26, Luke 2:41-52
Context: a Eucharist in a large, diverse and socially active Central London Church
Aim: to encourage the inclusion of children and the ‘child-like’ parts of ourselves in the expression of our faith in community
One of the great privileges of working closely with young children is being able to observe the awe and wonder with which they engage with the world. Everything is exciting and new and there is great energy to experience everything and be curious without inhibitions or prejudice. The world is a place of intrigue and beauty to be explored playfully. This is something that can be lost as we age if we do not make time and space to really notice and experience what is around us. We are told that to enter the kingdom of heaven we must become like a little child (Matthew 18:3). I like to think of this as our capacity for wonder and imagination. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry famously writes, ‘All grown-ups were once children, but only few remember.’
JESUS AND CHILDREN
Jesus is clear in his words and actions that children should not be prevented from coming to him and rebukes those who try to keep them away (Matthew 19:14). Jesus’ focus on the vulnerable and marginalised in society extends to children and presumably the invitation to meet God in those the world does not esteem extends to children too. Indeed, in the incarnation, God comes to us as a child – lowly, vulnerable and in need of our love, care and nurture. The presence of children in our communities is a real gift and an encounter with children can inspire us and help us to understand better our faith without the many preoccupations that being adult place upon us.
WELCOMING CHILDREN
In our scripture reading today we find children in the temple – fully playing their part, fully included, albeit to the astonishment and amazement of the adults. The questions of the boy Jesus are welcomed, and the ephod robe worn by Samuel signifies his inclusion in the ministry of the temple. I wonder how we welcome children into our churches today. Do we believe that children should be seen and not heard? Do we welcome their inquisitiveness and the noise that they can make? Do we welcome them fully as the gift that they are, as the Church now and not just for the future? Do we go and look for them or do we wait for them to stumble across us? What proportion of church funding is spent on children and how do we train, support and remunerate those who work with and nurture our children? Many denominations are lamenting the lack of children and young people in their congregations. Something needs to change.
BECOMING CHILDREN AGAIN
Do you remember being a child? Your first visit to a holy place or being part of a Christian community? Whatever your childhood experience of being in a community of faith, be it positive and well supported or adverse and painful or anything in between, were you welcomed and listened to by the adults? What did you need the adults in your formative years to affirm in you?
Thinking about now, is there anything that you have lost as you have increased in wisdom and years? The invitation of Christ is to be born again, to effectively become children again. Resurrection life, hinted at by John by the inclusion of the phrase, ‘after three days’, begins for every new Christian in the waters of baptism. It is a daily invitation to experience the world afresh and to see things as if for the first time. It is to know ourselves to be loved, forgiven and free as children of the living God. Perhaps when we fully grasp this truth as adults, it will help us to fully include, embrace and value children and young people in our communities of faith. As we shortly enter the season of Epiphany may our prayer be to see ourselves and others anew.
I close with some of my favourite words from our Christmas Day liturgy:
Blessed are you
O Christmas Christ,
that your cradle was so low
that shepherds,
poorest and simplest of earthly folk,
could kneel beside it and look level-eyed
into the face of God.
Come to us in bread and wine.
Come to us like child.
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