I was meeting with a church member over coffee and he was telling me a little bit about his family. He said how when he and his wife were raising their children, they needed to have different approaches because of their personalities.
He said how their one child didn’t always respond positively to being reprimanded and so they had to use different approaches to get their point across. On the other hand, it was a lot easier with their other child because all they needed to do was give that stern parental look. No words, necessary. Just that serious look.
Here in our Gospel reading for today, the disciples crossed a line with Jesus. They were trying to keep people from bringing their children to Jesus.
I’m not sure what “look” Jesus gave the disciples, maybe something similar to what this church member shared with me when they needed to reprimand their children. I know that I wouldn’t have wanted to be one of the disciples in that moment, because we are told that Jesus was “indignant” with them.
Indignant. That’s a strong word. My loose translation of that word is, “Jesus was fed up with them.” Fed Up. Disappointed. Frustrated. This is one of those awkward moments for the disciples especially since this was taking place out in public.
And then Jesus goes on to tell the disciples, “Let the children come to me; do not step them; for it is such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.”
Interestingly enough, this is the only time that Jesus expresses this particular emotion in Mark’s Gospel. Indignant. I wonder if this has something to do with Jesus’ over the top, radical, counter-cultural understanding of what God’s kingdom on earth is meant to look like.
In Jesus’ day, children were relegated to a very low status. They were seen as expendable, a disturbance, and of little value. That was the common cultural understanding in that Greco-Roman culture in which Jesus and the disciples lived.
So for people to actually interrupt Jesus for the sake of children would have caused this kind of negative reaction from the disciples. The disciples’ reaction would have been a very natural one in that particular cultural setting. So, it’s really interesting to me that Jesus reacted so strongly in this situation.
My sense is that this approach to correcting the disciples was the only way that they would have known that Jesus was serious about letting the children come to him. And it also seems to me that Jesus is using this as a teaching moment about what it means to be his disciples. To be a disciple of Jesus is to see every single second, every single situation, every single interruption as an opportunity to “live in the moment.”
That’s a phrase that therapists use. “Live in the moment.” A friend told me several years ago that his therapist told him that if you live mostly in the past, we can become anxious because we tend to focus too much on past regrets and things we can’t change. And if we live mostly in the future, we can become anxious because that can lead to worry. But what we can do is live in the present.
The Jesuits and the Franciscans are religious orders known for their emphasis on what they call the “Sacrament of the Present Moment.” According to Franciscan author, Terry Hershey, the Sacrament of the Present Moment invites us to choose to live each day as a sacrament so that we can see, hear, taste, and touch God’s grace which is defined as the goodness of God’s presence in our world.
Our church talks a lot about “Thin Place Moments.” Thin place moments refer to those times when we are especially aware of how God is present with us in a very real way. We encourage each other to share our Thin Place moments because we believe that God’s grace is present with us in our everyday lives. Jesus offers us a great example of what it means to be open to these Thin Place moments through our every day encounters.
What the disciples saw as an annoying interruption and most likely an embarrassing social situation when people were bringing children to him, Jesus saw as another sacred opportunity to include more people in experiencing God’s goodness.
Jesus was teaching the disciples to live in the moment when he did this very counter-cultural and subversive thing by welcoming the children and blessing them. This is why Jesus said, “Allow the children to come to me.”
In addition to using language such as “The Sacrament of the Present Moment” or “Thin Place Moments,” to help us live in the moment, another phrase comes to mind. This phrase comes from the old Mr. Roger’s children’s program.
In one of the programs derived from the Mr. Roger’s show is the story of Daniel Tiger and his family who live in the neighborhood of Make-Believe. In this program, children are taught wonderful lessons from waiting patiently for a duck to hatch to allowing anger to be shown but not hurting someone because of your anger. The show uses cute and catchy musical jingles to reinforce this positive way of living.
This musical lesson is repeated throughout the thirty-minute program with the purpose that children learn it and then hum or sing it throughout the day. One of these programs was about enjoying the present moment and not allowing it to pass by because you are caught in your own futuristic wants, like being sad about a lost toy during bubble bath time or distractions form too many choices like so many good books at the library.
The musical jingle for that program was “Enjoy the ‘Wow’ that’s happening now.” I love that phrase! “Enjoy the ‘Wow’ that’s happening now.”
It’s a pretty catchy song. Let me play it for you.
Enjoy the wow that’s happening now.
Henri Nouwen was a Catholic Priest who wrote a number of books on Christian spirituality. Nouwen made the insightful observation that interruptions were his real work. He made it a point to allow enough room in his daily schedule for interruptions to happen.
What if we would be able to rename “interruptions” and call them “opportunities” instead? What if we saw each interruption as an opportunity to experience the Sacrament of the Present Moment? I’m just thinking out loud here. I think we will need some grace if we really work at this because I can already tell you that living in the moment is not one of my strengths.
But that’s OK. We aren’t here to judge. We’re hear to cheer each other on as followers of Jesus.
I often will remind wedding couples as they prepare for their wedding day to not allow all of the last minute planning to get in the way of just enjoying what should be one of the most joyous times of their lives. If things don’t go exactly as planned, that’s OK. Live in the moment. Savor the moment. Enjoy the Wow that’s happening now.
One of my favorite things about serving as pastor here is to walk uptown to get a cup of coffee or some lunch. It’s not uncommon that I will encounter someone from the church or someone else I might know and we’ll end up having this wonderful spontaneous conversation.
These are holy moments when you just live in the moment and enjoy these opportunities in being part of this beautiful campus community. Sometimes, these serendipitous moments end up becoming just the encounter I needed to feel renewed and more open to God’s presence.
Several years ago in the early 90s, I attended a college graduation on the campus of Ohio Wesleyan University. It was held outside and the featured speaker for the commencement address was the famous, Norman Vincent Peale who was a pastor and author. He was most known for his best selling book, “The Power of Positive Thinking.”
An Ohio native, Dr. Peale was an alum of Ohio Wesleyan, class of 1920. This commencement address would end up being his last public speaking appearance. He would end up passing away less than a year later at the age of 94.
When it was Dr. Peal’s turn to offer the commencement address, two people needed to help lift him from the chair and lead him to the podium. I couldn’t help but wonder if these soon to be young college graduates would appreciate the words of wisdom that he was about to impart to them.
It’s amazing that it’s now been almost 30 years ago since he gave his speech and I can still remember some of the stories that he shared with the graduates that day. Sometimes, he seemed to ramble a bit, but he still had his remarkable sense of humor.
Toward the end of his address, I could tell that the graduates were beginning to not pay attention to him. I get it. It was hot sitting out there in the sun and he was starting to meander a little bit in his long speech.
His voice was frail and a little shaky at times which also made it a little challenging to hear. As he was sharing yet another one of his stories with the graduates, something amazing happened.
The bells on the campus started ringing. Dr. Peale paused when the first bell rung and he continued on with his story. But when they rang the second time, he paused, looked around and said, “I can hear bells ringing.”
People started to chuckle over his comments and you could tell that some of the graduates were wondering if he was OK. Actually, I was wondering that myself.
After pausing for a few more seconds, Dr. Peale, abruptly stopped sharing his story and he simply looked out at those graduates and said, “I do hear bells ringing. And those bells are ringing for you.”
He turned from the podium, went back to his seat, and sat down. It was a masterful way to end his speech. Instead of those bells being an interruption, he saw it as an opportunity to live in the moment and to enjoy the Wow that was happening now.
Let’s live in such a way that every moment, every interruption is an opportunity to see, hear, taste, and touch the presence of God’s goodness in the world.
Enjoy the Wow!
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