To Know Children, To Know God

by Hea Sun Kim

Scripture Reading: Matthew 18:1-5

Greetings

Good Morning! It is so wonderful to be with my favorite people- United Methodist Women. I never had such a huge class for a Bible Study.
So, I need your help to get this class going.
First of all, how many of you are mothers?
How many of you are grandmothers?
How many of you great-grandmothers?
How many of you are fathers?

So, let's try again. How many of you are children? Oh, wonderful
Aren't you all children of your parents?
We are all children, of our parents, we are all children of God.

Wonderful! Jesus said that unless you become like children, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.
So, here we are in this a heavenly place.
May the Spirit guide us in this time of studying God's word.

I would like for us to start with meditation, and Loni is going to help us do that. [Loni sings.]

Sometimes I feel like a motherless chile,
Sometimes I feel like a motherless chile,
Sometimes I feel like a motherless chile,
A long ways from home,
A long ways from home.
Then I get down on my knees an' pray,
Get down on my knees an' pray.

Sometimes I feel like I'm almos' gone,
Sometimes I feel like I'm almos' gone,
Sometimes I feel like I'm almos' gone,
A long ways from home,
A long ways from home.
Then I get down on my knees an' pray,
Get down on my knees an' pray.

When I was asked to do a Bible Study on children, this spiritual from the African-American tradition was the first song that came to my heart. It was a song, a cry, a lament as I thought about the children of the world.

So many of our children are motherless, fatherless, and homeless.
So many, in our world are long ways from home.
Many have lost homes, lost families, lost children, lost parents!
We are a long way from home, from God.

My Story

Before September 11, 2001, I thought that we had made a great headway in our efforts to bring about peace and justice in our world. Do you remember the images shown on TV as the global village ushered in the 21st Century, one by one, each nation greeting the new year according to their own time zone? It was a vivid image that we were truly one family under the same sun, connected to each other for our survival and peace.

But since September 11, I have been greatly troubled by how quickly the civilized world has resorted back to this "we against they" mentality.

Is this really who we are as human beings?

I was born literally on the ashes of war in Korea. During the war, bombs dropped everywhere like rain from the sky. The war was to save us either from the communists or the capitalists, depending on which side of ideology you stood. But most of the people, who were the real victims of war, did not even know what ideology meant. Some were saved all right, but we also lost a lot -- more than four million lives, in our small country of Korea.

When the Korean War ended, my uncles and aunts, who were faithful Christians, opened orphanages for hundreds of children who had no place to go home. Many of my classmates were orphans. I remember the orphans as kids who never smiled and had hollow eyes and sad faces.

None of my Sunday school friends had fathers because my Methodist minister father served a church that was established for the widows of war. As in Biblical times, the "widows and orphans" meant poverty. There was no way that women and children could not make a living on their own. Receiving an apple from church for Christmas was one of my happy memories of Sunday School. Talk about being humble! We, children, appreciated an apple for a Christmas gift.

"All Wars Are Wars against Children"

"All wars are wars against children" states the 2000 report of UNICEF. In the previous decade alone, 2 million children have been killed and more than 6 million have been injured or disabled in armed conflicts alone around the world.

Children make up the most victims of landmines. In many countries, they are recruited into war that they hardly understand. Along with starvation and disease, children are the most vulnerable victims of war.

Can you believe that the world has more children living in poverty today than it did 10 years ago?

In Iraq, an estimated one million civilians, including tens and thousands of children have died since the Gulf war. Our 2000 General Conference passed a resolution calling for lifting the economic sanctions in Iraq, in part because the burden of economic sanctions falls squarely on the shoulders of the poor, elderly and the children and are directly responsible for the death of 5,000 to 6,000 children every month.

The same is true in North Korea but nobody knows how many children have died.

In these countries that our President has named as "axis of evil" -- more and more children are being killed by starvation and poverty. The statistics of dying children is one thing, the state of the living children is another. Millions have become children of the streets-- one of the major problems of Latin America --without homes or without parents.

Are these children's lives just numbers in the world's statistics? Who is going to defend them from violence and poverty, the real "axis of evil in our world?

Is there any hope for these children of God?

Jesus Chooses a Child to Show the Kingdom of Heaven

One day, Jesus called one of these children into his presence and said, "unless you become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven!" The child that Jesus picked could have been a street child -- maybe an orphan, maybe a runaway child.

The Greek text which is the original language used in this Bible text for children is paidion . "Paidion" can refer to "boy" or "girl" or "servant" or "slave." This says a lot about where children were in that society.

From the many commentaries that I have read, all the Biblical scholars agree that, Jesus' referring to "children" here is not about their sinlessness or purity or innocence. Rather, children here represented persons of social insignificance and humble stature in the society.

As bad as it is today in regards to the state of our children, we have organizations like the United Nations, the United Methodist Women, and the Children's Defense Fund that tirelessly work for the rights of children. But at the time of Jesus, children were social nobodies. They were the lowest of the lowly, with no rights or power to protect themselves.

Read this in the context of the Jewish community in the nation of that time when social status was taken very seriously. In the monastic communities like the Qumran, the hierarchical order had to be observed even during meal times. This order was observed in anticipation of what was to come in the kingdom of God. That is how they understood the kingdom of God.

So, when the disciples asked Jesus, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" it was a natural question to ask. They wanted to know, where they were their place was in the new kingdom if they followed Jesus.

To their serious and maybe even a religious question, Jesus picked a lowly child, and answered, Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Just imagine the shock on the faces of people that heard him.

What a radical thing to say at his time in his society! What he said totally turned their social order upside down.

But when we think about it, this radical statement of Jesus is not news to us. It was a revolutionary statement. This is not news to us. Throughout the Gospel, Jesus said such revolutionary things. We hear Jesus rebuking the rich, and the political and religious authorities in power. He was about a different kind of kingdom from what the people expected.

In the Gospel of Luke (18:15-17), there is a text very similar to the one in Matthew, ae story that follows right after the text on children, is about a rich ruler who came to Jesus wanting to know how to gain eternal life. And what did Jesus say? He told him in such plian, simple language, to go out and sell all his possessions and give to the poor. That is why the message of Jesus was such Good News to the poor and the oppressed and the children.

But the Gospel of Jesus is not an easy message, or comfortable message, for us to hear, especially for those of us living in the most powerful country in the world. We have the most power in military weapons, we have the most power in political influence (We have a saying in Korea that if the US sneezes, Korea catches a cold.) and in material resources.

So, what does the Lord require of us in our blessing of this power? What is the Good News for us, as children of God?

Jesus said we have to change, and become like children. In Greek, "change" means "turning back." We are to turn back, and become like children. Remember the time when we were children, when we were social nobodies, when we were totally dependent on adults for survival? We are to see the world from that place where children see and the poor people see.

It is not going to be easy for anyone to turn back to the place of powerlessness once we have gotten used to exercising power. You know well how the devil loves to tempt us in this matter. Jesus prayed for forty days and forty nights to get ready to face the demon on this issue of power before he started his ministry.

The problem of having power for most people is, or abusing that power to have power over others, and ignoring the source of that power. That's basically what Jesus told satan who tried to tempt him.

So, Jesus provided us help - by way of children.

Children as a Source of Our "Works of Piety"

As United Methodist Women, our first purpose is to "know God." In order to "know God," and to live in God, we need a daily life of prayer, studying the Scripture, and regular attendance in worship services. As a good Methodist, I want to use the terminology that John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, called this life of spiritual discipline. He called it "Works of Piety."

To his list of "Works of Piety" I want to add "Knowing children." In knowing children, I do not mean just "studying the children" or just "taking care of children. Yes, we do need to take care of children but that comes later according to the text.

First, Jesus says that we need to be humble like children. Children are there to teach us, who we are and whose we are. They remind us that, as children of God, we belong to God. The power concerning life, as well as death, belongs to God.

Jesus was very caring of us when he said that we should be like children, because it means that as children, we can take this heavy burden of our world problems to our parents - to our God.

We are not to look to bombs and nuclear weapons and F16s to save us. If we were humble like children, we would not have built the bombs and nuclear weapons and all weapons of mass destruction in the first place, as a solution to peace in the world. What kind of logic is that-- that a weapon that destroys will save us? War is not a way to build the kingdom of God. According to Jesus, it is only the humbleness of a child that will build the kingdom of God.

To know God, we need to know children. They are our spiritual center because they are God's kingdom, in our midst.

Welcoming a Child in Jesus' Name Is a "Work of Mercy"

Jesus added another important sentence when he mentioned about children and the kingdom of God. He said, "whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me."

Here, Jesus says that it is not enough to just change and turn back.
It is not enough to change the way of our thinking.
It is not enough to just meditate on what it means to be humble.
It is not even enough to just pray and study and worship and feel good about our spiritual lives.

He is saying that "if you want to welcome me, if you want to follow me, then, welcome children."

How do you welcome someone? It takes action. Our bodies and our hearts are deeply involved in the act of welcoming, as we serve our guests with great joy and gratitude. Again, using the language of John Wesley, he called this practice, "works of mercy." As much as he emphasized the "works of piety," he said there is no holiness other than social holiness. John Wesley even turned away the rich at times to turn towards the poor and the marginalized. He was really true to the message of Jesus.

When he was questioned about his policy of choosing the poor, the despised and the oppressed, he responded: "Religion must not go from the greatest to the least, or the power would appear to be of men."

Even our "works of mercy" are to come from the humbleness of a child. We are not to help the children and the poor of the world from a position of power because whatever we have it is God's.

Welcoming children is faith acted out in love. This welcoming of children, the power, and the marginalized of society, but it for our own souls. They are the source of our blessing. We are the ones that will be enriched and empowered by welcoming children and welcoming the poor. Those who have worked with children and the poor will know what this message of Jesus means.

Works of Mercy and Works of Piety are just different sides of the same coin. Welcoming children and the poor is at the heart of our own spirituality as followers of Jesus Christ. I believe that is what United Methodist Women is. That is how we started, That is how we ... That is how we will be. Let's give a big hand to United Methodist Women.

God Comes as a Child into our Midst

Finally, the Gospel message of welcoming the poor and the lowly child was revealed in the most concrete way in the coming of God into our lives - in the birth of Jesus as a baby child.

Jesus came as a little child, not just a child but a poor child, born to a humble family, to an unwed mother, in such a humble manner in a stable.

Jesus was born to the colonized people who were oppressed under the military and imperial power of the Roman Empire.

He was born under an insecure and a violent ruler who killed all children under the age of two because of rumors about this baby Jesus. Talk about the horror of the terrorism at that time-- the worst you can imagine, that killed babies.

Jesus was taken into exile from early childhood and lived as a refugee in a foreign land.

Can a child embody any more of the world's suffering than this child? It is no wonder that Jesus identified so much with the poorand the powerless and the marginalized.

Out of this very humble beginning came the "Prince of peace." In this lowly child, we are to lay our trust for peace in our world. In this child, we are to put our highest hopes for the betterment of our world.

What a way of God!

Can we welcome this lowly child into our midst?
Can we identify with this child for the suffering and the redemption of our bruised world?
Can we promise to put our efforts together to protect this child, and nurture this child, and follow this child for the sake of all the children of the world?

Looking a the mess that our world is in, our world may be a long ways from home, but may our abiding faith and hope in this Child of Wonder lead us to "Know God" and to sing a new song for all the children of the world.

Assembly Bible Study, Morning Plenary, April 26, 2002