The Neighborhood Podcast

"Wiggles and Giggles" (February 23, 2025 Sermon)

• Rev. Stephen M. Fearing

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Preacher:  Rev. Kit Schooley, Parish Associate

This episode explores the essential role of children in worship and the Kingdom of God, emphasizing the importance of inclusion and community. Listeners are invited to reflect on how they can actively support young families and embrace a childlike faith within their spiritual practices.

• Discussion of Ephesians' teachings on unity and humility 
• Examination of Mark's passage about Jesus welcoming children 
• Personal stories highlighting the challenges of parenting in worship 
• The need for adults to encourage and engage with children’s participation 
• The church's role as a place for belonging and moral guidance

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Speaker 1:

Our prayer for illumination, our prayer to you, o God, lord, is that each of us who prays here may find you and find ourselves, so that these words of prayer become words of living.

Speaker 1:

Now, with quiet souls and active ears, we lean in to hear you speak to us, amen.

Speaker 1:

Our first lesson is from Ephesians, chapter 4, verses 1 through 7 and 11 through 14, printed in your bulletin. I therefore, prisoner of the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is about all and through all and in all. But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ's gift. The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of faith and knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. Holy wisdom, holy word.

Speaker 2:

Thanks be to God.

Speaker 2:

The second lesson comes from Mark. The 10th chapter of Mark, verses 13 through 16. 10th chapter of Mark, verses 13 through 16. People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them, and the disciples spoke sternly to them. But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them let the little children come to me, 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. And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them and blessed them. Holy wisdom, holy word. Thanks be to God.

Speaker 2:

It was a nice day in the park. The families were out with their children, doing what families do in the park. The parents, however, had one eye on something less obvious than the running and the playing that their children were doing. Jesus, that young prophet, was here in the park with his disciples, and he had gained notice over the days because of his generosity, not to mention his constant speeches about how those on the margins, the poor, the sick, the unfortunate, were his special focus. And parents instinctively knew that included them, and especially their children. The families inched closer to Jesus, infiltrating the crowds around him. Older children, being children, wove into those standing and watching. Closer to Jesus, infiltrating the crowds around him, older children, being children, wove into those standing and watching. Parents with babes in arms or on hips followed along behind and soon these had forged to the front, the way that children do.

Speaker 2:

The disciples sensed it. They saw it going on and they immediately sprang into action. They intervened a forceful halting of this interruption, stopping the children with their wiggling and twisting ways. After all, the disciples believed preaching about the kingdom of God was meant for the adults, those who could hold still, those who would not interrupt, those who would not giggle, wiggle, those who would pay close attention, those who would act on what Jesus was saying. The disciples brought with them ancient society's valuation of children. Children are not important, the society said. Children have no status, they have no rights, their presence is really not welcome. So that was the skirmish going on around Jesus.

Speaker 2:

As it goes on for a bit, jesus notices he turns on a dime from answering questions about marriage, and divorce is what he was in the middle of talking about. Ironically, they are family questions too. He's aware the disciples have made what they think will at first be seen as a mere slight error in judgment. They shouldn't have stopped the children. They hear Jesus say just let the children come to the front, all will be well. But then, then, jesus admonishes the disciples and everybody all around to say in fact, the kingdom of God belongs to these, the powerless, the vulnerable, the weak one, those usually seen momentarily as just a nuisance to be pushed aside, the ones without privilege or influence or even maturity. Now, unexpectedly, he gives all these standing. Let them come to me. I want to see them, I want them to be seen, I want to touch them. I tell you they are a full part of the kingdom of God. Don't make them qualify, don't make them be other than who they are. And so the disciples, and probably a lot of people around those making everything smooth and without ruffles, are humbled. They say to themselves weren't we just doing what we should have been doing to keep the raucousness out of the place?

Speaker 2:

I suppose that night, after that encounter in the park, there must have been a lot of conversation going on amongst the disciples as to what in the world they had done. Wrong didn't seem wrong to them, as well as the startled families. The startled families got home and said what was that? What was it? Both of them ending up talking about what does the kingdom of God actually look like? So that's what I'd like to talk about for a few minutes here this morning, because we're in the middle of doing our best, are we not, to find, to build, to sustain a kingdom of God in our lives, the lives of one another, who we sit next to on Sundays and, as I've come to think about it these last days, we're worshiping in a new era.

Speaker 2:

If you're like me, you sit in this sanctuary with an evolving image of Sunday worship. Whether you've worshiped here for a decade or two or more, or worshipped here for a month or two, we're all in the midst of learning some new ways. There's new names, new faces, names to put with those faces, new adults to greet, new adults to greet new children to notice for all of us. And maybe you feel some days like one of the disciples that day who were trying to hear their Lord while experiencing actions all around them that forced them to have to listen differently, all around them, that forced them to have to listen differently, to have to try to hear more above the commotion. Or maybe you're one of those families trying to find out how the kingdom of God can become a part of your family when you aren't sure exactly what it is your family needs After all, you've only been a parent this far in life, you haven't done this before. And also then there are the wiggles and the giggles of children here, and there are as you try to focus there. They are the wiggles and giggles as you're trying to focus on the pulpit or the chancel or the prayers. And if you're a recent part of Sunday worship here, you do wonder what's really expected of you, because you see lots of things that haven't been here before. So what is involved with being a Christian in our Sunday morning form of being a Christian, being a neighbor to new neighbors sitting beside us?

Speaker 2:

I want to tell you a story that was told to me by a long-time member here. This member, she looked back 20 or 30 years and remembered her first Sundays in these pews. And she tells it like this Each Sunday I struggled to find a balance between caring for my active, wiggly child while attempting to participate in worship. I couldn't give my full attention to the sermon or the music or the prayers, because I had to watch my child.

Speaker 2:

Making matters more stressful were those regular worshipers around me who had worshipped here for some time and I just knew they thought we were being disruptive. So one Sunday, walking down the aisle after the benediction, an older woman who often sat behind us stopped me to talk. I had a sinking feeling because I just knew she was going to ask about all the disruption my child was causing. But to my surprise, the first words she spoke were you're a good mother and don't ever forget that I'd never met her. I was absolutely stunned by these words. She told me how difficult it was for her to watch parents fret in the pews about their children, their children's wiggles and riffles, as she put it. Her words that Sunday made a tremendous impact on my life as a young parent.

Speaker 2:

She and I forged a unique bond and for 12 years we celebrated milestones in my child's life my child's first time at communion, my child's driver's license, my child's high school, graduation and then college. She became an important part of my family's life outside the sanctuary. She was there when I suffered the loss of beloved ones, suffered the loss of beloved ones when I made career changes, when I had health issues. And now it's been decades since that first conversation I had with her and, believe me, I'm no longer a young mother. At her funeral, right here in this sanctuary, I made a commitment to try and continue for others what she did for me. Suggest to young parents not to worry, with this congregation, about their kids' church behavior. It's an honor to have our youngest surround us each Sunday. It's an honor to have our youngest surround us each Sunday. Their presence is a blessing that reminds us of the joy and the love we need in order for us to thrive, in order for us to build the kingdom of God. A bit of wisdom among us, don't you think?

Speaker 2:

Let's take stock of what's going on in our own work of learning how to be Christians seeking in the kingdom of God. And let's start with this. We've got a new preacher and pastor with not seen before ways in leading worship. We've got school-aged children pouring water, trying to make the sound of that water reach all the way to the back. That means it has to come out fast and furious. We have school-aged children carefully nurturing a very, very small flame down the center aisle, ever so slowly, and then up these steps to light what you and I all know are very tricky candles. We have two-year-olds wandering down the aisles with big eyes looking at you collecting our pennies on the third Sunday of the month or on other Sundays, just wandering about. We have youth, with a few with social anxieties about being in a place with all these grownups and being nervous about passing the peace, and so they sit that part out. We have new members, young and not so young, trying to figure out what's appropriate behavior, not to embarrass themselves. And we have all of us, all of us wanting a clear, ringing answer to the question what is worship? What is the kingdom of God? How do I become a neighbor to someone sitting next to me whom I don't know how do I do God's work and not just end up being a nice person on Sunday morning. So I want to make a couple of modest proposals touching on a portion of these questions that we all carry around with us. How do we welcome new people into this kingdom here?

Speaker 2:

When Kim invites the children to the front on a Sunday morning, as she did a few moments ago, pick out one of them to watch. If you're really ambitious, pick out two, but one will do each Sunday watch, learn that child's name. Do they think they're old enough to walk up the aisle alone, or do they need a sibling or a parent to come up with them? Learn where they sit, make acquaintance with their parents. You can do that when you're passing the peace. Just scoot all around and find those parents. Talk to the child you have to worship. Exchange names, for we all know names are a powerful thing, and if they're young and pass the pennies for hunger cups, make sure your offering goes in their cup. If they're older, greet them each Sunday morning and learn something about them. It'll be awkward at first. After all, you're a grown-up. You know what it's like when somebody notices you. However that you like, tell a parent what you noticed about their child this morning.

Speaker 2:

Encourage the parent to find a way to be comfortable in this unique place in our lives. In this unique place in our lives. Remember, religious institutions in America are always working to be an example, a moral example to our culture. Let's never underestimate the power we have in a world who can't find morals that work, who don't care about morals? Oh, but they do care. They just can't sort out what they are for themselves.

Speaker 2:

The church has never been smaller in our culture and never been more critical in our culture. We are one of the only organizations that it is free to join, has almost no barriers to entry and is meant for people of all ages. No matter who you are, you are welcome. Most Americans have a true yearning to dwell in a place that has a sense of right and wrong, a place in which belonging is cherished. And that's what's going on here on a Sunday morning. We're practicing belonging. We're finding the road for each of us to experience what it is to belong here, in this version of the kingdom of God, to be cherished, to thrill to both the insightful preaching and the wiggles and the giggles. Amen and Amen.