Sunday Morning Afterglow

This morning at Recovery Worship we took a look at the story of the little children coming to Jesus in Mark 10, the text following the divorce text. Jesus rebukes the disciples for keeping the little children from him with the following words, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of god belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth; anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." Last week we talked about how the divorce text from Mark 10 has been used against Christians who are divorced, now I am wondering how many times this story has been used to hurt people.

One warm summer day several years ago I had just completed a funeral in Sutton, ND. Following the funeral I was being shown around the cemetery by one of the lifelong members of Mabel Lutheran Church. She pointed out the various tomb stones of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs of the congregation, names that I recognized from the local history book and names that are still common in the church today. As we walked along I noticed a marker on the edge of the cemetery, right where the neatly cut grass ended and the bean field started. I pointed it out to my tour guide and walked over toward this little stone, all by its self. "Oh, that stone has an interesting story" I was told. Looking at the single date on the maker, 1917 my guide said, "A baby, born to a mother who became pregnant out of wedlock is buried here, the baby died during delivery." "At one time" she continued, "a fence ran between here and the main part of the cemetery, as young girls our family would always point to this marker outside the fence and tell us that a baby born out of wedlock could never inter the kingdom." I asked what scripture verse they used to justify such a claim, and she quoted this scripture from Mark. "The baby" the pastor would tell us, "was not baptized, and un-baptized baby's can never enter into heaven." "That isn't true is it pastor?" she asked. "No" I responded, "Do you really think Jesus would condemn such a child to hell?" The woman almost had tears in her eyes as she said, "I never thought so, and it's just that my pastor told me so I had to believe him didn't I?"

It is scary to think that as a pastor my words can carry such weight. Jesus is telling us to be like little children, simple, believing and powerless. When we admit our powerlessness to God we open the door to God's power coming into our life, and transforming us into the person that God wants us to be. It is little wonder that this verse is so closely tied to the first step of recovery, "We admitted we were powerless over alcohol - that our lives had become unmanageable." Like little children we are powerless and our life is unmanageable, but with our Higher Power we can accept the things we cannot change, and have the courage to change the things we can.

See you next Sunday