Be like the boy!

Do you remember that classic simpsons episode where the whole town was told to be like Bart Simpson?  If you don't recall, here is a vital clip from it.

Yes, it's a classic episode, one in which the entire town, with the notable exception of Lisa, gets on board with the idea that they ought to be more like Bart, and do whatever they feel like.  And it starts

out okay, with people expressing themselves, doing stuff they'd always wanted to do, and so on, but gradually, it gets out of control with nobody doing their jobs, nobody enforcing rules, and the entire town of Springfield going to the dogs.

Now, this is not entirely different from the reading that we had from the Gospel today.  For in our Gospel reading, Jesus set someone aside, a child, and said to the people who were assembled around him that they all needed to be more like this child.

How old was the child?  Who knows.  Old enough to stand by himself, that's really all we know for sure.  But what we do know is that this child was placed in from of the group of probably very serious, very religious people, and they were all compared to him.  Unfavourably.  If this was the Simpsons, the matter that the nice, sophisticated people would have been told to pay attention to would be that they weren't expressive enough, and needed to get in touch with their feelings more.  But with Jesus, it goes in a different direction.

The big question that exists in our minds, is what on earth are we missing that children have?  In our lives, we grow, we mature, we get better at everything, we excel, and we develop.  And what do we leave behind?  Our baby teeth, maybe, but is there anything else that children have that we adults don't?  Well, listen to what Jesus says.  He tells us that we ought to humble ourselves like that child.  Yes.  Humility.

Humility is one of the first casualties of growing up.  We dont' take to it overly well.  We don't get more humble as time goes on, quite the opposite actually.  We get very full of ourselves. We get so full

of ourselves, that if the pastor pulled one of us up in front of the church, and said 'you know, this would be a much better congregation if we were all more like this fella/lady.'  And we would think to ourselves, 'yup, spot on.'

The more we grow, the more we learn, the more we accomplish, the more the humility leaves us.  It abandons us, and is replaced by our thoughts about how well we are doing, and how much we've done, and how neat we are.  These thoughts are semi-universal, and occupy a great deal of all of our time.  And we tend to compare all the other people we meet unfavourably to us, seeing that they rank solidly beneath us.  This is the lack of humility that Jesus was talking about.  He knew that the very respectable people who had crowded in around him were not exactly the most humble people on earth.  They were people who, like people in churches today, spent a lot of time trying to look good and to do the right things.  And it's crazy to think of, that the church is a hotbed of pride, but you best believe that it is. 

For humility, real, genuine humility, carries with it a few hallmarks. One of them is this one, where you realize that you are going to have to be given direction on your life.  Children, at least up to a certain age, do this.  They may do it reluctantly, they may mope, they may groan, but they do it.  And even if they don't do it, even if they break the rules, they at least acknowledge that you have the right to make and enforce the rules, and to tell them what to do.  But that goes away.  It goes away, and then we have a way of fighting back against our parents, and everyone else, who may or may not tell us what to do.  Nobody gets to tell us what to do.  Nobody, not anyone anywhere, gets to tell us what to do, or how to behave, or anything.  Nobody dares tell us what to do.  The cops, the government, teachers, bosses, nobody gets to tell us what to do.  And that extends over to God.  He doesn't get to tell us what to do either.  All those words in the Bible are just so much noise, all those commands in the Bible, just so much ink, as we look at that in the same way as we would advice from an aging parent.  Oh, sure, that may have worked in the time of the dinosaurs, but it's absurd now.  We roll our eyes, we push our parents out of the picture, and we have no more time for them.  We have a habit of pushing those fuddy duddy parents out of the picture, and not taking their advice in the way we used to.  

And it's the same way with God.  Back in the day, when you were in Sunday school, when you were in Confirmation class, you took it all so very seriously.  There were things you were not supposed to do.  When you were a child, you took all those directives from God, from your parents, from your school, all so very seriously.  But then after a while, you found out that you could get away with it, that nobody would stop you, but that those rules stood in the way of what you wanted to do.  So you turned your back on all of it, even if you thought it was a good idea to begin with, and especially if you think it's a good idea for other people to do.  And it was your lack of humility, your opinion of yourself, that led to you looking at all those rules that you think are a good idea for everyone, and saying that you are by no means required to observe them yourself.  The better you think you are, the less likely you are to listen to anyone who has any advice for you.  Including God.

But there is another reason that that child was set aside by Jesus for us to look upon and to emulate.  That thing that the rest of us are missing is that we refuse to let others love us.  Think about your children.  They get to that day, that special day, where they wipe the kiss from their faces, where they say 'mooooooooom!' every time a hug or kiss is offered. My own mother mentioned this to me, saying that there would come a day in which I would refuse to let her love me.   Children won't let anyone love them, least of all you.  They resist love, and they become standoffish.  And that's what we do.  We get standoffish, we walk away from love, and we avoid affection, from our spouses, from our parents, from pretty much everyone.  We become prickly pears, we become difficult, sandpaper people.  And all the while, our parents are chasing us, saying 'let me love you!'  And this is what God

the father does.  The whole Bible is a big long story of God chasing us, chasing after us, pleading with us 'let me love you!'  And how does God love us?  God so loved the world that he gave us his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.  And this is a kind of love that only children, and those who humble themselves like children, can understand.  Only they can understand that there is love that is shown by someone doing something for you.  By someone providing you with all that you need, the way were loved when we were children.  That kind of love, that as adults we don't really get.  We keep on saying 'stay out of the way, I can do this, I don't need help, I don't need you to do anything for me, I'm fine!'  As our parents chase us, we keep on saying the same thing.

And it is only if you are humble that you can be loved like this.  It is only if you look at the person trying to love you and understand that they are better than you at something, that you can be loved like this.  You have to be humble enough to see that, to see that you are less than them at something, and can be loved by them, in them doing things for you.  You can only really be loved by God in the all-

availing sacrifice of Jesus on the cross if you're humble enough to realize that this is God doing everything for you, because you can't do it yourself.  You can't manage righteousness, you can't manage holiness, you can't manage any of that stuff, you're still a child.  If you have that humility, then you'll be able to accept that gift. If you're insisting that you can do it all, then you will be missed.  You will be beat down by the world, by sin, that you can't possibly hope to deal with.  But humble yourself, and you will be exalted.  If you are humbled, you will be lifted up.  If you can be humble, humble like a child, then you can both be directed, and loved.  But if you insist on going your own way, you'll lose it all.  Hear the words of Christ.  Humble yourself like this child, and you will enter the kingdom of heaven.  And the most wonderful thing about humility is you can't fake it.  Pride will show itself no matter what.  And so will humility.  There's an easy test.  If the idea of anyone being shown to you, behold the man style, and being told about them being an example for you to emulate bothers you, then you still have a lot of humility to learn.  But the great relief is that that's what Jesus is all about.  Take his yoke upon you, for he is gentle and humble of heart.  For his yoke is easy, and his burden is light.  And he's the ultimate example of someone who can freely say 'do as I say, and as I do.'

PJ