Signs and Sounds of Life
Emmanuel Anglican –
You shall teach them [the Torah] diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house,
and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.
– Deuteronomy 6:7
Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.
– Matthew 19:14
Where there is life, there are the signs and sounds of life. And where there is the absence of life, the signs and sounds of life are diminished, if not altogether absent. We all should desire life and its accompanying signs and sounds. Children are signs and sounds of life and are an integral part of the life of a community. They are an integral part of our parish and they are a gift to this parish.
Israel was to involve them in all aspects of their life, teaching them the way of God, his great love for them, and what it meant to walk in the good life, the blessed life of God.
During Jesus' earthly ministry, families brought their children to Jesus that "he might lay his hands on them and pray." But for the disciples, this was a situation unbecoming of their holy teacher. Their response was a sharp rebuke to the families, dismissing them as a distraction and nuisance. In this they failed to see the blessing that children are. They also failed to see that children are our teachers.
The onset of adulthood can bring with it a rigidity in our relationship to God. We often exchange our early love for shriveled duty. But children know differently; they know better. And they teach us this difference, if we but let them come.
They are our teachers. They teach us that we are to approach God out of hearts of love, laughter, joy, and hunger. Our worship is to have in it these signs and sounds of life. They teach us that, though God is indeed holy, he delights in our earthliness for he is the one who pronounced a blessing over all creation with his words: it is good. They teach us that it is the meek, the simple, the hungry to whom belong the kingdom (Lk 19:14).
Their presence is a gift and blessing to our parish with all its accompanying challenges. And those challenges are real. But let us not be like the disciples who found their signs and sounds of life a nuisance. But may we rightly see our children–and others yet to come to Emmanuel–to be the signs and sounds of life. May we desire that life. May we desire to be taught by them that our joy, love, life, hunger, and worship might overflow out of the abundance of our hearts.
Grace & Peace