Jeremiah: The office of prophet came into the life of Israel at the same time the monarchy arose as the form of government in the nation. Remember a prophet is not someone called to predict the future, but is one who is chosen to be the voice of God to the nation, always pointing the decision makers back to following Torah, the teachings of God given to the people that would lead to shalom, the fullness and wholeness of life. But, it is often a lonely position to be a prophet, for who wants to constantly be challenging the powers to be? Who wants to be the one who is continuously telling others they are not living the will of God? Jeremiah did not want to receive this honor from God. But these are the words Jeremiah hears.

Read Jeremiah 1:4-10:

I love the thought that even while Jeremiah was in his mother’s womb, God already had a plan for his life. I, personally, believe that is true for all of us. That God has hopes and dreams for who we will be from the very beginning of our lives.  The question becomes, who will show us the way?  With that thought, let’s look at the passage from Mark.

Read Mark 10:13-16:

Jesus shows us that we need to be nurturing our children in their faith from the beginning of life, if we hope to help them fulfill the dreams God has for them and for us all. Interestingly, Jesus goes even further and says that we need to make sure our children are an active part of our community, not only for what we can teach them, but for how they become models to all of us in the living of our lives as people seeking the kingdom of God.

As I shared last week, Nancy and I have decided to unashamedly and unabashedly share with you some thoughts about being evangelistic. Last week I talked a little about how we are called to be good hosts as the church so we can help everyone feel like honored guests in the House of God. But today is Rally Day, a day we celebrate our ministry to children. How does this fit into our thinking about being evangelistic? Well, evangelism simply means sharing the good news of God as it is given to us by Jesus the Christ. But, as biblical scholars point out, Jesus may have come to share the good news with us, but by the time of his death and resurrection he became the good news of God’s absolute love and forgiveness. So, we also see our goal as evangelists as helping others develop a relationship with Jesus Christ, who is the personification of God’s good news of love. So, again, how does this fit in the context of Rally Day? Did you know that 75% of all people who have a relationship with Jesus start that relationship before the age of 17? Think about when you began your walk with Christ. Obviously that means that after this age, if my math is correct, that the final 25% beginning a relationship with Christ represents about one adult in 12 making a commitment. So where does this tell us we should concentrate our time, effort, energies and resources of every kind?

Many years ago now, there was a popular song sung by Whitney Houston entitled, “I Believe The Children Are Our Future.” It was a great song, and it surely tried to help us understand the importance of our children, but, and for me there is a big but! I believe she had it backwards. I believe we are the foundation of our children’s future. As Bishop William Willimon stated, “Christians are made, they are not born.” I believe we are all created not only with the ability to become Christian, but also the desire to know God and know God’s good news placed in our character. It is a part of what the passage from Jeremiah is saying. “God knew us in our womb and had a hope and a plan for us all.” But it is still up to us to nurture that character. This is why Jesus places such an emphasis on children, both in age and in faith development in his teachings, as we heard in Mark. “Let the little children come to me.”

The thought that most impacted me in understanding this was shared by a friend who is a counselor. He said, “Children do not lie around in their cribs thinking about whether they will grow up to be good or bad.” Children do not lay around in their cribs deciding if they will have a relationship with God though Jesus Christ. We are told that our children’s characters are formed by the age of two. It is from us who are entrusted to meeting the needs of our children that they learn whether the world is a safe place in which to live or not. If their needs go unmet, they learn they cannot trust the people and the world around them. What this means is, by the time a child is 5 years old, they have already developed or lost the ability to believe in or trust in God. If we have not nurtured their ability to trust and know they are loved and loveable, either they cannot believe in God, or maybe even worse that the God they know is a mean and judgmental God just waiting for us to step out of line so God can punish us. We have a tremendous responsibility as the people of God. It is why, when we baptize a child it is never a private event. We all pledge to do all in our power to model love to the child entrusted into our care and community.

When Rachel and Sarah were approaching school age, Nancy and I became a little concerned. They would go up to anyone at anytime and just begin talking and playing with them. That was great, but of course we also were concerned that they learn some safety behaviors as well. As we talked about all of this, what struck us is why they were so able to be so trusting and open to everyone. They had grown up in the church. Everyone gave them all the attention they wanted and then some. Everyone treated them with such kindness and care. They never knew themselves as anything but loveable and special to those around them. People were love. God was love. There was no doubt in their minds.

We are the foundation for our children’s future. It is now we have the greatest impact upon their lives to help them hear the good news, and even more importantly to have a relationship with God’s good news, Jesus Christ. We begin the full program of children and youth ministries next week. We have some wonderful, dedicated, and loving people already involved that will indeed help our children know they are precious and special creations of God. But we can always use more. Please let me, or Carol or Nancy or Donna Gaddy know if you would like to shape a child’s future. I would also challenge all who are responsible for ministry in our church to make children, youth and family ministries an absolute priority in what you do, both inside and outside the church. It is the time in their lives we have the best chance to help them know Jesus Christ their Lord and Savior.

Sermon delived by Rev. George Cushman on August 13, 2006.