The Gospel in Disney: "The Fox and the Hound"

Luke:

This passage is part of a series of teachings about status reversal in Luke. Just before this passage Jesus shows a Pharisee expressing his pleasure at not being like the tax collectors, one of the most despised groups of people in their culture. But, Jesus portrays the tax collector as the one who is truly humble before God. Directly after this passage Jesus tells a rich, young ruler, a person with power and wealth, that he must give everything away if he wants to be connected God and inherit eternal life. It is his power and wealth that are keeping him from giving his life fully to God. The young ruler cannot bring himself to do this, and walks away knowing the real need he feels inside, but feeling the price is too high to achieve it. The passage we are about to read shows Jesus’ own disciples trying to chase away the people who occupy the lowest rung on the ladder of status in their culture.

Read Luke 18:15-17

The children referred to in the passage are literally the young in age, but the word “children” is also a metaphor for those who are new in the faith, which would be everyone at this moment at the birth of the Christian faith. Christianity, in its very beginnings, reminds us that we are not about status and being seen as better or more important than others, but about the desire to know God in our lives. It is the people seeking God who are celebrated in the faith.

Proverbs:

This next passage from Proverbs is defined as part of the Wisdom Literature in the Bible. These texts are educational or reflective in their tone, with attention to how one experiences and interprets life in the world. The focus of education in Proverbs includes some practical advice, but its central concern is the shaping of character. This short teaching we are about to read not only challenges us to shape character, but also to start it as early as possible.

Read Proverbs 22:6

Sermon:

The commercial opens with the sound of footsteps far in the distance, but they get louder indicating the person is coming closer. Then you can hear a second set of steps running, and you realize they are chasing the first set. Finally the steps become very loud and you understand that the two people have just run by you, then you hear a police whistle, and these words, “No one ever says they want to grow up to be a drug addict.” I have a friend who is a counselor and he said it this way. “A baby does not lie around in his or her crib deciding whether he or she will grow up to be good or bad.”

(Show clip)

So what happens? How do we become who we are as adults? Last sermon, I shared a thought by Bishop Gregory Palmer that a church never rises above its theology of baptism. One of my points was in baptism the church, we, make a covenant with the infant, the family or the adult to do all we can to help them develop their own Christ-like character. That we promise we will do all we can to develop their image of God, their character of God. I believe this character is expressed by living what scripture calls the “Fruits of the Spirit.” The call to develop character traits such as kindness, love, compassion, generosity and patience. The reason this covenant, this promise, this theology of baptism is so important is expressed by another United Methodist Bishop. Bishop William Willimon says, “Christians are made, they are not born.” These fruits of the Spirit do not just come naturally, but are modeled and taught to us. It is we, the church, we the family that enable our children, and new Christians of any age, to develop their Christian character.

The other side of this is, if we do not live our calling, then there is the possibility and the probability that other aspects of our culture will seek to influence who our children become and the characters they shape. We have a tremendous opportunity to help our children start out right in their lives. To shape their character from the very beginning. This is our promise in infant baptism.

There was another commercial that really impacted me when I saw it. A father and his three year old son are out for a walk in the woods. The father jumps up on a log, and so his son jumps up on the log also. Then you hear the words, “Like father, like son.” The father picks up a stick and throws it, and so his son picks up a stick and throws it. Again you hear the words, “Like father, like son.” After several of these copy cat moments, the father and son sit down under a tree to rest and the father reaches into his pocket and pulls out a pack of cigarettes. He takes one out and lights it, then he sits the pack down on the ground. The camera pans in on the cigarette pack, and then you see these tiny little fingers come into the picture reaching toward the pack, and one last time you hear the words, “Like father, like son.”

We are influenced in our growth from so many areas in our culture. Hopefully primarily our family and church, but there is also the media, school, friends and relatives all have their influence as well.

Todd and Copper grow into adolescence. Their world and those in it have begun to shape their beliefs and world-views. They have now learned that they not only can no longer be friends, but that they are each other’s enemies. It does not matter what is in your heart, for it is the natural order of things. This next clip shows this struggle we all face to become who the world says they are supposed to be, even as it asks them to deny what we have known from our earlier lives.

(Show Clip)

Our theology of baptism is so important for the wellbeing of our children. We know that personalities, attitudes, values, habits, ethics, self-value, and even our IQs are all pretty well formed in our earliest years. It is why, I believe, Jesus tells his followers to let the children come to him. He knows that they are shaping their lives and their characters at that moment. This is when we can have the greatest influence on making Christian disciples.

Professor C. Ellis Nelson reminds us in his book, Growing Up Christian, that our children’s personalities and characters are shaped long before we, as the church, ever provide them any training on what it means to be a Christian. And, even when we have the programs, we may usually have at most an hour a week to teach them the Bible and Jesus’ teachings. Nelson says that it is the family who truly trains and raises the child as a Christian. Who gives them that important first years of training.

Because of this, I am committed to add to our adult curriculum as soon as I can, classes on how to be Spiritual guides, spiritual nurturers as parents and family members, including grandparents. We, as the church, can have some of our greatest impact by providing the training for the most influential people in the lives of our growing Christians.

But, we, as the church, must take our promise at baptism seriously once our children are able to be present for our witness and nurture. In talking with a number of parents, we have come to understand that part of their witness and training is to be able to do service and mission together as a family. To show the love of Christ towards others together. So I have been asking all of our committees to begin looking at how they can design once-a-month, once-a-quarter ministries that the family can come and do together. Our theology of baptism says we will do all in our power to help the children and parents model their love not only toward each other, but to all of God’s children. What better way can we, as the church, help shape disciples than to provide family opportunities to serve as the Christ together to others.

I also want to challenge parents at this point as well. I know that as our children move into their teens we want to give them the freedom to make some choices for themselves. One of those choices is often whether they want to attend church or not. Let me say, “Studies show that the friends a teen enters into high school with are often the friends they still hang out with throughout high school.” My challenge is, keep your children active in church and surrounded with friends who emulate the values of our faith.

We know that peer pressures have a tremendous impact on our child’s decisions and activities. So, we, as the church, need to make sure we have an active youth program that keeps our youth’s interests, seeks to keep our faith relevant, and provides the friendship and support they need to live their values without them being undermined by the world. That seeks to put pressure on them to deny that which they feel in their hearts. No one says they want to grow up and be addicted. No one says they do not want to see themselves as a valued child of God. We are the ground that can help our children stay focused on the one who loves them and seeks to help them be the hope they were born to be.

To not do these things and more is to break the covenant, to not live the promises we make at baptism. The Proverb reminds us, “Train a child in the right way and when old, they will not stray.” Christians are made, they are not born. Let us be committed to our children and to each other to help us all discover and develop the character of Christ within us all.

Sermon delived by Rev. George Cushman on August 9, 2009.