Will Our Faith Have Children?

Children’s Sabbath Oct. 17, 2004

By Pastor Marcia Moret Sietstra

What a wonderful day this is, Children’s Sabbath, a day when we join with millions of people of faith in churches, mosques and synagogues to celebrate children and become more passionate and knowledgeable advocates for children and the issues they face. The children you see here this morning are the lucky ones, because they know they are children of God. Every Sunday they are affirmed by all of us, so they will grow up knowing that they are precious, that they are loved by us, and cherished by God.

But today the life conditions of millions of children deny them that assurance and obscure that truth. “Imagine being a child living in poverty in the U.S. today—one in six children—in the richest nation on earth…to wake up chilled in a house without adequate heat, brushing roaches off your blanket… to get dressed knowing you will be teased about your clothes by other children. You have a meager breakfast, or none at all, which leaves you hungry and lethargic as you head off for school in a dilapidated building without enough books or supplies to go around. You fend for yourself after school while your mother is at work. You fix your own dinner while your mom heads to her second job, and then try to concentrate on homework. It’s hard to believe that you are a beloved child of God when the world treats you so carelessly,” says Marian Wright Edelman, founder of the Children’s Defense Fund.

She describes the nine million kids—almost 1 in 8—that have no health insurance. Their families aren’t poor exactly; 90% of them have parents who work, but they earn just enough to keep them right above the poverty line, and after rent is paid, food is purchased, car payments made, and utilities paid, there just isn’t enough left for health insurance. So that child is left on the sidelines of sports activities, because his parents can’t take the risk of him being injured without insurance. Another child misses school half the time, too sick with asthma to do much of anything, but her family can’t buy $70 inhalers like my child has.

Each day, millions of our nations’ youngest and most vulnerable babies, toddlers, and preschoolers are left in unsafe or inadequate arrangements because their hard-working parents can’t find or afford good quality child care or early education programs. What message do these children get about their identity as being precious and loved by God? For children without stimulating activities, resources, opportunities and the support of caring adults, it can be hard to feel like a child of God. Thankfully, some children in terrible circumstances do learn that they are God’s children in spite of the injustice that we adults allow to happen. Many of the poorest have good parents who love them, and even though they suffer, these kids grow up resilient and whole.

But so, so many do not. They strike out against a world that has given them almost nothing but pain, and can you blame them? Personally, I have always wondered how a person who does not experience love or care can believe that God loves or cares about them. Why should they believe in a loving God if they don’t experience a loving God?

I marvel at the resiliency of our Sudanese young men, Jacob and Andria, who have beautiful spirits and strong faith, even though they grew up under near starvation conditions, on their own since a very young age, in Kakuma refugee camp. What is it like to live surrounded by armed soldiers? They, and 10 million other children who have been traumatized by the effects of war, know what it’s like to live in terror. And yet, it could have been worse. Around the world there are children who have no other choice but to work as child laborers, child prostitutes or child soldiers.

This morning we baptized little Jack, and we all promised to help his parents teach him about God and a life of faith. We baptize the children in our care as a sign that God accepts them before they do anything to deserve it. We promise to love them in God’s name, so they will grow up believing God loves them too. And we pray that that our children will grow up to have faith.

But as I look around at the children beyond these doors, the question I ask you is not “Will our children have faith,” but “Will our faith have children?” I’m serious. I think the question Jesus would ask, if he were here today is not “Will our children have faith?” but “Will our faith have children?”

If we really want to welcome children to our faith, then we have got to find ways to show them God cares by caring for them better than we have! How can they experience the love of God if they don’t experience caring love? How can we pass on the legacy of our faith if we don’t demonstrate it to the children of the world? We can’t. Our words are empty if our actions don’t match them.

Jesus didn’t say, “Let some of the children come to me.” He didn’t say, “Let your churched children come, let the children of hard-working, responsible parents who are lucky enough not to grow up in desperate conditions come.” He said, in effect, “Let all children come, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” And when Jesus talked about the kingdom, he didn’t mean in the afterlife—he meant here and now, he meant that if we all care enough to share, then the kingdom is real, right now. In Matthew 25 a rare quote from Jesus about judgement says nations will be judged on how they treated the least among them (vss. 32,35,37-38, 40). Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children.”

I read recently that there is a tribe in East Africa (the Masai) where the warriors greet each other by saying, “And how are children?” Even warriors with no children of their own answer “All the children are well.” There is awareness that the care and well being of children is the responsibility of the whole village. Certainly it is in the best interests of the whole community to have children grow up to be healthy, whole adults who can be good citizens.

What can we do? We can pray. Pray for the day when every child enjoys the health and peace that the kingdom of God intends. We can learn. Learn more and tell others about possible solutions to the problems of children. And we can act. We act when we speak out for justice, and when we vote for programs that provide for nutrition, health care, childcare and a quality education for every children. Perhaps some of you will want to contribute to the UCC disaster relief fund for the Sudan. If so, you can give me a check or mail it, made out to Crestwood with the word Sudan on the memo line.

I close with this observation by one of my favorite theologians, Marcus Borg: Christianity is not so much to be believed as it is to be lived. If we are to live it, we need to take care of the children. Will our children have faith? With God’s help, yes. Will our faith have children? Only if you and I act in the Spirit of Christ. Amen.