Pentrcost 18B A Little Child

Proper 20B  Pentecost 18 September 23, 2018

Thorleif Schjelderup-Ebbe, a Norwegian zoologist and psychologist, lived 82 years, from 1894 to 1976. In his 1921 Ph.D. dissertation he described the pecking order of hens, called the dominance hierarchy. The birds had an order in which individuals were allowed to get to the food trough, enforced by pecking each other. For 17 years, from age 10, Thorleif had kept and watched chickens. Since then similar dominance hierarchies have been observed in many other species.

When I was 10 I got interested in a Pacific sea bird, the blue footed booby, and finally got to see one in the Galapagos. The blue footed booby lays two eggs 4 days apart. The older chick frequently picks on the younger.  I’m an only child, but we have two children and our daughter has two daughters. I’ve learned from observation about sibling rivalry.

Dominance hierarchies and sibling rivalry come from competition for what are perceived as scarce resources. There is only so much food, so much parental attention, so much time to give. That is true in this life, but God is eternal and infinite. God created everything that is, and God has provided enough for everyone to have a fair share.  

So dominance hierarchy, pecking order, sibling rivalry, are all part of the sinful order of the natural world. As St. Paul wrote In Romans 8, “22 we know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now; 23 and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as God’s children, the redemption of our bodies.”

 In today’s epistle St. James says, “Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you? You want something and do not have it; so you commit murder. And you covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures.”

Christian faith trusts in God’s grace to provide. God is eternal and infinite. God created everything that is, and God created enough for everyone to have a fair share.  Christian life is radically egalitarian. We are all beloved children of God. The God who made us all loves us all equally. We are all sinners, saved by grace. Sin is sin, an offense against God’s will for the world God has created.

In today’s gospel Jesus takes a little child and tells the disciples, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.” It took a long time before Christians began to act in the world according to Jesus’ word, but in the past century we have begun to end child labor - at least in the western world.

Children are now regarded as gifts of God, not as small laborers, or as extensions of their parents.  We are now more able to see children as gifts and we are more able to recognize ourselves as God’s children, as God’s gift to the world, and so we are more able to see the gift of Jesus, God’s gift to all humankind, given for our salvation.

We can recognize in the simple trust of a child the trusting relationship God seeks with us. Babies have a grab reflex. Put your finger in a baby’s open hand and he will grab for it. The baby doesn’t know what it is; it could be harmful, and over the years we have all grabbed on to things that have in fact harmed us. We have to learn to evaluate what comes to hand, take the good and leave the rest.

But God is good, and God’s will for us is good, and God gives us many good gifts of life, and health, and ability, and wisdom. He calls us to serve him, using his gifts to his glory.

We serve with the cross as our model and example. In the last days of the Davidic kingdom of Judah Jeremiah warned about those who devised schemes to destroy and make people forget God’s care for his people. The rulers of Jesus’ people fulfilled Jeremiah’s prophecy. They sought to destroy Jesus, , saying, "Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, let us cut him off from the land of the living, so that his name will no longer be remembered!"  

The wicked will always to destroy the goodness and love of Jesus. But they failed, and they will always fail,  because God raised Jesus from the dead and in his new life gave all who will believe in him new life – new life every morning, new life from the grave, new life in child-like trust and joy. 

          All God’s children are God’s gifts in the world Jesus Christ has redeemed. Let us live seeking greatness in God through service to him and to all the other children of God has given us to love.