The Unexpected Places of the Kingdom of God

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From a young age, we ask kids what they want to be when they grow up. We begin to consider how we might make a difference, and how we might do something great with our lives. We have these lofty ideas about being doctors, teachers, fire fighters, astronauts or he president. One of the first times I was asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I said I wanted to be a Cincinnati Bengals cheerleader. That seemed like greatness to me. We all have different ideas about how our lives might impact the world around us as we strive to achieve our own definition of success. Our American culture defines greatness as power, position, millions of likes, a huge house, perfect ageless skin, increasing your notoriety, building your brand and having a massive circle of influence. But how Jesus defines greatness in the kingdom of God is surrendering your life to people with no influence, no social media presence, no money of their own, no power, and zero influence. We can be quick to shake our fists at how our culture gets it wrong, but let’s take a look, with Bible in hand, at what’s inside each of us. Experiencing the kingdom of God and sharing that kingdom with others starts with getting in touch with how our own values might match up with those of our society more than we’d like to admit. We need to address our own biases about greatness and what we might be gripping onto that is keeping us from experiencing the kingdom of God and getting in the way of sharing that kingdom with other people. Today, as we continue our series in the book of Mark, we come upon a scene where Jesus tells us who the kingdom of God belongs to. Jesus is teaching those around him that the last will be the ones to inherit this kingdom. He teaches and demonstrates that the lowest, the bottom of the food chain, the least and the last have incredible value and are honored in the kingdom of God. This passage today is where we find Jesus inviting kids to come to him. From the folks in this passage, we can learn to come to grips with our own need for control, lack of trust, and excuses. We’ll learn that there are things we hold on to and don’t trust God with that might be keeping us from really living a fully surrendered life. Today, let’s take stock of what matters most to us, of what we’re holding back, of what biases we might be asked to addressed so we can more fully experience God’s power and presence in our lives. If you’d like to open your Bible, today we’re going to be reading in Mark chapter 10, verses 13-16. Before we read, let’s pray. Pray. Read passage Mark 10:13-16 “People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them.” Let’s start by taking a look at the parents. What we see is these parents....

Trust God with what Matters Most The kids in this passage were probably under the age of 6. I don’t know if you’ve spent much time around young kids, I have, and you can imagine how long they’d listen to someone talk, let alone about the super serious grown up subject of divorce that Jesus was just discussing in the passage right before this. As he’s talking, I imagine Jesus watching the kids in the crowd looking up at him, and he sees them maybe digging in the dirt, chasing a lizard, picking flowers and waving at him. He gets a smirk on his face as he sees these kids doing exactly what they’re designed to do. And maybe the parents noticed Jesus’ kind gaze on their kids. Something about him made them take notice. Something made them want to bring their kids to be blessed by him. What was it? You could say it’s because that’s what people did back then. Bring their child to receive a blessing from a rabbi. Yes that’s true, but that was normally done in a synagogue. Jesus was a traveling rabbi. What about Jesus made them bypass the synagogue? Maybe it was a whisper in their hearts, maybe it was the grin on his face, but these parents knew Jesus was a perfectly safe place to be because, through him, God met real human needs. What they saw in Jesus was the living and available presence of God. Wherever he went, Jesus welcomed people into God’s incredibly secure presence. Think about it for a second: what are the things in your life you treasure the most? What are you afraid to bring to God because you don’t know what He might do, or what He might ask of you? Maybe it’s a relationship and you’re afraid if you actually talk with God about it, he’ll ask you to let it go. Maybe it’s an unhealthy habit or addiction. And while you’re tired of being tortured by this habit, you’re also afraid to lose it because you’ve invested so much of yourself into this thing that you’re scared of what it would be like if it was really gone. Maybe it’s your kids and you’re afraid that if you actually ask God what he has planned for them, you’ll have to release your death grip of control over their lives. Maybe as a form of self protection, you don’t actually know what you care most about. When someone asks what you need prayer for, your standard response is “I don’t know.” Jesus—God in the flesh—blessed these children. What if it’s also his intention to bless us in the areas of our lives that concern us the most? What if he wants to bless the things and humans we hold closest to our hearts? And what if our fear of losing something we think we need is actually getting in the way of us receiving God’s blessing? Back to the scene: The parents bring their kids toward Jesus and they’re stopped. Because, like the disciples...

Sometimes we get it wrong. The disciples step in front of these parents, essentially saying, “Jesus is talking about super important grown-up things right now, what in the world are you doing bringing your children to him?” And I’m sure the disciples didn’t mean any harm here, they were following Jesus and learning from him all the time. Sometimes learning means we misstep. We learn from what we do right and what we do wrong. Like the disciples, the way we live our lives and interact with people does not always point them towards the kingdom of God. I wonder if any of us have, even this past week, lived our lives in a way that didn’t point others towards the love of God… like in the way we drive… in our comments online...in the way we interacted with the customer service rep on the phone...or when we were unexpectedly interrupted. Sometimes we look at kids as a hassle, inconvenience, or nuisance. (Story) Just over a decade ago, this church met in a different building on the east side of town. And kids would do what kids do, they’d run around in the yard, skidding, giggling and playing tag, creating ruts and marks and causing dirt to fly everywhere. And folks would come up to Michael (our senior pastor) and say, you need to get those kids off the grass, they’re destroying it! And I love how Michael responded: he said I’m happy to re-sod this lawn every single year, if necessary.… I’d much rather do that than ask the kids to stop being kids. I want them to enjoy being here! Come on friends. Aren’t humans more important than our yards? How might we miss the importance of kids having access to Jesus just like the disciples did? When we ignore the kid and only talk to the parent... When we fume as a child cuts in front of us in the check-out line because they are playing a game and don’t realize you’re in a hurry to get out of there... When our anxiety gets the best of us and we make all kinds of excuses about why we can’t spend time with children. And truthfully folks, it’s amazing how this has gotten magnified even more during the pandemic. Parents and guardians, we can miss this at home too. How do we prioritize spiritual growth in our own families? Statistically speaking, the biggest influence on the spiritual health of a child is not the church, or school or clubs, sports or activities. It’s us, parents. And let me add...a lot is caught. So while we might not be intentionally training our kids, they are watching us. We spend so much time running from activity to activity. To teach our kids what the Bible says and what it means to follow Jesus on a daily basis takes time, margin, interruptibility and planning. (story) Eight years ago I was invited onto staff at this church and I thought they got it wrong. You see, I met with Casey, who’s one of the pastors here, and she shared this beautiful vision for Vineyard Kids ministry and asked if I’d like to be part of it. I laughed inside. At the time I had a two year old child, but otherwise said I was not a “kids person”. Casey, in the kind and loving way she does, asked me to take a few days to pray and think about it and so I did. In those next few days, I had to begin confronting by own brokenness in how I viewed kids as less than and brushed them aside. In how I judged kids pastors as fake and over the top. I had to get in touch with how I’d gotten it so very wrong. And I watched as God softened my heart and asked me to step into a role I wouldn’t have even considered days before. I said yes to this job out of obedience and watched my heart follow. God shifted what I wanted and asked me to step into the work he was doing through this church. Casey saw something in me I couldn’t see myself. And that gave me an opportunity to explore being who God made me to be. So often our default response when we’re invited into something is to hold it at arms length and say no. The next time someone invites us to participate in something at work, or at our kid’s school, or at dinner with a friend, or here at church, what if we pause... and see if God might be inviting us into something. What if others see something in us we can’t see on our own? What if our default was no longer “I have to protect myself,” but instead, “God, I’ll do whatever You’re asking me to do because I trust that that’s actually the best thing.” Let’s look at this another way: who are the people around us that we sweep aside? Maybe it’s a young child who is out of control and whose parent just needs to get it together. Or the neighbor who is so disrespectful and inconsiderate and won’t turn down the music late at night no matter how many times and ways you ask them. Maybe it’s the person standing on the side of the road asking for money or food and you think if they just got off their lazy behind and got a job already. Or the new employee at Target and you could obviously do their job better than them. Or the person of color that you believe has as many opportunities as you and needs to stop complaining because your life is actually way more difficult than theirs... If we intentionality recognized that each human is created in the image of God, it would impact every interaction we had with each other. When spend time with other humans, whether they are being kind to us or throwing up their middle finger at us… we still get to decide for ourselves whether we bring the kingdom of God or not. And when we do, we get to offer the gift of grace, patience, kindness, forgiveness, unconditional love, and acceptance. Like the disciples, there will be so many times we get it wrong. And, there is always another chance to grow, learn, and try again. Continuing on in the passage, when the disciples keep the kids from Jesus, Jesus gets really mad.

Jesus is really mad. We don’t often picture Jesus getting mad. Another time we see him angry is when he flips over the money changers tables in the temple. In both cases, Jesus is mad at those who are keeping people from experiencing the love, power and presence of God. And in our passage today, Jesus’ anger may have been magnified by the fact that he’d just had a similar conversation with his friends a few days before. The disciples were fighting with each other about who among them was the greatest. Jesus takes this opportunity to explain an important piece of God’s kingdom in Mark 9:35 “Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”” To show what it means to be the very last, he brings the societal last, a little child, in among them. Jesus then goes on to say in Mark 9:37 ““Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.”” His disciples are so concerned with their own idea of greatness that they are getting in the way of people coming to Christ. I wonder how we might still do that today? How do we get in the way? When we have too much to drink with our friends. When we gossip and pass along information that’s not ours to share. When we expose children to shows that are completely inappropriate for their age and developmental stage (earlier this week my 4th grader asked me if he could watch Stranger Things because his 3rd grade friend on the bus said it was great. Some of you may disagree, but I think in no way is this show appropriate for young kids). The things we expose to ourselves and others matters. Back to Mark 10: Jesus was angry that the disciples once again miss what matters most in the kingdom he brings. That just a few days later they were still contending for the important folks, choosing the adults over the kids, not wanting Jesus to be interrupted by the sometimes annoying lowest of the low. In response to them getting in the way of accessing him, Jesus raised his voice and said these words in Mark 10:14-15 (and remember, he was angry, so it probably sounded more like....) “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”” Jesus is advocating on behalf of the ones the kingdom of God belongs to. So what does it look like to receive the kingdom like a child?

Receiving the kingdom like a child Jesus explains to his friends that the one’s they were trying to keep away from him, the one’s they thought didn’t deserve this opportunity, the one’s they thought were too bothersome to let close—THEY are the example we need to follow!

What can we learn from kids? What does it mean to be like a child? Kids are great at receiving. Have you ever watched a child get a gift? Just a few days ago, on the last day of school my husband and I bought our boys each a book to celebrate school being out (and let’s be honest to encourage them to actually keep reading this summer). And you would’ve thought we bought our oldest his own house or something. His mouth dropped open, his eyes lit up, he screeched with delight, he yelled “Thank you!,” and hugged me. Kids are amazing at receiving gifts. How do we receive God’s gifts in our lives? Kids don’t even consider what they’ve done to receive a gift. They simply trust that the one giving the gift wants to give it. And if you’ve ever had the pleasure of giving a gift to a child, you’ve seen, (like I got to see with my son), that their reaction is an incredible gift to you, as the giver. Do we trust God’s promises in our lives? Kids teach us how to trust. When you tell a child you’re going to do something, they trust it’ll happen. You have to be careful what you tell a kid, because they’ll remember. And if we don’t keep our word, kids remind us. What kind of friends are we? Kids teach us how to be great friends. The biases we grown-ups have are so different from kids. Sometimes kids just play with other kids and forget to even ask their name. Kids are like, you wanna play hide and seek? Great, let’s be friends and do it. Kids are way more focused on what they have in common instead of what they don’t. How do you view kids? Kids are incredibly intuitive. They can tell how you view them. They can tell whether an adult is going to overlook them or welcome them with open arms. They might not be able to articulate it, but in their gut, in their knower, they know. If we are not child-like towards God, kids will be beneath us and not worth our time. Identifying as not a “kids person” means we are missing out on a key aspect of God’s kingdom. We learn how to receive the kingdom of God like a child by spending time with children. And I’d like to share some stories of folks in our community who do just that. My friends Max and Molly don’t have children of their own. Not only are they great friends to me and my husband, they are friends to my kids. They take them out to dinner, to ice cream, they play soccer with them and chose to spend time with them without my husband and I around. They choose to do this. I’ll never forget Molly saying to me one time, “your kids are our friends too.” Our kids are their friends, not their friends’ kids. My friend Anna started a ministry called Rooted Oaks International. Anna and her team invest in the mental, emotional, physical, relational and spiritual health of children in Rwanda. A team from our church are heading to Rwanda in just a few weeks to train and encourage children and caregivers there. Lori teaches in our kids ministry every Sunday at the 11:00 service. Lori faithfully and consistently shows up week after week to teach and pray for kids, and then spends her full-time job caring for the mental well-being of kids and assisting families in crisis. God called Megan and Dane to become foster parents. That unexpected rollercoaster of a journey led to them to adopt two young boys into their family. And I love this second picture of Dane with their boys, this is just a few days ago as Dane just got home from his deployment over seas. Well home, Dane, and those that were with him in the 148th Fighter Wing. I want to end with a story about my dear friend Mark. When I began my job working with kids at the Duluth Vineyard, I inherited Mark as a volunteer. Every weekend, Mark would hang out with young kids who struggled in the classroom, who needed comfort, kids who were overwhelmed, or dealing with separation anxiety. We’d find Mark sitting in an oversized chair where he could comfortably have a sad little one on either side of him. Many times, I’d catch Mark with his eyes closed and he’d look like he was asleep. But friends, more often than not, he was praying for the child he was soothing. Mark unexpectedly passed away just a few months ago. To honor his memory and legacy, after we pray over our services every Sunday, our Vineyard Kids team put our hands in together and yell “for Mark!” as we head out to start our morning... Because Mark got it. Mark saw kids. There was nothing magical about him. He showed up because there was a need, and allowed God to work in his heart to be transformed to see kids in a way I believe he, and all of us, can’t see on our own. Jesus sees kids. Jesus sees us. He’s a safe place for all of us. He wants us to receive his free gift of grace and mercy and kindness and forgiveness the way kids do. He really cares about kids and he cares about those who get in the way of them experiencing the kingdom of God. Friends, imagine if we as a church really saw the least of these. Imagine if we chased after them and invested our time, energy and resources into them. What if our church was known for our love and safety and advocacy of children, of having a messy front lawn because we care way more about humans than landscaping? This passage ends with Jesus taking the children in his arms, placing his hands on them and blessing them. Jesus holds those kids, and pauses his super important talk to spend time with them, to spend time with the last. I have no idea how long he paused before he went to to talk about other things, but I like to think he really took his time here. How might God be inviting you to pause your own life to notice a child around you, to spend time with someone who couldn’t possibly offer you any kind of recognition or status or cultural greatness? This I can promise you, as you engage with children: you will have an audience with the One who matters most, an incredible invitation to not take yourself so seriously, to see God’s delight in you, and maybe even to play in the dirt for a bit.

Ministry time Prayer is Copartnership with God and his work in the world. What treasure(s) might God be asking you to entrust into his care today? • Maybe it’s your own kids • Maybe it’s a spouse or a boyfriend or girlfriend. • Maybe it’s a dear friend or someone you care deeply about but are afraid of what will happen to them if you don’t continue to hold them up. • Maybe it’s your self and you’re so afraid to ask God what He actually thinks about you because you already know how terrible and messed up you are. How might God be inviting you to release control and relax into his loving care? exhausted parents an invitation to hang out with some kids: and your excuses are in the way