Sermon: Learning from Children

The church I grew up in is a little shared ministry which is parts Anglican, Lutheran and United with a good mix dose of charismatic teaching. I love that church deeply because I learned much of what I know about God in that community. I always enjoy going home to visit.

While I was home at Christmas, Henry, (the minister/substitute teacher/independent contractor) was going to be out of town on New Year's Eve so he asked me if I would preach. Some of you might remember the last time I was asked to preach (That time it was at my church in Vancouver); I blogged about it and you can still download it here.

Sorry for the blatant self-promotion...

To continue, I've been very lucky to have an opportunity to preach in my hometown church several times in the past few years. The experience has taught me the immense value of the lectionary and the meaningful discipline of the liturgical calendar. I mention this because I feel their absence rather keenly in the churches I've been in since. I think our evangelical and non-denominational churches might gain increased depth if they were to return to these institutions of the historical church.

So, before I link to the mp3, one or two liturgical notes...

First of all, the readings for the week were:
1 Sam 2:18-21
Psalm 148
Col 3:12-17
Luke 2:41-52
(You don't actually have to look them up, they're at the beginning of the recording)

The gospel reading and the Old Testament reading focus on the lives of two children ministering in the House of God: Samuel the Prophet and Jesus. These two readings are the focus of my sermon (although I rely mostly on Luke).

Also worth noting is that while it is no longer celebrated on this day by the Anglican church, the Catholic calendar celebrates the first Sunday after Christmas as the Feast of the Holy Family. This is a day in the calendar for us to consider the astounding fact that Mary and Joseph were parents to a child who was both a small, vulnerable and fully human kid as well as the "Everliving God dwelling amongst men".

The subject of my sermon is the place of children in the life of the kingdom of God and how we can learn, in the image of Jesus in the temple, how mysterious and wonderful a gift children are. What may not be obvious from the recording was that while I was preaching, one of the children in the congregation was continually, and most of the time loudly, exploring the sanctuary. This curious child's exploring was a wonderful reminder to me that this message is not abstract but is grounded in our very common experience. I believe that if we could really grasp how much there is for us to learn from the children in our lives, we would experience so much more beauty, joy and laughter.

Fortunately for everyone, the Anglican service doesn't leave room for a long sermon so it's all wrapped up in under 25 minutes.

To Listen Online: Here is the link
(If you have Quicktime installed you can just click the link and listen online. To download, right-click on the link and choose "Save Link as" or "Save File as" depending on your browser)