SIMPLE FAITH

R. Charles Grant

Pastor, Bon Air Presbyterian Church

Memorial Service for Edith Cushnie

February 10, 2007

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” He called a child, whom he put among them, and said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.⁵Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me. 

--Matthew 18:1-5

            This text from Matthew is just the kind of text Edith loved and lived by: Faith is as simple as welcoming a child, and loving children is a way to express your faith in God.

            The scene of Jesus welcoming and blessing the children has long been romanticized, as in those pictures that used to hang on Sunday School room walls. But even a quick reading of this text reveals it is about a lot more than children climbing all over a benevolent and loving Jesus.

            The welcoming and blessing of children scene stands at the head of a chapter dealing with the practical dimensions of leading the Christian life. In Chapter 18 we find strong words on humility and prayer and forgiveness.  What we find here is a call to live with deep holiness and gentleness.

            The text is not really about children.  While surely Jesus welcomed children into his presence, the children here are more of a prop than the main point.  Even as Jesus healed in order to teach something, here he takes up a child to teach the adults how to live.  For what he says, simply is, BE LIKE A CHILD.

            Like a child.  Not childish, but child-like. That is, embrace God our Father with the same unrestrained enthusiasm a child has for her earthly father.  Young children adore their fathers and imagine them to be capable of just about anything. To embrace God like a child then, is to stand before God in awe of who God is and with deep devotion to the one who IS capable of just about anything we can imagine.  To become like a child is to stand before God, waiting for the love and good gifts we know God is ready to give us.

            So, Jesus is talking about our relationship with God. But he is also speaking of our relationship with each other, for whoever WELCOMES a child, welcomes Jesus into her life.

            The children of Jesus’ time and place were not glorified as are children today. His was not a child-centered culture.  In Jesus’ day, children pretty much were to be neither seen nor heard.  So to welcome a child was to welcome those not permitted to speak for themselves.  To welcome the defenseless, the weak, those not accepted for who they are.

            The faith of Jesus then, is both simple AND hard.  Faith is as simple as embracing God and neighbor with childlike wonder and welcome.  And faith is as hard as putting your whole trust and life in a God whose primary concern is for the weak and helpless of our world.

            What then is God’s word to us today, to we who are gathered in worship, prayer, and thanksgiving for a saintly woman who lived HER life with the kind of simple but hard faith Jesus is talking about?  I think that word is simple and clear:

            In times good and bad, place your whole trust in the God who loves us inside and out. The God, who as the Psalmist says, “hems me in, behind and before, and lays his hand upon me.  Such knowledge is too wonderful for me!”  Simply trust in God, for as our Presbyterian Brief Statement of Faith puts it, “In life and in death, we belong to God.”  Trust in God who ever watches over you.  Then, as the Psalmist says, “The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in, from this time on and forevermore.”

            And, if you would follow Jesus, embrace a child. Literally, love and take up the cause of children.  And figuratively, embrace the child-like.  Protect the defenseless.  Comfort the sorrowing. Lift up the broken.  Build up the beaten down.  For whoever welcomes such a child, welcomes Jesus.

            This is the simple faith of Jesus. This was the simple faith of Edith Cushnie.  This is the life and faith God offers us through Jesus Christ our Lord.

            Let us pray, using a prayer Edith clipped from a church bulletin and pasted in one of her journals:

Deliver us, good Lord,

from the excessive demands of business and social life that limit family relationships,

from the insensitivity and harshness of judgment that prevent understanding,

from domineering ways and selfish imposition of our will,

from softness and indulgence mistaken for love.

Bless us with wise and understanding hearts

that we may demand neither too much nor too little

 and grant us such a measure of love

that we may nurture our children to that fullness of manhood and womanhood

which Thou has purposed for them,

through Jesus Christ our Lord.  AMEN.