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Dreams For Our Children                                        Luke 17:11-19 and Mark 10:13-16

A sermon preached by the Rev. Robert Lee Nichols, Jr. at the Fox Chapel Presbyterian Church on October 14, 2007.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Our dreams for children begin with baptism.  When we drip that water on the forehead of an unsuspecting child, we are doing something very important. We are celebrating the love of God which will bless this tiny child as they begin their journey. We are sharing the grace and the love of God which we have come to know – with our children.  We are passing it down from one generation to another.

It’s been said that the Christian faith is always one generation away from extinction.  That is true.  And that’s why it is so important for us as a church to dream great dreams for our children and to work hard to make them come true through the ministries of our congregation.

We want every child who comes through the doors of this church to experience God’s grace and love.  Some who are here will experience grace in great abundance.  They’ll be bathed in grace. It will be everywhere. Others may get just a small drop, a drip of the water of grace. Yet you never know what long-term effect a small dose of grace will have as a child grows and moves through life.  Small seeds faithfully planted have a way of producing a bountiful harvest later on.

God’s ways are mysterious and powerful and work far beyond our imagination. We pray that God’s grace and God’s love be experienced by every child here. That grace will touch them in some way, perhaps burrowing down deep in their soul, small, unnoticed, inconspicuous and hidden, and over time that grace will be nurtured so that in the future it will emerge from its hiddenness and begin to grow and finally blossom and flourish.

You never know what part of our church’s ministry will touch a child. I came to grace through the work of a volunteer in the youth ministry program at the Carmel Presbyterian Church in Charlotte, N.C.

Bill Johnson was his name.  Not our Bill Johnson, another one.  Mr. Johnson, as we called him, loved young people.  He loved teaching Sunday school, and let us ask all the thousands of questions we had.   He loved going on retreats.  We’d go to Six Flags near Atlanta.  We’d go mining for gems in the North Carolina mountains.  We’d go to the beach.  We’d go on mission trips.  Any excuse.   And they were wonderful venues for me for grace to grow. Thanks to Bill Johnson.   He loved us.  He loved me.  Even when I wasn’t very lovable. He imagined us as more than we were.   He had dreams for me which were huge, dreams which I grew into.

You are a child of God.  That is your core identity. As you search for who you are in this confusing world, remember first and foremost that you are a child of God. Do not let the world tell you who you are.   Listen to what God says about who you are. 

You are a child of God.  Never forget it. If you rely on the world to tell you who you are you’re in deep trouble. The world will beat you down.  The messages you get at school, the messages you will get, “out there” are not going to be the kinds of things that will build you into a strong and true person.   The world will beat you down, not build you up.

But you are a child of God.  You have a purpose in God’s Kingdom.  There’s a place for you here in the church. We need you here because you are unique and special and holy.  And that’s what we want our children and our young people to know when they walk into this church.

There was a young man practicing baseball out in his backyard.  It was his first year on the team and he was working on his skills, which were limited. As he took the bat, he’d say, I am the greatest hitter in the world.  Then he’d throw the ball up in the air, swing the bat, and the ball would clunk to the ground at his feet.  Strike one. I’m the greatest hitter in the world!    Swing.  Miss.  Strike two. I’m the greatest hitter in the world.   Strike three. I’m the greatest pitcher in the world!

You are a child of God. In the eyes of God, in the eyes of this church, you are the greatest something.  It may take you a while to figure it out, but it’s there.  We in the church know that you are unique and special and precious and wonderful and holy.

The world is so confused about what love is.   How important it is for kids to know God’s love – the beauty of it, the comfort in it. How important it is for children to know they are a part of a community. Larger than their family. Larger than their school or neighborhood.  They are part of something bigger – they are a part of a loving community of faith.  How important it is for them to experience here, among imperfect disciples, the perfect love of God. And to learn that love is not easy.  It takes struggle and commitment.  It takes forgiveness. Grace. And we work things out in community, not alone.

3.         I DREAM THAT EVERY CHILD WHO WALKS THROUGH THESE DOORS,     DOWN THESE HALLS AND INTO THESE ROOMS WILL EXPERIENCE CHRISTIAN FAITH AND FIND NOURISHMENT SO THEY CAN GROW IN         THEIR OWN FAITH. 

Howard Clinebell said, Religion can be a lead weight around your neck or it can be a set of wings to help your soul fly. Our dream is that our children will discover a faith that will give them wings to help their souls fly. Here is a place where you can find a faith that is authentic, real, true, and healthy, one that is worthy of building a life upon.  Not rigid and judgmental and joyless. There’s too much of that out there.   But a faith that is true and good. 

I’m so proud of our church’s ministry with children and young people.   We have such a great tradition here of powerful ministries with children and youth. And it continues.  I’m inspired by what our church is doing.  (Speak about these ministries: Preschool – Michelle, Children – Delinda and Nancy, Youth program – Doug and Amy, Choirs – Craig, Mission trip to New Orleans) We need to give thanks to God for these.  And we need to be praying for them daily.

4.         I DREAM THAT EVERY CHILD WHO WALKS THROUGH THESE DOORS,     DOWN THESE HALLS AND INTO THESE ROOMS WILL LEARN ABOUT           WHAT IS RIGHT AND WHAT IS WRONG – TO LEARN THE VALUES OF     THE CHRISTIAN FAITH.

It’s a tough world out there. There are so many forces and influences, not all of them good and beneficial.  The media is so powerful. It’s easy to go down the wrong path. And it’s easy to get lost. One of the dreams we have is that when children come to our church they will learn the values of the Christian faith to give them that moral compass so that when they get off track (and we all do) they will be able to find their way back home.

So they’ll know the difference between right and wrong so that when they face tough decisions about dating and sex, drugs and alcohol, what kind of friends to hang out with, and all of the other decisions they’ll be faced with every day, they’ll have an anchor.

And they’ll find a place here that will foster honesty, trustworthiness.  A place where Christian character can be developed.  And leaders formed.

You know, part of the difficulty we face is that we live in these two worlds:  The Fox Chapel world and the Kingdom world. They are overlapping but quite different and we have one foot in each. Sometimes we get them confused. Our Fox Chapel world is materialistic high pressure and competitive. The Kingdom is quite different. Humility and gratitude, as important as they are, do not come naturally in this Fox Chapel world. We may be more like the nine lepers than the one. So we need to teach our children how to sort this out.  How to live in this world but not be of this world – rather, to be of the Kingdom so they can grow in grace.

Humility and gratitude are the two foundations of the soul which will allow this to happen.  Why humility?  Because our salvation comes not by our own merit, our goodness, works, our anything at all.  It comes in spite of us by God’s grace.   While we were yet sinners Christ died for us.  (Romans 5:8) So, humility is the proper posture and gratitude the only response. What else could there be?  

Well, these are some of my dreams.  And some of yours.  Let’s work to make them happen here. Let’s give to make them happen.

Dreams become reality when faithful people set their minds and hearts to the matter and work together in Christ’s name and for his sake. May it be so.  Amen.