Psalm 3:1-4

Lord, how they have increased who trouble me! Many are they who rise up against me, many are they who say of me, “There is no help for him in God”. But You, OLord, are a shield for me, my glory and the One who lifts up my head. I cried to the Lord with my voice, and He heard me from His holy hill.

Ephesians 6:13-17

Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.

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Congratulations to our Children’s Sunday planners and to all our children having fun and leading us today in our worship of God. True fun is true worship, and true worship is fun. When this is not the case, the church is barking up the wrong tree and probably worshiping itself worshiping.

Among all the world’s best known religious figures from Judaism and Islam and Hinduism, Confucianism, Buddhism and Christianity, the record is clear: no historical religious icon was as child-friendly as Jesus of Nazareth. When he stood up to the religious authorities of his day and even went against the pressure of his own followers and proclaimed loudly, “Don’t stop the little children from coming to me,” no one has been more interested in children and their relationship with God than our Lord Jesus Christ.

I believe, too often, this is an overlooked feature of our Christian faith. Jesus is without a peer when it comes to a love for and interest in children. No doubt this is one of the reasons that I am sinfully proud to be one of his followers. A religious authority that is genuinely fascinated by and interested in children is someone I want to follow, someone I believe I can trust. And the record of the gospels is very clear: Jesus loved the little children of the world.

Much to the puzzlement and even consternation of his own disciples, Jesus enjoyed seeing children, being in their presence and listening to them. He never thought time with children was wasted time, never thought effort and energy invested in children were wasted. So hooray for us, 150-year-old First Presbyterian! By investing in the children of the congregation, by welcoming them in our midst, by enthusiastically enjoying their leadership in worship, we are taking Jesus seriously.

Look, the Christmas story by itself proclaims how important childhood is to God. Jesus did not come among us as a mature, fully grown human being. He came as a helpless baby and then grew in every way as God With Us. He completed the life cycle of childhood, and though his culture and time had no stage like the one we call adolescence, he fumbled along and made his way through some kind of transitional phase as he left childhood and became an adult.

In order for God to gain “hands on” experience in the profundity of being human, God chose not to bypass childhood. Indeed, any of you, who were forced by terrible conditions into a premature adulthood and robbed of a childhood, know you will struggle all your life over missing the time of play, imagination, and, perhaps above all, innocence.

The fact God did not rush or pressure his own Son through childhood in order to get on with his mission should be a powerful instructive model for parents in not rushing their own children through life. Think of the time Jesus was allowed to look at rain puddles, watch clouds scud along and grain stalks bend in the wind. What gift did God give to his own Son? The time to be a child. Through God’s giving Jesus the gift of a full childhood, in Jesus, God transcended childishness yet hallowed the wonder and idealism of childlikeness. To be childish is not God-like, but to be childlike and idealistic is to be possessed of God’s hopefulness.

Jesus first came among us as a baby and then a child. Surely, if Jesus is to God as shining is to light, then God never intends us any harm. What God, intending to harm, coerce or destroy would choose childhood as his entry into the world? Take it as a key theological symbol that Jesus came as a child. This tells us more than we can ever take in about God’s heart and mind. That Jesus so welcomed children, was so aware of their presence around him, that Jesus was given time to be a child himself---all tell us so much about the Mystery of God and God as a safe and blessing Presence among us.

But let me close with one more thought. It is suggested in the texts of this morning, the passage from Psalm 3 and the lesson from Ephesians 6. They contain the image of the shield of faith. This image of faith in God as our shield was why the Children’s Sunday Planning Committee selected these passages.

All good parents want to protect their children. But all wise parents also know the ultimate impossibility of the task. A mom or dad or a congregation can warp their children if they fail to remember that God offers minimum protection but maximum support. The obsessive, overly controlling parents will undermine their own child’s sense of self-confidence and instill within the child an unhealthy paranoia about the world, if they offer maximum protection but minimum support.

As I was writing this sermon, I heard a strong gust of wind outside my window. As I looked, I saw the falling leaves, great numbers of them. It was a foretaste of what is on the way. I know the quick passage of time. I know the inability to turn back the clock. I know all leaves eventually fall.

I know also the world can be a dangerous place. I know not all adults can be trusted around children. I know disease is no respecter of childhood. I know society, unlike Jesus, usually ignores and overlooks children. I know the little children of the world are not really that important in the power politics of their world. When international decisions are made, who thinks to take tomorrow’s children into the equation?

I know we have all become a problem when it comes to overly protecting and under supporting in our efforts to push and hurry and make sure our children are on track and developmentally on the clock. I know childhood takes place in the fragile and uncontrollable setting called life. I understand the metaphor of the falling leaves in the autumn season of the year.

But I also believe God loves our children even more than we do. And that for me seems an impossibility, but with God all things are possible. I do believe God loves my own grown children, and my little grandchildren, and the wonderful little sweeties of our congregation even more than I do, or we do. Still, God gives minimum protection yet maximum support.

I believe this is the way God goes about being our shield. In life and in death we belong to God. Life will make sense someday. Life will turn out to have meaning. That’s all I really need to believe to get me through the flaming arrows of life. All I really need to know is that wonder and fun and idealism carry the day over the night. God bless our children, and God bless God for giving them to us. “Let the little children come to me” said Jesus.

Let’s make sure, congregation, that we never hinder the children of this church from taking their rightful place at the side of Jesus.