A Leading Cause of Life: Children

What Do You Mean You Can't Swim?

October 11, 20009



The lifelines:

connection: being connected to one another

coherence: the sense that life makes sense

agency: taking action to make Godís world a better place



This morning we are adding to our list of the leading causes of life. In fact, I am adding to the list offered in the book by the same name. I am adding the lifeline of children. I think for a huge number of us, children give us life. And I am not speaking in the biological sense. Children bring us to life. Just watching your faces when the children of this congregation participate in worship, I can see that the majority of you agree with me. In a world that can easily overwhelm us with all things negative, children are a positive. As we celebrate the Children's Sabbath, we give thanks for children who are our lifelines.



But not only are children a lifeline for us, we must be lifelines for them. Before we go any further, I want you to see a clip from the movie Walking Across Egypt. Let me set the stage for you. A wonderfully faithful woman, challenged by her pastor to reach out to the least of these chooses to become connected with a teenage boy who has been sentenced to several years of detention for stealing a car. His life is definitely headed in the wrong direction. He escapes from the Young Men's Rehabilitation Center and finds his way to her home, telling her he is there on a three-day leave. After taking advantage of her hospitality in a whole variety of ways, he finds some new feelings arising within him and so does she. SHOW CLIP



ìWhat do you mean you can't swim? How do you grow up not knowing how to swim? Why my folks had me out there. . . Her voice trails off as she realizes that this boy has not been loved; has not been cherished; has not been taught by parents, by grandparents, by family or friends, by anyone. He has not been the center of someone's life. He has not known unconditional love. He has not been given what he needs to live life to the fullest. And in that moment, she gets it. She must become his lifeline.



In this world that has sometimes gone crazy with doubt and fear, do you have a child who is your lifeline? In this world that, at times, seems to be teetering on the edge of destruction, can you become a lifeline for a child in your life? What do you mean you can't swim? How do you grow up not knowing how to swim? Why my folks had me out there. . . .î.


Several years ago I shared with you the results of a survey that are highlighted in the book What Kids Need to Succeed. I told you that, back in the day, the experts who had suggested that what every child needed to succeed in school was their own chalkboard were wrong. Or at least they were misguided. At the very top of the list of 40 assets; the good things that every child needs, is support. Children need to experience support, care, and love from their parents and kids need to know other adults beside their parents that they can turn to for advice and support. Ideally, kids should have three or more adults other than their parents who are willing to play this role in their lives.



Think about it. What could it mean for the children in our church, our neighborhood, our community, our world if each one of us would commit to being one of those three other adults to whom a child could turn for love and support and guidance? As a parent of now young adult children, I have to tell you that I am so thankful for the adults who were there for our children when they needed more than just their parents' love. But I also find myself grieving for those children who are trying to negotiate their way through life without the benefit of parents or other adults to offer them love and support. What do you mean you can't swim? How do you grow up not knowing how to swim? Why my folks had me out there. . .


In the so very familiar passage from Mark's Gospel that we heard this morning, Jesus is interrupted as he is teaching; interrupted by people bringing children to him to bless. And while this seems like a common day occurrence to those of us who are used to politicians kissing babies and pastors who take every chance we can get to cherish your children, in Jesusí day children were not to be seen or heard. They were little more than possessions, insurance for the family's future. Their presence was always an annoyance. They had no power and no place. Children, almost more than anyone else in Jesus' day were the least of these. Yet Jesus proclaimed that children were at the very center of life in God's beloved community.



What would it mean to live in this way: believing that children are at the very center of life in God's beloved community? What would it mean to be their lifeline? Would it mean that every child would have equal access to quality health care? Would it mean that every child would have nutritious food and clean water and a place to call home? Would it mean that every child would have excellent educational opportunities? Would it mean that every child would be loved beyond measure? What would it mean? What would we have to do to make this happen?



In Walking Across Egypt, that wonderfully faithful woman held nothing back in putting that teenage boy in the very center of her life, giving him every chance to succeed. When no one else was willing to love and support him and teach him what it means to become a decent human being, she took on the challenge. And while giving him a shove off that dock and into the water to help him overcome his fear may have been a bit unconventional, it worked. There she stood yelling to him, "Stop saying you can't; you haven't even tried! And then going through the motions herself, yelling "come on, come on," she gave him what he needed: a lifeline. And he got it. With a newfound sense of self, keeping his own head above the water, he yelled back "I'm doing it! I'm doing it!"


How many of you know how to swim? How many of you know any children? How many of you know how to love? How many of you know any children? Get the connection?







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