“Hospitality & Welcoming Children” a sermon on Luke 18:15-17

Luke 18:15-17
“Hospitality & Welcoming Children”
Preached Sunday, September 7, 2025

Wow. What a morning.

We’ve blessed bookbags. We’ve prayed for students, preschoolers, teachers, Sunday school volunteers, and more. We’ve heard about how we can support our local schools - and collected the Noisy Bucket for one specific school. We’ve given out Bibles to third graders - and committed to continue to walk alongside them in faith. We’ve blessed the Pray-Ground, the Family Seating Area, which sends a strong message of welcome to families & children. If you haven’t read this month’s newsletter, I’d invite you to do so as there is an article answering some Frequently Asked Questions about this new area. After church we will invite everyone to go down to the children’s Sunday School Area & Childcare areas and bless those areas. As of today, we have Youth Discipleship Bags for Youth - 6th grade and up - who wish to remain in worship. They and their families have the option to consider what is best for them and their journey with Christ at this age - to go to Children’s Sunday School or join the wider worshipping community on Sunday mornings. We are also continuing to work on our Youth Room and will have a time to bless and celebrate that space once it’s completed - and our new Youth Group launches next week! Not to mention or 5th Sunday Family Gatherings which is still a new ministry and our new Young Adult Group which is having their second meeting ever next week…And there are have been people working so hard to line all this up and make all this happen - and they will be people being faithful in following through and supporting these ministries and all in them. Today in worship is just the tip of the iceberg of how this church is faithfully working to welcome children, youth, families, and young people. And ALL people - regardless of age.

So again - let me say - wow. What a morning.

I could not be more proud of the way we are moving and working together for hospitality and Christian welcome in this church. Actually - can we pause here, before we go any further - it’s a little self-congratulatory, but I really am so so so proud of us, how far we’ve come together and the dreams and goals we have that will take us even farther. Can you please give yourselves a round of applause? You all deserve it for your faithfulness in ministry together.

And so, this morning I want to talk about the Gospel message and Jesus’s statement: “Let the children come to me, and do not stop them, for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.”

Let’s start with that last sentence. Receiving the Kingdom of God as a little child is often misconstrued as believing in Jesus, having faith in God, buying into our whole faith…without asking any questions. And to those preachers and interpreters who have espoused this, to them I want to ask, “have you ever met a little child?” Children are FULL of questions. And questions about God too. Even as a pastor I often get thrown off by all the questions I am asked and how to answer them.

Examples of rapid fire questions I’ve received: “Did God make the world? How long did it take for God to make the world? Did God make cities? Did God make dinosaurs? Why did the dinosaurs die? Did God make bad people? Did God teach us about bad people? Why are there bad people? Can I have a snack?”

And I’ve barely started answering…and the questions just keep coming.

No, receiving the Kingdom of God as a little child is not about asking questions or not… I think it’s about moving forward, entering into the Kingdom of God - that is, getting to know God and the world that God desires for us - with excitement, curiosity, and openness. When I think of little children - and what I experience here with BUMP kids - is certainly this - excitement to know God - and an openness to being loved. By God, by adults in their lives who love God, and even by one another.

Now, in his statement, Jesus says that whoever does not RECEIVE the Kingdom of God as a little child cannot enter it. In order to receive means that someone has to give. The gift ultimately comes from God but the responsibility to pass on that gift falls on our shoulders. Deuteronomy 6 tells us: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise.”

In order for little ones to receive the gift of the Kingdom of God - we have to be the ones extending the invitation. In order for little ones to enter into the Kingdom, we have to be the ones welcoming them in with open arms and hearts.

Unfortunately, this can be a struggle for some people and some Christian communities. And it always has been. Remember Jesus’s harsh words in Matthew, a different version of the events from our reading from Luke today:

“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. Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me. If any of you cause one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for you if a great millstone were fastened around your neck and you were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe to the world because of things that cause sin! Such things are bound to come, but woe to the one through whom they come!’”

Woe to those who put stumbling blocks before children, who bar them from receiving the Good News that they are children of God, loved and welcomed in…Such things are bound to happen…but may they never happen from us and our community.

We are called to welcome children into the Kingdom of God, to welcome them into our Christian community, and whenever we welcome a child into our midst, we are welcoming Jesus himself among us. There is the old church adage, “If the church ain’t crying, it’s dying.” I would also urge us to every single time we hear the noise of a little one in church we think - that is the voice of God among us.

It is this simple. And it is this beautiful: when we welcome children among us - we welcome God among us.

And who in turn loves the child, they are loving as God loves, and will come to know Jesus through the child - even as we teach that child about Jesus.

In the church, we have the tremendous responsibility, privilege, and joy - to teach children about God and that they are loved - by God and by us. We are called to accept children as they are…and this is decidedly not the old school mentality of children being meant to be seen and not heard. This is not the love, acceptance, and celebration of children that Jesus has when he says, “let the children come to me.” He does not say, “let the children come to me as long as they are in their Sunday best and behave and are quiet.” No, he says, “let the children come to me.” There are no qualifying statements - just to let them come, let them be welcomed in, let them receive, let them be loved.

We are called to welcome children.
Children with sticky fingers.
Children with interrupting voices.
Children with a million questions.
Children who want to go completely off script during the children’s moment.
Children who are trying to break free from the pew and run down the aisle.
Children who are unable to contain their excitement in the Communion line - oh if only we all approached the altar with such unrestrained joy!
Children with their deep desire and need to be known for who they are and loved.
Children as they are.
Children as God made them to be.
We are called to welcome them - and in turn, welcome Jesus.

Not only are we to accept children as they are - we are also to become more like them. What would it look like for all of us, of absolutely any age, to come here, to come to worship, to come to church, as our whole selves?

To come, even if it's been a really bad week.
To come, even if we want to cry.
To come, even if we didn't have time to shower this morning… Or even access to a shower…
To come, even if we didn’t have the mental energy to make ourselves presentable.
To come, with a million questions…And to still come anyway.
To come overflowing with excitement, because we know that this is a place where we are wholly accepted as we are.
To come, because we recognize that we too are beloved children of God. We are seen as children in God’s eyes and we are loved just like a child - wholly and unconditionally. God welcomes us with open arms.

When we welcome children just as they are…we will learn to welcome ourselves just as we are. Welcome others just as they are. To see ourselves and others, regardless of age, as beloved children of God.

This is an immense responsibility. And it also is an immense joy.
I pray that we here at Boardman UMC will be blessed - blessed with the sounds of children, blessed by seeing God in them and through them. Blessed that by welcoming children with open arms - we would find that God welcomes us, as children of God, with open and loving arms.

May it be so. Amen.