Jesus insists that our faith needs to be childlike. But what does that mean? Does that mean that we forgo the experiences, knowledge and wisdom that we’ve gained as we’ve grown up and aged into adulthood?

 

As we grow up and get promoted through life, there are strong incentives and pressures for us to put away our youthful instincts about how we should live and how the world ought to be. For instance, we fully accept as children the lessons of the parable of the Good Samaritan, but then as adults we live as if the lessons were abstract and figurative. But Jesus’ life shows us that his faith as an adult leader remains unchanged from his faith as a twelve year old. Join us for worship this week as we try to discover Jesus’ lifelong childlike faith in a community that just wants him to grow up and be the savior of the world.

  

I hope you’ll also join us this Sunday as we celebrate all those in our congregation who are graduating from their schools or achieving major milestones in their life. And I hope you help us bless them with the hope that their faith remains forever youthful.

Peace,

Rich

Sunday morning, I heard the preacher say

Thou shall not kill

I don't wanna hear nothing else about killing

And that it's God's will

'Cause our children are watching us

They put their trust in us

They're gonna be like us

So let's learn from our history

And do it differently

I hope, for more love, more joy and laughter

I hope, we'll have more than we'll ever need

I hope, we'll have more happy ever afters

I hope, we can all live more fearlessly

And we can lose all the pain and misery

I hope, I hope

Luke 2:41-50, The Message Bible 

Every year Jesus’ parents traveled to Jerusalem for the Feast of Passover. When he was twelve years old, they went up as they always did for the Feast. When it was over and they left for home, the child Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents didn’t know it. Thinking he was somewhere in the company of pilgrims, they journeyed for a whole day and then began looking for him among relatives and neighbors. When they didn’t find him, they went back to Jerusalem looking for him.

The next day they found him in the Temple seated among the teachers, listening to them and asking questions. The teachers were all quite taken with him, impressed with the sharpness of his answers. But his parents were not impressed; they were upset and hurt.

His mother said, “Young man, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been half out of our minds looking for you.”

He said, “Why were you looking for me? Didn’t you know that I had to be here, dealing with the things of my Father?” But they had no idea what he was talking about.