Dependent Thinking

[00:00:00] In the name of jesus. [00:00:03] Amen. [00:00:08] Well, do you remember learning to ride a bike? [00:00:13] Or how about. Do you remember learning how to catch a ball? [00:00:22] Now, this is all part of becoming, right? [00:00:26] Growing up into, well, the world we live in. How about being able to hit a baseball or a softball or making a basket? First time I made it, you know, something changed in our muscular structure. We were able to get it way up there. [00:00:50] Or how about learning to drive a car? [00:00:57] All of those firsts. Maybe later on today you can discuss with somebody else some of the firsts that you remember and how meaningful they really were. [00:01:11] It's because those were moments of independence and learning and freedom. I can do it myself and I can do my own thing. [00:01:25] And those wheels on that bicycle, I know in my case, they took me places. My red Flyer. I could ride my bicycle down the hills and get myself an ice cream. [00:01:39] Then I had to pedal back up the hills without dumping my ice cream. [00:01:46] Well, all of those memories, all part of growing up in common thinking. [00:01:53] The phase of life we call childhood, well, it's something that you pass through. [00:02:00] St. Paul even reminded us of this when he said in First Corinthians 13, he wrote, When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. [00:02:10] But when I became a man, I gave up childish ways. [00:02:18] Now the lesson today we hear Jesus tell us that to become like a child is something to attain a place you want to hang on to. [00:02:34] So right off the bat, I think I better make sure we understand the difference between what Paul calls childish and what we're going to talk about as childlike. Childish is, well, silliness, foolishness, pretentiousness, sometimes even impudence. [00:02:56] That's childish. [00:02:59] But childlike, what words would you use about innocent or trusting or full of wonder? [00:03:15] In common thinking, children need to be taught to become adults. [00:03:19] But for Jesus, adults need to be taught to become like children. [00:03:26] In common thinking, children grow up to become something great. [00:03:30] But for Jesus, well, greatness is being like a child. [00:03:37] Because being like a child with Jesus has nothing to do with chronological age or if you've been a Christian your whole life or how many Bible verses you've memorized, or if you're just beginning your life of faith. [00:03:50] For Jesus, becoming childlike is very important, regardless of whether you're a pastor or a parishioner, whether you're a leader or a learner. And so this the disciples question today, who's greatest in the kingdom of heaven shows us that they're not thinking like Jesus thinks or seeing the way Jesus sees, look what he does. [00:04:14] He takes hold of a child, children who always seem to be around. And he stands that child right in the midst of the disciples. And he says, you want to know what greatness looks like? [00:04:26] Here you go. [00:04:28] Greatness. [00:04:30] Become like this child. [00:04:32] And if you don't, you will never, ever, not even in a million tries, enter the kingdom of heaven. [00:04:44] Those are pretty strong words. [00:04:48] And maybe we're a little bit like the disciples who had to be standing there sort of blinking and wondering, what is Jesus getting at here? But you know that's Jesus, right? Always pushing, always challenging what and how we think. [00:05:09] Well, the disciples asked a childish question, but Jesus gave them a childlike answer. [00:05:18] The disciples really asked foolish question. And Jesus gave them a faith answer, because that's what we're really talking about today. [00:05:28] This passage is about faith. [00:05:32] Because to be a child, as Jesus calls for here, means to be dependent, dependent, dependent upon your Father in heaven, just like a child is dependent, dependent upon our heavenly Father for everything your needs, your wants, your identity, your need to be rescued, dependent upon him to protect you from your enemies. [00:05:56] It means to acknowledge that you are in fact utterly dependent upon Christ and his provision. [00:06:05] It means to learn to see yourself as weak and vulnerable. [00:06:14] That's being a child in Jesus view. [00:06:18] And by now I'm certain that you can see how that very thought runs counter to our culture today, doesn't it? [00:06:31] Because no matter how high or learned or powerful you may be in your own eyes, or in the eyes of the world for that matter, none of it matters when it comes to the the kingdom of heaven. In the kingdom of heaven, greatness is quite different. In the kingdom of heaven, greatness is to be among those whom Christ serves and to see others and serve others in the same way that Christ serves others. [00:06:57] By the way, how did Jesus serve? [00:07:01] Well, he taught, he healed, he fed people, he washed feet, he forgave, he built belonging and love and wisdom and faith and purpose into the lives of people. [00:07:19] Is that any different today? [00:07:22] Doesn't he serve that way today? [00:07:26] It's a non communion Sunday, but word and sacrament that happens here is one great example of Jesus serving us because we are needy people, people. [00:07:41] So when you see a fellow disciple who's struggling or hurting or alone or in desperate need, at that moment you are seeing the one who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. [00:07:52] And to receive such a one is to receive Jesus himself. [00:07:57] Let me say that again. To receive such a one who is needy is to receive Jesus Himself. [00:08:05] Huge words, life changing words if you take them seriously. Because if we think like the disciples we're thinking today, the one who is struggling or hurting or alone or in desperate need needs to grow up and become strong and useful and a really good Christian. Someone like me. [00:08:24] Or we make the opposite mistake and think we need to grow up and not struggle so much and not be so needy all the time and need to be a better Christian so we can be great also kind of like me. [00:08:43] That's not the way Jesus thinks. [00:08:47] Suddenly this whole text that I said is about faith is happening because of learning to think dependently. [00:08:59] Let me give you an example. [00:09:02] How often do you just brush off your sinful thoughts or words or deeds or desires and not even think about how it might impact others if you were paying attention? Jesus says to that kind of thinking, whoa. He says, woe to you and me. Our sin is much more serious than we think. So serious in fact, that it would be better. [00:09:24] Better, he said, to put on cement boots and go swimming. [00:09:29] Better to hack off our hands or pluck out an eye than to be thrown into the hell of fire. Now we know that's hyperbolic speech, right? [00:09:41] Jesus is not commanding literal cutting off of members, but he is urging us to look carefully, being willing to seriously consider our sin with childlike faith, with dependent faith, with needy faith. [00:10:07] How do those go together? Or let me ask it this way. Does your sin call you to depend upon Christ? [00:10:25] As one lady I visited once upon a time and was getting ready to serve communion said to me, I really don't think I sin very much. [00:10:37] Does your sin call you to depend upon Christ? [00:10:42] Do you care enough another example to go after someone who is at risk here in our community or in your family? Or are you just happy that you don't have to put up with their troubles? [00:10:54] Do you care enough to confront a brother or a sister who's caught up in some sin? Or are they not worthy of the time and the effort and prayers of us great ones who stuck it out and haven't wandered away from the 100 and who are so dedicated and giving and faithful? [00:11:13] Jesus, well, he's speaking a whole new kind of ugly here, isn't he? A whole new kind of wrong thinking. [00:11:22] I'll ask it this way. Is belonging to a church that is stepping out in faith greater to you than one that has a balanced budget, no activity whatsoever, which is greater in Jesus view of the kingdom of heaven? [00:11:42] Well, it's good for us then to ask, as the disciples did, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And to look with new eyes at the one that might be coming to holy baptism. Maybe an adult who is filled with sin, or a newborn baby that was born in sin. That one is the greatest. [00:12:04] Or how about that person sitting in the pew struggling with sin, Maybe tears in their eyes of unworthiness, not even able to look at you when you speak to him or her because they're too ashamed. That one is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Or how about the one that can't catch a break? Or who has no one to talk to or has no apparent friends. [00:12:25] That one is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. [00:12:32] Or do you see that person who is no longer physically able to come to church? Or that little one struggling to speak and learn the words of the Lord's Prayer? Do you see that person who has come back to church after being gone so long? [00:12:47] That one is greatest in the kingdom. [00:12:53] Or how about the one at the communion rail that offended you once upon a time? [00:13:02] That one receiving the body and blood of Jesus and the forgiveness of their sins. [00:13:09] That one is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. [00:13:16] Or look at that one who came and gave his hands and his feet to be nailed to a cross in your place. [00:13:28] That one who took a millstone that you deserve and put it around his own neck. That one who was cast into the hell of fire on the cross for. For you in your place. Do you see that one who was hacked and plucked and drowned in your place? [00:13:44] Because that is the child that the Father sent his beloved Son. [00:13:53] That one is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. [00:14:00] Boy, there's an understatement if ever there was one. [00:14:04] The child in the midst of us is the very Son of God. [00:14:14] The child we will, let's say it this way, the child whose birth we will celebrate in just a little over three months. [00:14:27] The child whose birth we will gather round in awe and wonder and praise along with the angels. Do you see his humility? [00:14:38] Do you see his dependence upon the Father? [00:14:43] Because he really is in the midst of us, not just in some mystical way. He really is here in very body and blood, in the teaching and the preaching and the hearing of His Word given to you here in the midst of your sin and in your mess. But he is not ashamed of you. [00:15:02] He's not ashamed to give himself to you. He is not ashamed to forgive you. He is not ashamed to give you life over and over again. [00:15:19] Need I say he's happy you're here not because of your accomplishments, not because the alarm went off at the right time, and you got yourself going. [00:15:29] But because you are his little one, which makes you great. [00:15:37] The greatest. [00:15:39] For in the end, greatness is not what you do, but it's who you are by faith. Greatness is measured in dependence, not independence. You need to believe it. I want you to believe it. You are the child Jesus set in his midst. [00:15:56] Oh, and according to today's text, he gathers two or three more around, including himself, to answer our prayers. [00:16:04] Another reason why we gather together here on Sunday mornings. [00:16:11] One of my best childhood memories is that I got to teach little Mikey next door how to ride a bicycle. [00:16:23] And then my younger sister, who was six years younger than me, got to teach both of them how to ride a bicycle. And then my granddaughter, Little Bit, we call her, got to teach her how to ride a bicycle. Now it's all about physics, right? [00:16:42] Learning to ride a bicycle. [00:16:44] You know, I'm going to do a really scientific statement here. [00:16:50] Turn in the direction you're falling. [00:16:54] It's just applied physics.