Children of Security & Children of Want

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

The king said, “Divide the living boy in two; then give half to the one, and half to the other.”

1 Kings 3:25 NRSV

We’ve all seen the news footage of children in harm’s way. It’s easy to separate ourselves from that reality because our soccer fields are lush and green, tended by paid groundskeepers. The children arrive in matching colorful uniforms with smiling faces and all the safety equipment in place. They eat a healthy snack and a healthy meal and go to sleep in a clean, safe place. At least for many of us this is true.

The stark reality between children in harm’s way and children who know safety, security, nurture, and love are as life-depriving as dividing a child in half. 

As long as we live in a world where even one child goes without the basic necessities, where even one child cannot know peace and safety, the security of all will be precarious. Until we create a world devoted to the care and consideration of every child, no child can be certain their life will be free of needless suffering. For ours and theirs, we must seek to remove all harm which threatens the security of God’s children.

God of Peace, breathe a yearning to preserve and protect life into your world. Remove the seeds of hatred, greed, anger, malice, and distrust that have taken root in Eden. Cleanse the world of the choking darkness which seeks to overcome your light. Fill the cracks of division with forgiveness. Teach us to love as you love. Amen.

Rev. Tracy Parker

Associate Minister

First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

Paris, Kentucky

Our Shared Human Connectedness in Every Child

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

When she could hide him no longer she got a papyrus basket for him, and plastered it with bitumen and pitch; she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river. Exodus 2:3 NRSV

"Well, if that were my child..." 

You've heard folk say it, either with a sense of moral superiority, or in other cases with a sense of compassion, albeit detached from action. It wrongly assumes, however, that children are not the care and responsibility of us all.

Interestingly enough, the care of the babe Moses, the cunningness of his mother and sister, and even the fate of God's saving activity for the world, all hinge on the Pharaoh's daughter's ability to see within this foreign child her own human connectedness. She took pity on this child, just as Jesus took pity showing compassionate action in the lives of those he encountered.  

How we see the foreign child matters. In them we see ourselves, our future, and even God's salvific activity in the world.  "If that were my child..." might transform into compassionate, and even joyful acclamations of "that's my child!"

Grant us eyes to see and ears to hear, a heart to love and hands to serve with compassionate action. Adopted by your spirit, we embrace our Oneness with you and all your children. Amen.

Rev. Kenneth Hardway

First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

Wheeling, West Virginia 

Associate Regional Minister for Youth and Young Adults, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in West Virginia.

With the Wisdom of a Midwife

Monday, October 6, 2014

“When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, she shall live.” Exodus 1:16 NRSV

As a midwife, it was her job to bring life into the world, not destroy it.  So, one can imagine how horrifying it was for a midwife to hear it was her worldly duty to kill boy babies.

It was because of her call from God to cherish every child’s life, that she took her faith and used it to out-wit the king and lift up the people he was trying to destroy.  When the children we call “ours” are threatened and put in danger’s way, it is not our first instinct to protect with wit, but rather to protect with force.  Let us be reminded of the faith and wit of the midwives when the time comes to cherish and protect all of God’s children.

All Seeing God, we give you thanks for the examples of these wise women. May our first instinct always be to cherish and protect with wisdom, rather than anger and force. Amen.

Molly Goodrich

First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

Tyler, Texas

Uncomfortable Truths

Sunday, October 5, 2014

When the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the bushes. Genesis 21:15 NRSV

What was Hagar thinking to neglect her child!? Didn’t she care about Ishmael? Why didn’t she plan ahead as you or I would do? 

The rest of the story reveals the uncomfortable truth that Hagar had no choice. Hagar was a slave. Abram banished Hagar and Ishmael to the desert because of family jealousies. God opened Hagar’s eyes to see the life sustaining well that would save her son. 

God calls each of us to open our eyes to painful truths. Uninformed judgment has no place in God’s kingdom. 

God of Hope for Children in Harm’s Way, open our hearts to see more clearly the true nature of circumstances faced by too many of your children.  Guide our hands to provide life and hope. As your faithful people, all children are our children. Amen.

Jenny Tripses

First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

Peoria, Illinois

For a Child-Deep Prayer

October 4, 2014

In the depths of who I am I rejoice in God my savior. Luke 1:47 CEB (1)

Shrek: Ogres are like onions.

Donkey: They stink? 

Shrek: Yes… NO! Layers. Onions have layers. Ogres have layers.

We mistake them as shallow, silly, simple but children have layers, too. Children have depths adults ignore. Be present with a child, listen to hear the struggles, quandaries, longings, rages, and compassions, and the layers peel away. Deeper and deeper they go. 

A child’s inner prayer life is rich with suffering, wonder, doubt, fear, hope, and joy. Mary was a child herself. Yet her prayer — from the depths of her being — is among our best-treasured expressions of faith and trust in God. 

Into the vesper still and hush, a soprano drops her jaw and dares to sing, Magnificat anima mea. The prayer of a girl called by God, coming of age, who feels in her innermost being the awe of her calling and the fullness of her joy.

God, give me the prayer life of a child, for her honesty, depth, complexity, and power. In the depths of who I am, I rejoice in you, my savior. Amen.

David Cobb

Spirit of Joy Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

Lakeville, Minnesota

____

(1) Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible

Seeing What They See

Friday, October 3, 2014

The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. Isaiah 11:6 NRSV

My son is obsessed with trains.  This is heightened by the train tracks that run beside our house. When the train comes by he grabs my hand, and compels me to carry him outside to watch it.  

“Train, go faster,” he says gleefully.  

Before Zach I never really gave trains much thought.  Now, they are a sign of wonder and joy.  Even when alone, I now run to look at the train as it speeds by. This is what a child does. Children lead us to what we might otherwise dismiss.  

I wonder what would happen if we allowed ourselves to be led by a child toward the vision of the Kingdom of God? Children already see and desperately want us to experience the Kingdom with them. 

God, give us the eyes of children.  Allow us to see what they see. Give us the grace and humility to run with joy towards the vision that you have granted them. In Jesus Name, Amen.

Rev. Aaron Todd

Minister of Education

First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

Midwest City, Oklahoma

A Child Is Born

October 2, 2014

For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:6

When I gaze upon the thousands of unaccompanied children from Central America amassing along our southern border, I do not see threatening faces of terror nor disease-ridden bodies carrying pestilence.   

I see hope in the face of discouragement and promise in the face of impossibility. In their faces, I see the face of my ancestors, themselves immigrants, who came here seeking a better life. This story of children seeking refuge from chaos is something we all know something about. 

When I think about these children, I think about another child, born into poverty. His family was marginalized to the point of sleeping in cattle’s quarters. I think about his family as they were forced to flee their homeland out of the threat of violence that comes with despotic rulers. I think about the holy family and Jesus, the Christ child.

Maybe our job as Christians is to be the face of love that meets the fears of these children. Maybe our job is to embrace them, as Mary embraced Jesus in that cold cave long ago? Maybe our job is to nurture them, to love them and to care for them as if they were God's own.  Because, in the end, that is who they are, preciously beloved children of God in whom God is well pleased.  

Gracious and loving God, you poured yourself out and into the world that we might care for you. Allow us to care for you through your children now. Amen.

Rev. Kurt A Walker

Faith United Church of Christ

Indianapolis, Indiana