One of the major challenges of today, especially faced by our children, is the reclaiming of the Good News of the Gospel, and promoting a more accurate public picture of people of faith.
The other related challenge is that we can no longer assume that our culture at large will support, much less promote, active participation in faith communities. We can no longer expect children to learn Christmas carols by listening to the radio. We can no longer expect there to be no conflict between participating in school activities and church participation. There is no longer any time or day society reserves for the sacred. Indeed, many are suspicious of all our intentions.
Meeting these formidable challenges is precisely the role of Christian education in the early 21st century. Adults need to be weaned from any false assumptions that were probably true for their parents, and both adults and children need the tools to refute false impressions and to deal in a positive and non-defensive manner with some measure of prevailing indifference, if not hostility, for their beliefs.
In the Gospel this morning, Jesus focused the disciples on providing a healing ministry to the lost and dispirited within his own culture. The restriction to only go to the lost of their own people is without parallel in the Gospels. It is clear that Jesus never meant to restrict the Gospel. Perhaps Matthew who added this particular statement wanted to reflect a reasonable historical progression and that the newly formed band of disciples were sent on their first mission to build up the community they were born into so that in the times that would follow, there would be a foundation for many others. Perhaps Matthew wanted to remind later Christians that we have to take care of our families and ourselves if we are to consistently minister to others and be like leaven in larger society. Nevertheless, it was compassion, not judgment, that motivated Jesus, and his message was good news, not one filled with threats or underlying restrictions on God's grace. The previous healing of a woman whose hemorrhage would have caused twelve years of separation from everyone else and made her suffering virtually invisible to her own community, showed Jesus' intention. Jesus sent his disciples to reconcile and bring back together, not to separate and condemn.
Christian education helps us learn that faith is primarily about developing a comprehensive relationship with God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and not strictly about an allegiance to someone's set of rules or politics. Just as a good diet of food promotes healthy growth of our bodies and offers some protection against disease, a vigorous education program deepens the roots of our spiritual life and offers some protection against destructive and manipulative forms of spirituality. A healthy Christian faith widens our vision, not narrows it.
This Sunday we will recognize our Sunday School teachers, nursery care providers, mentors of our class for adults who are specially challenged, and our children's chapel worship leaders, not as an afterthought, but to lift up to all of us a critical role. Our children will not grow up with a healthy relationship with a loving God unless we feed it, unless investment in their education is a priority. We, too, in some way need fertilizer, some sort of miracle grow, so that we may continue as consistent and strong models of faith in a world of skepticism. At any age, disciples are expected to both walk the walk and talk the talk of faith.
I suppose in once sense our ministry of Christian education is more like the foundation than the icing on the cake. While we all enjoy the icing, if there wasn't a good cake underneath there would be nothing to put the icing on. That is why as a symbol of the important and crucial role our teachers have played, we are presenting each of them with a decorated cake. As we take this opportunity to thank them, they certainly deserve to enjoy the icing.
And
I offer this to you in the name of the Living God, Amen.
