The Life Cycle of Faith: The Faith of a Child

Matthew 18:1-5

A few weeks ago, Wendy and I were having the most amazing time in Costa Rica, getting ready to go snorkeling. Along with several other couples we were in our bathing suits and life vests, anxiously listening to our guide’s instructions. We went into the water, and soon it got very stormy and scary! As we were trying to make our way toward the guide, we noticed there was a couple right on our heels--the one standing next to us during the orientation.  The woman told Wendy, "Oh yes, we're following you." We thought: okay, they're following us because we're the cool people. Then she said, "Your husband reminds me of my father. They have the same bathing suit."

Though I knew it in my bones, clearly we were not the young, cool couple in this group. And it made me consider how we are “maturing”, as we enter into our next phase of life. There are clearly physical elements to this. But there is another aspect I want to bring to you this morning, and in the next few weeks: how our faith changes as we move through the stages of life.

We begin with a childlike faith, in which the stories of the Bible — wise men from the East, a ladder to heaven, armies of angels, the parting of the Red Sea — are so powerfully real to us. Our imaginations are absolutely captured.

Then we become teenagers.

We push back on what our parents told us, and we ask the obvious questions: How was the earth created in six days, if there was no such thing as a day before the earth was made? How could an infinite God become a finite man? Of course, there are no easy answers to these questions. And so, along with our generally obstreperous nature as teenagers, we enter a similar phase in our faith.

Then, at some point — hopefully sooner rather than later (men are slower than women in this regard!) — we become responsible. We have careers, maybe children, and our faith reflects that same responsibility. We realize that for the church to work, we have to do some of the work: serve on a committee, give to the cause. Our faith takes on a practical edge. We want it to help us become better people, to do better in our careers, to rear our children more effectively — and we want our church to make a difference in the world, to make it a better place.

And then, at some point — and I think this is where my own faith is taking me now — we return to that childlike wonder, that childlike joy. But this time we don't do so naively. We do so with a deepened respect for the questions that are real, and a deeper realization that the power of faith, the power of hope, the power of beauty, is even more immense than we ever dreamed it could be when we were a child.

Over these next several weeks we're going to look at these phases of faith — the faith of a child, the faith of a teenager, the faith of an adult, and the faith of an elder. Hopefully through this journey you can better understand where your faith is now and perhaps you can move forward.

Today we begin our series with the faith of a child.

Jesus tells us a childlike faith is mandatory for knowing what the kingdom of heaven is truly like. The disciples are trying to determine from Jesus what will make their lives as important as they could possibly be — what they can do to be great, explicitly, great in the kingdom of heaven.  Jesus' answer confounds traditional wisdom. "Unless you become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."

Imagine Elon Musk telling his chief lieutenants or the President of the United States that to be great in this world, you must become like a little child. It just would not happen. To be understand Jesus admonition we will examine the characteristics of this faith.

a childlike faith is filled with trust

Children have several critical traits that dissolve as we age— and preeminent among them is trust. The child trusts the parent and so feels invincible. I remember when Liz and Matthew were little, and I was holding them — they would literally try to dive headfirst out of my hands, with such gusto and enthusiasm that I had to hold on tightly to keep them from breaking their heads open on the pavement. But they so trusted the safety and security of mom and dad that it wasn't even in their worldview that they could be hurt…as long as they were in their parents' arms.

So yes, young children struggle, and they fight back, they argue — but ultimately, they trust. The faith of a child is the faith of one who believes that God has the power to do all that God says. And trust leads to the next trait.

A childlike faith has a willing spirit

Children will try most anything!

When our daughter Liz was in second grade, she wrote a poem called "The Perfect Church":

A church can only be perfect with God. God is peace, glory, and strength. He is the Holy Spirit. He is God. Singing, dancing, praising God. He loves you and all you do. A church is a family. And if you are looking for a church to be a family with, North Church is the place for you.

She wrote this when I was a pastor in Buffalo at North Church and she truly did sing and dance and praise God at that church with the enthusiasm only a child can muster. It is the same type of endearing love that I see from your children. They run through the halls as if they own the place. They come down to the children's sermon with eager eyes and expectations. They stand up in front of the church in their robes and sing — eager, even hungry, to be a part of this worship. 

Now think about your own singing for a moment, and how it might compare to theirs. I imagine your self-consciousness gets in the way of pure praise. So if you want the faith of a child don't pull back your worship. Don't hold back your singing.  Sing as if you believe God is actually listening, as if God actually cares whether you sing not. And don’t hold back your prayers either. A child not only voices their joy but their frustrations with equal fervor! Like “Why is this sermon so long mom! Why are we having broccoli for the third time this week!” Be blunt “God why haven’t you fixed the middle east!” “God why do you allow that flood in Nepal.” “God why don’t you help us more.”  A child like faith is authentic and transparent.

A childlike faith is about receiving not achieving

The disciples wanted to know what they had to do to be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. In Mark, Jesus tells them it's not about achieving, but receiving: "Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall never enter it."

Later in Matthew, Jesus offers a prayer in which he discloses that folks like you and me are at a disadvantage. Jesus does tell us we are wise and understanding — but he goes on to say, "You have hidden these things from the wise and understanding, and revealed them to little children." We can ask questions of insight and wisdom: Did God actually part the Red Sea? How old is the earth? Did God create the world in the manner Genesis describes? These are questions of real intellectual curiosity, and they do have an impact on the nature of our faith. But they are also distractions, because the answers do not tell us what we think they do.  Renowned chaplain of Harvard Peter Gomes once said “I don’t do explanations I want it not to make sense!  This is not anti-intellectualism but it is an acknowledgment of the nature of God ultimately surpasses our capacity to understand. God is infinite and we are finite just as no human being could ever possibly grasp the vast scale of the universe so too even more we could never possibly grasp the vast grandeur of God.

A child does not confuse facts with truth. The child doesn't understand the facts, but knows the truth. The adult knows the facts, but misses the truth. And Jesus tells us it's not the facts, but the truth, that will set you free.

A childlike faith remains open

Though a childlike faith is essential it is not a rule God has invoked.  There is no guardian at the gate of the kingdom who says, "No, you can't go in here." Remember, Jesus told us the kingdom of heaven is right here, right at our fingertips — we don't have to go looking for it. But as long as we let cynicism and doubt dominate our worldview, we will never see it. That child, though — they're right in that kingdom already.  They can still experience the miracle and joy and thrill of this world!

It happens when the ice cream truck rings that bell as it drives through the neighborhood

It happens when you wake up on Christmas morning and believe that Santa has arrived

It happens when you go to Disneyland and see that Snow White and the Lion King are walking around!

As adults our tastes have changed but they are no less miraculous perhaps even more so because they’re 100% real.  The kingdom of God is looking in  your neighbor’s eyes and seeing the divine beauty of their soul. The kingdom of heaven is being able to listen to a piece of music and hear more than the notes — to hear the spirit that is singing them, to feel the complexity of the composer who put those notes together. The kingdom of heaven is being able to stop whatever you're doing, wherever you are —getting ready for bed, walking down Fifth Avenue, taking out the garbage — and to be awake while you're doing it. To see beyond the flat reality into the beauty of existence. It is to be able to say: wow — I live in an era of human history unlike any other. We've put people on the moon. We've gone to the bottom of the ocean. We've divided atoms. We can put our eye to a telescope and literally, factually, see a billion years into the past. We live in an era with airplanes, so we can see the Egyptian pyramids, which are five thousand years old. We can climb the Matterhorn and ski down it. We can float on the Snake River. We can visit Angkor Wat in Cambodia and walk on the Great Wall of China. Never in all of human history could so many people see so many parts of this planet. A childlike faith is one that never takes this for granted — that sees this incredible world, and these incredible people, through eyes of wonder, of mystery, of excitement.

It is time of reflection like these that I realize being a pastor is an incredible privilege. I get to walk with families in their hardest moments, and I get to be with them in many of their most joyous ones as well. I get to pray and preach and cook and visit, and I have to pinch myself to realize that I get to do this, in New York City, at Brick Church, and with you all.

A childlike faith always wants more

The Bible tells us to hunger for this. First Peter tells us: like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk. That pure spiritual milk is not a rare treat — it's available to any one of us, at any time.

So perhaps it's fitting that it took a stranger in Costa Rica, to wake me up,  to remind me of what my soul already knew: that growing up, in every sense God intends, is not about leaving childhood behind. It's about carrying its trust forward, deepened, into every stage that follows.

Wendy and I may not be the cool young couple in the group anymore. But that's alright — because Jesus isn't asking us to be cool. He's asking us to be small enough, and trusting enough, and awake enough, to receive a kingdom we could never earn. Amen.