The Art Linkletter Show!

Mark 10:13-16

           There was a show many years ago called the Art Linkletter Show. I really don't know what his claim to fame was but he had his own show. One of the hallmarks of his show was when he sat down with children and had a conversation. Children say the most honest and amazing things.  It was enlightening, funny and entertaining. There is that simplicity and honesty about children that makes them adorable. Their innocence, their generosity.

           Jesus was (and still is ) revolutionary. Lesson after lesson spoke of inclusion, forgiveness, brotherhood, and a disdain for laws or religious rules that really hold people back from expressing their love for God and each other. Jesus was a social activist, speaking to women, consorting with tax collectors, healing Romans who were the occupiers after all, dining with sinners and prostitutes.  He was a rebel. When asked what the greatest commandment was he condensed them down to two simple commandments and that is what we should work with. Two simple commandments on which any law is based. 

        Two simple commandments like the simplicity of a child's love. A child's love is simple. A child's love is given freely. A child's energy is boundless and filled with anticipation and possibility. When you think of all these characteristics and perhaps a few more that you can think of, isn't this what our faith should be like?

        Our faith is not meant to be mired in rules and rubrics.  Our faith is not to be restricted by laws and lamentations of how bad other people are. Are faith should be as simple and loving as a child.  Dependent on the Parent, full of love, generosity, boundless energy and endless possibilities.   

People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, ‘Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.’ And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.