Today we rejoice that God has blessed the community with children. Different faith traditions around the globe observe "Children’s Sabbath," as a way of highlighting the importance of children, and to remind us, also, of the plight of so many of the children of the world, who suffer from war, natural disasters, lack of access to basic health care, malnutrition and hunger.

The concept of a "Children’s Sabbath" would have been the last thing on the minds of the people among the crowds, who surrounded Jesus. Children were considered a family asset, to be used to enhance the family’s social standing and wealth, but they were accorded only the lowest place in the hierarchy of an ancient society. In fact, they were considered dispensable due to early childhood deaths and the practice of producing very large families.

If anything, we in America have reversed the place of children in our society, at least the place of our own children. Instead of being lowest on the social scale, children’s schedules often take priority over that of their parents.

Today’s sermon considers what the appropriate place of children is in the church.

He said that the next king’s rule would be so faithful to God that even children would be able to lead others. Surely, his image of a child leading others is idealistic. But, one of the things he must have had in mind was the innocence of children. The society under the new king would be so just that the most innocent among the people, that is, the children, would be able to lead.

The setting for Isaiah’s prophecy was a time in Israel’s history, when the people were almost despairing for God’s delivery by means of an exemplary new king. Society was anything but innocent. And so, the image of an innocent child represented a state of being totally different from historical reality. Nevertheless, the use of the child as a leader was representative of the hope of the people for a more just society, one where children’s innocence would be admired, rather than taken advantage of.

The question that was put to Jesus was about who would be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. The issue was one of rank and order. It calls to mind what we have already said about the lowly place of children in ancient societies. It was to this question that Jesus responded with the example of the lowly child. Picking up a child, he states, "Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."

Such humility is the subject of the great Philippian hymn about Jesus, himself. "Though he was in the form of God, he did count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant. And, he humbled himself and became obedient even unto death on a cross."

This teaching of Jesus is profoundly radical for us in our modern day world, when we watch the faces of children, whose lives have been shattered by political rivalry in the Dafur region of The Sudan, or the faces of children in the long lines at the Superdome in New Orleans during the ravages of Hurricane Katrina, or the faces of children running away from suicide bombings and gunfire between soldiers and terrorists in Iraq, or most recently the faces of Pakistani children left orphans from the catastrophic earthquake of two weeks ago. The virtue of humility requires from us an attitude of service to these very ones. Jesus said in this very same account, "Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me."

We have to go to Mark and Luke for yet another virtue revealed in Jesus’ attitude toward children.

Unlike Matthew, the writers of these other two Gospels point to a different lesson, when they tell of Jesus’ encounter with children. In their accounts of Jesus asking that the children be allowed to come to him, Jesus says, "Truly, I tell you whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child shall not receive it, or enter it." (Mark 10:15 and Luke 18:17)

Here the virtue is one of trust, or faith like that of a child. As a child, loved genuinely by her parents, trusts them without a doubt, so must we have faith in the goodness and love of God in order to live in a reconciled relationship with God and with our neighbors.

I once heard Tom Long, professor or worship at Candler School of Theology at Emory University state that the place of children in the church must surely be in congregational worship, not in a nursery or children’s church somewhere else in the building. Dr. Long spoke romantically about having gone to a small church, when he was a child, and remembering how the windows were opened. Babies were nursed by their mothers, and toddlers were kept close to their parents’ sides.

Honestly, I have wondered, upon reflection on that story, if the reason the children were all in worship was because that small little church probably did not have nursery, or even another room where children could go for children’s worship.

Children at our church often leave during the hymn immediately before the sermon for children’s Bible time. On occasions they stay, as they have on this "Children’s Sabbath." The matter of their place in worship is only one aspect of the place of children in the church, however. Opinions vary about worship, but opinions do not vary, when it comes to the promises we make, when we baptize a child. We promise that we will do all within our power to assist the child’s parents to raise the child to know the love of God in Jesus Christ.

I invite us to take that vow to heart on this "Children’s Sabbath" because as a sacred promise it commits us to focus our attention and energies on the children of the church, specifically on their formation into persons who will believe and act like they are children of God. We are the ones who have promised to help them develop a healthy self-image, one that can be positive about gifts that God has given, while learning to be humble in relating to their peers. We are the ones, who must speak about justice, and model right behavior. We are the ones, to whom the little ones will look to see innocence in a world that is so guilty of greed and selfish pursuits that walk over the rights of others. We are the ones, to whom they will look for examples of people who are learning to trust God, to have faith in God’s everlasting commitment to us.

There are many questions and many answers to what the place of children in the church is, but all of them take their cue from the Bible lessons of today. Let’s be patient with one another, as we negotiate the most helpful ways to create the appropriate places in the church for our children. As followers of Jesus, we must take him and a prophet he often quoted, Isaiah, as our examples.

To God alone be the glory now and forever. Amen.