1 Samuel 2:18-20, 26 (first published 28 Dec 2003)
Proverbs 22:6 says that if you raise children in the
right ways, when they are old they will not depart from those ways. Some
people make the mistake of believing that this verse is a hard and fast
rule, rather than a general principle. I've even heard misguided Bible
teachers use this verse to prove that, because a child has departed from
the right way, the parents must not have raised that child properly to
begin with. Such a misapplication of the Bible only underscores the
teacher's failure to understand both the nature of the Bible in general
and of proverbial material in particular. Training children to trust God,
to spend time in prayer, and to treat others the way they would want to be
treated is vitally important, and even if the child rebels at a certain
age, as many do, the good teachings of youth will usually bring that child
back to his or her spiritual and moral moorings at some point. Samuel was
a child who served in the Shiloh temple from a very early age. He was
raised by Eli the priest, and he participated in the worship that went on
in the temple, even prior to his first personal encounter with God
(described in 1 Samuel 3). The biblical text portrays Samuel as a man who
continued to be faithful to God all his life, serving as prophet, priest,
and judge, and ultimately anointing Israel's first two kings. While one
might reject the idea of his parents leaving their young son in the care
of religious authorities rather than raising him themselves, one must
remember the cultural differences between that time and ours, including
the commitment that was implied when one made a vow to God. We certainly
can't argue with the results. Samuel was raised by a godly man, Eli, and
he was initiated into the formalities of worship while he was still young.
The Roman Catholic Church for years has used altar boys--and now altar
girls--as assistants to the priests during mass, a practice that too few
Protestants have imitated successfully. Church leaders need to include
children in their services on a regular basis, not just at Christmas time
or when the children's choir sings. Both liturgical and non-liturgical
churches can figure out ways to include children and teenagers into their
services: reading scripture, taking up the offering, lighting candles,
distributing bulletins or fliers, playing musical instruments, or
assisting adults in other ways. I read a story in today's paper that said
that Japanese churches were having a hard time keeping young people
interested in Christianity--and the problem is hardly exclusive to Japan.
If we don't figure out ways to integrate our children into the church
today, we are in danger of losing them tomorrow.
Psalm 148 (first published 9 May
2004)
The May 2004 issue of Scientific American contains an article
that proposes that the earliest point in time might not have been the Big
Bang some 13 to 15 billion years ago. The author suggests that string
theory provides an alternative history of the universe, one that goes back
beyond the Big Bang in possibly measurable ways. As science expands our
knowledge of the universe, exhortations to the natural world to praise God
may seem quaint to some people. Where are the heavens, where the angels
dwell? Where are the highest heavens, which contain the sun, moon, and
starts? Where are the waters above the heavens? What do we in the modern
world mean when we talk about God as creator? It is true that many have
abandoned the idea of God, preferring to think of a universe based
entirely on measurable scientific principles and observable data. A
corollary of abandoning the idea of God is that the world no longer has
any real meaning; it only has meaning that humans may arbitrarily assign
to it. Other modern inhabitants of the world reject scientific principles
such as the Big Bang theory and evolution, believing them to be
contradictory to belief in God. These are not stupid people, any more
than Galileo's antagonists, who refused to believe that the earth revolved
around the sun, were stupid. The problem is not that they don't
understand science; many don't, though the same can be said of many
believers who accept the findings of modern science. No, the real problem
is that they don't understand God. I believe in the scientific principle
that has given rise in the past century and a half to theories such as
evolution, general relativity, quantum mechanics, and the Big Bang. I
also believe in a God who somehow exists beyond the universe yet at the
same time infuses the universe. My idea of God may not be the same as
that of my more conservative brothers and sisters, but it is just as real.
I don't reject scientific theories because they conflict with my theology.
Instead, I hold a theology that is big enough to embrace science--all
fields of science, whether biology, cosmology, physics, or whatever other
area--while at the same time continuing to accept the existence, indeed
the praiseworthiness, of God. When many Christians during the Middle Ages
were wallowing in ignorance, Muslims were making great strides in
mathematics and science, yet they continued to hold a strong belief in
God. Modern Christians can be full citizens of the scientific, postmodern
world, while at the same time joining with our Muslim neighbors in
proclaiming Allahu Akhbar: God is great! We can also join the psalmist
the psalmist, who says, "Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his
name alone is exalted; his glory is above earth and heaven"
Colossians 3:12-17 (first published 28
December 2003)
When my wife and I first got married, we occasionally saw couples at the mall or the amusement park holding a leash attached to their young child. We usually laughed when we saw it, imagining that the parents of these children either weren't paying enough attention to their children or weren't raising them to be obedient enough. Then we had kids of our own. Our first daughter never required a leash--we had sworn to ourselves that we would never use such a barbaric instrument on our children, but the second was a different story. She was forever wandering off to explore strange surroundings, no matter how hard we tried to keep our eyes on her. Even when we had more adults than children in our group she would manage to slip away to look at whatever caught her attention. Finally we gave in and bought a leash for her. It had a long, flexible cord, and attached to a harness around her chest that was not uncomfortable. We didn't use it often, but on those occasions when we were in crowded, unfamiliar places, we sometimes broke it out and used it to keep her on a short leash, so to speak. We no longer use the leash, but as an adolescent she's still a wanderer from time to time, so we use the electronic equivalent of a leash, a cell phone. Based on the only story in the gospels that describes a scene from Jesus' childhood, Jesus' parents could have used a leash or a cell phone as well. After a visit to Jerusalem, Jesus parents turned around on the journey home and realized that they had lost him. Retracing their steps, they finally found him three days later in the temple, talking with the teachers. Despite their relief at finding him, I imagine that Jesus' parents were pretty annoyed with him, to say the least. "How could you do this to us?" they might have asked. "Don't you know we were worried sick?" Jesus' response was typical for an adolescent: he was incredulous. "How could you not know where I was?" he replied. Modern Christians tend to get sidetracked by his next comment, "Didn't you know that I had to be about my Father's business?" because it shifts the focus away from Jesus as a boy to Jesus as the incarnate Christ (or Luke's equivalent, the Spirit-led Christ). Laying aside that part of Jesus' answer, however, we can find an application that is relevant for our children today. It's important to note that Jesus wasn't doing anything bad. He wasn't joyriding on stolen donkeys, he wasn't running wild in the streets, and he wasn't breaking the glass out of the temple's windows. He had seen something that interested him, and he was exploring it. An inability to understand a parent's concern is par for the course for most adolescents. As parents and other leaders of children, we need to learn to allow children to explore their interests in a safe, structured way. Sometimes those interests will fade with time, as new interests arise. At some point, however, our children will latch onto something that truly captivates them, perhaps something that will shape the course of the rest of their lives. Sometimes we need to keep our children on a short leash, particularly when they're young, but as they get older, we need to give them more slack and allow them--even encourage them--to discover their passion. Childhood is a preparation for adulthood, and children whose imaginations are not stimulated will often grow to be adults with little imagination. We hardly need more adults like that!