Let the Noise Begin

I am reading Matthew today.

21:14-16: People who were blind and lame came to Jesus in the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and legal experts saw the amazing things he was doing and the children shouting in the temple, "Hosanna to the Son of David!" they were angry. They said to Jesus, "Do you hear what these children are saying?" "Yes," he answered. "Haven't you ever read, From the mouths of babies and infants you've arranged praise for yourself?" (CEB, Common English Bible)

What occurred to me from today's reading was a thought about people who complain about the presence of children in worship. That is, they complain about the noise, the movement, the distraction. They would rather segregate the children in a safe, soundproof area where they can learn to play act church. (And then we wonder why they aren't interested in 'real' church later on.)

But more important than the sociological and development issues, is the bold assertion (in so many words) that children get God better than we adults do. "From the mouths of babies and infants you've arranged praise for yourself." Wow!

Jesus has already called out the disciples on this when they asked him who was the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. With a child in their midst he said, "I assure you that if you don't turn your lives around and become like this little child, you will definitely not enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 18:1-3, CEB)

Every time we have the audacity to think that we have God all figured out, that we know what God wants from us and through us for God's self and God's people, God pulls the rug out from under us. Perhaps we have got it wrong that God only wants soft organ interludes, Bach chorales, five-stanza, four-part hymns, and well-intoned sermons and intellectual prayers. Or that God only wants songs from the American gospel tradition and off-the-cuff prayers where every fifth word is 'Lord.' or that God only listens to praise choruses and watches YouTube clips.

Perhaps what God really wants is a rambunctious spirit, an ebullient praise-speaking mouth, a joy-filled heart. After all, if God wasn't interested in the child in all of us, God's son wouldn't have come to us as a child in a manger.