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All God's Children Rejoice: The Child in You - Mark 10: 13-16

My Dad makes the best scarecrow,' said the little boy. 'It was so scary, it kept the crows away all summer.' 'Not as good as my Dad,' one-upped his buddy. 'My Dad's scarecrow kept the crows out of his field, and all the neighbors' fields, too.' 'That's nothing',' said the third boy. 'My Dad's scarecrow was so good, the crows brought back all the corn from last year."

            This is the time of year that everybody is thinking about the year before - what's gone well, what we wish we could take back, whether we're going in the right direction. Unfortunately, the crows can't bring back last year's com. The past is done, and can't be retrieved or relived. But we can learn the lessons of the past, and look forward to the unknown future that lies ahead. As someone said, "You can't turn back the clock, but you can wind it up again." May this be a time when we rewind our siritual clocks.

           New Years' Day is a day that fits in perfectly with Christian spirituality, because Christian life is all about putting the past behind, and entering God's new day. Hundreds of years before Christ, God declared through the prophet Isaiah, "Behold, I make all things new." And that promise is declared again and again in scripture. For many centuries, March 25, instead of January 1, was celebrated as New Years' Day by the church. It was nine months before Christmas, the day when Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit. That day, according to our faith, was the beginning of a whole new era of salvation in the world - a new start for all of us. That's what Christ does for us.

             I've been talking about children over this holiday season. One Sunday I talked about the children in our church, and the way they refresh our lives together, and bring us so much wisdom and joy. Then I talked about children around the world, and the extremely difficult lot of so many of them. Then last week I talked about the Christ-child, and the amazing phenomenon that God would choose to bring salvation into this world through a little child born in a manger.

            Today I want to talk about the child in each of us. For this surely is who God is reaching out to today. We know the story from the Bible very well. People were bringing children to Jesus so that he could touch them and bless them. Some of his adult companions felt that this was not an activity worthy of their leader, and they tried to keep the children away. But Jesus saw this as a teachable moment - he pointed to the child, and he said that only those who become as a little child will enter the kingdom of heaven.

             And so we look to a new beginning with childlike faith. On this adult journey of life, we pick up so much stuff - we pick up discouragements and broken dreams, regrets and disillusionments, worries and fears. After a while, life just gets heavy and weighed down. This, of course, is especially true if 2006 was a year of personal loss for you - loss of a loved one, loss of a job, a friend, a home. But all of us lose something of our hopes and dreams as time goes on, and the hard knocks narrow things down on us.

             That's when Jesus invites us to rediscover our childhood - to be born anew, and to take a fresh look into the new year. To rediscover innocence and wonder, and a sense of play and joy and trust. To lay down the heaviness of adulthood, and take up the lightness of childhood.

             For the past few years, our way of responding to that invitation from Jesus has been to reaffirm our baptism vows on the last Sunday of the year. It is a fitting thing to do, because baptism is the sacrament of new beginnings in the Christian life. It is often associated with children - the tradition of receiving your name, of being presented as a child to join the church family. The water signifies the washing away of the old stuff, and emerging clean and fresh and held in the arms of God. When Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, the voice from heaven said, "This is my beloved child." And as we follow his example, we also believe that God is claiming us as his own unique and beloved child - calling us by our unique name; celebrating us as a proud parent; holding us the same way Jesus held and blessed the little children long ago.

             I believe this is an act of affirmation beyond anything else that can happen to us in this world. I believe it is the highest compliment we will ever be paid, the greatest gift we will ever be given - to know that we are claimed by God as a beloved child - each of us, in our uniqueness and our particular personality. I ran across a reading that I believe captures it beautifully - I change the pronouns, but keep everything else the same:

             You are special. In all the world, there is nobody like you. Since the beginning of time, there has never been another person like you. Nobody has your smile, nobody has your eyes, your nose, your hair, your hands, your voice. You're special.

             No one can be found who has your hand writing. Nobody has your tastes - for food or music or art. No one sees things just as you do. In all of time there has been no one who laughs like you, no one who cries like you. And, what makes you laugh and cry will never provoke identical laughter and tears from anyone else, ever. No one reacts to any situation just as you would react.

             You're the only one in all of creation who has your set of abilities. Oh, there will always be someone who's better at one of the things you're good at, but no one in the universe can reach the quality of your combination of talents, ideas, abilities, and feelings. Like a room full of musical instruments, some may excel alone, but none can match the symphony when all are played together. You are a symphony.

             Through all eternity, no one will ever look, talk, walk, think or do like you. You are rare, and, as in all rarity, there is great value. Because of your rare value, you need not attempt to imitate others. You can accept - yes, celebrate - your differences.

             (Surely) it's no accident that you are special. (Surely) God made you for a very special purpose. God must have a job for you to do, that no one else can do as well as you. Out of the billions of applicants, only one is qualified, only one has the right combination of what it takes. And that one is you, God's special child.

             This is the affirmation you carry into the new year. To realize that you are God's specially made, unique child. To accept God's invitation to put aside all the heaviness you've been carrying around with you. To repent of past sins; to lay your grief on his shoulders, to reemerge out of broken dreams, to learn from our regrets and move on. We can't turn back the clock; but God can rewind it, and allow us to walk into this next year with the best of both worlds. On the one hand, we are reborn with childlike joy and trust; on the other hand, we have one more year's experiences and reflections to learn from. Another wonderful aspect of God's invitation is that it may very well invite us to an ideal of childhood that is even better than before. The reality of childhood may not have been a very happy one for many; children live through some pretty bad stuff, and that may be true for some of you. Maybe you are one of those of whom it can be said that you never had a chance to be a child. If so, then God's invitation may be especially for you. Maybe this is an invitation for you to experience a freedom and peace you never were allowed to experience before. It's a new year; a new chapter; a new start with God.

             So let this water be a powerful symbol today. It represents the washing of our souls from the dirt and grime of the road. It represents being plunged into the river of salvation - or, as the apostle Paul describes baptism - dying with Christ, so that we can be raised up with Christ as new people. It represents our desire to be held once again in the arms of Jesus, and blessed as the precious children we are in the eyes of God.

             It's a radically different view of life. The world says, "Why don't you grow up?" God says, "Why don't you recapture the idealism and dreams of the child within you?" May this simple act of water and prayer empower you to journey on in newness and grace.