1. SATS Conference Jo’burg May 2011 Children as Signs of the Kingdom of God: A Challenge to Us All Matthew 18: 1-14

2. “Seek first the Kingdom of Heaven…” It would be hard to overstate the importance of the Kingdom of God (heaven) in the Bible, Old and New Testaments, and in the teaching of Jesus. It is therefore the primary goal of all who seek to follow Jesus Christ faithfully as we pray: “Your Kingdom come!”

3. (i) The Kingdom of God: have we got it right? Human Language brings its own history and distorts… Yahweh, the King of Israel, but often weak in the world, a king looking for his kingdom; in disguise in the enemy’s camp. Are we faithful to the full range of Jewish Scriptures in our worship, songs and theology?

4. Jesus taught about and modelled God’s way of doing things (the Kingdom of God). He gathers a small group of friends whom he calls to be fellow travellers: they have no possessions. There is no attempt to build or expand by human endeavour. Yet he still used the term to indicate God’s engagement with His creation, law and redemption, rather than a sacred/secular divide.

5. There are two ways in which some Christians try to cope in a world of appalling suffering: (i) to focus on another world where God reigns supreme; (i) to focus on another world where God reigns supreme; (ii) to become wrapped up in our own endeavours to transform the world… Either way avoids the tension that demands serious theological study and debate.

6. (ii) The Kingdom and Repentance It can be a shock to discover that the only way we can prepare for the Kingdom of God is by repentance (whoever we are, and however great our devotion). It is clear that the disciples of Jesus were shocked, if not stunned by this. They were convinced that their commitment and sacrifice counted in their favour.

7. The history of Christianity is full of examples of this sort of thinking… And what about us? What about me? “Living sacrifices”: one of the summits in the Himalayan range of Paul’s theology in Romans. What is our motivation and inspiration? God’s love, grace and mercy

8. (iii) The Kingdom as Signs There is no other way: the Kingdom can only be in signs now. It does not exist anywhere on earth in a perfect form. As travellers on the Way we are to read the signs we are given. And what opens our eyes to see God’s revelation through signs? Humility: without it we cannot see or enter the Kingdom

9. Creation and signs… The parables of Jesus… Yet we can easily talk of our projects or organisations as if they were the “real thing”! Even though we are weak in the world, and at best can offer models and signs of hope… …until He comes again.

10. (iv) The Child Placed by Jesus as Sign Now we are ready to return to Matthew 18, the place where we started and perhaps to know the place for the first time. Ten years of studying this passage in the context of biblical theology and Christian history and mission has led to four crucial discoveries:

11. (i) we know nothing about the child Jesus placed in the midst; (ii) it is Jesus who speaks and gives substance to the sign of the child; (iii) Jesus never refers to his own childhood at any stage in his ministry; (iv) the child is a sign or representative of Jesus, his nature, his way, his calling and the cross (yes, however much we may recoil from the very idea and association!).

12. What does the action and teaching of Jesus sign for the disciples and us? First, we are on the wrong track (and this is scandalous, and a stumbling block of considerable proportions); Second, the child is a special sign, of hope, promise, potential, life, encouragement, and the reminder that the whole of the journey following Jesus is about learning and experimenting, starting again right at the very beginning.

13. A Challenge to Us All Can it possibly be that we (and our organisations) are outside the Kingdom? Humility is the single clue given us by Jesus… And the constant call to repent of two possible temptations: * attracting some praise for ourselves * attracting some praise for ourselves * focussing on children as objects of care and concern, at the expense of seeing them as signs of God’s Kingdom * focussing on children as objects of care and concern, at the expense of seeing them as signs of God’s Kingdom Pandita Ramabai; and The God of Small Things

14. A Concluding Word Michel Quoist: “If we knew how to look at life through God’s eye, we should see it as innumerable tokens of the love of the Creator seeking the love of his creatures. The Father has put us into the world, not to walk through it with lowered eyes, but to search for him through things events, people. Everything must reveal God to us. All Life would become a sign.” “If we knew how to look at life through God’s eye, we should see it as innumerable tokens of the love of the Creator seeking the love of his creatures. The Father has put us into the world, not to walk through it with lowered eyes, but to search for him through things events, people. Everything must reveal God to us. All Life would become a sign.”

15. Strange that followers of Jesus who accept that the sign given to the shepherds that the Messiah had come was “a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger”, should still overlook little children, little people and little things: some of the chosen signs of their Lord and Master!