Introduction
In focusing the disciples’ attention on a single child, there was always going to be the danger that Jesus would cause them to get all mushy and sentimental. Yet, in an attempt to shock those watching, he did it because he knew that most adults need to unlearn ‘grown-up wisdom’ before they can gain the wisdom of a child.
Context
The photograph of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi’s body, washed up on a Mediterranean beach a few weeks ago, caused much upset, for many and varied reasons. Why does one life lost cause more upset than the thousands lost already? Or, what of the many millions of adults and children searching for a welcome and somewhere to call home?
Izzy Dix took her own life two years ago. This week the BBC’s Newsbeat has been looking into the stories and circumstances surrounding her death, finding out about the months that led up to her making that decision.
The autumn television season for all the family properly kicks off this week (literally, as the Rugby World Cup also begins, hosted in the UK) as Dr Who, Downton Abbey and Strictly Come Dancing all return to our screens to distract us from the darkening world outside.
Reflection
Whether the image of tiny Aylan’s body lying on a beach was considered to have been used appropriately or not, it went viral and pricked the world’s conscience. Statistics tell us that thousands from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere have lost their lives trying to cross the Mediterranean, yet it took a single death to turn what was previously a statistic into a tragedy. Jesus took one child, placed him in the middle of those who were having a selfish argument and said: ‘Look...’
The issues arising from Izzy Dix’s story affect hundreds of thousands of young people in the UK, from bullying in schools and cyber-bullying through social media, to self-harming and suicide. What are we in our churches and local communities doing to help the child that Jesus has placed in our midst? Do concerns about safe-guarding and child protection in our churches sometimes have a detrimental affect by making us too scared (or too pre-occupied) to notice or pay attention to children and young people in desperate need?
Welcome though the autumn television schedule might be, it can mean that we become like the disciples. Jesus needed to rouse them from their self-centred cosy musings, in order to embrace the reality of the suffering that lay ahead. The TV dramas will undoubtedly raise some good issues for theological discussion, if we allow ourselves to be challenged by their content. Yet, to really notice and grapple with the struggles of the lives of real people living alongside us, Jesus tells us we need to be as curious and open-minded as children. And sometimes (paraphasing James’ writings) that means Christians need to be a pain in the bum, like bothersome children, to keep tugging the sleeve of our ‘grown-up’ society until we get an answer or result!
This week, in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus talks about his own suffering once again, but this time the disciples keep an embarrassed silence. Again, they were so busy with their own agendas that they fail to notice the point Jesus is trying to make: LOOK at the child, standing in plain sight in front of you! Children may have gone unnoticed in the Roman world – a mentality of society that could be said to have continued well into the last century in our own lands – but what excuses do we make for ignoring the child in our midst today? Are we trying so hard to follow rules and regulations that we become blind? Izzy or Aylan’s stories may stir up a lot of feelings of guilt or hurt within us all, but Jesus still asks us to notice these little ones, and to feel what they feel!
Maybe there is something wrong with society, that we feel more for the plight of one child than for the deaths of thousands of adults. But James (3.13-4.3,7-8a) drags us back to reality, reminding us that true wisdom stirs up the heart, so that we might act genuinely and sincerely, not for ourselves, but for the powerless. In so doing, we might just also notice God is standing alongside us. Together, as children of God, let us be ‘inconvenient’ (Wisdom of Solomon 2.12-13).
Prayer
Great big God,
your creation seems so big
that sometimes we overlook the small,
or the seemingly insignificant.
A child drowned in a vast ocean.
A girl lost in a hidden world of abuse.
These children have names:
Aylan (pause),
Izzy (pause),
and too many more to count.
Jesus has taken these children in his arms
and placed others in among us.
Help us to turn from our self-obsessed musings.
Open our eyes to the plight of those standing right in front of us.
Will us into action!
Great big God,
when we become too grown-up,
help us to look down
and find you looking up at us.
Amen.
Questions
At this time of year when many churches might be engaging in a ‘Season of Invitation’: what does it mean to welcome a child – and in doing so to welcome Jesus – and in doing so to welcome God?
Action
Be challenged to notice the children in the midst of your local community. In what ways does your church provide for the interests of children and young people? What more could you do? Consider working towards gaining your own ‘Child Friendly Church Award’, or whatever the equivalent is in your denomination.
Young People
Take a look at the BBC Newsbeat reports and podcasts focussed around Izzy Dix. This is an opportunity to discuss some very sensitive issues, so make sure you handle this sensitively and have adequate support for your children and young people. Conclude any discussions by asking: why did Jesus make a child stand in the middle of a group of adults? What is it about children that God sees as important?
Alternatively, with younger children, why not explore the situations mentioned above or, more specifically, issues of bullying, by using the characters from the new film ‘Inside Out’ to help children explore how they feel. What would Jesus say if he was inside our head?
Tim Lowe is a minister of the United Reformed Church, serving churches in the north west of Coventry, and is particularly interested in varied visual art forms as expressions of faith.
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