Church of the Holy City

Like a Little Child

Like a Little Child
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
September 23, 2012

Jeremiah 11:18-20 Mark 9:30-34 Psalm 54

In our reading from Mark, The disciples are arguing about who would be the greatest. Jesus says that the greatest must be like a little child. And a little further in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus says that we need to be childlike in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. What is it about children that is such a heavenly quality?
I think the most endearing quality about children is their innocence. It’s really hard to try to define just what innocence is. I see it in their eyes. The eyes of a child are so open and big. Then there is their sincerity. Children say exactly what they feel. There is no subterfuge, no cunning, no pretense in a child. Along with their sincerity, children are so emotionally open we always know their emotions. They are quick to laugh, they cry openly, they get mad, and they haven’t yet learned to disguise their emotions. And children give unconditional love. They love their parents, their playmates, they love everyone. When a child loves you, you know it. You feel it. And they draw out these qualities out in adults. We respond in like kind when we deal with children. Finally, I would say that a child’s love extends to everyone. Children don’t have prejudice or discrimination. They don’t know race; they don’t judge others by wealth; they reach out to strangers the same way they do to family members. And it is to a parent’s alarm that children will talk to strangers in, say, a shopping mall. Children need to be taught not to talk to strangers. And children also are taught about racism. I think of that song from South Pacific, “They Have to Be Carefully Taught.” It is for these reasons that Jesus blesses children and states that we all must become like children to enter the Kingdom.
Jesus is innocence itself. And we become innocent as we let Jesus into our heart, and as we learn to follow Jesus’ leading. As innocence itself, Jesus is often compared to a lamb. We heard this in our Jeremiah reading this morning. There we read a prophesy about Jesus,
But I was like a gentle lamb
Led to the slaughter.
I did not know it was against me
they devised schemes
William Blake captured that illusive quality of innocence in a poem about a lamb. In this wonderful
poem, Blake compares the lamb with childhood and with Jesus. Hear Blake’s simple lines about
the simplicity of innocence:
Little Lamb who made thee
Dost thou know who made thee
Gave thee life & bid thee feed
By the stream & o’er the mead;
Gave thee clothing of delight,
Softest clothing woolly bright;
Gave thee such a tender voice,
Making all the vales rejoice!
Little Lamb who made thee
Dost thou know who made thee

Little Lamb I’ll tell thee,
Little Lamb I’ll tell thee!
He is called by thy name,
For he calls himself a Lamb:
He is meek & he is mild,
He became a little child:
I a child & thou a lamb,
We are called by his name.
Little Lamb God bless thee.
Little Lamb God bless thee (THE LAMB).
But this innocence of children doesn’t stay. As children grow up, their innocence begins to fade. They become teens and then adults, and the beauty of their early childhood has yielded to the self-governance of adulthood. This transition is symbolized by Adam and Eve leaving the innocence of the Garden of Eden. So from early infancy, we develop our own rationality and begin to govern our own lives. Here proprium begins. This transition from the innocence of childhood into adulthood reminds me of a beautiful Robert Frost poem. It’s called “NOTHING GOLD CAN STAY.” Frost talks about the early golden buds that become flowers and then leaves. The early beauty of the flower and bud fades almost as quickly as it is born. And Frost bitterly comments that nothing gold can stay.

Nature’s first green is gold
Her hardest hue to hold
Her early leaf’s a flower
But only for an hour
Then leaf subsides to leaf
So Eden sank to grief
So Dawn goes down to day
Nothing gold can stay.

But this isn’t the end of the story. Innocence does not leave us altogether. It remains in our hearts and at certain times comes out again. The early love and trust of childhood remain with us and so Swedenborg calls these states remains. These remains stay with us—sometimes deeply buried under our adult personalities, sometimes shining transparently through our adult personalities. I will go further. In fact, innocence—real innocence—is a property of maturity. It is a quality of advanced maturity more than it is of childhood. The innocence of childhood is a passing gift. The innocence of adulthood is lasting and chosen. Swedenborg calls childhood innocence the innocence of ignorance and adult innocence the innocence of wisdom.
It’s hard to talk about just what innocence is. But for Swedenborg, it is a specialized term and he does define it. We can think of childhood when we listen to his definition because some of the qualities he describes fit with childhood. For Swedenborg, innocence primarily means to be led by God, not by self. Furthermore, innocence means acknowledging that all goodness comes from God, not from self.
Those who are in a state of innocence attribute nothing of good to themselves, but regard all things as received and ascribe them to the Lord; they wish to be led by Him and not by themselves; they love every thing that is good and find delight in everything that is true, because they know and feel that loving what is good, that is, willing and doing it, is loving the Lord, and loving truth is loving the neighbor . . . (HH 278).
Acknowledging that everything good is a gift from God, lifts us up out of ego. The cravings of our egos and the lust for wealth are what keep God out of our consciousness and hearts. When we acknowledge that there is a God, and that we aren’t it, we are beginning to enter the innocence of wisdom. We no longer take credit for our accomplishments. We no longer think of ourselves as superior to others. We feel as one with our neighbors. We put God in the center of our lives and ask for His guidance. This lifts us out of proprium, or the attitude that we are self-made individuals. Getting ego out of the way allows God to flow into us with His Divine Love.
As they love nothing so much as to be led by the Lord, attributing all things to Him, they are kept apart from their own (proprium); and to the extent that they are kept from what is their own the Lord flows into them (HH 278).
Heaven can be called being in God. The very heat and light there is God’s own Spirit. To the extent that we let God into our lives, we are in heaven’s light and heat. To the extent that we let God into our hearts we are in heavenly peace and joy.
Because innocence with the angels of heaven is the very being of good, it is evident that the Divine good that goes forth from the Lord is innocence itself, for it is that good that flows into angels, and affects their inmosts, and arranges and fits them for receiving all the good of heaven (HH 282).
Another poem by Blake seems to talk about God’s influx as the essence of heaven. It talks about God giving off heat and light and about our need to learn to bear those qualities. The poem is called “THE LITTLE BLACK BOY:”
“Look on the rising sun: there God does live,
And gives His light, and gives His heat away,
And flowers and trees and beasts and men receive
Comfort in morning, joy in the noonday.

“And we are put on earth a little space,
That we may learn to bear the beams of love
And these black bodies and this sunburnt face
Is but a cloud, and like a shady grove.

“For when our souls have learn’d the heat to bear,
The cloud will vanish, we shall hear His voice,
Saying, ‘Come out from the grove, my love and care
And round my golden tent like lambs rejoice’,”
So innocence for Swedenborg is the acknowledgement that everything good is from God. When we acknowledge this, God can enter our consciousness and our hearts. To the extent that God is in us, and we are in God, we are in heaven—because heaven is nothing else than God’s Spirit flowing into every angel’s soul. It is this state of spiritual attainment that the prophet Zephaniah speaks of when he says, “Then I will purify the lips of the peoples, that all of them may call on the name of the LORD . . . I will leave within you the meek and humble, who trust in the name of the LORD” (3:9, 12). Calling on the name of the LORD, and trusting in the name of the LORD means committing all our lives to Him, and letting Him rule in our hearts and minds.
When we choose to let God into our hearts, then we become innocent angels in the heavens. Just as little children follow their parents’ guidance, we will trust in God’s guidance. Just as little children don’t calculate wealth, we will be content with what we have. Then all the qualities that endear us to children will be our qualities. We will be like the children that Jesus says will inherit the kingdom of God. Or as Blake puts it, God will call to us, saying,
‘Come out from the grove, my love and care
And round my golden tent like lambs rejoice’,”

PRAYER

Dear Lord, We ask for your guidance as we seek to do your will. Lead us into heavenly peace; guide our steps in the ways of righteousness; and enlighten our minds to understand your will. As we let go of our attachments to the perishing things of this world, open our hearts to receive the eternal goods of your kingdom. For we seek a home that is everlasting as we pilgrimage here on this transitory earth. We know you are ever with us, but we can stray from your care and love. Bring us back to an awareness of you when we are tempted to turn away. In you we place all our hopes, dreams, and joys. Be our God for ever and ever! Amen.