Kenneth L. Nelson - "Who Will Speak for Them?" (April 11, 1999)

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Child	The third meeting is from the Gospel	0:05
	according to St. Mark, the tenth chapter.	0:07
	People were bringing little children to Him	0:11
	in order that He might touch them.	0:14
	And the disciples spoke sternly to them.	0:16
	But when Jesus saw this, He was indignant, and said to them,	0:21
	"Let the little children come to me,	0:26
	do not stop them, for it is to such as these	0:28
	that the Kingdom of God belongs.	0:32
	Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive	0:35
	the Kingdom of God as a little child	0:39
	will never enter it."	0:41
	And He took them up in His arms,	0:43
	laid His hands on them, and blessed them.	0:46
	This is the Word of the Lord.	0:51
Congregation	Praise be to God.	0:53
Dean Nelson	Let us pray.	1:05
	Speak now Holy Spirit, for your servant is listening.	1:09
	Give us ears that we might hear your truth,	1:13
	and having heard your truth, that we might abide in it.	1:16
	Amen.	1:19
	I'd only been here two weeks.	1:22
	I could barely find my way from Woodcroft to Duke Chapel,	1:25
	let alone remember the names of all of my new colleagues	1:29
	on the Chapel and Religious Life staff.	1:32
	Then this letter arrived.	1:36
	Dear Dean Nelson,	1:39
	My name is John Rohrs, and I am a rising senior at Duke.	1:41
	My campus minister was enthused about your arrival,	1:46
	and thought that I should contact you	1:48
	about my internship at the Children's Defense Fund.	1:50
	I thought the Chapel might be interested	1:54
	in participating in a program	1:56
	that I've been working with this summer,	1:57
	entitled The Children's Sabbath.	1:59
	Perhaps we could get together when I return in August.	2:02
	In the interim, I'll be back in Oklahoma.	2:05
	If you would like, you can reach me	2:08
	at the following address and number.	2:09
	Right, no problem, I thought to myself.	2:13
	Obviously this is not a student	2:17
	who's been to the chapel very often.	2:18
	Doesn't he know, this is Duke Chapel?	2:21
	We're into big things around here, important things.	2:24
	We're into liturgy and missions and music and worship.	2:27
	We don't have time to be bothered with nasty-nosed	2:31
	hyperactive little rugrats.	2:34
	(congregation chuckles)	2:35
	We barely have room	2:38
	for all the distinguished visiting preachers,	2:39
	or special services.	2:41
	I'm not sure that we can work	2:43
	another event into the calendar.	2:44
	Not to mention, our hands are full.	2:46
	Have you any inkling of the time that it takes	2:49
	to straighten out the faculty and administrators	2:52
	and Divinity students?	2:55
	Do you have any idea of how long it's going to take me	2:57
	to straighten out Will Willimon?	3:00
	(congregation laughs)	3:02
	And then there are you students!	3:05
	John, don't you live in a dorm?	3:08
	Oh that's right, you live on Central Campus.	3:10
	Well then, I rest my case.	3:13
	Shouldn't you be talking to someone in Public Policy,	3:16
	or try the Sociology Department,	3:19
	or the Community Service Center.	3:21
	You understand, the Master,	3:24
	I mean the Dean, is a very busy man, you know.	3:25
	(congregation laughs)	3:28
	His next volume is due out this fall.	3:29
	(congregation chuckles)	3:32
	I'm a busy man!	3:33
	The campus ministers,	3:34
	they're busy planning activities for students.	3:37
	A brief silence passed,	3:41
	and then amidst all the well-intentioned, well-crafted	3:43
	and rehearsed answers, there came	3:47
	this almost inaudible response	3:49
	that shattered all of my thinly-veiled excuses.	3:52
	I guess I just thought the Church	3:58
	might have something to say about its children.	4:00
	And suddenly, the truth came crashing in.	4:04
	People were bringing little children to Him,	4:09
	in order that He might touch them.	4:12
	And the disciples spoke sternly to them.	4:14
	But when Jesus saw this, He was indignant, and said to them,	4:17
	"Let the children come.	4:22
	Do not stop them, for it is to such that these	4:24
	that the Kingdom of God belongs.	4:27
	Truly I tell you, whoever does not	4:30
	receive the Kingdom of God as a little child	4:33
	will never enter it."	4:35
	And He took them into His arms,	4:37
	laid His hands on them, and blessed them.	4:40
	If we wish to know the things	4:46
	about which Jesus cared deeply,	4:48
	one sure clue is to be found	4:50
	in the things that roused His indignation.	4:52
	It is interesting to note	4:56
	that all through the scourging and crucifixion,	4:57
	Jesus never opened His mouth.	5:01
	The only reference He made to His executioners was,	5:05
	"Father, forgive them."	5:08
	On the whole, Mark's Gospel,	5:11
	in Mark's Gospel, when Jesus was angry or indignant,	5:14
	it was over a wrong done to people,	5:17
	or some blindness to human welfare.	5:20
	He is angered by the Pharisees,	5:23
	because of their depraved indifference to human need.	5:25
	The callousness that set tradition higher	5:28
	in their regard than mercy.	5:30
	Here, He is indignant because of	5:33
	the impertinent blindness of His disciples,	5:37
	who tried to keep children away from His blessing.	5:40
	Here He is indignant over his disciples' blindness	5:44
	to the sacred worth of children.	5:47
	Unlike Matthew and Luke's gospel,	5:51
	Mark makes no attempt to tone down Jesus's anger.	5:53
	Imagine, imagine what would stir Jesus's wrath	5:57
	if he walked up and down the streets of our world today.	6:02
	Ours is a nation where over 100,000 babies	6:06
	die before their first birthday.	6:10
	In this rich land, over 13 million children	6:14
	go without the basic amenities of life.	6:19
	That's more than the population of Illinois,	6:22
	Pennsylvania and Florida.	6:25
	If every citizen of Florida became poor,	6:28
	the President would declare a national disaster.	6:32
	And Jesus took them into His arms,	6:36
	laid His hands upon them and blessed them.	6:39
	In C.S. Lewis's "Screwtape Letters",	6:45
	the main character, a devil named Screwtape,	6:47
	is writing to his nephew Wormwood	6:49
	about how to corrupt the world.	6:51
	Wormwood, he says, it is not necessary	6:54
	to make people wicked,	6:57
	just make them indifferent.	6:59
	Don't bother about getting people to do bad things,	7:02
	just, just let them do nothing.	7:05
	Provide me with people who do not care.	7:09
	That's how Satan corrupts the world.	7:13
	We are living in a day and age	7:16
	where just over 60% of our kids	7:18
	are graduating from high school.	7:20
	And only 42% of that group is going on to complete college.	7:23
	Ours is a society where the leading cause of death	7:29
	for persons between the ages of 24 and 44 is AIDS.	7:32
	Last year alone, over 1,000 children	7:39
	aged 19 and younger, died by firearms.	7:43
	Over 100 children under the age of five died by homicide.	7:49
	It is a morally lost nation that is unable to	7:56
	or unwilling to disarm children	7:59
	and those who kill our children	8:02
	in their school buses, yards, schools and movie theaters.	8:03
	And now from lessons learned	8:10
	all too well at our hands,	8:11
	our children are turning these weapons	8:14
	upon themselves and others.	8:17
	And Jesus took them into His arms,	8:21
	laid His hands upon them and blessed them.	8:24
	I once heard my friend Kephah, a minister from Africa,	8:29
	re-tell the story of the good Samaritan.	8:32
	Boy, was it a new version.	8:34
	He said, there are only three kinds of people	8:37
	in the story of the good Samaritan.	8:39
	First, there are the robbers.	8:42
	They're the people who do bad.	8:44
	Then, there are the Samaritans,	8:47
	and they're the people who do good.	8:49
	And then there are the religious people, the priest,	8:52
	and they're the ones who do nothing.	8:55
	In response to a distant tyrant,	9:01
	we sent hundreds of thousands of troops to the Persian Gulf.	9:03
	According to Secretary of State James Baker,	9:07
	the Gulf War was fought to protect our lifestyle	9:10
	and standard of living,	9:13
	and the rights of the Kuwaiti people.	9:14
	No economic deficit or recession	9:17
	was allowed to stand in the way.	9:19
	And the Church cheered through silence.	9:22
	How then can the community of faith	9:26
	reconcile our failure to engage equally	9:28
	the enemies of poverty and violence	9:31
	that viciously attack our children?	9:34
	When are we going to mobilize	9:38
	or fight for the salvation and sacred worth	9:39
	of children who are homeless,	9:41
	and living on the streets each night?	9:43
	And Jesus took them into His arms,	9:47
	laid His hands upon them, and blessed them.	9:51
	It is an ethically confused nation	9:55
	that has allowed truth-telling, and moral precepts,	9:58
	to become values rather than virtues.	10:01
	If the only principle that our society adheres to	10:05
	is Adam Smith's invisible hand,	10:08
	it leaves little or no room for the human hand,	10:10
	or for the Hand of God, who the prophet Micah says	10:14
	enjoined us to do justice, to love kindness,	10:17
	and to walk humbly with God.	10:22
	There is a hollowness at the core of any community of faith	10:26
	whose members share no common purpose,	10:30
	no mutual goals, and no joint vision of themselves.	10:33
	Where is the indignation of the Church	10:38
	over the condition of God's children?	10:40
	God grant us the indignation of Christ.	10:43
	The question begs to be asked,	10:48
	what kind of Church allows this to happen to its children?	10:51
	In his work entitled "Community of Character",	10:57
	Stanley Hauerwas rightfully argues	11:00
	that the real issue for Christians	11:02
	is not what shall we do for our children,	11:05
	but rather, what kind of people must we be	11:08
	to welcome and receive children into the world?	11:11
	Christians are trained to be the kind of people	11:15
	who are ready to receive and welcome children	11:18
	into the world.	11:20
	Christians boldly proclaim children	11:21
	as a sign of the trustworthiness of God's creation,	11:24
	and of God's unwillingness to abandon the world	11:27
	to the powers of darkness.	11:31
	Children are a sign that the redemptive work of God	11:34
	in all of creation is ongoing.	11:37
	That our children are living	11:42
	in a precocious present age is unquestioned.	11:44
	Children have been and will continue to be	11:47
	conceived and born under less than ideal circumstances.	11:49
	The Church, however, lives as a community	11:55
	which assumes that we live	11:58
	in an age which is always dangerous and hostile.	11:59
	That we live in such a time is all the more reason	12:04
	that we must be the kind of community	12:07
	that welcomes and receives children.	12:10
	Far too easily, and far too often,	12:14
	has the Christian Church surrendered the care	12:18
	of God's good gift of children	12:20
	to peoples and agencies who believe	12:23
	that children are our way of leaving our mark in the world.	12:25
	Oh how cute!	12:30
	He looks just like his father!	12:32
	Now we will always have a reminder of John.	12:34
	God spare us from that.	12:38
	The last thing we need is another skinny,	12:41
	bow-legged little South Carolinian named Ken Nelson	12:43
	running around Duke Chapel!	12:46
	God spare you from that.	12:48
	(crowd chuckles)	12:50
	Our children are far too important	12:52
	to be entrusted into the hands of peoples and agencies	12:53
	whose primary understanding of children	12:57
	center around them being cute and cuddly.	12:59
	You want cute and cuddly?	13:03
	Get a dog!	13:04
	It costs less and it demands less attention.	13:06
	Our children are part of our worship of God.	13:10
	Of the God who wills to be known	13:13
	through the lives of His followers,	13:15
	called the Church.	13:17
	Children represent our continuing commitment	13:20
	to live a historic life as a people of faith.	13:22
	Far too long has the voice of the Church been silent	13:26
	in advocating on our children's behalf.	13:29
	Far too often have we created environs	13:33
	inconducive to their spiritual growth and well-being.	13:35
	Far too often has our witness been unclear.	13:40
	And yet, yet there are glimpses of hope and faithfulness	13:45
	heard in the voices of a student who declared,	13:50
	I just thought the Church	13:54
	might have something to say about its children.	13:56
	Can the Church really afford	14:01
	to disregard those whom the risen Lord has declared,	14:04
	"It is to such as these that the Kingdom of God belongs"?	14:07
	Unless you receive the Kingdom as one of these little ones,	14:12
	you shall not enter it.	14:17
	If the Church be unwilling or unable	14:20
	to speak for its children,	14:24
	who will speak for them?	14:27
	Who will speak for them?	14:30
	The risen Lord will speak for them,	14:33
	even as He speaks for us.	14:35
	He will take children into His arms,	14:39
	lay His hands upon them, and bless them,	14:42
	even as he blesses us.	14:46
	As we come to the Lord's table this day,	14:50
	be reminded that the body of the risen Lord	14:53
	was once broken, that his children's bodies	14:55
	might not be.	14:59
	The blood of the risen Lord was once shed	15:01
	that His children's blood might not be.	15:04
	And that, brothers and sisters,	15:09
	is good news for all of us who desperately need to know	15:11
	that we, too, are children of God.	15:15
	Thanks be to God.	15:21
	Amen.	15:25

Item Info

Title:

Kenneth L. Nelson - "Who Will Speak for Them?" (April 11, 1999)

Description:

Sermon start time: 01:05. Sermon end time: 15.25.
Like Jesus Christ, we must treat children as human beings unto themselves, not just an extension of someone's legacy or the potential of a human being. We should treat them with all the kindness and care we would extend to an adult. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Key quotation: "The real issue for Christians is not what shall we do for our children, but rather what kind of people must we be to welcome and to receive children into the world?"

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4s75707s

Date:

April 11, 1999

Speaker:

Nelson, Kenneth L.

Liturgical Calendar:

Easter

Biblical Book:

Mark

Chapter and Verse:

Mark 10:13-16

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 CS-0954
ref10065_ba4
uachapelsermaud
duke:321092
dcrau001598
ark:/87924/r4s75707s
961a8e23-ebdc-48f9-af55-3c687fc5d76e

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

Source Collection:

Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

Language:

English

Location:

United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

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Provenance:

The Duke University Chapel Recordings were transferred to the Duke University Archives beginning in 1970.

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Limited Re-Use

Educational Use Permitted

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This material is made available for educational and non-commercial use. This recording may contain 3rd party materials, such as music or readings that are therefore not covered by the license indicated here. Copyright in this material has not been transferred to Duke University. For other reuses of this material beyond those permitted by fair use or otherwise allowed under the Copyright Act, please see our page on copyright and citations https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/research/citations-and-permissions.

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Kenneth L. Nelson - "Who Will Speak for Them?" (April 11, 1999)

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