We gathered Sunday for a special worship service focusing on children. We had a special parable at the beginning of worship, "The Sunflower Parable," and we had a special prayer to mark the "Light a Candle for Children" 40-day vigil. We also highlighted some of our programs for children and youth, including Children Worship & Wonder and F.A.C.E. (Faith Activities for the Children of Eastgate) Time.
The sermon considered "What We Owe Our Children" as a Christian community. Drawing from Proverbs 4, which speaks about the importance of wisdom, I suggested that some of the most important Christian wisdom we can offer children is about the value of time. In particular, in our busy culture, I suggested the importance of time and space for children to dare to ask questions (of us or of God) and how the wider culture is taking away this time and space from everyone.
Sabbath time is a gift of God for all people, but we are carefully removing all unscheduled time from our lives -- even from the lives of our children. This is not God's desire for us, and it is not in following the example of Jesus' own earthly life.
If you missed Sunday's sermon, if you'd like to listen to it again, of if you'd like to share it with others, you can find an audio recording here.
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