“Kingdom of the Children”                                                                           Vance L. Toivonen

READING                   Mark 10:13-16

 

People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, "Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it." And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.

 

READING                   Shannon Brownlee, “The Case for Frivolity”

U.S. News and World Report 122, no. 4

(February 3, 1997)

 

Early evidence suggests that play taps into the brain chemicals involved in pleasure…Researchers suggest that play also increases brain levels of pleasure-inducing endorphins and norepinephrine, which heightens attention. Though research into the meaning of play is still nascent, many scientists have come to believe it is critical…to a human child’s (development)…Children gain physical skills through exuberant motion…They also gain emotional and mental mastery through play, particularly through imaginative games…When a child pretends, says James Singer (child psychologist at Yale) “he is taking a complicated world and cutting it down to size. [When] you are the doctor and the teddy bear is the patient, you have reduced a frightening situation to one you can control.” Kids who initiate imaginative play…show leadership skills in school. They cooperate more with other children than kids who don’t make believe, and they are less likely to antagonize and intimidate others.

 

 

SERMON

 

As an amateur actor I have been somewhat resistant to the occasional pre-rehearsal exercises and warm-ups. There is a part of me, the adult part, I suppose, that just wants to get down to business and rehearse. Making silly noises and moving my body around just does not register with me as making good use of my precious time.

 

This has been a particularly stressful week for me. Doing a play right now is difficult to say the least. There is a part of me that wishes I were not doing so…the adult part, I’m sure. The adult part of me reasons that there are more important things to do than be in a play right now. There is my career, the whole church thing, and much of the stress revolves around that. So what am I doing in a play?

 

Tuesday night, on the most stressful of this past week’s days for me, I shared with the cast and director some of my stress and anxiety. I even asked that some of the language in the play be changed, reasoning it would only add to the stress for me. The director said he would sleep on it, the cast deferred to the director, and we proceeded with the pre-rehearsal exercises. But this time, for some reason, I found in these exercises a joy and release I had not felt before. In a way I had begun to let go of some of the stress, perhaps. And when the director called the next day to tell me that the language would stay as is, I was perhaps a little more prepared because I was reminded again that this is a play. We are playing onstage; and play can teach us, and perhaps the audience, things about ourselves that not playing, or not being willing to play, cannot teach us.

 

No doubt we get awfully caught up in our adulthood, sometimes, fraught with self-importance, worried sick about what other people might think of us, refraining from play in an effort to maintain a semblance of decency and dignity. As I think back over my life, I discover that more change and transformation has been imbued into my life through play, through letting go of propriety and the way it’s suppose to be, than through any kind of intellectual pursuit.

 

At the end of the play my character says, “Nothing formative in this world, nothing great or beautiful in this world has ever been born of rational argument.” It has been a long time since Inter-Play has graced our worship life. I am hoping that Inter-Play will be a part of our service on the 22nd of October, when Kristin Roach’s dad, Jerry Scott will be our guest speaker, and the children, (and a few adults) will dress up in costumes for the March of the Goblins. October 22nd will hopefully be a playful Sunday morning at Hope Church.

 

Inter-Play is founded on free form movement, letting the inner self find a path through the body. There is no planning, scripting, or controlling in Inter-Play. The music starts and you move however your inner spirit directs you to move. No one will tell you how to move. No one will tell you when to move. No one will even tell you why to move. It is the exuberant motion referred to in the second reading, a motion that likely releases endorphins and norepinephrine into our brains.

 

As I said earlier, I have been reluctant to grow into this freedom of movement in my pre-rehearsal exercises, and subsequently reluctant to engage the opportunity presented by Inter-Play. This is, perhaps, because I have been too adult in my orientation, too self-conscious, too uncomfortable in my own skin. Children don’t worry about such things. Adults do. Which is precisely why Jesus says our entrance into the kingdom of God is predicated upon our willingness to be more like children. So, who knows what might happen on the 22nd.

 

Here at church we can get so caught up in our adultness, that we forget the importance of becoming children again. Why is this? We seek cerebral solutions over ceremonious celebrations. We use rational argument as a means to arrive at the place we think we want to go rather than experiential pathways for our journeys. We forget what Dr. Jean Houston said in last week’s readings, that we are not human beings trying to be spiritual, but rather spiritual beings trying to be human. In the same way we might say that we are not adults trying to be children, but that we are, rather children trying to be adults. If we then choose to do less of the latter and more of the former, being children first and adults second, we may end up with a better world at the end of the day.

 

I want to close with a lengthy reading, which is why am stopping my sermon writing here. I think we all get the point. Ann Weems will reinforce this point with her words from Reaching for Rainbows. The piece is titled, “Balloons Belong in Church.” (Read Weems, 20-23).