The Dignity of Children
I'm back. Where were we?
Oh yeah, so anyway Anna had a little trouble with the offering plate a few Sundays ago. Most people who put checks in the plate politely fold them in half. Someone didn’t make a very good crease, and one of the checks opened up and was waving in the air like a tiny sail. Anna, who takes ballet and is almost five, tends to skip and run and bounce as she goes up and down the aisle, so the check caught a little breeze and flew out of the plate. When she bent down to pick it up, a few bills fell out. When she retrieved those the check fell out again. This sequence kept repeating itself until our worship service was beginning to look like a Marx Brothers’ movie.
Finally, a kind and smiling adult helped her gather everything back into the plate, and she swished up to the front where we sit together and wait for the music to end. I noticed the check was still waving in the wind, so I pulled it out and gave it a good crease so that it would behave. When I leaned over to drop it back in, I let my cheek brush Anna’s hair - sort of on purpose - and I couldn’t help but whisper, “You’re sweet.”
Church can be a little messy when the children take up the offering. I remember when a little girl named Natalie did this for the first time. Instead of handing the plate to the person at the end of the aisle, she went into the aisle itself and stood in front of each person, waiting for them to make a donation. The third person along didn’t have anything to give. Natalie stood there looking at him. He shrugged and shook his head. She looked down at her plate, then back at him with a puzzled expression. Finally someone from the row behind handed him a dollar, and he dropped it in.
Natalie’s mother, somewhat anxious and embarrassed, stood up and got her daughter’s attention by whispering and waving. She jerked her head sideways and made little “scoot along” gestures, but Natalie had no idea what she was talking about, so she continued to stand in front of every person and wait for them to give something.
There was some tittering and quiet laughter, then a general panic as people started clawing through their purses and pockets looking for spare change and bills. Those who had extra shared with those who had none, rather like the early church in the second chapter of Acts. In the end everyone managed to find something to drop in the plate. We’re a small church and we all know each other, so things like this are actually rather precious.
Having children help in worship introduces an uncertainty principle into the whole affair, making Sunday exciting and unpredictable. You can force children to stay in their seats, gaining some control over the velocity of worship, but losing something of its essence. Or you can let the children be a part of worship and accept the inevitable loss of control. It's like a lot of things; there is "give and take" and the constant search for balance.
Worship is something that happens when humanity and divinity come together. The intersection does not produce perfection, but understanding. We are only human, and worship is meant, among other things, to remind us of that. The main idea behind worship is that we come to a good understanding of who we are and who God is.
So away with the idea that worship is meant to be produced by experts and performed by professionals. Away with the idea that worship takes place up on a stage where it can be carefully orchestrated, controlled, and reproduced week in and week out, like some sort of TV show. I don’t want order in church; I want dignity. And dignity comes not from control, but from understanding who you are and taking your rightful place in the world.
Children bring their own innocent dignity to worship, I’ve found. So let them come to the front and sit by the preacher. Let me lay my hands on their heads and whisper little blessings in their ears.
Better yet, let me become a child again myself. Let worship be a time of remembering who I am in the world. For I am just another little boy with messy hair, holding an offering plate at the front of the church, and wondering if anyone will whisper something nice in my ear today.
rlp
Acts 2:43-47
Note: It's May and I'm back, as promised. I've missed you A LOT. Clearly I'm not going to be able to survive without this wonderful outlet for my soul. A lot has happened to me in the month I've been away. Good things and a couple of hard things. I've learned something important about myself. I'll share that with you when I'm ready.
I'm heading for Dallas this afternoon to be a part of the Wilshire Baptist Church annual Preaching Practicum. I'll be back Wednesday.
12:57:23 PM 
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