Henrietta United Church of Christ

Rev. David Inglis October 23, 2005

Matthew 22:34-40 Children’s Sabbath

Creating a Hopeful Future...Today:

1. “Family Values for the Human Family”

1(This sermon was accompanied by photos, as indicated by the brackets below.)

I’d like you to think about Jason, whom we just baptized, and all the kids that are part of our church family, and all the kids that are in your extended family. What will the world be like when they are mature adults? Will they be caught in intractable wars, or dealing with nuclear or biological terrorist attacks? Will they be trying to cope with the upheavals of major climate change? Will the rich and powerful be aggressively grabbing for dwindling resources, while everyone else is left scrambling for the leftovers?

I don’t know the answers, but I do worry about it--do you? But God didn’t create us to worry about the future. God created us to create the future Jesus called the kingdom of God. And God equips us to begin creating that hopeful future today. “Creating a hopeful future...today” is going to be the theme of this year’s stewardship campaign, not as a gimmick, but to help the power of living hope become a dynamic theme of our lives and of our life together as a church.

Today I want to briefly touch on ways that we can create a hopeful future today by the values we pass on to the children in our lives.

2 [Photo of kids watching TV]

What are these kids doing? While they’re watching TV, aren’t they learning how to adapt to our society? They might be learning what products and looks and attitudes make you cool and attractive. They might be learning that violence is the best way to deal with enemies and evil. They might be learning that image is more important than substance, exciting action is more important than careful deliberation, fantasy adventures are more appealing than the adventure of living their life to the fullest in this world right now. Maybe they’re being trained to be passive, compliant consumers--cogs in the wheel.

3 [Photo of kids building with large building blocks together]

Now what are these kids doing? While they’re building with blocks, aren’t they learning to take the materials at hand, imagine something that hasn’t existed before, and change the world around them in some way? Aren’t they learning to extend their vision and their abilities into the world in a way that ultimately might serve the world?

4 [Grand Theft Auto videogame picture]

Somebody said, “If we keep going the way we’re going, we’re likely to end up where we’re headed.” If we allow our children’s values to be shaped by TV and video games,

5 [“A Slayer Transformed” photo]

if the toys they play with perpetuate a mentality that strives for domination by some,

6 [Blue Haired Angel]

and passivity by others,

7 [Pig Family]

If we teach them to express themselves by what they buy rather than what they create, they will help keep the world going in the same direction it’s going, and create a future where today’s problems of violence, ecological destruction, and the gap between the haves and have-nots grow from ominous to overwhelming.

8 [Photo of block builders]

But if we allow time for them to imagine, explore, and create,

9 [Kids in nature]

Give them opportunities to respect and love the natural world,

10 [Girl & boy running]

Help them feel at home in their own bodies and in the world around them,

they will be prepared not to just be passive consumers, and not even just enterprising creators, but co-creators with God,

11 [ Nature walk]

who at every level of creation is always working to create higher orders of harmony--or shalom--out of the materials at hand.

12 [ Drawing of selfish little girl with caption, “It’s all about me.”]

Now here’s somebody you might know. Here’s her big sister.

13 [ Drawing of selfish teenage girl with same caption.]

14 [ Both girls’ pictures side by side]

These kids’ parents probably love them, and so they want them to have the best. Maybe their parents remember having to go without when they were young; or maybe they don’t want to alienate their kids by saying no; or maybe they feel guilty for not spending more time with their kids; or maybe they want to give their kids every advantage. So they make sure they don’t deprive their kids of anything. And they unwittingly teach their kids that they should be able to have whatever they want; they should be immune from disappointment, struggle, limits, and hardships. They teach their kids, “It’s all about me.”

15 [ Photo of kids playing in a circle]

These children are learning that it’s all about “we.”

16 [Photo of boys sharing a toy in a sandbox]

Life is more fun when it’s shared. It’s the give and take,

17 [Ropes course]

meeting common challenges together,

18 [Shantytown]

working for a higher cause together

that gives life its meaning.

19 [Human race in God’s hands]

In God’s plan, it’s not all about me, and it’s not all about our individual families. It’s all about us as a human family. It doesn’t take a crystal ball these days to see that the future well being of our children is closely intertwined with the future well being of the human family.

20 [Drawing of selfish teenage girl]

The problems of violence, war, ecological destruction, and poverty have not been solvable from the mindset that says, “It’s all about me, or my ideology, or my ethnic group, or my nation.

21 [Collage of human family.]

But they will be solvable by people who realize, “It’s all about we.” “We can make a better world for all of us.”

So raising our children to give as well as receive, helping them be aware of those in need and respond out of compassion, helping them love and respect God’s creation, helping them deal with conflict so that everybody wins, all of these are ways to breathe hope into the future of the human family.

There are many more family values that we could talk about that can create hope for the whole human family. But they all are derived from the fundamental values Jesus taught us in today’s scripture lesson: Loving of God with our whole selves, and loving of our neighbor as ourself.

22 [Photo of our Kids Kamp]

If we do this, and teach our children to do the same, won’t we be creating hope for our future...today?