Gifts To and From Children
Matthew 18:1-5 June 29, 2008
Rev. Nancy Salisbury

There’s a very old story, from the time of Moses, where God decides to give his people a gift. This is a story about our roots.
Once upon a time, when we lived in the desert and were waiting for further directions to the Promised Land, Moses came back from the mountain where he often went to talk to God. Moses was excited. He gathered all the people together and announced that God wanted to give us a gift. It was called the Torah. Moses wanted to know if we, the people of God, would accept the gift, not knowing what it was or what we would do with it once we got it.
There was great discussion among the people. A gift from God! Of course we would take it. After all, it was God who delivered us from slavery in Egypt and called us to be his own people. We told Moses we would accept the gift, even not knowing what it was or what we would do with it.
Moses went back up the mountain and the people waited. They waited hopefully, wondering what the gift would turn out to be. They already knew a little of what God’s gifts were like. They knew about manna, the food God provided for them in the desert. They knew about freedom from slavery and the hope of a new land. What would this gift be like?
Finally Moses returned and gathered everyone together. They noticed he was empty handed. The leaders asked, “Where is it? Where’s the gift?”
Moses explained that he had told God of our willingness to accept the gift. God would like a gift in return, a guarantee that we will cherish the gift and use it every day. The people wondered what they could possibly give to God as a guarantee of their acceptance. Pretty soon someone yelled out, “Gold, jewels, all the treasure we have carried with us from Egypt. We can give that to God.”
So the people gathered all their treasures of gold and jewels and Moses carried them up the mountain. The people waited to see if God would accept their gift.
Moses returned, carrying the big sack, still full of the treasures. Moses said, “I gave God your gifts. While God acknowledged the gifts are valuable, God would like something more, something different as a gift. After all, we can just collect more of these things.”
The people were quiet and the silence lasted longer this time. Finally someone spoke up and said that they did have things that were more precious to them than jewels. They had gifts from their parents and their parents before them, gifts they cherished that were irreplaceable.
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They had gifts that were uniquely personal that they would never sell. They would only give them to someone who was trusted and loved. Those are gifts we could give to God as a guarantee.
Everyone agreed and went back to their tents to carefully retrieve their most precious possessions. Moses took all the gifts back up the mountain.
Again the people waited to see if these gifts would be acceptable. Again, Moses returned without the promised gift. “What happened?” everyone wanted to know.
When things quieted down Moses told the people that while these gifts are precious to us, they still don’t guarantee that we will accept God’s gift and treasure it our whole lives. Is there anything more precious to us?
The people thought long and hard; a heavy silence fell over them. All of a sudden a baby cried. The woman holding the baby shouted out, “That’s what we can give God! We can give God our children! They can be our guarantee that we will take God’s gift and cherish it and live by it. We will give it to our children and teach them to take it to heart and live by it.”
Everyone smiled, knowing this was the very best they had to give, a guarantee that God could not refuse. So Moses went back up the mountain, empty handed, but his heart full of hope.
The people were buzzing with anticipation, waiting for Moses to return.
When Moses returned, in his hands were two stone tablets that were etched deeply with words, shining words that seemed to fly off the stone with a life of their own. Moses stood in the midst of the people and said that God was pleased with their gift. God has accepted them as a guarantee and, in exchange, has given us the Torah – God’s words and hopes for us as his people.
We are to take these ten commandments and learn them by heart and teach them to our children. Now these two things, the Torah and our children, are intertwined forever. Together, they are the covenant we have with God and our most precious possessions.
All these generations later we still dedicate our children to God, promising to tell them stories about God and teach them God’s ways. We baptize our children in communities of faith so that all of us are responsible for teaching them God’s ways. We have been entrusted with the gifts of children and the gift of faith, two precious gifts.
Now that you know the story of how God gives gifts, you may recognize them better when they show up. I got one last week, out of the blue. It happened when I went to visit Bruce Skillings in the hospital.
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Bruce has been fighting cancer for a while. An infection landed him in the hospital for a few days. He was talking about the gifts he has received along the way. Along with the sickness have come some blessings.
Bruce told me about a time in the beginning when they went to Boston to meet with a world renowned cancer doctor. She asked him how he was doing and he said not very well. She looked at him and told him he was lucky. Lucky! How could she say such a thing!?
The doctor asked him what he had seen when he came into the front lobby of the hospital. Bruce had to think back to walking through the door. People, he said. I saw people. The doctor said, “Were your eyes open? Did you see any children?”
Children. Yes, he saw children. Immediately he thought of his wife and children and all the good years they have had together. And he had to admit, he was lucky.
Bruce spoke about some of the people he’s met along the way. There have been incredibly competent and caring people he has come to know. One week in Boston he felt up to a Red Sox game. So he and his companions went one evening to a sold out game. A couple of his friend’s bought a beer and Bruce thought that was a pretty good idea. He was side stepping his way to his seat when he recognizes three of his nurses sitting right in front of him in a sold out Fenway Park. They see him holding a beer and tell him, “You can’t have that.” He just laughed and gave it to them.
Just because I went to see Bruce, I received the gift of remembering how lucky I am. All it took was man with cancer to remind me.
Jesus told us to become like children if we want to see his kingdom. Children are the most vulnerable and also the most precious members of the community. In Jesus’ day children were the least powerful of everyone. Children carried water and kindling for fires for their parents and grandparents and neighbors. And they were also cared for by all those people. I think it was that combination of service and caring that Jesus had in mind that day. Service, combined with belonging, is what it means to be a child in God’s kingdom.
One last story. In the year1809 the world was paying attention to the march of Napoleon. Napoleon was probably the most powerful person in the known world. But in that same year William Gladstone and Alfred Tennyson were born in England. Oliver Wendall Holmes was born in Massachusetts and Abraham Lincoln was born in Kentucky. Looking back

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at 1809, which turned out to be more important? The battles or the babies?
We have been blessed with the precious gifts of children and the gift of our faith. My prayer for you this week is that you would recognize God’s gifts when they come to you. Amen.