Territorial Bloggings

How’d you like that alliterative title? Eh? EH? heheheheheh
Anyway, Tim over at Beggars All has posted yet another wonderful & insightful entry regarding a pet peeve of mine — i.e., the “Children’s Sermon/Message.” [BA's other poster, Caspar, has also astutely weighed in on this topic, in the form of a comment left over at Balaam's Ass...].

Let me state the clearly at the outset: I don’t like children’s messages. They serve no real constructive purpose (unless, of course, it’s considered “constructive” to undermine the meet, right, and salutary nature of the historic liturgy…). We should be rid of them.

Children and, and do, learn from the hearing and repeating of God’s Word that forms the historic liturgy. Children are no different than adults in that respect. Faith & salvation come not from understanding God’s Word, but from hearing it [Rom 10:16-18] — so the argument that children need something on “their level” so that they can feel properly involved is completely bogus. In fact, I would contend that it’s far more likely that adults like having a “break” in the service, especially one that makes them feel warm & fuzzy — and all the better if it provides the chance for a Kids Say The Darndest Things! laugh/chuckle.

Besides, it’s hard enough to write a good Law & Gospel sermon, so why would we expect our pastors to also have to develop another one for the kiddies, too? And let’s not even get into the whole morass of having a layman (male or female) assume, nay usurp, the Public Office for the purposes of delivering the oh-so-adorable kiddies message. Btw, have you noticed that many/most of the kiddies messages out there are based on analogy/metaphor? You know, conceptual stuff like, “Hey, kids! What am I holding in my hand? What do you do with this? Well, this is like God’s love for us in this way…” And the analogy/metaphor is one that really doesn’t make all that much sense, to be honest, or if it does, it’s a concept that many of the adults don’t properly grasp either.

Nope, everyone would be better served by a good Law & Gospel sermon. And children would be infinitely better served by learning (sooner rather than later) that they are full participants in the Divine Service, and that the liturgy benefits them just as much as it does the adults — i.e., that they are not an inconvenience and/or an unwelcome participant in the service.

Ah, but then I’m just a nasty, grumpy old curmudgeon…
-ghp