Rev. Jared Buss
Pittsburgh New Church; June 15, 2025
Readings: Revelation 19:4-9 (children’s talk); John 21:1-8; Heaven and Hell §§277, 278 (portions)
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In this portion of the service we’re going to focus on one of the implications of the idea that the Lord is our Father: if He is our Father, then we are His children. And when I say “children” I don’t mean adult sons and daughters: the Word invites us to think of ourselves as little children who need their Father. This idea can be comforting, and it can also be challenging.
In the Word the Lord addresses His disciples as children. This is something we see, for example, at the end of the gospel of John. We read: [21:1-8].[1]
The Lord says to the disciples, “Children, have you any food” (v. 5). And the word that He uses to address them in the original Greek definitely doesn’t mean an adult son or daughter—it means a little child. It’s the same word that He uses when He says, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them, for of such is the kingdom of God” (Mark 10:14)—and He then proceeds to lift those little children that He’s referring to into His arms (v. 16). So He addresses His disciples using a word for a child that’s small enough to be lifted into one’s arms.
The story illustrates the challenge we might run into if we try to think of ourselves as children of the Lord. It says that the disciples didn’t recognize the Lord (v. 4). They just saw a man standing on the shore, and that man called them children. They could have chosen to be offended. The Lord looked like just another adult, same as themselves. He didn’t even look like He was much older than they were—His body was little more than thirty years old (cf. Luke 3:23). We don’t know exactly how old the disciples were, but they were all adults.
We here are also adults. We’ve grown up—and growing up feels like a lot of work sometimes. There are, inevitably, some hard lessons. At a certain point our parents will no longer wash the clothes we leave on the floor. At a certain point we become the ones who have to pay for all of our own stuff. If we become parents ourselves, then we have to learn how to be the mom or the dad—we have to be the one who doesn’t fall apart, instead of being the kid who can fall apart because mom and dad will be there to hold the pieces. Growing up usually involves taking on way more responsibility than you ever imagined you would have to, when you were little, and that’s hard. And once we’ve done that work, we don’t want to have it invalidated by people who treat us like we haven’t done it. We don’t want to be treated like children. The disciples could have looked at the Lord standing there on the shore and said, “I’m not your child. I’m an adult.” And sometimes we might be inclined to say the same thing. We might be inclined to say, “Yes, You’re my God—but that doesn’t mean that I’m your little child.”
Of course, the disciples didn’t say that to the Lord. At first they simply answered His question—no, they didn’t have any food (John 21:5). Maybe they were thinking about being offended. Or maybe they felt that there was more than met the eye within this man standing on the shore. Then, when they did recognize Him, they went to Him immediately. Peter actually dove into the water to go to the Lord, as though he couldn’t wait for the boat to get underway. He wasn’t ashamed to rush to the Lord—and there’s something childlike about that.
In the Word the Lord makes it pretty clear that He is our Father (e.g. Matt. 23:9). And He makes it pretty clear that it would be good for us to take on, or lean into, the idea that we are His little children. For example He says, “Unless you are turned around and become as little children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 18:3). That particular statement isn’t even what you would call a suggestion—the Lord makes it clear that there’s something about this idea that we are His children that we need to accept, for the sake of our own happiness. In the Heavenly Doctrine of the New Church, in the book Heaven and Hell, there’s a chapter on the innocence of the angels—and in that chapter we’re told that the highest angels, more than all others, “love to be led by the Lord as little children by their father” (§280). Those highest angels are the wisest of all the angels—surely their example is a good one to follow. What if we loved to be led by the Lord, as little children by their father?
But the Word also makes it clear that we’re not meant to go backwards. We aren’t meant to unlearn all of the lessons we’ve learned that have made us into adults. The children that we’re meant to become aren’t the same as the children that we used to be. The Lord suggests this when He says that we need to be “born again” (John 3:3-8). We need to become “newborns” a second time—only the first birth was natural and the second is spiritual. These ideas are discussed in more detail in that chapter on the innocence of angels from Heaven and Hell. And now we’re going to turn to some passages from that chapter. We read: [§§277, 278].
Innocence is the heart of this whole body of doctrine. In the Word a little child symbolizes someone who is innocent—so when the Lord says that we need to become as little children, the message is that we need to learn innocence. But those passages also said quite clearly that the innocence of little children isn’t the destination: it was only a preview of the destination. The Lord is calling us to grow into a new kind of innocence, innocence that is joined to wisdom. We were children, now we’re adults; and we’re called to become wise children—something like and yet unlike what we were.
So what does this mean, in practice? First of all let’s get the obvious stuff out of the way: the Lord doesn’t want us to behave altogether like we did when we were children. Children are sometimes very sweet. They also throw appalling tantrums, and can be oblivious to the needs of anyone but themselves. To one degree or another we’ve all grown out of those qualities—and that’s good. Don’t go back.
So which of the qualities that we see in little children does the Lord want us to echo? The Heavenly Doctrine has quite a bit to say about this, and I encourage you to read the whole chapter on innocence from Heaven and Hell, but for now, for time’s sake, I’m going to suggest two qualities for us to focus on. The first quality is a willingness to accept help. Little children feel no shame at all in asking their parents for help. As we grow up we learn that there are things we can’t ask of other people—there are things that we’re responsible for. We often learn that lesson too well. We forget that we aren’t required to “do life” all by ourselves. The Lord in His Word makes it clear that we need Him. He says, “Without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). That’s not exactly a vague statement. We need Him—we depend on Him, like children depend on their parents to tie their shoes and keep them from getting lost on the way to the park. There’s nothing wrong with this—that we need Him isn’t because of some failure or inadequacy on our part. It’s just that we need our Father. Wisdom sees this, and innocence takes it to heart.
The second quality that we see in children that I’d like to call attention to is their willingness to accept that their parents are in charge. Of course little children embody this quality quite imperfectly. Sometimes they decide to do anything but what their parents say. “You want me to wear clothes? I will not!” But when they aren’t being contrarians, little children can be content with the fact that they don’t make the rules. Of course mom and dad are in charge—they’re mom and dad. When we’re little children it’s inescapably obvious that our parents can do things we can’t: they’re bigger and stronger than we are. It’s inescapably obvious that they know more than we do. So little children tend to trust the answers that their parents give them. A lot of the time they’re content to follow where their parents lead. The truth is that the gap between what we knew when we were little and what our parents knew—or the gap between what we could do when we were little and what our parents could do—is tiny compared to the gap between our present capabilities and the Lord’s. He is bigger than we are. Of course He’s in charge. Wisdom sees this, and innocence takes it to heart.
We don’t have to accept that He’s our Father. We are free to reject this. If we do accept it, then we’re going to go on a journey as we learn what it means. The reward, or the hope, at the end of this journey is that if the Lord is our Heavenly Father, then He can make all the world okay, the way that all the world was okay when we were little children in our parents’ arms.
Amen.
[1] See also Mark 10:24 and John 13:33