April Letter From Pastor Don
This Tuesday, April 1st Becky, Zac and I will have been here at Wesley exactly nine months (It so happens I’ll also be 56 years old… Yes, I’m an April Fool. Not surprising, I know!), during which time, if you’ve been around, you’ve come to know about my children’s sermons. I enjoy the time I get to spend with the kids on Sunday morning, partly because Jesus made it a priority, and it’s important enough that all three synoptic gospels include stories about it, as seen in Matt. 19:13-15, Mark 10:13-16, and Luke 18:15-17. I wonder why people wanted to bring their “little children” (Matt and Mark) “infants” (Luke) to Jesus for him to touch? Why do the disciples try to stop them, and why do all three gospels record this event as happening when it does?
On Good Friday, March 24, 1978 (47 years ago) a major ice storm hit central Illinois and knocked out power to millions. I was just shy of 9 years old, and everyone in Argenta lost power. My best friend and his family, who lived next door to us, stayed at our house that weekend because we had just finished our new family room the summer before, and it had a fireplace, which we used to stay warm. We closed off the rest of the house, and nine of us lived in that family room for three days, including Easter. On Easter morning, my brothers and I, along with Troy (my best friend) and his little sister went on an Easter egg hunt through the front part of our then unheated house. It was great, and I will always remember that Easter as one of the best! But I imagine, if you ask my mom and dad, and Troy’s mom and dad, they may disagree.
Five kids and four adults living in close quarters with no electricity for three days—sound like fun? It was to me. It was a three-day sleep over with my best friend, and we got to cook stuff on an open fire INSIDE! Topped off with an Easter egg hunt. How cool is that!?
In response to the disciple’s stern efforts to stop people from bringing their infants and children to Jesus, he becomes “indignant” with them and said, “Let them come! The kingdom of God belongs to children, and if you don’t receive the kingdom like them, you won’t experience it.”
Parents brought their kids to Jesus because they wanted him to bless them. They’d heard about him. They knew what kind of power he had, and they wanted their kids to have a leg up in life. Who doesn’t want the best for their kids? The disciples were upset because they had an agenda for the day. There was serious stuff going on. Jesus was taking questions about divorce right before this, and right after this he tells a rich man to go and sell everything he has and give it to the poor, because it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. This is not child’s play! This is life-and-death stuff.
Yet, right in the middle of these serious discussions with the very religious Pharisees, and hard questions from wealthy and powerful individuals, Jesus stops, blesses, and expands the kingdom conversation to include what everyone else sees as an interruption and distraction.
The icy Easter interruption of 1978 has become a central memory of gospel grace to my nine-year-old self. It was probably a really difficult time for my parents. They had a lot to worry about in those moments. But just like the very first Easter, the kingdom comes amid our worries and distractions, and when we receive it like little children—curious, trusting, and hopeful—it becomes life changing, and life giving in new and unexpected ways.
Happy Easter and God bless!
Pastor Don Long, Jr.
Senior Pastor
On Good Friday, March 24, 1978 (47 years ago) a major ice storm hit central Illinois and knocked out power to millions. I was just shy of 9 years old, and everyone in Argenta lost power. My best friend and his family, who lived next door to us, stayed at our house that weekend because we had just finished our new family room the summer before, and it had a fireplace, which we used to stay warm. We closed off the rest of the house, and nine of us lived in that family room for three days, including Easter. On Easter morning, my brothers and I, along with Troy (my best friend) and his little sister went on an Easter egg hunt through the front part of our then unheated house. It was great, and I will always remember that Easter as one of the best! But I imagine, if you ask my mom and dad, and Troy’s mom and dad, they may disagree.
Five kids and four adults living in close quarters with no electricity for three days—sound like fun? It was to me. It was a three-day sleep over with my best friend, and we got to cook stuff on an open fire INSIDE! Topped off with an Easter egg hunt. How cool is that!?
In response to the disciple’s stern efforts to stop people from bringing their infants and children to Jesus, he becomes “indignant” with them and said, “Let them come! The kingdom of God belongs to children, and if you don’t receive the kingdom like them, you won’t experience it.”
Parents brought their kids to Jesus because they wanted him to bless them. They’d heard about him. They knew what kind of power he had, and they wanted their kids to have a leg up in life. Who doesn’t want the best for their kids? The disciples were upset because they had an agenda for the day. There was serious stuff going on. Jesus was taking questions about divorce right before this, and right after this he tells a rich man to go and sell everything he has and give it to the poor, because it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. This is not child’s play! This is life-and-death stuff.
Yet, right in the middle of these serious discussions with the very religious Pharisees, and hard questions from wealthy and powerful individuals, Jesus stops, blesses, and expands the kingdom conversation to include what everyone else sees as an interruption and distraction.
The icy Easter interruption of 1978 has become a central memory of gospel grace to my nine-year-old self. It was probably a really difficult time for my parents. They had a lot to worry about in those moments. But just like the very first Easter, the kingdom comes amid our worries and distractions, and when we receive it like little children—curious, trusting, and hopeful—it becomes life changing, and life giving in new and unexpected ways.
Happy Easter and God bless!
Pastor Don Long, Jr.
Senior Pastor
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