Jesus Loves Me

Our scripture reading for today is from 1st John, the third chapter and selected verses in that chapter. And so we're excited to read from God's Word today. Let's listen to what God has to say to us through His Word today. "See what great love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. Dear friends, we are now children of God and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. All who have this hope in Him purified themselves just as He is pure. For this is the message you heard from the beginning. We should love one another. This is how we know what love is. Jesus Christ laid down His life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no penny on them, how can the love of God be in that person?" This is the Word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. 

Good morning, church.

It's good to be here with you today as we finish our Children's Church Songs sermon series. I hope it's been beneficial to you and I know it has been for me as we've spent time in some of these things that have formed our faith and continue to have a solid foundation for it as we grow with Christ every day. Today's children's church song is without a doubt the favorite hymn of children around the world. It's literally sung in every nation and in all languages all over the world. But its impact is not limited to children. It's one of those songs that I think echoes in our hearts and in our minds and is waiting for when we need to be reminded of what truth really is. Missionaries say that when they're in foreign lands and a person comes to Christ that the first thing that they teach them is the song, "Jesus Loves Me." So if they know and have a foundation that they can build their faith on. 

One of the interesting things about this song is how it came about. It was originally written within the context of a novel written by Anna Warner in 1860 and the book is entitled Say and Seal. It was a bestseller in its day. And this song was never intended to be a song on its own. It was almost just a passing thought in the book as a man was trying to help a dying boy in the novel and so he wrote a poem to the boy. Now I dare say that there's not a soul in this room today who could give you the plot or a synopsis of the book, Say and Seal, but I bet with prompting every one of us could recite that poem that he wrote to this young boy. Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Little ones to him belong, they are weak but he is strong. That poem immediately jumped off of the page and took on a life of its own. When people read that they couldn't stop thinking about it. Almost the rest of the novel sort of became a by story of it all. That became the focus of it. It connected with the reader as the man tried to help a boy who was dying to find comfort to be reminded of God's love for him.

About a year later it was put to music by William Bradbury and he added the chorus at that time. The Bible tells me so. Our text for today that Steve read is just one reminder of this statement. One of many throughout scripture, it was written by John the gospel writer. He's writing here what we call an epistle. It's a letter that he wrote and he's continuing to further the messaging that he offered in the gospel. Helping us to understand the importances that were espoused through the life and teachings of Jesus.

And he says in our text for today, how great the love that our heavenly Father has lavished upon us that we can be called children of God. Then he calls us as we receive that love to love one another just as God has loved us recognizing that we know what love is in the first place because of Jesus who out of love laid down his life for us. The Bible is filled with statement upon statement upon statement upon statement reminding the reader of God's love for us manifested perfectly through the person and life of Jesus given so that we can see fully just how great God's love is for us.

And just as John says this is how we know what love is. Jesus laid down his life for us. Now I don't want us to dwell here for the entire sermon but I do feel it's worth our time for me to pause and point out a Christian doctrine called Atonement. Atonement is the doctrine that addresses how God reconciles the world through Jesus. Sometimes, when I'm trying to explain Atonement, I'll break that word down and say at-one-ment, at-one-ment. To illustrate how Jesus overcame the separation that sin created between God and humanity and made us one together again.

The problem with Atonement is there are several theories and oftentimes we limit our understanding of the theory of Atonement to the theory that says humanity broke God's law and incurred God's wrath and that wrath of God had to be satisfied. God demanded a penalty for our sin and Jesus took that penalty on our behalf. Now in some circles of Christianity that's the predominant theory around Jesus's death. The problem with that theory of Atonement—and you may have heard something similar to that or some analogies or images that take us down that path—the problem with it is that that theory of Atonement wasn't in existence for the first 1500 years after Jesus's life and death. I would say another problem with it is it paints God as a mean and vindictive God with no grace, and that's not how I understand God to be.

There are seven theories around Atonement and while we don't have time to go into all of those today the ones that I subscribe to more are the ones that were held by the early church, the early church fathers that revolve around the understanding that God needed to show the world a different way. We were drowning in our own sin caused by our own selfishness, by evil and that God needed to permeate through that and help us to see a different way to live, a different path to take, a way of selflessness, a way of love. So God sent his son Jesus to be an embodiment of who God is on earth in the flesh with skin on it so that we can see God when we see Jesus and so when Jesus teaches us we understand it is the way of God to show us a different way, a way that leads us to life.

And God sent Jesus knowing full well that in doing so there would be people that rejected him, that hated him, that felt threatened by his teachings and that would ultimately lead to Jesus's death in the hands of those who crave power and could not understand love. This general theory is embodied in a couple of the atonement theories, but most notably in the one entitled Christ is Victor. Christ accomplished his plan of showing humanity the way of love. He endured his death on the cross and rose victorious over the forces of evil, showing how powerful the force of God's love is in the world. To me, this does a better job of aligning with God's nature and character of who God is. It embodies the fact that yes, Jesus loves me and yes, Jesus loves you.

But there's another part of this song and I think sometimes we discard the power and importance of the song when it says little ones to him belong. They are weak, but he is strong. We think what's a children's song and so he's obviously just putting that in there to speak to children. But no, it's in there because the Bible tells us so. It's talking about children because children are important to God and Mark, there's a place and I love this text where Jesus overhears his disciples fighting, talking amongst themselves, wondering who is the greatest among the disciple? Who's the best disciple? They're competitive. I can't understand people who are competitive. And in the midst of that, Jesus turns to them and says, if you want to be great, if you really want to be the greatest disciple, if you truly want to be great, then you must be a servant of all. And then here's where my mind goes in this text. So bear with me, but this is how I read the text.

Jesus begins surveying the 12 in a moment of quiet after describing what it takes to be the greatest. And I think that the disciples are thinking to themselves, Jesus is about to settle our debate. He's about to tell us which one's his favorite and I'm sure it's going to be me. And then he bends down with 12 grown men there and picks up at a little child and he puts them on his knee. And he says, whoever welcomes this child, welcomes me. And whoever welcomes me also welcomes the one who sent me. And then he continues, conversely, whoever causes one of these little ones to stray, it would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a large milk stone tied around their neck. That's some of the strongest language Jesus uses in all of the gospel. He offers severe implications here for persons who cause harm to children.

What he describes, he says, would be better for them than the consequences of God for harming a child. Then Jesus finishes this section by saying, let the little children come to me. Hinder them not for these, for such is the kingdom of heaven. It's made up of little children who aren't corrupted by the ways of power and politics and selfishness who understand better the ways of God. You may have already thought of it, but there's a companion song to Jesus Loves Me. It was written about 10, 12 years after Jesus Loves Me, written by Herbert Woolston, who was a Presbyterian pastor. And there's no way to really know how influenced he was by "Jesus Loves Me," but I think it's evident in the timing of it, about a decade after the writing of "Jesus Loves Me," I think obviously plays into it. But Reverend Woolston wrote the song while he was pastoring in Philadelphia in a post-Civil War world. And he wrote it because in this post-Civil War world, he saw a bunch of emancipated slaves, a bunch of free slaves crossing the Mason-Dixon line heading north and settling in Philadelphia. He also at the same time, they had a huge influx of Irish immigrants who landed in Ellis Island and then migrated west and settled in Philadelphia. So they had these two huge groups of people coming to live and settle in Philadelphia and the Philadelphians were treating them poorly. They were brutal in their treatment of them, in fact. Very racist in how they responded to them. They didn't like having these freed slaves or these Irish coming into their city. And Reverend Woolston didn't like how he saw his fellow Philadelphians acting, especially his church members. So he wrote a song and during his sermon one Sunday morning, he sung it. Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world, red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world.

Church, I'll tell you as we wrap up this sermon series around children, church songs, that it's clear from scripture that if you want to know what side God is on, look for the side that protects and cares for and lifts up children. And woe to those who harm children because little ones to him belong. They are weak but he is strong. Jesus is always taking the side of the vulnerable and the weak and is willing to lend his strength to care for them. And our most favorite children's church song embodies that message. And I say that knowing that we know it's not hard, we've seen the scandals after scandals after scandals that so many children have been harmed throughout history in the church by those who were called to protect them.

It's one of the things that really makes me proud to be a United Methodist that we have an extensive safe sanctuary and safe spaces policy that governs how we care for children in a way that lifts them up and protects them to make sure that they are safe so that when we say Jesus loves you, they not only feel it but as John has already talked to our kids about, we've shown them through our actions because children are important to God. The Bible tells me so very clearly and plainly. Karl Barth, as we end, is one of the truly great theologians of the 20th century. I'm pretty sure it's Pastor Rebecca's favorite theologian, right? She had to take a class on him. But there's recorded a lot of times, especially towards the end of his life in the 1960s, that he was traveling around and he was doing a lot of guest lectures and guest teaching. And there's an instance recorded where he was teaching at a seminary in 1962 and he was asked a question by a young theology student. He was asked, Dr. Barth, could you summarize your entire theological work, which spans over 600 writings into one sentence and Barth, without hesitating, said, yes, that's easy. It's from a song that I learned on my mother's knee. Jesus loves me. This I know. For the Bible tells me so. 

Church, we make it too complicated sometimes. The simple fact of the Christian message is that Jesus loves me, that Jesus loves you, that Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world. Why? Because the Bible tells us so. Thanks be to God.

Amen.