Do you hear what they say?

It's quite strange when a member of your family is a minister of word and sacrament and you go to hear them preach, you know them well, all their idiosyncrasies, strengths, weaknesses, and when it's your big brother, a lifetime of memories! Although strange it was also very moving and reassuring to be in my brother's church this morning as he led the Palm Sunday Service, when you know someone well it makes the whole experience powerfully authentic.

I was left thinking about the messiness of that day at the start of Holy week, a week that was going to get increasingly messy, as Steve Turner says in his poem "Christmas is really for the children"...

"It has whips, blood, nails,
a spear and allegations
of body snatching.
It involves politics, God
and the sins of the world.
It is not good for people
of a nervous disposition."

And yet children circulate around the story of Jesus' arrival in Jerusalem, culminating, in Matthew's account, of the "indignation" of the chief priests and teachers of the law, as the children shout praise to Jesus in the temple. Shouting in a holy place, giggling, laughing, being unpredictable, being absorbed in the moment, as the noise, excitement, and experience of the street tumbles into the Temple?

How do we cope with children's behaviour in our "holy" places,at our "sacred" moments? Do we let them be integral to what we do? Do our children tumble into our church services, able to express their thoughts and feelings, able to grow spiritually.

Are children an inconvenience - maybe this is unlikely in our culture today, but are they merely a form of "entertainment" in our services? To look cute, to give us the occasional laugh, or do we give them their place to praise God, to express their faith, to share their stories, to praise and pray? Do we listen to the children in our midst; that was Jesus' question to the religious leaders - do you hear what they are saying? Are we listening? That might involve losing some of our dignity in the process!

Jen