became self-conscious. My priorities morphed from my
children and I living into our call to discipleship together to not letting them embarrass me. While I stead- fastly refused to take my children to the nursery so they could worship, my tone changed. I became quicker to snap. Wary of every stray noise, I began reminding my girls fre- quently: “Shhh—quiet voice.” And they noticed. Hearing my refrain in my
daughter’s voice led to a double take. T e other refrains that punc- tuated our life together matched my expectations. At school I encour- aged, “Learn lots!” With friends I exclaimed, “Have fun!” But at church, with the mantra, “Shhh— quiet voice!” I muddied the waters. Just as surely as school is centered
on education, my children were experiencing church as a place that centers on silence and decorum, where they, with their eager voices and wiggly bodies, were more of an imposition than a part.
But Jesus says … T is is a far cry from “Jesus loves the little children.” Nor is it what discipleship is about. Jesus isn’t concerned about decorum. He never hushed his disciples. But Jesus does reproach his disciples when they attempt to prevent a group of little children from approaching him. Jesus reminds adults that our
calling is not simply to teach kingdom behavior to children but to learn it from them too. To allow children to model Christ for us. For “Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it” (Luke 18:17). So what if we listen to Jesus? What if we let our noisy, wiggly children be the example? I gave it a try. When I listened to my children’s
voices rather than silencing them, amid the giggles and chatter I learned that there’s more to wor-
ship than looking good to my neighbors or being able to hear the preacher. I learned about community. A community in which,
through bread and wine, Jesus dwells in my toddler’s tummy. A community that inspires my children to want to “share the peace” even with the villains from their toys and TV shows. A community into which my 7-year-old is excited to invite displaced families through our congregation’s new shelter ini- tiative. “Because,” as she reminded me, “every child should have a home.” But most of all, a baptismal community. So I have a new refrain. T ese
days as we enter worship, instead of pre-emptively shushing my children, I pause with them at the baptismal font, mark a cross on their foreheads and say, “Child of God, you are sealed with the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of
Christ forever.” And lest I forget, they remind me
that I am too.
Author bio: Allen, an ELCA pastor, is a doctoral fellow in Theology and Practice at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn., and a regular contributor
to Political Theology’s “Power in the Blog” (
www.politicaltheology.com/blog ).
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