“Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters… cannot be my disciple.”
Of course, this is the sentence that makes todays biblical readings somehow unfit for a celebration of baptism. At least at first sight. But on the other hand, it also goes along well with one of the messages in the baptismal readings. A reading stating that it is as children we shall enter the kingdom of God.
How so? Well, today’s reading of course directly says that not only earthly belongings, but earthly relationships as well, is of less importance in comparison to heavenly belongings and relationships. Something that without doubt is provoking.
But the reading does not provoke us merely to stop here, the reading provokes us to show how extensive it is to follow Christ. It transforms you, and not just to give up your earthly belongings. It grants you dedication, courage, and a strong will as well. All virtues that I will argue are stronger in children compared to adults.
Children. It is as if they dare a little more than us adults. At least I will argue so. They also seem to be a lot more dedicated and eager. They have a drive to learn and discover in an open-minded way. Virtues that – fear, I suppose – often makes us adults either forget or give up.
This is how I find that today’s biblical readings are quite fit for a celebration of baptism despite its view on earthly relationships.
Now, to come with a good example of what I have argued – that children are more dedicated, open-minded and brave in comparison with adults – I would like to retell a small part of the fairytale written in 1943 by the French author Antoine De Saint-Exupéry. The fairytale is called ‘The little prince’.
In ‘The little prince’ the narrator is a little boy who has crash landed with his plane in the Sahara dessert, and while there he meets the little prince. Together the boy and the prince talk about a lot of things.
One of things they talk about is how adults are weird. To them it seems that adults only care for ‘geography and history, math and grammer’. Things that the little boys do not find interesting at all.
They value other things like love and companionship, curiosity and open-mindedness. Faith one might add.
One of the first times we are told about how adults are like; it is the narrator who tells how he, aged six, dreamed about becoming a painter. He had made a painting – a masterpiece he thought – but the adults were not at all impressed by the painting. To them it just looked like a crooked hat.
The narrator does not give up on his ambitions though. He paints a second masterpiece showing the inside of his first painting. Because it was not at all a hat, it was a snake who had eaten an elephant.
Still, the adults are not impressed. Instead, this is what happened:
“The adults advised me to stop drawing snakes, open or closed, and instead take an interest in geography, history, math and grammar. Thus, at the age of six, I gave up a brilliant career as a painter.
I lost heart when my drawing number one and my drawing number two were not successful. Adults never understand anything completely by themselves, and it is so tiring for children to always having to come up with explanations”.
He lost heart. Stopped daring to do all it takes. Regarding following his dreams in the current example, but one could easily transfer the example into one relating to faith: He stopped believing because he was demotivated in his heavenly ambitions.
Throughout the fairytale, ‘The little prince’, the adults act in a similar manner that confuses the narrator and the prince. At a point in the book the prince for instance talks about encounters he had with adults as he was travelling away from the planet, he lived on visiting neighbouring planets.
First, he comes to a planet with a just king who tells the prince that “it is much more difficult to judge oneself than it is to judge others.” Something in which there probably is wisdom, but since there are no other people living on the planet on which the king rules, the prince still cannot fully understand why the king is so eager to rule.
The little prince also meets a vain man, who wants to be admired despite the fact that the man is the only inhabitant of his planet. Again, this makes little sense to the little prince. Why not be obsessed by something more important.
The little prince also meets a drunk who drinks because he is ashamed of his drinking. This, the little prince finds just as sad as he finds it strange.
The little prince also meets a businessman who does not have time to talk because he is too busy doing accounts. “What good does it do you to be rich?” the little prince asks. The businessman replies: “Then I can buy more stars.” Something that makes the little prince think that the businessman is a bit like the drunk.
Last, the little prince also meets a lamplighter who is in a hurry because his instructions for turning the streetlight on and off have not changed as the night and day on the planet where the lamp stands have shortened. Therefore, where he once only had to turn the streetlight on and off once a day, he now must do it every minute.
Leaving the area with all the planets of these adults, the little prince is convinced that all adults must be somehow silly. He liked the lamplighter the most, he concludes. Something he did because he was the only adult he met, who was not solely concerned about himself. At least he had a purpose outside himself, the little prince concludes.
Faith. By nature, it is life changing. By nature, it is demanding. Not though, in a forcing way, but in a transforming way that makes us somehow muster some of the virtues that we – just as the narrator and the prince in the fairytale – valued above all when we were kids.
Faith requires of us that we are children. Or perhaps more correct: True faith transforms us into the children we have always been. The children of God, created in his image.
How this transformation removes us from all that is earthly – relationships as well – might seem harsh, but the transformation still is a wonder and a blessing because in faith we become a part of something much bigger, something eternal.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.