Being Kindled

AM Psalm 106:1-18 • PM Psalm 106:19-48
Zech. 10:1-12 • Gal. 6:1-10 • Luke 18:15-30

People were bringing their infants to Jesus, hoping that he might touch them, but the disciples ordered them to stop bringing their infants to him. In response, Jesus said to his disciples, “whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” This passage from our Daily Office reading begs us to ask, how can we receive the kingdom of God as a little child would? We also hear the story of the rich man who keeps the Law, but Jesus tells him that he must sell all his belongings and give the money to the poor.

There is an interesting little tidbit about the word ‘touch’ used in reference to Jesus and the infants: ‘ἅπτω’ (háptō) can be translated as ‘touch’, and rightly is, but it sometimes it means ‘to kindle’. One step in making a campfire is to gather and prepare the kindling, which is the tiny twigs and dry grassy stuff at the heart of the structure fire. If you have good kindling, then you can kindle or ignite a good fire. Babies are kind of like kindling. They are small, vulnerable, and full of potential. They also aren’t able to construct a moral appearance, they just exist. In contrast, the rich man who keeps the Law has gathered belongings and built up a moral appearance.

Belongings and good moral appearance aren’t bad in themselves, but they can be like heaping massive logs on an unlit fire; if the kindling hasn’t been properly tended to, the fire may not be able to be kindled and start. A pile of logs like that can look impressive, but at night, fails to ignite and produce light and warmth.

The story of the rich man, by reversal, teaches us that receiving the kingdom of God like a little child is about removing the heavy logs of outer moral appearance, a source of pride, and entering into a humble state of simply existing in the presence of God. Jesus’ command may seem like a ‘put your money where your mouth is’ kind of teaching, but it goes much deeper than that. It’s about removing the obstacles that prevent us from getting touched in the very center of our being by the life of God in Jesus Christ; about being kindled in our bare and vulnerable existence.

If we shake off our riches, our attachment to the prideful ways we want people to see us, we open ourselves in humility to being kindled, and God will turn us into blazing fires, ignited by the fiery Word of God, lighting the path towards, and entering into, the kingdom of God.

Written by Curtis Moneymaker

...who loves doing theology and going on a pilgrimage of the heart.