The Children of God in Christ
This Sunday I have my monthly Sunday off, so this is a very short homily for the Third Sunday of Trinity (year III), Sunday 29th June, 2025. This is a slightly expanded translation of a reflection I have written for the local newspapers in Kvinnherad, Norway. The readings are as follows: 1 Samuel 1:9-18; 1 John 3:1-3; and Mark 10:13-16. Unless otherwise noted, when quoting Scripture, I will use the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition (RSV-2CE), corrected to British spelling.
Today is also the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, which in the Church of Norway is always held (under the name “the Apostles' Day”) on the sixth Sunday of Trinity (which is on 20th July this year). In my expansion I will try to elaborate on this, as I will also not be preaching on that day, as I will have my annual leave.
Collect of the day (translated by yours truly):
Let us Pray:
Eternal God, fount of all joy, you have asked us to go out and invite to your great feast. We pray: Unite us at your Eucharistic table so that we may be strengthened on the way to the heavenly banquet, through your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one true God, world without end. Amen.
Last week the theme of the Divine Service was baptism as the gift of the Holy Spirit, that “unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (John 3:5). Now, this week, we take a closer look at what that may entail. This week’s Gospel is the text we read every time we baptise infants and children, that Jesus was angry with the disciples who turned away those who brought children to him. “Let the children come to me, do not hinder them; for to such belongs the kingdom of God” (Mark 10:14). He says that children, just like adults, can enter into the kingdom of God, into where one cannot enter “unless one is born of water and the Spirit.” In fact, He puts it as radically as this: “Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it” (Mark 10:15).
In our time and in our culture, especially here in Norway, children have a privileged position. We see this particularly when we celebrate Christmas or our Constitution Day. We even say that they are children’s days. Perhaps this can cause us not to fully understand the gospel reading. Because at that time, children did not have such a privileged position. They were often seen as less important. But Jesus turns this upside down. For Him, the children set the standard. It is their natural trust that should inform our lives and our relationship with God. It is precisely when we come to God with childlike trust that Jesus takes us in His arms and blesses us, laying His hands upon us. I think that as many priests and deacons are being ordained this weekend, all over the world, at Petertide, it is essential that we reflect on this. We are not called to pride but to humility, to model the very image of trust that a child does, even though it is not easy, or particularly because it is not easy. Pride is a serious problem and a sin, and we must try to overcome it, not through our own efforts, which will either produce despair, as we fail, or more pride, when we delude ourselves into thinking that we have achieved it. No, we must humbly approach God, like a child, and say: “Help me, Father. Kyrie eleison.”
As priests and bishops, we are called to to baptise and to teach, to preach the gospel, the message that tells us that it is not when we perform the best we can or when we are most proud, but when we humbly and trustfully receive, that we can become like God, as the apostle John says in one of the readings this Sunday: “Beloved, we are God’s children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). Note that we do not receive this because of some effort or strain on our behalf. We shall see God because He has already made us His children and because He appears to us. Like a good Father, he gives all His children, and He does so through the preaching of His gospel.
My own church, the Church of Norway, was founded over 1000 years ago because some people humbled themselves to go on a mission to this country in the far north. But they did not come to fill our heads with abstract knowledge but to emphasise the simple gospel, that we are sinners, that we cannot save ourselves, and that there is salvation for those who seek God with childlike trust.
I have been entrusted with this for just over 11 years now, since my ordination on 15th June 2014. When I was ordained, I was told to pray. And now I repeat that to you. Prayer is essential to the Christian life, and it is one of the things that really highlight what it entails to be like a child. Before God, our Father, we have nothing to offer that He has not already given us. But we can come to Him in trust. When we offer prayers, no matter how simple or complex they are, we are conformed to Christ. Prayer puts us in contact with Him, with the source of life.
What God is telling us today is that when we have received grace and salvation from Him, we must also spread it to those we meet, just as a child spreads his joy to everyone. We must keep the word of God alive. God is the Lord who came to us, as one of us, in Jesus Christ. And through Him we can find grace, so that we become one with God. We cannot create it ourselves, we can only accept it as a gift, when He appears to us. So receive the Lord’s blessing and be united to Him.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, who was, is, and will remain, one true God, world without end. Amen.