wfn.org | Gratefully Receive Jesus' Love, Worshipers Urged

[PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org]

21-June-1997 
GA97131 
 
         Gratefully Receive Jesus' Love, Worshipers Urged 
 
SYRACUSE--Saying the story in Mark's gospel about the little children 
coming to Jesus should be titled "Rebuking the disciples," not "Blessing 
the children," Assembly preacher the Rev. Joanna Adams urged worshipers 
June 21 to "receive the promised kingdom with grateful hearts." 
 
   Adams, pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, called Mark 
10:13-16 "a radical challenge to the powers of the world."  She said of the 
children in the story: "They had nothing to show for themselves, nothing to 
offer, nothing to warrant Christ's blessing, but his love, his blessing and 
his kingdom was theirs nevertheless." 
 
   She said it is hard for Christians to gratefully receive such a gift of 
grace "because we want to bring SOMETHING -- our good works, our 
forgiveness of our enemies, our theological understanding."  But in the 
end, she continued, "all I really have is the dust and breath, the joy and 
hope, the need and willingness that is me.  I am loved because God loves 
me, I am welcomed because it's God's nature to welcome us all." 
 
   And so, Adams concluded, "It is not for us to build the kingdom, but to 
receive it; not to set the standards for admission, but to gratefully enter 
it." 
 
Jerry Van Marter 

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