By Jared Warner
Willow Creek Friends Church
October 25, 2026
Click Here to Join our Meeting for Worship
Matthew 18:1–6 (ESV)
1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 2 And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them 3 and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, 6 but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.
The discipline of celebration. We do not often think of celebration as a discipline. Instead we think of it merely as something that happens. But celebration is something that is attached directly with joy. Jesus taught in Mathew 18 when the disciples were arguing about who would be the greatest in the kingdom, he looked out among the people and called to himself a child saying, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”
If we were to study these verses, most would say that the point Jesus was trying to make was that children are vulnerable, dependent on their parents, socially marginalized because they do not have their own agency. Others might say that children have a posture of being receptive, they are inclined to receive instead of earning favor. These are all important things that Jesus may be drawing upon. I would even preach a message on each of those things depending on the proper slant of the contemporary moment.
That is the thing with scripture. It says much with little. There are terms that can be applied to it academically, exegesis and eisegesis. One speaks of the drawing meaning out and the other is reading meaning into. If we go to higher educational programs we are taught exegesis. What do the words mean? What is the context? Who was the group of people that first read it and what were they experiencing? Most of the time it is important to focus on exegesis, but there is a place for eisegesis.
I know that most educated people probably just gasped at that statement. But eisegesis is a different form of exploration. Most would say that exegesis explores the scripture to find the meaning and eisegesis seeks to find scripture to defend our meaning. Most would say that exegesis is the higher calling and eisegesis is imposing our own ideas onto scripture. I agree.
I agree greatly. I agree so much that I want to kick myself every time I read scripture because eisegesis is always right there. Why? Because we serve a living God. We worship a God that continues to teach. The Spirit that inspired the writing is the same Spirit that inspires the reading. But we need to be careful, because at times we can be listening to the wrong Spirit. Some times my spirit screams for validation, and the Holy Spirit is trying to teach me something. And it is easy to use scripture to confirm what I want.
When I consider Matthew 18, I do look at the culture. I look at the words but there is something whispering just at the back of my mind, “Why a child?” I can look, I can study, I can investigate the historic sociological status of children in the greater Roman empire, and the micro-sociological subset of Roman Palestine, but often that does not answer my question. I was once a child. I have children. I have grandchildren. So often I will sit in prayer considering the scripture, and contemplating my own life experiences. Prayerful eisegesis is what some might call it. I simply call it a prayerful conversation. And what does this conversation tell me?
Children get excited. For months Albert has been looking forward to this weekend. When our niece Moira graduated from High School we realized that things were going to change. For his entire life Moira and Albert would go out together to celebrate Halloween, when she became a teenager we would host the Halloween party for her friends. But now she is in college, he had to come up with something different, because Moria is not going to be here. So he urged us to do something more with his friends.
This has encouraged me to think about the meaning of what Jesus taught about the kingdom being like a child, and I am just beginning to understand the layers of what Jesus just might have meant. It is the vulnerability, it is the reliance, but it is also the child’s ability to adapt and find a way to experience joy even when everything seems to change around them. Is this exegesis, no, is it eisegesis also no. This is God’s Spirit showing me thing as I attempt to understand scripture. I am using what I know, what I have experienced to help understand what is going on in life.
Children get excited, children make joy.
In Richard Foster’s classic Celebration of Discipline, he writes about celebration his concluding chapter, saying, “Celebration brings joy into life, and joy makes us strong. Scripture tells us that the joy of the Lord is our strength. We cannot continue long in anything without it.” (pg 191 Celebration of Discipline, Special Anniversary Edition [Kindle]). We cannot continue long in anything without joy.
I want us to think about that statement for a moment. Consider it along side the words of Jesus, “unless you turn and become like a child you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Consider it against the laughter of the children in this meeting. And consider against the silence of a space without children.
We need joy. But how do we find joy?
Foster concludes his book on disciplines with celebration because, “Celebration is central to all the Spiritual Disciplines. Without a joyful spirit of festivity the Disciplines become dull, death-breathing tools in the hands of modern Pharisees. Every Discipline should be characterized by carefree gaiety and a sense of thanksgiving.”
Celebration is central to all Spiritual Disciplines.
I want us for a moment to consider our experiences at church. Is this how we would describe it? When we speak to others about what we believe, often the first words that leave our mouth are, “we don’t…”, and yet do we know why?
Unfortunately our American culture is filled with a lack of celebration. The first colonies that would eventually come together to form our nation, were started by people seeking a fortune, and those seeking the freedom to worship how they wanted. For those that want to keep track, the actual first was the one seeking fortunes. And the second prominent colony was the one founded on religion. But the one founded on religion was one that was very strict. The Puritans were not known for their large parties. We sometimes forget about that since put them in the spotlight during our retelling of the first Thanksgiving, which was essentially a party, at least a feast. But that was not their normal state of being. In most cases they removed many aspects of celebration from life. It was illegal to celebrate Christmas, in New England. And they took that so seriously that anyone found celebrating it could be fined. Just saying that out loud makes me shiver.
It was not until after the civil war that Christmas became a federal holiday. For nearly 200 years in America, that holiday we celebrate the hardest was illegal, and for the past 156 years it is so much a part of our culture that if someone says Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas we want to fight. And yet we forget that in Church history, the time from Halloween to February, all through the winter our calendar is filled with Holidays. The winter is the season of celebration. Have you ever stopped to think about that?
I am giving the Puritans a bad wrap, which they brought on themselves, but Quakers are not much better. In our attempt to revitalize the true authentic church, we rid ourselves of the sacraments and along with that holidays. We did not celebrate any day as better than another because all days were made by the Lord and we should rejoice and be glad in it. We would go so far as not using the regular days of the week or month names because they were worldly, instead we would call today 1st day, the 25th of 10th month, which is not confusing at all. The problem is it becomes difficult to rejoice if we do not have a reason to. And if we do not have a reason, very quickly we slip into something devoid of joy.
This is why Foster calls celebration a discipline.
As you all know Albert plays hockey. Its pretty clears since he is not here today because he is playing hockey. Over the past few years some have questioned the wisdom of a pastor allowing his son to play a game on a Sunday. I am going to tell you a secret. There is a reason I invest all potential disposable income, and all my free time into Albert playing hockey. When Albert straps on his goalie gear something changes in him. Albert is a great kid, do not get me wrong, he is helpful, generous, encouraging and most of the time he does these things without any direct encouragement from me or Kristy. He will do it simply because he knows someone needs it and he does it joyfully. But when he puts on his goalie gear, something changes. He become fierce and powerful, he becomes focused, and he has joy that you can see just barely contained within the cage of his goalie mask. Do I complain sure, but I will pay because when we contribute to the joy of others that joy is multiplied to us.
This is the point of celebration, multiplying joy, transferring joy to those around us within our community. We know that the world is filled with sorrow and suffering. Throughout human history we can read about the sufferings. If we watch TV later at night we will see ads telling us that for the price of your daily coffee you could help a child in need, or provide shelter for some lost and abandoned pet. We experience suffering, it is all around us. It just down the street outside of QuikTrip, its even in the church lawn once the sun goes down as people camp out under the slide. Suffering is part of life. Joy however is something that we struggle to find. One could make a good argument that what was actually lost in the Garden of Eden was joy, because joy is what was found in the garden. Everything was thriving. Everything had a place, a point, a purpose and to fulfill that purpose was to make joy complete or full. And God said after creation that it was very good.
But suffering does occur. By the sweat of your brow the earth with bear fruit. Or there will be increased pain in labor with children. Those curses that were given to our first parents, focus on suffering. But they also speak of life. We suffer and struggle to raise a family, it is not easy. It entered through our first parents and it has touched every culture and life since. Lament is a very real emotion, and a very real discipline also. We need to be able to lament. We need to be able and willing to release those deep seated sorrows that we push back and bury. The shame we try to hide. The illness we do not want to bother people with. We need to release them into the air. This does not sound too celebratory. But if we were to read through the psalms often David and the other writers of those great odes of praise speak of their sorrow. They speak of their suffering. They acknowledge the things within their lives that are not good.
This is confession. It is our verbal and spiritual agreement that what we are currently living is not good. It is not completing or fulfilling Edenic joy. I am in, and I have contributed to suffering instead of joy.
The Puritans and the Quakers can lament. We have a long history of this. Our spiritual ancestors were imprisoned for our beliefs. They went to jail because they did not remove their hats before nobility because we believed that all people were equal in the eyes of God. We spent time in prison because we would not swear oaths of allegiance to the crown or pledge allegiance to the flag.To swear allegiance means that we must do as that pledge states even if it goes against our convictions. And at that time to swear was to chose a side in a war, and to fight for that side. We would not swear. Not only because Jesus told us not to take an oath, but we would then have an obligation to take a life of a perceived enemy. And if everyone is equal how can that person be an enemy? We know lament, we know it because those were areas of suffering and we were making every attempt to ease that suffering.
But what about hope and joy? Are we looking for their glimmers, or are we so jaded with life that we are unable to see the silver linings in the clouds?
This is why Jesus reminds his disciples that the greatest in the kingdom is a child and unless we are able to become like a child we will never see the kingdom. Children see things differently. Have you watched a child play? Their imaginations take them almost anywhere. I grew up in the middle of nowhere, and there was always some old rusty implement somewhere that would become a spaceship, a fort on the frontier, or a pirate ship sailing the seven seas. The thing is I did not know much about any of those things. Did it matter. Not in the least. But it inspired me to get a book about pirates, or the wild west the next week during our visit to the library. Then those stories became part of our play. Without even knowing it, the play of children inspires the growth of knowledge and even greater creativity.
I remember once while playing on one of our many space ships, which happened to be be an old field rake, my brother and I were on surface of Mars. I remembered reading that the polar ice of that planet was made of frozen carbon dioxide. In our play there was fog all around us. That fog became deadly, we needed to avoid the fog because it would take away our oxygen and the acid it produced would eat away our space suits. We spent hours battling the fog. And then after lunch we were fighting against raiding parties that were harassing the people traveling along the Oregon Trail, and of course nursing all the people with dysentery back to health.
Children know how to play, they know how to make joy. We knew that we were poor, yet that did not stop us.
There is something else that children can do. They can pass joy on. Near the end of my grandma Gregory’s life my brother and I would often spend a Saturday with her. My grandma was an artist. And she specialized in painting landscapes on saw blades. We would go over and watch Bob Ross with her and she would talk about her paintings, where she found the pictures or where the picture was taken. She would tell us stories about why a certain place was special and why she chose to paint it on that blade and not the other.
My grandma had sever arthritis. What we did not know at the time was that she was not able to paint anymore because she could no longer hold the brushes. We did not understand the sorrow she was feeling at the loss of her ability to do what she loved. We enjoyed being able to sit close to the paints. After a few visits she asked us if we would like to paint. It was as if we had been asked to join the Kansas City Chiefs football team. We thought we were given the opportunity of a lifetime. So we eagerly said yes. She patiently directed us as we picked a picture to paint. She would go through the colors and help us determine what was the closest, and then she would let us figure out how to make the color darker or lighter. We both painted a landscape and I thought we were as good as Bob Ross, until I decided to paint a goose on mine. The goose was terrible and ruined the whole thing. But I still remember the time. My grandma invited us to help her finish using up the paint that she could no longer utilize. We assisted her to find a new way to express the passion she had. We helped her paint a couple more landscapes before she was completely unable to enjoy the art she loved. And we shared joy.
That is the thing. Joy and celebration are things we need to work toward. It does not just happen because there is pain, suffering and illness always trying to pull it away from us. In the moments we share together we can acknowledge our own weakness and pass what we have enjoyed to someone else. We need to find ways toward joy.
“Celebration brings joy into life, and joy makes us strong.” Foster says. We lament to release the sorrow, but what are we doing to celebrate? In ancient Israel they had one mandatory fast Yom Kippur, and three mandatory feasts Passover, Pentecost, and The feast of Booths. Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement they were to lament, they were to confess their short comings and repent, turn or change their direction as they were moving into the future. On that day their failures, their suffering, their sorrow were tied to a goat and that goat was driven out into the wilderness. This is where the term scape goat comes from. They placed all their failure on one goat and then drove it away. They did this symbolically, but in their hearts they still wrestled with the reality of the situation. What am I going to do to make the necessary changes?
Yom Kippur was a day of lament, but then there were days of remembrance and celebration. Days is the key word there. The feasts began on the Sabbath where they worshiped, they continued through the week, and ended on the next day of worship. These days of remembrance and days of celebration go together to prevent us from dwelling on our current situations. They remember the past, how God removed them from the house of slavery, they remember how God gave them the law and made them into a nation. And they remember how God provided for them during their desert wanderings. We need to remember, because the struggles of the past can often give us direction in the future.
Along with that remembrance we celebrate that we are no longer where we once were. We have moved forward into that once dark cloud and stand where we are today. We faced the uncertain future and God made a path forward. We lament the troubles of today and as we celebrate we recognize that there can be a bright future if we hope.
Over the past few years our nation has added a new holiday to the federal calendar. For most of us we do not understand the importance of the holiday, but I want us to think about Juneteenth. It is a day that celebrates the emancipation of all the people that were once held in bondage of slavery in the United States. My family were not slaves. Very few of my ancestors owned slaves. Many of my ancestors were active in the abolishion movement but that was something that was over a century ago. People have been upset about the addition of this holiday. But I want us to take a step back. Do we tell the people of Hebrew heritage to stop celebrating Passover? It is the same thing. It is celebrating the emancipation of slaves. No we do not tell them to stop, in fact we join with them in the celebration as that day not only gave them their freedom but it freed us also. We celebrate Passover with Israel, because Jesus releases all of humanity from the bondage of slavery to sin, through his life, death, and resurrection.
The new holiday is not merely a token vote getter, it is an opportunity for each of us to remember where we once were, and how we are no longer the same because we are free, and not only are we free but so are all people within our nation. We remember, and we celebrate the growth.
We remember, and we repent. We cannot make joy come to life, if we are holding onto and living in the lament. Consider the Psalms:
Psalm 90:1–17 (ESV)
1 Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. 2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. 3 You return man to dust and say, “Return, O children of man!” 4 For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night. 5 You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning: 6 in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers. 7 For we are brought to an end by your anger; by your wrath we are dismayed. 8 You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. 9 For all our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh. 10 The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away. 11 Who considers the power of your anger, and your wrath according to the fear of you? 12 So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. 13 Return, O LORD! How long? Have pity on your servants! 14 Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. 15 Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil. 16 Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children. 17 Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!
They lament then they praise. They release the sorrow and find something to promote joy. It takes work to celebrate, it takes discipline. If we do not make reasons to celebrate, we will be swallowed by the darkness around us.
We need to learn how to confess, repent, and turn. We need to learn how to live in the joy and celebrate even when Eden seems so distant. We need to be able to remember where we were and strive toward a greater goal. We need to become like children, able to find joy in the common, and make that joy full. And as we do this, we will be able to see glimmers of the kingdom now and prepare ourselves to live in the kingdom for eternity.
Previous Messages:
Brothers Loved by God
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church October 18, 2026 Click Here to Join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili 1 Thessalonians 1:1–10 (ESV) 1 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and…
Misplaced Confidence
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church October 04, 2026 Click Here to Join our meeting for Worship Philippians 3:4–14 (ESV) If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of…
Being of the Same Mind
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church September 27, 2026 Click Here to Join our Meeting for Worship Philippians 2:1–13 (ESV) 1 So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the…
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