As it’s St Fillan’s 900th anniversary I’m looking at Rev. Rutherford’s children’s address, where he talks about the history of the church, this one is for 3rd December 1967, and he is talking about the Baptismal Window.
If I were to ask you to draw a picture of baptism, what would it be? It is difficult, many would draw a picture of a mummy and daddy standing with their baby before the font. When this church was restored, I imagine the artist who was responsible for the stain glass window must have also wondered how to draw it. He drew the lovely picture we have today with all its detail. Have you noticed the little boy feeding the birds?
If you look at the closely, it looks like the story of the mothers bringing their children to Jesus. The disciple were angry with them and told them that Jesus didn’t have time for the likes of them. Jesus then told the disciples off saying, “for such is the kingdom of God”.
It is a picture of an other occasion.
Jesus met with the disciples and he could see that they were angry and asked what had they been quarrelling about. Jesus realised they had been arguing about which one of them was better than the others. Jesus then picked up a child and said “Whoever received on of these children in my name, receives me, and whoever receives me, received the one who sent me.”
Children were seen to be unimportant – another mouth to feed.
What Jesus was saying was, If you really want to be great, then you won’t achieve greatness through holding a position, or being a leader, real greatness comes through helping the unimportant people, the needy, the lonely and hungry.