Children Are Listening

Children Are Listening

April 19, 2026

By: Elle Mann

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I have to say this before I begin.  Pastor Mike asked me to give the message for today over a month ago, and I honestly couldn’t figure out what I wanted to talk about up until Palm Sunday.  As we’ve done so many times before, we had a number of members of our congregation come up and tell the story of the crucifixion and burial of Jesus, as found in scripture.  It truly is one of the most powerful stories in the entire Bible.  I was assigned to read the part of the story that started where Jesus is mocked and scorned by the people.  My part of storytelling ended as the Son of God takes his final breath.  As usual, that part struck me, right in the chest.  I could feel this ache, tugging at my heart.  However, this time it was for an entirely different reason than in past years.

As I read the scripture, I thought about the people, ridiculing Jesus, mocking him, taking away his clothes, spitting on him as they moved him through the streets on the way to be executed.  All of that hate on display, for someone they didn’t actually know.  For someone who was nothing but himself, the Son of God, manifested as a good man, just trying to help others.  It’s a pretty awful thing to think about.  But my mind wasn’t just on the people screaming in the streets.  It was the ones who weren’t necessarily there, or perhaps they were there, but we never really hear of them or their reactions in this story.

When we’re young, we’re learning a lot of new things.  We learn how to walk, how to ride a bike, we learn how to read and write, and for better or for worse, we learn the basics of math.  But some of the most important lessons that we learn aren't always the most obvious.  And a lot of the time, the people teaching those lessons may not even be aware of it. 

How many people in this room have heard of the famous Stephan Sondheim?  Alright, now how many people are familiar with his musical hit:  Into The Woods?  Great.  The reason I bring that up is because there’s a line from this show, right at the end, that I believe sums up the exact point I want to get across.  “Careful the things you say/children will listen/careful the things you do/Children will see and learn.” 

So, as I said before:  the pain I felt in my heart on Palm Sunday was more focused on the unseen participants.  The children.  The kids who were witness to their parents and/or parental figures degrading and demeaning a man that they hated.  What were they thinking?  What was their reaction to this?  Were they in support of this?  Or did they just go along with it because they didn’t understand exactly what was going on? 

Growing up, I was very lucky that my parents taught me to love.  Whatever form that it came in, that was their number one rule.  And as I’ve gotten older, none of that has changed.  And I’m grateful for it.  Now, this isn’t to say that I don’t have moments when I let my anger or distaste get the best of me.  I’m a rather emotional person, I feel things in big amounts, and sometimes what I say doesn’t exactly follow that rule.  Especially with all of the unrest going on around the world.  

But then I wonder:   How did we even get here in the first place?  What brought us to the point where it feels as though every part of the earth is on fire?  Why can’t we go a day without terrible things taking place? I know I couldn’t possibly answer that loaded question in a short amount of time:  as there are many reasons and it would take hours, if not days or years to answer it.  And I know you all have things you need to do, so I just want to focus on one of the potential reasons.  

One of my favorite movies is 42, the true story of the life of the first black man to play Major League Baseball:  Jackie Robinson.  Before him, every single player in the highest professional league was white.  That was until the Brooklyn Dodgers signed Jackie in 1947.  A bunch of stuff goes on in the movie, but this is what has always stood out to me as someone who watches it at least once a year.  

A lot of Jackie’s teammates aren’t kind to him, and many of the fans and players all over the league, spout racist statements to him during games. Sometimes Robinson would receive life-threatening letters at his family home.  In fact at one point, his own teammates started a petition to try and kick Jackie off of the Dodgers because they didn’t want to play with him.  Now why is this?  All because of the color of his skin.  Why do we treat other human beings like this?  Again, that is a loaded question, but when you get down to the root of it, it starts with what we’re taught as children.  Many of Jackie’s teammates were most likely taught by their parents that anyone who wasn’t white was lesser than.  

Imagine that.  

Hatred towards other people doesn’t just pop into our head out of the blue, it's repeated to us until we start to believe in it.  When we’re children, our brains are still in the early stages of development.  So when we hear something, we tend to run with it because we don’t know any better.  So when the players and fans say those terrible things, it is truly horrifying, but it all starts to make sense.  There’s even a scene where a father and son go to a game, and the son watches and listens as his father yells racist slurs at Jackie.  You can see the troubling dilemma going on in the young boy's mind as his father does this, but then he follows suit and yells similar words at Jackie. If the father hadn’t done any of that, would his son have?  

Towards the end of the movie, a good amount of the players come around and start to support Jackie.  This serves as a lesson about how hatred can be unlearned just as well as we can learn it.  But when we see or hear things over and over again while we’re growing up, it can take awhile to move past it.  It also takes the will to want to change.

So when those men and women were spitting at Jesus, yelling awful names at him and insulting him as he was dragged through the streets, it is a possibility that the children of these people were paying attention, and the animosity and violence could have become an image that was stuck in their brain about how to treat Jesus when they saw him.  

Of course this thought of mine is completely and one hundred percent hypothetical, as we don’t really have any evidence to support it.  But I just can’t get this thought out of my head.  

I have experienced what it’s like for my friends to be hateful towards others.  When I was in sixth grade, my friends and I were having lunch when I brought up that my family and I were fans of the television show “Glee.”  A couple of friends agreed, saying they loved that show.  But everyone else at the table started rambling about how the show was disgusting because it featured characters who were openly gay.   

Before I could even begin to argue, one of my friends at the time said “Anyone who’s gay is going to hell.”  An eleven year old said this.  And one of my other friends reached across the table and gave them a high five.  I remember going home to my parents in tears, telling them about what had happened.  I told them I was worried for my Uncle Matt and Uncle Mike, who I had known and loved my whole life.  And who were two of the most wonderful people I’ve ever known.  How could anyone think such a horrendous thing was true?  That’s when my parents told me that my friends had probably been taught that by the parental figures in their lives.  The people who were teaching them “right and wrong” were telling them that someone was dangerous just because of who they were in love with. 

Which makes me even more grateful to have the parents I have.  

This is just another example of why what we teach children is important.  What we place emphasis on when we are helping the kids of this world learn; is what they’re going to bring with them into adulthood as a core value.  So maybe as a society, it’s better to teach love, instead of judgement and hatred.  

After all, isn’t that what Jesus wanted us to do?

To love our enemies as we love our friends.

There are so many examples in the world today that show what happens when we marginalize and ridicule certain communities.  The genocide in Palestine, Russia’s war on The Ukraine, the conflict in the Sudan.  Here in the United States, where we have a president who villainizes anyone who doesn’t think, talk, or act like him.  A president who is trying to turn the military against the people they’re supposed to protect.  It makes it really difficult to look at the ones who continue to support him with grace.  And there are often times where I want to tear my hair out or climb a mountain and scream in the open air because I cannot believe that there are people that even swear by these hateful ideologies.  

But then I remember:  this wasn’t something they were inherently born with.  These people that are stuck on this train, they didn’t just appear there out of thin air.  They were fed these ideas, just as their parents were.  And they were by their parents, and so on and so forth.  

Now, recognizing this doesn’t necessarily make me feel any better.  And it doesn’t have to.   But at least I can offer them some grace.  Even if they refuse to walk a mile in my shoes.  Even if they refuse to do anything but scorn me for my moral beliefs; at least I can offer them a bit of grace. 

A lot of things we learn as kids don’t necessarily stick with us.  But the important things, such as morals, such as the way we treat other people, the way we treat animals and the world around us, those things we learn early on.  And the ones we watch while we’re growing up…that’s who we are most likely going to become in some way.  

There’s a song by the all-women’s country group The Chicks, called “I Hope,” which is on their Grammy winning record “Taking The Long Way.”  Some of you may remember that I sang this song a few years ago with the help of the choir.  There’s a line in the pre-chorus where the lead singer Natalie Maines sings one of my all-time favorite lyrics.  It goes like this:  “Our children are watching us, they put their trust in us, they’re going to be like us.”  Which, like the Sondheim lyric, tells us to pay attention to our children.  And our grandchildren.  Our nieces and nephews.  It’s reminding us to teach them.  So, if you’re going to teach them anything, let it be this.  Teach them kindness and understanding.  Teach them that it’s okay to make mistakes.  That expressing themselves is important, no matter how they do it. Whether it’s through playing sports, doing theater, writing stories, singing songs.  Teach them that just because someone has different beliefs or lifestyles, it doesn’t make them lesser than.  Teach them to fight for what they believe in, and to stand up for those who can’t stand up for themselves.  Teach them to listen.  Teach them to ask for help when they need it.  To share their feelings.  Teach them about empathy.  About sympathy.  Teach them to apologize when they hurt someone.  

All of these things are rooted in love.  So if you teach them these things.  You’re helping them to learn about and live by God’s number one rule. You’re helping them learn to love.  And there are much worse things to learn.

“Careful the things you say, children will listen.  Careful the things you do, children will see and learn.”

Amen.