When our son Kevin was four years old, he said to his mother one day, "Mommy, I don't want to grow up. I want to always be your little boy." If that were a permanent desire, it would be unhealthy.
After the Second World War, Gunther Grass wrote a novel which achieved best seller fame. He called it the Tin Drum and it was about a boy who decided at three years of age that he was never going to grow up.
That really is not unusual. Countless people make this decision or act as though they have a decision never to grow up. Growth is not on their primary agenda.
Though September is two-thirds through the year, we see it as a kind of new beginning. We've had our summer vacations. Children are returning to school, we are at a transition period of seasons. The Fall air will soon become colder. Football has already begun, and tension over television between husband and wife will become more intense. And, of course, the Fall is a kind of kick-off for the church year here at Christ Church.
So it's a good time to think about growth. It is a Scriptural admonition. Sit down with a concordance of the Scripture. If you don't know what a concordance is that's a book where the words that appear in Scripture are arranged alphabetically. So, you can think of a word and go to the concordance and see where that word appears in a Scriptural text.
Look up the word continue and read the verses that call you to continue. Here are some samples of what you will find.
"Continue following the Lord your God" (I Samuel 12:14) "Jesus said,...'If you continue in My word, you are truly my disciples..." (John 8:31)
"As the Father has loved Me, so I have loved you; continue in My love." (John 15:9)
Paul and Barnabas spoke to them "and urged them to continue in the grace of God." (Acts 13:43) When you look up the word grow, you will find passages like this:
"The righteous flourish like the palm tree, and grow like a cedar in Lebanon."
"But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into Him who is the head, into Christ..." (Ephesians 4:15)
"Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation " (I Peter 2:2)
"But grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." (I Peter 3:18)
We could go on and on with that and I hope you will. Do it as a spiritual exercise sometime during this coming week looking up those words continue and grow and see how the Scripture calls us to continue to grow.
In our Scripture lessons today the call is clear continue in the faith and continue in these teachings.
In the Colossians passage Paul reminded his readers who they were and from where they had come. They were estranged from God, hostile in mind, doing evil deeds. But now they were reconciled to God through the death of Jesus Christ. The purpose of Christ in their life was to perfect them, to bring them to maturity as God's people that He might present them "holy and blameless and irreproachable before (God). This would be possible, he said, if they continued steadfastly in the faith.
Paul's letter to Timothy makes the case even more specifically. Listen again to verses 7 and 8: "Train yourself in godliness, for while physical training is of some value, godliness is valuable in every way." And hear again verses 14 through 16: "Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you through prophecy with the laying on of hands by the council of elders. Put these things into practice, devote yourself to them, so that all may see your progress. Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; continue in these things, for in doing this you will save both yourself and your hearers."
So, this is the theme for the sermon series from now until Thanksgiving: Continue to Grow. Our sermon today insists that to live is to grow.
Earlier, I used my son Kevin and the novel, The Tin Drum, to picture the situation of many people who have decided not to grow. They want to stay little to remain children. That's a deadly decision not to grow. But I want to use the image of a child or the nature of children, as a challenge for us. You remember Jesus' experience with His disciples and children. When the crowd brought children to Him for Him to touch them, the disciples scolded them. But when Jesus saw this He was very indignant and He said to them, "Let the children come to me; do not try to stop them; for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you, whoever does not accept the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it." (Mark 10:13-15 NEV)
Jesus is not only affirming children, He is showing us the possibility that is our when we take upon ourselves the character of a child and all that implies.
"Pay attention to yourself", Paul urged Timothy in our Scripture lesson. So we must pay attention to ourselves and give unceasing care to the fact that we are to be child-like to be open to be growing and changing. The poet Rainer Rilke was right: "That which would remain what is it is renounces existence. To live is to grow. Now, having made that case, let's be more specific. I want to make some practical suggestions about conditions for growth. I.
One, if we are going to grow, most of us are going to need a change of focus. That means basically we have to make a decision to grow.
Growth is not accidental. It is intentional, purposeful. There may be giant leaps which we make unconsciously. Somewhere along the way there may come great strides in development but more often than not these come as by-products. Primarily, however, we make the decision to grow. This is not to say that we manufacture growth. We don't anymore than a doctor manufactures healing. We simply become persons open to the possibility, and giving ourselves to the condition in which growth takes place. A primary condition is a change of focus.
That's what Paul is talking to the Colossians about. He reminded them that they were once estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds. But now they were reconciled by the death of Christ they had been forgiven and they could begin to live a new life.
The change of focus is a call to live in the fact of our having been forgiven by God and the possibility that God is present with us now to grow us up into the likeness of Jesus Christ.
That is a call to leave the past behind and not allow the future to petrify you to live in the now with the powerful presence of Christ energizing us and providing change. Little growth can take place without a change of focus from the past or the future to the now.
Back in March, 1990, at least 1000 auklets perished along the beaches of the San Francisco Beach area. Auklets are sea birds built to dive and not fly. They are dependent on the krill and small fish the ocean constantly brings them.
Over a period of about ten days a large pool of warm, stagnant water lacking most forms of marine life remained closer than usual to the bird's feeding area. The birds began starving to death by the hundreds. Area wild life officials were at a loss to prevent it.
That is a parable. The auklets were dependent on what the ocean was constantly bringing them. That food was not present in the stagnant waters being left unfed by the tide.
Our natural habitat is not in the past nor in the future, but in the now. There is no food for us to grow in the past or in the future. It is a matter of taking advantage of what is going on now.
So we have to have a change of focus if we are going to grow.
II.
Another condition for growth is self-affirmation. Fulfillment and growth are dependent upon our capacity to affirm ourselves. This self-affirmation comes from an awareness and an acceptance of the many sidedness of our being. We are able to recognize and affirm our weakness and strength, our concern and apathy, our hopes and fears, our potentials for creativity and destructiveness. We are aware that we are all these things, and yet we're a unique unrepeatable miracle of God.
Woodrow Wilson was a man of great personal gifts. He was not, however, the best-looking fellow in the world, and he knew it. He was fond of quoting the limerick of Anthony Euwer:
"As a beauty I'm not a great star,
There are others more handsome by far;
But my face I don't mind it
Because I'm behind it
'Tis the folks out in front that I jar.
(Quoted in Be Your Whole Self, page 154)
This may be a negative approach, but it is a necessary condition for growth. Self-affirmation involves accepting our limitations.
But it also involves the other side of the coin honest assessment in recognizing our potential. Not only to accept our limitations, but to be aware of our potential. This Fall we are going to be offering you an opportunity to explore and to affirm the particular gifts that are yours. Each one of us is gifted gifted for ministry and service. In the Christian view of reality we are never fulfilled, complete meaning is not ours until we use the gifts God gives us to serve Him and human kind.
III.
A third condition for growth is what I call "exposure and openness".
Growth is not a private matter. We grow by exposing ourselves to persons and ideas. There is a simple way to test your level of maturity, also your readiness to grow. How do you feel in the presence of some one whose ideas are radically different from yours? Are you threatened by that person? What about people whose dress obviously sets them apart? Or people of another race or nationality or religion?
I had one of the most meaningful letters I have ever received from a woman in this congregation a couple of months ago. It was about a ten page letter. The woman shared her own spiritual journey, pouring out the tension in her life and a growing edge in her faith. A member of her family is a homosexual. That has been a hidden fact in the family as far as conversation and honest sharing no one ever revealed their feelings about it until a few years ago. The homosexual member of the family began a very serious journey of faith and since our church member who wrote the letter was on a similar journey, this brought them together.
I wish everyone of you could read the letter because it confronts issues with which we need to deal. Very powerfully, this friend pointed out the fact that our church was doing an outstanding job making this congregation a place of hospitality for recovering people. I rejoice in that. Nothing going on in this church is more meaningful than our ministry to recovering people, and the impact that is having on this community.
The question is how do we do that with others? How do we do it, for instance, with homosexual persons. We have homosexual persons in this congregation. I want them to feel as much at home as do recovering people. I want them to know that this church is a place of hospitality for them, even as it is a place of hospitality for all those who are seeking God's grace.
The big question is how do we sound our conviction about what is right and wrong, how do we proclaim that certain conduct is incompatible with the Christian life, and not diminish persons who may be practicing such life-styles. How do we make them welcome and open our hearts to them in order that the grace of God might be conveyed to them in order that they will feel accepted by God and find the power to change.
It isn't necessary that we know complete ease in the presence of indifference or disparity. Such ease is rare. But to be threatened to the point that we refuse to be open to different people and different ideas, is not only a sign of immaturity, it precludes the possibility of growth. Paul said, "I'm a debtor both to the Greeks and the barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise." (Romans 1:14 KJV).
When we shut ourselves up in the security of relating to "our own kind", we become provincial and growth is stymied. An old movie which made it to the late spot on television sometime ago provided a parable for this failure. The scene was a tavern where the main character stood at a bar, drinking. His wife came to the door of the barroom and called to him, "John, come on home." The man turned slowly and looked at her, then said deliberately, "I am home."
That's the way it is in life. We are "at home" in a certain place, among certain people. If were not careful though we become hide bound, closed, shut up, and are never exposed to anyone or anything that stimulates growth.
If we're going to grow we need exposure exposure means nothing unless we are open.
IV.
Let me suggest one other condition for growth. We must have the courage to fail. It is doubtful whether we will grow significantly as persons unless somehow we appropriate that courage the courage to fail. A play it safe stance in life forms a protective armor that shuts out any growth stimuli. Growing is risking business!
After several years in Africa, working in the midst of overwhelming difficulties as a missionary, Florence Allshorn returned to England to establish a training center for missionaries. She was a pioneer in spiritual growth and discipline. Her St. Julian's Community still provides a setting for growth and is known as a great interpretative expression of the Christian faith. One understand the impetus behind such a person when she shares so honestly. She once wrote:
"I think my sin is aimlessness, but it's difficult to know what to aim at. I do want to justify my existence. There's such a zest in life just now. I feel life's just starting again. I believe I shall all my life be chucking up the old things and going in for new, because it's so invigorating pelting into the unknown, and I believe I shall always be falling out of the frying pan into the fire. And God save me from ever settling down... These are things that daunt you the shallows of yourself. Still I'm not going to be daunted. I'm out for the hazard again. Is it so impossible to live up to your utmost? I'll dare to try."
Florence Allshorn was a growing power because of her willingness to risk, to hazard, because of her courage to fail. (Be Your Whole Self, page 158)
Someone has said that those who are security minded may be"so afraid of going broke that they are unwilling to go for broke." That cannot be true of us if we are going to grow. We must have the courage to fail.
I've said that to live is to grow and I've named three conditions for growth.
One, a change of focus.Two, self-affirmation which admits limitations and claims strength;Three, exposure and openness;Four, courage to fail.