Larry E. Lenow
FUMC
3-2-08
Lent 4A
Purpose Driven 3
“It’s All About Growing”
Text: Ephesians 5:8-14
This morning there are three words on which I would like to focus. If you remember these three words you won’t have too much trouble following this sermon. The three words are: authority, assimilate and apply. Authority, assimilate and apply. We’ll get back to them.
In the Middle Ages, some of you have heard me say this before, but it’s a fantastic image, in the Middle Ages thousands of men joined religious orders. They devoted their lives to Christ as monks. These monks and their monasteries changed the world not only be preaching Christ and spreading Christianity throughout Europe but also they preserved classical knowledge by creating libraries. They developed the sciences of botany and medicine, advanced agriculture and architecture. They helped Europe get through what we call the Dark Ages. These monks would take a vow of poverty and their only possession would be robe known as a cowl or a habit. It was a single cloth spun out of heavy wool. Now boys would become join monasteries as monks in training, known as novices or novitiates typically between 8-10 years of age. But the loose fitting robe of a monk was only made in one size. These preadolescent boys were given the loose fitting robe of an adult man. It swallowed them. But…over the years they would grow into it. What a great image, what a perfect metaphor for our own journey of faith.
So far as we have examined the Purpose-Driven Life during this season of Lent we have said that you were planned for God’s pleasure, that is to say you were planned to be in relationship with and to worship God. And you were formed for God’s family. You were formed to be part of the Body of Christ on earth, the church. Our third purpose, according to Rich Warren is that you were created to become like Christ.
We are created to become like Christ or we might say grow in Christ. “God wants you to grow up…[God’s] goal is for you to mature and develop the characteristics of Jesus Christ. Sadly, millions of Christians grow older but never grow up. They are stuck in perpetual spiritual infancy, remaining in diapers and booties. The reason is that they never intended to grow. Spiritual growth in not automatic. It takes and intentional commitment. You must want to grow, decide to grow, make an effort to grow, and persist in growing. Discipleship – the process of becoming like Christ-always begins with a decision. Jesus calls us, and we respond: ‘Come by my disciple,’ Jesus said to him. So Matthew got up and followed him. When the first disciples chose to follow Jesus, they didn’t understand all the implications of their decision. They simply responded to Jesus’ invitation. That’s all you need to get started: Decid3e to follow Jesus.” (pp.179-180)
So we make a decision to follow Christ. But we are like those novices, those young boys who put on a robe that is way too big for them. But our growth in faith, our development, our learning, our discipleship is not automatic. We have to make a decision to grow. And the beginning of that process centers on authority. We turn to the example of Christ, the words of Christ, the teachings about Christ, the life of Christ that we find in the Bible, God’s word, the scriptures, the gospel message and the question is what authority do we give to the Word? Let me put this question of authority differently. Do we mold and shape our lives around what we find in God’s Word? Or do mold and shape what we hear in God’s Word around the way we live our lives? It is a simple and fundamental question but it is also a very complex and never-ending question. You know what? At this moment all of you conservative evangelicals in the congregation are thinking, “Preach it! We’ve got to focus on the scriptures, that’s what those people need!” And all you liberal, social activists are saying, “You tell ‘em." They’ve got to start listening to Jesus and what he said.” And you are all right! It does not matter whether you are right, left, conservative, liberal this question of authority is one each and every one of us have to wrestle with and what is more we have to wrestle with it every day. It never stops. Do we allow God to have authority over us and change us or do we take authority and make God in our own image?
In Thursday’s newspaper, Michael Gerson of the Washington Post Writers’ Group had an editorial about evangelical Christians not being a uniform voting block this time around. He’s writing about evangelicals he has a brilliant insight that really applies to serious Christians of every stripe. Listen: “There is something essentially countercultural about Christianity that should make evangelicals restless in any political coalition. Christianity indicts oppressive government-but also the soul-destroying excesses that sometimes come in free markets and consumerism. It teaches enduring moral rules-and an emphasis on justice for the least and the lost. It is often hard where liberalism is soft, and soft where conservatism is hard. If evangelical Christianity were identical to any political, something would be badly wrong. It is supposed to look toward a kingdom not of this world, one without borders, flags or end.
When those novices took one those robes that were too big for them, don’t you know that those robes dragging on the ground got muddy and frayed? Just as do our lives if we do not grow in Christ. Have you given God and God’s Word authority in your life or have you usurped the authority yourself to create God in your own image?
Not only do we have to give God’s Word authority over our lives but then, of course, we have to assimilate it into our lives. That rather goes without saying, doesn’t it? You have to absorb or assimilate it into you life. You have to read it, learn it and understand it. What is needed it a willingness and a desire to learn. And that requires a certain attitude of humility, a recognition that we don’t know everything and that there is much to learn. Not long ago there was a commercial on television. In it a man said, “I don’t know enough to know what I don’t know.” That’s me. That could be the motto of my life. I have been studying and teaching the Bible my entire adult life. Everything I learn just casts light and illumines the immensity of what I don’t know. But my ignorance is not a reason for despair rather it is a vacuum that God moves into. I don’t know this, I haven’t read it, I can’t support it, but you can’t tell me that one reason those young boys were put into oversize adult robes was not to keep them humble. It’s a fairly constant reminder of how young they are. How much they need to grow. How much they need to learn. Just like us. The willingness to learn, the attitude is all important. I’m so excited about all our study groups. Many of the participants are involved in many other groups and these sessions are just for the weeks of Lent. But some of you participants are not involved in other groups. I wonder if you might not carry on after these weeks. Continue to learn, grow closer together. Might there be a few other things to study? Talk about that this week.
So authority, assimilate and what was the third word? Oh yes, apply. If you are going to give God’s Word authority in your life, if you are going to assimilate its truths into your life than there is no alternative but to apply it to your life. Simply put, if it doesn’t make a difference, then something is very wrong. There is nothing worse than someone who talks the talk but does not walk the walk; there is nothing worse than the student who studies and studies but never does anything with the learning. For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children for light-for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true. Ephesians 4:8 You are light. And light has to shine. It can’t help it. Otherwise it’s not light. We’ll talk in the coming weeks about just what that means. But for now, know this: those boys grew into those robes, and when they did, they changed the world. You were not created just to be. You were created to become like Christ. Go. Grow.