Sermon prepared for Messiah Lutheran Church, Auburn
WA;
Morning Promise services, the 5th Sunday
after Pentecost - A, 06/23/02;
by Gregory S. Kaurin, Associate Pastor
Text:
Ephesians 4:11-16 (also, Ephesians 4:17-24, & 2:5-6, 21-22)
The
Sermon:
Stand Up Straight!
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I
heard on the news this weekend that Ann Landers died Friday night. I am reminded of something she mentioned in
her column a while ago. She noted,
“baby kittens don’t begin to open their eyes for six weeks after birth.” She went on to say, “Men generally take
about 26 years!”
That’s more true than I want to
admit. So long as we live, growing older is unavoidable, but many people do
avoid growing up.
In the lesson we just read St. Paul
wrote: "...some will be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some
pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for
building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of faith and
of knowledge ...to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ."
"...until we come to
maturity, to the full-stature of Christ."
Maturity.
In that passage I hear God telling us
that you and I need to grow up. As
individuals, as groups, as congregations and as a whole church: grow up! I’ve heard the entire letter to the
Ephesians summarized into four words: “Become what you are.” Grow up.
It’s true that God claims and calls
each of us his “children,” but this is not a call to remain infantile in our
faith. In other words, since you are a
child of God, start acting like one; and since you are a Christian church, act
like it. Become what you are. Grow up.
Christian maturity:
I. Part of maturity is knowing when to be young.
II. Part is
knowing what to leave behind.
III. Part is
knowing what to pass on.
I. Knowing
when to be young.
It's
the way we interact with the world, how we see and respond: as if what happens
is important, worth hearing and reacting to.
Being young: it's an open curiosity, you want to know what people are
feeling and thinking. So you ask,
“Why? Why?” and listen. Then you respond in words or actions.
I know of an old grandfather who, even
in his nineties, with some effort, stiff knees, and all, would get down on the
floor with his great-grandchildren.
Whether it was with toy trucks, or doll houses or finger-paints, he
would play with them. I see great
wisdom in this, knowing when to be a child.
Learning when to be young is also
learning humility, but this is not an embarrassed, wormy humility that acts
like it’s ashamed to be alive. Instead
it’s a comfortable humility that knows that, like everyone else around you, you
are “winging it” most of the time.
So, Christ’s call to be “like a child”
is not about carefree innocence, but a humorous humility and a healthy curiosity,
an openness to encountering wonder, beauty and power. Gaze at the stars, consider the hugeness, or peer at the tiny
miraculous universe in a single cell.
It is the Christian claim that whatever wonders we encounter, whatever
knowledge we obtain, it tells us about something, Someone, who lies behind all
of it.
One of my favorite preachers, W. B.
Sutphin declared: “...I tell you that He is
extraordinary! Ah, what sets your soul
to music, and what agitates your praises?
Do you tremble at the lightening, riding like a razorback across the
ribboned sky, or at the thunder crumbling up the heavens? Let me ask: what dazzles you into
devotion? It is nothing when compared
to Him!” (from The Uncommon Denominator)
So, take it all in like a curious
child, and then sit back and realize: "Wow! Our God is an awesome God!"
To be young: to be impressionable, to look at the ordinary workings of
the world and see an extraordinary God.
Part of maturity is learning to be young.
_______________
II. Part of maturity
is learning what to leave behind.
There are childish attitudes we need to
leave behind. I heard one person
suggest that the adult world is actually just “tall grade school.” As children, when someone annoyed or
disagreed with us, they were suddenly “the enemy.” One day she was your best friend, the next day you insisted to
your mom that you hated her. The
self-focused melodrama, the cliques, the chips on our shoulders, …it really
seems that we haven’t left the playground yet.
Sometimes it takes 26 years to open our eyes. Some never do.
Even here in the church, in our own
congregations. Just think, here in this
place where we are called to gather around and focus on the One who unites us,
but you and I know how often we get distracted, and we dramatize things and
events and people, which are all tangent to the real reason we gather.
It’s time for us to grow up and pull
together as Christians! We’re not here
just to be bottle-fed and to whine when we don’t get things our way. We’re here to equip each other for the work
of ministry. If I read Paul right, then
I need to be doing my best to teach and preach, and we all need to be doing our
best at the work of the church, at ministry.
That means, putting aside selfish grudges and personal offended
melodramas to reach out to others who are going through the real hurts of
death, illness, divorce, and the like.
It also means realizing that our
childhood shyness is simply not excuse enough for missing opportunities to
share our faith. Adult life may be
“tall grade school,” but we, as Christians, are called to rise above and grow
out of it.
Part of maturity, Christian maturity,
is learning what to leave behind in order to move forward. Sunday after Sunday, I've said it, Pastors
Joe and Steve have said it: "I declare the entire forgiveness of all your
sins." Leave it behind, God
says. Entire. Forgiveness. Yours and
theirs—all forgiven—leave it all behind—and grow up.
_______________
III. Finally,
maturity is learning what to pass on.
Our
lesson said that we have these gifts of ministry, preaching, teaching and
witnessing to build us up until we come "to maturity, to the full stature
of Christ."
"To the full stature of
Christ." Many of us can still hear
that old parental nagging voice, "Stand up straight!" Grandma to Grandchild: "You're too
pretty/handsome to slouch like that."
(It's too bad we never heard or believed the complement behind that
command: You are too pretty/handsome to slouch like that.)
And it wasn't about external beauty. No one’s grandma says, “Slouch down, you're
too ugly to stand straight.” Standing
straight isn't about physical beauty, but inner strength, about confidence.
Confidence and belonging. What made and what makes you beautiful is
that you belong to your grandma; you were her grandchild and that made you
beautiful. Now, imagine God digging out
his picture wallet with all his children.
Imagine that endless stream of pictures. …And he points to you with all the love and pride of
Grandma. You belong to him. You are beautiful. So, stand up straight.
And confident. If you were to take some of the shyest kids
you remember from high school and could’ve given them the confidence to walk
straight down the hallways, with assurance to look people in the eye, to say
“Hello,” you would find they would’ve suddenly looked fifteen times more
attractive.
It's not about clothes, not hair or
makeup. It's less about weight,
physical beauty or age than we ever realized.
You are Christian. There is
nothing in all of creation that can give you more assurance and confidence than
belonging to Christ. That means
practicing and growing, breaking out of the shell, and dropkicking all of the
masks we wear just to get people to like us.
We know the kind of people we lift up,
people for whom we would stand if they walked in the room. We can recognize true beauty. Old wrinkled Mother Theresa, if you could’ve
kiss her cheek, you'd have kissed a most beautiful girl. She may have been slouched in age, but she
rose up in stature.
Paul said that we need to preach and
teach and witness “until we come to the full stature of Christ.” Until we have the full confidence of
Christ. We have the peace of Christ. We have a confidence to pass on.
Confidence—the
promise of complete forgiveness from God himself. The promise of final jubilation when we join Christ in
heaven. We have that to pass on.
Stature—the
promise that we can walk straight and
tall knowing that God looks at us …and smiles.
We have that to pass on.
Purpose—the
promise that God will be there as we dare to speak to others about our
faith. We have that to pass on.
Stand up straight!
We are rising to the full stature of Christ.
Let us stand and pray: Dear God, give strength to
my weak knees and assurance to my voice, so that I can reclaim my youthful
curiosity and surprise, so that I can leave behind those things that hold me
back, and so that I can pass on the assurance of your promises. Amen.
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