EASTER 6C ROGATATIOION SUNDAY
MOTHERS DAY ALSO
People of the Way #3 People of the Way are
growing Spiritually
Drama presentation, emphasizing the importance of Christian Growth
Today is our third sermon in our series that we are calling People of the Way. We are suggesting to you that Christians have particular characteristics which define them as followers of Jesus. There is a Greek word that the KJV translated “conversation”, but today we translate as conduct. St. Peter exhorts the early Christians to have a particular quality of conduct in their lives so that others may know that they are followers of the way. This series is designed to be a challenge for us to examine our lives to see how seriously we are taking our Christian faith.
The first characteristic we said followers of the way possess is they know that they have been called to follow Jesus. The second characteristic we mentioned two weeks ago was that Christians strive to increase their knowledge of the Way… they want to understand more how they should live.
This morning we are going to look at a third quality, and this is that people of the Way are growing spiritually, they are maturing and growing in the faith. The theological word for this process is Sanctification… which has at its root meaning being made holy.
There is a beautiful passage in Colossians which we have printed out on your handout. Lets look at it for a moment. In a real sense it is our prayer for you, and for ourselves, and sums up the purpose of this sermon series.
For this reason, since the day we heard it, we have
not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may lead
lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God
Colossians 1:9-10
In this passage, and in several
others in the Bible, we see a movement from knowledge to character, and thus from character to action, or
deeds. Knowledge, as
Growing, as this passage says, in the knowledge of God’s will, and this gaining spiritual wisdom and understanding, helps us lead lives that are worthy of the Lord… lives that are pleasing to God.. because we “bear fruit in good works.”
Bearing fruit, of course, is an echo of Jesus’ words in John chapter 15. I have printed out a few verses from this passage, but in essence, Jesus says that his followers will bear fruit because they are attached to Him. In this process, they will be pruned, so they bear more fruit. We will talk a little more about this later.
Now lets look at another passage – Romans 12: 1-2
Romans 12:1-2 ( NRSV ) I appeal to you therefore,
brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living
sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2Do not
be conformed to this world, but be transformed
by the renewing of your minds,
so that you may discern what is the
will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.
This is a great passage which says
it all. Do not be conformed… but be transformed… notice the word ‘formed” in
both of these words. We are always being formed, from the moment of our birth, and this
formation comes from the forces that work upon us. If we are brought up in a
loving and caring home, our formation will be different than if we were brought
up on a home of violence or anger or fear. And every day of our lives we are
bombarded with messages that “form” our thoughts, and thus our actions.
Romans 12:17-21 ( NRSV ) 17Do not repay anyone evil
for evil, …… “if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give
them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their
heads.” 21Do not be overcome by evil,
but overcome evil with good.
Now this way of living is not natural… it is not the way of the world, but early Christians, and now us, are taught to let the Spirit of God “transform” us, to change us.. The kids here know what a transformer type toy is. It can be one robot or fighter or something, and with a few turns, it becomes something else. Well, our transformation is not quite as simple, but transformation is a normal part of the Christian life.
In my study of 1 Peter in my Monday
night class I have been fascinated by thinking about how it was simply through
the manner, or conduct of life of early
Christians that the Christian faith spread. Peter over and over again tells his
readers that it is their “way of life” -- it is their conduct -- which will be
a witness to the those who don’t believe in Jesus. I imagine small groups of Christians, with no
Christian history behind them, no churches, no crosses as jewelry, no nothing
in the culture to support the Christian faith, and yet, through the witness of
their lives -- those few thousands scattered around the
Now, as I pondered this message, I gathered way more material than I can possible share today. (Many will say this is too long already.) But I am going to press on.
If growing in the faith is a part of being a follower of the way, how do we grow? What do we do?
Well, as in many things spiritual, some mystery is involved. In the natural world we know that certain ingredients are essential for growth, and we can provide these, but, understanding, or creating, or controlling the actual source or force of life itself, we cannot do. But let me share three images that came to me to at least give us some guidance as to how me can provide the ingredients for growth.
First, I could not ignore the beautiful image of the river of life flowing from the throne of God and of the lamb. This image is a very important Biblical image. Look at the sheet of scriptures we have printed. Here you can see how the Bible has themes that run from beginning to end.
Revelation 22:1-2
Then the angel showed me the
river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of
God and of the Lamb through the middle
of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with
its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of
the tree are for the healing of the nations
Genesis 2:10 A river
flows out of
Ezekiel 47:1ff.
Then he brought me back to the entrance of the temple; there, water was flowing from below the
threshold of the temple ………and everything
will live where the river goes. …..On the banks, on both sides of the
river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not
wither nor their fruit fail……Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for
healing.”
Zechariah 14:8
On that day living waters shall
flow out from
John 4:10 ….Jesus answered her, “If you knew the
gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would
have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”
John 4:14 ….but those who drink of the water that I
will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in
them a spring of water gushing up to
eternal life.”
What we learn from these and many other passages is simply the truth that all spiritual life, all spiritual growth, comes from God. Like a thirsty person drinks in water, so the Christian soul drinks of the Spirit of God.
In Psalm 1 there is a beautiful image of a tree planted by river, and the author uses this as an image of a healthy spiritual person.
Psalms 1:3
They are like trees
planted
by streams of water,
which
yield their fruit in its season,
and their
leaves do not wither.
In all
that they do, they prosper.
To grow spiritually, in this image,
we have to put our roots down into the
We can tweak this image a little and say that, just like plants need certain ingredients to grow, so do we. Plants need water, sun, soil, and nutrients. We can say that the scriptures, sacraments, prayer, worship, etc. are these elements.
Another image that we don’t have time to develop this morning, which helps us understand how it is that we grow spiritually, is the image of a disciple. A disciple is one who follows a teacher, or master, and through spending time with the master, learns how to live. So to be a follower of Jesus means that we have to spend some time watching him, and hanging out with him , and walking down the road with him, and listening to his teachings. This is a very helpful image that you can flesh out on your own.
Finally, this being mother’s day, another image that came to my mind in terms of how we grow spiritually is that of God as a heavenly parent. With more time we could develop this a lot more, but lets look at the Hebrews passage and then wrap this up.
Hebrews 12:5-11
And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as children—
“My
child, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
or lose
heart when you are punished by him;
for the
Lord disciplines those whom he loves,
and
chastises every child whom he accepts.”
Endure trials for the sake of discipline. God is
treating you as children; for what child is there whom a parent does not
discipline? If you do not have that
discipline in which all children share, then you are illegitimate and not his
children. Moreover, we had human parents
to discipline us, and we respected them. Should we not be even more willing to
be subject to the Father of spirits and live?
For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but he
disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share his holiness. Now, discipline always seems painful rather
than pleasant at the time, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of
righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
Now, like all analogies, or illustrations, they break down at some point, and I don’t want to get into the question of God giving us diseases, etc. to punish us. What I do want you to see, and what I think the writer was trying to teach us, is that God cares about us, and is always ready to lead and guide, and yes, even maybe discipline us a little, to keep us out of danger and to guide us down the right way of life. I personally love this image, because, as a parent, I have had to discipline my children.. and at the time they hated it.. and fought against it and couldn’t see any rational reason for why we were doing what we were doing, but we as parents were doing it for their own good. So, it makes sense to me, that if I, as a child of God, start heading for real danger, maybe, just maybe, God will guide me back, even if at the time it is painful for me. But God’s discipline is for our good, for our growth, and if we are disciplined, it means that our heavenly parent cares.
So, sorry this has been so long, but I could not help myself. In conclusion.. and they all said; “thank the Lord.”… Followers of the way are called, Followers of the way seek knowledge to better walk in the way.. and finally, followers of the way are being transformed and thus growing day by day in their faith. AMEN!