Growing in
faith
Christ Church,
3rd September 2000
Exodus 12:
21-27
Matthew 4:
23-5:20
An able-bodied seaman
meets a pirate in a bar, and they take turns
recounting their adventures at sea. Noting the pirate's peg-leg, hook, and eye
patch
the seaman asks, "So, how did you end up with the peg-leg?"
The pirate replies, "We was caught in a monster storm off the cape and a
giant wave swept me overboard. Just as they were pullin' me out a school of
sharks appeared and one of 'em bit me leg off".
"Blimey!" said the seaman. "What about the hook"?
"Ahhhh...", mused the pirate, "We were boardin' a trader ship,
pistols
blastin' and swords swinging' this way and that. In the fracas me hand got
chopped
off."
"Zounds!", remarked the seaman.
"And how came ye by the eye patch?"
"A seagull droppin' fell into me eye," answered the pirate.
"You lost your eye to a seagull dropping?" the sailor asked
incredulously.
“Well..." said the pirate, "..it was me first day with the
hook.."
I don't know how you felt after your confirmation. Perhaps you came as a wounded person, with only part of your
spiritual ability in place. Perhaps you
felt you had a new limb of faith, but you weren't quite sure what you were
meant to do with it. Perhaps the
process of preparing for it made you think that actually you were back at
square one rather than moving forward.
Of course, humility is a
great virtue, and especially in our Christian lives. Blessed are the poor in spirit.
But there is a sense in which we need to put our very British and
sometimes appealing tendency to emphasise our ignorance to one side, and to
commit ourselves to the serious business of growing up. We needed to be salted with the gospel we
believe – to taste of it, and to be lit up by it.
You will have noticed
that to be a Christian is increasingly out minority confession in today's
society. When I go into schools I find
that you cannot assume any knowledge of Christianity nowadays. and it's not just the case with the young
either. One hospital chaplain listed
some of the replies he was given to the question, 'Would you like Holy
Communion?' These are some of the answers: No thanks, I'm Church of
England. No thanks, I asked for
Cornflakes. No thanks, I've never been circumcised.
I wonder what Moses would
have made of this. He was very keen
that the children of Israel should pass on their knowledge of God to their own
children. He did not want the young of
Israel to remain ignorant or stuck in childish ways. We are called to maturity, to having solid food instead of
milk. The kingdom of God is serious
business, and as the book of common prayer says, we are the church militant
here on earth, not the church hesitant.
Maybe we fear progressing
because we are daunted by other people around us – bishops who lay their hands
on our heads, for example. Clever young
curates. If I have one reservation
about the church of England it is probably this: that just as people were in
awe of the Pharisees during Jesus time, so there has been a tendency for people
in the church to become too reliant on their leaders for their relationship
with God. But Jesus was cross with the
Pharisees for the way in which they intimidated other people by their piety. He wanted the poor, the ordinary, those who
knew they were in need to see God. So
while I believe of course that we need leadership and direction, don't allow
the structures we have to block you from finding your own vocation and calling
as Christians.
So where do we go from
here? How do we grow in faith? Well, I have to admit I am loathe to talk
about this. There is a bizzarre habit
we in the church sometimes seem to have.
We proclaim a Gospel of grace, of acceptance, of love and we encourage people to know that they are
loved unconditionally by their father in heaven who has given everything for
them. And then as soon as they profess
to the Christians we give them a list of things they must do in order to remain
in the faith. To be a good Christian
you must do this and that and the other.
It can be the most guilt inducing exercise possible! But this is always the tension about being a
disciple. We are called to receive, but
also to follow. We are called to hear
God's love whispering in our lives, but also to obey. In fact the words hear akouo and obey hupakouo in
Greek have the same root. Perhaps the truth is that if we really have heard,
then the natural thing for us to do will be to obey.
Anyway, with this
qualification in mind it's time to get a bit practical you'll be pleased to
hear! If there's one hint that I would
like to pass on it is this: grow in your faith as a whole person, not
just with a part of you. Before we
explore this a bit more I will try and illustrate how God has led me as a whole
person in my own spiritual pilgrimage, my own growing in faith. I had a conversion experience when I was
13. I was initiated into a rigorous
programme of Bible study, daily prayer, daily chapel and worship etc etc. It was very mind orientated. I developed a network of almost exclusive
Christian friends. I had experience of
the charismatic wing of the church.
When I was 15 friends laid hands on me and I received the gift of the
holy spirit and spoke in tounges. At 18
I went to work in a church in an urban area in Yorkshire. I was stretched by the culture clash and the
challenge of administering to people in their brokenness. I found my own faith actually in many ways
became a burden with its heavy demands that I could no longer keep up with. I never rebelled, but I did make a
deliberate effort to relax with God. I
was helped in doing this by going to a church at university where a man called
Roger Newell-we called him Roger renewal-preached the message of God's grace
again and again and again. It got
through to me that I was loved. Involvement
in politics made me more interested in the kingdom of God in all areas of
life. This was confirmed by going to
church in Bath where worship was given a new creative dimension and we focused
on how God wanted to use all of our lives and vocations in his kingdom. So I've been stretched in lots of different
areas - in my mind, in my heart, in my political side, in my spiritual
experience and in my worship with others.
So growing in our faith
is about growing as Whole people. Jesus
said that we should love the lord our God with all our hearts, our souls, our
minds, and our strength. So growing in
faith is about growing in all these areas.
Some of us may feel we are more heart people than mind people, some of
us may feel we are more strength people than soul people. But a full faith, a whole relationship with
God will only take root in us if we pay attention to all the aspects of who we
are.
So pay attention to your
heart-your gift of love to God. Your
heart is the place where you can praise, where you can give thanks, where you
can love. Grow in praise of God and you
can't go far wrong. A mature Christian
is a grateful Christian. Story about a
friend who climbed up our mountain.
Pay attention to your
soul-the part of you which burns with compassion and which yearns for justice
and renewed world again. Your soul
calls you to live the life of discipleship from your guts. To feel compassion for those who are needy, to
see gods kingdom coming on earth.
Pay attention to your mind. Paul writes, "Brothers and sisters, be transformed by the renewing of your mind." We don't naturally see the world as God sees it, or even ourselves as God sees us. We need the discipline of learning to think Christianly to interpret life and events through the scandal of God's love. It is so easy for us to become indoctrinated by the attitudes and expectations of the culture around us. But we need to be people whose view is formed by what God has said and what God thinks. So take opportunities to have your mind renewed-read the Bible, study it as best you can, find ways of making it come alive to you. Read what other Christians have written, what they have done, how God has spoken to them.
And finally pay attention
to your strength-by which I understand your physical self, the way you relate
to God's creation as a physical person.
Find God in daily life, in the things you see, in the people you meet,
the things you touch and smell. Don't
expect him just to turn up in church or in spiritual moments. The world we live in belongs to
him-everything in it, and so we can meet him there.
Love the Lord your God
with all your heart, your soul, your mind, and your strength. For those who like checklists and
activities, who want to know what they should do, there is a way
ahead. But at the end of the day we can
have all the checklists and techniques we like, yet we just need one thing, and
that is God himself. I said at the
beginning that we are not children, and that we need to grow up. But the real truth is that while we don't
want to be immature, we need to be childlike.
I want to finish by reading page 30 of Eugene Peterson paragraph 1.