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I told you last week that, at our worldwide General Conference recently, not only did we receive a special award for strategic growth but our Fellowship's Founder himself, Troy Perry, singled us out during his opening address to the conference as a church he is especially proud of! Also we, as a church, paid the way for the M.C.C. pastor from Manila in the Philippines to attend General Conference.
This spring we were, once again, the top-money raising team in the St. Louis AIDS Walk...and one of our members, Mike Fienup, was the top individual money raiser. We tied for first place in the float competition in last month's Pride parade. On a regular basis, we get phone calls and e-mails in the church office from folks who have found help, healing and renewed joy in their lives through our church.
All of these wonderful things really make us look good -- like a beautiful bunch of freshly cut flowers. Like these flowers on the altar today...aren't they gorgeous? Of course, in a few days time, they'll look like these carnations here. I bought these the other day to spruce up my dining table a bit...but now they're not exactly appetizing. That's how it is with cut flowers. They're really pretty...for a while. Then they wilt and wither and their beauty is gone. Cut flowers are a one shot deal.
Planted perennials, on the other hand - with their root systems firmly in the soil - produce their beautiful flowers over and over again. They keep growing. They don't die out when the weather gets bad. They may have periods of dormancy, but they continue to pull nutrients from the soil and they come back, as beautiful as ever, repeatedly.
As a church, we know what it's like to have a "flowering faith" -- that feels good and looks good and does good and is good. The question is: will we be a "cut flower" church or a church of planted perennials? Will the enthusiasm and caring and generosity and faithfulness we have exhibited in the last few years wither and die out...or will we "flower" in our faith over and over again?
I'm sure we'd all like to believe that we will be perennials...lasting in our faithful service to God and our successful ministry for years and years to come. But that kind of long-lasting flowering faith - in a church or in an individual - doesn't just happen. There are things we have to do in order to keep our faith alive.
In our Scripture reading today, the apostle Paul sends greetings to a young church filled with loving people who are really living out their faith in Christ. Even as Paul gives thanks for the Colossians, he also offers them instruction on how to continue their growth and good works. He doesn't want them to be a cut flower church. I don't want us to be a cut flower church, either. Let's look at Paul's advice to any church - and, for that matter, any person - who wants to be a planted perennial.
First, he says, "...bear fruit in every good work...." Now surely "fruit-bearing" is our specialty. But are we engaged in creating short-term appearances? Or deep, long-lasting results through our lives and ministry? We say that our vision is "changed lives." But, as we've journeyed with Jesus Christ, how much have each of our lives really changed?
Now, for the benefit of newcomers to our church, let me stress that I'm not talking about changing our sexual orientations and internal gender identities. If you are gay, lesbian, heterosexual, bi-sexual or transgendered, God knows it, God did it...and God is just fine with it.
However...just because our sexuality doesn't need to change does not mean that some other things don't need to! Even after coming to church every week and marching in the Pride parade or walking in the AIDS walk or whatever...if any of us are still abusing alcohol, that needs to change! If any of us are still ingesting harmful substances, including too much sugar or (and, oh, I'm gonna get in trouble for this) nicotine, that needs to change! If any of us are still trying to improve or avoid our low self-esteem through anonymous sex or pornography, that needs to change! If any of us are still singing praise songs in here, then gossiping about people all through brunch...that needs to change! "Changed lives" doesn't just mean someone else's! Are we serious about bearing fruit in our lives for Christ? Or do we just want to be "buds" with Jesus? Will we be cut flowers or perennials?
Secondly, our Scripture today says, keep "...growing in the knowledge of God...." Now there are several different kinds of "knowledge," we all know that. There's "book learning" and "street smarts." We need to keep growing in three kinds of knowledge.
We need "head knowledge." Continuing study and learning about our faith...the Bible...theology...history...literature. We need to be able to think and expand our understanding. Too often, many of us think along the lines of the title of Robert Fulghum's book: we think "Everything I Need to Know About God I Learned in Sunday School." No. If we are to change and grow, our base of knowledge must change and grow.
Then we also need "heart knowledge." Heart knowledge can only come through developing relationships - with God and with other people. The more we draw close to God the better we will understand God. The more we draw close to others, the better we will understand them.
How many of you know someone who says, "I don't like gays. But Joe and Steve...well, I know them; they're O.K. They're different." The truth is, for any of us, it's amazing what a difference getting to know someone can make in terms of our tolerance and acceptance of them. To know someone is a much better chance to love them. We need that increasing heart knowledge in our lives because to love others more is to love God more.
And to really have heart knowledge of God, we also must have "spirit knowledge" - something that only comes through prayer. Not rote prayer...not "quickie" prayer...not "while-I'm-in-church" prayer - but focused, personal, listening prayer. If we are to be more than cut flowers in our faith, we need to grow in our head knowledge, our heart knowledge and our spirit knowledge of God.
Next, Paul says, we need to be strong in endurance and patience. It's so easy to give up and walk away when our faith is put to the test. "This whole church thing is taking my time, my energy, my money. I think I'll just quit." "I'm being pushed to grow and change here. I'll go some place else where I can just be my same old self. That's easier."
Endurance and patience, author Henry Nouwen writes, "means the willingness to stay where we are and live the situation out to the full in the belief that something hidden there will manifest itself to us. Impatient people are always expecting the real thing to happen somewhere else and therefore want to go elsewhere. The present moment is empty. But patient people dare to stay where they are."
"...live a life," Paul says, "worthy of the Lord and...please God in every way; bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened...so that you may have great endurance and patience, and," he says: "...joyfully give thanks to God, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kindom of light."
Surely nothing bad that could happen to us in this world can compare to the goodness of receiving God's love and the eternal life that is already prepared for us! We are to give thanks...joyfully! Not grudgingly...not one half-hearted "thanks, God" for every ten complaints we utter! For God has "rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the realm of Christ, in whom we have redemption...."
Regardless of circumstances, there is always something for which we can be thankful. A man named Fulton Oursler tells how he learned the lesson of a grateful heart from an African-American woman who helped care for him when he was a little boy many years ago. Every time this country woman sat down to eat, she would bow her head and say, "Much obliged, Lord." Oursler asked her why she did this since the food was there for her to enjoy whether she gave thanks or not.
She replied, "Sure we get our vittles, but it makes everything taste better to be grateful. Looking for good things is a kind of game an old preacher taught me to play. Take this morning. I woke up and thought, "What's there to praise God for today?' You know what? I couldn't think of a thing! Then from the kitchen came the most delicious odor that ever tickled my nose. Coffee! 'Much obliged, Lord, for the coffee,' I said, 'and much obliged, too, for the smell of it.'"
Many years later, Oursler stood at the bedside of that woman as she lay dying. Seeing her in much pain, he wondered if she could still find something to be grateful for. Just then she opened her eyes. As she saw him and the others gathered around, she folded her hands and said with a smile, "Much obliged, Lord, for such fine friends."
Joyfully giving thanks may be, after all, the most important way to avoid being a cut flower Christian or a cut flower church. We have so much to be thankful for. Even our challenges...even our growing pains...even the long road that still stretches before us - uncharted and unknown. Still we have a sure and trustworthy guide in Jesus Christ.
That's the key, after all, isn't it? To stay "rooted" in Christ. Come what may, we will have a perennially flowering faith if we will just stay connected to our source and rooted in the rich soil that God's Spirit provides. Amen.
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