Century Christian Church
(Disciples of Christ)

1301 Tamarack Road, Owensboro, KY 42301, (270) 684-0286, Pastor:  Rev. Jim Westmoreland

A Pattern For Personal Growth
1 Samuel 2:18-20, 26; Luke 2:49-52; Colossians 3:12-17
by Jim Westmoreland

At the beginning of a New Year, a high school principal decided to post his teachers' New Year's resolutions on the bulletin board. As the teachers gathered around the bulletin board, a great commotion started. One of the teachers was complaining. "Why weren't my resolutions posted?" She was throwing such a temper tantrum that the principal hurried to his office to see if he had overlooked her resolutions. Sure enough, he had mislaid them on his desk. As he read her resolutions he was astounded. This teacher's first resolution was not to let little things upset her in the New Year.⁽¹⁾

Resolutions are about the desire for growth, for change, for improvement. Most of us have a practiced knowledge about the difference between wishes and commitments. Wishful thinking doesn't last long and is not based on a heartfelt vision and commitment. Commitment by itself is a burden without energy. What we need is a vision of what we want to do fueled by the passion to follow through.

Michael Bausch tells a great story about archaeologist Howard Carter. In 1922 Carter was completing nearly fifteen years of digging in the famous Valley of the Kings in Egypt . He was hoping to find the royal tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamen. Having found nothing, his days of digging were coming to an end. Money was running out. Then workers discovered sixteen stairs leading into the earth. Thousands of baskets filled with rocks and sand had to be carried away, but eventually a door was found at the end of a long passageway. Carter drilled a small hole in the door and stuck an iron-testing rod into a dark, blank space. He then inserted a candle into the hole and peered in. As his eyes grew accustomed to the light, details emerged into his view, and he saw strange animals, statues, and everywhere the glint of gold.

He wrote of that moment, "For the moment, I was struck dumb with amazement."

A partner asked, "Can you see anything?" And Carter's reply was, "Yes, wonderful things." Paul gives us some reasons you and I can look into this New Year and see wonderful things.⁽²⁾

There are some experiences that God wants to give to you this year, some things that He wants you to accomplish, and He wants to bless us in ways that we need to receive.

As I read this week's passages, I was caught by the parallel of young Samuel and young Jesus. Samuel grows "in stature and favor with God and with the people." Jesus increases "in wisdom and in stature and in divine and human favor." (For the gospel, I choose the traditional and alternative "stature" rather than years since it is a far more meaningful term for our spiritual journey.)

Growing in wisdom and stature! One of the great process-relational theologians, Bernard Loomer spoke of the importance of "size" in theology and spirituality. He said that Size, or what we call stature, refers to how much of the world in its wonderful variety and challenging contrast that we can embrace without losing our center. John Cobb refers to this same integration of the many factors of conscious, unconscious, and environmental experience as "creative transformation."

At Christmas many of us, in spite of conspicuous consumption of material goods, food, and alcohol, also experience new stature. For a moment, like Ebenezar Scrooge, our souls expand and we see beauty in unlikely places. We resolve to be "born again" to a larger self and larger scope of care. We experience incarnations of God in otherwise ordinary and grumpy co-workers and family members, and for a moment, we dream of peace on earth.

This is good news, but sadly the joy fades and we go back to business as usual, as if the busyness of life requires us to return to superficial and competitive living. We don't keep the spirit of Christmas, in part, because we fail to live by the practices of stature and creative transformation now that we're on our own with no cultural or liturgical support. In the midst of our temptation to fall into patterns of anxiety and individuality, the church is called to provide spiritual support for growing in stature and experiencing creative transformation. We are called to personal, spiritual growth. In Samuel, Jesus and the teaching of Paul we can find some patterns of growth to guides us.

In the old Testament, Hannah, the mother of Samuel, had longed for a child, and yet she was barren. One year while worshiping at the house of the Lord, she was promised that she would have a son. When that baby was born, she dedicated him to God and after a few years, took him to the house of God to live and to be raised by the Priest. Hannah loved her little Samuel deeply, and so each year when she went with her husband to worship, she took him a new robe. Can you imagine the care that went into making that robe. It was to be a reminder to her first-born that she had not forgotten him.

Can you image what those days at the House of the Lord must have been like for Hannah. The first thing she would have said was, "Samuel! How you have grown! You are just shooting up like a weed." The growth would have been obvious. Then, I think, she would have given him his new robe. And as soon as she got home she would have put it in a special box to save to remind her of his growth.

The Bible records it this way: "Now the boy Samuel continued to grow both in stature and in favor with the Lord and with the people."

The boy grew. That statement foreshadows the statement describing Jesus' growth in Luke 2. Following a particularly difficult trip to Jerusalem where Jesus, just twelve years old, had wandered off and spent several days talking to the leaders of the temple. After his parents found him here is what we read, "And He went down with them, and came to Nazareth; and He continued in subjection to them; and His mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men."

Jesus grew before the Lord. Don't you think that his mother, Mary, kept a box of special memories as Jesus grew? He did not remain a baby in a stable, though we sometimes would like to think that. Nor, did he magically become an adult of 30 ministering to the multitudes. No, Jesus grew because growth is the natural result of healthy life. If we could see inside the special box that Mary had for Jesus we would see a bundle of rags that served as his first nightgown. We might see the robe he wore when Mary and Joseph him at his circumcision. Perhaps we would see the cloak they wrapped him in when old Simeon and Anna blessed him in the Temple. The items in that box would be pictures of the growth of Jesus from an infant to a mature servant of God. Finally, Mary would have wished to put the robe her son wore as he ministered to the multitudes in that box. It was complete, woven in one piece. It was a special robe that he had grown into. It was a symbol of his maturity and his ministry.

As Samuel's clothes changed, it was a symbol of his maturing. As Jesus grew and matured, he changed, he grew in wisdom, he learned to understand people, and stature, he got bigger, and in favor with God and men, he developed relationships that positively affected him and the people around him.

In the letter of Paul to the Church in Collossi, is a box of clothes for the follower of Jesus. Paul suggests that our behavior and our lifestyle is the clothing that we wear for the world. In Samuel, in Jesus, and in Paul's words to the believers in the Colossian church are images that give us patterns for personal growth. That is what we need. When we come to Christ, and as we grow in Christ, we are given a new set of clothing. Jesus never called his disciples to be comfortable. He called us to grow in our faith and that does not happen without action and involvement on our part.

Jesus' temple experience serves as one model for growing in wisdom and stature. On the verge of adulthood, Jesus retreats to the temple for theological reflection and questioning. Like his later experience of spiritual retreat, the temptation in the wilderness, Jesus' three days in the temple were a pivotal point in his spiritual evolution. Jesus grew in spiritual stature by claiming his faith tradition faithfully and then extending its experiential and theological boundaries to new horizons.

Growing in wisdom and stature calls us to take our faith seriously enough to study scripture, wrestle with traditional theological doctrines, explore new images of God, Christ, and salvation, and spend time in prayer, meditation, and service. Sadly, many mainstream and progressive congregations have virtually abandoned adult Christian education. A growing faith is not accidental, but requires going to the "temple" regularly to listen, ask, and share. How can we be more involved in our own faith journey?

As Christians, we are called to be "large-souled persons." In Philippians, the apostle Paul describes this process of as God's "chosen ones" as having "the mind of Christ." Colossians provides similar guidance for those who wish to experience the world with the spirit of Christ. Christian growth integrates spirituality, theology, and ethics. "Clothe yourselves with compassion . . . clothe yourselves with love." To have the mind of Christ is to see Christ in everyone and treat everyone as if he or she is Christ's beloved.

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly." Take time to listen to Christ within you in prayer and meditation. God presents us with a vision of life every moment of life. This inner word of God wells up within us. Through our spiritual practices, we hear and respond to that inner word of God in ourselves and all things. Fresh from encountering the incarnation at Christmas, this Sunday provides a wonderful opportunity not only for silence in worship, but also for a short workshop on how to practice meditation or contemplative prayer. This "low" Sunday can inspire a "high" spirituality.

"Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of Jesus, giving thanks to God through him." The omnipresence of God is one of the most practical doctrines of the church. It reminds us that we are always on "holy ground" and always encountering "holy people." We shape each others' present and future experiences in every encounter, and by these encounters bring beauty or ugliness to God's experience of the world.

What we need at the turn of the year is "stature." We need practices of stature, of maturity, of standing up and being counted, of being dependable and respectful. We need intentional commitments to meditation, to being engaged in personal ministry, and reaching out to others, if we are to have the large heart of Christmas throughout the year ahead.⁽³⁾

God has called us to grow in wisdom, in stature and in favor with God and those around us. He has commissioned us to go out from this place into our community. As we go, we are to make disciples. We have been given a pattern for growth, and a reason to grow. Now what do you think that God wants us to do in 2007? Amen.

Century Christian Church, December 31, 2006 - Sermon by Jim Westmoreland
www.centurychristian.org
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1. From illustrations from www.esermons.com.

2. Ibid.