A Maturing Faith

Over the 17 years of my ordained ministry, I have had more than a few occasions of becoming saddened at just how much damage frightened and immature proclaimers of Christ have done to God’s children and God’s world.

That sadness is especially painful when Christ’s name is used to justify un-Christ-like attitudes and actions that harm innocent people and leave deep and lasting scars on society.

There are all sorts of reasons why some who call themselves Christians remain immature in the faith.

Some have never truly heard the word of God and experienced it for the liberating message of hope and transformation that it is.

The writer of Colossians, Paul or an early believer using his name, testifies to this being the primary mission of the church saying, “I became [the church’s] servant according to God’s commission that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages and generations but has now been revealed to his saints.”

Without mature Christians to model the Christian life, to teach about Christian wisdom and discipleship, and to govern the councils of the Church from local to global spheres, instances of immature Christianity can abound.

In such situations, it is of utmost importance that the members of Christ’s body called the Church lean into their baptismal vows and experience their call to make the word of God fully known as their own heart’s deepest call.

This call transforms their life so that they actively seek to align their lives with the life of the one who is “the image of the invisible God,” but who also touched and healed lepers, who died upon a cross, and who rose again.

Such faithful and maturing members search for and assume positions of leadership for the good of the body, and to remind the body that it is called to serve and share its light in the world.

Because of their commitment and steadfast attention to their own prayer life, they are able to model Christian maturity to others and inspire other less-mature Christians to journey onward with them.

It is their depth of character and the ample space they have cleared in their soul for Christ to be their companion that is attractive to others and which leads to conversion.

Such lives are brilliantly different from what so often masquerades as life in the polite human automations that make for good profits in the economic realm but sacrifice human development and dignity along the way.

I’m sure you can remember the influence and the power of those in your own life who have modeled and taught you what it means to be mature.

Let those examples dwell with you for a moment, and give thanks to God for them.

Have not these faithful witnesses to God’s goodness and love helped us to mature into the Christians we are today?

We honor those witnesses when we take up the prophetic mantle, like Elisha did from Elijah, and set our hands and minds to the work of strengthening a community that can both worship the Lord—who has freed us from a life sentence of delusion— and plant the seeds of peace and reap the harvest of reconciliation in the Lord’s mission field alongside diverse siblings in God.

And if we have some maturity in the faith, then we grow even further so if we help mentor and also LEARN FROM those who are just beginning their journey of spiritual maturity.

A mature follower of Christ who agrees to walk alongside a newer believer or with someone who is stuck in their development HAS to rely on God’s guidance if both are to keep going on the pilgrim’s path of transformation. 

Without God’s help, pride, the ego and fear will begin to derail and hinder the maturation process.

Jesus most clearly showed us that it is by turning from such God-substitutes—these idols of the self— and clinging to God alone that we know true life in the vine.

We submit ourselves to God’s guidance and timeline, while simultaneously doing work that better enables us to choose God and God’s way more consistently.

That is the road that most consistently produces mature Christians who make the word of God fully known by the way they live, the words they say, and the decision they make. 

So, for those of us gathered here this Sunday—regardless if we are members of the Body of Christ gathered here in Rome called St. Paul’s within the Walls or if we are sharing this congregation’s road for a day or a stretch of days—for all of us who can hear these words now—

Are you willing to commit or recommit to the journey of spiritual transformation and maturity that we call following Christ?

What sort of disciplines and practices are helping you mature in the faith—and are you sharing those practices with others?

What sort of assistance do you need at wherever you are in that journey so that you may continue maturing in the faith?

How might you make the word of God known fully in more of your life and pass on the fruits of your spiritual maturity with others who are longing to meet you there?

As we continue through these warm days of summer, take some time to reflect on the journey Christ has called you to take as a baptized child of God.

If there are ways you want to help us better encourage and empower our congregation’s journey of maturity in faith, then please send me a message or speak with one of our vestry members about it.

And as we go about the details and contours of this new week, help us to hold fast to you O Lord— the vine, the word, the one in whom all things hold together—so that your living word may transform us and the whole world.