MATURING

April 22, 2012
Easter 3
Acts 3:12-19
1st John 3:1-7

(prayer)

For me...Jesus’ disciple (known to us as) Peter is one of the most interesting people in the Bible.

A couple of weeks ago, on Good Friday, I presented a dramatic-style sermon where I took some poetic license and relayed the story of Holy Week leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion from Peter’s perspective.

I extrapolated that Peter probably held incredible guilt for not standing by Jesus and the relationship they shared, when people started accusing Peter of being one of the blaspheming traitor’s disciples. Three times, Peter said: “I don’t know him!”

On Easter Sunday, the traditional reading from John chapter 20 focuses mostly on Mary Magdalene, but Peter plays a supporting role there too.

You may recall that when Mary found the stone to the tomb rolled away, she ran back and got Peter and another disciple whom Jesus loved (probably John according to most scholars) to come and have a look. Peter arrived the fastest but couldn’t bear to go past the entrance to the tomb. After John took a look inside, Peter went in as well and saw that not only was Jesus’ body gone, but that (for some strange reason) the thief had taken the time to neatly fold up the death linens.

The empty tomb was not a sign of resurrection for Mary, John or Peter – it was a mysterious new humiliation to the dignity of their lost friend and teacher.

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That Easter story in the gospel of John goes on to tell us that Jesus appeared to Mary in the tomb’s garden and tells her to go to Peter and the other disciples and tell them that she had seen Jesus. She does. Over the next two Sunday evenings, Jesus appears to the group and convinces them all that he had been raised from the dead.

The fourth gospel tells one more resurrection appearance story – one where Jesus appears to his disciples again while they are fishing on Lake Galilee (Sea of Tiberias, according to the Romans). In a way, Peter is absolved for his three-fold denial, by being given the opportunity to proclaim his love for Jesus three times – each time being instructed to offer leadership to the other followers - to ‘tend Jesus’ flock’ so to speak.

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Simon, the son of John - also known as the Rock, Cephas (or Kay-fus), Peter - did take on the role of leader in the lives of the early church.

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In the book of Acts today from Chapter three, we heard about the astonishing reaction to Peter and the others’ tending of Jesus’ flock – the healing of a lame beggar.

Peter recounts the sorrow and the wonder of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Jesus was not understood to be the Messiah by those who handed him over to be executed and those who cried out for crucifixion. But, Peter preaches, God glorified Jesus by raising him from the dead. And Peter could attest to this fact because he had seen Jesus raised.

God’s power and glory was also shown in the healing of the beggar by the Beautiful Gate of the Temple. Peter had told the man asking for financial charity: ‘I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you... in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk.’ The healed man would not leave Peter’s side – that’s where we started the reading today:

While “he” clung to Peter and John, all the people ran together ... utterly astonished.

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The final point of Peter’s sermon there in Solomon’s portico of the Temple was a call-back to the words that began the Jesus movement. Jesus had heard the message preached by John the Baptist; when Jesus came out of his wilderness of temptation, he preached the same words – that Peter was preaching now: “Repent, turn back to God. Know forgiveness! The Kingdom of God (‘Universal Restoration’ in Acts 3:21) is coming.”

Peter knew the power of a message of forgiveness. He had lived that path in a very real way. And now he was inviting others to know what he had come to know.

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Faith and Spirituality is not static – and it is a unique experience for everyone. We are all on our own path to come to know the love and the welcome of God - that is...inviting not excluding;

forgiving not judging;

renewing not destroying.

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Because God's love is wide enough to encompass all this variety, there is no expectation that we all be at the same place spiritually.

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I was somewhat hesitant with the title I chose for today's message because the language of ‘maturity’ implies a comparative analysis of the relative level of faith from one person to another.

There was a time when Jesus' disciples got into that discussion: who among them was the greatest; who would sit at Jesus' right hand? But an eavesdropping Jesus quickly put a wrench into the discussion by suggesting that a servant position was desirable over a place of honour.

One could have a conversation about who has a more deeply developed faith among a group of people, but that is not how I mean to use the word "maturity" today.

The focus of the comparison is within each individual. Where am I at, now, compared to where I've been?. And perhaps most importantly, what is my attitude to where I can be going from here?

Faith is intended to be a constant work-in-progress.

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In one of the pieces of correspondence shared among the early churches (the letter we call 1st John), the young communities who followed Jesus way were invited to be keenly aware of the depth of love and compassion that God gives – particularly as they see that love expressed in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. A result of the extending of that divine love into the human experience, they can call themselves “children of God”.

That letter spoke to the church as it existed in the late first century and to their context. The church at the time was small, isolated; it carried little influence and garnered little interest in the wider world: as the letter says “The reason the world does not know us, is that it did not know [Jesus]”.

Even then, the church was still in its infancy – like children on the threshold of learning: “what we will be has not yet been revealed”.

Then the letter-writer goes on to encourage the people to not assume that they have achieved all they can already – they can still lose focus, they can still stray from the path Jesus set them on – and so they are encouraged to remain pure in their faith and to live lives of righteousness.

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The church - over the millennia since the time of the writing of First John - has grown and discovered and matured. We have walked both paths of righteousness and sin over the years.

We continue to be in a state of maturing.

The language used in the United Church of Canada (and other churches and organizations) is to say that we are Life Long Learners.

Did you know that it is mandated that full time UC ministers be given at least $1250 and three full weeks away from pastoral duties every year for the purpose of life long learning – that’s over and above vacation time.

I think this one of the ways that the wider church recognizes the message of passages like 1st John chapter three: we are in a state of maturing and ‘what we will be’ is not fully known yet.

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The church can mandate this kind of thing for its clergy. In a way, people like me have given ourselves over to the church as part of our calling – they can tell us what to do and set up the employment terms to encourage the actual behavior. After all, who wants a minister who is stuck where they were (learning wise) when they graduated from seminary?

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But, the call to Life Long Learning is not just for clergy – it is for all followers of Jesus. Each of us is on a path of maturing in our faith.

As I said before, there is no reason to expect that the person beside you is where you are.

But we are not about comparing our relative faith maturity to build ourselves up in some way. We are invited, by texts like the ones we heard this morning, to be aware of what potential for a deeper and greater connection with God is in our lives right now.

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One other point I want to make is that, unlike a diploma or degree program, the life long learning of a person of faith is not linear. There is not a prescribed order and curriculum that leads everyone done the same path step by step.

God’s love is vast – the experience of that love is vast. Jesus reached out to people in all walks of life – the details of their calls to faithfulness varied as much as they did.

There are times we will find ourselves with company on this journey of faith and at times, we will be in undiscovered countries of the spirit.

If it is based on a love for who and what Jesus’ loved, it is all good, it is all God.

“Everyone who does what is right is righteous, just as [Jesus] is righteous”.

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Enjoy the journey. Encourage and support each other on the way. Be open to the mystery of God’s creation. And let the spirit be your guide and comfort along the way.

Let us pray:

God, your world is a place of wonder. We trust you, knowing that you are with us in all the mysteries of our lives together. We know that as we trust and open ourselves to your truths we experience a glimpse of who we are becoming.

Amen.

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