Covenant
United Methodist Church
Sunday School 9:45 Worship 8:30 & 10:45 am
Epiphany 2-1Peter 1-13-15 &1-22-2-3 What It Means to Grow Up.
I have had the question in my mind since a very young age. When I was just a kid it manifested itself in little word phrases I used, “Rich man, Poor man, Beggar man, thief, Doctor, Lawyer, Merchant, Chief.
The question was what will I be when I grow up?
I remember my dad telling me in those formative years that I could be anything I wanted to be. I could even be the president if I put my mind to it!I never wanted to be president, but I understood the premise. I could be anything I wanted to be… What I wanted to be was a baseball player… At ten we all knew what we wanted to be, baseball players, football players, firemen and policemen, doctors and lawyers… we knew exactly what we would be when we grew up… By the time I was a senior in high school I was a confused mess when it came to the question of what I would be when I grew up. It lasted right into college. The crisis came to a head in my junior year. I had to declare a major for my degree plan in college. I had put it off and put it off. I would go to bed at night praying, “O Lord help me, show me what you want me to be.” For months on end my junior year this was my prayer. I had stated the same prayer off and on at various times during my time in school. There were times I had thought of becoming a professional student, (I liked school) just so I wouldn’t have to form an answer to the question. It seemed like there was no turning back if I gave my answer. I would have to stick with that career my whole life… When I found the answer it would also mean that I would have to be grown up… I have never liked the idea of being grown up…
Then one night as I prayed that prayer the answer came to me…I didn’t hear the voice of God per se but it was like everything became clear… It was like God all of a sudden had given me the answer… The answer was, “Mike I don’t care what your career is, I just want you to be holy!”
Even as I said those words out loud I saw some of your eyes glaze over… Some of you turned me off as soon as I mentioned the word “holy.” The reason is that we have preconceived notions about what it means to be holy. We come up with phrases that emphasize our discomfort with the term, like “holier than thou.” Which reminds us that there are people in the world who think they are close to being perfect, without sin, yet we can see full well their weaknesses. They stick their nose in the air as if to emphasize they are better than us, and we feel judged. Or how about the term “Holy Roller.” Which reminds us of those people who think they are more spiritual than anyone else? They may dance in the aisles, speak in tongues, cast out demons… but they don’t seem so holy the rest of the week concerning how they treat their fellow man or woman… These two phrases just emphasize our discomfort with being holy… Did you know there is even a movement out their called the holiness movement… They believe that after salvation after we are forgiven by God we could never sin again. In fact if we do we lose our forgiveness… No wonder some people have trouble with the term…
In our scripture lesson today Peter indicates being holy means something different. It means to decide to start the process of growing up…Now that is an interesting way of putting it isn’t it. I imagine Peter had a lot of growing up to do don’t you. He is one of the most fallible people we see in the Bible. That’s why we like Peter, we are a lot like him… To grow up in a Christian sense means to become more like God. Peter knew a lot about that process. He and Christ were run around buddies. I imagine that Peter became more like Christ from just being around Jesus. I know how that works I think. It’s kind of like my relationship with my wife. She influences me more than anyone else. I can see how over the years I have become more like her, simply because I see things about her that are pleasing to me. I think I have become a harder worker because Sandy works so hard. I am more patient, because she is patient. I judge less because she seldom judges others… I have become more like her because there are ways in which she is a nicer person than me to be honest. To grow up means our behavior changes because we want to be more like Christ. We rid ourselves of malice, and deceit, and hypocrisy, and envy, and slander…and we put on sincere love for each other… The reason we do this is because as Peter says, “We have all tasted the kindness of the Lord”…The truth is becoming like Christ means we actually become more beautiful inside and we even like ourselves better!
The truth be told though, I still have a long way to go before I am a true grown up. There are moments when I seem to be drinking that pure spiritual milk like a newborn baby as Peter so aptly puts it. It still seems to be just the beginning of my trek toward holiness.
Have you heard the story about the blind man who was quite wealthy and quite good looking. He hardly ever got out of his house and had few friends in the small town he lived. When he did get out few people talked to him… except for one young lady… she was the ugliest woman in the town… homely beyond homely… The blind man married her… In small towns as in many places there was a lot of gossip. One thing that circulated a lot was how lucky the woman was. If the homely gal was actually seen by the blind man then he wouldn’t have anything to do with her…
On one occasion the blind man was out walking and he heard the conversation of some of the local busy bodies and heard them say, “He’d never love her if he saw how homely she is. He could have done much better!” The blind man walked over to the sound of the voices that were loud enough for him to hear. He said to them, “When I met my wife I was all alone. No one but she even talked to me when I was around. After we married my new wife took it upon herself to help me. She helped me to the bathroom and into the bath tub in the mornings. She walks me to the dining room and fixes me breakfast. She shows me where my knife, fork, and spoon are. She holds long conversations with me when no one else pays me any time at all. During the day, she comes on breaks to keep me company. At night she feeds me and prepares me to sleep. Then she lays down next to me and goes to sleep in my arms. In the morning she starts the whole process over again of taking care of me… My wife is the most beautiful person I have ever met…
Holiness is a process of becoming… becoming more and more beautiful in the site of God and in also in our own eyes…
Lets go into the world in a state of becoming. Let us become more and more holy…