Day 1721 - Growing One Person at a Time

A sermon shared with First Presbyterian Church, Spring City, TN on August 27, 2017

First Reading: Matthew 16:13-18

Second Reading: Romans 12: 1-8

What does “Growing one person at a time” mean to you? I chose this title to be so ambiguous as to have two meanings to complement the events we celebrate today, the reception of a new member and the baptism of a member.

“Growing one person at a time” can mean we grow in number as a congregation by one person at a time as they join us. Or it can mean the spiritual strength of our congregation grows according to the spiritual growth of each individual person in our midst. This is the way the congregation grows, we add members (usually) one person at a time, we promise through baptism to support their growth as Christians strengthening them and each person in the congregation empowers or harms it, and one self, as they grow spiritually or turn from growth.

Nurturing our members is a collective exercise, but ultimately nurturing our members is a personally beneficial, individual exercise and responsibility.  Each one of us is obligated to spiritual growth. This is what Paul encourages us to do in the Romans passage, understand and use our gifts with humility in order to grow spiritually.

As Paul says, we each have gifts to share. Some od us have the gift of an unflagging sense of responsibility for our building and our programs.  Others have a compassion for our young people that never seems to lessen.  Others have a compassion for the congregation that motivates them  quietly without recognition or reward to send out notes and cards to those who have been away for a while or are ill. Others have a humility that puts high priority on being a reconciling presence with others. Others have musical talent that helps us sing praises that raise our spirits and thank the Lord.  Others are always there to help in whatever way is needed, setting a table, being a great cook, welcoming visitors, sweeping the carpet. You name it and we probably have someone who is good at it.

Paul says we need a few “attitude” adjustments for all our gifts to be used effectively to attract people to our congregation (to grow by one person) and to retain them (growing one person at a time).

For many years I avoided using Paul’s letters because I have experienced so many preachers and fellow Christians use them as a club, beating up church members for various “sins.” But if you read Paul carefully and understand what he was trying to do, you get a better and more compassionate perspective about his words.

The irony of beating someone up over their “sins”, ought to be obvious to you.  The very act of “beating someone up over a “sin” (even yourself) reveals one of the worse sins we can have, an ego that makes you think you are better than the other person and not a sinner yourself. Or, it can be one of the worst mistakes we can make, not forgiving our self when theLord has already done so.

Paul knew human nature because he understood himself. He had a bad temper (Read 2 Corinthians 11-13.). He knew that the small congregations he helped form were fragile and subject to all the destructive lack of harmony one might see in a family. He also realized human nature is fairly predictable.

The most damaging flaw a person can have is a large ego or a lack of humility. Sometimes that ego or lack of humility is a defensive reaction to a self-perceived weakness, insecurity or threat. Sometimes it is just a consequence of being stubborn. Regardless, it prevents us from seeing in our self the same issues we see in others.

I would guess that every person reading this post at one time or another has had someone say something or do something that hurt your feelings or did not give you the respect you feel you deserve by your own measure. Paul describes that as thinking too highly of oneself.

I would also guess every one of us has had something said about them, or a friend or family member that hurt their feelings, or made them mad. I’m sure it happens is the schools our young people attend.

Self-defense, defense of family, is a natural human reaction. That too can be a matter of thinking too highly of oneself.

I would also guess that at one time or another many of us have thought, “I can do that better than the person actually doing it, or they are not doing it the way I would do it,” and felt the urge to correct them by showing them how you would do it. That too is thinking too highly of oneself.

But Paul is not beating us up for it but making a profound point. Ego-fueled behavior blinds us to the reality that we are not strangers to each other but all brothers and sisters in this congregation. We each have a personal obligation to support each other using the best of our various abilities.

We ought to accept it as a given that sooner or later we are going to hurt someone by what we say or do, or vice versa. We will all do it, it is only a matter of time.

If we let our ego get the best of us and as Paul says, think too highly of our self, we will not find a path to forgiveness, apology and understanding, and we will risk damaging the stability of our congregation. The ability to forgive, and to apologize is a divine gift. Use it. To quote Paul, think about this with sober judgment.

Today in particular Paul’s advice is quite valuable and important. We celebrate both sides of “Growing one person at a time.”

We receive a new member joining our congregation today. She has told me many reasons she is doing it, and two of them are that she was invited by one person to visit, and that she found us to be a warm, friendly and accepting congregation of people. So today she becomes one more person in our growth as a congregation.

Paul’s advice is also valuable and important to the other side of “Growing one person at a time.” Today we are celebrating the baptism of a young woman in Piney River after our service. She will become our newest member.

When we baptize someone, we ask questions of both the congregation and the person being baptized, or their parents if they are infants. I will ask this young woman if Jesus is her Lord and Savior and if she will do everything on her part to grow in faith and help us grow as a congregation. I will ask the congregation if they will love and support her and help her grow into the best Christian she can by modeling Paul’s advice.

Did you get that? “Love and help her grow into the best Christian she can become.” How do we do that?

We ensure that she sees the humility in each of us that Paul talks about, don’t think too highly of yourself. In that way, we provide a model of Christian living that we can say comfortably, “Copy my behavior, I’m a Christian.”

When we do that, guess what?? Not only do we provide a living example for her, we also discover we are growing our own spirituality.

So today each of us will demonstrate both meanings of the sermon title, growing one person at a time and nurturing one person at a time, accepting both as opportunities for our own spiritual growth.

Paul said, “so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.” 

You may wonder why I did not touch upon the first three verses of Romans 12. It is because if we are to be a living sacrifice acceptable to God, if we are not to be conformed to the world, or Facebook or the Internet, but be transformed as Christians, it will be a result of striving not to think too highly of our self but to use our gifts wisely and constantly for God’s glory.

Amen