Last Sunday for the first time in 35 years, I had to cancel Sunday services.  It was a strange feeling sitting around all day with the snow piling up outside.  I'd been grumbling that I wanted another day off, so I got my wish.  Trouble is, I spent much of Monday, my normal day off, shoveling snow.  I guess there's just no pleasing some people!

          So, due to missing a week, I really need to preach two sermons!  Maybe I should have a short commercial about halfway through with last week's highlights.  Experts tell us that our attention spans are only about 9 minutes long, mostly due to TV, so a break in the middle should be welcome.  Little wonder we modern folks wouldn't consider sitting through an hour sermon, let alone the two hour kind Martin Luther used to preach.

          In today's text Paul is telling us we should grow up, that is, grow up in our faith.  He is telling us to be mature Christians, more like Christ.  Christian maturity requires willingness to develop new attitudes that reflect the attitude and mind of Jesus Christ.  We need to grow stronger.  But being told to grow up isn't pleasant.  As a boy my older brother Fritz often told me to grow up, and it was always a stinging reminder that I was acting childish.  I wonder what he'd say today if he knew some of my hobbies.

          Paul is telling us, "Grow Up!  Put aside childish ways!  Speak the truth in love.  Start taking responsibility for your faith."  Those are honest words we all need to hear.  Dishonesty, whether it's bending the truth a little or flat out lying, is popular these days and as always, it's destructive.  When I was nine years old, I was caught in a lie by my teacher.  I'll never forget show she gently wrapped her arm around me in a soft headlock and with her nose just an inch from mine said, "Why did you tell that lie?"  Fifty-two years later and I can still feel her disapproval and disappointment.

          Growing as a Christian means speaking the truth in a spirit of love.  Lying seems rampant these days.  We want approval, so we skirt the truth or we say what we think others want to hear.  Or else we use the truth like a club, not caring about feelings.  Truth is always best.  As my Dad said, "Always tell the truth, then you don't need to remember what you said."

          St. Paul has some great thoughts on this.  Earlier in the chapter he said, "I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.  Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.  Make every effort to be united and live in peace." (Ephesians 4:1-2)   Kindness and patience go farther than harshness.  Speaking the truth in love is part of growing up, and we need this now more than ever.

          I am finishing my 34th year in ministry and I've seen changes I never imagined, some not so good.  The Church has changed.  It's not the same one as we had in 1971 when I formally started my ministry.  The Gospel hasn't changed, but the way we express it has.  We must ever retain the Gospel but always seek better ways to share it.  Being in the church has changed me.

          Americans have changed.  We're a visual society with short attention spans.  We question authority and are cynical about promises made to us.  Worship has changed.  It's no longer a standard liturgy, but a buffet of choices.  Instead of an exercise of faith, worship can become more like entertainment.  Sermons are more like therapy than messages of Law and Gospel.  Godly worship seeks to connect people with God, and sermons should be filled with the reality of sin and the miracle of forgiveness.

          Society doesn't like to hear about sin.  The church which speaks the truth in love will always travel a rocky road, a road filled with potholes of misunderstanding and washboards of doubt.  But the road of truth must be taken, for it's the only real road.  Today, more than ever, Christians must be willing to speak the truth in love, to the world and also to each other.

          Ever wondered why we have a sermon?  Why not just get together to praise God, have fellowship and pass the plate?  Sermons have several purposes.  One is to EDUCATE, to explain the Bible and apply it to life.  Another is to MOTIVATE people to live by God's will.  But the main purpose of a sermon is to preach CHRIST, to proclaim Him the Lord and Savior of all.

          (This portion of our sermon has been brought to you by Harvesters For Christ, Lutherans teaching Lutherans to share the Gospel.  Friends, if you have ever come to a church and felt left out, it may be because the members don't know how to be friendly, or to make you welcome.  If so, then Harvesters For Christ has just the thing for you!  During May special classes will be held in caring, sharing your faith, and welcoming newcomers.  Al and Joy Axelson of Phoenix, Arizona, trained Harvesters, invite you to sign up today for one or more of the classes they are leading during May.  All classes are free and this offer is only good at this location.  Don't delay - take out the insert and sign up now!  One of their classes may change your life!  Now back to our regularly scheduled sermon.)

          You and I need the Gospel to live as God's people.  We need the guidance of His Word for daily life.  We need God's Word because the world will give us its word.  Paul says to be honest and loving towards each other.  We must make time in our busy schedules and get our priorities straight.  Then, as Paul said, "...we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth... but we will grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ."

          Have you ever felt like a child?  Sometimes when I look in the mirror I don't see a greying man but a child in a man's body.  Some of the things I think about are those of a child.  I like my toys!  I ride a motor scooter.  I read westerns and daydream about the older, simpler days.  It's okay to dream of being a child, but adults can't live like one.  If we did, how could we be what we need to be, a parent, a spouse, an adult worker with responsibilities?

          When you're a child, you don't know yet who you are or where you are going.  You and I can also be a child in our faith, not knowing who we are or what we believe.  New ideas can derail us.  Ignorance becomes a ready excuse.  The latest fad can pull us away from the truth.  That's not what God wants.  He wants us to grow up in our faith, to be knowledgeable citizens of heaven, as well as responsible citizens of this earth.

          Art Linkletter wrote a book years ago called, Kids Say the Darndest Things.  In it he told of a mother who used to take her 4-year-old daughter on her rounds taking meals-on-wheels to the elderly.  The little girl was intrigued by the various appliances of the elderly, the canes, walkers and wheelchairs.  One day she found her staring at a pair of false teeth soaking in a glass.  The girl turned and whispered, "The tooth fairy will never believe this!"

          He wrote that another little girl had just finished her first week of preschool classes.  When her mother asked her what she thought of them, she replied, "I'm just wasting my time.  I can't read, I can't write and they won't even let me talk!"  Linkletter also included a story from a pastor who once heard his little son saying a prayer out in the back yard.  His 5-year-old boy had found a dead bird.  Feeling that a proper burial should be performed, he had dug a hole and was getting ready to bury the critter.  Mustering his best imitation of Dad's voice, the little boy held the bird above the hole and said with sonorous dignity, "In the name of the Faaaather, and the Soonnn..... and into the hole he gooooes.  amen"

          Yes, kids may say the darndest things, but most of us aren't kids any more.  There comes a time when we need to grow up in our faith, to be enlightened by God's Word.

          Jesus understood this.  He loved children in a special way.  People of His day, especially the men, considered what children said to be of little value.  They were to stay in their places, and it wasn't with the adults.  So when the mothers brought their children to Jesus, the Bible tells us His disciples told them to go away.  But Jesus stopped them.  "Let the little ones come to me," He said, "for to such belongs the kingdom of God." (Mark 10:14)

          And yet Jesus would say it's time to grow up.  We can't be children forever.  We need to find a way to mature in our faith.  We need to speak the truth in love, learn from the Word of God and live as God wants us to live.

          Our Savior knows our needs.  He blessed the adults and children who came to Him.  He gave His life that adults and children may have the hope of forgiveness and heaven.  The boy Jesus once got lost in the big city of Jerusalem.  He knows the joy of being found, especially being found in church, in His Father's house.  That's a good place for children of all ages to be.  I hope and pray that each of you will always be found in church.

          Hebrews 5:13 says, "Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching of righteousness."  You and I can't live on milk forever - we need more than baby food.  I hope and pray you and I will always be growing up in our faith.  A child-like faith is good, but that faith still must grow.  The only way to grow is through the Word.

          By the way, my teacher I lied to came to my ordination and said I was the best student she ever had.  And my brother, a few months before he died, wrote a letter saying how proud he was I helped start a church.  Thank the Lord He helps us all grow up.  Amen.

Copyright © 2005 by Pastor Bob Tasler.  All rights reserved.