All children want to grow big.  Years ago when my eldest was just three, he did something memorable.  He sat up at the table, took a bite of food, then suddenly raised his arms up as high as he could and proudly exclaimed with his mouth full of food, "I'm going to grow this big!"  And he did and so did his brother, something that makes any parent proud.  I'm sure my own parents raised my little arms and said to me, "So gross!" (So big!)

          Parents cherish their child's growth.  They love them small, but want them to grow big, big enough to take responsibility for their actions, big enough to make lasting relationships and perhaps raise a family of their own, big enough to handle whatever life throws at them.  All parents want their children to grow big enough to live out their calling as positive, productive adults in God's world.

          Today's Gospel has the disciples wondering who was the greatest.  To us it may seem a childish thing, yet it's not.  In today's world grown small, dumbed down and overly sensitive, God wants us to become big, with bigger minds, bigger about the truth and a bigger ability to discern right and wrong.  God wants us to be big about life and how to live it.

          This is why churches are constantly calling on people to study God's Word.  The Bible will help make us big in a world of smallness.  Studies show that today only 15% of Christians actually study or read the Bible outside the worship service.  We desperately need what Romans 12:2 calls "the renewing of our minds."  The world fills our mind with smallness when real life requires bigness.

          God wants us to have minds that are growing and renewed.  That's why for centuries churches have been pioneers in establishing public and private schools and universities.  Public education began first in churches.  Christians believe God wants our minds to grow brighter.  He wants all adults and children, men and women, to grow in knowledge of God, as St. Paul says in Ephesians 4, "[We should] No longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ." (Ephesians 4:14-15)

          God wants us to have big minds, and also big hearts too.  A few years ago, a pastor spoke at a luncheon to over a hundred top employees of AOL Time-Warner.  These were people who'd been caught up in the dreams of wealth and greatness that first accompanied the merger of those two corporate behemoths.  And they had also experienced the stunning greed, pride, and heartache of Wall Street success, because most of the people sitting there that day had just lost their jobs.  So in their loss they asked a noted pastor - orator to address them, perhaps give them some hope.

          Because it was near Valentines Day, the pastor read them what seemed to be an appropriate poem, and he was besieged by requests for copies.  Jews and Muslims, a few Christians and even a few irreligious people were so moved by the text that they wanted a copy. The poem was in fact, a translation of 1 Corinthians 13.  He read, "Love is patient, love is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  Love never fails."

          Amazing how the Word of the Lord is so plain!  In an age of complexity, we need simplicity.  The high and mighty need love more than success.  I had a dream last week about an office machine that got jammed.  By the time I got in unjammed it was in so many pieces I couldn't get it back together again.  We need simplicity.

          God wants us to get big in our faith, and the way there is by getting small.  1 Corinthians 13 also says, "When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.  When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me."  Are you and I doing that?  Are we becoming bigger, more mature?  Or are we spending all our time on complexities that are just confusing us more?

          The first step toward getting bigger is to get smaller.  After a church service, little Jimmy told the pastor, "When I grow up, I'm going to work hard so I can give you some money."  "Thank you very much," the pastor said, "but why?"  The boy replied, "Because daddy says you're the poorest preacher we've ever had."  I guess children can show us the truth in all kinds of ways.

          In Matthew 18, Jesus tells us that in one way, children show us the starting place for genuine growth. When the disciples asked, "Who is the greatest?" He did the unexpected.  He had a little child stand among them and said, "Unless you change and become like a little child, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."  Jesus loved children.  It wasn't only their innocence or their joy or their playfulness that Jesus admired, it was their humility.  Jesus was saying we adults are to emulate a child's humility.  "Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."  God wants us to become big in our faith by becoming small.  Becoming humble, in our relationship to God, and even in our relationship with each other.  Humility is the way to becoming big.

          Children know they are small.  Sometimes I wish some parents knew that, too.  It seems to me kids today are pushed to grow up too fast.  To help them become big, we must first realize the value of their being small.  If you think you're already a big shot, then your growth has already stopped.  As the cowboy philosopher said, "If you think you're a person of influence, try orderin' somebody else's dog around."

          In life we become big by becoming small.  This is also true of a church.  A meeting was held at Epiphany this week of people interested in Home Groups.  Small Home Groups provide personal growth through fellowship and Bible study.  I believe the time has come for Epiphany to begin in earnest, the ministry of small Home Groups.  Churches who have small Home Groups can become big.

          If you and I open God's Word, we, too, can become big.  If we read and study the life of our Lord and His teachings, then we'll be on the road to growth.  We need His Word to grow.  It's almost as if you and I can come to the Lord's Table today, take a mouthful of His grace and say, "Father, I'm going to grow this BIG!"

          When my boys were little I used to toss them high into the air and catch them.  They always loved that game.  And I would play the "Super Baby" game, holding them high and zooming them around up near the ceiling like Superman.  They would laugh and giggle and often my wife would hold her breath for fear I'd drop them.  But I never did, and the boys never feared I would.  They trusted their Daddy and knew he'd never let them fall.

          We all need to trust that God will never drop us, never let us down.  Friends may let you down, parents may let you down, the church may let you down, but God won't.  He'll never fail you.  This world lives by fear and intimidation, by winners and losers.  The world tries to use cleverness or brute strength.  But the Kingdom of Heaven is built on faith in God and on His love for us in Jesus.

          A pastor in a partly rural parish went to visit a boy in the country every Saturday.  The boy's mother had died, and his father was an alcoholic.  Every Saturday the pastor went out to the house at about eleven o'clock and the little boy would be waiting at the end of his dusty lane.  When pastor came, the boy would run up to him in dirty clothes and bare feet and give him a bear hug.  One Saturday the pastor was delayed and didn't make it to the boy's home until later that afternoon.  When he got there it was 4 o'clock and the boy was standing at the end of the lane.  He got out of the car and the boy walked up to him with tears in his eyes and said, "I've been waiting for you all day!"

          You and I need that kind of childlike faith and trust.  We need to keep looking for God, waiting for our Heavenly Father when everything and everyone else has failed us.  If you feel you've been watching and waiting and God is not answering, don't be afraid.  God has never let us down, and He never will.  He loves us and has said He'll be back, so must we trust and keep waiting.  God loves us.  Christ is coming back!  Meanwhile, let's keep looking for him at the end of our dusty lane, trusting He will show up and enwrap us in His great love.

          We may not ever be the president or a CEO or a celebrity.  We may never become a missionary or an evangelist.  But we can be great in the kingdom, great by faith, great by serving, great by doing good works, helping the poor, clothing the naked, feeding the hungry.  We can all become great by humility.  God grant us grace to trust Him and to keep on watching for His coming, amen

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