Are You A Mature Christian?

Luke 18:9-14 - October 23rd, 2022

The Lord Be With You.

A parable on our Gospel …

There once was a swimmer who spent many years practicing. He would swim 2 miles per day for seven days per week. He started when he was just a child and throughout his elementary and high school meets he enjoyed success after success. This raised his own impression about himself to new heights. But now he was in college, on the swim team, and it seemed that he could never practice enough because he didn’t seem to come in first very often. So he expanded his area of practice to include nearby rivers and lakes and even out into the ocean. When he would compete, he always came in second place. Behind the very same person. By the same time difference. His early days, in that college though, had him winning but, lately, he always came up short. It seemed that no matter how hard this person would practice, he would always end up where he always ended up. So, he took another approach. He asked the other man what he did to end up always placing first. The other man told him that he really didn’t practice that much. Certainly not as much as he had heard that this man did. What he did do was that he looked for help from the creator which allowed him to clear his mind of any doubts he had. Doubts about what the final outcome would be. Assurances that if he gave it everything the creator instilled in him, he would end up where the creator wanted him to be. He said, the guy’s problem was not that he had less talent. Had less ambition. Had less enthusiasm. No, the problem was that the person had allowed doubt to keep him back from his true potential. Once he could let go of that doubt and come to the fuller understanding of his worth, to the only one that could define that worth to begin with, would he begin to see victory once again.

Here ends the parable.

Verse 14 reads, in part, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” Now I’ve focused on this verse because if one lives long enough, pride has a way to come back to bite ya. But pride has a way of negating doubt because it convinces you that you can do no wrong. And that leads to decisions that elevates your self-importance while, in reality, deflating your value to others. Doubt is good in that it helps to get our decisions in perspective. Doubt is good in that it allows alternative ideas to find a place to register in our train of thought. Doubt is good in that it keeps you from being the Pharisee that is all high and mighty and lets you have a genuine conversation with the Father. Yes doubt is good.

But it can also be bad too. It can lead you into inaction rather than action. It can lead you to stop trying rather than reaching for the gold. It can lead you into decisions that don’t end up with any lasting benefit. Yea, too much doubt can also be bad. It’s a wire that we’re always trying to cross. Jesus addresses this in Matthew 14:31 where He says, “’You of little faith,’ he said, ‘why did you doubt?’” and again in Mark 11:23, “’I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.’” Yea, Jesus addresses doubt for sure. And doubt is also what the enemy wants to have us live within. If you’re a believer today you’re among the 48% percent of people who still have a belief in Jesus the Christ or God. Down from 72% back in 1970. Our doubts have allowed the word of God to be eroded down to 2 + 2 = 5. And that’s what the enemy is counting on. Doubt that is fed by fear.

This Gospel centers on what one believes about themselves in juxtaposition to the reality that we all live in and the true value that God puts in us. It has nothing to do with assuredness or with a belief in either yourself or your abilities. It has everything to do with what you do with that assuredness and your abilities. Your abilities to share what you are blessed with when dealing with others. Like the young swimmer who was confident in his abilities, we can be confident in our own. But, like the Pharisee who was confident in his own place in the kingdom illustrated by his own words, our assuredness in heaven can only be assured by the one that introduces us to the Father as pure and blameless because, folks, without that assurance, we can never make it past the gates on our own. Without the help of another. Without the saving grace of the one who got the nails put into His hands and hung up there like a thief. Without the promises of that one that says that He will indeed stand in for us when we cannot begin to stand on our own.

Sometimes we need to be reminded, though, of what our own value that we’ve placed on ourselves is perceived by others. It’s like the person who started a new garlic sandwich diet just so they could be seen by others in a positive light. He didn’t lose any weight but he looked a lot smaller from a distance. Or like the young swimmer who lost to the other man, we need to be told what reality really is.

Or like the Texan who drove into a gas station in the hills of Tennessee. He was wearing a ten-gallon hat and fancy cowboy boots, he had diamond rings on both hands, and he was puffing a king-sized cigar. “Fill ‘er up!” he yelled at the attendant as he strolled inside.

Sitting over to one side of the room on a keg was a Tennessee farmer. “Live around here?” asked the Texan. “Yep,” the farmer answered, “that’s my place across the road.” “Oh, it is?” said the Texas condescendingly. “Well, tell me, how many acres have you got?” “Oh, about eighty acres, more or less.”

“Only eighty acres?” scoffed the Texan. “Well, let me tell you about my place. Why, I get in my car early in the morning and start driving in a straight line, and by noon I haven’t even reached the other side! Now, what about that?”

“Yep, I know what you mean,” the Tennessee farmer replied. “I used to have a car like that myself.”

I’ve called this message “Are You A Mature Christian” because reading this reminded me of all those times I’m sitting with a group of people and this term is thrown around like it’s an award or something. Similar to the Pharisee, in Jesus’ parable, who probably would have deemed himself a mature follower of God. But he showed a lack of humility and was over confident in his virtue. He separated himself from others by the view he had of others he deemed not worthy to be in his presence. He had only contempt to those he viewed as ones lower than he on his social scale. He took the seat at the table reserved for the elect. And he probably never understood that no one is mature enough to stand before the throne and give an account of himself before the one who knows all and knows our hearts.

So, I would just say that we’re all, logically and spiritually speaking, maturing Christians. People of faith that are always questioning what all this means. Why should we study and hear the words of Jesus and the words of God? Why does it really matter? What do I need to do in order to come to a fuller understanding of where I fit into the whole scheme of things? Is He really walking with me? Does He really hear me? Does He really have grace enough for me? If so, then why do bad things happen to good people? You see, it’s the journey. The paths that we take that grow us closer to the one who can stand before us when the time comes and answer the really tough questions that we will be asked. It’s the knowledge that we really do not have the answers and that the questions are an important part of our relationship with Jesus and the Father. Without those, we’re stuck in place running our engines and eventually running out of gas to travel down the roads we’re meant to go in order to come to a fuller heart felt understanding of just what does grace really mean for us.

Or we can stop looking. We can stop reading. We can stop our search for what God and Jesus wants us to know. We can let our doubts about our own lives and the meaning of our lives overrule our hearts and then we’ll be living in a glass that’s half empty. Forever evaporating so there’s nothing left. When questions stop, conversations cease. When we stop searching for answers, answers are silent and our actions can then become hazardous. It’s like the priest, the evangelist, and the minister who were in a row boat in the middle of a pond fishing. None of them had caught anything all morning.

Then the evangelist stands up and says he needs to go to the bathroom so he climbs out of the boat and walks on the water to shore. He comes back ten minutes later the same way.

Then the minister decides he needs to go to the bathroom, too, so he climbs out of the boat and walks on the water to shore. He, too, comes back the same way ten minutes later.

The priest looks at both of them and decides that his faith is just as strong as his fishing buddies and that he can walk on water, too. He stands up and excuses himself.

As he steps out, he makes a big splash down into the water. The evangelist looks at the minister and says, “I suppose we should have told him where the rocks were." But we can always be asking the tough questions. The ones that matter to our hearts. We can always be looking for the answers as to why this all matters. We can always be maturing in our belief we have on our faith so that we can be assured of where that will lead us. We can always be talking to Jesus so that we can finally hear Him when our world quiets down just a little. Replace that doubt with assurance.

The young swimmer can be all of us as we begin something and then we find circumstances change. We can begin to doubt ourselves. The young swimmer can be all of us when we allow our egos to inflate above our imagined worth to the world. We start to think our stuff don’t stink. The young swimmer can be all of us when we look at others with less worth or we create imagined impressions of another without really knowing them or their context. The other swimmer reminded the young swimmer of what we all need to be reminded of – when we can grasp the idea and the belief that who we are is defined by our creator, the one and only God the Father, it is only then that we can rise to the pinnacle of our own expectations in order to do good. To experience true victory in our lives and in the things we do for and with others.

But there’s a caveat. We gotta stop trying to get into heaven by what we believe we need to do in what we do and let heaven accept us as believers in the one true Christ which ensures our victory forever. Being a mature Christian has nothing to do with your schooling, how long you’ve studied the bible, how many small groups you’ve attended, how many sermons you’ve listened to, how many people you’ve helped or not helped, how much you think you have to do to get to the ultimate prize – heaven. Being a mature Christian doesn’t exist because, quite frankly, you’re only mature when you’re finally standing in front of the Father and have to answer for the ultimate question of whether you can be called a good and faithful servant. Good, in the sense, that you have held onto your belief in the faith you’ve been given so that you can share the Good News with others who might be stuck in the darkness of trying to measure up. Trying to be good enough. Trying to be mature enough so they can have the head seat at God’s table.

Folks, our choices, in this world we live in, is to accept that we are truly broken in everything we do and everything we want to do. Luther has stated that we love what is evil and hate that which is good. He says that since we can’t do anything perfect, which is a sin in the eyes of God because it’s not perfect, we equivocate our existence by saying to ourselves that at least we’re not as bad as that other person over there. There by the grace of God go I. But, in God’s eyes, we’re all the same. No better. No worse. We’re all the same because God created all of us. Some make good choices and some make bad choices but all choices fall short of the glory of the Father because it’s humanly impossible to know what choice we choose is on a level that’s complete to God.

The really cool thing is that even though we fall short each and every day we breathe, we have the only thing that no one else does who follows some other ideology – and that is Christ. It is this reason, our failings, that Jesus came here to give us an edge and give us pure hope and surety that we can stand in front of the Father blameless because Jesus has already paid for our immaturity. Our short comings. Our looking at others and judging their being for being human. Jesus gave us the chance to mature in front of the Father and, until we get to the Father, we’ll just exist to keep on keeping on.

Now, that don’t mean that we can just sit back and keep to ourselves because Jesus gave us pretty clear things that we have to do because we’re believers in Him. Because we are His servants. Because we are His disciples. It was pretty simple 2,000 plus years ago and nothing has changed in the time since. We’re to tell others of the Good News spelled out in the Gospel. The Good News that if someone who is questioning all the craziness around us would just stop and look and listen then they too could come to the conclusion that they can’t get it right and they gotta have some help along the way. Along the way to their ultimate goal. Their ultimate destination where they’ll spend the rest of their eternity.

So, the real choice resides in you and me. Do we stand tall among all this world throws at us? Do we take our short comings and use those to help another along the way or do we stop looking outward and only look inward to what we can’t do. God can do anything. God can use you and me. God can enlighten us to where we gotta go in order to spread His word. God is in charge but gives us the free will to decide the path we’re to go down. He’ll put boulders in our paths which He hopes we can see. Boulders to help move us along the true path of righteousness. But it’s our ultimate choice what we do with those signs. It’s our ultimate choice what we do with our neighbors. It’s our ultimate choice what we do with the promises He has already given to us to help us to walk in the light. We just gotta choose. Be sure to choose wisely. Something to think about! Something to pray about?

Can we pray? …

Father in Heaven. Help us to know our gifts that you have blessed us with. Help us to overcome our own fears in using our gifts. Help us to have the courage to face the adversity that comes with our gifts. Father, send down your Holy Spirit so that we can know your presence in our lives and, thereby, help us to share our gifts with others that may need your light, your grace, your mercy. Father heal us of our hurts. Heal us from our illnesses. Heal us and give us courage. We ask that you show us the truth in our hearts so others will know that what you say is that truth. Father, give us your mercy and your grace. We pray these things and more in our hearts in the name of your Son, Jesus the Christ.

And all God’s people said – Amen?!

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