Blessing the World

A Sermon by Rev. Larry Fry based on I Corinthians 3:1-9

College Avenue UMC

February 16, 2014

This week, Penny and I got a card and letter from a friend.  Through a mutual friend she had just found out that we were grandparents.  She saw and purchased this card years ago and saved it to send us when we became grandparents.  On the cover of the card, it has two potatoes, looking at their new baby.  The card cover says, “Look, he has our eyes!”  The inside of the card reads, “Congratulations on your new small fry.”  How funny!  We are moved by her thoughtfulness.

This new “small fry,” named Toland, is one of the greatest joys of our lives and now another to have the honor to baptize him, a Sacrament of the Church.  A sacrament is something started by Jesus in which the Holy Spirit brings a special blessing.  Baptism is not necessary for salvation, but it is important and a great help.   Toland’s life journey and his faith journey are just beginning.

So many parts of our culture work against the best kind of spiritual growth, and one of those is the desire for a quick fix for everything.  I love the analogy Paul uses.  Paul is reminding us faith education is a lifelong process.  Like a garden, it takes planning and care. While it is true that God can do things quickly in the lives of people and churches, God often uses long-term growth.

To compare it to cooking, many things do not work well in a microwave.  The amazing delicious smell and taste of yeast bread just does not come out right out of a microwave.  The best things in life often take time.

Growing Disciples Takes Time

Deepak, father of our daughter-in-law, has been studying the Japanese language a long time.  He needs it for his work.  For over 10 years he has been taking lessons, and he is still not done with lessons.  In our culture, we want things done NOW.   Not all things happen in the best way NOW.  Deepak, there is an app for your phone called DUOLINGO.  The marketing ad says that you can learn a language in the 34 hours.  Tell that to a language teacher.

Years ago, this church decided that our education program for children needed to be changed.  We adopted a program called “Rotation” which means rotating classrooms and different learning methods.  One week a video will be presented, another week will have the students acting out the story, another week will involve art or science.  And each age level goes deeper into the meaning of each story.   We live in a culture that does not want to wait for anything … we want it now.  But here at College Avenue, we have designed Sunday School curriculum, rooms, furniture, programs to nurture and grow disciples with plans that stretch over years.  Just recently, our children have been studying the story of Zaccheaus.  Our design for growing disciples has each higher age level going deeper into the meaning.  And by the time we get to the youth, the emphasis is on applying it to the world.  You can see in our lower hallway photos of the drama. 

Paul was writing to a church caught in conflict, needing to grow.  This is the church where Forrest Buhler would be needed for mediation and David Proctor for planning.  They had lost sight of their mission with their energies directed into resentments.  Paul was addressing this letter to people who were not being their best.  They were obviously doing things that were not appropriate for the Christian faith. 

A group developed around Paul as a leader and another around Apollos.  And they had each developed negative feelings toward the other group.  The result was they had lost sight of their purpose as a church.  We have all been around organizations where the whole energy of the group was caught up into small groups wanting to get their way.

I am so glad that Toland will grow up learning good things from two faith traditions.

Here is a quote from a Hindu source:

A mature being does not render evil for evil; this is a maxim one should observe; the ornament of virtuous persons is their conduct.

--Ramayana, Yuddha Kanda 115

Obviously Paul and Apollos had followers and they did not always agree.  You can feel that in the church at Corinth, things were not going well.   They had turned mean.   And to offer a healing opportunity, Paul uses two images for teaching … one a garden and other a building. 

Paul is reminding us not to get bogged down in petty rivalries, or lose energy God intended for other purposes, like blessing the world.  Harvest means that a church should be blessing the world around.   If a church is not blessing the world something is very wrong and Paul reminds us that it is God should be LARGE AND IN CHARGE…NOT ANY ONE PERSON.

Our New Building is to be a New Garden Where We Can Bring About New Life

Not many weeks from now, people will be planting their gardens, and soon after that plants spring up and then, a harvest.   Only God can grow a garden, and only God can grow a church.  That knowledge should give us both humility and excitement.  God is growing something unique here and we get to help.

Back to this truth: it is God who creates and creates all things growing.

In my experience, when a church starts a building project, curious people appear in the door, coming to see what is growing here.  They come knowing that building is one sign of growth.  What they really hope to find is a place of spiritual growth that will help their spiritual journey.  Does this faith family invite, nurture, empower, and send people into the world to bless it?  If it does, they will be interested … very interested.

What we want most is for our church to grow spiritually and through a relationship with God out of which mission and ministry bloom like blossoms and fruit.  The Holy Spirit continues to breathe life into our church.

Disciples Are All Unique and Not Everyone Has to Fit Into a Mold

In Paul’s day, groups were taking sides by defining a disciple in one way.  God never defines disciples in only one way any more than he defines only one size and style of strawberry.   This is a hard time of the year for strawberries.  Several people have mentioned this recently.  The groceries stores have these giant berries … just a few in a box and white on the inside and taste like plastic.  I think these berries make us long for the small berries, each a bit different in size and shape, but so, so good.  We especially love the ones grown in local gardens and sold at the farmer’s market.

It Takes Time to Grow a Church Because God is the One Who Grows It

I can see many ways a new fellowship hall will benefit our children.  It will be a place of fellowship around potlucks, the excitement of games, the joy of dance, a large community forum or a concert or an art exhibit showing what our church children have shown in exhibits.

I know that those on our Building Committee feel that this has been a long, long process.  Yet, every thought, every suggestion, every question, every idea was considered.  Some of the ideas were included and then subtracted. 

The vision is something that will be usable 50 years from now, not by us but by God for those who come after us.  Temples, churches, synagogues, and mosques are places where we both honor God and pass on to those who follow us, our best traditions and our faith.  God has been working on College Avenue only 60 years.  And look what God has done with us!  Within these walls what God has grown is faith and discipleship, and that is what God wants us to expand. 

We will soon be deciding about a building expansion project.  We all know that what is more important than any building is what happens in the building.   A bigger facility is an opportunity to bless the world with the activities in that space.

As we can see all over town, any group can build a building … only God can grow a church.   The moment we decide that we are doing this all by ourselves, we have already shut out the One who builds our spiritual home.