The Need to Feel that One Is Growing in Faith
Sermon
Six Spiritual Needs in America Today
Sermons with Chancel Dramas
Object:
Worship Aid
A Chancel Drama suggestion for the sermon, "Growing In God's Freedom," is titled "Same Old, Same Old." It is an original drama by Arley K. Fadness.
Synopsis: A husband and wife argue about how to celebrate their 23rd wedding anniversary. Alma, the wife, likes to go to the same romantic place where they went on their honeymoon, year after year. George, the husband, is tired of the "same old thing" and would rather go or do new things. The debate is seemingly unresolved until Alma is seen looking at a brochure titled "Tahiti" and is heard making a call to a travel agency. This abrupt change indicates a sudden growth spurt in their relationship.
This chancel drama is a setup for preaching to the theme of "The Need To Feel That One Is Growing In Faith."
* * *
Same Old, Same Old
Text: John 8:31-36
Theme: The Need To Feel That One Is Growing In Faith
Characters:
Alma, wife, wearing an old, outdated wig
George, husband, wearing an old, outdated sweater
Tone: Humorous
Setting/Props: Home setting, telephone, large travel map
Approximate time: 5-8 minutes
__________
Alma: Say, George.
George: Say, what?
Alma: I think it's time.
George: Time for what, dear?
Alma: You know.
George: I know?
Alma: Yes, Sweetie -- it's time...
George and Alma: ... to plan our anniversary.
George: (Protests) But that's three months from now.
Alma: That's exactly the point.
George: Point?
Alma: We haven't much time.
George: (Groans) Three months needed for planning our 23rd wedding anniversary and we do the same old thing again and again?
Alma: (Feigned shock) Why, Georgie -- how dare you talk disrespectful of our sacred time together.
George: That ain't it.
Alma: Well, what is it?
George: To always go to the North Shore on our anniversary just because...
Alma: (Finishes his sentence) ... just because that was where we spent our honeymoon. I thought you were in heaven on our honeymoon, staying in that quaint cottage by the old lighthouse and all -- water lapping on the shore while we walked in the sand hand in hand.
George: (Stutters) W-well, yes, but...
Alma: ... but it's always the same old thing. I know, I know.
(Phone rings. Alma answers, talking ad lib to her friend Yappy about how she and George are planning to plan their wedding anniversary. George rolls his eyes and performs various antics during her conversation, implying that all this "anniversary talk" is getting goofy.)
Alma: That was Yappy, George. I told her about our plans. Okay. Let's eat. Supper's ready and we'll finish our discussion, eh? (Ties bib on George, sets food in front of him, starts to feed him)
George: Alma! I'm not an invalid. I can feed myself. I'm...
Alma: I'm a grown man... I know, Georgie Porgie... I know. (Continues to fuss over him)
George: My arm has healed, you know.
Alma: How long has it been since you broke it?
George: Two years ago last September and you still treat me like a cripple or something... I just...
Alma: I just will do it myself. I know, I know. (Eats in silence)
George: Now you're mad?
Alma: Nope! (Really angry, but can't admit it)
George: About our anniversary...
Alma: Forget it!
George: Okay -- we'll forget it.
Alma: (Changes her tune) No, no. (Condescendingly) I'll adjust.
George: (Tries to make up) North Shore's fine. September 5th.
Alma: (Warms up) Oooh, it'll be soooo romantic -- you and I -- just like 23 years ago. Gooseberry Falls, a walk along the shore, skipping stones in the lake, watching the freighters, the sea gulls, climbing Artist's Look Out, sketching a sunset...
George: Twenty-three years? (Rolls eyes. Telephone rings. George answers.) H'lo. George. George Blankly, Oh, it's you, Tom. Fine. How are you? Trip? With you and Gladys? Bill and Mary? Fishing, eh?
Alma: (Looking concerned) When, George, when?
George: First weekend of September? That'll be great. Let's do it. Thanks, Tom. Bye. (Hangs up receiver; excitedly) It's all planned!
Alma: (Skeptically) What's planned?
George: A fishing trip to Montrose in Canada. We're going with the Karnes and the Stoffens.
Alma: Did you consult me?
George: You love fishing.
Alma: I know, but did you consult me?
George: I know, but it's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission sometimes.
Alma: Permission isn't the issue. What's the date, George?
George: Let's see -- first weekend in October -- ah, no. First weekend in September.
Alma: First weekend in September!??? George, have you lost your marbles?
George: (Stunned) Oh! That's right!
George and Alma: Our anniversary trip to North Shore.
George: Okay, okay, I'll call them back (Alma glares; George talks on phone in low tones while Alma makes dingbat signs while looking at the audience and pointing to George)
Alma: Can you believe that? A fishing trip on our most sacred weekend?
George: All settled. We'll go fishing later in the fall. Now what planning do we need to do?
Alma: Oh, George, if you're going to be so glum about this...
George: Forget it! Maybe we should! Same old, same old...
Alma: No, no. (Pause) By the way, how long have you worn that same old, same old sweater? And sat in that same old, same old chair? And smoked that same old, same old corn cob pipe?
George: What do you mean? What are you getting at?
Alma: How long, George? Answer me.
George: (Meekly) Twenty-three years or so.
Alma: Aha! Same old, same old.
George: (Defiantly) How long have you been wearing that mop -- er -- wig? (Exits)
Alma: (Sits for a while and thinks; jumps up) That's it! (Looks in mirror; adjusts wig; takes new wig out of box; looks in mirror) You know, maybe George is right. (Picks up large brochure titled "Tahiti," reads it, picks up phone, and dials travel agency. George reappears with a new bright sweater and new pipe but is not seen by Alma.) Hello, Nelson's Travel Agency? Could you give me some information on a trip for two to Tahiti?
(South Sea island music plays in the background.)
The End
__________
Growing In God's Freedom
John 8:31-36
"So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed."
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
After worship, a little boy told the pastor: "When I grow up, I'm going to give you some money." "Well, thank you," the pastor replied, "but why?" "Because my daddy says you're one of the poorest preachers we've ever had."1
With the risk of this story in mind, I am pleased, nevertheless, to bring you the fifth sermon in a series of six, dealing with the spiritual needs of Americans as discovered by George Gallup Jr.
This morning, we focus on the need to feel that one is growing in faith. I begin with a song by Peter Pan.
I won't grow up.
Not a penny will I pinch.
I will never grow a mustache
or a fraction of an inch.
'Cause growing up is awfuller
than all the awful things that ever were.
I will never grow up, never grow up,
never grow up, not me!2
So sang Peter Pan... and for some of us it is our song. We don't want to grow up. We do not want to face the next stage in life. We are comfortable where we are. In fact, we don't know why anyone would want us to change. Like Peter Pan, we express our desire to stay just as we are.
There was a group of Peter Pans in the New Testament. Listen to how the author of the Letter to the Hebrews feels about growing up in Christ, or more accurately, the lack of growing up in faith.
For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic elements of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food; for everyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is unskilled in the word of righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, for those whose faculties have been trained by practice to distinguish good from evil.
-- Hebrews 5:12-14
The Peter Pans in the Letter to the Hebrews did not want to grow up. Here is an example of frozen spiritual development. Here are people who have been professing Christ for years. By this time they ought to be teachers. They've had plenty of time, says the writer to the Hebrews, since believing in Christ, to be able to instruct others about the basics of the Gospel message -- but they never left their babyhood.
I have seen 20-, 30-, 40-, 50-year-old people who are still lying in their baby cribs. I have been there myself -- stuck -- sitting in kindergarten -- a grown man, sucking on a baby bottle. We keep taking classes in Christianity 101.
And yet according to George Gallup Jr., there are thousands of us who actually do want to grow up. We have the urgent need to feel that we are growing in our faith. I know I want to grow in my faith and life. I want to grow intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually. I do want to mature and learn and expand my faith. Ignorance is not bliss. Immaturity is not attractive. Peter Pan may think it's wonderful, but Wendy and her brothers, after spending time in Never-Never Land, discover differently.3
On this beautiful Lord's Day, we celebrate knowing three things: We celebrate knowing we are free. We celebrate knowing we are free to grow. And thirdly, we worship God knowing we are free to grow up.
We rejoice knowing we are free.
We read in John's gospel, "If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free... so if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed."
The Reformation proclaimed three major principles: justification by grace through faith, the authority of the Scriptures, and the universal priesthood of the baptized. This morning we are overwhelmed by the truth of the first -- that by God's grace in Jesus Christ we are forgiven, cleansed, healed, made perfect and sinless. We are justified -- made right with God -- through the cross of Christ and him crucified. God's Son has made me free.
There is that story told about Abraham Lincoln. "Lincoln went down to the slave block. He saw a young girl being sold. He took money out of his own pocket and bought her. When she was brought to him, he said, 'Young lady, you are free.' She said, 'Please, sir, what does that mean?' He said, 'It means you are free.' 'Does that mean,' she asked, 'that I can say whatever I want to say?' Lincoln said, 'Yes, my dear, you can say whatever you want to say.' 'Does that mean,' she asked, 'that I can be whatever I want to be?' Lincoln said, 'Yes, you can be whatever you want to be.' She asked, 'Does that mean I can go wherever I want to go?' He said, 'Yes, you can go whenever you want to go.' And the girl, with tears streaming down her face, said, 'Then I will go with you.' "4
When the Son makes you free, you are free indeed.
We can rejoice in the second place, knowing and feeling we are free to grow. We are either trees or posts. You can take a tree and put it in the ground, and it begins to grow. When you put a post in the ground, it begins to rot and decay. We are trees or we are posts. As a pastor these years, it has been my delight to see people in my congregation grow like trees. Unfortunately, I have also had to witness the sad business of watching posts decay and fade away. Are you a tree or a post?
John Westerhoff, Christian Education Specialist, writes in his thesis cassette series titled The Development of Faith that faith has content and can change its characteristics through life. Some faith developmental theorists see the Christian believer going through various stages and levels of maturity in life. Westerhoff pictures the analogy of a tree. "A one-ring tree is a whole tree; has all its treehood, no less than a three-ring tree and the same is true of faith. A tree grow one ring at a time -- gradually -- so it is with faith." Depends on environment, on nourishment.
I want to be a tree. I want to celebrate that God's Son has made me free to grow. I expect to grow ring by ring.
Thirdly, we can rejoice this morning knowing we are free to grow up. I'll never forget my two boy cousins, brothers who were very nasty to each other. I remember as kids one brother shouted to the other, on a Sunday afternoon when we were visiting, "Shut up!" Now "shut up" was never allowed nor said in the home I grew up in. It was close to profanity. Then my ears were shocked to hear Charles retort back, "I don't shut up, I grow up, and when I look at you, I throw up!"
God calls us to maturity in our newfound freedom. Wouldn't it be a joke, if this morning we announced a potluck for the parish but the only food we could bring, share, and eat, would be Gerber's baby food? The time for milk is over. We are free to grow up!
James Taylor says we are like naked crabs.
When you go to the seashore, every pool and puddle left by the retreating tide seems to have a crab in it. I've seen them. Little ones scuttle sideways, squeezing under rocks, peeking out from a patch of seaweed, occasionally venturing out to nibble on some unsuspecting human toe. Now and then you may see bigger crabs, in deeper, safer pools. With great majesty they wave their huge claws as a warning to stay clear.
On the beach, shells of crabs lie washed up by the waves. Some are from crabs that died. Others are simply discarded, a dwelling too small for its growing occupant. That's how crabs grow bigger -- when their shells get too tight, they split the shell open and grow a new one.5
I've never talked to a crab. But I imagine the process of splitting open a shell must be painful. I'm sure that until they grow a new shell, they feel terribly defenseless and vulnerable. They're literally naked. That's how we feel when we crack open our shells.
Our shells aren't visible, like the crab's. But they are there, just the same, shells formed by years of habit, shells that protect us from other people, shells that are the roles we play as parents or children or bosses or employees. Every now and then, we crack our shells open and emerge into a new world, quivering and defenseless. Teenagers do it as they become adults. No wonder, James Taylor says, they get crabby. I did it in the '60s when I had to think new thoughts about race relations and war. Adults do it as they learn to quit running their children's lives. Or when they lose their jobs, or divorce strikes, or a spouse dies, or one's home burns up, or when an investment fails.
But we are free to grow up and bear fruit by the grace of God.
I remember Norman. He and his wife were in our Twelves group in a past parish. This particular group consisted of Lutheran and Roman Catholic mixed couples. They met together in homes, discussed the faith -- both similarities and differences -- and prayed together. One night Norman said, "I always prayed for the conversion of my Lutheran wife (to Roman Catholicism) and now I pray a different prayer -- a prayer for growth and deeper understanding in the common faith."
God never leaves us as God finds us.
I am changing, by the grace of God and by the movement of the Holy Spirit. God is maturing me. I am not today what I was yesterday, nor what I'll be tomorrow.
So I will celebrate. I am free. God's Son has made me free, free to grow, free to grow up in Christ. Amen.
____________
1. "The Joyful Noiseletter," Volume 8, No. 9, November, 1993.
2. Faith at Work, Volume 104, No. 1, Jan/Feb 1991, p. 3.
3. FAW, Volume 104, No. 1, Jan/Feb 1991, p. 3.
4. Source unknown.
5. Parable by James Taylor titled "Naked Crabs."
A Chancel Drama suggestion for the sermon, "Growing In God's Freedom," is titled "Same Old, Same Old." It is an original drama by Arley K. Fadness.
Synopsis: A husband and wife argue about how to celebrate their 23rd wedding anniversary. Alma, the wife, likes to go to the same romantic place where they went on their honeymoon, year after year. George, the husband, is tired of the "same old thing" and would rather go or do new things. The debate is seemingly unresolved until Alma is seen looking at a brochure titled "Tahiti" and is heard making a call to a travel agency. This abrupt change indicates a sudden growth spurt in their relationship.
This chancel drama is a setup for preaching to the theme of "The Need To Feel That One Is Growing In Faith."
* * *
Same Old, Same Old
Text: John 8:31-36
Theme: The Need To Feel That One Is Growing In Faith
Characters:
Alma, wife, wearing an old, outdated wig
George, husband, wearing an old, outdated sweater
Tone: Humorous
Setting/Props: Home setting, telephone, large travel map
Approximate time: 5-8 minutes
__________
Alma: Say, George.
George: Say, what?
Alma: I think it's time.
George: Time for what, dear?
Alma: You know.
George: I know?
Alma: Yes, Sweetie -- it's time...
George and Alma: ... to plan our anniversary.
George: (Protests) But that's three months from now.
Alma: That's exactly the point.
George: Point?
Alma: We haven't much time.
George: (Groans) Three months needed for planning our 23rd wedding anniversary and we do the same old thing again and again?
Alma: (Feigned shock) Why, Georgie -- how dare you talk disrespectful of our sacred time together.
George: That ain't it.
Alma: Well, what is it?
George: To always go to the North Shore on our anniversary just because...
Alma: (Finishes his sentence) ... just because that was where we spent our honeymoon. I thought you were in heaven on our honeymoon, staying in that quaint cottage by the old lighthouse and all -- water lapping on the shore while we walked in the sand hand in hand.
George: (Stutters) W-well, yes, but...
Alma: ... but it's always the same old thing. I know, I know.
(Phone rings. Alma answers, talking ad lib to her friend Yappy about how she and George are planning to plan their wedding anniversary. George rolls his eyes and performs various antics during her conversation, implying that all this "anniversary talk" is getting goofy.)
Alma: That was Yappy, George. I told her about our plans. Okay. Let's eat. Supper's ready and we'll finish our discussion, eh? (Ties bib on George, sets food in front of him, starts to feed him)
George: Alma! I'm not an invalid. I can feed myself. I'm...
Alma: I'm a grown man... I know, Georgie Porgie... I know. (Continues to fuss over him)
George: My arm has healed, you know.
Alma: How long has it been since you broke it?
George: Two years ago last September and you still treat me like a cripple or something... I just...
Alma: I just will do it myself. I know, I know. (Eats in silence)
George: Now you're mad?
Alma: Nope! (Really angry, but can't admit it)
George: About our anniversary...
Alma: Forget it!
George: Okay -- we'll forget it.
Alma: (Changes her tune) No, no. (Condescendingly) I'll adjust.
George: (Tries to make up) North Shore's fine. September 5th.
Alma: (Warms up) Oooh, it'll be soooo romantic -- you and I -- just like 23 years ago. Gooseberry Falls, a walk along the shore, skipping stones in the lake, watching the freighters, the sea gulls, climbing Artist's Look Out, sketching a sunset...
George: Twenty-three years? (Rolls eyes. Telephone rings. George answers.) H'lo. George. George Blankly, Oh, it's you, Tom. Fine. How are you? Trip? With you and Gladys? Bill and Mary? Fishing, eh?
Alma: (Looking concerned) When, George, when?
George: First weekend of September? That'll be great. Let's do it. Thanks, Tom. Bye. (Hangs up receiver; excitedly) It's all planned!
Alma: (Skeptically) What's planned?
George: A fishing trip to Montrose in Canada. We're going with the Karnes and the Stoffens.
Alma: Did you consult me?
George: You love fishing.
Alma: I know, but did you consult me?
George: I know, but it's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission sometimes.
Alma: Permission isn't the issue. What's the date, George?
George: Let's see -- first weekend in October -- ah, no. First weekend in September.
Alma: First weekend in September!??? George, have you lost your marbles?
George: (Stunned) Oh! That's right!
George and Alma: Our anniversary trip to North Shore.
George: Okay, okay, I'll call them back (Alma glares; George talks on phone in low tones while Alma makes dingbat signs while looking at the audience and pointing to George)
Alma: Can you believe that? A fishing trip on our most sacred weekend?
George: All settled. We'll go fishing later in the fall. Now what planning do we need to do?
Alma: Oh, George, if you're going to be so glum about this...
George: Forget it! Maybe we should! Same old, same old...
Alma: No, no. (Pause) By the way, how long have you worn that same old, same old sweater? And sat in that same old, same old chair? And smoked that same old, same old corn cob pipe?
George: What do you mean? What are you getting at?
Alma: How long, George? Answer me.
George: (Meekly) Twenty-three years or so.
Alma: Aha! Same old, same old.
George: (Defiantly) How long have you been wearing that mop -- er -- wig? (Exits)
Alma: (Sits for a while and thinks; jumps up) That's it! (Looks in mirror; adjusts wig; takes new wig out of box; looks in mirror) You know, maybe George is right. (Picks up large brochure titled "Tahiti," reads it, picks up phone, and dials travel agency. George reappears with a new bright sweater and new pipe but is not seen by Alma.) Hello, Nelson's Travel Agency? Could you give me some information on a trip for two to Tahiti?
(South Sea island music plays in the background.)
The End
__________
Growing In God's Freedom
John 8:31-36
"So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed."
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
After worship, a little boy told the pastor: "When I grow up, I'm going to give you some money." "Well, thank you," the pastor replied, "but why?" "Because my daddy says you're one of the poorest preachers we've ever had."1
With the risk of this story in mind, I am pleased, nevertheless, to bring you the fifth sermon in a series of six, dealing with the spiritual needs of Americans as discovered by George Gallup Jr.
This morning, we focus on the need to feel that one is growing in faith. I begin with a song by Peter Pan.
I won't grow up.
Not a penny will I pinch.
I will never grow a mustache
or a fraction of an inch.
'Cause growing up is awfuller
than all the awful things that ever were.
I will never grow up, never grow up,
never grow up, not me!2
So sang Peter Pan... and for some of us it is our song. We don't want to grow up. We do not want to face the next stage in life. We are comfortable where we are. In fact, we don't know why anyone would want us to change. Like Peter Pan, we express our desire to stay just as we are.
There was a group of Peter Pans in the New Testament. Listen to how the author of the Letter to the Hebrews feels about growing up in Christ, or more accurately, the lack of growing up in faith.
For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic elements of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food; for everyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is unskilled in the word of righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, for those whose faculties have been trained by practice to distinguish good from evil.
-- Hebrews 5:12-14
The Peter Pans in the Letter to the Hebrews did not want to grow up. Here is an example of frozen spiritual development. Here are people who have been professing Christ for years. By this time they ought to be teachers. They've had plenty of time, says the writer to the Hebrews, since believing in Christ, to be able to instruct others about the basics of the Gospel message -- but they never left their babyhood.
I have seen 20-, 30-, 40-, 50-year-old people who are still lying in their baby cribs. I have been there myself -- stuck -- sitting in kindergarten -- a grown man, sucking on a baby bottle. We keep taking classes in Christianity 101.
And yet according to George Gallup Jr., there are thousands of us who actually do want to grow up. We have the urgent need to feel that we are growing in our faith. I know I want to grow in my faith and life. I want to grow intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually. I do want to mature and learn and expand my faith. Ignorance is not bliss. Immaturity is not attractive. Peter Pan may think it's wonderful, but Wendy and her brothers, after spending time in Never-Never Land, discover differently.3
On this beautiful Lord's Day, we celebrate knowing three things: We celebrate knowing we are free. We celebrate knowing we are free to grow. And thirdly, we worship God knowing we are free to grow up.
We rejoice knowing we are free.
We read in John's gospel, "If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free... so if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed."
The Reformation proclaimed three major principles: justification by grace through faith, the authority of the Scriptures, and the universal priesthood of the baptized. This morning we are overwhelmed by the truth of the first -- that by God's grace in Jesus Christ we are forgiven, cleansed, healed, made perfect and sinless. We are justified -- made right with God -- through the cross of Christ and him crucified. God's Son has made me free.
There is that story told about Abraham Lincoln. "Lincoln went down to the slave block. He saw a young girl being sold. He took money out of his own pocket and bought her. When she was brought to him, he said, 'Young lady, you are free.' She said, 'Please, sir, what does that mean?' He said, 'It means you are free.' 'Does that mean,' she asked, 'that I can say whatever I want to say?' Lincoln said, 'Yes, my dear, you can say whatever you want to say.' 'Does that mean,' she asked, 'that I can be whatever I want to be?' Lincoln said, 'Yes, you can be whatever you want to be.' She asked, 'Does that mean I can go wherever I want to go?' He said, 'Yes, you can go whenever you want to go.' And the girl, with tears streaming down her face, said, 'Then I will go with you.' "4
When the Son makes you free, you are free indeed.
We can rejoice in the second place, knowing and feeling we are free to grow. We are either trees or posts. You can take a tree and put it in the ground, and it begins to grow. When you put a post in the ground, it begins to rot and decay. We are trees or we are posts. As a pastor these years, it has been my delight to see people in my congregation grow like trees. Unfortunately, I have also had to witness the sad business of watching posts decay and fade away. Are you a tree or a post?
John Westerhoff, Christian Education Specialist, writes in his thesis cassette series titled The Development of Faith that faith has content and can change its characteristics through life. Some faith developmental theorists see the Christian believer going through various stages and levels of maturity in life. Westerhoff pictures the analogy of a tree. "A one-ring tree is a whole tree; has all its treehood, no less than a three-ring tree and the same is true of faith. A tree grow one ring at a time -- gradually -- so it is with faith." Depends on environment, on nourishment.
I want to be a tree. I want to celebrate that God's Son has made me free to grow. I expect to grow ring by ring.
Thirdly, we can rejoice this morning knowing we are free to grow up. I'll never forget my two boy cousins, brothers who were very nasty to each other. I remember as kids one brother shouted to the other, on a Sunday afternoon when we were visiting, "Shut up!" Now "shut up" was never allowed nor said in the home I grew up in. It was close to profanity. Then my ears were shocked to hear Charles retort back, "I don't shut up, I grow up, and when I look at you, I throw up!"
God calls us to maturity in our newfound freedom. Wouldn't it be a joke, if this morning we announced a potluck for the parish but the only food we could bring, share, and eat, would be Gerber's baby food? The time for milk is over. We are free to grow up!
James Taylor says we are like naked crabs.
When you go to the seashore, every pool and puddle left by the retreating tide seems to have a crab in it. I've seen them. Little ones scuttle sideways, squeezing under rocks, peeking out from a patch of seaweed, occasionally venturing out to nibble on some unsuspecting human toe. Now and then you may see bigger crabs, in deeper, safer pools. With great majesty they wave their huge claws as a warning to stay clear.
On the beach, shells of crabs lie washed up by the waves. Some are from crabs that died. Others are simply discarded, a dwelling too small for its growing occupant. That's how crabs grow bigger -- when their shells get too tight, they split the shell open and grow a new one.5
I've never talked to a crab. But I imagine the process of splitting open a shell must be painful. I'm sure that until they grow a new shell, they feel terribly defenseless and vulnerable. They're literally naked. That's how we feel when we crack open our shells.
Our shells aren't visible, like the crab's. But they are there, just the same, shells formed by years of habit, shells that protect us from other people, shells that are the roles we play as parents or children or bosses or employees. Every now and then, we crack our shells open and emerge into a new world, quivering and defenseless. Teenagers do it as they become adults. No wonder, James Taylor says, they get crabby. I did it in the '60s when I had to think new thoughts about race relations and war. Adults do it as they learn to quit running their children's lives. Or when they lose their jobs, or divorce strikes, or a spouse dies, or one's home burns up, or when an investment fails.
But we are free to grow up and bear fruit by the grace of God.
I remember Norman. He and his wife were in our Twelves group in a past parish. This particular group consisted of Lutheran and Roman Catholic mixed couples. They met together in homes, discussed the faith -- both similarities and differences -- and prayed together. One night Norman said, "I always prayed for the conversion of my Lutheran wife (to Roman Catholicism) and now I pray a different prayer -- a prayer for growth and deeper understanding in the common faith."
God never leaves us as God finds us.
I am changing, by the grace of God and by the movement of the Holy Spirit. God is maturing me. I am not today what I was yesterday, nor what I'll be tomorrow.
So I will celebrate. I am free. God's Son has made me free, free to grow, free to grow up in Christ. Amen.
____________
1. "The Joyful Noiseletter," Volume 8, No. 9, November, 1993.
2. Faith at Work, Volume 104, No. 1, Jan/Feb 1991, p. 3.
3. FAW, Volume 104, No. 1, Jan/Feb 1991, p. 3.
4. Source unknown.
5. Parable by James Taylor titled "Naked Crabs."
