HOW TO GROW UP
John 14:15-21
[Since spoken communication differs from written, some of the grammar and syntax of this transcript may seem awkward in written form. To keep integrity with the spirit of the original delivery, the transcript seeks to stay close to the exact words spoken.]
As we celebrate these eleven young people, affirming God's promises to them in their baptism, I have to be honest as I begin my sermon this morning. As I look back at my own confirmation experience, I have to admit that there's very little that I remember about it. I remember the classroom--the standard concrete block thing with glossy paint on it; I remember the teacher--guy with a crew cut, a gym teacher in the high school; but the doctrines, the ideas that were so carefully taught to me are somehow lost in the ether of my adolescent consciousness. I will admit, remembering back to that time, and thinking, "I don't get it." And I wanted to get it. I mean, my father was the pastor, after all. I wanted to understand what Christian faith was all about, and I went through with it all--I said yes, because there was something there I wanted to "get." Like Columbus setting out on the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria for what he thought was India, there was something mysterious to be discovered, and I wanted to know what it was about. I thought, "Once I grow u...I'll get it."
This text from John 14 that Thomas read for us just a moment ago, I think, is about growing up. Now of course we think of the disciples as grown up men and women. We forget that women were also among the circle of disciples who were hanging out with Jesus--that was one of the radical aspects of his ministry, the presence of women as disciples. But we think of them as adults, and yet in this section of John's gospel, Jesus refers to them as little children--as teknae. And in the passage that Thomas read, he speaks about not leaving them orphaned, like little children without a parent. This section that you heard is part of three whole chapters in the gospel of John, in which Jesus is saying goodbye to his disciples. Now again, these are people who left their houses (some of them were householders) their families, their jobs--and they followed their guru, Jesus. Somehow, this was a person who gave their life purpose and meaning. And this is a discourse in which Jesus is saying, "Goodbye. I'm no longer going to be with you. It's time to grow up." He says, basically, "You have been students--I've called you servants--but no longer am I going to call you students. I'm going to call you friends. It's time to grow up, because you are going to have to teach what I taught." He's saying this on the night when Judas is going to betray him--the night before he dies. It's time to grow up.
So what does it mean to grow up? These are words not just directed to the eleven young people who have made this choice today, but really to all of us, because all of us are works in progress, are we not? And I'm going to give a definition of growing up. And, actually, we preachers like to think in three parts--in three--so I'm going to give you three parts to this definition in just a moment. But as I do that, I think we need to be cautious, and be aware of the danger in dealing in absolutes, in talking about growing up. We should be mindful of the words that C.S. Lewis once wrote, and I quote, "It's the stupidest children who are the most childish, and the stupidest grown-ups, who are the most grown up." And so, I would probably do well to think about not growing up too much, and how we as adults need to become like children if we are ever to enter the kingdom of God.
But with that warning, here's a first part of a definition of how to grow up in the faith that we profess. Here's my first shot. To grow up is to choose. For you eleven people being confirmed as members of the church of Jesus Christ--Nick, Sydney, Emily, Katie, Sarah, Harrison, Katie, Laura, Jamie, Elsa, and Nick--this day is a marker in your journey of faith, and your journey toward becoming adults. Because today you make a choice: you choose to embrace what has been chosen for you. You had no choice in your baptism--you were innocent victims of that. Your parents chose that for you. We might say that God chose that for you. But today, you make a choice to embrace what God has done for you. As Presbyterians, we might say, "Today you choose to be chosen." Every time this rolls around every year, I think it's ironic that we ask young people to embrace the faith that their parents have sought to instill in them at the very time when biologically, they're programmed to rebel against the authority of their parents. And I actually think that that's not such a bad thing. Because it's important that we are able to choose at some point in our life. Right? I'm always secretly sort of relieved when there's a confirmation class, and one or two of them, for whatever reason, say, "I'm not ready to choose that. I'm not going to become a member." Because we're ensuring that we're really giving them the freedom to choose. I think that's very important.
About a year and a half ago--and I know I've mentioned this in a sermon before, but it's apropos again, so I'm going to lift it up again today. I saw a documentary about a year and a half ago called The Devil's Playground. It's a documentary about one of the practices in the Amish community--called Rumspringen in German. It literally means, "running around." In the Amish community, which is a very rigorous Christian community--very ethically rigorous practice--what they do is they teach their children in the way of the faith, and then they say, "Go and have whatever you want in the world. You can go drinking and partying...." They even allow them to do whatever...to do drugs, if that's what they choose. They allow them to choose! And to try that out. [To confirmands] You can try that with your parents, it you know, might work. Rumspringen! If you can pronounce it, they might buy it. Go for it! But interestingly, this documentary claims that, surprisingly, over 90% of the young people in that community return to the very rigorous ethical life in the Amish community after they've tried that out in the world. But they make the choice--they embrace the choice. So, growing up, number one, means choosing--really choosing--not letting your parents choose for you or the society, but choosing.
But I think there's more to growing up than that, because it matters what we choose. And so here's a second definition of what it means to grow up, or second part to it that's a close kin to the first. We grow up as we begin to seek and embrace the truth for ourselves. Growing up, I think, means a passionate quest for truth. And as children, truth is imposed upon us. We need training wheels before we can ride a bike; our parents impose upon us limits. But eventually as we grow up, we choose to either reject or accept the truths that have been given to us. And we're given new tools and equipment with which to seek truth for ourselves: reason and experience. And so my hope, especially for the eleven young people who are confirmed today, my hope is that this will be a marker post in a lifelong quest for truth, and that we've given you the equipment to go on that quest. And I hope that religious life will be a primary tool in your quest. It's gotten a lot of raps--we've been taking it on the chops lately. Somehow it's been very fashionable over the last few years to sort of set up a straw man--that is Christian faith--and knock it down. Books by Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins--we're being accused in some ways of being at best irrational, or at worst anti-rational. And it's ironic that it is Christian faith that provided the underpinning for the enlightenment in the Age of Reason that we now enjoy.
And so it may be that you use science as your primary mode of inquiry in your quest for truth. And science is important. It does indeed reveal to us many important truths about the mystery of this world in which we live. And yet you may discover--and I hope that you will discover--that science isn't going to satisfy your quest for truth. It may lead you to a cul-de-sac where there are more questions than answers. I hope that that will happen. And that you then might remember these words from John 14. When Jesus says to his disciples, thinking about what life will be without him, he says, "I am sending you a teacher--the spirit of truth." Hopefully, you eleven young people, we have introduced you to that teacher who is Jesus Christ. But we can't see him here and now. Hopefully someday you will find that presence inside of you, to teach you the truth.
I love the Star Wars movies. I always equate this quest for truth with Luke Skywalker, who is seeking to learn the mysteries of the Force. And he only knows it when he has to encounter adversity, and finds it not in his teacher, but in himself. That's what the disciples discover when they're on their own: the teacher--he's in you.
So that's number two. Growing up means choosing; it means passionately seeking truth. But the third definition I want to lift up this morning has to do with how we evaluate truth. A very brief definition that I think we find here in John 14. How do we know the truth when we might stumble upon it? Because our scientific instrumentation might at some point look like a cheap little microscope and a chemistry set. And we might stumble upon it. But how do we know? I think there's a very simple way to test it. Paul Tillich, the great Protestant theologian, gives us a very reliable and simple test. In a sermon he preached on this very same scripture passage, he writes this. He says, "Distrust every claim for truth where you don't see truth united with love." It's very simple. If someone claims to have the truth, but somehow that truth isn't connected with love, it's not the truth.
If there's one thing you'll remember from all these words emanating from this pulpit today--if there's one thing I hope you'll remember from your confirmation experience, it's this: the one truth we're asked to embody is to love one another. That's what Jesus says. If you do this thing I'm asking you you'll find the truth. You'll find it inside of you. Not the kind of romantic Pabulum that you see in the movies--self-absorbed romantic love--but agape. What we understandÖthe word in the New Testament is agape--the kind of love that considers your well-being before mine, even at the expense of mine. You know what happens before this text in John--to me it's the gospel in a nutshell. Do you know what Jesus does that night, with his disciples? He takes off his teacher's cloak, and says, "No longer are you servants or students, you're friends." Think of what he does is like taking the towel from the server who serves your table at a restaurant. He takes that, he wraps it around himself, and he does what the worst task of any slave would be--he washes their feet. That's what I'm asking you do. That's how you'll know it.
As I said, I remember very little from my confirmation experience. But this is what I do remember. Even if I didn't remember the doctrines, I remember the people who loved me. The human beings who took time to show me what the love of Jesus Christ was all about. That guy who took off his teacher's uniform and knelt down and washed his disciples' feet, washed mine! I got that. And I've been getting it ever since. And I've been trying to share it ever since.
And so that's my hope for you, that you'll know the truth. That you'll choose the truth, as you've chosen it today. That you'll passionately seek it through your life. That somehow it will result in this very beautiful way of being--in giving yourself in love to each other.
Amen.
April 27, 2008
The Reverend Jeffrey A. Vamos
e-mail