The Challenges of Growth
Readings: Acts 11
We all want to grow right? We want to learn more, become more capable, grow in friendship, and hopefully grow in faith as well. We should also want the church to grow and for more people to come to faith. What if I was to tell you that we don’t want to grow as much as we think? Most real growth brings with it challenges sacrifice and other hardships.
This challenge is true to our growing in faith and our welcoming people into this church. As we grow closer to Jesus, we are challenged to be different people, to serve more, to forgive more, to embrace those we don’t know and may even be scared of. As our church grows naturally new people bring with them their history, their experiences, their gifts along with their struggles. Even the good things can be different enough for a community to be challenged to move in a new direction.
That’s what we see happening in the Jewish and Christian world in the book of Acts. Just after Jesus ascended, a whole new movement of the Jewish faith began to spread and grow. It did have some differences, but it was in line with the Scriptures they were already reading. Nonetheless, it was different enough that it met with massive resistance and people unwilling to accept or welcome this new group and ideas.
Today, we see the same thing happening in the Christian community. Remember Peter had just gone to a Roman Centurions' house and proclaimed the good news of Jesus to a huge crowd that was present. Then seeing the Holy Spirit descend on them, he followed God’s lead and baptized them. The Jerusalem church hears about this and it would seem their first reaction is to criticize Peter. Why? They are seeing the word of God spread, isn’t that more important than anything else?
Yes and no. You see the circumcised believers as they are called, or those that grew up and came from the Jewish faith were trying to uphold something really important. They were trying to uphold Holiness. Holiness is this specialness, whereby things or people are set apart to be in a special relationship with God and so hold a special vision of godliness or God-like-ness. They knew as Christians or Jews that they were called to holiness, to being set apart for God.
A long time before this, when Israel was just becoming a nation or when they were just coming back from exile in Babylon they were taught to not intermingle with the cultures around them. This was ultimately because of the other cultures' practices and religions. There were definitive evil things being done that God didn’t want them to do, like child sacrifice, murder, injustice, and worshipping other gods, but God also wanted to create in them a habit of faithful remembrance, worship, and love. So, he set them apart for holiness. This looking in, focusing on habits, and laying a foundation for holiness is really important and sometimes we forget that.
We know now that this foundation was not just meant for us. As Adam and Eve were called to tend the garden, as the nations of the world would come from a singular parentage in Adam, Eve and Noah, as Abraham was called to become a blessing to all nations, as the fear and knowledge of the Lord was spreading in the world, as God brought special gentiles like Rehoboam and Ruth to join the family of Israel, we are meant to realize that we are meant to spread this holiness, our job is to draw things and people into closer relationship with God, so that they too might become holy: set apart, bearing a special image of God.
That’s what was happening now. God was sending Peter, then the disciples in Antioch, then Barnabus and Saul, to go out into the world and proclaim God’s word to all nations. When those people accepted God’s word in Jesus, they too would become holy, set apart, and special.
Sometimes the challenge of growth is that we don’t actually know what we need or what we are called to. Usually, we are not wrong in our thinking, but that doesn’t mean we are right either. We might know that we are meant to worship, we might know that we are meant to serve or to find peace and calm in God, but we could as easily be missing some other fundamental way in which we are meant to grow ourselves and others in faith.
The gentiles coming into faith also meant that they would be challenged to change. We won’t get into it this sermon series, but Acts will eventually get into at least two community meetings where the disciples have to discern how God wants Jews and Gentiles to live together and what should be expected of each. These were patterns and teachings that were practically engrained into their families, cultures, years, and more. Making space with something like if people need to be circumcised would have felt like them giving up a part of themselves. Our need to change and welcome can feel just as jarring, but we must be willing to discern together God’s plan for holiness and welcoming. Thankfully, the disciples were willing to see God’s leading and so became great instruments for God’s kingdom’s spread.
Next, we hear about the disciple who fled because of persecution halfway across the Roman empire. As we heard before, they start sharing the word of God focusing on the Jews, but somehow the word began to spread even to the Greeks. The Holy Spirit has his ways of sharing, even when we get in the way.
Thankfully, the Jerusalem church had already had their previous conversation about preaching to the Gentiles, because they Barnabus to continue the work without batting an eye at it. This is another hard part of growth, not just making room for difference and change, but then also responding to that change and growth by putting in the hard work and sharing the load.
We have already seen how the apostles had to, by the sheer necessity of growth, share the work, which lead to Stephen’s short but wonderful ministry and then lead to hundreds and thousands of people sharing as they were spread outside of Jerusalem. Now we see them sending out Barnabus and then Barnabus going to Tarsus to get Paul’s help.
These are really important passages for us right now because I believe St. Matthews is going through a season of growth. It might not be in the thousands, but it is happening. We are seeing new people drawn to this place and I have been very thankful and blessed to see how you have responded. Your willingness to make space, to reach out, to welcome. I would encourage you all to continue in this and if possible even grow in it. I have also seen some immense blessings as new people have brought in their gifts and have added to worship, youth group, messy church, lunches and so much more.
I am also beginning to notice some growing pains. Moments where things don’t quite work, where we have to learn how to be together afresh, where we need to remain open and adaptive while holding up holiness and God. This will not always be easy work, but it will continue to make a big difference to welcoming people both into the church and into their relationship with God. I have heard about times, like Peter, when people have shared their faith in uncomfortable places. I have noticed times when leaders, myself included, need to share the load and invite others into the work. That is one of the hopes of ministry Sunday that we might create opportunities to share the load. I have heard about and seen potential new ministries start.
The struggles of growth are natural. We can easily see this in a youth that grows in height very quickly, in the third trimester of pregnancy or whenever someone new is added to the family, or when a people have outgrown a place. This struggle of growth is natural, but it is also good. It is in this where God leads us to become the people and community we are meant to be. It is in this that we quite literally grow, both personally and as a community. It is in this that we become more than we could have been before.
You’ll notice towards the end of the passage two major things result:
The whole communities identity becomes more associated with Christ as they are called Christians: little Christs
When we truly discern with Christ how to welcome and embrace, we actually find that we begin to welcome and embrace Christ more. We too become more holy and like him.
And the growth begins to support the foundation
We hear about numerous people coming out of Jerusalem to support the growth, but then at the end, those that have been served realize that they too can serve. This doesn’t happen right away but rather over time.
So let me just close by saying growth is not easy, but thank you for all that you have already done, to welcome, to lead, and to serve. We have done a lot over the last few years and seen a lot of new faces and I look forward with great excitement to see where the Spirit leads us in the future. AMEN
