“Growing Up”

I Samuel 2:18-20, 26

Luke 2:41-52

Rev. Dr. R. Tim Meadows

By the time I became a student at New Orleans Seminary, the story was a part of the seminary lore, one of those you had to hear. It seems that several years prior, NOBTS had invited Carlyle Marney to deliver a lecture series during the week each day at the chapel hour. Dr. Marney it seems had what some considered a nasty habit of smoking a pipe, which he carried out periodically throughout the day in the seminary courtyard. One of the young seminarians later in the week felt the need to share with Marney how much he was offended by the habit, so he confronted Dr. Marney who listened politely and then simply said to the young man; Son, Grow Up!

Growing up is a real challenge of human living that not everyone succeeds at doing. Haven’t we all known people who grew old without growing up? It is the challenge of growing up that our biblical texts focus on today. The Old Testament tells us how the young man Samuel grew and became a servant leader to his people and the New Testament text offers us the only real summary of the growth experience of Jesus. Luke’s assertion is that Jesus grew in all the ways necessary to the human experience. He concludes that Jesus grew intellectually, physically, spiritually, and socially. This simple summary becomes the challenge for growth that I think we all face. If Jesus grew in these ways, shouldn’t we seek to do so as well?

Growth it seems is at the heart of the human experience, but we often struggle with growth because it forces us out of the known, the comfortable, the ruts we make for our lives. Think about the times this has been true in your experience. You just got settled in and some challenge comes your way. The company wants to reward you with a move across country. Your body demands attention with a physical reminder that it needs care. The social fabric of the world as you knew it begins to unravel and you wonder what this means? Where this is going? How you are supposed to respond? You reach for spiritual comfort in a time of dire need and when the tried and true formulas do not work, you discover that your easy God is gone.

Growth often comes in these challenging ways and Luke tells us when it came to Jesus, he chose to grow. That growth was not always easy or understood but was necessary to his emergence as our example. We must also confront the challenge of growth in life but for most of us, it is not our natural tendency.

We seek to fill the intellectual challenges that come our way with the tried and true knowledge we already believe. What if instead we chose to grow, to entertain new ideas, new solutions? We seek to address the physical challenges that come our way with denial and a sense of invincibility. What if instead we chose to address our physical challenges with proper diet, rest, and exercise? We seek to address the spiritual challenges that come our way by reminding God of God’s responsibility, by reducing faith to a formula that always works in just a certain way if we follow a few easy steps. What if instead we chose to grow by listening to God, submitting to God, allowing God to define us, rather than our defining God? We seek to address the social challenges that come our way by appealing to tradition, a sense of place, the way things have always been. What if instead we chose to grow by seeing people instead of categories, by listening intently instead of screaming loudly, by loving our neighbor as we love ourselves?

Growth, the fundamental challenge of the human experience. As we face the New Year will we accept Marney’s challenge to the young seminarian to grow up or will we be content to just grow another year older. As we face the New Year will we follow Jesus’ model of growth or will we just be content with what we have always known. As we face the New Year how will you seek to grow intellectually, physically, spiritually, and socially?

May God grant us the grace to grow in wisdom, in stature, and in favor with God and others. AMEN!