This seems to be a time of new life. Not long ago, our family was graced with a new life in the form of a kitty... Miss Molly is only a few months old but has captured our hearts. She runs and leaps at her toys, laps up water, eats a ton, sleeps on your feet and is quite oblivious to the plastic cone around her head she wears to protect her from licking her surgery wound. She brings endless joy to us.
Next door to us, our neighbours had a new baby—Austin weighed in around 8 pounds and is seen out and about already. I am sure his big brother Carson is thrilled with the new life. Reminds me of when our two were born, what a great joy it was. Perhaps Carson, like Graham, said to his little brother.... “I’m the BIG BROTHER, I’M THE BIG BROTHER”, so as to remind the young baby where his place was in the family.
Now, if I were to sit down and chat with Brenda, she could tell me all of the benchmarks a new person has to go through in life. I sort of remember them, and have studied the stages, but she knows them and has been teaching Early Childhood Education, as you know. I would bow to the expert, but am certain there are life tasks that must be accomplished... the first sounds, the first sentences, the first steps, the first hair cut, the first solid food, the first bike ride, the first scrape, the first tears and expression of emotion... all of that sort of thing.
When these kinds of milestones are interrupted or not noticed, it causes the parent, the worker, to notice and to look into what needs to be done to encourage a step of growth. In essence, though, developmental theory is all about the stages we go through from birth to death. One of the secular theorists is Erik Erikson, who claimed there are eight stages—ranging from trust and mistrust, autonomy and shame, initiative and guilt, to the intimacy and isolation and integrity and despair that are dealt with at end of life.
James W. Fowler, in his book Becoming Adult, Becoming Christian, teaches about the stages of faith and human-becoming. In that chapter, he suggests there are seven stages of faith—Primal faith, Intuitive-Projective faith, Mythic-Literal faith, Synthetic faith, Conventional faith, Individuative-Reflective faith, and Conjunctive faith. Time does not allow for me to explain each of the stages but suffice it to say that just as a child grows from infancy to adulthood through to death in a developmental pattern, so too does the person go through stages in their maturing into faith. If one of the stages is missed, we may not see a person reaching fullness or maturity of faith.
Suffice it so say that if we cannot go beyond the understanding of the Bible as a collection of literal stories that tell of black and white rules to live by, we may choose to either live by those rules or ignore them. A maturing of faith in my opinion is one where the individual, like the growing and maturing adult, raises questions about everything he or she is taught and begins to reason through to find the answers for himself or herself. It is a process that leads, hopefully to a depth of faith that finds a person in relationship with a God who deeply loves him or her.
In our Gospel passage today, we read of Jesus using an agricultural metaphor to teach about growing in faith. When Jesus tells a parable, he uses the environment to tell a story that will teach. It is in the season of Pentecost, the season of growth, that we usually hear these stories or teachings.
Anyway, Jesus talks of the sower going out to sow. As he sowed, some seeds fell on the path and the birds came and ate them up. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. When the sun rose, they were scorched and since they had no root they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns and the thorns grew up and choked them, other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.
It’s a parable of growth. The four fates that befell the seeds roughly correspond to four different fates that await Jesus’ message:
1. Some hear, but Satan or the evil one will take away what they learn, leaving them as they were. There is no growth here. This may be the casual visitor to a church, someone who maybe comes due to a certain event like a funeral or marriage or other special service. The person may have only a passing interest in “religion” and not open to the message.
2. Some hear, but the message cannot take firm root due to lack of depth and so the message does not endure. Perhaps a person has a casual attendance at church, maybe was baptised and went to Sunday School, but has been a casual attendee at best.
3. Some hear, but they have many other distractions that overwhelm the message, choking it off. Perhaps the person has a job that takes him or her away from Sunday attendance and on top of that has something on just about every day of the week. Perhaps the person is busy raising the family, and children are been driven to sporting or other activities. Perhaps the person is deeply committed to looking after a loved one who is in a Nursing Home and feels he or she must be close to their loved one. Often, I am told: ‘I would love to come to church, I am a believer and a committed Christian, but I have a lot of things that take me away from the church, making me a casual attender.’
4. Then there are those who hear the message and that message takes root in them and the result is a blessing to them and others. In such a person, he or she looks forward to hearing the Word of God, meant to offer spiritual food for the day to day routine in life. This is the person who understands he or she is in direct relationship with Jesus and who communicates with Him through prayer and who responds to His call to ministry and mission. This is the one who understands he or she is not the church by himself or herself and is connected as one member to the rest of the Body of Christ. As such, this is a person who is a responsible team member and who uses his or her spiritual gift given by God to respond to God’s call. This is the one who is a good steward of time, talent and treasure for God’s glory.
So, then, just as we must develop as humans from infancy through teenage years through to adulthood, and finally the end of life, we, too, mature and grow in faith. As the developmental teachers like Erikson will tell us, there are challenges in each stage and if we meet them, we often will continue our growth. Often, we see maturity levels in faith increase where a person responds to a crisis or challenge.
That is what our Church is here for, the day-to-day living in this world, to bring glory to God by loving one another and responding in faith to where God would have us go.
Collectively, as a Church, our task is continue to grow and to learn and to bring Good News, to support and pray for one another and to spread the news that God so loved us that He gave His only begotten Son to the end that all who believe will not perish but have eternal life. God is with us in all of life, in its ups and its downs. Let us remember that in life we reap what we sow. Let us sow seeds of faith and pray they will fall on the responsive soil of peoples’ lives and hearts. May the Lord continue to guide us all into maturity of faith in the days and years ahead!
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