Growing Pains and Pleasures, January 19, 2025, Traditional

Growing Pains and Pleasures

Friends, at the request of some of you, we launch a new sermon series in this new year on the topic, Growth.  How does God want us to grow in faith and life?  As part of the series, it will be fun to welcome Pastor Anna as our guest preacher next week and Pastor Flippin to come back a month from now.

To warm up, can you turn to a friend next to you—or at home—and share something you DON’T want to see grow.  Go ahead and take 10 seconds.  Friends, here is my list of what does I do NOT want to see grow:

  1. Waistlines (post-holiday season) – Too many cookies, not enough gym time.
  2. Credit card balance – The price of retail therapy gets scary.
  3. Inbox unread emails – That "600 unread" notification is haunting.
  4. Laundry piles – How do they reproduce while you're not looking?

Now take a moment to share with a neighbor what you WOULD like to see grow . . . . . Were any of these on your list?

  1. Wifi signal – Because buffering is a modern tragedy.
  2. Bank accounts – Life is expensive.
  3. Gardens – Fresh veggies and flowers? Yes, please.
  4. A sense of humor – Life’s too short to take seriously all the time.

Next, let’s have fun with an acronym. How about G in the word GROW stands for GRUMPY. Sometimes we do not like the idea of having to grow. If growth means change.  If growth into something new requires letting go of something tried and true, we might not be big fans.

Let me introduce to you a stuffed animal well-beloved by the Wiese family. This is Bunny.  Isn’t that a Creative name? Bunny was Luke’s best friend growing up. Bunny was to Luke, what the tiger Hobbes was to boy Calvin, in Calvin and Hobbes.  For those early years, bunny went everywhere!  It might be difficult to see, but bunny was hugged, squeezed and thrown so often Bunny underwent several cosmetic surgeries from both grandmothers. If Bunny was accidentally left behind somewhere, a family search party was soon commenced. Would you agree we all have our bunnies?  Some type of bunny giving us comfort and security in the way things are right now.  Sometimes we get grumpy when our families, jobs, or Lord asks us to let go of the comfortable in order to GROW into the next chapter of faith and life.

The R in GROW might stand for responsibility and requirement. My next little show and tell item is this baby bib. Thank you to David and Sarah Turk for lending me this. (This rubberish bib with a food catcher is high tech compared to what we used!). Turks are in the middle of raising their two-year-old beautiful twins, Zoe and Jack.  But what if Zoe and Jack come back to COS when they 22 or 32 years old and we see them with these baby bibs still on?  And at lunch we witness David and Sarah still spooning cut-up vegetables into their mouths?   We’d roll our eyes.  We’d say, “David and Sara, it’s your responsibility to foster your children’s growth.”  No. We will see Zoe and Jack, along w the rest of our kids, trading in bibs for aprons, because now they are the ones preparing the meals for the family.  They’ve traded bibs in for chemistry, doctor, and lab coats, because they have grown skills with which to serve the community—and not just be served.

How many Christians in their baptisms get the baby bib, but they never grow into spiritual maturity?  How many Christians focus only on how God will provide for them instead of how they also may glorify God.  Or how a Sunday morning please their preferences but also how it’s a time to bless other and invest in a much-needed community, even if they didn’t like every hymn?

Another angle on growth as requirement:  Two days ago, COS sponsored another Blood Drive, rescheduled because of the winter weather.  Do you know our bodes produce about 2 million red blood cells every second, which is about 200 billion red blood cells per day? (I read that 4 times to make sure I had that right).  Indeed, our bodies R-require ongoing GROWTH in order to stay alive.

So too, if we don’t work to GROW our retirement accounts, our church budget, our family income, inflation alone will eat away at our potential.

Well, even though we sometimes are G-Grumpy about growth and it feels too much like an R-Requirement and Responsibility, most of the times God’s people can approach Growth as an O-Opportunity! On Thursday, my mom and dad, Fred and Mary Beth Wiese, whom many of you have met, moved from their home of 30 years in Worthington, Ohio.  Actually, they’ve been in the neighborhood for 42 years since we moved there from Chicago in 1983.   They moved to Centerville, Ohio and are now in their beautiful new cottage home at Bethany Lutheran Village, a progressive care community, which happens to be right across the street from the church I previously served for 14 years.

Ready or not this will be a time of growth for them, right? And I think they ARE ready for it. They do consider it a wonderful O—opportunity.  Yes, it will be challenging at times.  But it’s an opportunity to meet new and even more friends.  An opportunity to expand their faith with a new church.  Time to grow and keep their minds sharp by figuring out how they do life in a new setting:  How should we arrange the kitchen? How do we get to the new rec center and library?  Let’s go out and discover our new favorite restaurant.  I hope most of us consider growth as not something to be feared, but something to be enjoyed and embraced, even if it’s challenging.

Finally, let me suggest W in GROW stands for growth being central in God’s Word and Way. “My Jesus loves to party” to quote Will Ferrell in Talladega Nights.  So, it’s not a surprise to see Jesus at a party, at a wedding reception in Cana of Galilee in our gospel from John 2. What a delight it was for our Holy Land travel group last June to actually visit Cana. And what a surprise when a few of us were able to reaffirm our marriage vows right there where Jesus rescued the reception by turning water into wine. A fantastic story in so many levels.

But for today, let me focus on the final verse of our lesson. After Jesus performs his very first miracle out of love for that young couple, the result is what? “His disciples believed in him.” Actually, in the gospel of John, there will be seven wonderful signs through which people GROW in their faith in Jesus.   If you want a little challenge this week, see if you can figure out this week all seven.

Indeed, this season of Epiphany features key GROWTH moments in humanity recognizing Jesus.   What does it mean that travelers from another country were able to follow a star and want to worship this babe?  What does it mean at his baptism when the skies part and a voice declares, “this is my beloved son, listen to him”?   What does it mean now that this Jesus has turned water into wine, so the party can keep going?  People are growing in faith and trust in Jesus.  Growth is the gospel hope!

Indeed, that really is the most exciting growth opportunity in life.  That God keeps calling and equipping us to GROW in our faith.  As we grow in trusting Jesus, we grow in joy.   We grow in our worldview that it’s not about our performance, but about the promise.  God’s promise that we are created in God’s image, loved immeasurably, claimed forever in our baptism, and that nothing can separate us from God’s love in Christ.

Next, our first lesson relates to what you gardeners know.  Often, new growth is fostered when you prune.   1 Peter says this:   “Rid yourselves, therefore, (or we might say prune) of all malice and all guile, insincerity, envy, and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.”  Friends, what needs to be pruned in your life?  Maybe it’s a weed. Maybe it’s something good but it’s run its course.  Sometimes it’s hard but wise to say NO to something good in order to say YES and grow into something great.

Let’s head for home with our Ephesians text, from a letter Paul wrote to the growing Christian Church in Ephesus.  We’re thrilled that, as one dimension of our 50th Anniversary Year, COS is setting out on another faith pilgrimage this June.  We’ll explore not only Turkey and Greece via land and cruise ship, we’ll also dig into the New Testament and visit places like Ephesus. We’ve got over 25 faith pilgrims and we’d love for you to join us!

In the fourth chapter, Paul calls these young Christians to growth!   Growth concepts pop out verse after verse:  equip, build up, maturity, grow up, joined and knit together, growth.

We really appreciate all of you holding our Call Committee and Call process in your prayers.  I can share that our team has talked specifically about verse 12 in our lesson:  equipping the saints.   For we’re asking the Spirit to send us a new associate pastor who is willing to work hard, but who is not tempted to do everything him or herself.  But a pastor—and really all staff members—who lead with an Ephesians passion of equipping the saints for their ministries and growth.  That’s when congregations really get rolling.

National championship tomorrow night. Superbowl not too far away.   The victor in those games will NOT be the team with one or two superstars trying to do everything themselves. But the squad with the most players passionate about offering their unique contribution to the effort.  Or as Christians say, the body of Christ. Same thing with Team COS.

I pray this series, in weeks to come, can lovingly challenge us as a congregation.  In our 50th year anniversary year, do we want COS to hold our own, or grow? What is each family willing to do for us to grow collectively?   Can we grow in our willingness to invite others? Amazing to think that if each family challenged themselves to work on having one disconnected neighbor in the area to join us at COS in the next 2 years, let’s say, we’d not only bless the community with hope, but we’d DOUBLE the fun, connection, attendance, and faith impact we get to enjoy.

In Wednesday’s letter to you, I shared the picture of my brand new 2025 old-school, but the way I like it pocket calendar, complete with lectionary.  My sensationally well-behaved rescue dog Breezy shocked us when she ripped it to smithereens. (Who knows, maybe she confused it with the new red chewy toy she was given).  But I’ve taken it as a metaphor for the tragedy in New Orleans, the fires in California, the ongoing sadness in Haiti and the Holy Land, and all those situations that seem to tear apart our dreams and hopes for the year.  I pray God will help us see in this Grow Series, that we can be people of faith who, like Paul, see growth potential in even the most challenging of times. That we can hope in all situations.

Well enough for today.  A quick overview. But glad we’ll be able to drill down in weeks to come.  I know Growth might G- make us Grumpy even though it’s R- required and our responsibility.  Overall, it’s a wonderful O-opportunity!  For, it certainly is the Wonderful W-Way of our Triune God.   Until we meet next week, may your waist-line and laundry list stay off the growth list.  But may you—and as the body of Christ—GROW in our love, joy and wonder with God and each other, and all the Lord’s good plans for us.  Growing in Jesus’ name with you, Amen.

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Second Lesson:  Ephesians 4.11-16, 21-24

11 Christ himself granted that some are apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity to the measure of the full stature of Christ. 14 We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming; 15 but speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.

21 For surely you have heard about Christ and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus, 22 to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.