One Small Step

The Rev. Whitworth Ferguson III
Manassas Presbyterian Church
Manassas, Virginia
December 31, 2006
First Sunday after Christmas

One Small Step
Luke 2: 41-52
1 Samuel 2:18-20, 26

The Sunday after Christmas always seems like such a let down:
The presents are opened;
leftovers fill the refrigerator;
garbage bags overflow
with the remnants of wrapping paper and boxes.
Children have decided which is their favorite toy or game,
and which one will sit neglected or broken on a shelf.
Adults have decided which presents will be kept,
which will be returned,
and which ones will be regifted.

We are almost grateful for the new month, the new year,
the new beginning that comes at midnight tonight.
December is such an exhausting month for all of us,
that as much as we look forward to it in November,
we are glad when we can turn the page on the calendar.

We leave 2006 behind tonight and take a first step into 2007,
one small step, but a ready step.
A new year, even more than a new month, a new week,
or a new day reminds us of the promise in Christ:
the old ways have passed
and a new life has begun for each of us.

The days that lead up to New Year’s after Christmas
provide us with an opportunity:
an opportunity not only to relax and enjoy the holidays,
but also the opportunity to look back,
to reflect on the year that is about to end
before we step into the New Year.

We each can look back on the year past
and remember both the joys and the sorrows,
the good times and the bad,
the ups and the downs.

For all of us as disciples of Christ,
we should all be asking ourselves the same question
as we reflect on the past year:
Did we grow?
Grow in faith?
Grow in wisdom?
Grow in knowledge of the Lord?
Grow in love?

These are not questions most of us ask, though.
We are more inclined to ask:
Is the bank account bigger?
The retirement account larger?
Did I get a promotion at work?
Was I more popular at school?

But life is not, of course, about how many things we have,
things that will eventually all turn to dust.
Life is about growing in faith:
Growing in our knowledge of God and Jesus Christ,
finding new and better ways to take the peace and goodwill
that we feel during the Christmas season
out into the world throughout the year;
to feel it and spread it as we keep Christmas
in our hearts the whole year through.

So: how did you do this past year?
Did you grow spiritually?
Did you grow in faith?
Did you grow in your relationship with God through Jesus Christ?
Did you follow Paul’s admonition that:
“we must grow up in every way into him who is the head,
into Christ…” (Eph. 4:15)

Here’s the most important question:
did you grow because you sought to grow,
Did you grow because you worked at growing?
Or did you grow because of happenstance,
circumstances, things happening in your life?

God hopes,
in fact I think God expects us
to grow in wisdom
grow in knowledge,
so that we can grow in faith.
But we will not grow unless we work at it,
unless we make an effort,
unless we are disciplined.

Growing in faith is not about how we feel,
it is about what we do.
William Willimon has observed,
“Will and discipline are not much in fashion in our age.
In our minds, religion is mostly a matter of feelings --
private, personal feelings –
as we drift from one vaguely spiritual high to another...
I think we have made a big mistake
in implying that the spiritual life,
our relationship to God,
is mostly a matter of what feelings we manage to muster.
Our relationship to Christ is also a matter of keeping at it,
of habits, of persisting in the disciplines of faith.”
(Reading with Deeper Eyes, 53)

Willimon is right: we need to persist in the disciplines of faith.
Spirituality isn’t about feeling good,
it’s about feeling God:
feeling God in your life so you can know real joy
when you have followed God’s will and his way.
It is also feeling God with his gentle but firm admonition
when you have strayed from his path.
It is feeling God’s presence in good times,
so you can acknowledge the source of your blessings.
And it is feeling God’s presence in difficult times,
so you can know the comfort that comes with God’s
unwavering love, God’s unconditional promise
that “underneath us are the everlasting arms.”

Jesus’ preaching, as he took his ministry out into the world,
was never about feeling good,
it was never about the visceral.
People didn’t dance in the aisles when Jesus spoke;
They listened to him;
paid attention to him;
heard what he had to say,

Some may have discounted what Jesus said;
Others may have taken in only part;
But there were always a few who listened carefully
and thought about what Jesus said,
and then talked about Jesus teachings with others.
They took to heart what Jesus said
and then acted on what they had learned.
In listening, they took the first small step in growing
in faith, wisdom, and understanding.

In our first lesson we heard that growing in spirit,
faith, and wisdom was important to Samuel.
Each year with Eli, Samuel learned,
and he grew in his knowledge of the Lord.
Eli’s own two sons could not have cared less about learning;
they were lazy louts, convinced that wearing an ephod,
the religious garment worn by priests at the temple,
was all it took to be a man of God.
Samuel understood that it took more than trappings,
more than looking the part, much more;
it took patience, discipline, will, hard work, dedication.

Our second lesson reminds us that Jesus himself
understood the importance of growing in knowledge
and wisdom of his father in heaven.
Luke’s gospel is the only one that captures Jesus
between the time of his birth and his adult years
with the well-known story of Jesus at age 12
staying behind in Jerusalem
following his family’s pilgrimage at the Passover,
staying behind not to play, not to get into mischief,
but to learn:
He stayed behind in the temple
“sitting among the teachers, listening to them,
and asking them questions.” (Luke 2:46)
Jesus was learning.
Jesus was learning so that he too could grow in wisdom.

You may recall that a group from the church
made a trip into the city a few weeks back
to view an exhibit at the Sackler Gallery.
The exhibit is of Bibles made prior to the year 1000,
prior to the invention of the printing press,
back in a time when books were produced by hand
on parchment or papyrus.
It’s a marvelous exhibit, to see pages and even fragments
from books we know well.
The exhibit also included fragments from books that
were not included in the canon we call the Bible,
books we refer to as apocryphal.
Many were apocryphal gospels, stories that purported to
tells us about the life of Jesus as a boy and young man.
One of my favorites is “The Infancy Gospel of Thomas”,
written about 120 years following the crucifixion.
The book tells the story of Jesus as a young boy,
a boy filled with magical powers that he uses not for good,
but as might be expected of a young boy:
for mischief and mayhem.
It is a rousing story of Jesus as troublemaker;
it is obvious why it was not considered canonical.
But the interesting thing is the way the story ends:
it ends with the passage we heard in our second lesson,
the passage from Luke,
with Jesus no longer mischievous,
with Jesus’ focused squarely on learning.

Thomas a Kempis, in his famous work The Imitation of Christ,
wrote, “We…have little zeal for our daily progress;
therefore we remain spiritually cold or tepid.” (38)
We will remain spiritually cold or tepid unless we work
diligently, with discipline, to learn, to grow,
each of us immersing ourselves in our daily progress,
just as Jesus did.

What will you do in the coming year to help yourself grow in faith?
Don’t think of it as New Year’s resolution;
we all know what happens to them!
instead, think of it as one small step,
one small step forward that you’ll take in January,
with another step to follow in February,
and another in March.

What will your first small step be?
Come to Bible Study?
If you are interested and neither our Wednesday morning group
nor Thursday evening group fit your schedule,
let me know and we’ll see what we can do.

What about reading the Bible regularly on your own,
a few pages a day?
If you have tried that in the past without success,
let me suggest that you purchase a copy
of the “One-Year Bible”.
There are a couple of different versions available,
each does the same thing:
provides you with a reading from the New Testament,
a reading from the Old Testament,
a bit from a Psalm, and a Proverb, each day:
The entire Bible in 365 readings,
none of which takes more than 20 minutes.
It is the easiest way I know to work through the whole Bible.
If you want help finding a One-Year Bible, let me know.

Perhaps a daily devotional book might be your first small step.
There are many different wonderful books just waiting for you
to step into their pages to learn, listen, and grow.
Eugene Peterson, William Barclay, Marva Dawn,
Frederick Buechner and Henri Nouwen
all have books that are accessible, thoughtful, and faithful.
Barbara Brown Taylor does not have a book
that falls into the category of daily devotionals
but any of her books filled with her sermons
would be more than just small step.

Perhaps you’ve thought about forming a faith club
similar to the one written about
in the popular book of the same name,
a book one of our book clubs just read.
Three women, each from a different faith background,
Muslim, Christian, and Jew,
met regularly to talk about their faiths,
not to convert or proselytize,
but to learn with one another
learn from one another,
and grow in faith and love,
each woman in her own way.

Growing in your spiritual life requires effort on your part,
more than just coming to church on Sunday.
It requires a small step, a joyful step,
a step away from tepid faith, to deeper, richer faith.
In her book, “Soul Feast”, Marjorie Thompson, wrote,
“The spiritual life invites a process of transformation
in the life of the believer.
It is a process of growing in gratitude, trust, obedience,
humility, compassion, service and joy.”
A process;
a process that is continuous;
a process that begins with a single small step.

In the presents you opened up last Monday,
did you receive something,
anything that will help you grow spiritually?
A book of prayers?
A daily devotional book?
A calendar with a daily Bible verse?
Something?
Anything?
If you didn’t get something,
then stop by Barnes & Noble or Borders,
or visit Amazon.com or Christian Books.
If you want some help and guidance,
just ask, and I would be happy to offer a suggestion.

Jesus tells us to be like little children in our faith.
Little children have eager minds, inquiring minds,
a natural sense of curiosity,
They are open to learning.

Take that one small step
if not tomorrow, then this week.
One small step to grow,
to grow in Christ, grow in faith;
to grow away from tepidness,
to grow into passion and conviction.
“Grow in every way into him who is the head:
into Christ.”
AMEN