“When I was a child I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put and end to childish ways.” 1 Corinthians 13:11
For the Apostle Paul there is a continuing maturation of the believer as the Kingdom of God comes into its fullness. Paul’s calls upon the Corinthian community to exercise themselves toward a unity in the midst of distinctions. This is a challenging call. Sometimes unity is easy. As a church family, we come together to share meals. We come together to celebrate a wedding, a funeral, a confirmation or a baptism. We join in Sunday morning worship sharing in our hymns, prayers and confessions. All of these are part of coming together and exercising unity. However, sometimes unity is not so ritualized or even easy.
Think back upon the children you have known. Some of them spoke early, some of them spoke late but all of them learned to speak by practicing. When human beings are young, we do not expect them to speak perfectly. We know that their good speech requires practice and practice happens best with others. At their youngest, we ask children to simply repeat us. Gradually, they begin to decide which words to use. Words become sentences and sentences become opinions and conversations. In this way, the speech practice of infancy continues into adulthood.
When unity is not easy, we can return to the idea of practicing our speech. Paul is brilliant in his illustration. In speaking to adults, he uses himself as an example a person in process. He calls upon the community’s memory of their own journey of maturation. He invites them to understand that the journey of maturation continues. He invites us to this same awareness during times when distinctions are painfully present and yet the call of unity is upon us.
As the world changes around us, we are challenged to continue to practice our speaking. What, was once, management of our tongue and facial muscles to make the right sounds, becomes attention to the mind, logic, emotion and meaning behind our words. We practice talking in order to practice what we mean. This still happens most powerfully within loving and respectful communities. So when we come together to talk about life’s meaning, what we need most is patient listening, questions and a community that seeks understanding.
This is what next Thursday night is about. We will practice articulating what our denominational decisions mean for us. We will not always say exactly what we mean and we will have to try again. But in an environment of listening, clarifying questions and striving to understand one another, I trust the Kingdom will emerge for us particularly. I trust we will begin to perceive our way forward. For all these reasons, I hope you will join us.
Waco Pastor 