Looking for Signs of Progress

Text:  2 Corinthians 5:6-17 & Mark 4:26-34

Theme:  “Looking for Signs of Progress”

3^rd Sunday after Pentecost

June 14, 2015

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Denton, Texas

Rev. Paul R. Dunklau

+In the Name of Jesus+

6 Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. 7 For we live by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

11 Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade others. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. 12 We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. 13 If we are “out of our mind,” as some say, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:[a] The old has gone, the new is here!

+ + +

26 He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. 27 Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. 28 All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. 29 As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.”

30 Again he said, “What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? 31 It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. 32 Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.”

33 With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand. 34 He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything.

Here it is:  your garden-variety legal pad!  I became very much acquainted with legal pads in high school.  I participated in debate and even lettered in debate competition; legal pads were required accessories. Debates featured two-person teams.  One team was called the “affirmative” (arguing FOR a resolution) and the other was the “negative” (arguing AGAINST a resolution). 

In debate, the legal pad was helpful when held sideways.  You’d draw columns.  In the first column, you’d list the main points of your affirmative argument.  When the negative team responded to your opening salvo, you’d listen and take notes  If they commented on one of your contentions from the left hand column, you’d draw and arrow to the next column and take note of the response. 

Of course, there is another – and easier! – way to use the legal pad  Lets say you have a big decision to make.  You turn the pad right side up, draw a line right down the middle, and then list (on the left) the “cons” (the reasons you shouldn’t make such and such decision) and (on the right) the “pros” (the reasons you should make such and such a decision).  You may have gone over pros and cons in your head countless times, but there’s something about getting it all down on paper which lets you see things in black and white – or, in the case of the legal pad, black and yellow!

Nowadays, when I look for signs of progress in people, in the local congregation, the denomination, and Christianity in general, I don’t see many encouraging signs.  Despite the massive advancements we’ve made, human nature appears, well, stuck – just plain stuck.  And I’m beginning to question my own sanity about this.  Am I just blind?  Have I become cynical?  Have I lost my spiritual fervor?  To certain degrees, I answer yes to all those questions. 

Yet, even if I were at the overflowing point with regard to faith in God, love toward the neighbor, and overall satisfaction with my Christian walk, I could still – with open-minded honesty – identify matters to list on the left/negative side of the legal pad.  It wouldn’t be that difficult at all.

The challenge would be to engage heart and brain to get going with items for the right column.  What are the signs of progress – in Christian faith, love, and life – that we can identify. 

But hold on, if I really want to get this right wouldn’t it be important to identify, from God’s Word, what positive signs would look like?  Of course!  It would add some oomph, some strength to the list of signs that we are progressing.

A quick look at our New Testament Reading from 2 Corinthians starts us off.  Herewith, the first sign of progress on the list:  You have individuals and churches that are confident, faithful, and seeking to please the Lord.  “We are confident”; we are “faithful”; we “make it our aim to please God”, said Paul to the Corinthian Christians. 

Secondly, you have individuals and churches that persuade people.  How do they do that?  It’s not by arguing them into the faith; it’s certainly not by getting them to join some religious club of the like-minded.  Jesus said that it is “by their fruits that ye shall know them.”  It’s not because they won debate tournaments.  We don’t persuade people by trying to win arguments.  We persuade them when spiritual growth happens in our lives; it’s when the fruits of the spirit are ripe for the plucking!  People see that, appreciate that, and want it!  That’s progress!

Third, in 2 Corinthians 5:16ff.  we read:  “From now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view.”  If you regard any human being the way the world does, you might as well list that on the left side of the legal pad.  It’s not an asset; it’s certainly not a sign of progress.  It’s a problem. 

How do people look at others from a worldly point of view?  They identify others by gender, race, sexual identity, political affiliation, age, and income bracket, what books they read and what magazines they subscribe to, and what social media outlets they employ. Obviously, more could be added to the list of how we regard people from a worldly point of view. 

So the third sign of progress, quite simply, is when we stop doing that.  Instead, we look at every single human being, first and foremost, as a person for whom God, in Christ was willing to come into this world, and to suffer, and to die, and to rise again from the grave so that the individual in question can be a new creation.  If anyone is in Christ, he/she is a new creation.  The old has gone; the new has come. 

Now, here’s a fourth sign of progress for the right side of the pad.  It’s drawn from the story – or parable – that Jesus shared in today’s Gospel.  The sign of progress is that individuals and churches scatter the seed.  “What seed?”  you ask.  “The seed of the Gospel,” I reply.  You scatter the seed; you share the Gospel of the grace and love of God in word and in deed, by what you say and how you live. Bragging or boasting about how many people you “have led to Christ” is not part of this mix at all.  The Gospel is not a tool we’ve been given to re-program people.  The Gospel is a gift, and we simply share it – or scatter it, if you will – as best we can.

It works, dear friends.  It works for a reason, and the reason is the fifth sign of progress.  It’s a sign of progress when individuals and churches are content to scatter the seed and leave the growth to God.  Jesus says:  “Night and day, whether the sower of the seed sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how.”  We don’t know how either.  It’s not ours to know how.  It IS ours to scatter the seed! 

A sixth sign of progress for Christian individuals and congregations is this:  they remember the mustard seed – the tiniest seed of them all. They work hard to remember the mustard seed. 

Yes, they are only too aware of the items on the left column of the legal pad.  They know the negatives.  They discern what holds people and churches in check and pushes them back:  the “seeds” and, therefore, the “weeds” of unbelief, pride, fear, individual and collective dysfunction, attitude, temperament, apathy, indifference, strife, resentment – and on it goes. 

Yet, by God’s grace, one little mustard seed trumps it all.  Will you remember the mustard seed?  Will you keep it on the right hand column of your head and heart?

Jesus says:

What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth.  Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.

You have that mustard seed in your life, and it’s a sure sign that you are making progress and experiencing spiritual growth.  Your church is too – because you and your mustard seed are in it!

Amen.