God Gives the Growth

For the last five weeks, we have been traveling with Paul in the first three chapters of the first letter to the Corinthians, where he called the people to remember they belonged first to Christ. Every action that followed came from a knowledge of belonging together to Christ. We, together, belong to Christ. Together, we lack nothing. We align on the person and purpose of Jesus the Christ. Our actions show the presence of God among us. And today, we who are called to show our faith and plant seeds, are reminded that God gives the growth.

In the United Methodist Church, all ordained elders take a vow of itineracy. This vow submits the clergyperson to the Bishop’s authority as they will go where the Bishop sends them from church to church. On what grounds does itineracy make the most sense as to make life and family sacrifices for it you might ask? This is the story of Paul’s ministry. Paul planted a church in Corinth, and nurtured a church in Thessalonica. Paul nurtured the faithful in Rome, even though he did not start a church there. His itinerary fed church plants across his wide geographic journeys, but he was not the only one who brought many gifts of God. The work of Apollos, Silas, John Mark, and Cornelius along with God’s, completed and fulfilled God’s purpose. Each building upon the work of the other. Similarly, while Moses led the people out of Egypt and through the desert, it was Joshua who led them into the Promised Land.

Itineracy entered Methodism from these biblical models through circuit riding. John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, was motivated to preach and teach scriptural holiness in the lands. He preached up to 40,000 sermons in his lifetime. He was an “itinerant” preacher, traveling from town to town in England, setting up Methodist societies and encouraging class bands.

As Methodism came to America, Francis Asbury, the first of two Methodist bishops in the United States, appointed preachers to multiple churches, a charge or a circuit. A pastor – most often a circuit rider – might be appointed to half of a state or more. The pastor’s appointment might be for only three months, after which it was time to move to another circuit. Thousands of the oldest United Methodist congregations today trace their history to a circuit rider. Thus, begun the itinerant system.

It continues today that appointments are for one year at a time. The goal is to match the gifts and graces of the particular pastor with the ministry needs of a particular congregation. The needs and desires of clergy are considered, says Missouri Bishop Robert Schnase, but “the mission of the church comes first.” In this serial leadership of consecutive pastors – no two are alike – over time, the combination of skills blends to form a broad base of developed ministries. One plants, another waters and God gives the growth!

Many bishops have moved to increase the traditional 3-4 years of located ministry of an ordained elder to discerning a longer pastorate to meet the needs of the church in context and clergy person. Pastors have a longer time to plant seeds of faith and watch them sprout. All in all, the itinerancy system is a lived experience in servants of the Lord depending on God’s grace and working together across time and place.

Clergy and lay alike know that no pastor works in a vacuum. Clergy build on the ministries of those who have come before them in ministry. Humans have sometimes developed attachments to the messenger, instead of the message. Connecting with a human pastor, a position or a building is vital, but not at the expense of attaching to the corporeal, rather than the faith filled. My gratitude for fellow workers runs deep.

When I arrived in my first solo appointment in late June, I had not yet unpacked my Book of Discipline or my travel communion set, when I received the call that the patriarch of the church had died. We had never met. The previous pastor had lovingly told me about Jim. She spent hours with Jim and his family as they received the news of his illness. She stayed with them through the twists and turns of treatments and medical challenges. When her retirement was eminent, she told me of the stories of this faithful man of God who now struggled for breath. She had shaped some of his vital ministry, knew his family, and nurtured his growing faith. As she ended her appointment and time of service, she relocated her home, she passed on the mantel of caring for Jim, his family, the congregation, and the community. I had the honor and privilege of officiating Jim’s funeral services and then, caring for his family in the years that followed.
When I was appointed to my next congregation, I caringly shared those I had loved and led, walked with and watered with the next pastor, who brought his own set of gifts. And, that will continue long after the next pastor departs. Beyond the immediate view of the joys and challenges of here and now, God, who gives the growth, has a vantage that stretches into eternity. You don’t get much longer than that.
Teachers know well the dynamic of sharing the care of a student, and trusting that God will give the growth. A kindergarten teacher teaching a curriculum of letters and numbers knows that without the vital work of learning to read and computer numbers, there would be no fractions and written themes, no checkbook balancing and reading of contracts. A 10th grade math teacher depends on the elementary and middle school math teachers who taught the student prior to learn and internalize the material. There is no trigonometry without pre-algebra. Each teacher depends on the work of the previous, while encouraging the growth of the student.

I recently finished reading the Unfollow: Loving and Leaving Westboro Baptist Church(1), a memoir by Megan Phelps Roper. As granddaughter of Fred Phelps, founder of the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC), Megan grew up picketing the funerals of soldiers and proclaiming death and atrocity through signs for many including victims of severe weather, tragedies, and those who are a part of the LGBTQ community. Westboro, a church consisting almost exclusively of extended family, has picketed General Conference each year that I have been present. Megan was the publicity voice of WBC through twitter. It was the kind and steady witness of multiple twitter users raising practical considerations to the hateful practices and inconsistent biblical interpretations that gave Megan the space to consider her own contradictions. An Israeli Jew, a married gay seminary student in New York, a private South Dakota lawyer all planted seeds independent of each other. In 2012 at 26, she left the church on a journey to rational discovery and understanding. She now lobbies to overcome division and disarm extremism, like the kind that formed her family. What one planted, another watered, and God gave growth in health.

Paul stresses to the church at Corinth that there is more to come – growth is coming. It is result of the work that he and others have been engaged in and the goodness of God. From the beginning days, when the faithful at Corinth were like babes, Paul met them where they were and began feeding them the basics of faith. He is not only preacher they will know, and they too, are farmers to plant seeds of the gospel into the lives of others.

How many of you had an opportunity to let the fruits of the spirit be shown through you with random acts of kindness? Last Sunday, I challenged us to show our faith with our actions. Preach the gospel and if necessary, use words. Sitting in a line of cars, I felt God’s goodness and grace. As I paid for the car behind me at Strbucks, I knew I was planting seeds that I would not get the opportunity to water. I would not hear from the woman in the car behind me about how her morning was changed by a small action, nor would I have the chance to explain how my actions originated in my love of Jesus and desire to be more like Jesus. We together commit to planting seeds of love and faith and look expectantly to God. God, who is faithful; God gives the growth. God grants grace and God offers increase and depth. Maybe we’ve tried to do it ourselves, our way- let God give the growth. Do what we can where we can as we can, but trust that God will take what we have and what we can do and make it flourish.

God is calling some of us to plant seeds of faith and love liberally and with abandon. God is calling others of us to water that faith and love with hope and encouragement. Do not forget it is then, God’s to give growth. We can not plant, water, and cause the seedlings to grow. The world is God’s field. The life we are called to live is an active life. We are workers in God’s field. We are laborers on God’s building. That’s what binds it all together. It is God’s. We are God’s.

This is the Gospel, the good news of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
(1) Phelps-Roper, Megan. Unfollow: Loving and Leaving Westboro Baptist Church. Farrar, Straus and Giroux: October 8, 2019.

New Testament Lesson: 1 Corinthians 3:1-9
And so, brothers and sisters, I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but rather as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for solid food. Even now you are still not ready, for you are still of the flesh. For as long as there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving according to human inclinations? For when one says, “I belong to Paul,” and another, “I belong to Apollos,” are you not merely human?

What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. The one who plants and the one who waters have a common purpose, and each will receive wages according to the labor of each. For we are God’s servants, working together; you are God’s field, God’s building.

Gospel Lesson: Matthew 17:1-9
Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white.  Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him.  Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”  While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!”  When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear.  But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.”  And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.
 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, “Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

Meditations For Your Week
Sunday, February 23 ~ Saturday, February 29, 2020
Sunday: “For as long as there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving according to human inclinations?” 1 Corinthians 3:3b. Pray that the law of love would guide the hearts of all people as we grow into the stature of Christ and turn our hearts away from quarrels and towards God.
Monday: “What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.” 1 Corinthians 3: 5-6. Consider that you are planting seeds and watering concepts that others have planted. God calls us to work with others that we sometimes do not even get the privilege of meeting.
Tuesday: “So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.” 1 Corinthians 3: 7. Where do you need to lift your palms to God in prayer after having planted or watered, making space for God to give growth in God’s time?
Wednesday: “The one who plants and the one who waters have a common purpose, and each will receive wages according to the labor of each. For we are God’s servants, working together; you are God’s field, God’s building.” 1 Corinthians 3: 8-9. Pray for your fellow workers in the fields of sharing and showing God’s love. There is no greater honor to one role, than another.
Thursday: “Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves.” Matthew 17:1. The transfiguration of Jesus occurred in a remote location when the disciples went to pray and reflect. Have you been making time for prayer and reflection in your regular discipleship?
Friday: “And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white.” Matthew 17:2. Consider that Jesus reflected the glory of creation, the sun, the clouds, the location in the mountains. Let the glory of God’s creation show you glimpses of God’s dazzling goodness.
Saturday: “While Jesus was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” Matthew 17:5. Find time today to listen to Jesus.