Sunday
02/12/17 Freeville/Homer Avenue UMC’s
Sermon Title: “Growing in faith and in life”
Old Testament
Scripture: Psalm 119:1-8
New Testament
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 3:1-9
Gospel Lesson:
Matthew 5:21-37
Welcome again my friends, my sisters and brothers, on this
the Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany. Six Sundays after the Wise Men came to
meet the Christ Child, and they left changed.
We will remain in the season of “Common Time” or “Ordinary
Time”, until Sunday February 26th, when we have Transfiguration
Sunday. Then on Wednesday March 1st, we will begin the season of
Holy Lent with Ash Wednesday.
Today though, we celebrate our Cub Scouts, our Boy Scouts,
and our Tiger Cubs. We might have many here today, or not many, yet we honor
them. Of the three scriptures that we read today, I decided to preach on 1
Corinthians 3:1-9. I have chosen this scripture to preach on, as to me it
discusses growing in faith and in life.
I myself was a Tiger Cub, a Cub Scout, and then a Boy
Scout. I even remember winning the Pine Wood Derby one year. While I never
completed my Eagle Scout, I learned many lessons, value, morals, and other
things that have made me a better man today. Since I was part of scouting, it
has and continues to make me better. There are certainly many programs that
exist today that work to make young men, into exceptional, hard-working, civic
minded, and service oriented adult men, but certainly scouting has a large role
to play in our society.
Further, I know that I am just talking about the young men
this morning, but worry not, Girl Scout Sunday is on Sunday March 12th.
So be ready young women!
Melissa and I had the pleasure of being invited to the
annual scouting “Blue and Gold” dinner at the Freeville Fire Hall this past
Tuesday night, and it was great to be with some scouts and their parents. These
young men are learning invaluable skills, morals, values, and are being prepared
to be change makers in our communities, and in this world.
To
any and all the scouts here, to the leaders, as a church we honor your work,
your efforts, your commitment to this community, to our country, and to our
world. We are honored and privileged as
a Freeville UMC church to hold your scout charters, and we are honored to have
you meet here in our church. We are very proud of you all, and you are always
welcomed here.
I am a preacher though, so I probably should start talking
about the Bible right? This morning in our reading from the Apostle Paul’s
First Epistle or letter to the church in Corinth, or the Corinthians, he talks
to them about “Growing in faith and in life”.
You see as Christians, we not only just have faith in
Christ as our Lord and Savior, but daily we are striving to be more like Jesus.
As scouts do a variety of things to make themselves better, we as Christians do
the same. For this reason many churches have always worked closely with the
scouts as we share so much in common.
In looking at the scripture this morning from 1 Corinthians
3:1-9, it begins with the Apostle Paul addressing the church in Corinth. The
Apostle Paul says, “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, you were not ready for solid food” (1 Cor.
1-2a, NRSV). When we are babies, we begin by drinking only milk, then we
finally work our way up to eating solid food. The Christian faith, like
scouting is a not a one day effort to achieve success. Scouting, like the
Christian faith is a lifelong process of becoming more Godly, more loving, more
caring, and becoming all that God has called you to be.
I hope that for many of us that our faith is deeper than it
was a year ago, or five. I also hope that our scouts training and preparedness
to enter and change the world, has also increased, as well.
In the church in Corinth though, some were not growing and
developing at the rate in which they should. The Apostle Paul then says of
eating solid food, “Even now you are still not ready, for you are still in the
flesh. For as long as there is jealously and quarreling among you, are you not
in the flesh, and behaving according to human inclinations?” (1 Cor. 2b-3,
NRSV). I am sure that there is never quarrelling among any scouts, or that there
is never any issues, or jealousies. Well we know that this isn’t true, but
remember it is a process. Sometimes our faith in God, in Christ takes years to
really become clear to us. Perhaps scout training might take a long time to
really sink in to.
The Apostle continues saying, “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” (1 Cor. 3:4-5, NRSV). Then the Apostle Paul says, “I
planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither the one who
plants nor the 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
received wages according to the labor of each. For we are God’s servants,
working together; you are God’s field, God’s building” (1 Cor. 6-9, NRSV).
Friends, brothers and sisters, it isn’t about who is the
best, which Boy Scout troop is better than the other Boy Scout Troop, or which
leader is better than the other. We draw our strength from God, through Jesus
Christ. All of the gifts, abilities, and graces, that we have all been given,
come from God, through Jesus Christ. This means we are not to be enemies, or
work against each other, as the Apostle Paul said, “The one who plants and the
one who waters have a common purpose” (1. Cor. 3:8a, NRSV). Jesus Christ
believed in a better world, and I believe that organizations like Boy Scouts do
to. This is why as a church we honored to honor our young men, who are training,
learning, and growing, to one day become exceptional men. To become men that no
longer drink milk, but eat solid food.
For all of these reasons, the Apostle Paul once again ends
the reading from 1 Corinthians from this morning say, “For we are God’s
servants, working together; you are God’s field, God’s building” (1. Cor. 3:9,
NRSV).
According to www.scouting.org the twelve points of Boy
Scout Law are, a scout is supposed to be: “1. Trustworthy, 2. Loyal, 3.
Helpful, 4. Friendly, 5. Courteous, 6. Kind, 7. Obedient, 8. Cheerful, 9.
Thrifty, 10. Brave, 11. Clean, and 12. Reverent”. To this I say to our scouts,
and to all that have even been in scouts, amen.
I want to close this message this morning, by reading some
statistics about the success of young men who are involved in scouting. To be
far, a lot of this was read by the Freeville UMC’s Cub Scout Pack Leader, Jesse
Nygard, at the annual scouting “Blue and Gold” dinner that past Tuesday night, but
let’s be honest I borrow most of my stories anyway. Here are the statistics.
“For
every 100 boys that enter scouts: 30 will drop out the first year. Only rarely
will one appear before a juvenile court judge. 12 will be from families that
belong to no church, 6 of these will be brought into contact with a church and
continue. 3 will become pastors, 4 scouts will reach the rank of Eagle Scout.
45 will serve in the Military. 1 person will use scout skills to save somebody
else’s live. 2 will report that they used scout skills to save their own lives.
17 will later serve as adult volunteers 8 will find their future life vocations
from scouting 5 will receive church emblems. ….Only 4 out of 100 boys in the
USA will become scouts but of the leaders of this nation in business, religion
and politics, 3 out of 4 were scouts”.
“Only
4 percent of our nation’s youth were scouts, yet 65% of all college and
university graduates were scouts. 26 of 29 of the first Astronauts in NASA’s
program were Eagle scouts, and 133 of the 233 Astronauts were scouts at one
time. A Nationwide survey showed that: Of Senior Class Presidents 89% were
scouts. Of Junior Class Presidents 80% were scouts. Student Council Presidents
85% were scouts. School newspaper editors 88% were scouts. Football Captains
71% were scouts. Basketball captains 64% were scouts. 64% of Air Force Academy
graduates were scouts 58% West Point Graduates were scouts. 70% of Annapolis
graduates were scouts. 72% Rhodes Scholars were scouts. 85% of FBI Agents were
scouts at one time. So, 4 out of 100, make Eagle Scout”.
“So
what about the other 94 or 92 scouts who didn’t make it to Eagle. Is it just
wasted time? The scouts have “Aims and Methods”. Things found in the Scout Oath
and Law, the Patrol Method, Outdoors training, Personal growth, Leadership and
So on. Advancement is certainly one of these, but only one. Just being part of
the program gives the opportunity to “better and belong”. Sure we know some
famous Eagle Scouts like Sam Walton, James Lovell, Hank Aaron, Gerald Ford,
John Glenn Ross Perot and Steven Speilberg. But how about some
“Not-Quite-Eagles” like John F. Kennedy, Jimmy Stewart, Harrison Ford, Merlin
Olson, Richard Gere, Nolan Ryan, Jim Morrison, Joe Theisman, Bill Gates and
not-quite British Scout’s Queen’s Scout – Paul McCartney. The list goes on and on.
Scouting makes a difference!
Friends,
brothers and sisters in Christ, we are called by God to continue “growing in
faith and in life”. We are called to grow closer to Christ every day, to bring
others to Christ in our own called ways, and to grow and develop. As we support
our scouts in “growing in faith and in life,” may we also grow closer to our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on this day. May we also be kind to ourselves,
realizing that in “Growing in faith and life,” it takes time. Let us continue
to “Grow in faith and in life” In Christ’s name, amen.
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