Intro - Since ancient times, the church has recognized a special season in the time leading up to Easter, namely Lent. This 40 day period is spent preparing for the joyous celebration of Victory Sunday. One of the features of Lent was and is using this time for special instruction in the Christian faith. In ancient times, Lent was the last step of instruction for converts to the Christian church to become members of the Christian church. So, this Lent, we are going to talk about growth in knowledge and ability in the Christian faith, even in those of us whose growing days are behind us. We will use the metaphor of a growing child to ponder how we grow in knowledge and ability in this Christian faith.
1. Children come out knowing how to do a bunch of things. They know how to cry. They know how to shout. They know how to be adorable. They know how to eat. They know how to make a mess. There are a bunch of things you do not need to teach children how to do because they already know how to do them. But there are a whole bunch of things that children need to be taught how to do. One of these things that children learn how to do is they learn how to talk. And how do children learn how to talk? By hearing and copying all the talking that goes on around them. Children learn to talk by listening to their parents talk.
2. Christians already know how to do a bunch of things. They know how to cry. They know how to be selfish. They know how to hurt themselves and others. They know how to ignore God’s Law. There are a bunch of things you do not need to teach Christians how to do because they already know how to do them. But there are a whole bunch of things that Christians need to be taught. And how do you teach them these things? You start by speaking the Word of God. So that is what St. Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, did. In the 10th chapter of his letter to the Romans, Paul reminds them that the Word of God is near to the Romans. It is in their hearts and in their mouths. Namely, the Word that is near them is the word of faith that he and his companions had preached to them. The Christians in Rome began to learn the Christian faith by listening to Paul talk.
3. This is how all Christians learn, not just the Christians in Rome so long ago. Christians, you have learned and are learning the faith of Jesus by listening to the word of faith. You first hear the word of faith from your parents. They led you in prayers. They read the Bible and Bible stories to you. They talked about sermons as you rode home in the car from worship with them. You heard the most influential people in your life talking about God and thus you learned about God. You also heard the word of faith from your church. You heard the pastor preaching and praying and reading the Bible. You heard the congregation singing the songs and saying the Creeds and praying the prayers. As a baby learns to talk by listening to all the talking that goes on all around him, you have learned the faith by listening to all the words of faith that are being spoken around you.
4. We learn to talk by hearing. That means we have to start simple. My son August has been making a lot of sounds for a long time. Again, there are some things that you just come out knowing how to do. But only now is he starting to make sounds that sound like words. So, I can say to him, “Say mommy.” And he says, “Ami!” So it is close. And then I say, “Say daddy.” And he says, “Ami!” He gets stuck on mommy…go figure. I say, “Say uh-oh!” He says, “uh-oh!” I say, “Say no.” He doesn’t say anything, which I’m pretty sure is just another way of saying “no.” I kid. He says “no” all the time because that is far and away the most common word in my house! But in all this adventure of teaching August how to talk, I do not tell August to say, “refrigerator” or “multiplication” or “justification” or other complex words. That is not how you learn to talk in the first place. You learn to talk by being able to form the basic sounds.
5. Paul taught the Romans the Christian faith by talking it through for them. He progressed from the basics and built on the basics so that the Romans could learn to speak the words of faith themselves. The first 8 chapters of Paul’s letter were the message of the Christian faith. That message that Paul and his companions preached was that God had raised Jesus from the dead to prove that He was the Messiah sent to save the world from sin and that this Messiah would come back to judge the world by His righteousness. Or to sum it up basically: Jesus is Lord! The Romans began to learn the faith by hearing this basic message.
6. And so we do as the Romans do: we begin to learn the faith by hearing the basic message. Jesus is Lord. Parents speak this simple statement for their children. Then the children begin to learn the faith that will endure beyond this world and into the next! As a child first learns to talk by hearing and mimicking the simple sounds, a child first learns the faith by hearing and saying back the basic message: Jesus is Lord!
7. Do you know what basic means? It means that it is the base. It is the base that you build on top of it. It stays underneath everything to hold the whole building up, whatever the building is. A good base does not move or tip. Basic messages are the base of everything else that is said afterword. A basic message holds up other messages.
8. Jesus is Lord is a basic message. It is a message that you can rely on in all things. It is a message that you can always return to when you need to hear something true. It is a message that you can build on top of it.
9. From the basic sounds and the basic words, we can grow in knowledge and ability. And so hearing these basic sounds and basic words is so very important. There was a young boy who got to the age of three years old and he was still not saying words. His parents became more and more concerned as the boy showed no signs that he was learning how to talk. At his next check-up they shared their concerns with their doctor so he took a closer look at the boy. Some tests were run. The results came back that the inner workings of the boy’s ears had been damaged. So treatment for the damage ensued and weeks later the boy was beginning to talk! He had shown no signs of starting to talk because he could not hear! Once he began to hear his parents talking, the boy almost immediately began to mimic them!
10. Parents, take note of this: once the boy began to hear his parents talking, he almost immediately began to mimic them! A great weight of responsibility is laid on you parents that your children hear the basic message upon which faith and life can be built! The child who hears early and often that Jesus is Lord is well on his or her way to saying and believing this basic message. The child who hears early and often that Jesus loves you and so do I is well on his or her way to saying and believing this basic message. The child who hears early and often the basic message, the word of faith that is near to you, is well on his or her way to saying and believing the Christian faith that will endure beyond this world and into the world to come. As children hear, so children will speak.
11. Perhaps Paul had that in mind when he wrote to the Romans. As children hear, so children will speak. So Paul quoted Scripture for the Romans to hear, “Whoever believes on God will not be let down.” As the Romans hear this basic message that Jesus is Lord and will not let them down, they would speak this basic message that Jesus is Lord and will not let them down. And as they later suffered persecution and threats to themselves and their families they would still be speaking what they had heard: Jesus is Lord and will not let me down.
12. You must hear this basic message. If you have been hearing it from a young age, then I praise God that you have heard that early so that when the attacks of the evil one come upon you and the brokenness of the sin ravaged world cuts and wounds you and the weaknesses of our own sinful flesh betrays you, then you can say as you have heard, “Jesus is Lord and will not let me down.” If you have only recently started hearing this basic message or if this is your first time, then I praise God that He has brought you near to hear this word of faith. You are never alone. Your sin or the ones who sin against you are not in charge. Jesus is Lord! Jesus is Lord of all things. And this Jesus will not let you down! Upon this base, upon this basic message you can always stand.
13. As a child learns to speak, the child will say what the child hears. As we learn to speak the words of faith, we will say what we hear. And so St. Paul says, “The Word is near to you. It is in your mouth. It is in your heart. It is the word of faith that we have preached to you.” That message of faith is that “Jesus is Lord.” May you hear this basic message of love on this Valentines’ Day and every day and thus learn to speak with more and more knowledge and ability the words of this faith.
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