"I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does." (John 5.19-20)
I've been thinking quite a bit recently about what are the marks of Christian maturity. Sometimes we find clues in our own experience of growing up from children to adults. Developing the ability to feed ourselves is an obvious example. Mature Christians recognise the importance of feeding themselves with what will enable them to grow, rather than simply existing from Sunday to Sunday with the hope that what they might receive on a Sunday morning or evening will be enough to last them all week. They seek to grow a discipline of regularly feeding themselves from God's word and his presence, spending time in worship and prayer. Sometimes that will involve meeting with others to do this, sometimes spending time with God on their own. This means that when they gather with other Christians to worship, they are at least as preoccupied with what they have come to bring to God in worship and service as what they will receive from him.
But sometimes that experience of growing up can be misleading if we apply it to Christian maturity. In our culture we very much value the quality of independence. We often expect our children to become more and more independent from their parents - whether that's the stage of beginning to walk rather than be carried, or, later, leaving home to set up a new home elsewhere. We see maturity as a development from dependence to independence.
When it comes to Christian maturity, however, there is a sense in which it involves becoming more not less dependent. As we cooperate with the work of God's Holy Spirit in our live we should expect to see ourselves become more and more dependent on our heavenly Father. One example: when God is stretching you and calling you into areas of growth in your own life, you will find that you need to spend more time reading his word, more time speaking with Jesus, more time seeking his presence.
We shouldn't be surprised at this. Jesus gives us the perfect example of a mature God-centered life - and he was utterly dependent on his Father.
I believe that in his mercy and love God sometimes takes us through times when we learn a greater dependence on him: in doing so, he is maturing us, making us more Christ-like, drawing us deeper into an experience of his love. (See how Jesus connects his dependence on his Father with his absolute trust in the Father's love for him.)
With the Open Church Project and all its attendant challenges - not to mention other challenges we face together - I believe the Father's heart is for us to mature, to learn from Jesus to become more dependent on our Father's love.
And out of that dependency comes obedience... we do what the Father shows us we should do.
If you want to think more about this, look further in John's gospel at Jesus' teaching in chapter 15 ('the vine and the branches') and see how dependence on the Lord, obedience to his word and experiencing his love are all inextricably connected.
Lord - please grow us - and grow us up - to your glory. Amen.
