Grow Up

One of the difficult conversations of my life was a disagreement with a sibling. The debate ended with a figurative left jab that landed hard and signaled to me I had better just be quiet and stop arguing. I was bluntly told that someday I would grow up and then I would see things differently. We were both young adults at the time, so it came to me as a very patronizing and dismissive comment. I surely counted myself as dismissed, and I dropped the topic. It was true I had a lot of growing to do (we have all grown since we were twenty-five years old). It is also true I do see many things differently, now. All the same, it was a difficult exchange, and a painful memory to carry.

Yes, often when a person tells you to grow up, it can feel insulting. Contrast this to the case of a mentor or a fellow sojourner in the spiritual life encouraging you to mature in the faith; that feels quite different. I have associated the theme of movement toward maturity with the mystery of Christ’s ascension into heaven for some time now. That focus started for me a couple of decades ago when The Rev. Martin L Smith, SSJE gave a talk at the church I was serving across town. As a skilled retreat leader and writer, he developed the theme of The Ascension as the powerful mystery leading Christians into their full stature in Christ.

This week we come to the part of the Great Fifty Days of Easter when we celebrate The Ascension. This holy mystery will be contemplated both at the Wednesday, 6:00 p.m. Holy Eucharist on the Eve of Ascension and at the liturgies this Sunday. The Epistle for Ascension Day is below. It is Paul’s powerful encouragement to the body of Christ in Ephesus.

I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, and for this reason I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you…And God has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. (Ephesians 1:15-18, 22-23)

Notice how Paul describes them as highly developed believers, having wisdom, revelation, and knowledge of Christ. He holds out for them the end toward which they are moving: the hope to which they are called. Paul calls the church, the body of Christ, and the fullness of the One who fills all in all. In another chapter of the letter, Paul makes these tones of maturity and fulness even more explicit.

He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things. The gifts he gave were…to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.  We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine… But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.  (Ephesians 4:10-15)

Here, when Paul writes that we must grow up in every way into Christ, it does not come off as a slam, or as a left jab. It is delivered as a hope-filled encouragement. It is what Christ has in mind for us by ascending into heaven so the Spirit, once sent, would fill us and empower us into full maturity and divine ministry. With Christ enthroned in the heavens, we represent Christ everywhere we go, with all loving actions from our hearts. That takes strength and maturity. We rightly give wholehearted praise to God at work in us; it has allowed that we might, in the best way possible, grow up.