Growing Smaller
Sermon for St Michael and All Angels – 29 September 2024 – St John the Baptist, Felixstowe – Final sermon preached at Felixstowe before moving to a new post in the Benefice of Kesgrave, Little Bealings, and Playford
Text: For this reason my joy has been fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease. (John 3v29-30)
God give you peace my sisters and brothers.
Are you sitting comfortably? Then we’ll begin…
Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the riverbank, and of having nothing to do… (sorry I need to skip through a few pages to get to the interesting bit)
Here we are…
After Alice drank the ‘DRINK ME’ Potion she shrank down to ten inches high, she brightened up because she was now the right size for going through the little door and into the beautiful garden. However, the little door was locked and Alice had left the key lying up on the glass table. She was too small to reach the key! She tried climbing up one of the legs of the table to get the key, but it was too slippery. Alice sat down and started crying in frustration and had to scold herself to stop. She noticed that a little glass box had magically appeared out of nowhere underneath the table. Inside the box was a small cake that had the words ‘EAT ME’ marked on it in currants. After she ate the entire cake, she grew so large that her head struck against the ceiling in the hall. Then, picking up the key and after drinking a little bit of the ‘DRINK ME’ Potion, she shrunk again and was able to unlock the door and go in the garden of Wonderland.
If only weight loss were this easy. Slimming World would have to shut up shop and stock in Ozempic would tumble!
But I have found that when I try to lose weight, lose a bit of stature, become more humble and less ‘holier than thou’, I end up, like Alice, banging my head on the ceiling. Would that I was more able to follow the words of our Baptist patron who, knowing that he is coming to the end of his time, does not grab hold of power – ‘I am not the Messiah, but I have been sent ahead of him.’ – but instead is ready to let go of everything and say with joy:
He must increase, but I must decrease. (John 3v30)
But this is not easy is it?
To give ourselves up is hard.
We spend so much energy on achieving and winning and being the best that it is easy to forget that our aim should be to grow smaller.
And this giving up on our self-centredness is more difficult for some than for others. Some of us, (Cue the song This is Me!) have very driven personalities and to take second, let alone the last place, is nigh on impossible.
In our passion to serve we can easily make the goal more important than the journey; our ego runs riot, toes get trodden on, and heads are banged against ceilings. And then, instead of going about the business of proclaiming God’s reign we have to spend time binding up the hearts of those who we ourselves have broken….
So, to all those I have hurt in anyway during my time as your vicar, from the depths of my heart, I apologise and ask for your forgiveness…
This is the way those of us who gather here must live. We have to put ourselves last. We have to own up to our frailties. We have to grow smaller because;
He must increase, but I must decrease. (John 3v30)
But how do we, how do I, not fall into the trap of letting ego and desires run away with us? This is an urgent task else we end up in endless cycles of selfishness and penitence where there are no winners and no maturity in our faith. How can we learn to do God’s work instead of following our own desires? It remains a great truth that ‘In a battle of Egos, the loser wins’. But aiming to lose is not in the rules of the game of life is it? And even though we may want to give ourselves away we find ourselves running ahead of the One we are supposed to be following. What is the secret of growing smaller?
The Franciscan Friar Richard Rohr writes about this in his book ‘Falling Upward’
[Rohr] divides the span of human life into two halves: the first, the domain of younger men and women attempting to make a mark in the world, and the second half of life as a journey of increasing contentment brought about, ironically, through weakness and failure. Hence ‘falling upward’. The only way up is down.
(John Stevens – Unless a Seed)
As we read from the Gospel of Mark recently;
If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.35For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.
(Mark 8v34-35)
And when we allow ourselves to ‘fall upward’ owning our frailty and our failings then we find ourselves safe in the hands of the Living God.
We can only grow when we let go!
We can only become ourselves when we give ourselves away.
We can only live when we have learnt to die.
Or as one Disney Princess famously shouted, ‘Let it Go!’.
The Introduction to the Principles of the Third Order of the Society of St Francs explains this further:
By the example of his own sacrifice, Jesus reveals the secret of bearing fruit. In surrendering himself to death, he becomes the source of new life. Lifted from the earth on the cross, he draws all people to himself. Clinging to life causes life to decay; the life that is freely given is eternal. Jesus calls those who would serve him to follow his example and choose for themselves the same path of renunciation and sacrifice. To those who hear and obey he promises union with God.
The only way to grow is to grow smaller
He must increase, but I must decrease. (John 3v30)
We are called to give ourselves up so that we might become who we are.
Every time we put ourselves instead of God and God’s people, first Jesus weeps. Our aim should be to bring Him joy not tears. We must endeavour, as did our patron John the Baptist, to greet the Bridegroom with joy knowing that His arrival heralds our demise. Just as old Simeon, cradling the new born Christ in the Temple thankfully proclaimed ‘Lord, now let your servant depart in peace’ so we need to find the strength to let go of all that holds us back from giving ourselves away completely.
He must increase, but I must decrease. (John 3v30)
Each day, as the missionary Amy Carmichael said, must become ‘A Chance to Die’.
For the last nine years Lesley-Anne and I have had the deep privilege of living amongst you and trying to give ourselves away as often as we can. This has brought us much joy and we will leave a piece of our heart in Felixstowe. Now we are to go separate ways and it is natural that we should feel sad and bereft as we continue on the journey of growing smaller but in separate places. But if we do not learn to ‘Let go’ we will never ever be able to ‘Let God’. For it is only when we have given everything away that we will truly be in possession of the life that endures for ever.
Before I end with a prayer poem from Amy Carmichael, I’d like us to listen to a song from Amy Grant;
So Glad
I had laid some mighty plans
Thought I held them in my hands
Then my world began to crumble all away
I tried to build it back again
I couldn’t bear to see it end
How it hurt to know You wanted it that way
And I’m so glad, glad to find the reason
That I’m happy-sad that You’ve torn it all away
I’m so glad, though it hurts to know I’m leaving
Everything I ever thought that I would be.
Once I held it in my hand
It was a kingdom made of sand
But now you’ve blown it all away
I can’t believe that I can say that I’m glad.
Long before my plans were made
I know a master plan was laid
With a power that superseded my control
And if that truth could pierce my heart
I wouldn’t wander from the start
Trying desperately to make it on my own
And I’m so glad, glad to find the reason…
A prayer from Amy Carmichael.
Make Me Thy Fuel
From prayer that asks that I may be
Sheltered from winds that beat on Thee,
From fearing when I should aspire,
From faltering when I should climb higher,
From silken self,
O Captain, free
Thy soldier who would follow Thee.
From subtle love of softening things,
From easy choices, weakenings,
(Not thus are spirits fortified,
Not this way went the crucified)
From all that dims Thy Calvary,
O Lamb of God, deliver me.
Give me the love that leads the way,
The faith that nothing can dismay,
The hope no disappointments tire,
The passion that will burn like fire;
Let me not sink to be a clod:
Make me Thy fuel, Flame of God
This blog ‘Growing Smaller!’ is copyright © Andrew Dotchin 2024. It may be reproduced free of charge on condition that the source is acknowledged.
oooOOOooo
Jesus and John the Baptist
22 After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he spent some time there with them and baptized. 23 John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim because water was abundant there; and people kept coming and were being baptized – 24 John, of course, had not yet been thrown into prison.
25 Now a discussion about purification arose between John’s disciples and a Jew. 26 They came to John and said to him, ‘Rabbi, the one who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you testified, here he is baptizing, and all are going to him.’ 27 John answered, ‘No one can receive anything except what has been given from heaven. 28 You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, “I am not the Messiah, but I have been sent ahead of him.” 29 He who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. For this reason my joy has been fulfilled. 30 He must increase, but I must decrease.’
(John 3v22-30)
Suffolk Vicar 