The Rev. Joseph Farnes
All Saints, Boise
Easter 5A
“Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.”
A friend once described the process of growing in Christian faith as one of “milk churches” and “meat churches.” The milk church was seeker-friendly, low-barrier, low-expectations. It would get you into a relationship with Jesus, but it could also keep you in infancy. But as time would wear on, the move would be toward a “meat church” – a church community where you go deeper, what was easy to digest now takes some chewing, it takes effort. And then you grow as an adult.
At the time, it made good sense to me. It might have also been a little bit of Episcopalian hubris; “Well, you can start off with *that* Christianity, but at some point you’ll come to see the light and come to the Episcopal way of doing things – Scripture, Tradition, Reason and all that,” because clearly we would be a “meat church.” We like delving into things, we like our brains, we have a long tradition of wrestling with deep theological questions and deep spirituality.
But, as you can imagine, I’ve changed my perspective on things, and I think my friend was ultimately wrong. We need both milk and meat – all of us, at different times in our lives and for different things.
When we’re little kids, we need milk – a loving community around us that models how to pray and how to love. We also need meat – we begin to encounter the big questions of life early, like suffering and death. We need people around us who won’t shield us from those things but will sit with us as we cry.
When we’re teenagers, we need milk – adults who show us the values that are most important instead of the values of consumerism or popularity or wealth. And we also need meat – to start wrestling with our own identity in God, what it means for us to be us.
When we’re young adult, we need milk – the peace of God for when we take our new wobbly steps into the working world. We need meat – going beyond the simpler ideas of our childhood understanding of spirituality and faith to see more intricacies. I imagine it’s like learning about colors: when you’re a child, you can name the big, main colors, and when you’re an adult, you can start giving them more precise names, like scarlet or burgundy instead of red… even though red is still correct.
As we get to be middle-aged, we still need milk – we need our spiritual practices to bring us back to the basics of gathering in prayer with others, in caring for neighbor, in just slowing down and being with God! And yet we still need meat, too – we now can start to look backwards on our life and see the trajectory of how it has unfolded, and we need to wrestle with the grief of what once was, and is no longer.
And even in older age, we still need milk – those little daily blessings of gratitude that keep us going when we face new limits to our strength. And meat, too – sharing wisdom we’ve accumulated and yet still learning, of giving guidance and love to others, of letting go of some of those things we’ve carried with us for too long.
And I think we as a parish can be both milk and meat for people. Remember our conversations at Annual Meeting this year? Your vestry and I have been hard at work on synthesizing that conversation. We came up with the following little summary:
Ask and Listen;
Pray and Grow;
Share and Proclaim;
In All Things: Love.
It is both milk – simple enough to understand – and meat – something we can continue to grow into each day. It is a guide for beginners, and it is a guide for those well-traveled in the way of faith in Christ. Much like the Rule of St Benedict – he said his rule was a guide for beginners, and yet it has persevered as a rule of life that takes a lifetime to live into.
We’ll be returning and revisiting this over the weeks ahead, too. Not a one-time thing!
In it, we can reflect on our own way of doing these things. We don’t all do them the same way. We live them each differently, and yet we come together to live them out together. We are still growing in these areas, and we are also capable in these areas, too.
The Gospel reading from John that we read today is a good example of this. There are passages ready to understand and bring into our hearts right now: “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places” – there is a place for you, for me, for all of us. Comforting! And there is much that we need to chew on, wrestle with: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” That is something that it takes a lifelong of prayer and reflection to unfold in its depths. There is milk, there is meat, there is plenty for a life long journey of discipleship. Amen.