Spiritual Maturity 6: Dependable and Predictable—Deut. 31:1-8; John 13: 31-38
We’ve long heard the phrases—sayings—which seem quite nice but are really what I call “Southern insults.” It was several years that I lived in Macon before I realized that when people said, “Bless your heart,” they were not exactly wishing me well. Another of those phrases is calling someone “flighty” or “flakey.” It’s a very polite and generous way of saying that someone cannot be trusted because they will leave you hanging. Up in Kentucky, we are a bit more blunt and say quite frankly, “You just can’t depend on them for anything.” T. B. Matson identifies, as a mark of spiritual maturity, “a life that is dependable and predictable.” This sense of stability is a clear sign that one is growing in God and is maturing in faith. Now, there is a pathway to becoming dependable and predictable. That road is twofold through both commitment and respect.
First, we look at this idea of commitment. The definition includes such words as a pledge, an obligation, or a sense of dedication. In our words of faith, that would look more like a covenant, which is a promise or pledge sealed in the promise of God. For example, when we do communion, we talk about this “new covenant,” which is a promise of redemption from God sealed and secured by the sacrifice Christ made. Covenant is a powerful concept reserved for the real biggies of life: our belief in God, our marriages, the vow to ministry—all of these most sacred acts in life.
We have to be dependable and predictable in our lives because we make promises and covenants with others, and they in turn place their trust and in some cases their lives into our care and responsibility. In our Gospel for today, Jesus experiences a double whammy of betrayal and broken promises. We read that Judas has left the room. This is at the Last Supper, and Judas has left to betray Jesus to the soldiers for money. And yet, Jesus seems resigned to this. He is bothered more by Peter’s actions.
Peter becomes upset and emotional when he hears that Jesus will leave them, and correctly presumes it will be to his death. In his worked-up state, he says that he is ready to die for Jesus—all the way to the end he will go for Christ. But Jesus tells Peter that instead of this bold commitment, or even a covenant, Peter will instead deny and betray Jesus as well. Peter was possibly the closest to Jesus, and he would soon turn his own back on Jesus, betray his commitment, and leave Jesus utterly alone to be tried and killed.
How many times do we see and deal with broken promises? How many times do we see Christian leaders, friends, elders, people we look up to walk back their commitment to us? This lack of commitment, of covenant, with one another is a sign of weak and wishy-washy faith. I think of the theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer who spoke out against Nazism in Germany. At any point he could have relented and lived out his life in silence, but instead he chose to continue speaking out even until his execution, committed to the cause of what was right. Commitments and covenants are not just a simple agreement. They are binding promises made both to God and with another person, and a person with mature faith will stick to his or her commitments.
Second, a life that is dependable and predictable is forged out of respect. Jesus says to the disciples in the Gospel, “So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.” This is a love which is born out of respect. A rather harsh truth is that if you actually love and care about someone, you will not let them down. This is especially true if it’s a promise forged in faith. When God calls us, we are responsible and answerable to God and to one another as well. As messy as it can be, faith was meant to be lived both in solitude with God and in community with one another.
This respect and love make us predictable, so that we are models of trust and given this strength by God. Moses, we read, would never arrive at the promised land. He was dependable and led the people, but he was often unpredictable—wishy washy in making a commitment to God, angered and difficult at times. In one part of the journey, he is told to speak to a rock for water to come out of it, and instead he strikes the rock in a fury. All throughout the Bible, we read that God values self-control. It is even a fruit of the spirit to manage, with God’s help, to have gentleness and self-control. We have to be both dependable AND predictable.
So now we get to what I’m guessing is your big question. What do we do about people who lack this level of spiritual maturity—who are neither dependable nor predictable. First and foremost, you pray for them and love them. When Jesus says, “Love each other,” he means it as a two-way street. Show love by not wronging or abandoning others. But also, show love by forgiving wrongs. Forgiveness must also be accompanied by accountability and safe boundaries. Jesus taught love, but he also stopped Peter from offering more nice but empty words. Peter goes off shouting that he wants to follow Jesus now because he’s ready to die for Jesus. But Jesus knows Peter still lacks the maturity to actually follow through with this claim. Jesus gently rebuke’s Peter’s hollow offer and reminds Peter that he must show he is dependable and predictable, committed fully to Christ in this way. No one will ever grow in their faith if they do not receive gentle accountability to hold them firm.
Thelma Price told me an old story which comes to mind. This older man and his wife woke up one Sunday morning. It was cold and raining. The man rolled over and said he wasn’t going to church that day because it was bad outside and those people hate him anyway. His wife said, “Honey, you have to. You must go to church!” The older man asked his wife for three good reasons why he should go to church. She replied firmly, “Number one, I shouldn’t have to go without you. Number two, those people do love you and want to see you. And number three, YOU’RE THE PASTOR, AND IT’S YOUR JOB! Now, get up and make good on your commitment.”
Being dependable and predictable is tough when all you want to do is crawl further under the covers and hide away. But the Christ who loved us walked boldly to the cross and loved us through a commitment of suffering and death. And he still loves us unto this very day. Just as God promised the Israelites to be with them, never to leave, never to abandon them, the same God promises to us, “I will never leave you, nor will I abandon you.” It’s a new covenant, given to us in body and blood, bread and cup, and we are called to respond to this covenant of hope and love simply by giving ourselves to the One who first loved us.
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