Without question one of the most challenging periods of parenting is that time when a baby is first learning to walk. This is the time when you have to work at child-proofing the house. You put barriers across the stairs; you put stoppers in all the electrical outlets; you hide as many wires as you can. And, as my wife and I found out when friends visited, if you value your potted plants and the lovely Williamsburg pottery in which they come, you don’t put your plants on low tables. Down will come baby, Norfolk pine, and all!
Learning to walk is a wonderful time of exploring and growing and extending themselves for young children. For the first time they aren’t quite so limited as to where they can go and what they can discover. Those first stumbling steps have some great surprises for baby and some frightening moments for Mom and Dad. I think we still have a coffee table that has teeth marks on it made by little ones learning to walk, but stumbling and falling.
I wonder if Dr. God’s Baby Book can instruct us about what happens to baby Christians taking those first stumbling spiritual steps. You’ll remember that last week I suggested to you that the First Letter of John could well be called Dr. God’s Baby Book, because it’s so simple, it’s so straightforward; it’s addressed to children. It’s written for growing Christians. And, I said, the problem is, that, like most baby books, we read it too late. We read it after we’ve already blundered into growing up. But let’s at least read it now and let it teach us.
Dr. God’s Baby Book this morning will give us instructions about walking and about taking those first stumbling steps.
I John 2:3-11
In these verses, I hear the apostle John giving us two very basic principles about the Christian walk: first, that we cannot walk entirely on our own, but we have to walk in relationship with, in companionship with, Jesus Christ, or else we will stumble. And second, that if we can see anything at all, if we have any light or understanding at all, our walk will either offer guidance for somebody else, or our walk will lead that somebody else into stumbling and falling.
I
On our recent vacation, one day I was sitting on a park bench waiting for my wife to clean out yet another souvenir shop, and my eye was caught by a father and his tiny little daughter making their way along the path. The little girl was obviously very new at this business of walking. Her fragile hand was captured by her father’s hand, and she was so short and he so tall that she was almost lifted right up off the ground. She took about five fast little mincing steps for every one of his long, easy strides. They made quite a picture.
But I also noticed that every now and again, he would drop her hand and let her go on her own. I would say that within about ten seconds, every time he let go of her hand, she would dart off in some totally unpredictable and unacceptable direction. And, of course, Dad would have to catch her and get her in hand again. Off toward the traffic; here comes Dad, to keep her out of harm’s way. The next time, off toward the river, and here comes Dad again. A little freedom, a few stumbling steps off in the wrong and dangerous directions, and then father’s guiding hand – that’s the way that child was learning to walk.
I want to suggest that that is the way Christians learn to walk spiritually too. Christians learn to walk by putting ourselves into the guiding hands of our God. When we do that, we will learn that God gives us some freedom, freedom which we very likely will misuse. But just having the strong hand of God nearby keeps us safe during those first stumbling steps.
John says it so simply and yet so profoundly, "Whoever says, ‘I abide in him’ ought to walk just as he walked." "Whoever says, ‘I abide in him’ ought to walk just as he walked."
Learning to walk, you see, involves those first stumbling steps of freedom, and it involves learning to use our freedom, learning to choose our freedom, in relationship to Christ. As we grow and mature, our God is like that father I watched; he gives us as much freedom as we can handle, and then he snatches us back from danger, but then he gives us a little more freedom – and a little more freedom – and a little more and a little more. The trick is, as you and I get our freedom, the task is to learn to use it, learn to choose, in freedom, to do what we would do if his hand were holding us tight. "Whoever says ‘I abide in him’ ought to walk just as he walked". Whoever lives in relationship to Jesus Christ must learn how to choose and use freedom.
Let me try to illustrate. When I got of the age to go to school, my mother instructed me in exactly the route to walk. Walk to the end of our street, turn right and walk to the patrol boy, cross the street there and walk half a block to school. And that’s it. I was not to try any experiments, I was not to wander through any back alleys, I was not to stop off at anybody else’s house; just walk this way and come straight home. And so, you see, even though my mother’s hand was not physically holding mine, still her instructions were there and her influence prevailed. I was walking under her instructions, and as long as I did that, I was just about guaranteed not to stumble.
But guess what?! It will come as no particular surprise to you that the day came when I woke up to other possibilities. The day came when I decided that it would do just as well if I were to try another and more exciting route home. And so instead of marching straight along the tried and true path to our house, I went around the other way, which just happened to lead past the drug store, which just happened to include, among its wonders, a candy counter, and a comic book rack, and, most demonic of all, a pinball machine. And when you are eight or nine years old and you have a few nickels burning holes in your pockets – yes, I said nickels; after all I am talking about something like 1 947 – then it does not take a Solomon to see what use I made of my newfound freedom.
Let me tell you also, however, that when you are nine years old and you are an hour and a half late getting home from school, there is a very distinctive price to pay for that freedom. I very quickly discovered how embarrassing it is when the next day, after school, your mother is standing right there on the doorstep waiting to escort you home. I think if I listen very closely I can still hear the snickers and remarks of the other boys about that.
Ah, but here is my point. If you’re going to have the privilege of living in the home, with its safety and its provisions and its benefits, you’re going to have to walk by its rules. And if you’re going to live in the Lord’s salvation, you’re going to have to walk by the Lord’s pattern of life. "Whoever says, ’I abide in Him’ ought to walk just as He walked." Do not be surprised, if you are here on Sundays, claiming to be a child of God and living under His protection, but on Mondays your feet stray into the world’s seductive paths …do not be surprised if something stops you in your tracks. Do not be shocked if a loving Father’s discipline grabs you by the collar and yanks you right back down. Do not be surprised if when you misuse your freedom you stumble and fall for a while.
We cannot walk entirely on our own, but we have to walk in relationship with, in companionship with, Jesus Christ, or else we will stumble and fall. "Whoever says, ‘I abide in him’ must walk just as he walked". Dr. God’s Baby Book.
II
But there is another side to this, there is another aspect to these first stumbling steps. Not only will we stumble unless we walk with Jesus Christ as our companion, but also, if we can see anything at all, if we have any light or understanding at all, our walk either will offer guidance for somebody else, or our walk will lead that somebody else into stumbling and falling.
One thing is abundantly clear. We do not live our lives in a vacuum. We are influencing somebody. We are making an impact on somebody. What we say, what we do, where we walk … all of those things have some kind of influence on someone else. Whatever path our lives take, someone else is likely to follow. And the issue is, will our stumbling, bumbling steps lead someone else to stumble and fall, or will we turn on the light so that they can see where to go?
Listen to John: "Whoever says, ’I am in the light’ while hating a brother or sister is still in the darkness. Whoever loves a brother or sister lives in the light, and in such a person there is no cause for stumbling.” If you have any light, if you know the truth, use it. Tell it. Turn on that light. It is not love to keep the light turned off so that someone else stumbles and falls.
Since you have so graciously planned to celebrate our anniversary with us today, maybe it’s appropriate I tell you a little something about Margaret and me in our early years of marriage. One of the quirky little things about Margaret that I did not know until after we were married is that she occasionally, in the middle of the night, gets a foot cramp. In the pitch black of the night, there will be this scream from the other side of the bed and this insistent demand that I massage that foot.
Well, one night, there had been two or three such episodes, and she hadn’t had a lot of sleep. The stabbing pain of those muscle cramps is not easy to deal with. And so, when from over our heads, in the bedroom where our little daughter slept, there came a terrific thud, I quickly volunteered to go see what the problem was. It sounded as though our little one had either fallen out of bed or had stumbled and fallen trying to walk in the dark. In any case, I knew Margaret was dead tired, and I thought I would do the loving thing and investigate. Of course, I thought, you don’t turn on the light and wake up somebody who hasn’t had much sleep. So I shot out of bed in the dark, and about two steps later hit the dog, the only one in the roan who up to this point had been having a good night’s sleep.
Now picture the scene. Upstairs a fallen child is thrashing around on the floor, crying. Downstairs a hitherto peaceful puppy is yelping in pain, because on top of him, having stumbled blindly over him, is a sleepy man in the process of destroying what little dignity he possesses. Only one thing is missing from this picture: you got it … the noise and the foot both struck Margaret at the same time, and the next ingredient in the scene is my wife, hopping on one foot, screaming in pain, and then slamming into her dog and her husband. The count by now is, I believe, four bodies, three human and one canine, sprawled on various floors.
One of the humans is clamoring over and over, "Where’s the light? Where’s the light?" Another of the human bodies, the littlest one, just took the path of least resistance, and went to sleep on the floor. The other two, one canine and one semi-human are on their way, shortly, to the doghouse!
When the dust settled, I lamely protested, "I didn’t want to bother you with the light. I was afraid I’d wake you up, so I didn’t use the light." I thought, you see, that it was an act· of love not to use the light. But because I didn’t use the light, what did I actually do? I created an occasion for stumbling. I took my own first stumbling steps and then caused someone else to stumble too. All because I didn’t use the light I had, and masked that neglect by supposing that it was the loving thing to do.
Friends, John says, "Whoever loves a brother or sister lives in the light, and in such a person there is no cause for stumbling." If you really love that family member, if you really love that husband or that wife who’s not a Christian, you will watch where and how you walk, lest you lead them to a stumbling block. If you are truly concerned about those children who look up to you, you’ll walk in honesty and integrity in front of them. If you really care for that neighbor who has such problems, you will not hide the light of God’s truth, lest the day cane that they have wandered so far into the places of danger that they fall into the bottomless pit and never get out. If you truly care for that fellow-worker of yours who is in trouble; if you genuinely are concerned about that fellow student whose life seems to be a total mess, then you will speak the truth as you know it. You will share the light as you have it. You will not masquerade your lack of witness with the excuse that says, "Well, bringing up the subject of religion might be a little touchy." No, hear the word of our God, "Whoever loves a brother or sister lives in the light, and in such a person there is no cause for stumbling."
Dr. God’s Baby Book does teach us about how growing Christians can learn to walk, doesn’t it? It does teach us that we cannot walk entirely on our own, but we have to walk in relationship with, in companionship with, Jesus Christ, or else we will stumble, misusing our freedom. And Dr. God’s Baby Book insists that if we can see anything at all, if we have any light or understanding at all, either our walk will offer guidance for somebody else, or our walk will lead that somebody else into stumbling and falling.
I don’t know about you, but I’d like to grow up and be able not only to avoid stumbling when I step; I’d like to walk and not faint, I’d like to run and not be weary. I’d like to stride confidently into the presence of the Father, who is Light of Light, bringing others with me. I’d like to be among those who can stand tall before Him someday and say, “I abide in Him, I walked in the light just as he walked, and I loved my brothers and my sisters by lighting their paths."
