PUTTING AWAY CHILDISH THINGS
1 Corinthians 13. 11-13
It is good to be with you all again. We always feel very welcome here and always sense a great deal of warmth and love in the fellowship here.
Just a few words on this scripture. I have promised to be brief.
It came to me in connection with marriage and particularly as I have been thinking about why we are here today……… to celebrate a sixtieth Wedding Anniversary.
Many of you here have been married for a lifetime although some have lost their partners now. This is a scripture that is perhaps not normally used in connection with marriage or the longevity of marriage but I think it is appropriate.
Putting away childish things is something you have to do when you first start a family and they leave their toys all over the place. Jan and I run a 'Mother and Toddlers' group every Friday and we spend some time at the end, putting away childish things (in the cupboard) but as you get older it means something quite different doesn't it?
What are some of these childish things we need to leave behind? Well the apostle doesn't go into detail so perhaps he is leaving us to identify them for ourselves and for each of us, I suppose it would mean something different.
Wanting my own way all the time is something that characterises a child
Not wanting to share, something that we often see in the Toddlers Group. Twenty two children and only two cars to sit in and so on and I often watch the children with the toys and think just how like them I still am but of course in a much more sophisticated and, perhaps, more devious way. And yet, if a marriage is going to last, sharing becomes increasingly important.
You may have heard the story of the old couple in the restaurant…………..
Having received their meal the old lady started hers but the old man just sat and did nothing. A young man sat watching them for some time and thinking the old man didn't like his meal but hadn't got the courage to say so to the waiter, he went across and said “Excuse me, I don't want to interfere but if you don't like that meal I am sure the waiter will change it for you. Would you like me to ask the waiter for you?”
“Thank you”, said the old chap, “That is good of you, but actually I am just waiting until my wife has finished and then it will be my turn with the teeth……………”
Being over-critical or picky is another thing we need to put away. Correcting one another whilst speaking in company as though engaged in some competition.
It goes something like this:-
“(I saw Mrs Brown last week, she left the Church in 1976 and………….”
“It wasn't 1976 it was 1977 Dear”
“I'm sure it was 1976 because it was the year the Pastor left to go to Salisbury……”
“He didn't go to Salisbury he went to Andover Dear”
“Oh, but he married that woman in Salisbury though, Mary wasn't it?
“No it was Brenda. You can't remember anything these days Dear”
“Anyway, as I was saying, I met Mrs Brown last week and………………….”
Being impatient. Expecting your partner to understand something which is important to you but not so important to them (and perhaps you haven't made yourself very clear anyway)
Wanting the last word. How often have you heard the exchange between children, “Yes you did” “No I didn't”, repeated over and over again until one of them tires of it and the other gets the final word? Of course we wouldn't go on like that would we? But we find cleverer ways of having the last word……..
”I remember saying that years ago Dear but you never listen!”
Something else to 'Put away'
Apportioning blame. There are lots of situations around the house that can be quietly addressed and put right without holding an inquest.
So we need to put aside these things and “Become a Man”, Paul says (which includes Woman). Men and women according to God and it cannot be stressed enough how important it is to keep the Lord central in our marriages and for there to be love as this scripture emphasises.
One day, “We will know as we also have been known” scripture says. At the moment everything is a bit unclear, a bit fuzzy, an element of impurity in the best of motives, but there will come a time when we will understand and be happy to accept the Lord's judgement about ourselves, about everything, because it will all be done in love. “Ah! I see that now” we might say or “I just didn't realise Lord”
I don't think that “When that which is perfect is come” is a state we will be just ushered into like being put into a stainless sterile box the other side of some door, I like to think that after our Saviour has gone through everything with us it will all just feel ………perfectly right, perfectly fair. There will be nothing left to say really accept in thankful worship and we will be happy for him to 'have the last word'
