November 24, 2019
Colossians 1:11-20
“Flying Lessons” was the theme of the weekend retreat Amy and I attended a lifetime ago at Fort Caswell Beach with First Baptist Church in Greensboro, our home church at the time. This particular retreat happened so long ago that I don’t remember if we had children and if I had to guess I would say we didn’t. If, in fact we didn’t have children then this retreat took place more than 19 years ago. This retreat, or more accurately the retreat leader and the lessons he taught during those few days, made a significant impact on me. So significant, in fact, that quite often I have found myself thinking about them, but one in particular.
I am fortunate to be able to call Kyle Matthews, the singer, songwriter, artist and pastor a friend. And while some of you may have heard of Kyle, I suspect all of you have at one point in time heard his music. Since 2008, Kyle has served on the ministerial staff at First Baptist Church in Greenville, South Carolina. Before joining that church staff, Kyle was a distinguished songwriter and artist in Nashville, Tennessee and it was during that time in his life that he led retreats like the one Amy, and I attended.
“Flying Lessons” had both large group sessions and smaller breakout sessions, both of which were centered on this idea Kyle shared as learning to fly. From Kyle’s perspective, there are stages in spiritual maturity just like there are stages in learning to fly and anyone who wants to fly must take the lessons and do the work before they can fly. There was one -sub-topic of one particular group session that has stayed with me the most over the years, especially over the past few years. This sub-topic of learning to fly… of spiritual growth is called letting go. In the context of learning to fly, this letting go is what the teacher must do if the student ever has a chance to fly. In that morning session all those years ago to illustrate his point of how the teacher must let the student go, Kyle talked about the parent child relationship. He shared what it was like to be a parent letting go of the small hand of the child going from a crawler to a walker. How that parent holds on for as long as they can, doing everything they can to ensure that when the child lets go he/she will not get hurt. That same parent later coming to the realization that no matter how much they hold on, no matter how much they try to remove all of the dangers they perceive to be in front of the child, the child still gets hurt. Hurt in ways the parent could not see and ways that the parent could not stop even if they could see. What Kyle didn’t talk about, and what Amy & I didn’t know at the time, is that the parent’s holding on of that little hand is something the parent will do for the rest of their life even though the hand gets bigger and bigger and farther and farther away.
There is something that parent does though, even before the child takes those first steps - they teach. They try to show that soon to be toddler what it looks like to take a step. They might even try to show his/her what that looks like by moving the child’s legs. All of these lessons are taught so that eventually letting go becomes less about the parent’s choice and more about the lack thereof. The thing is, in our world with the way we approach what it looks like to love, letting go of those you love so that they can freely and fully fly into their own being is hard work. The whole proposition is downright scary. How do we know if the lessons we’ve taught actually took hold? Did we even teach the right lessons? Is there more we need to teach while we can? In my experience, questions like these never leave the best teachers, which is precisely what makes them the best teachers.
****************************
The whole process of the teacher/the parent letting go is what I think about as I read most of Paul’s letters. I picture Paul as this deeply caring teacher – one who wants his students to fly as freely as they can, and whenever he hears about the possibility of his students being influenced by others, he feels a refresher course is needed. This letter to the Colossians adds a wrinkle though. You see, an interesting thing about the early church at Colossae is that Paul never actually met them, much less taught them. Those early followers in that region of the world, modern day Turkey, learned about Jesus the Christ and what it meant to follow the Way of Jesus by one of Paul’s students named Epaphras. Now word has gotten back to Paul, who is in prison, that these early followers in Colossae might be listening to lessons from other teachers, and those lessons might be influencing them in negative ways. So, here we have this loving teacher, sitting in prison hundreds of miles away worrying about those he loves, but has never met, and teaching – reminding them of lessons they had previously learned about who they are and whose they are, and doing it through the written word. Paul teaching technique, though, is to incorporate the lessons in his statements about praying for them, a technique I find to be quite genius really. Just as I find Paul’s believe in the power of prayer to be quite remarkable, and worthy of our own imitation.
It is the content of his prayer that shows the lessons he is hoping to remind them of. He prays that the new Christian instinct of love be firmly implanted in them. He prays that they may know the Grace which God has freely given to them and know it in such a profound way that it leads to their own transformation. He prays that they may be made strong and that there new found strength allow them to persevere in this call of Christian Love because he, better than most at that time, knew the pain and heartache that can come when this new way of love actually takes root – it changes you and that change can make others, especially those in power positions within the system, nervous and afraid of what you can do. This kind of strength, that Paul says comes from God’s glorious power, is unmatched by human kings, and it is because of that that those same human kings, see you as a threat. Paul prays that they may remember this kind of strength is theirs because it comes from God just like they come from God and knowing that is what sets them free. Knowing that they are children of God, not any God, but the God who is Love changes everything. This kind of knowing is what sets you free and it is this lesson that Paul wants them to remember because Paul wants them to live a life that is free. Paul loves them, and wants the best for them, in the same exact way that any great teacher wants. Paul wants those early followers at Colossae to fly which is why I believe he wants to remind them of the lessons Epaphras taught. Paul wants them to remember that they have already been rescued from the bondage of others. Paul wants to remind them that they are part of a new kingdom – one that might not look like the kingdoms they are used to which is a good thing because the kingdoms they are used to are kingdoms of persecution and control and this new kingdom is a kingdom of freedom. Freedom founded on the principals of love, grace and mercy – all three of which are found and embodied in the one they follow – Jesus The Christ.
********************************
Teaching others to fly is hard work. Learning to fly is hard work too. The teaching requires the passing on of knowledge and the learning requires strength and patience and the power to remember. Letting go may just be the hardest part for both the teacher and the student, but the only way anyone can ever fly is by first letting go.
The student may fall. The student may at point in time be swayed to stop trying, or to take short cuts. The student may even think it is easier to give up than to keep trying. In those moments the teacher offers a little reminder – a little refresher course, if you will. After that refresher course, the greatest teachers do one more thing, they let go again because the goal is always flying, and the greatest teachers know the only way anyone can ever fly is when they have the freedom to do so. Freedom that only comes by letting go.
I’m so fortunate to have the parents I have. Parents who loved me so much that from a very early age I felt free to explore life. Later today a number of my family is going to come together at Countryside Assisted Living to celebrate my Dad, Tommy Knight. This is the second year in a row that we have done this. It will be a special time for my Dad, even though he doesn’t really have the ability to remember anymore. Today, though, Paul is going to be speaking to me. Reminding me of the lessons my Dad taught me, but more than that, reminding me of the freedom both he and my mom gave me to fly. Freedom that is rooted in the best kind of love possible – unconditional love.
May we all be so lucky as to know how unconditionally loved we truly are.
[PRAYER]
Amen!
Colossians 1:11-20
“Flying Lessons” was the theme of the weekend retreat Amy and I attended a lifetime ago at Fort Caswell Beach with First Baptist Church in Greensboro, our home church at the time. This particular retreat happened so long ago that I don’t remember if we had children and if I had to guess I would say we didn’t. If, in fact we didn’t have children then this retreat took place more than 19 years ago. This retreat, or more accurately the retreat leader and the lessons he taught during those few days, made a significant impact on me. So significant, in fact, that quite often I have found myself thinking about them, but one in particular.
I am fortunate to be able to call Kyle Matthews, the singer, songwriter, artist and pastor a friend. And while some of you may have heard of Kyle, I suspect all of you have at one point in time heard his music. Since 2008, Kyle has served on the ministerial staff at First Baptist Church in Greenville, South Carolina. Before joining that church staff, Kyle was a distinguished songwriter and artist in Nashville, Tennessee and it was during that time in his life that he led retreats like the one Amy, and I attended.
“Flying Lessons” had both large group sessions and smaller breakout sessions, both of which were centered on this idea Kyle shared as learning to fly. From Kyle’s perspective, there are stages in spiritual maturity just like there are stages in learning to fly and anyone who wants to fly must take the lessons and do the work before they can fly. There was one -sub-topic of one particular group session that has stayed with me the most over the years, especially over the past few years. This sub-topic of learning to fly… of spiritual growth is called letting go. In the context of learning to fly, this letting go is what the teacher must do if the student ever has a chance to fly. In that morning session all those years ago to illustrate his point of how the teacher must let the student go, Kyle talked about the parent child relationship. He shared what it was like to be a parent letting go of the small hand of the child going from a crawler to a walker. How that parent holds on for as long as they can, doing everything they can to ensure that when the child lets go he/she will not get hurt. That same parent later coming to the realization that no matter how much they hold on, no matter how much they try to remove all of the dangers they perceive to be in front of the child, the child still gets hurt. Hurt in ways the parent could not see and ways that the parent could not stop even if they could see. What Kyle didn’t talk about, and what Amy & I didn’t know at the time, is that the parent’s holding on of that little hand is something the parent will do for the rest of their life even though the hand gets bigger and bigger and farther and farther away.
There is something that parent does though, even before the child takes those first steps - they teach. They try to show that soon to be toddler what it looks like to take a step. They might even try to show his/her what that looks like by moving the child’s legs. All of these lessons are taught so that eventually letting go becomes less about the parent’s choice and more about the lack thereof. The thing is, in our world with the way we approach what it looks like to love, letting go of those you love so that they can freely and fully fly into their own being is hard work. The whole proposition is downright scary. How do we know if the lessons we’ve taught actually took hold? Did we even teach the right lessons? Is there more we need to teach while we can? In my experience, questions like these never leave the best teachers, which is precisely what makes them the best teachers.
****************************
The whole process of the teacher/the parent letting go is what I think about as I read most of Paul’s letters. I picture Paul as this deeply caring teacher – one who wants his students to fly as freely as they can, and whenever he hears about the possibility of his students being influenced by others, he feels a refresher course is needed. This letter to the Colossians adds a wrinkle though. You see, an interesting thing about the early church at Colossae is that Paul never actually met them, much less taught them. Those early followers in that region of the world, modern day Turkey, learned about Jesus the Christ and what it meant to follow the Way of Jesus by one of Paul’s students named Epaphras. Now word has gotten back to Paul, who is in prison, that these early followers in Colossae might be listening to lessons from other teachers, and those lessons might be influencing them in negative ways. So, here we have this loving teacher, sitting in prison hundreds of miles away worrying about those he loves, but has never met, and teaching – reminding them of lessons they had previously learned about who they are and whose they are, and doing it through the written word. Paul teaching technique, though, is to incorporate the lessons in his statements about praying for them, a technique I find to be quite genius really. Just as I find Paul’s believe in the power of prayer to be quite remarkable, and worthy of our own imitation.
It is the content of his prayer that shows the lessons he is hoping to remind them of. He prays that the new Christian instinct of love be firmly implanted in them. He prays that they may know the Grace which God has freely given to them and know it in such a profound way that it leads to their own transformation. He prays that they may be made strong and that there new found strength allow them to persevere in this call of Christian Love because he, better than most at that time, knew the pain and heartache that can come when this new way of love actually takes root – it changes you and that change can make others, especially those in power positions within the system, nervous and afraid of what you can do. This kind of strength, that Paul says comes from God’s glorious power, is unmatched by human kings, and it is because of that that those same human kings, see you as a threat. Paul prays that they may remember this kind of strength is theirs because it comes from God just like they come from God and knowing that is what sets them free. Knowing that they are children of God, not any God, but the God who is Love changes everything. This kind of knowing is what sets you free and it is this lesson that Paul wants them to remember because Paul wants them to live a life that is free. Paul loves them, and wants the best for them, in the same exact way that any great teacher wants. Paul wants those early followers at Colossae to fly which is why I believe he wants to remind them of the lessons Epaphras taught. Paul wants them to remember that they have already been rescued from the bondage of others. Paul wants to remind them that they are part of a new kingdom – one that might not look like the kingdoms they are used to which is a good thing because the kingdoms they are used to are kingdoms of persecution and control and this new kingdom is a kingdom of freedom. Freedom founded on the principals of love, grace and mercy – all three of which are found and embodied in the one they follow – Jesus The Christ.
********************************
Teaching others to fly is hard work. Learning to fly is hard work too. The teaching requires the passing on of knowledge and the learning requires strength and patience and the power to remember. Letting go may just be the hardest part for both the teacher and the student, but the only way anyone can ever fly is by first letting go.
The student may fall. The student may at point in time be swayed to stop trying, or to take short cuts. The student may even think it is easier to give up than to keep trying. In those moments the teacher offers a little reminder – a little refresher course, if you will. After that refresher course, the greatest teachers do one more thing, they let go again because the goal is always flying, and the greatest teachers know the only way anyone can ever fly is when they have the freedom to do so. Freedom that only comes by letting go.
I’m so fortunate to have the parents I have. Parents who loved me so much that from a very early age I felt free to explore life. Later today a number of my family is going to come together at Countryside Assisted Living to celebrate my Dad, Tommy Knight. This is the second year in a row that we have done this. It will be a special time for my Dad, even though he doesn’t really have the ability to remember anymore. Today, though, Paul is going to be speaking to me. Reminding me of the lessons my Dad taught me, but more than that, reminding me of the freedom both he and my mom gave me to fly. Freedom that is rooted in the best kind of love possible – unconditional love.
May we all be so lucky as to know how unconditionally loved we truly are.
[PRAYER]
Amen!
