Text: Titus 3:3-6
In the 1984 movie entitled The Neverending Story, the main character is a lonely, dreamy kid who misses his dead mother. I remembered the title of this movie because my children used to watch it over and over when they were young. So I went to the local library and found an old VHS version, and watched it this week. As with most children's movies, there are several layers of meaning.
While hiding out in a store to avoid some bullies from his school, the young boy picks up book and begins reading a tale about Fantasia, a land where a dreadful force called "The Nothing" is destroying the country. When I saw that the dreaded enemy was "nothingness," I realized that this was quite an existential children's movie. As the boy reads the story, he realizes he is the only one who can save Fantasia; and, magically, he enters the story. By becoming part of this adventure, the boy is given the self-confidence he needs when he returns to the real world.
The movie is a story within a story where the end is not the end - a neverending story. That's the way it is with the Twelve Steps. Getting to Step Twelve is not the end of the story.
It's like climbing the first mountain in a range of mountains. We struggle to get to the top of the first mountain only to discover more mountains to be climbed. Step Twelve reminds us that when we arrive here, we are only beginning.
Step Twelve says, "Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs." This step has three parts - spiritual awakening, carrying the message and practicing the principles.
1) Spiritual Awakening
One thing I like about these Twelve Steps is that they lead people into a spiritual awakening. Lives are transformed by the power of God. That's what the church is about really - transformation. Romans 12:2 says, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect." We, too, are in the transformation business. And this transformation comes through a spiritual awakening.
In choosing a text for this sermon, I was torn between two passages - the one read earlier from Titus 3:3-6 and a story in Mark 5 about the Gadarene demoniac.
Listen again to the passage from Titus. As often happens in the Bible, we find a wonderful description of the human condition. These words are eternal:
3For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, despicable, hating one another. 4But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5he saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy, through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. 6This Spirit he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
The passage from Mark 5 describes Jesus going to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, where he was immediately greeted by a wild man running out to meet him. The man was demon-possessed. He would say his name was "Legion for we are many." Perhaps you will remember the story best because Jesus sends the demons into a herd of swine, and the swine subsequently run off a cliff and die in the water.
In some ways, I picture overcoming an addiction as being similar to the experience of the Gadarene demoniac. In fact, addiction has many parallels to demon possession. Mark says that "no one could restrain him even with a chain." When addiction gets us in its grip, nothing has the power to restrain us. We seem to have the power to break shackles. No one can control us, because we are controlled by the addiction. And Mark says, the Gadarene demoniac was "always howling and bruising himself with stones." Addiction is a similar self-destructive behavior.
After Jesus healed this demon-possessed man, the crowds were surprised to find him "sitting there, clothed and in his right mind." What a great description of a recovering person. This transformation is clearly a result of our spiritual awakening.
A spiritual awakening has the power to transform life. It can help us throw off our demons and give us clarity of thought and purpose. It gives us life.
2) Carry the message
The second part of Step Twelve encourages us to carry the message of the Twelve Steps to others. This step leads the formerly self-centered addict to reach out to others. It's an old wisdom. One of the best ways to help ourselves is to help others. The best way to learn is to teach the material to others. The best way to recovery is to help others recover.
When we have been healed, our first impulse is to tell others. It was always so in the Bible. Mark ends the story of the Gadarene demoniac with these words from Jesus, "Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and what mercy he has shown you."
In the Bible, we are called to be witnesses, missionaries, ambassadors, ministers of reconciliation. 1 Peter 3:15 says, "Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; 16yet do it with gentleness and reverence."
A.A. recognizes the importance of having someone to help in times of need. Every A.A. person begins with a sponsor and aspires to become a sponsor. This recognizes the importance of support and help. Ecclesiastes 4:9-11 says: "Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up the other; but woe to one who is alone and falls and does not have another to help. Again, if two lie together, they keep warm; but how can one keep warm alone? And though one might prevail against another, two will withstand one. A threefold cord is not quickly broken."
4) Practice the Principles
The last part of Step Twelve reminds us to practice the principles. Every day for the rest of our lives, we are to review the Twelve Steps and make sure we are still keeping them. We look back and realize how much our faith has grown.
Step Twelve tells us that the process is gradual, regenerative and neverending. It is truly our neverending story, a story within a story, a story which we are writing every day. We slowly become more God-centered and God-directed as we learn the true meaning of serenity and peace with God and others.
Writing these sermons about the Twelve Steps has been a wonderful experience for me. I have grown in my appreciation for each step, and in my deep respect for my recovering friends who do the hard work of each one.
So I end this series by reviewing the list. These are steps to recovery, steps for life, steps for all of us.
1) We admitted we were powerless over the effects of our separation from God and that our lives had become unmanageable.
2) We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3) We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood him.
4) We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5) We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6) We were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7) We humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings.
8) We made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9) We made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10) We continued to take personal inventory and, when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.
11) We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood him, praying only for knowledge of his will for us and the power to carry that out.
12) Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
Our faith grows as we learn to allow God to be the director of our lives. The process is gradual, regenerative, and neverending. We slowly become more God-centered as we learn the true meaning of God's love, our surrender, and spiritual serenity. Paul captured the heart of this Twelve-Step process when he said, "Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:13-14).