Scripture: Matthew 16:13-20, Romans 12:1-21
“Renewing your
minds.” It is a nice phrase, isn’t
it? Who wouldn’t want that? It sounds like a much needed respite from a busy,
hectic schedule and harried pace. Something we would seek on vacation, to get
away from it all at the mountains or the beach. Or maybe some new techniques to
help us cope with anxiety and stress where we are... to make our lives a little
more palatable, stress free...
But as Paul uses the phrase,
in Romans 12, this is not what he meant. In fact, it is not something that we
do at all, but it is the activity of the Holy Spirit. According to Paul, God is
the one who renews minds, and make them new and it is not for the fulfillment
of the believer, but rather so we can discern what is the will of God, what is
pleasing to Him and then do what God desires, those instructions or
exhortations which we read together. No, the renewal of our minds and our
transformation is something that happens as we give our lives to God.
Listen again. Paul writes: “I
appeal to you therefore brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present
your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your
spiritual worship. Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind so that you may discern what is the will of God – what is
good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:1-2)
J.B Phillips’ in his
translation says it this way, “Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into
its mould, but let God remould your minds from within.
I wonder,
what is it that molds your mind? Are you feeling squeezed by the world this
morning?
I have been thinking a lot recently
about culture.
It’s hard not to if you, like
me, have been watching the Olympics over these past two weeks. Particularly the
culture of Beijing and China, but also realizing that each country has it own,
in fact , many cultures, different ways of thinking and of being, and therefore
different self understandings.
Of course, all seem to be in
the hunt for the gold and what a two weeks it has been!
To see Usain Bolt of
And of course, there was
Michael Phelps, eight golds in swimming, causing some to coin a new adjective a
“Phelpsian” effort, as seen when he was in seventh place at the turn then out-touched
the Serbian swimmer for the gold in the 100 meter fly? Making
all of us Americans proud. We do still lead in the medal count.
I love the Olympics. But I
have to say that from time to time I have found myself wondering “Is that what it
is all about? Winning? Is anything less than gold not adequate? Sometimes I wonder if we are all not
worshipping at the altar of strength and success and Visa. We are proud
Americans. But is that our primary identity?
And then there is politics.
We are lining up behind our candidates in an increasingly negative presidential
campaign. We are Republicans or Democrats or maybe Libertarians or Greens and
we think and see the world accordingly. Party affiliations.
Is that who we
really are?
Then there are schools and
families. US News and World Report
just came out with their new college rankings. Harvard has displaced
So much of our culture, and
it seems even the air we breathe, is about being better than others,
distinguishing ourselves from others, competing with others. It is about self justification,
winning, self righteousness, securing our place. And let’s hope it is first
place.
How easy and natural, even
instinctive it is for us to see differences, how easy it is to assume our way
is the right way or the only way, how easy it is to make our lives about trying
to be number one, and looking out for number one and disregarding everybody
else.
Have we let the world around
us mold us? Maybe we don’t really have a choice. Maybe it is just human nature.
Which is
why the gospel of Jesus Christ is so remarkable. And grace is such a scandal. In his letter to the
church in Rome Paul’s great argument is to show that before God there are no distinctions,
that all have sinned and fallen short, but that in Christ there is no
condemnation and there is neither Jew nor gentile, slave nor free, male nor
female, American or Russian or Chinese, Democrat or Republican. But all are
equal and all are one.
German philosopher Frederich Nietzsche
disparagingly called this equality of souls before God “Christian dynamite” and
he was right.
It is the explosive power of grace, that we are made right with God not by anything we
have done, even our repentance, or anything we promise to do, but rather as the
free gift of God in Jesus Christ.
You see, God’s grace precedes
us, seeks us out. It is freely offered to us and to all. God initiates. It is
but for us to respond.
Paul Zahl is an Episcopal
priest who has written a profound book entitled Grace in Practice, A Theology of Everyday Life.
In it he defines grace as “God’s one- way love.” He maintains that this “one
way love” is the only power that can really transform... “The one-way love of
grace is the essence of any lasting transformation that takes place in human
experience… One-way love lifts up. One-way love cares. One-way love transforms.
It is the change agent of life.’ [Grace in Practice, Wm. Eerdmans Publishing Co,
If you have ever been the
recipient of one-way love, you know that this is true.
Zahl writes about the
difference between the law which condemns and grace which frees and empowers.
Listen:
“Rod Rosenbladt, a Lutheran
theologian, tells the true story of wrecking his father’s Buick 8 when he was
sixteen years old. Rod was drunk, as were all his friends who were in the car.
The first thing Rod’s father asked him over the phone was whether he was
alright. Rod said yes. He also told his father he was drunk. Later that night,
Rod wept and wept in his father’s study. At the end of the ordeal, his father
said one thing: ‘How about tomorrow we go get you a new car.” Rod says now that
he became a theist in that moment God’s grace became real.”
Zahl goes on,
When Rod tells that story,
there are always a few people in the audience who get mad. They say, “Your dad
let you get away with that?! He didn’t punish you at all/” And Rod says “No”
adding the following:” Do you think I didn’t know what I had done? Do you think
it was not the most painful moment of my whole life up to that point? Do you
think the law wasn’t cutting me down to nothing?’ Rod’s father spoke the word of
grace in that moment. In that eternal encounter, for it reflected the mechanism
of God’s grace, there was no law. The law’s dominion came to an end. Grace
superseded it.” (Grace in Practice at
page 86).
You see, grace is what we get
when we don’t get what we deserve.
And we need to be gracious as
well.
You know, it is not our duty to
fix the people we live with, rather it is our privilege to love them. The older
I get, the more I am convinced that our harshest critics are ourselves. There
is a hell of self condemnation that can make us miserable and all those around
us miserable as well.
Dear Abby once wrote that the
one question she was asked most was “What is wrong with me?”
Friends, we need to
experience the grace and love of God deep in our bones, in our hearts and in
our minds.
There is no better
demonstration of God’s one-way love, of God’s grace, than baptism. We witnessed
Sloan’s baptism this morning. God in Jesus Christ reaching out in love to
little Sloan before she can even respond, just as God reached out to you in
your baptism and still reaches out to you every day of your life.
Presbyterian pastor Craig
Barnes has described baptism as God’s way of saying “I love you”. When someone
says “I love you” to you, the response that they want to hear is not “OK” or “Oh,
That’s nice” or “thank you very much.” No, the only response that fits is “I
love you too.” So in baptism, God is saying I love you to Sloan and to all of
us. Our response in confirmation and everyday of our lives is to give ourselves
to God, our whole selves and to say enthusiastically “I love you too.”
It starts with the love of
God in Jesus Christ. Coming fresh as water on the brow of an
infant. It comes as good news, as grace and mercy and forgiveness. It
comes as a gift, not as something we deserve or that we earn. And it is the
most powerful force in the world, more valuable than all the gold and silver.
It makes no distinctions
based on our culture. It cuts across all barriers - economic, class, social status, race,
gender and sexuality, all nations. In fact, it tears those barriers down, or
blows them up. It is Christian dynamite!
You see, we are not primarily
a community of Americans or Atlantans, or Republicans or Democrats, or
families, or achievers -- though we may be all those things. Rather, first and foremost
we are a community of grace, gathered because of, and under, the cross of Jesus
Christ.
To receive this love and to
know this grace is life. Our response is a glad offering of ourselves to his
service, our bodies, our whole selves – heart, mind and soul. Our response is
to say “I love you too.”
Our Presbyterian Book of
Worships (and I am not making this up) says this, “The Christian life is an
offering of one’s self to God. In worship the people are presented with the
costly self-offering of Jesus Christ, are claimed and set free by him, and are
led to respond by offering to him their lives, their particular gifts and
abilities and their material goods.” (W-2.5000).
Did you hear that? In worship we are claimed and set free - both
at the same time! And we offer our lives to God.
But how do we do this?
Someone has said it is a characteristic of a living sacrifice that it wants to
crawl off the table. And so it is with us and this is why we need to receive grace
and present our lives to God not just once and for all one time, but Sunday
after Sunday and day after day.
Eugene Peterson in his
translation of Romans 12:1 puts it this way, “Take your everyday life –your
sleeping, eating, going-to –work and walking around life- and place it before
God as an offering.”
One devotional book that over
the years I have particularly appreciated is “A Diary of Private Prayer” by
John Baille a well known Scottish theologian. It is a wonderful book comprised
of daily and evening prayers, one for each day of the month. It was published
in 1949 and our first copy, not this one, is a blue hardback. It was originally
given to Andie and to me by our family friend Rona. She inscribed it “remembering
a wonderful night when Peter was a baby.” Pete is now 24 and is serving in the
Peace Corps in
I would like to close with
the reading the conclusion of the morning prayer for the
ninth day. I believe this what Paul is writing about in Romans 12. Won’t you
pray with me?
“Dear Father, take this day’s
life into Thine own keeping. Control all my thoughts and feelings. Direct all
my energies. Instruct my mind. Sustain my will. Take my hands and make them
skilful to serve Thee. Take my feet and make them swift to do thy bidding. Take
my eyes and keep them fixed upon thine everlasting beauty. Take my mouth and
make it eloquent in testimony to Thy love. Make this a day of obedience, a day
of spiritual joy and peace. Make this day’s work a little part of the work of
Thy Kingdom of my Lord Christ, in whose name these prayers are said. Amen.” [A Diary of Private Prayer, Fireside
Edition, Simon and
So may it be for you and for
me today and everyday.
Grace and
peace to you in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.