"Being Who God Created Us To Be" August 31, 2008 Pentecost 16 Lectionary 22

(First read the texts for this sermon: Jeremiah 15:15-21; Romans 12:9-21; Matthew 16:21-28)

I love reading Jeremiah – for the comedy of it! For the pathos of his words. For the emotionalism. Jeremiah is so self-centered! He’s always whining to God: “What’s in it for me?” (I won’t ask the obvious question: about how often you and I are just like Jeremiah?)

As the book of Jeremiah begins, this remarkable collection of prophecy, we find that God knew Jeremiah in the womb and Jeremiah is very young when God calls him to be a prophet. Jeremiah doesn’t want to do that! He argues with God. But, have you noticed: if God wants you to do something, you can resist for a while, but, ultimately, you have no choice? Jeremiah relents from resisting God’s own unrelenting call to be a prophet – even though God promises Jeremiah that his words from God that will make the rulers of the nation and the temple very angry, and that they won’t do what Jeremiah tells them to do anyway!

In this morning’s speech from Jeremiah, he tells the God who called him that everything has been as bad as he thought it would be, and he’s more than upset about it! Jeremiah is doing faithfully what God is telling him to do. Because of that, Jeremiah is facing hostility and even personal danger. And he’s spitting angry with God – because God hasn’t punished their enemies as they deserve! Listen to the prophet’s complaint:

O Lord, you know;
remember me and visit me,
and bring down retribution for me on my persecutors.

In your forbearance do not take me away;
know that on your account I suffer insult.

Your words were found, and I ate them,
and your words became to me a joy
and the delight of my heart;
for I am called by your name,
O Lord, God of hosts.

I did not sit in the company of merrymakers,
nor did I rejoice;
under the weight of your hand I sat alone,
for you had filled me with indignation.

Why is my pain unceasing,
my wound incurable,
refusing to be healed?

Truly, you are to me like a deceitful brook,
like waters that fail.

That last accusation, in particular, is breathtaking. In his anger, Jeremiah is accusing God of being untrue; God being unfaithful to God’s promises – like a stream that runs in the rainy season, but then dries up when the people really need the water!

There is great emotionalism here. Jeremiah is engaging in a prophetic temper tantrum. But, really, when you look at it from Jeremiah’s point of view, everything he says is reasonable, isn’t it? God has not been following through!

So, how does God respond? Do you remember from the reading?

Does God answer any of Jeremiah’s complaints? No!

Basically, God says this: “Are you finished?”

Therefore thus says the Lord:

If you turn back, I will take you back,
and you shall stand before me.

If you utter what is precious, and not what is worthless,
you shall serve as my mouth.

It is they who will turn to you,
not you who will turn to them.

There is no coddling here. God simply listens until Jeremiah finishes his rant, and says, “If you turn back, I will take you back.”

“Turn back.” That’s what repentance is – to turn back. That describes the Christian life, as well as the life of an ancient Hebrew prophet. You and I are called to repentance, whenever we have turned away from God. Turn away from what makes for death: all that is self-centered and selfish and closed off from other people, and judgmental towards other people. Instead, turn towards God, who is love, who offers life and joy!

It’s nothing less than a call to follow the First Commandment. And that’s a really hard thing to do. It is so easy (perhaps it’s our “default”) for you and me to think that we are at the center of our little universes. This is one of the places we are most resistant to the Spirit’s formation. Because, to be open to the Holy Spirit, we have to resist the way our culture forms us. Formed in that way, it is so natural to use “my needs” as a criterion! My house, my car, my exercise club, my bank, even my wife, my children, my friends – the culture forms me to judge all of these things and people according to how they meet “my needs”; to be happy with them as long as they meet “my needs.”

Some people even judge a church community by that criterion – as if the reason to be in a community of faith is to meet “my needs.” Instead, of course, the reason to practice the faith in a community such as St. Stephen is to give the Holy Spirit a better chance to open us to God’s desires for us, and God’s needs for the world God is creating!

Through the practices of the faith – worship, prayer, listening to what the Spirit is saying through verses of Scripture, bringing good news to the poor – we are formed to center in God. Our actions of love and discipleship and servanthood to others arise from that centering in God. Our lives express God’s grace. We embody grace! And you and I become the people God created us to be!

What joy there is in that!

All of that comes from the image in this morning’s gospel passage, from Matthew: of losing your false self, so that you can find the person God created you to be. It’s a baptismal image: of dying to your false self, so that your true self can arise. Your grasping, anxious, fearful self: that’s not who you really are! Your closed-off, judgmental, angry self; your “Jeremiah self”: that’s not who God created you to be!

That’s why Jesus issues such a stunning, grace-filled invitation to freedom, in the good news passage from Matthew.

Then Jesus told his disciples, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny their false selves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who are centered in themselves, those who want to save their grasping, anxious, fearful selves will lose themselves! And those who lose their closed-off, judgmental, angry selves for my sake will find themselves!”

We must always be reminded that God has won our salvation through the death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ. That’s been done! We don’t have to do it again! And so, God has given you and me the freedom to let go of our false selves, so that we can live – as the people God created us to be: full of grace and joy, present to God, centered in God; acting out of that center, in love.

That is in radical opposition to the ways our culture would form us to act! Consider the examples the Paul offers, in this morning’s reading from Romans. He tells the members of that congregation:

Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." No, "if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads." Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Wow. Through such actions, God could bring in nothing less than the Kingdom of God!

How is it possible to live in those ways? To live as a Christian? It is only possible as the Spirit forms us in grace – so that we can turn back to God from our self-centeredness, from our grasping and anxious and fearful false selves. We are only able to love as Paul describes, as the Spirit forms us in grace so that we lose our closed-off and judgmental and angry false selves, and find ourselves as the people God created us to be!

You and I have the freedom to turn away from our anxieties and fears, and to allow the Spirit to form us in faith – because Jesus has won our salvation, through his suffering and death and resurrection. That’s been done! Our lives are our response!

In the name of that gracious God: Father, and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia

“But Be Transformed By The Renewing Of Your Minds” August 24, 2008 Time After Pentecost – Lectionary 21

(First, read the text for this sermon: Romans 12:1-8)

This morning’s reading from Romans sounds a theme of my sabbatical reading and thinking. Listen for how often you’ll hear the words, “transformed” and ”transformation” and “transforming.”

First, from this morning’s verses in Romans: 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. 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.

Next, listen to a paragraph I marked in one of the books I read over the summer, a book entitled Transformational Ministry: "The question we ask in these pages is: ‘How…can we…say that Christ provides our model for ministry, ministry in the way of the cross, not a ministry merely of vested interest and jealous professionalism, but ministry that is poured out without reservation in the hope that God will provide what is needed, in the incredible hope that we can be partners with God in God’s miraculous work of transforming persons!’"

And then, here are some sentences describing a congregation researched in the book, Christianity For The Rest Of Us (that many of you have been reading over the summer): "the church asks that people go through an extended process of Christian formation in scripture study, prayer, discernment, and reflection before they join….In the process, they became more than members. Their lives were transformed in authentic Christian community."

And here are some notes I made to myself, at one point during the sabbatical reading: “Transformation. Conversion. Deepening our trust in God. Giving our hearts to God. This is the purpose of our practices. Transformation is the purpose of everything we do in the congregation. We need to be conscious of this.”

So: an obvious theme, running through my reading and my thoughts while on sabbatical. I couldn’t have chosen a more appropriate “theme passage” to be among our readings for this morning! St. Paul writes to the first-generation Christian congregation in Rome: 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. 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.

What does that mean? What is Paul saying when he warns us against being “conformed to this world,” and, instead, urges you and me to be “transformed by the renewing of your minds?”

I think that Paul means this: To turn away from the bad news message (that you and I receive all the time!) that you are valuable because of what you accomplish, …

… and to be transformed, instead, by the gospel, by the good news, of Jesus the Christ.

I think that Paul means this: To turn away from the bad news message that you are valuable because of how hard you drive yourself, …

… and to be transformed, instead, by the grace and forgiveness and love, the salvation from God that Jesus the Christ embodied in flesh and blood and human spirit.

To be “transformed by the renewing of your minds” means to live in the joy that comes from the good news of Jesus the Christ.

The reason I think this is what Paul means is because of what Paul has been writing in the three chapters of Romans leading up to this morning’s passage. We’re reading from the beginning of chapter 12. In chapters nine through 11, Paul, a Jew (and indeed, a former Pharisee), has been trying to understand and to work out how it is that he is now called to follow the Christ.

In chapters nine through 11, Paul writes that God has not revoked the promise made to the Jews; that the Jews are still God’s chosen people; that Christians are as a branch grafted onto the tree that is Judaism. But, Paul writes that God makes us righteous through faith. It’s not because of what we do. We cannot work to attain that right relationship with God. Righteousness and salvation is a gift from God, because of the death and resurrection of Christ. God changes everything by coming to us in Jesus. The old religious system was turned on its head when Jesus the Christ won our salvation!

That’s all a bunch of preacher talk, I know. So, before your eyes glaze over, let me get at it this way, by asking you a question: Have you ever been entirely satisfied with your performance? Say you take on a job to do. And you do it well! And people even compliment you on how well you performed! Still, don’t you always think of how you really could have done it better?

What if our salvation was based on such a system of works? Could you ever feel secure, that you were doing a good enough job of “being religious,” good enough to earn salvation? In Romans, St. Paul is announcing that the whole system of religious laws that have to be followed for salvation, interpreted by the Pharisees, including the whole system of temple sacrifice – that’s out the window! Instead: 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. Your “bodies”: that means your whole selves, all of you as a person, mind, spirit, flesh. “Present your whole selves to God,” Paul is telling us, as our response to the salvation that has been won through Jesus the Christ. Turn away from conformity to that bad news message we receive about 10,000 times a day: that you are worth something only if your work hard enough and do well enough and look beautiful enough. Conforming to that lie is living under the law, and it is deadening.

Instead, Paul writes, turn towards the gospel, the good news. 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.

How do we do that? That’s what Paul writes about in the rest of this morning’s passage. God the Holy Spirit transforms us through life in the community of believers, the body of Christ. We are members of one another. We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, and we use those gifts to benefit others in the body, to strengthen and encourage each other in the practices of the faith, so that the Spirit continues to transformus.

So, instead of conforming to the message that there are some who are more important than others, be transformed in grace, by the renewing of your minds, so that you do not think of yourself more highly than you ought to think. Here, in community, we help each other learn to live in such healthy, life-giving humility! We are free to live that way because our salvation is a gift through Jesus the Christ, and the Spirit empowers us to respond in joy!

Instead of conforming to the deadening anxiety of “What have you accomplished today?”; be transformed in grace to practice the presence of God. Hear what the Vietnamese teacher Thich Nhat Hanh writes:

"Every morning, when we wake up, we have twenty-four brand new hours to live. What a precious gift! We have the capacity to live in a way that these twenty-four hours will bring peace, joy, and happiness to ourselves and others. …

"We can smile, breathe, walk and eat our meals in a way that allows us to be in touch with the abundance of happiness that is available….Every breath we take, every step we make, can be filled with peace, joy, and serenity. We need only to be awake, alive in the present moment."

Here, in community, we help each other learn to live in such grace-filled presence! We are free to live that way because our salvation is a gift through Jesus the Christ, and the Spirit empowers us to respond in joy!

I could name many, many other examples! To college students returning and new: do not be conformed to the message that your self-worth is measured by your GPA! To parents of young children: do not be conformed to the message that your children need to be perfect in every way! To those who have retired: do not be conformed to the message that you are what you do.

Turn away from all of that. It’s law. It’s deadening.

Instead, 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.

God the Holy Spirit transforms us as we practice the faith in this community of believers, in this local expression of the body of Christ.

What a gift of grace!

In the name of God, who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia