"transformed"

Dr. George Sinclair, Pastor

Exod. 1:8-2:10; Ps 124; Rom. 12:1-8; Matt. 16:13-20

August 24, 2008

                 In her newsletter column this week, Kara said her ears perked up when she heard Bengal quarterback, Carson Palmer, talking about getting “back the basics.”  Kara loves her Bengals—maybe it’s those funny helmets, I don’t know.  Anyway, after leading his team to a pre-season win, a reporter reminded the Bengal quarterback that he had thrown twenty interceptions last season compared to just four the previous season and wondered what was up for this season?

Carson explained that he was getting back to the basics: “I was too much in my head last year,” Carson explained, “so I worked with trainers and really got back to the basics.”

Kara’s story reminded me of Vince Lombardi.  When he took over the Packers he held a team meeting. In that meeting, Lombardi held up a football and said, “Gentlemen, this is a football,” which of course was stating the obvious to grown men who had played football their entire lives. “This is a football.” And then Lombardi proceeded to tell his players they were going to win because they were going back to the beginning, they were going to learn blocking and tackling.   They were going to start with fundamentals.

This Rally Day Sunday is a call for our church to get  Back to Basics. Now, to be sure, it’s a call for our children.  We’ve restructured our education program.  We’re going to emphasize Bible stories.  We’re going to focus on the basic building blocks of faith. We’re also trying to make it easier for parents by simplifying the morning schedule. We know you have busy lives. We’re trying to acknowledge that by having choir during the morning hour so you’ll have more time together with your children.  We’ve also changed curricula in order to stress the basic building blocks of Christian faith. 

We’re doing the same for our youth. Our high school students are going back to the beginning. They’re starting with Genesis. We want to make sure that when our students leave us, when they complete high school, that they will know the Bible story; they will know the Ten Commandments, The Apostles’ Creed, the Lord’s Prayer.  We want them to know the body of information that constitutes Christian faith. But more importantly, we want them to have a faith.  We want them to know Jesus Christ. 

It’s one thing to know the Creed or the Commandments and to have memorized the Lord’s Prayer.  And we want our youth to know these things, but more importantly we want them to know Christ.  We want our children and youth to know the Lord—to possess a living faith—to have a living faith possess them.  We want them to be blessed, which is what Jesus called Peter when Peter confessed Jesus as “the Messiah, the son of the living God.” He called Peter “blessed.”

Jesus asked two distinctly different questions that day.  He first asked the disciples, “Who do people say that I am?”  There’s nothing wrong with that question.  It’s a perfectly good question.  “Who do people say that I am?”

“They say, Jesus, you’re a prophet.  They say you’re John the Baptist come back from the dead.”

That answer was more than speculation.  The disciples gave Jesus the word on the street.  It’s not like the disciples were being dishonest or inventive. The disciples told Jesus what people were saying.  That’s one kind of knowledge—what people say.  But then Jesus asked a second and decidedly different question, “Who do you say that I am?”

“People say . . . what do you say?”  You can feel the difference, can’t you?  I mean, it’s like being in a crowded room and everybody’s talking at once.  Everybody’s got an opinion.  Oh, it can be about most anything—football, those Olympic beach volleyball bikinis, the price of oil, the Stock Market, Obama and McCain—it doesn’t matter. Everybody’s talking. Everybody’s blathering at once, on and on.  And suddenly the blather stops and every one’s looking at you—What do you think?  Do you have an opinion? What’s your opinion? 

What do you say?  You have to say something.  You can’t just stand there.  Do you turn to the person next to you and ask them what they think; do you ask them to speak for you? Do you take a quick poll?  “Let’s see a show of hands—that’s what I think.”

“People say . . . what do you say?” 

We want our youth to have information about Jesus.  Information is important.  Our youth need to know the Creed, The Commandments, The Lord’s Prayer, but we also want them to know Christ.  We want them to have a living faith. And a living faith requires more than information. To have a living faith you must take a stand. To have a living faith you must stand under and with Jesus Christ, who is not just a famous teacher, a wise sage from long ago, but “the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” 

We want our youth to know “the living God,” the God who lives in them, the God in whom they live.  And that kind of knowing requires taking a stand.  And it’s not a stance taken just once, say, at First Communion or Confirmation or at Montreat.  Those are all good places to start.  But we want our youth to stand when its time to say “No.”  We don’t want them to become another statistic in the war on drunk driving or binge drinking or sexually transmitted disease or abortion.  We don’t want our youth to live with shame.  We don’t want them to wreck their lives because they were foolish and too much part of the world.

We also want our youth to say “Yes” to God’s work in the world.  We don’t want our youth to turn in on themselves where their only thought is the next new toy or next fun thing that convinces them that they are the center of the universe.   We want youth to say “Yes” to God’s claim on their lives.  We want them to have a faith that turns them toward the world.  We want them to pay attention to the last, least, lost, and little.  And to pay attention to the stuff in their own hearts that feels last, least, lost and little—for they are not lost—they are children of God, heirs of grace.

That’s what we want for our children and our youth, but we also want that for parents. We want that for everyone.  That’s why we’re renewing our baptismal covenant this morning.  We’re going back to the basics; we’re beginning at the beginning.  And the beginning turns us away from sin.  The beginning requires that we renounce the world. “Do you turn from the ways of sin and renounce evil and its power in the world?”

That’s what we’ll be asked in just moments. That’s where knowledge of God begins.  Kara picked up on that from her Bengal’s quarterback.  Carson Palmer was talking about football, but he could have been talking about faith—“I was too much in my head.”  That’s how Carson explained twenty interceptions.  “I wasn’t playing football as it needs to be played.”  That can happen with faith, too.  We can get “too much in our heads.”  Faith can become all “up in the air,” an abstraction, something to think about now and again on Sundays, but not something to be troubled with daily.  Faith is too much up in the air when everything else comes first, when attention to God comes only when we get around to it.  Faith is too much up in the air when nothing is demanded of us, when our conduct remains unchanged.  Faith requires change. Faith requires a reordering of our time and energy.

We’re all busy.  We’ve all got things to do.  Amanda told me last week, nearly in tears, that she made something like forty phone calls to find Sunday school teachers. She called forty people and got turned down forty times.  Elders turned her down.  Pillars of this church turned her down.  Everybody’s got an excuse.  Everybody’s got something important to do—more important than the children of this church?  More important than vows made to nurture the next generation? 

That sounds harsh, and it pains me to say it because there’s more faith than that in Government Street.  Our educator shouldn’t have to make forty phone calls to find six teachers.  But everybody’s busy.  Everybody’s got stuff to do.  And it’s true. We’re all busy or we took our turn or we paid our dues or we taught when our kids were young or we convince ourselves that teaching is what somebody more qualified can do. 

When is it ever not our turn as disciples of Jesus Christ?  When do we ever finish paying our dues or putting in our time for “the son of the living God?”

“Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing   of your  minds . . .” That was Paul’s hope for the Romans.  That’s my hope for us today.

“Don’t be conformed.”  Conformity is our default mode.  Our natural state is to be like everybody else—going along to get along—fitting in—being like others.  Transformation requires change. If following Jesus was merely a matter of being ourselves, Paul’s advice would be utter nonsense.  “Oh, just be yourself, keep on being who you already are, keep on acting the way you’ve always acted. You’re okay. You’re fine just the way you are.”  But Paul doesn’t say that.  What does he say, “Don’t be conformed, be transformed.” 

If conformity is something we’re not supposed to be, I want to know what conformity looks like, don’t you?  “Don’t be conformed.”  Would you know a conformed Christian if you saw one? What does it look like to be “conformed”?  Can you tell by the way your children dress, by whom they hang out with, by what they say “Yes” to and what they say “No” to? 

Can you tell conformity by how frequently you show up for worship, by how often you’re in Sunday school or if you teach Sunday school or volunteer for an Urban Ministry? 

Asked differently, what does a transformed Christian look like?  How would you know if your life was being transformed? Are there signs of the Spirit’s movement?

I think so. I think we can know. Ask yourself one simple question: “How would my life change today, if I followed Jesus?”  If you followed Jesus, what would you do differently?  What would you let go of—maybe a bad habit, maybe a grudge, maybe some long-held bitterness—the taste which never leaves your mouth?

How would your life change if you followed Jesus?  Is there somebody you would forgive?  Is there something in your life you would seek forgiveness for?  How would your life be different if you followed Jesus?  Would you take on a new habit?  Would you write a letter to an old friend or an old enemy? Would you write a check? Would you change your will?  Would you pray more?  Would you lighten up?  Would you laugh?  Would you go to Sunday School?  Would you stop procrastinating and get involved in a Bible study group?  Would you take better care of your health?

How would your life change today if you followed Jesus?  Find the answer to that question, and you’ll know what God wants for you.  You will discern God’s will—what is good and acceptable and perfect.  And you will be transformed.  You will take one step toward being the person God calls you to be.  “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds.”  Amen.