One of the things my mother used to say was, “Move is a four-letter word.” You see, we moved a lot during my childhood, and it was never a thing she was excited about. I think it is safe to say my mother did not like change all that much.
In that way, she was no different from most people. They say the only one who likes change is a baby with a wet diaper. That’s almost true.
Change is, most of the time, a pain. It is disruptive. This work we are doing right now in the sanctuary is clearly disruptive to our worship patterns. We have to adjust. We have to do some things differently.
Change is messy. And that covers everything from changing the baby’s diaper to renovations to repaving roads and everything else. There is always some clean-up to do after a change.
Change is sad in some ways. Because every time you make a change you are losing something. And there is some sorrow there, even if you feel like the change is for the better.
Yet, with all these negatives, change is what the Christian life is about. A person who chooses to follow Jesus Christ makes a commitment to a new life. Choosing to follow Jesus involves repentance, which means turning, changing. Choosing to follow Jesus is choosing to let yourself be transformed.
From the very first disciples he called to put down their fishing nets and follow him, every person called to follow Jesus is asked to change in some ways. In the letter from Paul to the Romans, he lays this out beautifully.
Martin Luther called Paul’s letter to the Romans “the purest gospel.” It was here that Luther found the hope he needed. Luther’s epiphany was understanding that his attempts to earn his salvation by good works would never succeed. All his efforts to lift himself out of sin were and always would be futile, making him feel even more the failure. No one can work their way into salvation. It is a gift from God that we may receive by faith.
The simplicity of this doctrine is beautiful. But it is perhaps not as simple as we might believe. It hinges on just how we understand the word faith.
Faith is a word that appears prominently in English translations of the letter. It is from the Greek word pistis, which can mean trust, or trustworthiness. When speaking of the faith of God, we might understand this as God’s trustworthiness. When speaking of the faith of human beings, we understand this to mean our trust in God. The word includes concepts such as loyalty and honesty, because these are qualities that contribute to trust.
To say that we are justified by faith is to say that our trust in a God who is trustworthy puts us on the right path.
This is the beautiful simplicity of this doctrine. We put our trust in God. We surrender our self-improvement efforts to God’s design. We don’t change anything – God changes everything.
When we say we have faith in Christ, when we put our trust in him, we make room for change.
In the letter to the Romans, Paul makes it very clear that things have to change. Things have to get cleared out, cleaned up. Renovated according to God’s plan. The blueprint for it all.
When you start a building project you have a plan – a blueprint. And the blueprint shows what the current situation is and the ways you hope to change it. To make a blueprint, you have to take a careful and thorough examination of the structure, so you know what you are dealing with.
When we began this project to renovate the chancel for the new organ console, we had people in here looking around, under, inside, over, and behind it. There were discussions about the electrical wiring, the heating and cooling systems, the floor and the subfloor. All of this goes into the blueprint.
It is also helpful in a project like this to have some history. We have some people here who hold valuable knowledge about the history of this building. Knowing what has been done before, when it was done, and how it was done, is very helpful in preparing for what we want to do next.
And I suggest to you that Paul is offering the church a kind of blueprint in this letter to the Romans.
In the letter, Paul is saying that God has been working throughout history for the redemption of the world. When God called Abraham, God claimed a covenant people, saying “I will be your God and you will be my people.” In the scriptures of the Old Testament, we hear about God’s relationship with this people, Israel, through centuries of ups and downs. We hear of the times and ways they were faithful, and we hear of the times and ways they were unfaithful, when they broke the covenant, and the consequences they suffered. And we hear, through it all, how God was with them always. Even when the people broke covenant with God, God never broke covenant with them. Because God is faithful. And God has purpose.
When God called Abraham, God’s promise to him said, “By your descendants, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.” God chose to work through history, through all our human weaknesses and defects, all our brokenness and willfulness, to bring redemption that will be fully realized through Jesus Christ. God chose to work through a particular people to affect all people. This history is important to Paul. It tells us where we have been and where we are going.
Paul recounts the history because he wants the church to know we are on a timeline. To know that God is working things out to transform the world. To understand that it is a choice – a decision – for each and every one of us to be a part of this work. This transformation.
In other words, we have a blueprint. We know where we have been. We know where we are now. And we have the decision about where we will be; to allow ourselves to be transformed by Jesus Christ. Even if we have always been Christian. Even if we were born and raised in the church. It is still a decision that faces each one of us daily, to turn away from our sinful nature and turn toward Christ. To rely on Christ. To be in Christ.
As Paul wrote, our righteousness comes through faith in Christ. and this faith, pistis, is about trust. It is about surrendering ourselves to Christ. To give up the old self and put on the new self.
John Calvin said “to be in Christ is to be out of ourselves,” and that is precisely what trusting in Christ can mean for us. Reaching out to receive the grace that is offered, takes us outside of ourselves and into Christ.
That’s big. That’s consequential.
To accept the lordship of God through trust in Jesus Christ will mean a radical reorientation of the very core of our being. When we receive the grace God offers us, we no longer have to prove our own worth to be acceptable, to be loved. We no longer need to be self-centered in this way. When we receive this grace, we are free to open ourselves to others and to turn our concerns toward others. We are reoriented. Reformed. Redeemed.
These are so many big words. Evidently, Paul had a lot of faith in the Christians of Rome to be able to digest some really heady stuff. But, I have a friend who I know would say to me right now, “So what?
“What does any of this mean for our lives?”
Kim and I went to see a movie this weekend about Anthony Bourdain, the famous chef. The film followed him for a summer in his youth where he discovered his passion for food working in a restaurant kitchen. During this summer he starts out as an arrogant, obnoxious, defensive liar. He boasted to everyone about the academic fellowship he was sure to be awarded, and when he didn’t get it, he just lied to everyone. He stole, he took advantage of people. He acted as though he was superior to everyone else but watching him you got glimmers of a different truth. Anthony seemed to be ashamed of himself.
There was one man who was a constant presence for him that summer. A mentor with a gentle, kind nature. Chef Jose was a man who could see something better in Anthony. He looked out for him and forgave him, again and again, until Anthony was finally ready to confront himself just as he was. And begin to change.
This was not what anyone would call a Christian film. But it was the faith of Chef Jose that played a key part in the story. His Christian faith shone through him and gave him the ability to stick with Anthony. It gave him the vision to see something redeemable in Anthony and enabled him to give Anthony the grace he needed to find his way.
Chef Jose’s transformation in Christ shows in his interactions. And watching him shows us how we may be transformed by faith in Christ. It is his grace-filled attention to Anthony that gives him the chance to become a better version of himself.
That is one thing that Paul’s letter to the Romans can mean for our lives.
Each one of us has a history with God, who formed us in our mother’s womb, who knew all the days that were written for us, as the psalmist wrote. And collectively, we have a history with God, who called Abraham and made a plan to bless all the people of the world through him.
There is a plan for us. A blueprint. And the decision for each of us about what to do. Put our trust in God? who works on us through Jesus Christ, allowing ourselves to be transformed into something new?
It is a choice, a decision, to renew every day of our lives.
No comments:
Post a Comment