21 Pentecost 06 B Proper 25

This Sunday I want to share with you the second part of my sermon series on The TransformedLife.

Last week I talked about Hebrews chapter 4 where we read that the Word of God, Jesus himself, being powerful and active, was able to see who we really are as individuals. We often try to put on masks or to cover up who we really are. And quite often our lives don’t appear to be much different from the non-church goers.

I talked about Romans 12:2 which says, “Be transformed by the renewing of your minds.” The word translated “transformed,” is metamorphoo, from which we get the word metamophosis. I talked about the need we have to “morph” into something more reflective of the nature of Christ.

Sometimes we tend to focus only on our entrance into heaven and what it takes to get there. In so doing, we become content with conversion when God wants transformation.

Another counterfeit to true transformation I talked about was the tendency to focus on the outward appearances of things. This is the trap we fall into when we focus on the external trappings of the religious life. If we do all of the right religious things outwardly we automatically assume that we have been transformed, when in fact, we may just have the appearance of being transformed. We often think, “Am I going to church enough, doing enough Bible study, praying enough?” rather than, “Am I growing more loving toward God and toward people?”

Today I want to talk about the “Way of Transformation.”

Before we can talk about being transformed, we must first want to be transformed. Consider the case of “Tom,” a cigarette smoking, overweight, highly stressed, middle-aged male. When Tom went for his physical, his slim, teatotaling, smoke-free doctor let him have it. Unless Tom cut out cigarettes, cut down on calories, got some exercise and learned to relax, he was headed for a massive heart attack. In fact, the doctor said he was a “cardiac arrest looking for a place to happen.”

Finished with his lecture, the physician challenged Tom with, “Now, how are you going to start dealing with all this?” Tom looked him right in the eye and said, “Well, the first thing I’m going to do is get a fat doctor who smokes.” Tom really didn’t want to be transformed.

Others want to be transformed, but maybe not just yet.

There were 3 preachers in a Barnie’s Coffee shop discussing the time when life began. They each gave their opinion of when life begins.
One preacher said "Life begins when the child takes his/her first breath."
The other said "NO," then he finished, "It begins when the child is conceived."
But the last preacher said, "You both have the wrong answer! Life begins when the last child leaves home and the dog dies!"

Some think, well let me take care of this or that, let me become successful in business, let me get married first, let me live my life and then when things calm down, then I’ll think about being transformed.

In today’s lesson from the book of Hebrews the writer chastises his readers for not being transformed. He said, “…you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.” In other words, he was saying, you ought to have been transformed into a mature follower of Christ by now, but you don’t even know the basic, elementary truth’s of the Bible yet.

Last week I talked about being “morphed,” a play on the word metamorphosis or transformation. When Paul writes about being "morphed" in Romans 12:2, he gives a command, but in passive voice. He doesn't say, "Transform yourself"; he says, "Be transformed." We can't make transformation happen ourselves; it is something God does to us. But what then is our role in it—personally and in our church?

1 Corinthians 9:25 says, "Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever." Here is the reason many people give up on transformation or accept boundary markers as pseudo-transformation: we spend ourselves trying to transform ourselves, when the Bible calls us to train to be transformed. Again, in our second lesson, those who are transformed by constant use of the word of God have TRAINED themselves to distinguish good from evil.

There is an enormous difference between trying to do something versus training to do it. Take for example a marathon. Mary Benson in our congregation regularly runs marathons. I could probably keep up with her for the first hundred yards, but because I haven’t trained to run a marathon, that is about as good as I could do. How many of us could run a marathon right now? Even if we tried, really, really hard? But many of us could run a marathon eventually, if instead we trained for it.

While I cannot speak fluent Spanish, no matter how hard I try, I can be transformed into a fluent Spanish-speaker with training. I'll need to learn a whole new vocabulary and grammar forms. I'll need to recite with my mouth and with my mind this new vocabulary. Eventually, the training will allow me to become a new speaker.

Training means arranging life around those activities that enable us to do what we cannot do now, even by extreme effort. Significant human transformation always involves training, not just trying.

Too often in our churches, people hear us preachers talk about what an amazing person Jesus is. They leave thinking, “I've got to try hard to be like him.” We're unwittingly setting them up for frustration. When the trying proves ineffective, they eventually quit or rely on external trivialities, like performing religious rituals, to pretend they're transformed.

Authentic spiritual transformation begins with training, with discipline. That is one of the hardest things for me. I always make a New Year’s resolution to exercise more. I start out great but then something happens, I get sick or I get an injury, and I stop my disciplined exercise routine. By the time I am well, I have trouble getting back into the training routine. One of the fruit of the Spirit I am asking Jesus to develop in me, big time, is self-control or self-discipline.

As we train ourselves in godliness, we begin to overcome the limits of sinful patterns. The purpose of that discipline is always freedom—training myself to be free of the obstacles that hinder my transformation.

What types of training are needed for true transformation to happen? The training required varies from one person to the next, depending on maturity and the particular sins that need to be addressed. Sins can be loosely divided into two categories: sins of omission (not doing what I ought) and sins of commission (doing what I shouldn't).

Dallas Willard wrote in The Spirit of the Disciplines (Word, 1988) that the spiritual disciplines, the tools of training, can be divided into two corresponding categories: disciplines of engagement, like worship or study or prayer; and disciplines of abstinence, like fasting or solitude or silence.

There is a connection between the type of sins that I wrestle with, areas in which I need to grow, and the disciplines that will train me for transformation in that area. As a general rule, if I'm struggling with sins of commission, then the disciplines of abstinence train me. For example, if I struggle with gossip, the discipline of silence trains my mouth not to speak unbridled.

Likewise the disciplines of engagement train us against the sins of omission. For example, cranky Hank, whom I mentioned last week, was omitting joy. The discipline of intentional celebration—engaging in activities that celebrate God, life, creation, and other people, and thanking and praising God for all of it—will train Hank toward a life of joy. Hank may not see the results of this training immediately, but that's the way to rearrange his life around opportunities for the Spirit to increase his joy.

If you are struggling with impatience, training may mean rearranging life around opportunities for the Spirit to increase your patience. Deliberately drive in the slow lane on the freeway. Purposely get in the longer line at the grocery store. Watch the Cowboys as they try out a new quarterback.

If you are struggling with doing the right thing, spend time reading what the Bible has to say about that particular struggle (if you don’t know how to find something in the Bible, get a good concordance and a good topical concordance or dictionary which outlines various aspects of the Christian life. Spend time praying about your situation asking God to transform you.

If the Holy Spirit is calling you to break patterns of sin, merely trying leads to frustration, but deliberately training leads to change. Spiritual transformation is a long-term endeavor. It involves both God and us. I liken it to crossing an ocean. Some people try, day after day, to be good, to become spiritually mature. That's like taking a rowboat across the ocean. It's exhausting and usually unsuccessful.

Others have given up trying and throw themselves entirely on "relying on God's grace." They're like drifters on a raft. They do nothing but hang on and hope God gets them there.

Neither trying nor drifting is very effective in bringing about spiritual transformation. A better image is the sailboat, in which if it moves at all, it's a gift of the wind. We can't control the wind, but a good sailor discerns where the wind is blowing and adjusts the sails accordingly.

Working with the Holy Spirit, which Jesus likened to the wind in John 3, means we have a part in discerning the winds, in knowing the direction we need to go, and in training our sails to catch the breezes that God provides.

That's true transformation.

As I mentioned last week, one cannot be truly transformed unless one comes to know the one who can transform you. By inviting Jesus Christ to come into your life and by turning away from all that you know is wrong, and then He will send his Holy Spirit to live inside of you. That Spirit will transform your soul from dead to living, from condemned to redeemed, and from sin toward righteousness.