Loving Your Neighbor as Yourself

Sermon from November 7, 2010

Luke 10:25-37; 1 Thessalonians 4:1-12; Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18, 33-36

The Bible has a great deal to say about how we are to extend godliness to the social order by living out our human calling to be the image of God, representing God’s nature and purposes to the world. For instance, the central theme of the book of Leviticus is how God’s people are to live a holy life. The structural center of Leviticus’ message is in Chapter 19. The theme statement is expressed in 19:2, “Speak to all the congregation of Israel and say to them, ‘You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.’” Peter applies this theme to the church in 1 Peter 1:14-16, “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, ¹⁵but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, ¹⁶since it is written, "You shall be holy, for I am holy."

A surprising number of the laws in Leviticus 19 are about relating helpfully and not harmfully to the poor, the weak, the day laborer, the deaf, the blind, the elderly, the foreign sojourner, the person accused of a crime, the neighbor who sins (possibly against you), and the neighbor with whom you do business.

The central teaching of Leviticus 19 is verse 18, “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.” If you ask, “Who is my neighbor?” the answer turns out to be broader than “the sons of your own people.” Verses 33-34 say, "When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. ³⁴ You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.”

In Luke 10:25-37, a religious legal expert asks Jesus what is necessary to inherit eternal life. Jesus invites the man to summarize what the law says. The man combines Deuteronomy 6:5 which requires total love for God with Leviticus 19:18 which requires loving our neighbors as ourselves. Jesus affirms the answer. The expert, wanting to limit the potewntial neighbors he was thereby obligated to love, asks for a definition of neighbor. Jesus offers a parable about two self-concerned religious experts who pass without helping a man who had been beaten and left for dead along the roadside. In contrast, a Samaritan, stereotyped by the experts as spiritually and morally impure, goes to extraordinary lengths at his own risk and expense to help the man. On the neighbor test, the religious experts failed the neighbor test by passing the beaten man, while the man from impure Samaria passed the neighbor test by helping the beaten man. The expert had asked Jesus whom he was obligated to help. Jesus essentially told him that he would be better off asking whom he had the opportunity to help.

In Mark 12:28-34,when a religious expert asks Jesus to summarize the law, he gives the same answer that the earlier expert had given him, Deuteronomy 6:5 plus Leviticus 19:18 calling for our loving God and neighbor. When this second expert agrees emphatically, Jesus tells him that he is not far from the kingdom of God. Jesus specifically affirmed and taught that these verses are central for the lives of his followers.

There is another occasion when Jesus took the matter of our obligation to love others even further than with the parable of the Samaritan. In the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5:43-48, he challenged us to include our enemies on the list of those we hav the opportunity to love: ⁴³“You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' ⁴⁴But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. ⁴⁶For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? ⁴⁷And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? ⁴⁸ You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

“You must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect,” is just a restatement of the Leviticus theme, “You must be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.”

Jesus said that we may have heard, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” From where might we have heard that we should hate our enemy? Not from Leviticus 19. Indeed, the command in Leviticus to love our neighbor is given in the context of not taking vengeance or bearing a grudge against someone who has done us wrong. In essence, it is a command to love our neighbor who has just acted as our enemy. The passage says that we are to confront our neighbor about his or her sin, but nonetheless to love our neighbor. Love here does not mean to feel all warm and fuzzy about our neighbor, but to seek the best for our neighbor just as we seek for ourselves.

So where might we have heard the message to hate our enemy? From people who do not understand the true nature of the holiness of God. Some people think that being holy means being very angry against all sinners, so angry that we want to punish them, to do harm against them. Leviticus says that this is not right. Jesus says that this is not right.

We need to work our way through this carefully. Scripture is clear that we are not to condone idolatry, adultery, or other sins. Paul says that the church is not to partner in its internal fellowship which exists to represent Christ with blatant, unrepentant sinners. But not partnering with them in our church’s mission is quite different from withdrawing from all contact or of becoming hostile toward blatant, unrepentant sinners. How might the blatant sinner come to see the amazing redeeming and transforming love of God if Christians do not have friendly, helpful contact with them?

Now I would not suggest that the new Christian recently rescued from alcoholism be assigned to bar ministry. Nor would I suggest that the church in its eagerness to reach sinners adopt manners that appear to take sin lightly; the apostles explicitly forbid that in our Scriptures.

Jewish people were forbidden to marry pagans because of the difference in moral and spiritual values. Christians are similarly instructed regarding not marrying unbelievers. Marrying is one thing. Treating people with fairness and helpfulness is another.

Who were the foreign sojourners in ancient Israel? Probably many of them were from the nations and tribes that Israel had to fight on the way into the Promised Land, that the judges had to fight in the days of the settlement of the promised Land, that their kings had to fight in the days of possessing the Promised Land, the nations and exiles that taunted the Israelites in the days of their exile. In short, they were long-time enemies. But Leviticus commands Israelites to remember that their ancestors were once slaves in a foreign land and to treat foreigners living among them with fairness and hospitable helpfulness.

Jesus similarly continually shocks people with his open dealings with Samaritans, such as the Samaritan woman at the well who had had five husbands and was now living with a man to whom she was not married. Jesus did not condone sin, but he did not shun sinners. Who would have guessed that the Samaritan woman at the well would have moved more quickly into becoming an effective evangelist than Jesus’ own traveling companion disciples? Yet that is exactly what happened.

Somehow, we have to get it through our heads and into our hearts that our purpose in life is to represent the holy character of God, and that the holy character of God includes as a main feature steadfast, redeeming love even for foreign sojourners, hostile enemies, and blatant sinners.

I am not saying that we are to toss aside all discernment. I am not saying that we are to walk around with a “kick me” sign taped to our back. I am not saying that we become punching bags for abusers. I am not saying that we become foolish enablers of manipulative users.

I am saying that we are to represent the steadfast, redeeming love of God, that we are to support efforts that offer opportunities for people to salvage their broken lives and begin to live as children of God, that we are to offer such opportunities even to our enemies.

At the most basic level, this challenges us to strip all remnants of hate and fear speech from our conversation, all hateful and fearful actions from our lives. We do not have to agree with people in order to be kind and fair and helpful to them. We can understand that what certain people have done is not in accord with God’s standards without beginning to hate them. How many of us have said something about African Americans or Hispanics or Muslims or gay people that we would cringe in shame if we knew that Jesus overheard us? Guess what? Our actions have already been entered into our eternal records, and we had better repent of them, not just regret them, but also change the underlying thinking that led to them, and the sooner the better, so that Jesus can erase them from our book.

We live in a culture that is in serious trouble. Human brokenness is mounting. The social resources to cope with that brokenness are declining. The solutions that are being offered from our secular culture are about as effective as applying a band-aid to a cannon ball wound. Voices of fear, hatred, and resentment are spewing forth into our minds. They will only make matters worse. It is time to turn off the hate and turn on creative approaches.

I am convinced that real solutions must be spiritual, moral, and relational. They are the kinds of solutions that can be found only in living communities of faith, communities where believers are committed to living out the character of the God we know through Jesus Christ. We have lots of churches, but only a small minority of them are focused on their calling to put human flesh on the redeeming love of God in Jesus Christ, offering personal, caring alternatives to the mammoth impersonal institutions of our day.

What we have done is that we have, for the sake of elusive material benefits, sold out to a large, impersonal culture that has no ability to deliver on its promises. We have become producers, consumers, and clients managed by big, impersonal institutions. Jesus during his earthly life did not try to control those kinds of institutions. He simply laid the foundation for building something new outside those big institutions, an alternative way of living in community that has real, spiritual, God-given values. That is essentially what his followers did in the first century Roman empire. That is what his followers did again with Celtic-style monasteries that spread out from Ireland from the 5^th through the 10^th centuries, creating centers of hospitality, scholarship, arts, and evangelism that may well have saved civilization. That is what the evangelical pietists did in places like Germany, the British Isles, and North America in the 18^th and early 19^th centuries, creating faith-based missionary societies, Bible societies, hospitals, orphanages, schools, self-help groups, improving the status of women, equipping freed slaves, elevating the moral climate that was so damaging to women and children, and on and on.

In each of these movements, much of the strength of the movement rested in building voluntary, faith-centered, Bible-based, prayer-powered, spiritual communities and networks outside the dominant social institutions of their day, networks of relationships that changed the world of their day.

I suggest that it is high time for Christians to do it once more. You may ask, “How?” I do not know the details. The details will not emerge until we catch the vision and join ourselves in study, prayer, and mutual encouragement. But God is faithful. God has done it before when Christians have sought him. He can and will do it again if we will persistently seek him.

We cannot do it all at once. We must reach out to invite others to come alongside us, but together we can begin to reclaim our lives right here in this community of hope, faith, and love. This is where the real action is because God is here and ready to act as soon as we join him in our readiness. Let’s get ourselves spiritually prepared.

Discovering the Social Justice Tradition and the Compassionate Life: Making a Difference

Isaiah 1:15-17; Luke 4:16-21; Acts 4:32-37

Not long ago, a well-known media personality urged Christians to leave their churches if they found the term social justice on their church website. His reasoning: Communists and Nazis both used the term social justice. The flaw in his reasoning: We would have to give up all our good ideas if we ran from each idea that has been misused by some unwise group or some ungodly group. A valid kernel in his reasoning: Some churches, not only liberal, but also conservative, advocate for partisan social causes that they would better leave outside the church. A strong counter to his reasoning: Anyone who carefully reads the Bible should conclude that concern for social justice is essential to the faithful people of God.

The opening books of the Bible make clear that God created human beings to work together in community to care for creation, to sustain the good and varied richness that God has created for our sustenance and enjoyment, and to remember that we are indeed responsible for the well-being of our spouses, our children, our brothers and sisters, our parents, our neighbors, and even the strangers and aliens residing among us. Our basic assignment as God’s children is to represent God’s nature and heart and purposes, and that assignment has not changed in its essence through all the millennia of human history. Working for social justice is part of our reason-for-being as children of God.

The Old Testament is clear that social justice is to be embodied in the community life of the people of God. Their religious calendar included a Sabbath day every seventh day providing rest from human endeavors and labor (applying even to indentured servants and working beasts), a Sabbath year every seventh year providing rest for the land from cultivation and relief for debtors and indentured servants from their condition, and a Jubilee year every fiftieth year for returning citizens to ownership of their share of family property. The basic social justice point is that no one was to be left indebted or indentured forever, that no one was to be left without inheritance or without hope for a new beginning, that no one was to be prevented from drawing near God in faith and repentance, seeking healing, blessing, and empowerment. Although it seems likely that these laws were seldom if ever fully enforced, the Old Testament prophets repeatedly railed against those who schemed to defeat the purposes of such laws, who sold the righteous for silver, the needy for a pair of sandals, who trampled the head of the poor into the dust and turned aside from the afflicted. The words of Amos echo through the ages, “Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an everflowing stream.” Nothing in the New Testament eliminates that high valuing of social justice. The realities of human corruption, of urbanization and division of labor, and of invading foreign empires made the Jubilee laws impracticable, but did not invalidate their purpose.

Jesus announced a new way of implementing the purpose of the Jubilee laws, through caring communities of faith, in which each believer is given spiritual gifts to use for the well-being of the whole community and in which the community sees to it that its opportunities and resources are appropriately distributed. The church is Spirit-anointed to follow Jesus in proclaiming good news to the poor and liberty to the captives and the oppressed.

There were places in the first century A.D. in which Christians were, because of their faith, cut out of the economic life of the larger community, places in which their very survival depended on their developing a secondary local economy in which they supported the enterprises of one another so that they could continue to live and bear witness in the larger community to the goodness of their Lord Jesus. These Christians demonstrated extraordinary resourcefulness and generosity in keeping their fellow believers and their Christian mission afloat. Luke says that the early Christians in Jerusalem did not consider anything their own, but as belonging as needed to the fellowship and mission of their crucified Savior and risen Lord.

Acts 4:32-37: “Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of Cyprus, sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet.”

Imagine how that attitude of viewing nothing as our own would revolutionize our churches today!

Pursuing social justice is not a matter of being politically liberal or conservative. We can hold any number of views on what the government ought to do about social problems, and still agree that the people of God must devote their energies and resources toward correcting real injustices that are contrary to the heart of our loving Creator and Redeemer. We may favor or oppose any variety of government remedies, and this still does not relieve us of the personal obligation to make a positive difference in the name of our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ.

When I say that churches ought not be involved in politics, I am not saying that individual Christians ought not be involved in politics. My concern is that churches not divide themselves along political lines and that churches not hinder their outreach to unbelievers by making a politically biased presentation of the gospel. Wise government policies can be of some help, but high Christian ideals are never totally achieved through political means. Never has happened, never will. There is always work left for the church. Our job together as the church is to do the work of Jesus.

Although I like to see churches steer clear of political advocacy, churches must be involved in concerns of social justice. Christian hearts must indeed be sensitized to the plight of victims of injustice, or we are not representing the heart of our Creator and Redeemer, which is the purpose for which God created and redeemed us.

Today in Protestant circles, concern for social justice is sometimes associated with theological liberals, people who do not really believe in the Bible or in the biblical God. But, prior to the time that skeptical, liberal Bible scholarship came to the forefront in the mid-nineteenth century, most Americans who were strong Christians, whether Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist, or members of our Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement, swam in both the evangelical and the holiness streams of living water, and were encouraged to swim in the social justice stream as well. This made sense because the founding figures of the three streams—evangelical, holiness, and social justice--were the same people, people like Nicolas von Zinzendorf, John and Charles Wesley, John Newton, and a generation later, our own Barton Stone.

I will give two historical examples of the combined evangelical/holiness/social justice streams.

The first example comes from a little more than a forty year period in England, from about 1792 through 1833, the generation after von Zinzendorf, Wesley, and Newton. A group of activist Christians began to buy or build houses in Clapham, England, a village in a natural setting then still a few miles south of London. Most, though not all of them were Anglicans, but their theology was evangelical and their personal spirituality and morality was of the holiness type. Most, though not all of them, were wealthy. The wealthy supported the Christian labors of those who were not. Their motive in living together was to offer mutual encouragement in Christian living and in implementing certain Christian goals for social justice. Their Christian faith was so much part of their motivating energy that opponents derisively dubbed them “the Clapham sect,” or “the Clapham saints.” The best known member of this circle was William Wilberforce, but there were something like two dozen other members of the circle who made major contributions to their work on behalf of spiritual, moral, and social causes. In over four decades of labor, this little group supported the emergence of world missions, of Bible translation and Bible distribution organizations, of the Sunday school movement and the Sunday observance movement, of broader schooling and Christian social work among the poor. They campaigned against blood sports, dueling, gambling, and cruelty to animals. Politically, they sought to reform Britain’s governance of India and the related actions of the East India Tea Company, they sought to reform England’s prisons, they brought into being the African country of Sierra Leone, and most notably, they did more than any other group in history to bring down slavery not only in the British Empire, but also worldwide. Yes, their most publicized actions may have been political, but, while their political actions were taken with Christian motivations, they were not taken, so far as I know, in the name of the church. My point is that their social justice labors emerged from evangelical tradition faith and from holiness tradition spirituality. It was because of the richness of their faith and spirituality that the Clapham saints made such a difference for social justice.

Just before the time that work of the Clapham saints was winding down in England, the work in America of Charles G. Finney was beginning. Finney was the foremost revivalist and the leading evangelical and holiness spokesperson in America from the mid-1820’s for another forty to fifty years. My University of Chicago American history professor who listed Jonathan Edwards as one of the two most influential Americans in our entire history, listed Charles Finney as the other. My professor believed that Finney produced more lasting change in 19^th century American life than any other person. It has been estimated that over half a million converts to Christ were won at Finney’s revivals and that 80% remained strong Christians for the rest of their lives, and that does not begin to count those who came to Christ through the efforts of those Finney taught and influenced. Finney encouraged his converts to work for social reform in the areas such as health, temperance, sexual morality, Sunday observance, women’s rights, the abolition of slavery, and the humane treatment of prisoners, the insane, and the handicapped, a list very similar to the previous work of the Clapham saints back in England. Why was Finney’s work so successful? Beyond his obvious gifts for communication, it was his deep spiritual life that made the difference. And it was the spiritual life he conveyed to others that produced so many workers for social justice in the second and third quarters of the nineteenth century.

Then, in the latter half of the nineteenth century and opening decades of the twentieth century, liberal, skeptical Bible scholarship emerged and split the church. The theological liberals proclaimed what they called the social gospel, but lost the biblical gospel that could win souls to Christ. The theological conservatives kept the emphasis on personal evangelism and personal morality, but drew back from the social dimensions of their previous work which they now saw as tainted by theological liberalism. The conservatives tended to slip into judgmental self-righteousness, to which the liberals responded with a culturally elitist self-righteousness of their own. The chasm kept widening. That sad state of affairs endured for more than a century, and how much poorer we American Christians are because the spiritual streams were separated.

We are at last seeing the emergence of a new generation of evangelicals with a social justice agenda that includes, not only opposing abortion, but also alleviating poverty, advocating creation care, peacemaking, prison reform, and refugee relief. Many young evangelicals appear to be re-uniting the evangelical, holiness, and social justice streams. May their tribe increase!

Let me tell you what I believe about our times; I believe:

1. that the American people are discovering that many of the solutions to our problems will not come from government or from the other large institutions that fund our two major political parties, but will emerge from the grassroots.

2. that, as we choose simpler and healthier lifestyles, live closer to our neighbors, and live on a more human scale, our lives will be more meaningful and more fulfilling.

3. that our hope for better lives is closely tied to the teachings of Moses and the Prophets, of Jesus and the Apostles, and especially closely tied to the purpose of Jesus for his church, that we are to be bearers of new hope to the world.

4. that the mission statement of our church, “Building a Community of Hope through Jesus Christ,” is especially well-suited to our time and place and compels us to be about Jesus’ work of social justice.

5. that, if we truly choose to follow God’s leading right here and right now, we can make a profound impact for the better on Carroll County and beyond, both now and in the future.

6. that we will be most effective if we operate with the force of all six streams of living water in harmonious cooperation. My point for today has been that the evangelical, holiness, and social justice streams of Christian spirituality definitely belong together, not in opposing camps. Let’s get past our prejudices and take a holistic, biblical viewpoint that will make a real difference for the better right here, beginning right now.

Experiencing the Holiness Tradition and the Virtuous Life: Metamorphosis!

Isaiah 50:4-9; Matthew 16:13-23;

2 Corinthians 3:18; Romans 12:2; Philippians 2:5-11

Today we are on the second and concluding week of examining the holiness tradition. I will focus on the defining aim of the holiness stream of living water, our gaining the mind of Christ.

In order to offer a figure of speech for gaining the mind of Christ, I am going to quote from the Ozarks Gardening column by Jim Long of Blue Eye, Missouri, that appeared in last Wednesday’s Carroll County News. See http://jimlongscolumns.blogspot.com/2010_06_01_archive.html for the full column.

Long says, “I hosted a group of visitors in my garden last summer and as I toured them through the herbs, I stopped beside a big clump of fennel to point out a caterpillar. Just as I pointed, a woman spoke up and said, ‘Oh I hate those nasty things. I keep a can of kerosene in the garden and a pair of gloves beside it. Every time I see one of those black, green and yellow striped devils, I put on my gloves and toss them into the kerosene and watch them die.’

“I noticed the gaping, open mouths of others in the group but before I could respond to the lady, she pointed in the air and said, as if on cue, ‘Ohhh, look at the butterfly. I just love butterflies. I wish I had them in my garden.’

“When she finally quit chattering, I again pointed …, ‘Ma'am…, see the butterfly? See the caterpillar? They are one and the same thing.’

“She gasped, and literally went pale. She had never made the connection between the striped caterpillar and the black swallowtail butterfly, and promised she would never hunt them down and douse them with kerosene again.” End quote

What do we call the process of going from egg, to caterpillar, to chrysalis, to butterfly? Metamorphosis. The word transfers into English from the Greek word meaning changed form or transformation. The woman did not know the details of metamorphosis, did not think that the ugly striped caterpillar chomping away on fennel, parsley, carrot tops, or more likely Queen Anne’s lace, could be connected to the beautiful Black Swallowtail butterfly. Multiply that ignorance across the species, and she was robbing herself of the joy of butterflies. She also was cutting down her pollinators. She wished that butterflies would come to her garden, and did not know that she was keeping them out. Obviously, it is important that gardeners understand metamorphosis, transformation.

The word metamorphosis applies outside the realm of biology. The Greek root word appears four times in the Bible. Did you know that the word is used in the Bible? It is used in two verses to describe Jesus’ transfiguration, when he shone with divine glory. It is also used to describe the change that occurs in believers as we follow Christ in 2 Corinthians 3:18 and Romans 12:2. 2 Corinthians 3:18 is our Christview Ministries theme text: “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed (metamorphized) into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” The point is that, when we really see the glory of Christ, that glory begins to metamorphize us, to change us from ugly, chomping caterpillars into beautiful, fruitful butterflies. Romans 12:1-2 indicates that the change occurs through the renewing of our minds: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed (metamorphized) by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” By following Christ, we come to see the world and to think about the world through different eyes. This is the essence of being born again. This is the heart of the holiness tradition. It is about how we gain new minds, how we break free from the habits of worldly thinking.

The Greek root word of metamorphosis is used only four times in the New Testament. The cousin root word metanoia meaning to change our minds or to repent appears 56 times, but that does not begin to capture the frequency of the theme of our gaining new minds through Christ. The theme is everywhere present in the New Testament. Truly this theme is basic, foundational, to Christian life. We need to be sure that Christian metamorphosis is happening in our lives, and we need to be sure that we are serving as agents of Christian metamorphosis in the lives of others.

The metamorphosis of the disciples of Jesus Christ was a long and difficult process. They had a really hard time getting out of their heads that the job of the Messiah was to build a revolutionary army that would overthrow the occupying Roman army. This says that deep down, unconsciously, they believed that national independence, government, politics, and armies, taken together, were what was really powerful. Jesus had a different view. He held that the saving grace and reigning love of God conveyed by the Holy Spirit and accessed through faith, taken together, was what was really powerful. Sometimes the disciples such as Simon Peter would get a portion of this for a moment, and Jesus would say something like, “Blessed are you Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter (Rocky), and on this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” Other times, Simon Peter would reject the costly, self-giving path of redeeming love, and Jesus would say to this same Rock, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your minds on the things of God, but on the things of man.” The point is that there is a crucial difference between godly thinking and mere human thinking. How Peter was thinking, where he was setting his mind, made all the difference between his being a rock in the foundation of the church or an adversary in the way of the church. We need to know clearly and unmistakably what that difference is.

For the disciples, the difference came clear in four events: the crucifixion of Jesus, the resurrection of Jesus, the ascension of Jesus, and the coming of the Holy Spirit. The crucifixion gave them a clear and potent picture of costly, self-giving redeeming love. The resurrection showed that the cost of redeeming love was not the final word, but only the prelude to perfected, enduring life. The ascension demonstrated the enthronement of their crucified and risen Savior as Lord of the universe. But they did not quite get the crucifixion, the resurrection, and the ascension until Pentecost when God the Holy Spirit came to live within them and to give them constant access to the mind of their Lord. From the time of Pentecost on, while they still had things to learn about God’s plan for his church, they had the guiding voice within them, shaping them and guiding their mission. We really cannot make Christian decisions and carry out Christian actions until God lives within us, shaping our minds.

Most of us very early in life were impressed with what power really seemed to us to be; most of us were wrong, but a great many of us may never have never questioned those early impressions. At age four or five, I concluded that real power was in reason, and that unexamined conviction ruled me for thirty years, until Jesus set me free. The lie I believed may have aided my academic life, but it seriously depleted my Christian fruitfulness. As long as that lie was in place, I had only a little room for the mind of Christ.

What early impressed you to be the source of power? Physical strength? Money? Smooth personality? Clever strategies? Good looks? Having lots of friends? Being loved by a cute member of the opposite sex? Emotional intimidation or manipulation? Our national citizenship or political loyalties? Seeking pleasure? Avoiding pain? The possibilities are endless. But when we live out those false impressions, the consequences are destructive. Those false impressions make us ugly chompers, in short, caterpillars. When we come to believe in Jesus, his crucifixion, his resurrection, his ascension, and when the Holy Spirit comes to live within us, we are given an alternative, a metamorphosis moment when we can become fruitful children of God, the spiritual equivalent of beautiful butterflies.

In Romans 8, Paul challenges us to set our minds not on human and worldly perspectives but on the things we are taught by the indwelling Spirit. That is the path of fruitful living.

If that is not clear enough, in Philippians 2:5-11, Paul shows that Jesus is the model for our spiritual transformation, for our new understanding of what is powerful. As we read this passage, ask yourself, what is the source of real power revealed in this passage? 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

What is the real source of power in Christ’s life? Is it not humble submission to paying the cost of doing God’s will, of carrying out God’s mission, of living out God’s love for lost and broken humanity? Is notthat the path to real power in our lives?

When asked to think whether we have the mind of Christ, we may think of the nice Jesus of Sunday school lessons, who somehow ended up teaching us to mind our parents, to do our chores, to be nice to our brothers and sisters, to play fair with our friends, to sit quietly in worship services, and to say our prayers at meals and bedtime. Those may be important points in our socialization. I would rather have the people around me know those things than not. But that Christ can hardly be found in the Bible.

What is the mind of Christ actually like? The Christ of the Bible looks at a broken reed and, rather than destroying it, mends it. He looks at a feeble lamp flame and, rather than discarding the wick, trims it. He looks at the crooked tax collector, and rather than running the other way, calls him to discipleship and has him invite all his disreputable friends to a party where they too can discover the reigning love of God. The Christ of the Bible tells a story about a father who sees that the love of the penitent, prodigal, younger son is far more real than the pretend love of a hardworking elder son who has been biding his time awaiting his reward. The Christ of the Bible sees a temple that is not serving its calling, but is instead creating barriers for outreach, and takes prophetic actions condemning the temple and opening it up for a celebration of healing for the desperate. He then assigns his disciples to go out and to be a living, portable temple for the lost and broken of the world. “Oh, you mean the mind of that Christ?”

Do we have the mind of that Christ? Let’s see. How many of us show any sign of even seeing the lonely visitor standing or sitting in our midst during fellowship time, especially if that visitor does not happen to be of our age group or social class or education level or friendship circle? How many of us have prepared ourselves to tell someone who is searching for Jesus the basics of how to become one of his disciples? Of course, just as there are many kinds of butterflies, there are many ways we will reach out to hurting people. Some of us will do it one way and some another. But, if we have the mind of Christ, we will be doing all the reaching out of which we are capable, and maybe a bit more. Whether we are actually doing that reaching out tells us all we need to know about whether we have the mind of Christ. It is how we know whether we are still an ugly, chomping caterpillar or whether we have become a beautiful, fruitful butterfly.

If we do not yet have the mind of Christ, if that mind is not showing up in our hearts being focused on redeeming love, it is high time for metamorphosis.

How do we get the mind of Christ? A caterpillar goes into a quiet chrysalis stage, and after a short time emerges greatly slimmed down and with beautiful wings. We have something similar.

What percentage of our lives do we spend pouring junk into our minds? The television and movies we watch, the websites we visit, the music to which we listen, the sports through which we vicariously do battle, the imaginary romances we entertain, the things we talk about, or text about, or post on Facebook about with our friends…How many of these things actually feed our minds on things that are quite contrary to the mind of Christ? Whether sex, violence, hatred, fear, gossip, or mere fluff, much of what we pour into our minds contains false messages about what is powerful or important in life. Even so-called Christian radio and television tend to get us off on things that distract us from learning and living out the mind of Christ.

It is time for us to take some time apart with God, to take stock of how we really want to live our lives for Christ. We need to spend time in prayer and study, taking in the mind of Christ and letting the Holy Spirit speak to us to direct our lives in more fruitful paths. We need some chrysalis time, and before long, it will be time to fly. Metamorphosis!

Here is my prayer of metamorphosis:

Gracious God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, I cannot really live a Christian life until I have spiritual ears, eyes, mind, and heart open to your direction. Drill out my earplugs, wash out my eyes, awaken my mind, and fire my heart so that I may behold the wonders of your redeeming love and give myself unreservedly to your service. Let me fly for your glory. Amen.