Dear Family,
I used to obsess over these shows that tell the story of a man or a woman going through the process of an 'extreme' makeover. They would get new clothes. A new hairdo. They might have plastic surgery done. Some suffered through dental work. But all of them longed for the day when their 'new' person would be revealed to their family and friends.
And the overall reaction was amazing. We love to see the transformation people can go through, helping them create a new person. We applaud their work and their willingness to change and we long to see where this new being goes.
But are they fully new? Does a cosmetic change equate a new person? Or is there more that must occur?
God is in the business of extreme makeovers too, but i wonder how deep God's transforming power goes? Does God remain on the surface, giving us new teeth and new hair, but leaving the inner parts to some other force? Maybe God sees our need for weight loss, so God gets us on the "Biggest Loser" campaign to save our hearts and our sugar levels. But is there a deeper level yet?
I think there is. God strives to go deeper into our being to alter our whole person. It is good to have a new appearance, because it can aid in our self confidence, but it is greater to be a wholy new person, because it changes our perspective as children of God. We may lose weight to ensure we have a healthy life, but we must align ourselves with the grace of God to have an abundant life.
Being created new, by God, is not key to the gates salvation principle, it is a calling to be something different, something other, something the world will not understand. Too often i dont see any divergence between the church and the world, and i know many will claim 'sins' as evidence of the new being. But i dont think that is what Paul is arguing for.
I think Paul is inviting us, as new creatures, to join God in the work of restoring the created order to God. How do we do this? By claiming our role to be ambassadors for Christ. Last week we learned that Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to be our paraclete, i am arguing now that Paul instructs us to be God's paraclete.
To be created anew is not to be taken lightly. Sure we must honor our bodies, because God put a lot of work into us. And yes turning from 'sin' is a healthy and necessary step into becoming the persons God created and intended us to be. But being new in Christ is also a call into work, Godly work, restoring work, creative work.
We are to work to protect creation, because God sent Jesus to heal the world. We are to work to restore relationships with each other, because God sent Jesus to save the world. And we are to work for peace and justice, because Jesus chose the cross over a violent uprising, giving us the example of what it means to be made new.
Choosing the godly path, over the worldy one, will make us look insane, but as Paul alluded to, if we are insane, it is for God. And why not be a little crazy for the divine? Amen.
Shalom,
jerry
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