SERMONS
Sean Gilbert — 24/8/08
CHRIST CHURCH - Romans
12: 1-9
By the Renewing of our Minds
I appeal to you or beseech you through the compassionof
God to present yourselves as a living sacrifice
, holy and acceptable (to God). Do not conform to
the values of this age and this empire,
but be transformed by the renewing
of your mind...
The mindset, as the apostle says elsewhere, to have or hold in Christ,
or in easier terms, the conscious vision of God’s(Christ’s) promised
kingdom, justice, peace and genuine love. In whatever way we look at it then,
anything but conformity, passivity and acquiescence: no, always a sense of looking
wider and deeper and acting accordingly in tune with Christ’s vision of
a renewed and reconciled world.
Mary
Oliver is an American poet we have regularly read and heard here. Her poems are
most often about the beauty of nature and the nearness of the Divine. Not so
this Poetic Prose. It is called “Of the Empire”.
“We
will be known as a culture that feared death and adored power, that tried tovanquish
insecurity for the few and cared little for the penury of the many. We
will be known as a culture that taught and rewarded the amassing of things ,
that spoke little, if at all, about the quality of life for people (other people),
for dogs, for rivers. All the world, they will say, was a commodity. And they
will say , that this structure was held together politically, which it was, and
they will say also that our politics was no more than an apparatus to accommodate
the feelings of the heart, in those days , was small and hard, and full of meanness.”
“Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind...
Another
great wordsmith, a later-in-life politician, Vaclav Havel, the first President
of the Czech Republic after the demise of European Communism, addressed a joint
session of the US Congress in 1990. In his speech he reflected how the hard lessons
learned from the failure of Marxism in his country might not only guide his people
in the rebuilding process, yet also help the West in its own future direction. He
said:
“We
too can offer something to you: our experience and the knowledge that comes from
it ... the specific experience I am talking about has given me one certainty.
Consciousness precedes Being, and not the other way around, as Marxists claim.
For this reason, the salvation of this human world lies nowhere else than in
the human heart, in the human power to reflect, in human modesty, and in human
responsibility. Without a global revolution in the sphere of human consciousness,nothing
will change for the better... and the catastrophe toward which
this world is headed, whether it be ecological, social, demographic
or a general breakdown of civilization, will be unavoidable.”
“Be
not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind...”
It
often surprises , even disappoints me, that modern Christians with such a rich
tradition of thought- rigorous thought- at their disposal , at their very fingertips,
choose not to read, choose not to prayerfully engage or reflect on our texts,
dismissing both theology and philosophy as but abstractions, as too hard for
them, preferring, understandably at times, to just ‘practise’ their
faith.
And whilst, as I’ve said many times over, theology shoots itself in the
foot by virtue of its complexities and convolutions, at its best, it both informs
and broadens the mind for the very sake of renewed attitudes, values and behaviour;
for the sake of a more expansive, compassionate and just heart. Consciousness,
a mindfulness that precedes being (matter) – that gives light and wisdom
for the journey. In other words, providing us with many more options for
proceeding than is often the case with over simplistic even moralistic approaches
to faith and life; The easy fallback, the deadening dead-end.
Can
you think of how things might have been different if consciousness preceded being
in the White House before a decision was made to invade Iraq? Or closer to home,
if consciousness preceded being before the then Federal Cabinet decided against an
apology to the Stolen Generation in 1998?
“Be
not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind...”
What
the apostle sees so clearly here, in and through faith in Christ, is a marrying
of head and heart within Christian community
for the sake of its ongoing life and witness; wisdom by yet another name.
The expectation being then, ala Jack Spong, that we don’t switch our brains
off when we come to church, that there is both story and analysis; a
receiving and a questing all in the one movement. And not just for their
own sake, but for transformation, gradual as it may be, in ourselves and in the
world around us. As the great Eastern faiths continue to remind us, mindfulness,
consciousness is directly related to the quality of life we express in community. Unlike
a bland conformity which lazily believes and behaves as it is told, that which
is awake and alert is able to discern, to decide for itself, and to protest if
need be; surely a historical and defining mark of our Protestant denomination
although you’d hardly know it these days
It
occurs to me, perhaps more than ever, that the call of this particular community
is not only to advocate or champion a progressive faith path, but to embody it;
to boldly express its ongoing renewal of mind and of heart (through the grace
of God in the love of Christ and the power of the Spirit); To will and
expect transformation in ourselves and not simply look for it in another.
Now, one small but important way forward for us, I believe, is to
not only build our library, but to use it, and to discuss with one
another what we find there. To discover that a Marcus Borg book on
Jesus, or a Hedley Beare book on prayer in the 21st Century or a Parker
Palmer book on vocational living can and does affect the way we live.
“Be
not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind...”
The ministry of Spirit. The ministry of Christ to the world. Much
more could be said. However, allow me to now conclude with a
prayer of Michael Leunig I’ve been using in our August Home Gatherings,
after which we’ll sit quietly for a while.
God, help us to change.
To change ourselves and to change our world.
To know the need for it.
To deal with the pain of it.
To undertake the journey without understanding the destination.
The art of gentle revolution.
Amen.
