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) promisedkingdom, justice, peace and genuine love. In whatever way we look at it then,anything but conformity, passivity and acquiescence: no, always a sense of lookingwider and deeper and acting accordingly in tune with Christ’s vision ofa renewed and reconciled world.
MaryOliver is an American poet we have regularly read and heard here. Her poems aremost often about the beauty of nature and the nearness of the Divine. Not sothis Poetic Prose. It is called “Of the Empire”.
“Wewill be known as a culture that feared death and adored power, that tried tovanquishinsecurity for the few and cared little for the penury of the many. Wewill 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 theywill say , that this structure was held together politically, which it was, andthey will say also that our politics was no more than an apparatus to accommodatethe 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 therenewing of your mind...
Anothergreat wordsmith, a later-in-life politician, Vaclav Havel, the first Presidentof the Czech Republic after the demise of European Communism, addressed a jointsession of the US Congress in 1990. In his speech he reflected how the hard lessonslearned from the failure of Marxism in his country might not only guide his peoplein the rebuilding process, yet also help the West in its own future direction. Hesaid:
“Wetoo can offer something to you: our experience and the knowledge that comes fromit ... 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 inthe human heart, in the human power to reflect, in human modesty, and in humanresponsibility. Without a global revolution in the sphere of human consciousness,nothingwill change for the better... and the catastrophe toward whichthis world is headed, whether it be ecological, social, demographicor a general breakdown of civilization, will be unavoidable.”
“Benot conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind...”
Itoften surprises , even disappoints me, that modern Christians with such a richtradition 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 forthem, preferring, understandably at times, to just ‘practise’ theirfaith.
And whilst, as I’ve said many times over, theology shoots itself in thefoot by virtue of its complexities and convolutions, at its best, it both informsand 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 wisdomfor the journey. In other words, providing us with many more options forproceeding than is often the case with over simplistic even moralistic approachesto faith and life; The easy fallback, the deadening dead-end.
Canyou think of how things might have been different if consciousness preceded beingin 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 anapology to the Stolen Generation in 1998?
“Benot conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind...”
Whatthe apostle sees so clearly here, in and through faith in Christ, is a marryingof head and heart within Christian communityfor 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 brainsoff when we come to church, that there is both story and analysis; areceiving and a questing all in the one movement. And not just for theirown sake, but for transformation, gradual as it may be, in ourselves and in theworld 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. Unlikea bland conformity which lazily believes and behaves as it is told, that whichis awake and alert is able to discern, to decide for itself, and to protest ifneed be; surely a historical and defining mark of our Protestant denominationalthough you’d hardly know it these days
Itoccurs to me, perhaps more than ever, that the call of this particular communityis 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 graceof God in the love of Christ and the power of the Spirit); To will andexpect 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.
