Creekside Church Sermon of November 1, 1998 "Transformed" Romans 12:1-2	Rev. David Bibbee
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There is something I have noticed about wisdom. You know it when you hear it. It rings true. You say, "Yes, that's the way it is." Conrad Hilton was once asked about the wisdom he had gleaned from all his years in the hotel business. He said, "On the whole I have learned that when taking a shower, it is best to keep the curtain in the tub."

While visiting Helen Crussemeyer last week, I heard another wise gem. "There's one thing I have learned over the years," she said. "Life is change." No argument here. Change is what life is all about. Some changes are voluntarily. Many are forced upon us. We have our plans, then life's circumstances wreck them like a house of cards. We know that significant change, the kind which transforms us into better people, is seldom easy.

The appeals from the personal transformation businesses would have you believe otherwise. Waiting on a red light you see a sign on a utility pole. "Lose 30 pounds in 30 days. Call ..." Infomercials want you to buy into their sure-fire systems to unlock your hidden potential and transform you from average to healthy and wealthy. Go to Glamour Shots, get a make-over, drape a feather boa over your shoulders, and let the camera document your transformation from plain Jane into a beauty queen.

We are all targets for those who want to make us something else. But who holds the blueprints? What are we supposed to become? The type of transformation which is lasting isn't cosmetic. It doesn't have anything to do with securing your position in the status and success system.

Life is change. But Helen added another truth. "The change must be guided by God." This is what we remind ourselves of when we worship. We gather to sing, pray, receive the word and sacraments for one express purpose...God desires to make something of us.

"I appeal to you. Present your bodies as a living sacrifice. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your minds." We must remember that transformation is too important a matter for us to handle alone. We don't change ourselves by ourselves. The Greek word for "the self", is id. Sigmund Freud said the id is what makes us something so special and significant. It is also worth noting that id is the root of "idiot." Left to ourselves, we blend into the world's wallpaper. Alone we end up like the man buried somewhere in Vermont whose gravestone epitaph reads "John Brown: Born a human being, died a grocer."

"If anyone is in Christ," Paul said, "they are a new creation,"...we are overhauled from the inside out. We are transformed by being drawn into the body of Christ, and taught what is real and what is not. The church is in a fight with the world over who will shape your life.

I've had conversations with people who lodge this complaint: "The thing I don't like about Christians is they're always trying to put the make on you. They want to tell you how miserable your life must be, give you a prescription for your ailment, then try to convert you." "Well I'm sorry to hear that some of my fellow Christians have been so offensive and intrusive. I apologize for them. And you're right about conversion. That's exactly what we're trying to do. Conversion is the church's business. We think it's a good idea for people to change the way they think. We ask people to turn a new direction, clean up their acts, and sign up for something worth giving their lives to. You should be glad that we at least tell you what we're doing. If we don't convert you, someone else will."

Present your bodies, your whole selves, everything you've got, as a living sacrifice. Don't be conformed to the world. Be transformed by the renewal of your minds. It is here that all of that thick, laborious theology Paul spins in the first twelve chapters of Romans comes in for a landing. "Therefore..." he writes. Which means, "This is where it's all leading." Therefore, by the mercies of God, present your lives as a living sacrifice. Here's the catch...transformation entails sacrifice and sacrifice isn't optional. It's not a question of whether you'll be sacrificed, but to what you will be sacrificed. You need to be sure you are laying yourself on the right altar. When we do it for God, we at least know it is something worth sacrificing ourselves for...and for good reason.

Martin Luther King, Jr. once said: "We have much frustration because we've relied on god's rather than God. We've genuflected before the god of science which has given us the bomb. We have worshipped the god of pleasure only to discover that thrills play out and sensations are short lived. We bow before money and learn there are things such as love and friendship that money can't buy, and that in a world of possible depressions, and stock market crashes, money is an uncertain deity. These transitory gods cannot serve or bring happiness to the human heart. Only God is able. It is faith in Him we must rediscover."

So we worship...we use the language of giving up and handing over to describe how lives are changed. We use potent words like sacrifice and transformation precisely because we have been weaned on very strong, seductive influences. And over against this is the church and its out of step against the stream, peculiar people, working to prevent other people from continuing to sacrifice themselves to work and wealth and the American dream, and their children from Nike and Disney.

One of two things will happen to us. We will either shape the world, or be shaped by the world. At a spiritual retreat, the participants were given a lump of clay and asked to fashion their image of the spiritual life. One man began shaping the clay and without thinking of it beforehand, found himself making a frog with its mouth wide open. Surprised, he asked the frog, "What do you want to say to me?" And the frog replied, "Like me, you must learn to live in two worlds."

We will either be indistinguishable from the masses, or live changed in such a way that shows we belong to another one. That's why Paul says we are to be in the world but not of it. Transformed, not conformed.

I want you to ask yourselves some questions today. Where is your citizenship? To what god have you offered your living sacrifice? Could someone tell on whose altar you have laid your life by seeing what you do for a good time or studying your checkbook register? Could they tell by the way you relate to others at work and at home? Does your life on Monday through Saturday flow from what happens on Sunday, or does how you conduct yourself in the world bring an influence into the body of Christ that runs counter to how Christians should behave? By God's grace, we are not what we were. But we are also aware that we aren't where we should be either. Change is always in order.

In one of his early pastorates, Fred Craddock, remembered a little girl. She was in church every Sunday. Her parents took her faithfully, deposited her at the front door and then drove to the restaurant for a leisurely Sunday breakfast. "Religion is a nice thing for the kiddies," they thought. The family was well to do. Dad was a successful executive climbing the company ladder, and the parties he and his wife threw were the Monday morning talk of the town. You had to be somebody to be invited-upper crust types, but what happened at their parties was gutter material. Yet no matter how wild Saturday night was, come Sunday, their daughter was in church.

One Sunday Craddock gazed over the congregation and noticed the girl sitting with her parents for the first time. At the conclusion of the service, they responded to the call, handed themselves over and joined the church. Meeting with the parent afterward Craddock asked, "What moved you to take this step?" "Have you heard about our parties?" "I've heard some things."

"Well, last night we had another one. There was a lot of drinking and things were getting out of hand. It woke our daughter so she came down to see what was going on. Seeing everyone eating and drinking, she asked in a loud voice, 'Can I do the blessing? God is great, God is good, let us thank him for our food. Good night everybody.'" She went upstairs and the party became stone cold silent. People looked at their watches. "Where has the time gone? We'll need to be going now. Great party." In no time everyone had gone. The parents quietly began picking up the glasses, cocktail napkins, and food. Then they looked into each other's eyes and knew what the other was thinking. "What in the world are we doing with our lives?" The transformation had begun.

What in the world are you doing with your life? Have you sacrificed yourself to the lesser gods? Have you been content with fake jewelry when you can have the pearl of great price? Like Helen Crussemeyer said, "Life is change," but you can be transformed by God while you live it, and not be ruled by it.

Therefore, by the mercies of God, present yourselves as a living sacrifice. This is true worship. Don't be conformed to this world, be transformed, day by day, by the renewal of your minds.

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