Spiritual Hiccups - Made New

I had just finished reading Richard Rohr's daily devotion that discussed men and our resistance to change when I came to the lectionary readings for today.  I suspect that is why I heard the opening of Psalm 62 and Paul's words in Galatians the way I did, as about the need for God to change us.  That may not sound like a particularly remarkable observation, but it strikes me that religion is more often about add-ons than it is about real change.

Very often we want God to make things better for us without changing who we are in any fundamental way.  We would like to be happier, healthier, wealthier, more fulfilled, or more of something else.  But we do not want our lives turned upside down.  We do not want to become someone different from who we are now.

Perhaps Rohr is correct and this is more of a problem for men than women.  I don't really know.  I know that I like to be in control of things, and I know quite a few women who like control as well.  But if we take seriously biblical language about being made new in Christ, about the power of the Holy Spirit to empower, gift, and propel people into ministry and mission they would never have even considered on their own, then it would seem Christian faith requires letting go of control and a willingness to be changed at the most basic level of our being.

Speaking of "salvation" and of "being saved" is common among Christians, but all too often these words are understood to speak of nothing more than one's status.  Paul certainly included status before God in his understanding, but that was only the beginning for him.  He understood himself to be a totally new person, operating from totally new motivations, finding his greatest joy from giving himself, at great personal cost, to the work of sharing God's love in Jesus. 

I think that one of the great gifts our society has given us by no longer propping up religion, by no longer enforcing an ethos of "you're supposed to go to church," is a chance to rediscover the change and newness Paul experienced.  A new vitality in the faith is beginning to emerge as more and more congregations discover spiritual practices that shape them to be more Christ-like.  This new vitality is not restricted to any particular worship styles.  It is not a matter of traditional or contemporary.  It is about a desire to encounter and be transformed by the risen Christ.

When Jesus began his earthly ministry, he spoke of God's kingdom drawing near.  And he spoke frequently of that kingdom during his ministry.  While there has been an unfortunate tendency to turn kingdom into a synonym for heaven, Jesus was clearly speaking of God's rule on earth, a day when God's will is done here as it is in heaven.  And this means that where we are now cannot be where God plans for us to be.  As individuals, and as faith communities, we are working for and living by the ways of a day that is still to be. 

When congregations long for God's new day, that precludes longing for the good old days.  Longing for the old days is a depressing and life killing exercise that wishes for what is gone.  But longing for God's kingdom is a life giving pursuit that moves toward what God is still doing... which of course requires that you and I, our congregations and the world, must change.

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