Transformation

​At the beginning of our passage from Romans, Paul tells us not to “be conformed to this world, but [rather to] be transformed by the renewing of our minds.”
 
That sounds really good. But it’s not entirely clear what Paul means.
 
Thankfully our lectionary gives us some help by pairing Paul’s instruction with the Old Testament story of the midwives Shiphrah and Puah. Shiphrah and Puah aren’t exactly household names. But these two women deserve to be better known than they are because they show us what Paul means, what it means NOT to be conformed to their world, but instead to open themselves to the transforming power of God.
 
The story begins when a new king arises in Egypt, one who feared the growing numbers of Hebrew people living in his kingdom. He decided that the danger posed by these immigrants was so great that he needed to take action. First, he oppressed them with forced labor. When that didn’t slow their population growth, he decided to have all the newborn boys killed. And he wanted Shiphrah and Puah to be the ones to do the deed.
 
Shiphrah and Puah faced a hard choice. In their world, Pharaoh was lord. Egyptian interests were all that mattered. Murder was seen as a reasonable instrument of state policy. If they conformed to that world, if they played Pharaoh’s game, Pharaoh could make it worth their while. If they did not, Pharaoh could make them suffer.
 
These brave women refused to be bought or intimidated. Shiphrah and Puah knew that what Pharaoh commanded was wrong. They knew that Pharaoh’s way was not God’s way. And they chose to follow God.
 
Fast forward more than three thousand years. In the United States we don’t have a Pharaoh to lord over us in the same way Pharaoh could lord it over his people in Shiphrah’s and Puah’s time. Worldly authority has become considerably more subtle.
 
But we are still barraged by messages about what we should be and do.
 
Advertisers show us images of beautiful people in exotic locations doing fun things. The advertisements imply that if only we bought the right things, we, too, could be beautiful people living that life.
 
That is an appeal to envy aimed at increasing our consumption, our greed and our gluttony.
 
The entertainment industry competes for our attention with ever more enticing options and spectacles. They invite us to forget about the things we are called to do and instead to stay on the couch enjoying what they offer us.
 
That is an appeal to our sloth and sometimes our lust.
 
Most toxic of all, in my view, are the merchants of outrage who try to motivate us to act or to donate by stoking our suspicions and our fear.
 
That is an appeal to our anger and sometimes our pride.
 
Like the midwives all those centuries ago, we face a choice, every day. Will we conform to the world that appeals to our basest instincts in so many ways? Will we choose the way of the world, with the rewards that it offers, such as they are? Or, will we seek God’s way?
 
Of course, we can’t simply turn away from the world we live in. That isn’t possible, and it isn’t our calling as Christian people. But Paul is clear, we should NOT conform to the world we live in. Instead, we should open ourselves to the transforming power of God.
 
But how do we do that? How do we resist the toxic messages that come at us all the time? In the midst of all the noise around us all the time, how do we hear the still, small voice of God, renewing and transforming us, inviting us to life and to love?
 
Part of the answer is simply recognizing the more toxic messages for what they are, a seduction leading us to individual and cultural death.
 
Part of the answer is remembering who it is who calls us to a different way. In our Gospel reading, Jesus asks the disciples, “who do you say that I am?” Peter answers, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Peter could have added, you are the one who shows us the way, teaches us the truth, exemplifies for us the life. More, you are the way, and the truth, and the life. You are the alternative to the way of the world, which is so often the way of death.
 
Part of the answer is consciously choosing practices Jesus shows us, practices that can vaccinate us, so to speak, against the pathologies all around us. Things like regular prayer and engagement with Scripture. Or striving for compassion and forgiveness even when we are angry and hurt.
 
Part of the answer is coming together with other people engaged in the same struggle not to be conformed to the world but rather to be renewed in mind by the transforming power of God. That’s where Paul goes.
 
Our challenge is to discern the will of God, what is “good and acceptable and perfect.” To help with that, we are given each other, brought together by our common faith in Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit. All of us imperfect and yet together the body of Christ, each of us with our own specific gifts and callings.
 
We come together, consciously entering into the presence of God, hearing God’s holy word, sharing the sacrament of Christ’s blood, offering our prayers and praises to God.
 
And the Holy Spirit swirls around, and washes away at least some of the toxic messages we have imbibed through the week, and touches us, and little by little molds us, and renews us, and transforms us.
 
Inevitably and properly, we then go back out into the world, hopefully bringing a little of that renewing and transforming power with us. But pretty soon, we need to come back together for a little more cleansing and renewing and transforming.
 
And so it goes for our entire lives. Sometimes we resist Pharaoh, we tune out the toxic messages around us, and we shine with a bit of God’s reflected grace and love. And other times, we respond to the allure of the world, we absorb those same toxic messages, and God’s light in us is dimmed.
 
But if we keep at it, over time, ever so slowly, God’s transforming power works its magic, and we become a little more like the people that God calls us to be.
 
I recently finished a TV series about people living in France during World War Two.[1] It was a time of a new Pharaoh eager to commit his own genocide. The heroes of the show were smuggling refugees out of Europe so that they could avoid Nazi concentration camps.
 
There were villains, too, of course. But the people I identified with were the people of good will who weren’t sure what to do. One character in particular was eager to help, but without breaking any rules. He wanted to do the right thing, and also to conform to the world he lived in. Eventually he realized that he couldn’t do both. Thankfully, he came through. In that moment, he took a step forward in the lifelong process of being transformed by God.
 
That is our calling, with God’s help.
 
I thank God for inviting us into the process of renewal and transformation that leads to life. And I pray that God will continue to shield us and to work on us. In Christ’s name. Amen.
 


[1] I don’t really recommend the series, but it is called Transatlantic.