Be Transformed

Scriptures:     Exodus 1:8 – 2:10                  Psalm 124

Romans 12:1-8           Matthew 16:13-20

I want to thank once again all who came out for Backpack Sunday.  It’s a blessing to have so many children and parents with us today.  If you’re seeking a home church, you’re most welcome to worship with us.

As we’re preparing to send children back to school, so that they can develop their skills and mental capabilities, it’s striking how well the Scripture readings fit the theme of education.  In a way, all of them speak to the importance of our minds, of how important it is to develop our minds, to the glory of God, and not neglect them.   There are some traditions within the Christian faith that don’t encourage development of the mind, rational thought, independent thinking.  Some churches even discourage education, fearing that as their members become educated, they will fall away from the teachings of the church.  But in our tradition, we believe that since God is the Lord of all things, that means that all truth is God’s truth.  We encourage our clergy and laity alike to develop their minds, either through formal education or hands-on forms of lifelong learning.     We believe that the education the students receive in school is only the beginning of a lifelong journey of the mind.

Along the path of public education, while there’s an emphasis on science and technology, I hope that students will also have opportunities to study the softer subjects of English – and a second language if possible -  the arts, and also history.  Our Old Testament reading begins with an acknowledgement of a failure to pass down historical knowledge:  “Now there arose a new king who did not know Joseph.”  We’ve been reading the stories of Joseph and of Jacob, his father, over these past few weeks, and we learned that Joseph, the favorite son of Jacob, was targeted by his brothers because they were jealous.  The brothers sold Joseph to slave traders, who sold Joseph into Egypt.  But God was with Joseph, and through a series of events and adventures, Joseph rose to a position of great authority in Egypt, second only to Pharoah, and stockpiled grain in preparation for a famine – thus saving the lives of the Egyptians.  The Pharoah at that time was very grateful to Joseph, and gave  his family the best land in Egypt to live on.  But that Pharoah died, and we’re told a new king, a new Pharoah, arose, who did not know the stories of Joseph and felt no obligation toward Joseph’s descendants, the Hebrew people. He didn’t know that Joseph had saved the Egyptian people. He only knew that Joseph’s descendents were living high on the best land in Egypt, and wanted the land for himself and his people.  Far from honoring the the descendents of Joseph, this new king enslaved them.

Among many other things, this story tells us that when we forget the past, when we forget the people who have helped us to get where we are, when we forget all that God has done for us, we make bad decisions.  At the same time, we read that the Hebrew people used their minds to put roadblocks in Pharoah’s plans for evil.  Told to kill any male baby among the Hebrew people, the midwives made lame excuses about the Hebrew women giving birth faster than the midwives could attend to them.  Told to kill the baby who would become Moses, the baby’s mother made a waterproof basket and placed it by the river.  The baby’s sister watched over the baby, and when Pharoah’s daughter saw the baby and took pity on it, the sister went and got the child’s mother to nurse the baby.  Again, it was the willingness of the Hebrew women to use their minds to resist Pharoah that saved the life of Moses and many others.

In our Gospel reading, we see Peter using his mind – and while that doesn’t always end well, in this case Peter was on target.  Jesus was conducting a sort of focus group poll with his disciples.  “Who do people say that I am?”  And the disciples tell Jesus that some people think he’s John the Baptist come back to life, or Elijah or one of the other prophets come back to life.   Clearly the people see that there’s something special about Jesus; to be equated with one of the great prophets was high praise.  But then Jesus asks the disciples, “Who do you say that I am?”  And Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”  And Jesus told Peter, “Blessed are you, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven.”

Where did Peter get all this? I don’t think that in that moment God sent an airplane over Peter’s head with a big banner that said “Messiah, son of the Living God.”   Peter had been observing Jesus throughout his ministry – his teaching, his healings, his feeding the crowds, his miracles.  When Jesus asked his question, it gave Peter an opportunity to put everything he’d observed together in his mind.  And God opened his mind to the correct conclusion. 

Paul told his readers not to be conformed to this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of their minds.  To be transformed – to be changed, metaphorically speaking, from one form to another.  We are transformed when our minds are renewed – when our minds are made open to see life in new ways.  The education that our children receive helps to develop their minds, to form and shape their minds, and their futures.  School teaches us facts, teaches us skills.  A good education will teach us not what to think, but how to think – how to tell which facts are important and which are trivial, how to understand the past so that we can make good decisions in the present that will make for a better future.  This is crucial, because a population that is poorly educated, who do not understand where they are or how they got there, can easily be manipulated by political and religious leaders who scapegoat others in order to draw attention away from their own corruption.  As George Orwell wrote in his novel 1984: “He who controls the present controls the past; he who controls the past controls the future.”  And, of course, in that novel, the fictional totalitarian government controlled the past by erasing or rewriting the parts they didn’t like – all so they could continue to control the future. And today, via the internet and cable news channels, via photoshop and other digital technologies, various vested interests are busily rewriting the past, constructing entire alternative histories in support of the future these vested interests want. So those history and social studies classes aren’t just lists of names and dates from the past; they’re a word to the wise in understanding the present and planning the future.   

But even so, the education received in school only goes so far.  Even our own life experience only goes so far.   Transformation comes when we can take all that we’ve learned in school and all that we’ve learned through life experience, and view it through the lens of Jesus’ life and teachings.  For example, a strong education in science may give someone the skills to make bombs and other deadly weapons – indeed, this is how much of our nation’s scientific effort has been deployed since at least the 1940’s.  But looking at our scientific knowledge through the lens of Jesus’ life and teachings may tell us that there are better ways of solving problems, and better ways of using scientific skills – that it is better to use such skills to save life than to destroy it.  A standard education in finance will teach students how to accumulate money for themselves or their employer.  Looking at such an education through the lens of Jesus’ life and teachings may lead us to use those same skills to use financial resources in the most efficient manner to help the greatest number of people and save the greatest number of lives.  The gifts and skills are the same, but the outcome is very different.

We believe in education, among other reasons, because we believe strongly in the priesthood of all believers.  This phrase comes from the first letter of Peter to the early church: “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of God who called you from darkness into God’s marvelous light.”    That phrase, the priesthood of all believers,  means that we believe that God calls all Christians to ministry, calls all of us to use our gifts and skills to serve God and neighbor.  In some traditions, it is mostly the gifts of the pastor that are lifted up.  In such traditions, the role of ordinary church members is to pray, pay, and obey, all in support of the pastor.  But in the United Church of Christ, we believe there are no ordinary church members, that we are all uniquely called to minister.  As pastor, I wear a collar, and I have specific training and responsibilities.  But we are all called to ministry.  Part of my job is to equip all of you for your respective ministries.  And education – the development of our gifts and skills – will make us more able to minister effectively.

But Paul also cautioned his readers:  “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but think with sober judgement, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.  For as in one body we have many members and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one in the body of Christ, and individually members one of another.”  Paul reminded his readers that they were all connected, that their gifts were not just for themselves, but to be used to help one another, just as the different organs and limbs of the human body have different functions, but are all connected and work for the good of the body as a whole.

My prayer is that God will watch over our children as they go back to school, and as they use the backpacks and their contents.  I pray that our children will learn many new things in the year ahead, that their minds and bodies will be stronger at the end of the year than at the beginning.  I also pray that they will know that they are loved, by their families, by God, and by this church, and that they may grow not only in strength and knowledge, but in faith, hope, and love.  Amen.