We find ourselves smack dab in the middle of a season of transformation. The solar eclipse this past Monday brought with it warmer weather, which means that the new life of spring, which colder temperatures had held back, is about to bloom. The buds waiting for the warmth of the spring sun are now beautiful. The birds that made their way south for the winter now wake us each morning with songs reminding us that this transformation is ongoing. And if flowers and birds are not your thing, there is always tree pollen to remind you that the transformation from winter to spring is almost complete.
All of our lives are a continuous transformation. Our physical bodies transform as we move through the stages of growth. As children, we were solely dependent on the physical care of our parents. Later in life, we may find ourselves caring for someone else’s needs in a manner similar to the way we were once cared for. Then, as we transition in the later stages of our lives, we often find some of our physical needs met by the very people we cared for. A dear friend of mine is helping his parents as their lives transform from one stage to the next. “It is a beautiful mess,” he told me. Transformation is messy.
As our physical bodies are transformed over the course of a lived life, so are our minds. Intellectual transformation (as Paul might put it, “the renewal of your minds”) occurs every day. What may seem like drastic changes in the world around us shape our thoughts and renews our minds. Some might say that our minds are renewed through intellectual conformity, through allowing yourself to be impressionable by another person or way of thinking. John Wesley would say that our intellect is renewed through reason or making sense of what we are experiencing. Wesley was primarily focused on a life of faith, but the principle applies to all aspects of our intellectual growth.
We like to think of ourselves as individuals, free-thinkers who make decisions based on our experiences, free of the influence of others. The modern world has taught us to think of ourselves as individuals, and in being free-thinking-thinkers, we can conform to the world as we see fit. Or so we are led to believe. We are led to believe that we are in control of transformation.
No matter how much we try to convince ourselves otherwise, we all know that none of us are entirely “free-thinking-thinkers.” Every one of us is influenced from within the world. We locate ourselves within one tribe or another, a family or friend group. As we move through our lives, the tribes we belong to will change. There is no fighting it. As with so many things, good and bad come with change.
In just a few weeks, high school and college seniors will be told that through their thoughts and actions, they will change the world. The speaker will look different, but they will still quote the same lines from Dr. Seuss while telling graduates they will transform the world, when really, the world will, the world is, transforming them. The “places you’ll go” will transform you.
We live in a time where many of us live at the center of our own universe. Truth is now a matter of opinion because we can find an echo chamber to affirm the “truth” we want. The media environment of right now is the “choose your own adventure” version of truth. We can hear Paul’s words, “Don’t be conformed,” and nod our heads in agreement, believing that we are not conforming to the world all the while the world and its algorithmic powers are molding us into their. In this sense, we are certainly not in charge, or in control of our choices. Not of the media content we consume or the products we’re offered, even as these transform our ways of living and thinking.
Rev. Will Willimon writes that the more the issue is not conforming but possession. He asks, “Who shall have my mind? To what power structures am I enslaved? To whose views of the world have I been conformed?”[i]
As we consider wellness in the light of Christ’s resurrection, the words of Paul confront us, “I appeal to you… Do not be conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewing of your minds.” Do not be conformed to this world. . Be mindful of the echo chambers’ noise; the tribes telling you what to think; the algorithm directing your attention.
As long as we are still part of a world that wants to conform us to its standards, beliefs, and divisions, we should not expect to be transformed by anything else.
Don’t be conformed to this world, says Saint Paul. Be transformed.
Be transformed. Be metamorphosized. Be made anew. Be changed entirely from who you are now into the image of Christ Jesus, who, through his resurrection, broke down the gates of hell and defeated that which separated us from God.
Paul lived what he preached. By birth, Paul was taught that those outside of Israel held no standing with God. But now, in his letter to the church in Rome, that tribal division is no more. How could such a transformation occur? How did he avoid conformity with the world and receive transformation through our resurrected Lord?
Through Christ, Paul writes, each person is a “new creation.”[ii] Transformed, perfected.
Jesus did not simply move Paul to have a change of perspective. Paul himself was transformed by conforming to Christ. After Jesus knocked Paul off of his horse on the Road to Damascus, Paul viewed the world in an entirely different manner. He was in the world differently. The old tribal divisions were no more. Paul’s worldview was changed because his mind was renewed.
Don’t be conformed to this world, says Saint Paul. Be transformed. The good news is that, indeed, God’s transformation of you is already underway. The renewal of your mind began when our faithful Lord left his burial clothes behind.
Look, I get it; change is difficult. Renewal is even harder. But I am thankful that God has not left me with the faith or theology I had when I was younger. I give thanks every day that God is renewing my faith. God makes me see people in my midst, truly see them, in ways that my prejudices would otherwise prevent. Because Christ’s Grace and faith are reckoned to me, my understanding of others is transformed. This is a transformation of the church as a body.
Through the renewing of our minds, God is inviting us to a spiritual transformation. Spirituality is not some product that can be marketed or consumed. Not a yoga retreat and not by the church. Not even ours. Instead, spirituality is a new life, a transformed life. It is a human response to seeing “the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror.”[iii] Practices like prayer, worship, the study of the scriptures, and other spiritual disciplines are all ways God nurtures us as an act of spiritual transformation.
Being conformed and transformed by God, is the spirit of our Methodist DNA. John Wesley was engaged in spiritual renewal within the Church of England. Wesley upset many in the church, but he always viewed his work as being part of the established church, being part of Christ’s body, not apart from it.
To be “metamorphosized into God’s image,” as Paul writes, is not something we do. There are no intellectual accomplishments by which you can make this happen. The transformation we experience is something God is doing to us. It is the byproduct of being encountered by the living God. How good is the news that you are transformed, redeemed, and saved by the Risen Christ? Why would you want your mind to be conformed to this world when you could experience Christ’s transforming grace?
[i] Willimon, Will. “The Transformed Mind.” Duke University Chapel. August 22, 1993.
[ii] 2 Corinthians 5:17
[iii] Ibid.
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