Date: Sept. 9, 2007
Scriptures: Eph. 4:11a, 12-15; 1 Cor. 3:10,11
Sermon: Christian Formation – Becoming Like Christ
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Last Thursday, Daniel Horn (Vser) and I were at Lethbridge College for part of its student orientation week. Along with other churches and non-profit groups, we set up a display table with information about ourselves and give-away items. While offering college students samples of Mennonite sausage, inviting them to enter a draw to win a Lethbridge Mennonite Church cookbook, handing out Bible -devotional booklets, pamphlets about Mennonites, and invitations to this afternoon’s corn roast...I usually asked where they were from and what they were studying. Answers included law enforcement, rehabilitation worker, engineering, general studies, fashion design, culinary arts, nursing, welding, and psychology. All of them were hoping to learn from their studies and eventually gain employment. Commendable goals. Wonderful goals.
We don’t have to be a college student though, to have goals. Each of us has a goal or two, some short-term, some long-term–perhaps to pass math, to see the world, to make a new friend, or to merely make it through the day. The goals are as different as we are from one another. But despite our differences, scripture reminds us that as Christians, our common goal--the goal each of us is to strive toward--is to become like Jesus, to be formed into the likeness of Christ (Gal. 4:19).
“Tall order,” you might be thinking, “I could never do that!”
Well, fortunately, we have our whole lifetime to come to that maturity, nor do we get close to that goal without help. Becoming like Jesus, or Christian formation (as it’s sometimes called) doesn’t happen at a particular moment, like when one decides to become a follower of Jesus or when one is baptized. It doesn’t happen all at once but rather, takes shape over the course of one’s life and at the same time shapes the course of one’s life.
Becoming mature in Christ is not just for children in Sunday School or youth on a retreat or adults entering the ministry. It is for every believer.
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I’ve often thought that over time, spouses sometimes begin to resemble each other, and that pet-owners often look like their pets. We tend to become like the people and things we admire or spend time with. We can’t not be formed. We will be shaped by and into something, and we need to remember that we have some say and control over that formation. Christian formation is both a conscious choice and act, and an unconscious (or invisible) changing. We may not be aware at the time what is happening to us...kind of like zucchinis: one day it’s a blossom and the next day the zucchini is already 3 inches long. All we can do is marvel and give thanks when we realize the transformation.
Life-long Christian formation, as I mentioned, doesn’t happen without help. A primary helper is God’s Holy Spirit who empowers encourages, advocates, comforts and strengthens us to know, love, and follow Christ and to become like Christ as we minister to other people in our lives.
Another primary helper in forming us to be like Jesus is the church. In the context of the church, yes, we talk about Jesus, about God, about our faith, but more importantly, in the corporate body of Christ one gets to experience knowing Jesus and being known by Him.
The church context provides information but goes much further to include experiences that become formation. The difference between thinking about God in Christ and experiencing God in Christ is like the difference between looking at a map of the sea coast versus actually walking along the coast itself. One can be folded up and put away. The other is experienced in an on-going way, in every way – salt spray caught on the tongue, cold wind taking breathed in, rocks sharp and grating beneath feet, gulls’ screeching caught by the ear, eyes cast to the horizon, and the heart tuned to One greater than this place and time.
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“But isn’t “church” just something we do on Sunday morning?”
Not exactly.
The people of the church gather for Bible study, for learning about the church in the world and for worship, certainly. Those things are indispensable. But other times where two or three gather in Christ’s name are also occasions for experiencing Christ and being formed into His likeness:
--times when small groups gather to check in with one another, encourage and pray for each other;
--times when congregational members respond to an illness, a loss, a crisis in faith, a physical need with their presence, prayers, hugs, and practical assistance;
--times when youth and their mentor hang out, sharing aspects of their life and faith with each other;
–times when there is an exchange of faith and life between student interns, voluntary service workers and ourselves;
--times when, as congregational members we eat together, play together, make music together, and build things like bird houses and playground equipment together.
This is not to deny that Christian formation can’t happen in any other context or place. It can and often does, for example – in the home, and on one’s own. Family times of Bible-reading and praying together, and one’s own personal prayers and Bible study definitely contribute to being transformed into the image of the God whom we worship.
However, “the congregation is the primary context for our on-going conversion to the reign of God” [Marcus Smucker in Leader magazine] . This realization is at once a great privilege and a great responsibility. To make such a declaration about the importance of the role of the congregation is not new. It is reflective of our Anabaptist tradition that encourages mutual accountability as we ask one another such questions as:
“How is it going with you and God,”
“Have you thought about putting your tent pegs in the ground and joining the body of Christ as it’s embodied here in this congregation?” “What do you think Jesus is saying to you in this situation?”
“How can we together be Jesus to this person or family?”
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Christian formation is the work of the whole church, not just in the classroom, but in all the activity of the church which includes
–a particular way of eating, learned through receiving the communion elements, signs of Jesus body broken for us and raised for our healing;
–a particular way of handling conflict and the particular practise of “forgiveness” learned through the example and practise of Jesus and his cross;
–a particular way of perpetuating itself, through evangelism [examples by Rodney Clapp as outlined in William H. Willimon’s “Pastor: The Theology and Practice of Ordained Ministry,” (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2002), p. 214].
Such formation involves a great deal of repetition, ritual, and retelling. “Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise” (Deut. 6:6-7). Not surprisingly, the results spread beyond ourselves and–by God’s intention–beyond our walls.
As we transform into the likeness of Christ, we form a counterculture. “When a mob attacked some of the believers in Thessalonica, the rabble screamed, ‘These people who have been turning the world upside down have come here also’ (Acts 17:6). What they should have charged is not simply that Christians turn the world upside down and inside out, but rather that they are attempting to live in a whole new world [Willimon, p. 216]. And in this new world we are discovering “that Christians are made, not born” [Willimon, p. 223].
May we in this time and place trust Jesus to make and shape us like him. Amen.
Let us pray:
Your word to us reminds us to “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are.
What we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when Christ is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.” (1 John 3:1-2)
Lord Jesus, we wait on this side of heaven,
and until we see you fully revealed in glory
we’re grateful for signs of
your loving kindness,
your suffering servanthood,
and your resurrection power.
Help us to be those signs.
Continue to form us into a new creation, into your likeness,
so that your life may be made visible in us,
to the glory of God. AMEN.