Lent Week #1 – a Transformed Mind / How Easter can transform our perspective and thinking
Preacher: Phil Swain Luke 10:25-42
We start our six-week Lenten journey towards the cross and resurrection of Easter. This year at TUC, our theme for Lent is “transformation”. Easter is transformative … Easter should transform you. We are going to use Lent to ponder what it means for God to transform our minds or our thinking; how the cross can transform our hearts (or the way we relate to God); and how Easter should transform our lives and the way we love God and love others.
In this sermon, Phil is going to start by exploring what it means for us to “not conform to the patterns of this world but be transformed by the renewing of our minds” (Romans 12:2). In Luke chapter 10 we find two stories of how Jesus challenged people’s way of thinking or perspectives and invited them to see things differently. As we explore these passages, we may find God challenging some of our perspectives and inviting us to use this season of Lent as a time for God to transform our minds so that we think a little bit more like Jesus.
Sermon Text
As we have already mentioned … we are in the Season of Lent. The 6 week journey of preparation and contemplation in the lead up to Easter. Lent has been a traditional time for Christians across the ages and around the world to make space in their minds and hearts to receive anew the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection.
Over the past 7 years here at TUC we have tried to have a theme for Lent … something to help us focus and reflect … and this year the theme is TRANSFORMATION.
Easter is transformative …
Easter should transform you.
We are going to use Lent to ponder what it means for God to transform our minds or our thinking; how the cross can transform our hearts (or the way we relate to God); and how Easter should transform our lives and the way we love God and love others.
The most common analogy used when talking about transformation is that of a caterpillar transforming into a butterfly. The thing I like about this analogy is that this transformation cannot be immediate but rather is a process. Likewise, the transformation that I think that God is inviting us to experience this Lent / Easter is not something that can happen in a moment but rather is a process. It will take some time. So the challenge I see is … How do we make the most of this Lent journey and allow these six weeks to be a significant time of transformation?
Today we start with the transforming of our minds.
Romans 12:2 – Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is…
This verse makes it sound easy … but changing our perspectives or the way we think is very challenging. It is hard to overcome the mental and emotional resistance to letting go of what feels familiar and true and embrace something that is different. There are barriers such as cognitive bias – the way we filter information based on what we believe to be true; or ego and pride – it is hard to admit that we might not have been thinking the best way. Often our ways of thinking is tied to our identity or values so challenging our perceptions can make us feel disoriented, or uncertain. We fear how others might judge us or even reject us if we think differently. Besides, there is comfort in familiarity … much easier than embracing change.
We don’t like to have our thinking challenged … so I get that this idea of today of being open to God renewing or transforming our minds or our thinking or our perceptions … this might be hard. And the people in our bible reading today found it hard too.
The narrative lectionary gives us two passages where Jesus challenges the way that people are thinking, the perceptions that they have, the framework they are working with … and offers them a new way of seeing things.
So, lets jump right in with the first on from Luke 10:25…
On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
On the surface, this is a great question. What must I do to be right with God? Or more likely he meant what must I do to get to heaven? But remember – the person asking this is an expert in the law … therefore he would have already known the answer (or an answer). He wasn’t asking Jesus because he didn’t understand – he wanted to see if Jesus affirmed his way of thinking, that Jesus agreed with his perspective. He wanted Jesus to say that his thinking was correct and that he didn’t need to change.
Jesus could see this too – which is why these two questions Jesus asks in return are so insightful. Jesus asked “What is written in the law?” You’re the expert … what does the text in the Torah say about this? So … what is written … AND … how do you read it? How do you understand what the torah text means in your context. How do you interpret it? What is your take on this?
The expert gives a good answer to the first question by quoting (and a little value adding to) two verses from the Torah…
- Deuteronomy 6:5 … Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength [and with all your mind]
- Leviticus 19:18 … Love your neighbour [as yourself]
Jesus affirms this answer. “You are correct. Great answer – I would have said the same” (actually Jesus does answer the same when asked the same question in Matthew and Mark’s gospel). The expert got the question “what is written” correct.
But Jesus also asked how he read it. What was his interpretation of how this played out in his own life and context? What was his thinking of what this meant?
I am just going to pause on this and do a little “reading between the lines” and ponder what is going on in this law experts head. What was he thinking here?
Some commentators pick up on the words the Luke uses…
“stood up to test Jesus” … “he wanted to justify himself” … and frame this conversation around the idea that the expert wanted the minimum requirements checklist for being right with God – so that could know that he was going to heaven. This idea of a checklist was popular around the time of Jesus … if you love God by observing the Sabbath and other religious rituals and festivals; and love others by contributing to the temple treasury; – then tick, tick, tick … you have eternal life. As one preacher noted, it was like the expert wanted to make sure all the boxes were ticked so that he never had to think about this again.
But Jesus challenged his way of thinking on this. Look again at verse 28. “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” Jesus was saying that loving God and loving others are not checkboxes to tick and forget … but rather they are a way to live. It is not something you can do in a moment – but a live long process.
The expert pushed back … he didn’t want his perspective challenged so he asked another checkbox type question … ok, who is my neighbour? Tell me who I have to love so I can tick that box.
But remember, he is an expert … he knew the answer, just wanted Jesus to affirm it. The common thinking for Jews at the time was their neighbours were other Jews.
Sure – there are passages in the Torah that speak about caring for the immigrant or the refugee … but when it came to loving your neighbour, they all believed that their neighbour was the people like them … their fellow Jews.
So Jesus pushes back on this thinking and tells the parable of the Good Samaritan. Would you like me to go through this passage step by step or are well all familiar with it? Ok .. the highlights…
The road from Jerusalem to Jericho is on a steep decline … lots of twists and turns and was a known spot for robbers – hence the certain man who beaten, robbed and left for dead. Was this certain man Jewish? We are not told, and he is stripped of any identifiable cultural hints. Jesus already is challenging the thinking of the expert. How do you decide if a person is your neighbour if you can’t identify race.
The priest and Levite walk by without stopping. I have read sermons that try to give some justification of this – for example if they touch a dead body, they would be unclean and not be able to serve at the temple. Rubbish – the Torah is clear, if there is a person in need – you help. They didn’t.
A Samaritan comes by. Jews really dislike Samaritans – and yet Jesus makes him the hero. He stopped, cared for him, took him to an inn and paid for his recovery. It was the Samaritan who showed loved to his neighbour. And just like the caterpillar into the butterfly, this compassion was not a moment but it took a significant time investment.
So what thinking or perspectives was Jesus trying to challenge with this parable?
- Breaking the cultural and social biases around “us and them” … all people in need are our neighbours
- Seeing people as individuals not as inconveniences … that all humans are worthy of our compassion
- That loving God and loving others is not about meeting the minimum requirements checklist but is a way of life that should be reflected in our actions
- That the question of the expert should not have started with “what must I do” but rather “how must I live …”
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Let’s quickly jump to the second part of our reading – the story about Jesus, Mary and Martha as I also think that this is challenging perspective and ways of thinking.
Martha viewpoint was that productivity was the highest value and that Mary needed to be doing something … but Jesus was pushing back and wondering if there were other things that were just as or more important that being productive?
We might also suggest this story is challenge the cultural norms around gender and the place of women; or the cultural expectations about hospitality vs being present with people; or the dangers of comparison; or about doing vs being.
While all of those are interesting … I think that there is another angle in this passage which can be very challenging when it comes to transforming the way we think.
Take a closer look at verse 40. “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” The tricky part here is that culturally, Martha is right. Hospitality is a key core value in first century Palestine. And yet at the same time … Spiritually, Mary is right. It is a good thing to sit under Jesus’ teaching. Mary was literally living out God’s words from last week’s Transfiguration reading, “This is my son, listen to him”.
How do we discern which perspective to hold when multiple perspectives are valid?
You might not like this answer; but I think it could come down to the context that we find ourselves in that moment. In that moment, Martha discerned that it was best for her which was doing practical hospitality for Jesus. But in the same moment, Mary discern that what was best for her was to sit at Jesus feet. Jesus didn’t tell Martha that she had chosen wrong, rather that Mary chose what was right (for her) and that it would not be taken away from her.
The reason I suggested you might not like this answer is that if our discernment or perspective can be influenced by our context … then for some things in life, we might not be able to just work out what we think and hold onto that way of thinking forever. We can’t just tick the box and move on.
Don’t get me wrong – I am not suggesting that we conform to the patterns of this world … Romans 12:2 clearly tells us not to. But maybe the renewing of our mind is not a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence but something that we need to be open to God renewing our minds or challenging our perspectives regularly.
Maybe that is something that we can embrace as we enter into Lent this year. What would it mean for us to ask God to use this six week to renew our minds – to search our thoughts or perspectives and challenge us on anything that might need to be renewed or transformed.
Maybe our prayer this Lent might be to transform our minds so that we think a little bit more like Jesus.
If this is the case, then we need to pray.
We need to pray asking for Jesus to help us on this Lent Journey. Let me pray that for you …
Jesus – as we journey with you, please open our eyes to see!
We ask you to help us to not conform to the pattern of this world, but rather we ask that we be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
We ask you to challenge
any of our perspectives that are unhelpful.
We ask you to push back against ingrained ways of thinking that don’t reflect you or align with your way of living.
We ask you to journey with us as we strive to love you with all our heart and soul and strength … and all our minds … and to love our neighbour as ourselves.
Renew our minds, we pray.
Amen.