Imagine with me a cable sweater. It is in the midst of going together but when I pull the sweater out of the project bag it looks like quite a mess. I have to pay attention when I knit—especially to the set up row for cables or the sweater will not work out.
When I think about God knitting, I see that the cables are all perfect and planned and each one of us in the Body of Christ makes up a similar and yet unique stitch. There are all kinds of people who confess being Christian of one kind or another and all of us make the sweater covering the Body of Christ more intricate and richer than ever. We all have different functions but the same mission after all.
And we differ from our ancestors who were Christian and Jewish too. We no longer offer God a sacrifice of our prize lamb. We worship together still though. We belong to one another and know each other’s lives. I love you all like you are a part of my family. If you needed something at 3am I would find a way to wake up.
The other part of the Romans passage that stood out for me this week is verse 2: “do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds.” To my mind the world conforms by law or authority. Both Conform and Transform are in the imperative tense in Greek, which means they are orders being barked out by Paul in his letter, not mere suggestions. Keep aware of the world. Be transformed by the Spirit of Jesus. Being transformed is ‘metamorphose’ in Greek. Changing gradually in the way God does, we let the awakening of our spiritual side happen. God gives people in this community gifts so that will happen. Not just with the preacher—I know I have gifts, but so do all of you. Paul lists some of these gifts at the end of the passage: prophecy, ministry, faith, teaching, exhorting, giving, leading, being compassionate…. We all are transformed into people who plug into the community of God.
If I had said 8 months ago that we would all be quarantined and struggling now, would anyone have thought this possible? Here we are worshipping together in new ways. We never know what will happen during our transformation into who God wants us to be. Look at Peter in our gospel passage. Jesus saw his flaws and his gifts too and took him up as the leader of the apostles before he was crucified. He even gives him the keys to the church of the future. Peter a couple weeks ago starts out walking on water and then questions Jesus and sinks. This is the person Jesus chose to lead. Transforming but not perfect must have been how much Jesus loved Peter.
How does call us to be transformers and transformed? The Spirit guides us when our own will doesn’t get in the way. Without the Holy Spirit we might only be conformists. We have to stand in contrast to the conformity of the world. I figure if we are the left thumb of the body of Christ it is Christ’s life that guides us through the Word. We all are one in so many ways. We support Small Hand, Patchworkers, donate to the Food Bank…As a Parish we come together knitted into surprising unity because of the Body of Christ.
Love and peace be with you. Pastor Angela