Are you a copycat or trail blazer. Are you shaped by the world or the example of Jesus?
A variety of outside factors influence our identity, values, hopes and dreams. Some we can control, while others control us. We don’t like to think we are shaped or controlled by outside influences, and yet it happens more often than not. We would rather pride ourselves on being unique, independent, confident of who we are. And yet often we conform to the clothing, habits, demands, lifestyle, or passions of others.
The world and people around us are more of an influence than we like to admit. It is for that reason St. Paul warned his audience not to be conformed to the standards of the world but instead to be transformed by Christ. Those two words are important! To be conformed is to be reshaped into an exact copy of something else, like a clone. Conforming shapes us into something we have already seen or known. On the other hand, to be transformed is to be changed into something completely different, as when a tadpole becomes a frog. Transforming leads to something never imagined before.
When I was a child, Mom would often ask, in exasperation, “Why do you have to be like Johnny?” When I heard those words, I knew I had disappointed her by letting someone else influence my behavior. She always followed with a suggestion about remembering who I was rather than just accepting the standards or values of those around me. Growing up is all about such choices from the menu of life.
At the time, I resented her critique. Now I understand she loved me enough to teach early lessons about making choices and being clear about values in my life. Growing up isn’t easy. Maturing in our lives of faith can be just as difficult a growth process as well. Paul’s words come as a type of parental guidance to the faithful.
God has gifted you and me to reflect his light of love rather than the imperfect shadows of a broken world. Rather than being shaped by others, God’s breath fills us with the miracle necessary to be changed into a life of faith, hope, and servant love.
Most bristle at being branded as a conformist, and yet we so easily wind up in that mode. Every generation and culture has different values, and yet without realizing what is happening, it is easy to adopt exactly the same patterns of behavior. In my case, all the boys in my elementary school had buzz cuts. In college our hair covered our ears. Back and forth our styles change, and often because of what others do and say.
Network newscasts or sports shows cover the same stories and often in the same order. They even use the same key words and phrases as it they are all working off the same playbook. They have similar sets, appearances, and styles. Every part of our culture is similar. Hairstyles, lifestyles, clothing, are often exact copies of those around us. Businesses copy products and just add unique labels. New movies are often remakes of old ones, with only new actors, soundtracks, and special effects. SUVs were unique at first, now they are the majority of the cars we see.
Even earthly non-conformists can’t help but conform. After Woodstock my generation all wanted to rebel against parents and the old ways. We wanted to be different. Soon we were all wearing bell bottom jeans, tie died shirts, and long hair replaced short hair. Today those who protest against violence often adopt the same violent actions they claim to abhor. Conformity is the nature of the call of the world.
How and where do you conform to expectations, rules of someone else? And where does your transformation by Christ mean freedom to become something new? That is at the heart of Paul’s guidance to the faithful. To be a follower of Jesus takes courage, and often goes against the grain of the values and attitudes that surround us. Love takes surrender. To follow Jesus means to become something new rather than just a clone of how the world shapes and molds. There is nothing we can do to shape ourselves into a disciple. Our brokenness leads only to imperfect copies. Only in surrender to faith are we willing to allow Christ to transform us into what we could never achieve on our own.
Following Christ simply illuminates how his love has transformed us! Paul’s words remind us that rather than take the easy way out and follow the crowd we are called to be a unique shape that reflects my God! Christmas and Easter have changed us to reflect his selfless love rather than the selfishness of a broken and angry world.
Consider how such transformation began. The God of creation clothed himself in an earthly body as a baby in a manger, so that we might understand the incredible love of God for a broken and wandering creation. Jesus embraced even our death in the miracle of a holy week, that his earthly corpse might be transformed by the creative energy of God; a miracle beyond the wisdom or strength of any human.
His holy life is breathed into us by faith, as a gift that transforms. It changes our shape as does air forced into a flat balloon. We have the same body, but are filled with the gifts of God rather than the broken molds of our world. Paul’s challenge is to look at our behavior as if we were looking in mirror. How we live, speak, work and play will show whether we are transformed by grace or are merely lumps of clay the world has shaped into clones of other godless, self-absorbed people.
In the letter to the Romans Paul told newly formed Christians “Do not be conformed to this world!” The Greek word he used for this spirit filled transformation was metamorphosis, which means an abrupt change in form or structure as well as habits. We know that word from our science classes. We use the same word we use to describe a caterpillar becoming a butterfly. Paul proclaimed that lives filled with God’s holy gift of faith undergo such a metamorphosis! God’s grace turns us from tadpoles into frogs, from sinners into saints, from selfish people into servant people. The world has non interest (or ability) to make us into copies of Christ, yet the miracles of faith can and transforms us into something different than we could ever imagine.
One day Jesus asked the crowd who they thought he really was. Their answers were all over the place and revealed most saw Jesus as conforming to something they desired, or someone they knew. They wanted him to conform to a worldly gift giver. Peter finally said, “you are the promised Messiah!” Jesus said that faith in God’s entrance to make us knew would be the cornerstone of a new creation or kingdom on earth. The inspiration of Christ’s life, death, and the resurrection are the new life that is breathed into us as the most transformative creation the world has ever known! Either Easter changes everything or it changes nothing!
The book “Same Kind of Different as Me,” is a true story of two unlikely friends who changed each other’s lives. Ron was a wealthy, international arts dealer, living the good life. Denver was an impoverished, homeless, former sharecropper from Louisiana, living on the streets. Both had reasons to ignore God in their lives.
Ron’s wife was a Christian and encouraged her self-made, selfish husband to volunteer with her in a homeless shelter. She hoped he would discover the true nature and value of life. Only to save his marriage did he agree and that is where he met Denver. Neither Ron nor Denver had faith. Ron felt his wealth was earned and deserved and faith was for weak people. Denver had always been poor, hopeless, and felt abandoned by God.
Each saw the same world from different perspectives. They were conformed by their environments, yet each became transformed by the power of love and faith. In a key moment for both, Denver noticed Ron had a key ring with many keys. He asked if every key was for something Ron owned. Ron said, “yes,” but had not thought about it that way before. Denver then asked, “Are you sure you own them, or does they own you?” And in the discussions that followed, each was transformed by the love of Christ.
A loving surrender of all our control and desires, is the gift that allows us to be filled by the love of Christ. When the baby of Bethlehem died on a cross so that he could be raised to life on Easter, he offered the one and only gift that transforms our lives into what God has promised all along. As his gift is the life that flows in our hearts, thoughts, and becomes our vision, the metamorphosis of grace is complete. Caterpillars are now butterflies, lumps of clay have life, and sinners become saints. Rather than trapped by a conforming world, we are free to soar with angels, but called to kneel and wash feet.