A Life Transformed
Dr. Jim Wilson, June 6, 2010 A young clergyman wanders alone through the streets of London on a warm May evening. He has recently returned from the colony of Georgia were he sought to convert the Native Americans and be a pastor to the colonists. His efforts on both accounts met with total failure. Now both discouraged and disillusioned, he is experiencing a crisis of faith. He decides to accept an invitation man to attend a Moravian society meeting on Aldersgate Street. Something happens to him at that meeting; something that changes his life; something so dramatic that he would never be the same again. Listen to how the young man describes this “something” in his own words: In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading from Luther’s Preface to St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed, I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation, and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine. The young man, of course, was none other than John Wesley the founder of Methodism. Whether what Wesley experience on May 24, 1738 was a “conversion” continues to be a matter of scholarly debate. Certainly, the experience was not a “conversion” in the sense of a move from disbelief to belief. What seems quite clear is that it was a moment of transformation, a transforming encounter with the grace of God in Christ Jesus which led to a whole new life, as well as the greatest evangelical revival in history. John Wesley was indeed a changed man. His life bore the marks of a life transformed by grace: freedom from the past and for the future; a fresh focus reflecting God’s intentions and faithfulness to a call to serve. Wesley’s life was transformed. After that evening he was never the same again. Much the same could be said about St. Paul. He too experienced a transforming encounter which he describes in our text from Galatians. A group of Jewish Christians, often referred to as “Judaizers” to identify their demands that Gentile converts must observe the Jewish Law, especially the practice of circumcision, have infiltrated the churches of Galatia. They oppose Paul by challenging his apostolic authority as second hand at best, coming from human beings. They also challenge Paul’s Gospel teaching that salvation comes from Christ Jesus and not the Law. Paul’s response is swift, sharp, and a bit testy. He maintains that both his apostolic authority and message are gifts of God’s gracious love. Neither came from human authority or some human commission. Next, he turns to the experience of that revelation itself which is commonly referred to as “The Damascus Road Experience.” Paul is usually reluctant to speak personally, preferring to keep the focus on Jesus Christ rather than himself. However, his integrity is under attack. And what happened to him on the Damascus Road was indeed a transforming encounter. He was, as we say, “never the same again.” Paul’s transforming encounter is told in three places in the Book of Acts as well. It is obviously a significant event in the history of the Church, one that William Barclay suggests is second only to the resurrection of Jesus in terms of importance. Paul begins the telling of his story by recalling his life as a Pharisee, “a Hebrew of Hebrews” as he says in Acts, one who was an “Arch-persecutor” of the Christian community. His radical commitment to obedience to the Law as the one and only means of salvation demanded that he root out and destroy those who taught this heresy that salvation came by faith in this Jesus the Christ. While Paul does not describe the actual experience on the Damascus Road, as he does in Acts---the blinding light, the voice of the Risen Lord, the instructions to seek out Annaias---he does claim that God had set him apart before birth and called him to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles, a description reminiscent of the call of an Old Testament prophet, such as Jeremiah. Paul goes to great lengths to tell what he did after his transforming encounter: time in Arabia, then back to Damascus to do mission work, a short visit to Jerusalem to confer with Peter and James; then on to Syria and Cilcilia. The point he is making is that he did not confer with anyone, at least to the extent that it could be said that he was seeking validation or some kind of commission. The larger point he is scoring, however, is that his own experience, this great transformation of his life, is itself a witness to the source of his authority and message as being from God. No human power could cause such a change. Only God’s intervention can produce such a transformation. Such happenings are the province of grace and grace alone. Since I have both heard about and witnessed my share of dramatic conversions, some of which have been truly transformational, I approach such stories with a good bit of caution. I am reminded of a story told about the Bishop of the West Virginia Annual Conference who had a habit of asking the preachers during the clergy session how many souls had been converted under their ministry during the past year. Now a request of this kind opens the door to temptation to which preachers are not always resistant. So the roll call of preachers began. When the Bishop got about half way through the roll, he stopped, looked up, and said, “I see by our count that you all have already converted all the people in the state of West Virginia.” There was a brief pause. A preacher stood and after being recognized said, “Well Bishop, down in this country, you got to convert them several times a year.” Such is my caution. There are those who tell dramatic stories of their conversion, are quite passionate about getting saved, but whose lives simply don’t bear signs of transformation. There are those who claim to be transformed but whose lives contradict their claim as they act mean-spirited, controlling, demanding that others conform to their experience and understanding. The point is that if one is transformed by the gracious love of Christ Jesus, their lives ought to reflect such a transformation. Can that experience be a dramatic conversion experience, like that of St. Paul? Of course. Does it have to be? Of course not! Sometimes that transformation comes as a dramatic encounter. I know folks who have had such an experience and their lives reflect the transformation. Others, however, experience transformation through the nurturing grace of Jesus Christ encountered in the ministries of the Church. Personally, my experience is more like this experience. I am a “son of the Church,” having been nurtured and raised in the body of Christ. I give thanks for those faithful Christians who initiated my transformation. Yet, I can also point to significant moments, turning points, not Damascus Road experiences but moments that both confirmed and moved the transformation of my life. In the body of Christ, both kinds of transformation must be welcomed and celebrated. The main concern here is not so much the “how” of transformation but “what” is the result. The result of experiencing the transforming love of Christ Jesus is a refocusing of one’s life. The lens of our life is switched from simply satisfying our own wants and needs to focusing on serving others; instead of accumulating more and more things, the transformed life focuses on feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, seeking justice and working for peace; instead of capitulating to the culture, the transformed life lives as a resident of God’s New Order and marches to the beat of a different drummer, one named Jesus. Several years ago, some students on a mission team to Ghana experienced this power to refocus life. They wanted to show the movie, JESUS, at a service but discovered that the room was too light and could not be adequately darkened. As the villagers gathered, the students decided they would have to offer their own witness. They began to search for a translator. Finally, they found a man who understood English. As the students shared the freedom and new life given in Christ Jesus, the crowd began to swell. It grew and grew until it spilled out into the street. What the students did not know was that their translator was a prominent local gangster. People came to find out why he was speaking about God. When the student speakers ended their messages with an invitation, the translator added an invitation of his own. “I want you all to know that I have met Jesus Christ,” he said, “I am gong to come forward and I recommend you do the same.” Transformation means a new focus for our lives. This new focus allows us to live faithfully; to live with a sense of confidence and courage---both born of a trust in the Lord. I want to be careful here. I am speaking of confidence, not arrogance, of courage, not self-centeredness. In 1988 I served as President of the Joliet Area Community Hospice. At our annual meeting that year, we were blessed to have Father Martin Jenko as our speaker. Father Jenko, a Joliet native, had been released just a few months before after some 400 plus days as a hostage in Lebanon. Char and I had the honor of being seated with Father Martin. What amazed me then and still does when I think about it, is this man harbored absolutely no animosity, no anger, not hatred, whatsoever toward his captors, despite being chained to a radiator in his underwear in an unheated room for days on end, despite being beaten and tortured, and despite constantly threatened with death. He lives with a quiet but profound sense of confidence and courage. Someone at the table asked Father Martin, “How is it that you are not angry with those who treated you so cruelly?” He answered, “The love of Jesus sets me free from the need to be angry.” As we talked further and later as he spoke, I realized this was a unique moment. I said to Char on the way home, “Tonight, we sat in the presence of a truly holy man.” He was indeed a man transformed by the grace of God So it can be for you and me. We can never be the same again once we encounter the Risen One. Our lives too can be transformed. We now live a grace-shaped life, alive that continues to be shaped by God’s transforming love. Thanks be to God! Amen! |
