We live in a time when the culture around us tries to mold us into putting self first, to embrace a culture of consumerism and individualism, to seek ease and financial security, to preserve the institution at all costs. But Jesus, Peter, and Paul are calling us to reconsider what success is all about, what is most important, and what the foundation for living in this new vision, the new annual conference, will be. We are called to lose our lives as former conferences and to be transformed, in order to “live the gospel of Jesus Christ and to be God’s love with our neighbors in all places.” BEING TRANSFORMED
suffering and sacrifice, was inconceivable. But Jesus assured them that by losing his life, by their expecting to lose their lives, they would discover life in abundance. Peter says, “Repent.” Jesus says, Lose your life in order to find it. Paul brings us another version of this warp fabric. It is from those first two verses of the twelfth chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed.” Paul wrote those words to a mixed community of Jewish and Gentile believers in the capital of the Roman empire. In this passage, Paul provided his own blunt words, words that connected to their community as the word “repent” connected with those hearing Peter’s sermon, as the message lose your life in order to find it connected with Jesus’ audience. In other words, to repent and to find one’s life is to be transformed.
Those warp threads of repentance, losing life to find it, and being transformed repeat themselves lengthwise across the loom frame. But to complete the tapestry, we need the various weft threads that are attached to shuttles that weave over and under and through those warp fabrics. In order for our vision to emerge, one of the weft strands is to passionately love the God who has so passionately loved us in Jesus Christ. Unless we know, not just in the head, but in our whole being, that we are the beloved children of God, it will be difficult, if not impossible, for us to deny self and be transformed. Knowing and experiencing again and again that grace-filled, unconditional love of God happens as we engage in vibrant worship, as we participate in small groups, as we take time in individual prayer and reflection, as we serve with our neighbors. As we experience that love, we will be empowered to move out to be God’s love with our neighbors in all places.
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