When he was a boy growing up in Philadelphia, Tony Campolo and his best friend devised what they considered a brilliant and creative Halloween prank - one which, by the way, they never carried out. Their plan was to break into the basement of the local five-and-dime store. (To explain to children and young people, that’s a mini Wal-Mart.) They never planned to rob the store, but had they carried out their dream, it would have been far worse.
Their plan was to get into the store and change the price tags on all the merchandise. They imagined what it would be like the next morning when people came into the store and discovered that radios were marked at a quarter each and the price of hair pins had suddenly been raised to five dollars a package. With a great deal of delight, they wondered what it would be like in the store when no one could figure out what the prices of things really should be.
In recalling his boyhood plan of Halloween mischief, Campolo said that he often thinks that the world in which we live is trying to play that trick on all of us. At times, it appears that somebody has broken into our lives and changed the price tags—the value—attached to practically everything.
What makes matters worse it that we often play along with this malicious devilment! We have a tendency to treat with loving care those things that are of little worth, while at the same time making great sacrifices for that which, in the ends, has not real lasting value.
Sometimes is seems that we have little notion about how to realistically assess and assign appropriate values to the contents of our lives. It often seems like there is a complete failure to understand what is important in life.
Who switched the price tags?
A couple hours down the road in North Carolina approval has just been given but their state assembly to institute a state lottery. Our neighbors to the north has now join Virginia and dozens of other states in the odd affirmation gambling is actually taxation.
When I was in seminary in Kentucky I was a part of a coalition of students, pastors, and faculty of our school who oppose (unsuccessfully) that’s state’s drive to approve a state lottery. One of my friends took part in a televised debate about the subject. One of the proponents for the lottery argued that the proceeds of the lottery would help raise funds to make better schools. Then he said: “And this is a voluntary tax! If you don’t want to pay this tax, don’t buy lottery tickets.”
My friend, who was the pastor of an inner city congregation, responded: “The truth is that my church will be buying lottery tickets every day. When some father has become so addicted to a state sponsored gambling habit, our church will be the one who buys groceries for his wife and children. When some mother has spent her last few dollars in an attempt to get-rich-quick, our church will be paying for her baby’s formula.”
Think about it. We’ve replaced an honest days work for an honest days wages for a get-rich-quick scheme of state sponsors gambling – and we have the audacity to call it a voluntary tax.
Who switched the price tags?
The catastrophe that resulted from the wake of Hurricane Katrina has produced a multitude of miseries. One of the greatest has been how it has revealed the debasement of so much of our western values. When a tragedy such as this impacts a community the result should be that folks bond together to support and encourage and provide for one other. Yet on the streets of New Orleans and surrounding areas, gangs of marauders run wild, looting their way through that once great city. Meanwhile there have been dozens of reports price gouging and scam operations set to take advantage of those who are suffering – as well as those who are seeking to provide help.
Who switched the price tags?
When John F. Kennedy was President, he challenged our nation with one of the most stirring of all presidential quotes. “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.”
Yet today people are looking toward their country, their government, their employers, and civic groups looking for products and services. If all that weren’t bad enough, people look at the church with the same sort of consumer mentality. Rather than seeing the church as a place to worship God and a place from which to serve the world, people shop for the church that “meets their needs.”
And in the church its not much better. We evaluate our success (especially pastors) in terms bodies and budgets rather than lives impacted for the cause of the kingdom.
The sad reality is that somebody has switch the price tags throughout our society – and too often those of us who are in the church are a reflection of those misplaced values, rather than a corrective to those altered price tags.
This whole problem of mixed-up values is what the Apostle Paul speaks about in today’s two scripture passages. His aim and ambition in writing is to encourage those whose lives have been redeemed to live as redeemed people.
We first read Romans 12:1-2. Those of you who were with us last week will remember that we examined Romans 12:1 in some detail. We learned that this verse was transitional for Paul, connecting all that Paul had said in the first eleven chapters with all that he will say in the remaining portions of this letter.
If you read the literature of Paul in the New Testament, you will notice a pattern in all his writing.
First Paul addresses theology, then (based on the theology) he addresses ethics.
First Paul speaks about orthodoxy, then orthopraxy.
First Paul talks about right beliefs, and then he talks about right behavior.
There is a natural progression in Paul’s understanding of the Christian life. It starts with an understanding that IN CHRIST we have a new identity and it is because of that new identity that we can live differently. The legalistic mindset of ancient and modern day Pharisees can never understand this aspect of New Testament theology. They are still stuck with the stinking-thinking that has switch the prices tags around in such a way that behavior proceeds transformation.
“Not so,” says Paul. “Therefore, in the view of God’s mercy…don’t be conformed to the ways of the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will know God’s will for how you ought to live.”
For your lifestyle to change, your thought-life must change.
I read something posted on the office door of guidance counselor at the high school a few weeks ago as we were getting our daughter ready for her freshman year. It said:
Be careful about what you think for that will determine your feelings.
Be careful about what you feel for that will determine your attitudes.
Be careful about your attitudes for they will determine your actions.
Be careful about your actions for they will determine your character.
Be careful about your character for with it you will build your lifestyle.
I think that Paul might agree. The ultimate foundation for how we live in based on what we think. If we think the wrong thoughts – it will influence our feelings, attitudes, actions, character, and will ultimately determine our lifestyle.
That is what Paul is saying in Romans 12:1-2 as he connects theology to ethics; identity to lifestyle.
Now with this thought in mind we jump forward to Romans 13:8-14 where Paul writes about what the life of a transformed person looks like. If we are thinking the way Paul says we should think, then it will work itself out in some very practical ways in our lifestyle.
One of the pictures that Paul paints is of the difference between light and darkness.
Have you ever been in total darkness? When I was a pastor in Indiana while still in seminary we took our children spelunking. That means we went exploring caves. Jeana and I were dating at that point. In fact, I think we were even engaged. She had joined us on this expedition to meet some of the families in the church I served. At one point in our outing, we arrived at a spot where two things happened that I hope I never experience in my life. The first thing was that our guide turned off all the lights and we experienced total darkness. There was zero visibility. That is kind of a creepy feeling.
The second thing that happened was that the guide turned the lights back on, which startled a nest of nearby bats who began to flutter about my head. This resulted in this 6’2” frame of mind jumping behind the 4’11” frame of my girl-friend/fiancé. That resulted in the laughter of about a dozen adults and children from Salem Church and their advice that Jeana find a new husband-to-be.
The darkness is a scary place to be. Paul tells us that based on our new identity in Christ (in the view of God’s mercy) we should put off the things of the deeds of the darkness and put deeds befitting the daylight.
In other words, Paul is saying: “You are not of the darkness, but the light. Live in the daylight and get rid of the deeds of the night.”
What are those deeds? I like what Paul does. He gives a sample list of what we might call “big bad deeds” and “little bad deeds.” Of course, that would be our ranking – not God’s. As far as God is concerned, “bad deeds are bad deeds.” That said, Paul knows how we think, so he first mentions things like attending orgies and participation in other forms of debauchery. Then, before anyone in the Moral Majority can get too smug for living such pious lives, Paul includes some other deadly deeds that seem a little less serious to our way of thinking less serious – specifically he mentions sowing dissension and jealousy.
“You are not the same person you once were,” Paul is teaching. “Your old self was crucified with Christ. Your old nature was buried with Him in death through baptism. In view of this theological truth, allow your mind to be renewed and transformed so that your lifestyle will reveal the light of God, not the darkness of this world.
You have been changed – so live like changed people
You’ve been transformed – so you are not free to think and act like transformed people
That’s just one of the pictures Paul paints.
In the other picture, Paul redeems the law from the Old Covenant and gives it a proper place in the New Covenant.
Under the Old Covenant, the law was proscriptive – declaring how a person must live in order to be acceptable and pleasing to God. In the New Covenant the law is descriptive – declaring what the lifestyle of a person will be like when they are living out of their new identity in Christ.
Do you remember how Jeremiah described what would happen to the law under the New Covenant?
Look with me at Jeremiah 31:31-34.
The Old Testament prophet declares that the law will no longer remain on tablets of stone as an external motivation toward good behavior, but will be etched on our hearts and minds, revealing the internal transformation of the very nature of the individual. The prophet is saying that under the Covenant of Grace, we will be transformed on the inside in such a way that out outside lifestyle can reflect the life Jesus.
Jesus gave his life for us, to put his life in us, to live his life through us.
So what will the life of Christ THROUGH US look like? Paul uses a single word in Romans 13 to describe the difference that grace makes in our life. Do you know what that word is?
If you said, “LOVE!” Give yourself a big pat on the back and say, “I was paying attention when we were reading the scripture!”
Paul lists just a few of the commandments – but he says that this truth applies to all the commandment. For those of us under grace, transformed by Christ, and living out of our identity in Christ, the bottom line description of our lifestyle will be that of love.
To clothe ourselves in Christ means to be clothed in love! It will mean that our lifestyle is different. How so? It could be in lots of ways – but I want to mention just one. As transformed people who have clothed ourselves in Christ, we will be able to see possibilities when others see nothing.
Take a moment and reflect upon how Jesus saw other people?
Take, for example, the story of Zaccheus, the despised tax collector who made his living by cheating everyone.(Luke 19:1-10) When Jesus came to town, Zaccheus, being very short, decided to climb a tree for a better look. Jesus noticed him out on his limb. I suppose he wondered what he he should do about Zaccheus. Should he try to help him? To change him, perhaps? The townspeople would have thought the possibility of that to be completely outrageous. "You might as well try to turn stones into bread as to change that man. That’ll never happen," they would have said.
Therefore, to practically everyone, all the options were quite clear: a) scold Zaccheus publicly for being a scoundrel and sinner; b) ignore Zaccheus because to recognize him in any way gives tacit support to his dishonesty; or, c) laugh at Zaccheus. After all, he is quite a spectacle - perched up in that old sycamore tree. Nevertheless, Jesus saw another possibility - one no one else had thought about - because no one else had the perspective of Jesus.
He asks Zaccheus to come down from the tree and then, invites himself to Zaccheus’ house for dinner. The next day the story is flying all over town. "Did you hear what happened to Zaccheus? He is a changed man. He is not only giving back what he stole. He’s giving back four times more than he stole!"
One of the most certain indicators of Jesus’ divine nature is not His virgin birth or His ability to perform miracles. The surest sign that He is the Son of God is His ability to see the possibilities no one else sees, to see the resources to which everyone else is blind.
When we clothe ourselves with Christ – when our thinking is renew and our minds open to transformation – when we are living out of our new identity in Christ – then we will begin to see possibilities when before we saw improbabilities. We will begin to see people’s potential IN CHRIST and that will prompt us to love them the way Jesus loves them.
