Mountainview International Church

In a West London suburb lies Minet Park. In the late 1990’s burnt-out cars and piles of tyres and industrial waste littered the 90-acre park. The locals viewed the Minet site as nothing more than an ugly dumping ground.

The Reverent David Bookless, who lived near the park, had a God given passion for the environment. In 2001, with the help of several other Christians, he established a UK branch of the international Christian environmental charity, A Rocha, and then set about talking to local community groups about his vision to transform the disused site into one of the largest public access parks in urban West London.

Groups from many cultural and religious backgrounds got involved. The local council and even MP’s got involved. Their efforts were rewarded on June 14, 2003, when local residents joined council officials, community leaders and volunteers to celebrate the opening of Minet Park. A local Rabbi was invited to speak on Ezekiel 36:33-36, which speaks of the land that was laid waste becoming like the Garden of Eden.

Loads of wildlife has returned. The beauty of the place brings peace. The project has united the local community and is important place for education.

We love stories like this because they grab at something within us. Our souls often become a dumping ground for sin and pain. We long for the rubbish to be cleared up and the wastelands within to be transformed into the Garden of Eden.

Trust me! When you’ve had a week like mine, busy and stressful, every cell in my body is crying out for the rubbish to be cleared out.

We’re beginning a series this Lent (a time when of the church has traditionally prepared for Easter) with a series looking at the subject of transformation – becoming more like Jesus. Just so you know, it’s not all original material. We’re taking a number of the ideas from this great book, The Life You’ve Always Wanted, by John Ortberg that takes a contemporary look at some of the Spiritual disciplines. If you fancy a challenging read during Lent then get on Amazon and order yourself a copy!

1. Hope for Transformation:

The hope for transformation is deeply wired into our soul. We’re fixated with the idea of transformation. We go to the gym so that our physique can be transformed to be like Barbie or Action Man. We go to therapists in the hope that our pain and bitterness might be transformed into a peace and tranquillity matching Mother Teresa. We read books on time management so that we might be transformed into extraordinarily productive people.

Fairy stories and good movies! Why do they grab us so? Because they’re all about transformation! They’re about frogs becoming princes, ugly ducklings becoming beautiful swans, Pinocchio becoming a real boy, a paralyzed marine becoming a Na’vi on Pandora. It touches a longing within us and we love them!

Tolkien said that the mark of a good story is that catches our breath, it lifts our hearts and brings us close to tears. It leaves us hoping for transformation, to be a better person…for a better world!

Fairy stories have a lot in common with the Gospel, but with one difference…the gospel is true! The good news Jesus proclaims is that the kingdom of God has come. God’s offering transformation to ordinary people. To you and to me! The Gospel is meant to catch our breath, lift our hearts, bring us to tears.

John Ortberg writes:

The Christian gospel insists that the transformation of the human personality really is possible. Never easy. Rarely quick. But possible. ~ John Ortberg

Many of Jesus stories centre on agriculture. He says the kingdom grows like a tree. You don’t notice much on a daily basis, but when you come back a few years later, “My goodness me! Look how much it’s grown!”

In 1973 my Dad was asked to launch a new agricultural college in Western Kenya. We moved 300 miles to a building site. Dad, somewhat ahead of his time, thought, we need to plant trees for the future! 2 years later, in 1975, small saplings barely making it under the African sun, we returned to England.

25 years later my Dad gets to return to the agricultural college with my Mum. The think that they talked about most when they got home was seeing all those trees.

Transformation is: Never easy. Rarely quick. But possible!

2. Heart for Transformation:

I love the story of Moses. To save his tiny life, his family Nile float him down the Nile in a Moses basket. He’s found by Pharaoh’s daughter and grows up in Pharaoh’s household! For 40 years he gets a top notch education. Then, as men often do at 40, he has an identity crisis. Having got more in touch with his Jewish side he ends up killing an Egyptian. Then, fearing for his life, runs into the desert for 40 years! He wanders around wondering. “What this life all about? It didn’t end up like it started! It’s a disappointment! Is there any hope?”

One day, looking after his sheep, he sees as burning bush that doesn’t burn up. Intrigued by the strange sight, he says to himself “I’m gonna go and have closer look”. As he draws close to the un-burning tree the voice of God says, “Moses you’re standing on holy ground. Take off your shoes and draw close to me.”

In the New Testament Jesus is like the burning bush. He causes different reactions. People either turn away in disbelief. Others, seeing this bush that does not burn up, feeling threatened, try to pour water on the fire and put it out. A few decide to go and have a closer look and find that they end up kneeling before God the Son.

One day a rich man comes to Jesus and says, “What should I do to be your follower?” Jesus looks him in the eye and says, “The one thing that’s stopping you from really following me is your money. Give it all away and come and follow me!” We’re told that the man turns away in disbelief.

Then we have the religious leaders. Jesus challenges their framework. So they decide that they need to put out his fire; get rid of him.

But there others when they meet Jesus. They kneel before him as Lord. They invite him to change their lives. Oftentimes they go tell their friends, “Come meet this life changing Jesus for yourself!

There are a couple of challenges in drawing close to Christ:

Boundary Markers:

A challenge we face in drawing near to Christ is something called boundary markers. They’re sociological identifiers that groups develop to us help define who is on the inside and who is on the outside. I grew up in a church where smoking was a mortal sin. When I went to Holland everyone ran for the door, after the closing hymn, so they could light up. I was deeply shocked. Often boundary markers are quite insignificant things and somewhat unrelated to real spiritual issues.

In the New Testament the Pharisees boiled down their spirituality to boundary markers. Their main focus was on defining who was out and who was in.

Jesus on the other hand heads for the centre. He challenges us over an over again that when it comes to our spiritual life it’s not the outside markers that matter most, but our inside stuff. The things of the heart matter most to God.

One of the great things about Mountainview is we’re an international church and we gather people from many different cultural and denominational backgrounds. International churches have the habit of stripping away many of our boundary markers. This is not pride when I say attending Mountainview is gift to you. We are part of community where the rich diversity helps us focus back on the spiritual centre.

Jesus strips through the peripherals and heads for our heart

Brokenness:

Before we can be transformed we need to understand just how much we need it. We need to become more aware of all the rubbish within. Growing as a believer is not about becoming more hopeful in ourselves, but in Jesus who can help us.

Jesus speaking of himself says:

Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed (Luke 20:18)

Transformation begins with coming to Jesus and seeing more closely this great fire. Will we come and see, and take off our shoes for it’s holy ground, this Lent season.

[Paul Strooh Share]

3. Heading for Transformation

It is important to know where we are headed with transformation. Into what are we being transformed? Miss Las Rozas? Mr. Universe? The nicest person in my study module? The bible is crystal clear; we should be headed in the direction of becoming more like Jesus.

John the Baptist describes transformation this way:

He must become greater; I must become less. (John 3:30)

I like this verse from Romans. We often quote verse 28, but miss verse 29:

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. (Romans 8:28-29)

Paul is reminding us, the power of God is at work to make us more like Jesus. We don’t transform alone, God is leading the process. I love this verse because it’s not a cardboard-cut-out Jesus approach. If you look at my kids; Joel, Caleb, Ethan and Jordan, we see a family likeness, but they’re all unique. The idea of transformation is not to take away our uniqueness, but to develop our unique family-likeness to Jesus.

Have you ever been going around when you meet somebody who, just by the way that they act and talk, by the way they smile, their grace, that you know they are a brother or sister in Christ? This is what Paul means by a family likeness to Jesus.

In Ephesians Paul reminds us that growing as a believer involves this idea of getting rid of our old nature and putting on God’s nature.

22You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4:22-24)

Like the park story, we started with, Paul is not just saying just get rid of the junk. He’s saying go makes some paths, plant some trees, sow some flower seeds. Don’t just clean out the junk, put something beautiful of God back in its place.

[Gustavo will develop this next week]

Question what is the calling of church leaders? Is it to make sure that the bulletins get printed, the offering gets counted and the church website is updated? The Apostle Paul says that it’s the willingness to go through the pain of seeing Christ formed in one another. He writes:

My little children, again I feel the pain of childbirth for you until you truly become like Christ. (Galatians 4:19)

Paul is asking us to be like parents. Committed to the long haul and willing over and over and over again to endure the oftentimes intense pain that it takes to see people born into the kingdom of God and to be transformed into the likeness of Christ.

Remember Eric said in his sermon, I think quoting Augustine that “God became man in order that we might become god”. Remember? Søren Kierkegaard said:

With God’s help, I shall become myself ~ Søren Kierkegaard

As we allow God to transform us into his likeness we will discover more of who we were made by God to be.

Finally,

4. Helps for Transformation

I don’t know about you but I can feel guilty about how little time I read the bible or to pray. So when I get a series like this, which talks about spiritual disciplines more things I need to do to become spiritual, I check out because it’s just more things to feel guilty about.

Think of a potter working the clay! The clay has to be soft for him to work it. I think that spiritual disciplines are like water that softens our hearts and so that God, like a potter, might shape us more into the image of Christ. This series is about helping us to soften our hearts.

Becoming like Jesus is not an easy task. John Ortberg says:

Learning to think, feel, and act like Jesus is at least as demanding as learning to run a marathon or play the piano ~ John Ortberg

Also when we think about becoming more like Jesus, let’s not always think too complicated. Often the things that help are quite simple. This week has been pretty stressful. A solution that helped me was to have a couple of early nights. Perhaps this Lent all we need to do to in order to become more like Christ is to sleep more and come home early from the office and spend more time with your family.

Conclusion:

I want a close with the story of Mabel. Mabel is an old woman, who is strapped in a wheelchair. She’s blind and has a large hearing aid because she’s nearly deaf. Cancer is eating away at one side of her face. Her mouth is distorted and she drawls constantly. 89 years old, she’s been bedridden, blind and nearly deaf for 25 years.

One day Tom Schmidt put a flower in her hand and said, “This is a flower for you! Happy Mother’s Day!” She lifted the flower to try to smell it and then much to his surprise said, “Let’s give it to somebody else because I’m blind and I can’t enjoy it!” When they found somebody to whom they could give the flower, Mabel held out the flower and said, “Here this is from Jesus!”

Tom Schmidt became friends with Mabel and he went to see her 2-3 times each week. Whenever he saw her the first thing she would do was offer him a sweet from a tissue box. She would often comment about scripture and hymns that she had been thinking about. She never spoke of loneliness or pain.

When Tom Schmidt asked her what she thought about day after day, week after week, not even able to know if it was day and night, she said:

I think about my Jesus. I think about how good he has been to me. He’s been awfully good to me in my life; you know….he’s all the world to me.

I think the story of Mabel challenges us because she had power. A power that came from following Jesus as best she could in her situation! Patient in suffering! A woman of worship and prayer and scripture meditation! Giving to others whenever possible!

Tom Schmidt discovered that although Mabel was a frail human being she was also a burning bush. A place where this ordinary pain-filled world was visited by the presence of Christ!

She reminds us no matter what our situation it’s possible to become like Jesus.

[Let us pray]