With that re-written chorus, Paul would have revealed some life-transforming realities.

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1 Page 1 of 5 Date: June 17, 2018 (Pentecost 4) 1. Texts: 1 Samuel 15:34-16:13; Ps. 20; 2 Corinthians 5:6-17; Mark 4: Subject: love. 3. Topic: Christ s love as recreative. 4. Aim: challenge. 5. Proposition: In Christ alone can we perceive his new creation of others. THERE IS A NEW CREATION A new commandment I give unto you, As I have loved you, As I have loved you. Sing or play from YouTube as possible. Today, St. Paul might re-write that chorus: Don t sing. only. Quote With that re-written chorus, Paul would have revealed some life-transforming realities. Remember, of course, that Paul was a faith-filled person even before he became a Christian. He knew God and hungered for the re-establishment of a divine kingdom. Today one could say, Paul was a Pharisee s Pharisee. Unlike most converts today, Paul did not have to come to faith he already believed. But that belief was centred in the law and the prophets of the Old Testament. It was not centred in a person and therefore not centred in love. Rather, it was centred in obedience to the law and therefore in one s duty and obligation. This reality coloured all that Paul saw, including the people with whom he came into contact.

2 Page 2 of 5 Prior to his conversion to Christ, Paul would have viewed non-jews as religiously unclean and to be avoided. He would have thought non-observant Jews to be a barrier to the coming of the Messiah. He would have seen creation itself as something to be mastered. That s before his conversion to Christ. It is crucial that we insist on saying, Paul s conversion to Christ St. Paul was not converted to Christianity, to a new set of laws, obligations and duties. Paul was converted to a person, to the second Person of the Trinity, to a living Lord of love. Paul was converted to a person by that person. He was not confronted with a new theology or a new way of thinking. His conversion was not a rational development of theological thought. He was converted by that living Lord, who sought to create a new relationship a personal, life-changing, intimate relationship. Paul s own re-creation came about through the transformative presence of the person of Christ. He was converted to and by Christ. With that conversion, Paul s eyes are opened to see Christ s re-creation not only of himself, but of all creation. From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! 1 You see, it s not just that Paul himself has been re-created. It s that he was able to see God s re-creation in others. It s not just his old self that has passed away he is able to see God at work in others in new ways! That s why he regards no one from a human point of view : his own new creation in Christ has given him a divine point of view from which he can see God at work in others. Let s put this in other, but equally effective terms. Paul, having been transformed by the love of Christ, could see that love at work in others. It is not just Paul that has been transformed: it is also his ability to see that has been made new. That s why Paul might have re-written that chorus. 1 2 Corinthians 5:16a, 17.

3 Page 3 of 5 God intends that that same re-creation is to be made ours. Having been born again by the Spirit from above, we are to see the world as Christ sees it. We are to view people neither as enemies of the gospel nor as potential contributors to the Church. Rather, we are to view them as Christ does as those needing his love and redemption in their daily and eternal lives. This changes a lot of things. We who have been converted to Christ have to view creation as the sign, symbol and sacrament of God s love for us. Therefore, every disciple of Jesus must be without exception an environmentalist. We are obligated by our own new creation to take care of God s creation. We converts to Christ are obligated to view others as the potential recipients of God s love. We must reject all bigotry, racism, prejudice, and hatred. Since we have experienced God s saving love in Christ, we must share that same love with others, irrespective of sexual orientation, political affiliation or standing in the community. As St. Paul s view of the world and of other people was transformed by his conversion to Christ, so must our view be. We cannot claim to be Christ s disciples without the transformation of our sight. That s what I meant when I mentioned earlier those life-transforming realities.

4 Page 4 of 5 Two actions necessarily arise out of these realities. First, we have to cope with the truth that all disciples of Christ must be converted to Christ. Disciples of Jesus are those who have experienced a lifechanging interaction with the resurrected Christ. Disciples have to move beyond faith as intellectual assent to a system of beliefs. For disciples faith is a lifechanging relationship with the resurrected Christ. Such a relationship is not marked by how much you know, but by how much you love God and by how much you will sacrifice because of that love. You will know that such love has transformed you when you are able to see others as God sees them. You will know once bigotry, racism, prejudice, and hatred are no longer a part of how you see others. If this experience of the redemptive love of God through Christ is not yet a part of you, then let s pray. Repeat after me: Lord Jesus, I want you and your love to be the centre of my life. I know that I cannot manage to be your kind of person without you at my centre. Lord, move into the centre of my life and re-create me in your own image. I thank you for your sacrificial love on my behalf. I thank you for living, loving and dying on our behalf so that all might experience God s saving grace. Fill me now to overflowing with the presence and power of your Holy Spirit. Enable me now to see others as you see them.

5 Page 5 of 5 And enable me to live out your love in the here and now. AMEN. The second action after choosing to be re-created by our relationship with Jesus is to choose to live according to that re-creation. This could mean choosing to limit our use of single-use plastics. It certainly will mean taking advantage of what recycling systems we have and reducing the amounts that we send to solid waste facilities. It will also certainly mean fighting for the rights of those who are different than we are. It will mean welcoming the refugee. It will mean struggling alongside the homeless and the addicted. All these things we will do with the name of Jesus on our lips. You see, that s a central part of our re-creation. It s never only that we are fighting for truth and justice we do so only in the name of Jesus. We do so because we are loved by Jesus. We can see others as God sees them, only because of Jesus. Left on our own, we will be marked by our own bigotry, racism and prejudice. But having invited Christ into the centre of our lives remember that prayer above we can now be as Christ was in this world. As he did, we proclaim God s gospel through our words and actions, which proves the existence of God s kingdom on earth. I suggested that St. Paul might have re-written that chorus according to his experience of transforming love. But he wouldn t have had to. After all, the original chorus says exactly what the re-write would have done: A new commandment I give unto you, As I have loved you, As I have loved you. AMEN.