I once new a man named Bob. Bob was one of the kindest, most caring and easiest going men I've ever met. Bob was also the biggest cry baby I've ever met...by a mile. Bob would cry while singing up front in church, he would cry when telling people his story, he would cry during the sermon, he would cry during hymns, Bob cried everywhere and seemingly over everything! As a child I couldn't quite understand why Bob cried so often and so easily so I asked my father about this. It turned out that Bob wasn't always so kind, nor was he always caring and easy going. One similarity remained though, Bob was still very willing to let his emotions show, except back then, the only ones he showed were anger and rage. I learned that Bob hadn't always been so nice, and that when he was a young man, he was just as likely to get into a fight with a man as he was to say "hello". I was shocked to hear this, about the man I had come to know as so kind and gentle, and so I asked my father what had changed Bob so drastically. The response was that he heard God's called and was transformed.
So far, we've talked about hearing and discerning God's call, as well as obeying God's call. This week I'll be talking about how God's call can change and even transform a person. Our scripture passage comes from the call of Matthew, a man who was a tax collector (a sinner) and who was transformed and became one of the twelve. This passage is only one of many stories in scripture and Christian history where a person begins as less than righteous and once called by God is transformed into someone much different. As observers from the outside we see these stories as miraculous and often foreign to our own experience. While God certainly does change lives in such drastic ways, often the transformation that many of us experience follows a different, more gradual and even subtle path.
I mentioned above that I asked my father about Bob and his transformation, and the response he gave me was similar to some of the miraculous and instantaneous changes that we read about in scripture and the history books. Later on in life, I had the opportunity to hear Bob tell the story of his transformation, and it was a little different:
Bob told of his father-in-law to be coming to Bob and telling Bob to stay away from his daughter. The father-in-law to be mentioned that Bob drank too much, faught too much, and was not nearly good enough for his daughter. Bob recalled that he told his future father-in-law where he could shove it, and promptly married his daughter anyway! But a funny thing happened. No longer was Bob living a life only for himself, now with a wife, it was him and her. It didn't change much, but some things began to shift. Next, Bob's wife gave birth to their first child, and now it was him, her, and baby. Again not alot changed, but some things did. Later, Bob's son began to learn to speak, and Bob realized he had to watch his language around little Bobby, or else he would repeat daddy's foul words. Again not a huge amount of change, but small changes here and there. Several such events took place over the years, and then finally, Bob came to know Jesus as his Savior. Bob explained that he had been being transformed all along, that God had been calling him and changing his life little by little until Bob was finally ready to hear God's call for what it was and fully accept it.
In Bob's story, there was transformation, and it was in response to hearing and obeying God's call in his life, but the change began long before Bob realized he was being called. This is often the case in our lives. God calls us in ways that we don't even recognize as God's call. We are transformed a little bit at a time until one day we wake up and realize that we are far from the person we used to be. Often it is only once we've learned to hear and discern God's call, as well as obey it, that we are able to look back on our lives and see all the places and ways that God has been calling and transforming us.
I like to think that the transformation that is taking place in our lives is something like that which occurs in a caterpillar as it becomes a butterfly. Caterpillars are often seen as little fuzzy worms with legs. They aren't all that pretty, and don't seem to be very special. Yet that caterpillar is on a journey that will culminate in becoming a beautiful winged creature called a butterfly. I like to think that we too are like caterpillars, not always much to look at, and often times it seems we aren't destined for greater things. But, as Christians, through the call of God in our lives, we know that we are called to become more in this life and even more in the next. So my question for you is are you living your life as merely a worm with legs, or as someone destined to become far more?
Grace & Peace,
Pastor John
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