(Note: This blog entry is based on the text for “Variant”, originally shared on August 19, 2021. It was the 141st video for our YouTube Channel, Streams of Living Water (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7KnYS1bpHKaL2OseQWCnw), co-produced with my wife, Rev. Sally Welch.)
A variant is something that is different
from other forms of the same thing. Are you a variant? Can you be a good
variant? Today, we’ll find out.
We are currently in a phase of the COVID-19 pandemic where variants, or
varieties, of the disease are rising and falling. The variants are being given
the names of the letters in the Greek alphabet (Fun fact: “Alphabet” is a word
that comes from the first two letters of the Greek alphabet: Alpha and Beta).
We are currently most concerned about the Delta Variant in Southern
California (Delta is the fourth letter in the Greek alphabet), though the
Lambda Variant seems to be appearing on the horizon (Lambda is the eleventh
letter).
A variant is something that is different from
other forms of the same thing.
Christians are also variants. We are human beings, but we are different
from other human beings.
Each human being is unique, while at the same time being a human being.
It’s inescapable.
As anthropologist Margaret Meade said, “Always remember that you are absolutely unique.
Just like everyone else.”
Christians’ status as variants, however, is based on our being radically
different from other forms of the same thing.
In 1 Peter 2:9-10, Peter writes that Christians are a people set
apart:
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own
people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called
you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
10 Once you were not a people,
but now you are God’s people;
once you had not received mercy,
but now you have received mercy.
Christians live as variants.
We live in a state of renewal. That is our natural state in the world.
Paul writes to the Church at Rome in Romans 12:2:
2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be
transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the
will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Non-conformists do well when they break down the glue that holds us
together in our time. They do not do well when they declare the inbreaking
reign of God while others define freedom as doing whatever they want to make
themselves feel good.
It’s been said, by Alan Jones, former Dean of Grace Episcopal Cathedral
in San Francisco, that “We live in an age in which everything is permitted and
nothing is forgiven.”
Could this not be a motto for much of social media? How can we know right and wrong as something
other than whatever we think serves our needs without knowing the will of God?
How are our minds renewed? It is not something we accomplish as an act
of our will. It is not an accident. It is a gift that we receive from God in
the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit makes us variants to such a degree that we are described
as a new creation.
Paul writes, in his 2nd
letter to the Corinthians, chapter 5:16-17:
16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a
human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of
view, we know him no longer in that way. 17 So
if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed
away; see, everything has become new!
How do we regard one another if not from a human point of view? This was
the question raised by Nicodemus, a Pharisee who came by night to try to
understand who Jesus was. Jesus says, in John 3, starting at the 3rd
verse:
3 Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no
one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” 4 Nicodemus
said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a
second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus
answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without
being born of water and Spirit. 6 What is born of
the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do
not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above. 8 The
wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not
know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born
of the Spirit.” 9 Nicodemus said to him, “How can
these things be?” 10 Jesus answered him, “Are you a
teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?
To be “born from above”, or “born again”, means that God makes us new.
Variants.
As Paul writes, in his letter to the Galatians, the 3rd
chapter, starting at the 27th verse:
27 As many of you as were baptized into Christ have
clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is no
longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male
and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. 29 And
if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according
to the promise.
I still see “Not of This World” bumper stickers and decals on cars. Long
after the clothing line has gone out of business, its logo is meaningful to
some people because the concept that it represents is life-defining.
How do we live as God’s new Creation? How do we live as variants?
When Jesus prays for believers on the night before he was crucified, he
says, In John 17:13-19:
13 But now I am coming to you, and I speak these
things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in
themselves 14 I have given them your word, and the
world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not
belong to the world. 15 I am not asking you to take
them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. 16 They
do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. 17 Sanctify
them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you
have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And
for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in
truth.
We are made holy in what is true, in the living relationship with the
one true living God for which human beings were created. That truth can only
come from God, and it is most fully known as Truth with a capital “T” in Jesus
Christ.
It is a relationship that defines Christians, each of us and all of us.
Christians are variants. We are human beings, but we are different from
other human beings. We are different from other forms of the same thing.
As Paul writes in Galatians 2:19b-20:
I have been crucified with Christ; 20 and
it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I
now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and
gave himself for me.
We live by faith, in a living relationship with God, because of what God
did for us on the cross.
We are in the world but not of the world. We are variants.
How can we make this good news “viral”? How can we be good variants? How
can we make our variant status as a new creation, as being “born again”,
something like a clean virus?
Only as it has always been done. By faithful witness to what we know,
shared from person to person. By bearing a credible witness to the new life of
faith that comes through the Holy Spirit, the streams of living water, that
wells up from within us by the grace of God.
You are a variant. We are variants. Let’s be viral as variants for Jesus
Christ today.
No comments:
Post a Comment