A reflection on Romans 12:2 by Sylvia Sandeman

Sometime you hear a phase that just sticks in your head forever and over the years, pops up when you least expect it to encourage or judge you.Forty years ago when I was working at Mooroopna Base Hospital I heard one of these. I complained to Dr. Utley, the current Department Radiologist, that I was sick of collating for reporting, the Chief Radiographer’s films. Dr. Utley simply replied “Well either don’t do it or don’t complain” and left. I reflected on this and realised that he was right and that if I choose to do the task – I forfeited the right to complain about doing it.Over the years I have often lived by that phrase – I am sure for Dr. Utley it was a throw away line but it has become firmly set in my psyche

When I first came to South Yarra Baptist some of the phrases in the readings also stuck in my mind – like the one from the Advent reading when speaking of finding God’s way that it was so simple “that even a moron could find it”.Or when the 3 visitors came to see Abraham, Abraham says to Sarah “You whip up a batch of scones while I put on he BBQ” Or my real favourite from John 1 v 14 that says of the Word of God he “rolled out His swag in our midst “- the picture I always have is of a starry night in the dessert and a stranger joining us, and staying with us just as we are with no pretension of grandeur, but simply one of the company.

In tonight’s reading, for Nathan and for me, there is one of these “stick in your head phrases”. For Nathan it comes in the first verse “Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice”. Commenting on the verse the preacher that Nathan heard said, “the trouble with living sacrifices is, that they keep crawling off the altar.”But for me the phase that has stuck with me over the years is in the second verse and from Phillips translation of this passage.

“Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its mould.” What we heard read tonight were slightly different words “Do not model your life on the usual aspirations of the world around you”

I reflected on the difference that there seemed to me between these two versions. “Do not model your life on the usual aspirations of the world around you” seems to indicate that we are deliberately taking this way, where as for me Phillip’s seem to have captured what often happens. Without realising it we are sucked into the world’s “world view.” The subtly of it is, that we simply find that we have been squeezed into its mould almost without our consent or knowledge. Instead of reflecting kingdom values, we are living by the world values of wealth, processions, success, advancement etc with little concern for the poor or the outcast and the worst part is that we often don’t know we are. In fact whole churches have subtly been squeezed into the world’s mould and they call it Christian. It is not illegal or evil it is simply not the way we as Christian have been called to live. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 1:

“When it’s all said and done, the sum total of the human race’s intellectual achievements don’t even begin to stack up against the foolishness of God; and the combined force of all the world’s powers is puny in comparison to the weakness of God. Sisters and brothers, you don’t have to look any further than your own experience of God’s call to see the truth of this. Not many of you were academic hot-shots. Not many of you were movers and shakers in the corridors of power. Not many of you were famous as celebrities. But God chose you! God chose those who were dismissed as fools to expose the bankruptcy of the world’s accepted wisdom. God chose those who were weak and vulnerable in the world to show up the corruption of those who wield power. God consistently chooses what is despised as the dregs by the world, things which are seen as worthless, to expose the worthlessness of things which are seen as being ‘it and a bit’”

God’s ways often seem foolish to us but powerful in the cause of the Kingdom of God
Today’s OT reading and also the Gospel had examples of people who did not allow the world around to squeeze them into its mould. Moses mother could easily have accepted the law of the day allowed her baby to be killed – probably many did – but she did something different which as the old hymn says “Saved the future Hebrew leader for her people and their need”. And Peter when asked who Jesus was could have easily held to the party line – Elijah, John the Baptist or one of the prophets – but he went out on a limb – “You are the Messiah, the Son of God”

When I was in London the church I attended had a peal of bells and one day some local bell ringers must have asked the vicar if their could use our bells and run lessons for any one from the parish who would like to learn to ring bells – I went along and was soon enjoying learning this new skill – to learn to ring is relatively easy compared with the skill needed to ring “a Peal” which goes for 3 hours or even “a Quarter Peal” which only takes three quarters of an hour. The position of the sound of your bell moves with every pull – either up or down the scale according to the piece you are ringing or according to how the conductor of the bells may call the changes. So there was plenty that I found fascinating about bell ringing. It was not long before I was spending Saturdays on ‘bell ring crawls” – driving from church to church to ring their bells. Also weddings and on Sunday Mornings ringing the bells at 2 other service before going to my church and arriving three quarters of an hour late!!!Almost without knowing it I had been squeezed into the mould of a professional “bell ringer” and when you are squeezed “in” other things are squeezed “out” and in my case it was worship.

I saw a graph once of someone’s career, mapping their time commitments. Somewhere around the late 20s the time to maintain a serious career exploded, time to look after kids expanded too, and the graph showed other things being squeezed down to nothing. This means if you are to give significant time to God it will mean sacrificing something, most likely advancement or better job.

So I guess both translations are correct – we may choose to mould our lives the world’s way or unconsciously by swept along with their “worldview.”But if God is warning us not to allow this to happen – what then is He calling us to do?

The second half of the verse tells us.

“But let God re-mould your minds from within, so that you may proof in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity.” Or as we heard it read tonight “Instead, allow God to completely remodel your life. This will start with changing the way you think, so that you will be able to tune in to what God wants, which of course is always what is good and worthwhile and for the best.

During the time that I have known that I would preach on this verse – Alison, Stephen and Paul have preached of Gods action in their lives. What I would like to have done was present
this verse and then ask you to reread their sermons in the light of it, because as I read them I felt that they were living examples of the struggle that this scripture was presenting here and what it was challenging us to consider. Are you being squeezed into a mould? – by what ever name it is called or are you seeking to let God re-mould you and in so doing discovering that God’s plans for you are good and leading you into a wide place of mature living with Him.

Alison longs to be a writer – but she showed us how God has and is re-moulding her so she is able to say “What does matter is that this work, this acceptance of a yoke that for me means a quiet and largely invisible life built around personal relationships not professional acclaim, is slowly turning my heart of stone into a heart of flesh…” She spoke of doing things that do not look like writing but for me I see her writing in the lives of her children and in the things that she challenges us to consider and weigh not on paper but in a life lived.

When I left Bible College there was a real pressure to move into Christian Ministry – if not why had you spent 3 years in Bible College – but for me I went back to Radiography – something that I knew God had called me to and I also need to prove something – for me “If Christianity did not work in the workplace it is not worth working at” and so I spent the rest of my working life in the secular workplace. Slowly I began to see how kingdom values can be followed, slowly God re-moulded my thinking, showing me how I could pastorally care for people of different faiths and denominations and encourage spirituality in people who did not know that they had were spiritual beings. He showed me how I could use my position to help those who had all sorts of different needs – finding jobs, retraining, fighting with Centre link on their behalf, occasional financial loans, work experience, student training, making sure that staff pay was correct when the system was wrong and in the midst of very difficult times be the still centre for the department.

Currently I do some occasional volunteer work at Global interaction – which is a lovely place to work – but it is almost too “nice” – I learned to love the rough and tumble of the secular work place its difficulties and it unexpected glimpses of God.

Most of you know that recently I took a longish break. We drove to Sydney, put the car on the train and traveled to Perth and then toured around Western Australia and drove back to Melbourne. Ever since I left work everyone has being asking me “Are you going to travel?” Or “Where are you going to go?” and this is the first time in 2 years I was able to answer their question to some degree of satisfaction to them. This trip was acceptable. I was on the right track. It fitted the accepted mould of what an Australian does when they retire. On the trip I met a lot of people doing just this. They had been on the road for months and had many stories to tell. But somehow I was disturbed. Something was not right. The travel was good and we saw many interesting things – except that WA is a long way from anywhere. But still something was wrong. I could not put my finger on it. I kept saying it was something to do with the “non rhythm” of life on the road, which made little sense to me and even less to anyone I tried to explain it to.

Finally as I began to reflect on today’s verse I began to come to some sort of resolution – for me living was about “worship, work and play” and the rhythm of these but if I was in “the continual travel” mould, this rhythm was lost and with it that which God had called me to. This was not a criticism of others but rather call to me.

Elizabeth Canham wrote in Heart Whispers “When we begin to live a spirituality of simplicity, our primary concern ceases to be success and becomes faithfulness. We are called to live with integrity, to express the truth as we perceive it and to trust God’s ability to use what we offer.”

Squeezed into the “worlds mould” or re-moulded from with in. “Them’s your choices”.Which will it be?