{"id":6611,"date":"2010-08-13T00:00:11","date_gmt":"2010-08-13T00:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/2010\/08\/miracles-of-morphing-7.html"},"modified":"2010-08-13T00:00:11","modified_gmt":"2010-08-13T00:00:11","slug":"miracles-of-morphing-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/08\/miracles-of-morphing-7.html","title":{"rendered":"Miracles of Morphing 7"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n\"Morphimage.jpg\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Grace transforms<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Third, grace transforms. The GodLife means GraceLife, and
\nGraceLife means God’s grace transforms. From the moment Jesus uttered his first
\ndeclaration that the kingdom of God was now at work he may as well have
\nsaid people and lives will be
\ntransformed<\/i>. One backwater fisherman named Peter now has a monstrous church
\nnamed after him in the heart of Rome. One young Galilean girl became the mother
\nof Jesus and for the first two centuries of America’s history the most popular
\nname for a girl was “Mary.” Francesco was a partying debauched
\nItalian until he gave his life to Jesus and he is now known as St.
\nFrancis.<\/span><\/p>\n

Transformation is profoundly simple: we receive, God gives. If we
\nopen ourselves to God’s grace, the GodLife takes shape in us. Sometimes it
\ntakes on amazing forms, as with Stephen: “Now Stephen, a man full of
\nGod’s grace and power<\/i>, performed
\ngreat wonders” (Acts 6:8). Sometimes we see it in a community. When Paul
\ngot to Antioch he “saw what the grace
\nof God<\/i> had done” (11:23). God’s grace attacks the nonsense of
\nlife, as the apostle Paul puts it: “For sin shall no longer be your master
\nbecause you are … under grace<\/i>”
\n(Rom 6:14).  I mentioned above that sometimes grace takes hold of a
\ncommunity, and we need to observe how this works because too many are tempted
\nto think grace is like some invisible gas that infiltrates a place and makes
\nthe place all happy. In fact, grace in a community looks like this: “But
\nto each of us grace<\/i> has
\nbeen given as Christ apportioned it” (Eph 4:7). What does Paul mean here
\nby “grace”? Spiritual gifts. The grace-filled community, the one that
\nis truly open to the GodLife where the kingdom vision of Jesus takes hold of a
\ncommunity, is one in which each
\nperson is gifted by God to contribute to the whole community<\/i>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

         In several of Paul’s letter lists of gifts are provided, and some
\ntoday want to figure out which of the gifts they were given. But this leads us
\nto focus on the gifts<\/i> and
\nnot the Giver<\/i>, and it leads us
\nto focus on what we do<\/i> instead
\nof doing what God grants us gifts to
\ndo<\/i>. Let this be said: as Jesus invited everyone to the table and as the
\nearliest Jewish followers of Jesus struggled to overcome their ethnic bias but
\nlearned that Gentiles deserved a place in the church, so that same group
\nlearned that each of us has a part
\nto play with a gift to exercise in the community of faith<\/i>. These graces
\ntransform us from self-oriented people to other-oriented people. That’s the
\nkind of grace that Jesus brought to the table. Zealots became peacemakers and
\ntax collecting cheats became grace-giving fonts of generosity.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>Morphed indeed<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

            The
\nearliest followers of Jesus, because they knew Jesus had been raised from the
\ndead, morphed their categories and they were themselves morphed by those
\ncategories. Golgotha became a place of grace and it unleashed the power of the
\nresurrection to change the lives of people and the communities in which they
\nlived.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

            Remember
\nthe first sermon of Jesus: he came to liberate the poor and the imprisoned and
\nblind and the oppressed. He announced that the kingdom of God was breaking into
\nhistory and changes would follow. The operative word was that life would morph
\nfrom what it was into kingdom reality, and we have witnessed that
\ntransformation ever since.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

            Some
\ntoday believe too much in the cross, and they have constructed a Good Friday
\nonly gospel. For them, Jesus is bleeding from a thorn-punctured head and
\ngasping for breath. But the earliest followers of Jesus preached a cross that
\nwas bare because the one who had been unjustly accused and unjustly crucified
\nhad died and come back to life. The dark images of the Medieval artists, which
\nfocus on that bleeding Jesus, become the bright, yellowy images of Vincent Van
\nGogh when the Crucified One became the One who was Raised. The earliest
\nfollowers of Jesus were intoxicated by the resurrection. It was the
\nresurrection that created all this morphing.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

            Here’s
\nthe claim: if Jesus was really raised from the dead, then Jesus’ dream is
\npossible – right now. Today. In your life. You can be morphed by the story of
\nJesus – the one who lived, who was crucified, but who came back to life in the
\npower of God.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/a>[i]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span> N.T.
\nWright, Romans<\/i> (New
\nInterpreter’s Bible 10; Nashville: Abingdon, 2002), 471.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a>[ii]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span> Kathleen
\nNorris, Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary
\nof Faith<\/i> (New York: Riverhead Books, 1998), 150-151.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a>[iii]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span> Beyond Words: Daily Readings in the ABC’s of
\nFaith<\/i> (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2004), 139.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a>[iv]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span> This is from
\nAmazon.com’s interview of Anne Lamott at Amazon’s site for her book Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith<\/i> (New
\nYork: Riverhead Books, 2007). Accessed 6.12.2009
\n[http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Grace-Eventually-Thoughts-Anne-Lamott\/dp\/1594489424].<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Grace transforms Third, grace transforms. The GodLife means GraceLife, and GraceLife means God’s grace transforms. From the moment Jesus uttered his first declaration that the kingdom of God was now at work he may as well have said people and lives will be transformed. One backwater fisherman named Peter now has a monstrous church named after…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gospel"],"yoast_head":"\nMiracles of Morphing 7 - Jesus Creed<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/08\/miracles-of-morphing-7.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Miracles of Morphing 7 - Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Grace transforms Third, grace transforms. The GodLife means GraceLife, and GraceLife means God’s grace transforms. From the moment Jesus uttered his first declaration that the kingdom of God was now at work he may as well have said people and lives will be transformed. 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