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Friday, March 29, 2024

Beyond transactions to transformation

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We live in a world where the making and closing of “the deal” is a prime reality. It is “the deal” which drives, gives shape and meaning to our daily lives. “The deal” can be as basic as transactions, which acquire for our families and ourselves food, shelter, and clothing, or as complex as how we doctrinally engage our Christ-secured salvation. We press to make our way in a society where “the deal” or “the transaction” permeates every aspect of our civil and religious life. Is there not a clear understanding of what is a good deal as opposed to a bad deal or what is a profitable transaction or an unprofitable one? Thus would it not seem to be the height of folly to not make the best possible and most profitable transaction(s) we can make with God? Is not the best deal we can get the most desirable? Really?

In the 26 verse of the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John, the Lord Jesus not only sets us straight but gives us divine illumination on heavenly initiated transactions which can be truncated or even darkened by earthly deal making. “I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs, but because you ate loaves and were filled.” Our Lord is not browbeating those who followed him. He clearly understands our need for bread, bread being representative of all our basic needs. However, Christ loving us as he does always presses us beyond the transaction to transformation. Jesus tells us “Do not work for food which spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the son of man will give you.” (John 6:27)

This is not a command to not work for bread, but to not so set ourselves in the transaction that we cannot grasp the aim of the transformation. Above all other institutions, the church must know and exercise great understanding of this core truth. God does initiate transactions on earth through his people. However, his intent is always to transform them to be more like his son Jesus.

The motto of Great Light Church is “Living Christ Transformed Lives: Changed Words, Changed Images, Changed Perceptions.”

The theologian Eugene Rosenstock-Huessy made this reply to the call of Christ in his life, “Respondeo etsi mutabor” (“I respond although I know I will be changed.”) It was Christ’s call to him beyond transaction to transformation. Transformation is translated as metamorphoo in the Greek, which is where we get the word metamorphosis. It is best demonstrated in nature by caterpillars that are transformed into butterflies.

Yours in the Spirit of Love and Grace.

Rev. Tripp is pastor of Great Light Church. Share your thoughts, insights, and prayers at www.greatlight.org or email charles.tripp@greatlight.org.

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