Proper 7 Sunday Year A 6/25/2023
Jeremiah 20:7-13; Psalm 69: 8-20; Romans 6:1b-11; Matthew 10:24-39
Rev. Mark A. Lafler
It is a good practice to pause and take a minute to consider moments, memories, and major events in life…
We all have positive and negative times…
Thes pivotal moments that have greatly impacted us.
Changed us…
Shaped us…
Into whom we are today…
Even who we will be in the coming days.
So, I invite you to please consider with me a few questions…
Reflecting on your life.
Why are you a Christian?
If you don’t claim to be a Christian, why not?
If you are a Christian, when did you come to faith?
Was it a series of circumstances that led you to faith?
Was it an event… a moment that led you to faith in Jesus?
What is it about the Christian faith that keeps you following Jesus Christ?
These questions all revolve around the word: conversion.
Conversion is the process of changing from one form to another.
The process might be short or long.
The process might be well defined or it might be hard to pinpoint a narrative.
Nevertheless, Christian conversion is the process of changing…
It is from a point of no faith in Jesus Christ…
to a point of faith believing in Jesus Christ for salvation.
In biblical terms, Jesus described conversion as birth.
Being born of the Spirit. (John 3)
Christian conversion is not just believing in God.
We would call that theism.
Theism alone is certainly not Christianity.
Although it seems many in our world are content to suggest that because they believe they are good and that they believe in God that therefore they are Christian.
It has happened countless times in my personal talks with folks when I ask them if they are Christian, and the reply is…
“Yes, I believe in God.”
Christian conversion is more than believing in God.
It is believing in the person Jesus Christ.
That he is God in the flesh.
And in particular he came and died for our sins upon a cross…
He rose from the dead…
After 40 days he ascended…
And he will come again to judge the living and the dead.
And if that sounds like the Nicene Creed to you…
Good!
It is our statement of faith…
And when that statement is coupled with faith…
By God’s grace…
We profess that Jesus is our Lord and Savior…
And a change takes place in our life.
We begin to turn from sin and our own selfish ways…
We call this repentance…
And we seek to follow the teachings of God in the Scriptures.
Conversion doesn’t look the same for everyone.
Some can point to a moment in time.
Some would describe their conversion as a process of time.
Some would say that they grew up in the church and simply have always believed and confessed Jesus as their savior.
Sometimes a conversion happens around friends…
- S. Lewis, the great Christian writer in the 20th century, wrote about his conversion to his friend in a letter.
He wrote:
I have just passed on from believing in God to definitely believing in Christ – in Christianity.
I will try to explain this another time.
My long night talk with Dyson and Tolkien had a good deal to do with it.
Conversion can happen because our souls are restless and wearied with the destruction of life without Jesus…
St. Augustine in describing his conversion said:
…our heart is restless until it finds rest in you.
It was St. Augustine who in the year 386… had the words of Romans illuminated in his heart and mind by the power of the Holy Spirit…
Conviction was brought to his soul…
And he converted to Christianity.
Our second reading today was from the book of Romans…
St. Paul’s wonderful text on conversion…
The first 8 chapters or so describe justification…
And salvation… the working out of God’s grace through faith.
Paul succinctly describes Christian conversion as being dead to yourself and alive in Christ Jesus.
Jesus’ message is the same in our Gospel reading…
suggesting his followers are the ones who take up their cross and follow him.
Romans was also a pivotal book in the conversion of Martin Luther in the 16th century.
The texts on the righteous live by faith suddenly became so real in Luther’s life transforming him…
And through this the Reformation was launched.
Obviously, the Lutheran Church came forth…
And in our own tradition of Anglicanism…
Martin Luther had great influence on Thomas Cranmer…
who wrote the first Book of Common Prayer.
The founder of the Methodist Church, John Wesley, attaches his conversion with Martin Luther and the book of Romans.
… On May 24, 1738, John Wesley’s seeking for the grace of God ended in a meeting house in London.
He wrote in his journal that now-famous account of his conversion:
In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine,
while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ,
I felt my heart strangely warmed.
John Wesley… who was a priest in the Church of England, described his conversion in a physical and emotional way…
I felt my heart strangely warmed.
I love these conversion stories…
- S. Lewis…
St. Augustine…
Martin Luther…
John Wesley…
There are so many throughout the history of the church…
Men and women…
Girls and boys…
Old and young…
Every race, ethnicity…
Rich or poor…
People coming to Jesus Christ and professing his name.
Christianity is not just a Western Religion…
The largest group of Christians according to estimates is probably in the underground church in China…
And Africa is growing in leaps and bounds as many come to faith in Jesus.
The Christian faith continues to grow around the world…
As we await the second coming of our Lord.
Today, 30 years ago this evening,
A life changing event happened in my own life.
June 25th, 1993 was the day of my own conversion.
I went to a youth meeting at the church I grew up in…
Listening to the guest preacher talk about his life and about Jesus Christ.
I knew about Jesus…
I grew up in the church…
I was a preacher’s kid.
But that doesn’t mean I believed in Jesus as my Lord and Savior.
Something about the way the grand story of God was told that night.
I was convicted.
And by God’s great grace…
That night I came to faith.
It changed my whole countenance.
The Spirit of God came into my life and transformed my being.
It gave me new direction…
A new outlook…
A new purpose…
I became alive that day.
I mean really alive.
I became born anew…
Born of the Spirit.
So, what’s your story…
How did you come to faith in Jesus?
How has your life been transformed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ?
I want to encourage you today…
To pause…
Take a moment…
And ask yourself…
When did I come to faith?
Why do I believe Jesus is my Lord and my Savior?
It is a good thing to reflect on.
I encourage you to do it.
And once you have considered for a time your story in Christ…
Share that story with others.
It might change their life forever.
Amen.