Our worship theme from this Sunday until 8th May is ‘Resurrection People – transformed…’ Transformation is a big word in Metropolitan Community Churches. In our denominational Mission Statement we say ‘Be MCC: Transforming ourselves as we transform the world.’ One of our Core Values is Spiritual Transformation: ‘We believe that when people are invited to experience God through the life and ministry of Christ, lives will be transformed.’ In other words, we expect to change and to be changed in our faith journey. Most people come to MCC because they are looking for something different or new. We are not everyone’s cup of tea and many people still need to keep searching. Some folk do find what they are looking for and stick around with us, often for the rest of their lives.
Transformation is not always an easy process, even when we want it to happen. We may have to shed old ideas, beliefs or habits. We may need to leave the comfort zone of what we know well, even if it is a harsh or difficult place to be. How many of us struggle to accept the fact that God loves us unconditionally, that we are fabulous and beautiful? This should be so easy to accept, but it is easier to stick with the negative ‘tapes’ that play in our heads and our hearts. We have to work on changing the messages that we tell ourselves, in order to change our internal landscape and listen to what God is saying to us.
There may be other parts of our faith that change too. People come into MCC from all sorts of different traditions and none. If we are brought up in a particular tradition, we may use words or phrases without necessarily thinking deeply about what they mean for us. In our Lent group, we talked about such topics as salvation, what it means to call Jesus ‘King’ and what the cross means to each of us. Some of us had changed our understanding of these and other things over time and some of us were still grappling to learn what they mean for us in our life today. This rich diversity helps us to glimpse other ways of experiencing the Divine. One of my favourite quotes about this is from someone who took our ‘Creating a Life that Matters’ course. We were reflecting on how the course might have changed our understanding of God. She said “My understanding of God hasn’t changed. God has just got bigger.”
As we celebrate the transformation from death to life, from human life to divine eternity in the resurrection of Jesus, I encourage you to offer up an area of your life that needs transformation. Our God is a transformational God!
God bless
Cecilia
Transformation is not always an easy process, even when we want it to happen. We may have to shed old ideas, beliefs or habits. We may need to leave the comfort zone of what we know well, even if it is a harsh or difficult place to be. How many of us struggle to accept the fact that God loves us unconditionally, that we are fabulous and beautiful? This should be so easy to accept, but it is easier to stick with the negative ‘tapes’ that play in our heads and our hearts. We have to work on changing the messages that we tell ourselves, in order to change our internal landscape and listen to what God is saying to us.
There may be other parts of our faith that change too. People come into MCC from all sorts of different traditions and none. If we are brought up in a particular tradition, we may use words or phrases without necessarily thinking deeply about what they mean for us. In our Lent group, we talked about such topics as salvation, what it means to call Jesus ‘King’ and what the cross means to each of us. Some of us had changed our understanding of these and other things over time and some of us were still grappling to learn what they mean for us in our life today. This rich diversity helps us to glimpse other ways of experiencing the Divine. One of my favourite quotes about this is from someone who took our ‘Creating a Life that Matters’ course. We were reflecting on how the course might have changed our understanding of God. She said “My understanding of God hasn’t changed. God has just got bigger.”
As we celebrate the transformation from death to life, from human life to divine eternity in the resurrection of Jesus, I encourage you to offer up an area of your life that needs transformation. Our God is a transformational God!
God bless
Cecilia
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