Renew Your Mind

During Jesus's life, there was a group of people that Jesus often clashed with. If you look throughout the Gospels, you will see that for the most part, Jesus had good relationships with people. But there was always one, this one group of people that he often butted heads with. And it wasn't the text collectors or the prostitutes or who he might think of as sinners. It was actually the religious leaders that Jesus often clashed with. The chief priests, the scribes, Pharisees and the Sadducees. All these people, these religious leaders, whenever them and Jesus got together, they always butted heads. In a way, Jesus and religious leaders were like oil and water. They just could not mix together. Whenever they gathered, it created a very tense and contentious atmosphere. Usually the religious leaders tried provoking Jesus. They always wanted to see how can we make him stumble? How can we catch him off guard so that he makes mistakes in saying something that we can accuse him for? They're always thinking about this because Jesus's presence bothered them. They didn't like him around them. So they really just wanted him gone. And they tried everything and when all their solutions and options run out, at the end, they tried to kill him. And we see an instance of that in today's passage. Jesus is teaching in the temple and the chief priests and the elders of the people, they come in, they disrupt whatever he's doing and they question his authority in front of everybody there in the temple. Their intention was to expose him as this false teacher who had no authority whatsoever. They didn't like what he was doing. So they say, by whose authority are you doing all this? And they wanted to accuse him of that. Yet the question, Jesus answers back, backs them into a corner. Jesus doesn't answer their question with an answer. He actually answers it with another question. If you can answer this, then I'll tell you by whose authority I am doing this. This was the question that Jesus asked them. Did the baptism of John come from heaven or was it of human origin? Kind of a strange question for a lot of us reading this passage for the first time. Jesus's authority was authenticated by John the Baptist. John was a witness to who Jesus was. To affirm, John would be to say that Jesus is right. But to deny, John would incite a very strong reaction from all those who followed him. So these religious leaders, since neither of these answers are advantageous to them, what they decide to do is they say, we don't know. And they don't speak anymore. Very cowardly thing to do. They were the ones that tried provoking Jesus. And now since they're at a disadvantage, they just claim innocence and try to walk away. Whenever I see the relationship that Jesus had with these religious leaders, I don't think Jesus had any animosity towards them. If anything, it was the religious leaders that hated Jesus. But Jesus, something about them bothered Jesus every time. Sometimes it made him really angry. And that created a constant clash between them. Something about these people really bothered him every time. What bothered Jesus about them wasn't their hatred of him. It was actually their stubbornness. What bothered Jesus about these religious leaders was their refusal to change. That's what he saw each time when he interacted with them. And that's what bothered him, frustrated him, and sometimes angered him. So right after their little debate, Jesus tells them a very simple parable. That's the second half of today's passage. It's about a man with two sons. The father tells the first son, go work in the vineyard. One son says, the oldest son says yes, but in the end he doesn't go. He goes to the second son and tells him the same thing. He says, no, I'm not going to go, but in the end he changes his mind and he goes. This simple parable is kind of funny in a way, too. It's like how we listen. Sometimes those who actually seem like they're listening, they're not listening. They change their mind. Sometimes they say no and they do whatever we tell them to do. But through the simple parable, Jesus reveals how far the religious leaders were from entering the kingdom of God. Listen to what he says at the very end of this parable. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him. But the text collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him. What is he saying? It was so clear to you and still you refused to see it that way. What you saw in front of you was so clear. How can you deny that? But you did not change your mind. That was Jesus's indictment to those religious leaders. But my friends, this is not a problem that's unique to those people. I realize that this is a human problem. It is our problem because people really don't like to change. It's bothersome. That's what I realize more and more. Human beings are probably the most resistant to change. We like the way things are. We want to believe what we want to believe. Who cares about the truth? As long as it makes me feel good and comfortable, that's what matters. As long as I'm right, that's what counts. The last thing we want is to be challenged or disturbed. The last thing we want is for what we think and believe to be challenged. We don't want to know deep down that we are wrong about something. That's why we want to hold on to our opinions, our dogmas and prejudices. We play the same old narratives in our minds. We just choose to live that way. Even if we know it doesn't do us any good, we just play the same story over and over again. We would rather live in a glass house of our own making than for it to be shattered. I recently saw this Korean movie. It's called Hope. I don't know if you've ever heard of it. That's the poster. It came out recently, I think during the summer. It premiered at Cannes in France. But it became a real big box office hit. The entire story is about this conflict between human beings and aliens. That's the whole story. For two and a half hours, it's like all action. But that's the story. At first, it seems like the source of all the problems that's happening are the aliens. Then we see that the real problems are the humans. This whole disaster on earth starts not because aliens came to where we are, but because one human being decides to take the life of an alien child who posed no threat whatsoever. And what's ironic about this movie is that throughout the movie, people refuse to change their mind about their idea of who the aliens are. They refuse to change. They have a certain image that they have and they just stick to it. And no matter what it is, they just treat them with hostility. So on the surface is a very entertaining movie. Simple storyline, very entertaining, but underneath there is a message. There's actually a theological message hidden in this movie. So I encourage you to go see it if you have time. The greatest stumbling block to our faith is not doubt. That's what we often think. The greatest stumbling block to our faith is a stubborn mind that refuses to change. That is the greatest stumbling block, I believe. That is the source of our struggle with other people. Why do we fight all the time? Why do we have these clashes? Because the two people don't think that they need to change, but they're busy trying to change the other person. It's also the source of God's ongoing struggle with us. That's the story of Scripture. All throughout, God pursuing us, speaking to us, and yet our hearts are closed. We don't want to listen. There's no such thing, I realized, as spirituality without change. The reality of spiritual life is about change. It's like a fresh stream of river that flows constantly. Fairly in our spiritual life, there is always new learning and discovery. We learn more about ourselves. We learn more about God. We discover and learn more about life. Whatever our old self was, it's gone, and our new self emerges. Our inner person is renewed day by day by day. So if there's no real change in the way we think, in the way we live, we need to ask ourselves, am I really living a spiritual life? This isn't the kind of change we can enforce on our own terms, though. Just whenever we want. This isn't the kind of change that we can do that. Because it is the spirit who brings change into our lives. God knocks on the door of our hearts at unexpected moments. Sometimes he does it gently, but other times he does it more strongly, more forcefully. That can be very unsettling for a lot of us, but it does ask for our response when it happens. And how we respond to this knocking is in our hands. This past Monday, there was an all-day meeting at our church. The purpose of this meeting was to discuss training curriculum, an educational curriculum for lay leaders. Because as you guys know, in our denomination, I mean the number of people going into ministry have been declining. There are a lot of churches, but churches without ministers. So our denomination has been really thinking about, can we train lay people to do something similar to help the churches do ministry? And this meeting was related to that. So here we had representatives of three theological colleges, one from Toronto, one from Montreal, and one from Vancouver. We had the general secretary of the denomination, and few members of the changed leadership team, which Reverend Kim is part of. Changed leadership team is the name of the team that's in charge of really making decisions of all these structural changes in our denomination. So since Reverend Kim was on the changed leadership team, we decided to host the gathering. I was there because Reverend Chung was away and Simon was away too, so I was there to just help with the sound and everything. And I just kind of sat just to see what it was about. Reverend Kim led everyone in a brief meditation at the start of the meeting, but there's one thing that he shared that particularly stuck with me. He said that it was important that in a meeting like that, that everyone brought their experience and expertise to the discussion of such important matters at hand. But it was just as important not to let our own expertise and experience be such a stumbling block to what the Spirit wants to do creatively. So it was a message of saying, what we know is in everything. The Spirit may have bigger plans that we are not aware of. And that message set the overall tone and direction for the rest of the meeting. Yes, to let go of our old thoughts and our old ways is hard because it feels like we're losing something. We don't like to feel like we're losing something. We want to hold on to it. But to let go of our old thoughts and our old ways is a necessary step in our journey of faith. It doesn't matter if you're like the Son that said yes at first but didn't go later on. Because there's always an opportunity to change our mind like the other Son and go into the vineyard. Today's parable is not about who got into the kingdom of God and who didn't. Sometimes when we read a parable like this, we're trying to identify which one am I? But I believe that these two sons represent just different aspects of our spiritual journey. What did Jesus say about the tax collectors in the prostitutes? Did he say that only them, they entered the kingdom of God? That's not what he said. He said tax collectors in the prostitutes were ahead of the religious leaders. That meant the religious leaders were behind. The door wasn't closed just yet. In the same way I believe, even if we have a little bit of desire within us to change God will help us. The Spirit will renew our minds and shape us into a new creation. Reading a passage like today, it's hard not to think of someone like Saint Paul. Saint Paul these days, nowadays we talk about it so highly. But before he became who he is, he was the Pharisee of the Pharisees. If he was in today's parable, he would have been the son that said yes and actually went. But in reality, he was like the son that said yes but didn't go. Because he had no idea. He had no idea how stubborn he was. He was too stubborn to see it or to admit to it. He refused to change his mind about Christ. He had a certain image and understanding of who Jesus was and he wanted to stick to that. He did not want that to change. Instead he tried changing those who believed in Christ. He wanted to erase the name of Christ on the face of this earth. And a man like him, well educated, with strong authority, no one could oppose him. He was too strong. Yet even a stubborn person like Paul was eventually able to see himself. The irony about Paul's story is that he saw himself most clearly when he was blind. Not when he was able to see things, but when he couldn't see anything anymore, he was able to see himself most clearly. In the road to Damascus, in hearing the gentle voice of Christ saying, Saul, Saul, why did you persecute me? He saw how far he had gone astray. God turned Paul around in Damascus and sent him to Jerusalem, not to put Christians in prison, but to spread the good news. In Damascus, Paul's mind was changed. And in Acts, his experience is described like this. So Ananias went and entered the house. He laid his hand on Saul and said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on your way here has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes and his sight was restored. Something like scales fell from his eyes. You see this image of change and Paul. When we change our mind, we repent. That's the literal meaning of repentance. Repenting is not about just not doing bad things. The literal meaning of repentance is think differently. It has to do with change in our attitude. And to live a spiritual life, we need that. If there's no repentance in our walk with God, then it's not a spiritual journey. That's why God calls all of us to repent. It's ultimately for our sake. Through repentance, we experience a new beginning. Through repentance, we gain a new insight. We are able to understand. We are able to forgive. We are able to serve. And we are able to love. Repenting is not just what we do once and done with. It's what we do daily, continuously. That's why Paul later on when he wrote Romans, emphasized the importance of repentance in this way. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind so that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. We are familiar with this verse. But this verse, the verse that comes right before this, it's a verse about worship. When he says, offer yourself as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. And then he talks about renewing of the mind. In that sense, worship is not just where we come once a week. It just kind of goes through the motions. This space, this place is a space where we turn our minds and our hearts to God. However far we have been during the week, we come and we turn our hearts to God and repent. Friends, what do we need to acknowledge and let go? What is lying at the root of our stubborn ways and our refusal to change? Is it the fear of being wrong? Is it the fear of uncertainty? Is it the fear of losing what we have? Ultimately, it boils down to what it is that we are afraid of the most. What is it that we need to let go? Let us turn to God who knows us and sees our hearts most clearly. As we sang together today, let us abide in it. God will show us what we need to see. When we abide in God, God prunes our thoughts so that our lives can bear fruit once again. That's why Jesus said, Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am divine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit because apart from me, you can do nothing. Apart from me, you can do nothing. Change is possible only in Christ. May the Spirit give all of us a new mind when we change everything else changes. May the Spirit open up your life in a whole new way. And that is when we are able to live out God's good and acceptable and perfect will. When we change our mind, we will know what God's will for us is. And may the Spirit renew your mind as you head into this new week.