Renewal of the Mind:
I remember some years ago, turning up at church, early to prepare for a Sunday morning service. It was very exciting! Two people had signed up to get baptised, and the night before THREE more had called me to ask if they could also get baptised that next morning.
So I turned up early to set things up and told the good news to the band leader who was setting up for a practice with the band!
“So, three more baptisms, eh? I suppose they’ll all want to share their testimony too?” he somewhat sourly replied.
“That’s right,” I said, “It’s going to be awesome to hear their stories!”
He sighed heavily. “I suppose we still need to do communion?”
“Well yes,” I said, “Of course we’ll gather around the table.”
He frowned. “Well that’s going to cut into worship, isn’t it? I’ll have to drop a couple of songs out to fit all that stuff in! Why can’t you do communion some other time for the oldies who really want that sort of thing? And why bother with all those testimonies? No point in the band being here if we not doing much worship!”
We talked about it. For him worship seemed to be mainly about the singing and the inspirational vibe that music provided to get people through the week. It was all about the Holy Spirit lifting our emotions to create a create an uplifting experience. For him all that sharing testimonies and preaching and contemplative communion stuff just cut into everyone experiencing God working in our midst.
And yet — it’s interesting how much the scriptures have to say about the mind. The scriptures talk far more about a renewed mind than about elevated feelings.
We can sometimes think the Christian faith is about learning how to ‘feel’ good or joyful. A good worship service for many, is one where the lights, music and drama creates a sense of spiritual euphoria.
I recall one dark, wet winter's day sitting in a cold church in an overseas city I was visiting. The congregation looked half-asleep and a fair number were coughing and spluttering with winter lurgies of various sorts. The very enthusiastic young song-leader stood us all up and with the backing of his loud band launched us into fast-paced lively song about joyfully praising God. We in the cold and raspy congregation responded mournfully like a herd of cows mooing in the rain.
"Stop! Stop! Stop!" he cried. "You're all going to stand up and try that again properly! People, if you truly want to worship God, you need to know there are only two things that want to stop you. One is the Devil, .... and the other is your mind. If you really want to worship God, you need to turn your mind off! So everyone stand up and let's go."
Well, me and my friend, rather rebelliously sat down. "Turn off your mind to worship God?" I mean, seriously?
Lutheran writer Larry Christenson (former director of the International Lutheran Renewal Center in Minneapolis), suggests that the locus of formation has to do with the renewal of the “mind” more than the “heart.” The process of sanctification (becoming more like Jesus) is seen as deliberately putting off the old nature and it’s scripting and putting on the mind of Christ and the behaviours and habits that follow from a new Christ-centred way of thinking. (Ephesians 4:14-32).
It is as the mind is transformed so that the believer will know the will of God (Romans 12: 1-2). It is in choosing each day to live in the Spirit rather than by the old nature that holiness of Christ is displayed. This tension is often described in the language of spiritual warfare, where the mind of the believer is the battleground, either to be held captive by the enemy or set free in Christ. (E.g. Colossians 2:8, 2 Corinthians10:5).
Harry Blamires (who died recently died aged 101) was an English Anglican theologian, and novelist. He started writing in the late 1940s at the encouragement of his friend and mentor C. S. Lewis, who had been his tutor at Oxford University. One of his best known books is “The Christian Mind.” He argues that Christians need to cultivate the mind of Christ if they are to speak meaningfully into our contemporary world.
“…The reason we have nothing to say to the contemporary situation is that we have not been thinking about the contemporary situation. We stopped thinking about these things long ago. We stopped thinking Christianly outside the scope of personal morals and personal spirituality. We got into the habit of stepping out of our Christian garments whenever we stepped mentally into the field of social and political life. Because the subject was social or political, we left all of our well-tried and well-grounded Christian concepts behind us, and adopted the vocabulary of secularism. We put aside all talk of vocation, or God's providence, or man's spiritual destiny, and instead chattered with the rest about productivity, assembly line psychology, and deployment of personnel.”
We need to develop practices of reading and thinking deeply about our whole world, rather than compartmentalise our life so that ‘faith’ is only relevant on Sundays or privately. We need to develop habits that encourage us to reflect deeply about what we believe and therefore habituate. Critical thinking, theological reflection and an understanding of the thinkers that have shaped our times and culture is important.
Martin Luther King, Jr. once said: “The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education.”
Paul puts it like this:
"Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." Romans 12:1-2 (NIV)Spiritual formation has to do with the renewing of our mind. How we think, the attitudes we hold and the ‘lenses’ through which we view the world shape our actions and our behaviour. Are we learning to think deeply, critically and Christianly?
Larry Christenson, "The Renewed Mind: Becoming the Person God Wants You to Be." (Minneapolis: Bethany House, 2001).
Harry Blamires, "The Christian Mind." (1963) London: S.P.C.K.; New York: Seabury Press.
