5/24/64

Scripture: Romans 12.

Text: Romans 12: 2a; “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.”

Some time ago, a woman from our city went into a large department store to do some shopping. While in the store, she spent a little while in the ladies’ ready-to-wear clothing department. As she looked about to see what was available on the racks, she noticed especially a sign over one of them. The sign was evidently meant to advertise dresses suitable for girls to wear at their confirmation. It was about the time of year when the classes of several of that city’s churches would be confirmed, and so the store management was eager to make a sale of dresses to the girls who were class members. The striking thing about the sign over that rack was the spelling. “Confirmation” was spelled “CONFORMATION.” The sales girl was apparently unaware of the error; the lady who was shopping was much amused; and I, when I heard of it, thought that it suggested a good topic for a sermon on Confirmation Sunday. So here we are, addressing our thought to the subject: “Conformation or Confirmation.”

There comes to mind, almost immediately, some things that Paul wrote to the Roman Christians. He advised them in this wise: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.” There is a sense in which I think it is fair to say that when one is confirmed in church membership, that one is giving evidence to his or her dedication in Christian living. Many members of today’s class in our church were dedicated by their parents in Christian baptism while they were infants or very small children. And when parents do so dedicate a child it is assumed that they hope that the child will one day confirm that dedication for himself, by publicly declaring his Christian faith and joining in the responsible membership of a church.

Others of today’s class, not having been baptized in infancy, will present themselves today for baptism. They make their own decision to seek this mark of the Christian. Hosts of people, old and young, have done so through the centuries. Even our Lord, Jesus, when about 30 years of age, asked his cousin John the Baptist to baptize him before he began his own special ministry of teaching, preaching and healing. The receiving of adult baptism is a long-honored mark of the person who decides to dedicate his life to right living as Jesus Christ taught it, and offers it. And whether one was baptized as a child or as a responsible adult, there is this further step to take -- that of confirming the baptismal dedication in joining the body of Christ which is the church.

One of the most persistent threats to the dedicated life is the pull of all sorts of things around us where we live. All around us, people organize their lives in ways that appear to suppose that there is no God or that goodness is dead. The very word “conformed” suggests the gradual process by which our alertness to evil is disarmed. We drift along doing what we think a lot of the world wants us to do without very much concern as to what we really want to do if we adhere to what we believe is right.

Now of course, there is conformity to a lot of things in this old world! There is a rather good sense in which one could say that he “conforms” to the customs of the church when he goes through the preparation for confirmation. But we all trust that it means a lot more than conformity (or conformation) when one joins the church. We believe that being confirmed in church membership has its greatest significance when it is felt to be a dedication of one’s life to Christ’s leadership, and God’s goodness.

Some conformity is comparatively harmless, and sometimes a bit amusing. A man conforms to current clothing styles when he decides that he will not wear a wide tie (at least until wide ties become fashionable again in some future season). A few young fellows may decide to go in for Beatle haircuts while the Britishers who create the Beatle craze are popular.

When my daughter entered high school, it was a current custom that girls preferred single syllable names. Up to that time, she had been called Anna Carol and her family thought that was an attractive name for her. But in high school she promptly became “Ann” and continued to be known by that single syllable for four years. Of course Ann is a good name, if it happens to be your name! But she was called by it not because it was her name but because it meant conforming to a current custom which I suppose made her feel more comfortable at that time. For, when she went to college, she promptly became “Anna Carol” again! Some conformity is comparatively harmless, even though it may appear a bit foolish in the long view.

But there is a great deal in contemporary life to which a Christian should not conform. Christians have always lived in some un-Christian surroundings, and in an un-Christian society. Indeed there were many in an earlier day who felt that the only way one could be Christian in any real sense, was to get out of the usual social order, withdraw to a monastery, and there try to escape from the rigors and terrors and meanness of secular life. But the monastic life could develop its own kind of evil. It helped to build a strong institution, but it could also corrupt people with its power, its persecution of alleged heretics, its steady building up of the power inherent in Church property.

One does not have to look back into antiquity to find harmful, or evil, conformity. Here is a contemporary problem that one of our deacons mentioned to some of today’s confirmation class members. Suppose you are a boy (or a girl) who has recently learned to drive a car and are licensed to do so. You have parents’ permission to drive in order to take your friends to a picnic. But your father has made it a strict rule never to race another car. (My father used to let me drive under those conditions. He was rather generous in letting me drive. But his one stern rule was: “Don’t you ever get into a race with another driver. If I ever hear that you have races with this car, you will not be driving the family auto again.”) Parents expect this kind of conformity because they believe it is good conformity.

However it is not too simple. You are getting along in pretty good order, when that smart cookie with a convertible comes up behind, leans on the horn, and proceeds to step out around you and feed you his dust. Every kid in your load urges you to give it the gas, and show the wise guy a thing or two. Suddenly you are practically swamped with the desire to conform to a kind of competitive urge which is forbidden, and which is dangerous to the lives of your passengers, though exhilarating. You have to decide, without any time for real reflection, whether to conform to the forbidden and exciting urge, or stick to the course that you know is right and that you promised your father you would observe. A lot of conformity is less exciting than an auto race --- and more corrosive. We become not much concerned with what other people want of us, and what or own selfish natures desire.

We conform to the world’s standard of honesty, when we know that it does not measure up to God’s standard of right. We follow a course of action of which we are not particularly proud, but we justify it by saying, “O, everybody’s doing it.”

A fellow I knew in college was irked and irritated by the way in which the English professor conducted an examination. And so he deliberately looked for the ways in which he could cheat in the examination. He tried to justify his cheating by affirming that others did it; so it was all right for him to do it. And anyway the professor was not really fair. And besides, he needed a good mark that he thought he could get by cheating. The very fact that he boasted about it to other students probably meant that he knew his action did not conform to the idea of goodness dictated by his own conscience. He was conforming to the “get by” standards that he thought he was finding in his world around him.

When Paul was writing to the Christians at Rome, he appealed to them to be different. He asked them to present their bodies as a living sacrifice. Now there was an Old Testament sense in which a sacrifice might have been regarded as a giving up of something --- perhaps a particularly fine animal from his flock or an especially perfect specimen of his grain or fruits. We read that old Abraham even got the erroneous notion that God wanted him to sacrifice his precious only son, Isaac, by killing the boy and burning the body on an altar.

Paul, in the New Testament sense, speaks of sacrifice as the giving out of one’s self --- the spending of one’s body and one’s life. This giving out of one’s self and substance; this spending of one’s energies and abilities is a sacrifice holy and acceptable to God --- it is spiritual worship. Then Paul further advises his readers not to be conformed to the world but to be transformed by the renewing of the mind. I should think that the true spirit of confirmation would be a transforming experience.

Of course one may say, “Well, I conformed to the custom of the church, but did it make any difference to me to be confirmed?” The answer to that question lies not so much in anything that I can say about confirmation as in one’s willingness and desire to be transformed. Like the sacrament of baptism, we hope that the rite of confirmation is an “outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace.” Its best meaning is a dedication of one’s self to God’s goodness. Of course one may say, “All right, I dedicated myself to God, but I’m not strong enough to get away from conforming to the world’s evils.” Of course not! No one has the power to be completely righteous by his own will and determination. But there is a power that helps when we dedicate ourselves to that power.

Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick has remarked that bodies are born but once; souls can be reborn. A young fellow who had gotten himself into a mess with his wrongdoing came to talk with Fosdick. He was really overcome with a sense of moral disaster in his life. He was bitter and he was desperate. He said, “I do not believe in God. But if you do, for God’s sake pray for me, for I need it.” Apparently he did get the idea that there was a power in the will of God that could help him. And he won a real moral victory over his wrong. It was after the victory that he came back to Fosdick long enough to say, “If ever you find a man who does not believe in God, send him to me. I know.”

Perhaps all of us start with religion that is second-hand; that is, we have been told about it by teacher, pastor, parent or friend. But we are transformed, born again, when our religion becomes our own by experience. This transforming experience is what we covet not only for ourselves but for each one who is being confirmed, and for all who join in the fellowship of Christians. Confirmation is not just “conformation” to a kind of second-hand religion. It should be more like a transformation into first hand experience.

Paul was appealing to the Romans to live in such a way that they could be a part of this experience. Speaking, not as one in a position to scold but as one who tried to make God’s grace real to his hearers, Paul advised the Roman Christians to be good stewards of their talents and abilities. There are great differences and wide diversities among Christians because, like any other people, we differ in our abilities. But we are all a part of what we call the Body of Christ -- that is the church. And so we serve in the way that we can, and the best we can. As Paul says, some in prophecy, some in teaching, some in serving, some in contributing, some in acts of mercy --- some in several of these ways.

Love is genuine among Christians -- even when there be differences of ability and differences of opinion. This Christian love leads one into a true respect for personality --- honoring others for what they are and can be, just as one wants the same kind of respect for himself. First-hand Christianity may even lead one out of the world’s concept of what is fair --- “getting even” for the ills that are done to one -- to Christ’s concept of what is fairer --- overcoming evil with good.

The late Dr. Edward Increase Bosworth used to make four general statements about what it means to become a Christian.

1) To become a Christian is to begin a certain wonderful way of living that people will be glad to continue always, even into the far ages.

2) In this way of living there is a glad awareness, a growing awareness of the unseen energy, or strength, that we call “the will of God” to create a good world. And this good world can be begun here and now. It does not have, indeed should not have, to wait until after death.

3) Such a good world is one in which all kinds of people work together with good will in their hearts. There is power in finding the sincerity and friendliness of others and letting them find it in you.

4) The life of a Christian uses all the incentives to such working together that God has been pouring into the lives of people through the personality of Jesus Christ. For this reason, it is called “the Christian life.”

Into such a life, we welcome today’s confirmation class, as they dedicate themselves, and as we rededicate ourselves, to Christian living.

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Delivered in Wisconsin Rapids, May 24, 1964.