Several years ago, I learned a form of leadership coaching that ideally helps people access the capacity or wisdom within folks in order to meet the needs of the moment and thrive in challenging realities. Even though it was a secular program, their general approach speaks the same language as Paul in the Romans text and Jesus in the gospel. Just like coaching people to be better leaders, these texts are about transformation and conformation.

To conform ourselves means to take on the shape of something or to fit in somehow, right? We tend to think of conforming as a bad thing, but it’s really more of a human thing. We’re such social beings, we do conform to one degree or another, so it matters who we choose to conform to or with.

One of the people in my cohort in this coaching program was a gorgeous, brilliant Chinese American woman who carried herself like royalty. And she was! She was Miss Chinatown in San Francisco or something along these lines. Anyway, we were paired up at some point and she was next to me with her imperious, impeccable posture that I could never emulate to save my life. Just for fun, I challenged her to slouch for just a moment. She would not.

Why would she? Her posture was the perfect shape for her world, a world of wealth, education, sophistication, and culture. Too much work for me, I can tell you that, but she did it well and probably needed to for her social reality. We all have ways of conforming to our worlds; the worlds of our families, communities, work, or social worlds.  Just notice how a group of friends will move alike, hold themselves alike, dress alike, sound alike. It’s not a bad thing. It’s just a reality thing.

So, Paul in the Romans text is asking us to notice how and to who we conform ourselves. That may not be immediately obvious to each of us, but clues may be found in how we hold our bodies, like the beauty queen who wouldn’t slouch even in fun. But they may also be how we speak, what media we consume, where we shop, what we get mad at, what we love, what we admire, or what we aim for. Paul is saying the shared norms of the culture in ancient Rome were not the models of goodness that people should conform to, physically or otherwise. Paul preached that Christ is the way, the truth, and the life and he’d say the same to us today.

There are lots of ways we conform we may not even notice. For example, lots of folks have moved to Reno over the past couple decades and I was struck last week by how fast driving has become normal. I drove up Donner Pass for a hike and saw a sign that literally said, “Drive 100 mph and lose your license.” It blows my mind that the Department of Transportation felt compelled to tell people that if you’re driving 100 mph over a mountain pass, you’ll lose your license. Who drives 100 mph over a mountain pass?! Well, apparently, there’s a goodly amount of people who are now conforming to the norm of driving with a small death wish for oneself or others. 

This is just one, but there are lots of norms, lots of patterns of behavior that we conform to, so which ones are we choosing? Are we choosing to conform to reckless, aggression-filled driving? Hateful speech? Crushing judgement of ourselves and other? Apathy or cynicism? Or are we conforming ourselves and taking the shape of what is good and beautiful in this world?

In the gospel today, Jesus hears Peter’s response to his question and knows that Peter’s witness to Jesus’ identity as Christ came from God. It didn’t come from external sources of wisdom that he conformed himself to. He didn’t outsource his thinking or his knowing. It came from within him. In the translation in your bulletin (the one we didn’t read together), Jesus says, “For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church.”

On this rock. Now, if you remember the rest of the story of Jesus’ life and death, we know that Peter is not a rock. He’s a mixed bag, like the rest of us. But the language of Jesus in the translation that’s in your bulletin (NRSVUE) suggests to me that God’s action, God’s knowing in Peter is the rock despite his many faults, just like the rest of us. And yet in the translation I did read to you from the Message, Jesus says, “And now I’m going to tell you who you are, really are. You are Peter, a rock.” This translation isn’t saying God’s knowing in Peter is the rock, but that Peter is the rock.

This may sound like these translations are saying different things, but I’m not sure they are. Afterall, these are texts about becoming who God would have us be and I believe God sees us in our fullness, just like loving parents see growth and capacity when we begin to toddle, right? They aren’t judging our poor balance and counting each fall as a failure. The ones who help us grow and become who we are meant to be are seeing as we are and also in the full expression of who we are meant to be, even as we may struggle.

So, Peter in his discipleship is becoming the rock. He is slowly conforming himself to Christ as he experiences the action and knowing of God within himself and, in this text, has the hutzpah to say that Jesus is the Christ. It wasn’t obvious to folks and so this is a big deal. Peter’s statement here signals a change in him, a transformation. In that way, it’s not entirely different than someone deciding that their habit of driving 100 mph over a mountain pass might not be a good choice. Incremental transformation by conforming ourselves to something better is part of becoming that rock that supports a life, a family, a world, and a church that is “so expansive with energy that not even the gates of hell will be able to keep it out.”

We are all made differently by our beloved Creator. Each of us have different gifts, different ways to engage in the world. We’re not all Peter, but we are all called to be a way for God to act in this world for the sake of ourselves and others. And it does involve being transformed now, being conformed in our bodies, minds, and souls to God, to the One Great Love, that is the foundation of our life in this world.

As our students and teachers go back to school this coming week, opportunities abound for making good choices about conforming. Conforming will and does happen, so that’s not the question. The question is what are you conforming to? How do you want to hold yourself in the hallways? Do you want to be like my beauty queen friend who wouldn’t slouch for even a moment? How do you want to be with yourself? With others? What way of being in the world is Jesus calling you into?   

For the rest of us who are not going back to school, the same questions still apply. Are we choosing to conform to the more reckless aspects of our society? Are we perhaps conforming ourselves to our own fears over hope in God’s good creation that is still coming into being? Or are we conforming ourselves to Christ, to the crucified one who came to serve and live in hopeful expectation of what is to come? Are we listening to the rock of God’s powerful knowing and guidance inside ourselves and conforming ourselves to that hopeful message? And as we do so, what are the spiritual gifts and capacities that you notice emerging to make us into Christ’s hands and feet?

I have to say, our society seems hell-bent on keeping us scared, reactive, and ungrounded, but we do not need to conform to the dysregulated messes of a world. Instead, we can indeed conform to Christ and be transformed into Jesus’ rock on which his kingdom is built. And we do this together with Christ.

AMEN.