The Real(er) World
Having been born in the mid-'80s and growing up in the 90's you could say that I, along with my fellow millennials are the product of, the original consumers of reality television. Reality T.V. began in May of 1992 with the airing of the first episode of Real World. Each season the location of the show would change – New York, Miami, San Francisco, Los Angeles, London, Seattle – but the premise of the show would not: “This is the true story…of seven strangers…picked to live in a house…(work together) and have their lives taped…to find out what happens…when people stop being polite…and start getting real.”
Real World exposed topics that for the time had been considered taboo in front of company: sex, prejudice, religion, abortion, sexuality, AIDS, death, politics, and substance abuse. With these topics on the table what would happen when 7-8 strangers set aside the norms of politeness while being filmed 24/7?
The truth Paul is speaking in Romans 12 is that living in God's love is the only true reality, unblemished by the brokenness of this world. The good news in this truth is that God's love will transform us, and we can in turn transform the world.
For 11 chapters Paul has been petitioning the Roman Church to get their heads on straight. Paul had been making the argument that if only the church, disciples of Jesus Christ who had banded together, sharing life, if only those people could learn to accept the "real world" they would see things differently. In seeing things differently, they would live differently. They would be different. The problem for the Roman Church and us today is that Paul's demand for us to "not be conformed to this world," a world marred and contaminated by sin, raises the question – to what world are we to conform?
“I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.”[1]
Paul is pointing us towards a way of living that contrasts the arrogance, division, hatred, violence, and lack of empathy of the world that will consume us if we are not careful. Paul is extending an invitation to the church, he is pleading with the church to engage in a debate over what is real and what is normal.
We live in a world that wants to convert us. This past week the Democratic National Convention did it’s best to convince us that their vision of the real world will save us from ourselves, and next week the Republican National Convention will do the same. Prime-time speeches, flashy advertisements that make us wonder if Siri or Alexa are listening to us 24/7, and perfectly curated video montages are intended to convert us to their reality.
Political conventions are low-hanging fruit. Every day there are powers in our world, lesser gods that we lean towards, that attempt to convince us that their way of seeing the real world is the best for us. Their real-world will make our lives easier, less stressful, and more enjoyable they tell us.
That may sound manipulative and that is because it is! The world is seeking to co-opt you, to manipulate you into a cheap, false existence while God is offering an authentic reality based on love. Through worship, scripture, prayer, fellowship - through the church, just like this - we learn to experience God's reality, we are allowed to see behind the veil in a way impossible for the worldly co-opters.
Every time we gather to worship, proclaiming and receiving God's word we are attempting to convert, to convince you that the reality of life in Jesus Christ, a life that begins at the waters of Baptism and a life that cannot be contained by the grave, is the only reality that can course correct the arrogance, division, hatred, violence, and lack of empathy of the world.
Every week we gather for worship, whether we are gathering in-person or in the cloud, we are laying ourselves before the altar as a living sacrifice – mind, body, and soul. We do this together as a community living in a world that believes arrogance, division, hatred, violence, and lack of empathy to be marks of the real world when the reality of Jesus, the reality that we proclaim week after week, speaks a truth that few want to hear but once they have heard it, once they have experienced it they cannot look back: in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God has flipped the world on its head. Before a world conforming to sin could establish itself as the real-world Jesus countered it – “for those who find their lives will lose them and those who lose their lives because of me will find them.”[2]
The way of Jesus, the real-world life of a disciple is consumed more by healing the sick, proclaiming God’s truth, feeding the hungry, loving our enemies and praying for those who persecute us and less by patronizing the poor, sustaining disdain for our enemies, and not being willing for pray for those who are against you.
This is the real world, Christ’s reign – healing, truth, empathy, love, and prayer – that we proclaim week after week, Sunday after Sunday. It is a proclamation that transforms us through the power of the one who overcame everything that has and everything that will continue to attempt to separate us from one another.
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed.”[3]
The transformation that Paul speaks of is something we both look forward to and recognize that it has already happened. The advent of Christ in the world, his death, and resurrection have already transformed the cosmos. The world was not real until Christ upended the powers and principalities on the cross and in the tomb.
We now live in the realest world, already transformed by Christ. Church, at its best, is just renewing our minds once a week to realize what Christ has already accomplished in spite of, and for, us.
The transformation we seek and the transformation we experience does not come as the result of our greatness or ability to transform ourselves. To not be conformed to this world and instead of being transformed means we rely on the greatness and the ability of God.
We are transformed, the world around us is formed by what has happened in Christ, and by what is happening here today in worship. What we do tomorrow, through the rest of the week is a direct result of the collision that has happened here in worship. A collision between the world as we know it – broken and in need of rescue – and the real world, established in the truth and power of Christ's ultimate reign. This is the world when Christ reigns over all of creation when the sick are healed, division mended, and enemies forgive one another.
The drama of MTV’s Real World set the stage for our obsession with reality T.V. and it’s consequences. Once the participants in the shows realized stardom was just around the corner the reality of reality T.V. took a backseat. As much as we try to create a real-world for ourselves, leaning into whatever reality most benefits us at the time, Christ invites us to something more. Paul is urging us to lean into a world – this world that we are a part of – that has shifted and to open our eyes to the reality of God's ultimate reign in Christ. Rather than offering ourselves to lesser altars with shallow promises, we are invited to be active participants in the Kingdom of God, a real-world that is present now, initiated by God's love, and sustained by God's power and grace.
