Becoming

This past weekend at The Gateway we began a brand new sermon series simply entitled “Becoming”. A series that will explore three categories of spiritual practices - contemplative, communal and missional - that will help us become more like Christ (you can listen to the podcast HERE).

Now, a lot of people think that spiritual disciplines are only for priests or ascetic monks living in a cave. But the truth is we are all becoming something. Our daily decisions, habits, relationships are shaping our lives. So what are we becoming?

I believe that the goal of Christian spirituality is not simply to become nicer people, better citizens or even good parents/spouses. These should certainly be byproducts, but the destination is Christ. Christianity’s goal is that we become more and more like our founder.

It’s our dream that we would not just be a church that believes in something, but a people who are becoming more and more like that which we believe in. Believers who see their faith as more than a one-time event or just a small compartment of their life, but people who want to be entirely transformed from the inside out by Jesus Christ.

See Jesus never meant for us to just believe or just behave, he meant for us to become. To imitate his way of life. During the course of His ministry, Jesus did so much more than simply pass on theological truths…

• He withdrew from the crowds to spend time alone with his Father; 
• He gathered a group of twelve men and invested his life into them; 
• He reached out to those discarded by society, the lowest of the low and the poorest of the poor. For this, He became known as a “friend of tax collectors and sinners.”

He who was all became nothing.

To follow Christ is a process, and it is a process of change that involves the heart and head and body —a step by step walk of both inward change and outward expression; physical and spiritual acts of worshipful obedience. 

When Jesus said in John 14:6 -- “I am the way…” he used the word not just as a simple noun designating a road that leads to a destination, but as a rich metaphor for life.  

In other words, Jesus didn’t just lay out the path for heaven, He came to show us a radically new and abundant way of life.

Jesus brought heaven to us.

“All the way to heaven is heaven, because He had said, “I am the way.”

-- St Catherine