Introduction: Gospel Formed Life

How are we being formed?

We might not be like a tulip in our self-awareness, but there are many ways that we share in growth like a tulip. In fact, agrarian or farming metaphors fill the pages of the New Testament. They are commonly used to describe our transformation or "growth." We can think about how we grow in Christ's likeness, much like we can think about planting and growing a crop or flower. Every plant in the world has a similar growth process though it might change slightly from region to region. It goes through the same basic steps and has the same basic needs. First, it must die. Nearly all seeds come from the death of the plant. The plant dies. A seed falls to the ground and is buried. If the seed is in good soil with good sunlight and water, it will begin to grow. If a seed falls in a location without good soil or sunlight, it simply cannot grow regardless of the seeds' desire or genetically predisposed inclination to grow.

It might sprout after a good rain, but without good soil, it will be quickly uprooted. It might get buried, but without sunlight, it will rot. It might fall to the hard, dry ground and only wither. Yet, in all the right conditions and the right soil, it will eventually sprout and grow into something beautiful or fruitful.

Do you feel beautiful or fruitful?

It's a question that I think many of us are scared to ask ourselves. The truth is most of us don't feel beautiful or fruitful. We more often feel uprooted, rotten, or withered. We don't understand why we're so anxious, worried, and stressed all the time. We don't understand why we keep collecting more things that are supposed to give us beauty and joy, but they never really do. We never have enough. We don't understand why we always feel tired, like we can never get enough water or nutrients. We feel constantly uprooted, like we are rotting on the vine and withering away.

Let me offer two possible reasons why we often feel this way and one tangible solution that might help.

First, many of us never actually died to begin with.

Remember, before a seed can fall to the ground, it must die. I once asked an older Christian who I admired how I could be like them. “Where should I start?” I asked. They responded, "First, you have to die." I thought it was a weird answer until I read the words of Jesus in John 14 that we will read today. A seed has to fall and die for it to find life. Anyone who wants to follow Jesus has to die. Have you died? Were you ever dead and buried like a seed to begin with? Or do you just keep holding on to the facade of life?

Paul says in Galatians 2, “It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.”

Our transformation begins with our death. We must die to our wants, desires, expectations, and selfishness. The seed must hit the ground. We must die so that we might live in Christ. In a few weeks, we will discuss practicing death more practically.

Second, we must recognize the value of the soil that we are in. Where we are planted determines our growth. There are two types of formation: intentional and passive. On the one hand, we choose what is forming us by what we are reading, what we're looking at, and the influences and influencers we listen to. This is intentional formation. This is where most of us think that formation is taking place. Yet, most of our formation is actually happening passively. We are being formed and grown in the soil around us without realizing it. The place that we lay is where we will grow from. Without our knowledge or awareness, we are being formed by where we are and who we are with. This is the soil that we lay in. God says we have a hand in forming what kind of soil that is. We can choose where we lay and how we are growing.

Michael Gorman refers to this with the wonderful phrase transformative participation. We participate in our own formation by cultivating the soil of our growth.

When my wife and I put it in our first garden, we tried to plant everything we could. I plowed up a little spot using the neighbor's hand tiller. I made perfect rows ready for planting. My wife planted a diversity of wonderful garden vegetables and a few flowers. In about a month, little sprouts started coming up out of the ground. They all were about the same to start with, only distinguishable by the trained eye that I did not have. Then after a few more weeks, I noticed some significant differences in the plants. Some of the vegetables grew fast and beautiful while some other ones barely held on. What was the difference? The soil, of course.The following year instead of just tilling up rows and planting seeds randomly. We had our soil checked. We took a sample to the experts, who told us what we needed to add or subtract for healthy soil for a variety of vegetables. That year the garden boomed and overflowed with fruit.

As you read the passages today, do a soil and seed check.

Have you died to yourself as a kernel falls to the ground?

Have you tended to your soil lately, giving it nutrients?

Are you cultivating a place where you can grow into Christ's likeness?