One of my favorite books, that I read again and again a long time ago… and a book that I have read again and again dozens of times in the last year and a half… is the classic Eric Carle text, “The Very Hungry Caterpillar.”
You know how this story goes —
“One Sunday morning the warm sun came up and – pop!- out of the egg came a tiny and very hungry caterpillar.”
And so, on this Sunday that we’re gathered together at the start of a new school year – I want to first celebrate that each and everyone of us, are very hungry caterpillars, each of us curious and searching for what will feed us and what will transform us into what we might become.
The very hungry caterpillar sets off on Monday to gobble through a weeklong smorgasbord, day after day munching holes through all kinds of food – beginning with… the classic apple and then pears and plums and strawberries and oranges….
We share with the caterpillar a tough-to-satisfy hunger that keeps us on the move. The question for the caterpillar and for us – is what are we becoming?
What will emerge from our curiosity, our learning, our hunger?
The 12th chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans – brings us to a turning point in the road. In the previous chapters Paul has made the case for God’s extravagant and mind-boggling kindness and grace, that through Christ offers salvation and life, and grafts Gentiles onto the tree of the family of God.
And so our text for today, starts with a “what next?” type of transition. “So then, therefore, my sacred family members, my kin, my siblings in Christ,” Paul begins.
It’s like that question that seems to arise after a lecture or talk and in the the question and answer time, someone in the audience invariably raises their hand, and says,
“Wow, thank you so much for being here and sharing, and um…that was fascinating! Um…and I’m just struck by…um… what do you think we should do about all this?”
Paul anticipates this question, the “What’s next?” the “What do we do about it?”
Paul’s response to the overwhelming kindness and mercy of God shown in Jesus – is to encourage those receiving his letter – to be living sacrifices for God.
That’s a strange thing to be – because usually sacrifices are dead – that’s the whole point of sacrificing an animal, you kill it and make an offering of it. But Paul encourages people to be the paradoxical living sacrifice, both priest and offering, with their own lives.
To follow Jesus, to join his body through baptism – is to die with Christ and to be raised by the power of his resurrection means that our lives will be patterned after a different model than the prevailing cultural norms – be they 1st century Roman or 21st century American.
“Don’t be conformed to the patterns of this world,” Paul encourages, “but be transformed by the renewing of your minds so that you can figure out what God’s will is.”
My grandpa Fremont would often say, “Don’t let your schooling get in the way of your education,” which would be another of saying what Paul is trying to say:
“Don’t let the patterns of the world…violence, blind-ambition, self-centeredness… get in the way of the transformation that God is bringing about in you.”
And this verb “be transformed” brings us back to our hungry caterpillar friend. Because in Greek that verb means to “metamorphose” – to change forms.
It only shows up a few other places in scripture – here in Romans 12 and in a couple gospels when Jesus’ metamorphoses, transfigures, changes appearance, shining with God’s glory on the mountaintop.
The First Nation Version actually translates this verse like this,
“Do not permit the ways of this world to mold and shape you. Instead let Creator change you from the inside out,
in the way a caterpillar becomes a butterfly.”
The temptation that the caterpillar faces in its eating and that we face in our own efforts of schooling and curiosity – is in thinking that the volume of content we ingest, will yield the transformation we hope for.
On Saturday, the very hungry caterpillar eats through one piece of chocolate cake, one ice cream cone, one pickle, one slice of Swiss cheese, one slice of salami, one lollipop, one piece of cherry pie, one sausage, one cupcake, and one slice of watermelon.
That night he had a stomach ache!
Similarly, some have surmised that the Artificial Intelligence revolution that is currently underway will radically transform, transfigure what it means for us to be humans on this planet, learners in the classroom, or workers at work. And AI has an insatiable hunger, AI can eat up every single morsel of information on the internet in pursuit of limitless questions.
But nevertheless the tummy ache remains – AI can consume and synthesize – but what it produces ends up looking an awful lot like what it gobbled up.
So for us to figure out what God’s will is – what is good and pleasing and just and beautiful…
for us to be not merely schooled, but truly educated,
for us to not just be artificially intelligent, but mature as humans,
… we must open ourselves to the mystery and power of God’s transforming, transfiguring, metamorphizing grace at work within us.
For the caterpillar that means stopping eating, waiting a few weeks in the dark cocoon… and for us Jesus’ followers it means following him through our baptisms, dying with him and rising by his resurrection, being made one in this new family in Christ.
On the final page of Eric Carle’s masterpiece – we meet the beautiful butterfly, who has pushed his way out of the cocoon, now able to fly with dazzling colors and patterns on his wings.
Our Romans passage ends with a vision what it looks like to live as butterflies, to live as living sacrifices, people whose very way of life has been transformed by Christ’s love.
There is no one way to be in Christ, there is no single color of a what a butterfly must be:
“We have different gifts that are consistent with God’s grace that has been given to us,” Paul says.
The word for gifts – xarismata – has at its root the word for grace – xaris. God’s kindness and love and grace – makes it possible for us to be gifted, to be grace-gifters and receivers.
This grace-gifting takes on tons of different forms. Paul lists a few gifts – like serving and prophesying and teaching and encouraging and giving and leading and compassion.
All of these types of joyful wisdom are examples of a beautiful flourishing that does not conform to the patterns of the world as it is, but resists, and instead lives out the fullness of who God is metamorphosing, transforming us to be.
There are so many types of butterflies in the world, nearly all whose names I don’t know. I just see them flying and delighting about in the world. They flit about outside my office window, alighting on the zinnias, and Mexican sunflowers, on the beebalm, goldenrod, and coneflower.
I’m in awe of the sheer diversity of shapes and sizes and colors and patterns of butterflies at the Museum of Life and Science, where there is this huge heated and humidified butterfly habitat.
But what moves me most is when I get to see all of you – and witness the beauty and wisdom and compassion that God’s grace has summoned forth in your life and in our life together as Christ’s body.
So this school year, this week, or even just for the rest of today…
– may you resist the patterns of this world
– and trust in the transforming, metamorphosing work of God in your life,
– so that you may be the beautiful gift of grace God has made you to be.