Romans 12:1-8. A Gift for God s Way Sermon Series on Romans. Dr. Greg Anderson. January 8, 2012

Transcription

1 Romans 12:1-8 A Gift for God s Way 2012 Sermon Series on Romans Dr. Greg Anderson January 8, 2012 Riverdale Baptist Church Whitehorse, Yukon

2 Introduction 1 Do you remember the focus of the Christmas Eve children s story and meditation? How do we respond to God s gift of Jesus, what do we give in return? I will give him my heart! When we consider our heart as the crux of our personal identity, our most precious possession this is certainly a reasonable response. But in a more down-to-earth manner, in a way not easily romanticized or spiritualized, Paul hits the nail on the head, after explaining through Romans 1 to 11, what belief in Jesus is all about, to call for this response: to present our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. The picture that comes to mind is shocking present my body as a sacrifice? Even more shocking for Paul s original audience, as they were intimately associated with animal sacrifice in the temples. And this word Paul goes on to use: members this is the word used to describe the various limbs and parts of the sacrificed animals. Why would I want to present my body as a living sacrifice? I am not sure exactly what it means and the imagery is so graphic my first response is to recoil! But then Paul says something else that gets my attention. In v. 1 and repeated in v. 2 Paul says the consequence of this sacrificial action on our part is pleasure to God and because we end up in the will of God pleasure to us. Here is one of the most highly sought after experiences in our culture: pleasure. It is a bit hard for us Evangelicals, those who have been schooled in the teachings of total depravity, to think it possible any action of ours would please God. But here is Paul s declaration: yes, present your bodies as living sacrifices (an image that is anything but pleasurable) and God will be pleased and the presenter will be pleased. Pleasure is why I would present my body as a living sacrifice!

3 The Text 2 Let s go through the text briefly and I will highlight several matters to be aware of. I am reading from the new NIV. Verse one (Read): true and proper the underlying word here is reasonable. The emphasis is if you think through all of Paul s argument up to this point, the logical consequence is to offer yourself in all that you are, not just your heart, but you as a complete living human being in worship to God. Verse two (Read): the word translated world is literally age. The idea is not so much to be divorced from this world, as in the case of the monastic, but, as JB Phillips puts it: Don t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould. The mind is the leading member of the body. The mind directs all the other members and therefore in verse 2 and 3, the way we think is the focal point in offering our bodies as living sacrifices. Verse three (Read): with the first and last phrases of the verse, the grace given me and the faith God has distributed to you, sometimes our first inclination is to read this in an individualistic manner, as if I have a litre of faith and you have two litres of faith. But this is not the only way to read it, it may be more general, grace has been given and faith has been given, not in a measured amount. Verse four & five (Read) with many members In Rabbinic literature the body was reckoned to have 248 members, corresponding to the 248 positive commands of the Torah; there were 365 negative commands or prohibitions corresponding to the number of days in the year. I think the NRSV has a better sense in v. 5: so we, who are many, are one body in Christ. Verse six to eight: Hopefully we will come back to these verses next week. Given the overall message and the text itself, I think it is good that the new NIV clarifies that the gifts are not exclusive to men. So, how would we sum it up? The overall focus can be captured in the prayer Jesus taught us: may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven! Here is the goal: the will of God, and Paul emphasizes it is good, pleasing and perfect.

4 The individual is called to an act of sacrificial offering, as Eugene Peterson puts it: Take your everyday, ordinary life your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life and place it before God as an offering. And with a particular focus on our mind and our thinking. Just consider it: in our culture, with 13 years of education from 5 to 18; with all of mass media that comes to us through the mind; with the pervasive influence of government in its laws and policies directing us how to think, from the national level all the way to how our community clubs are organized; we are born into and formed into and live in a tremendously structured culture that hugely effects our mind and thinking. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds. Application How? Even though verses 1 & 2 serve as an introduction to this final section of the letter, there is also a direct logical connection with the next few verse. How to renew the mind? Recognize God gives gifts to enable this, we are not left on our own, with an impossible task, given the power of the age we live in. Recognize we are a part of a whole, only a part, and take action to welcome the whole to shape our part in the body of Christ and to live as a part within that whole. Here is the real challenge: the nature and practice of our relationship with a congregation of Christian believers. It does not have to be this congregation, but it has to be some congregation. It will not do to think you belong to the universal church and therefore are relieved of responsibility to be part of a particular local congregation. It will not do to think you belong to a virtual congregation via social media and therefore are relived of responsibility to a particular congregation where you personally interact with a group 3

5 of other people, some of whom who will be like you and some of whom will not be like you and some of whom you may not even like! 4 It will not do to think you are a member because you show up for a couple of hours on Sunday morning. Membership is not defined by how we may be a member of a social or recreational group. Showing up just for Sunday worship, may be alright when you are beginning to associate with a congregation, but it will not allow you to be the recipient of the gifts of God expressed in every member. It will not allow you the full opportunity to be renewed in mind and to live beyond this age. A practical example is our upcoming quarterly meeting. Sure, if it was Rotary, Yukon Fish & Game, or the Mt. Mac Ski Club, if you had nothing specific to contribute it may be alright to stay home. But if it is the body of Christ coming together, expressing itself through the gifts God has given, to shape its life together do you really want to miss that? Now, perhaps I am being overly idealistic and perhaps we do not work hard enough to make sure our quarterly meetings are a dynamic occurrence of the Spirit of God working among us but that will only change if we all come together to change it! Here, I believe, is the real challenging point of what Paul tells us: The gifts of God given to the members who make up the body of Christ are made a reality when enjoyed and practiced by numerous individuals. But taken by themselves in isolation, the gifts are without significance. The gifts of God have significance only when the whole congregation relates together in an actual practical manner, like your own body. Now this is risky and even dangerous. There are lots and lots of examples where people made a responsible and significant commitment to a congregation of believers and ended up getting hurt, maybe even abused.

6 5 But this is what Christ has given to us: to be members with one another as his body and within the relational dynamic of the practical expression of his body, in our neighborhood, to know the gifts of God, which in turn assist us, in the sacrificial offering of ourselves, to know the God of the ages not the wisdom and rulers of this age and to bring pleasure to God and to know pleasure in the doing of his will. Amen.