I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. (Romans xii, 1) Our Epistle today, demands a lot from us. It not only asks us to sacrifice our living bodies, but also has the audacity to imply that it is normal and reasonable to do so. All of us want to be acceptable unto God and we wouldn t be here if we were not ready to offer reasonable service. Nonetheless, the word sacrifice does not conjure up images of reasonableness. It is comforting that we talk of a living sacrifice as opposed to one requiring martyrdom. We are talking about making a sacrifice in our life limiting our freedom of choice. Now I know I am preaching to the choir. All of you are here because you chose to sacrifice your time, talent and treasure for this parish, our diocese, the province, and our international communion. We do this because we recognize it as a reasonable service to our Lord and Creator. Many of you give a great deal of your time, talent and treasure for the faith. When you do so, you sacrifice in the sense that you make a conscious choice to use those gifts for the church. There is no end to the choices to which your treasure might be applied. Your talent is limited only by its application. Time is often even more valuable and can be applied to almost any endeavor. It is tough to decide in what area to apply our limited time. Epiphany1fwb20170108.docx 12/29/2016 Page 1
It is appropriate, but indeed a sacrifice, to make the church a priority. Generally, we don t even realize the number and variety of choices available to us. After all we could invest our time, talent and treasure in drug traffic or the slave trade. Of course, you don t consider those options because they are outside your scope of acceptable behavior. See, you have already sacrificed some freedom of choice by limiting the options you might consider. In this respect, you have indeed presented your minds and bodies, a living sacrifice for holy, acceptable and reasonable service unto God. You might ask why I bring this up if we already do such a good job of making choices. I bring it up to emphasize something that is so common and accepted that we may not miss it until it is gone altogether. That something is a standard. It is a rule for measuring and judging quality, quantity and value. We use standards all the time. How else would we know when we have received a ream of paper, or a gallon of gas, or pound of vegetables? Don t worry; no one is proposing that we quit measuring our commodities. But there is another standard that seems to be out of favor today and in danger of being eliminated. That standard is the one we read about in our Epistle today: the standard of living a life of holy, acceptable and reasonable service unto God. We are not likely to lose our standards altogether. However, the possibility of having our standards supplanted by those with authority over us is very real. There are a couple of words you hear frequently that appear to be synonymous with each other. They are secular and secularism. You will hear Epiphany1fwb20170108.docx 12/29/2016 Page 2
them used to imply the same intent; but the dictionary shows a significant difference between the two. Secular is a adjective that means not sacred or religious ; as in not related to church or religion. On the other hand, secularism is a noun indicating a philosophical point of view. It is a system of beliefs and practices that rejects any form of religious faith. Secular is a passive adjective. Secularism is a noun designating a system of beliefs and practices actively opposed to the maintenance of any standards of any religious faith. In fact, in their view, standards are considered a roadblock to true freedom for mankind. Removal of those standards will allow man to declare himself God. Although man is very creative; he certainly is not the creator. He is not the redeemer. He is not the sanctifier. He is merely the recipient of those generous gifts. Secularism is not passive. It has a goal and that goal is to free mankind from standards that make one action appear better than another. Its goal is literally to remove sin from our vocabulary by removing religious standards. Secularism does not produce real freedom. Secularism produces freedom from religion. George Bush was born into an Episcopal family, raised as a Presbyterian, and is now a Methodist. Howard Dean was baptized Catholic, raised as an Episcopalian, and is now a Congregationalist. Wesley Clark was Methodist, became Baptist, and as an adult converted to Catholicism. Only in this country with religious freedom could such prominent individuals as a President, a Governor and a General display their individual choices. Epiphany1fwb20170108.docx 12/29/2016 Page 3
We work daily to exercise the correct choices in our lives. We must also guard against having those choices taken away. In fact, there are daily examples of our fabric of life being unraveled, one strand at a time. The Ten Commandments cannot be displayed on public property. Prayer is forbidden in any government building. The owners of Hobby Lobby and the founder of Domino s Pizza are being threatened by the government for refusing to provide abortion insurance coverage for their employees. The government no longer supports the First Amendment. It only supports Freedom from Religion. It is even worse that these folks are being threatened not by virtue of a law passed by Congress. The law passed by Congress is too complicated to be understood clearly. Thus, the threats are from a bureaucratic interpretation made by an individual appointed not elected. The result is people, who create jobs in this country, are being punished for retaining their religious beliefs. We are, undoubtedly, the best example of a free society. Our freedoms are unheard of in most of the world. We have been blessed by the generosity and insight of our founders. They gave for the good of the country. The result has been over two hundred years of unimagined freedom. We must recognize that many in our government do not share the goal of our founders. Their lack of foresight could easily lead to our loss of freedom. Our freedom of freedom is not guaranteed if the Constitution is ignored. So how do we, as individuals, maintain our freedoms without stepping on someone else? How do we maintain our determination to maintain God s order? Epiphany1fwb20170108.docx 12/29/2016 Page 4
To join any group, we must accept the objective of that body. The objective of the Body of Christ is to promote the Kingdom of God. We all have talents that can be applied for or against that body. That is the choice we must make. A little self-discipline will enable us to restrict our choices to those supporting the one Body in Christ. This is the sacrifice spoken of in our Epistle today; and we will hear it again in the prayers of consecration. This is clearly a plea for unity. But it does not plea for an empty shell bearing the appearance of unity. It asks for the unity that comes from individual commitment to the Body of Christ. The unity being discussed in this Epistle talks about a personal adherence to the Body of Christ. It is a personal commitment to govern our free will with self-discipline not government mandated regulations. It is a personal commitment to limit our choices in life to those aligned with the Will of God. This personal commitment does not really limit our freedom. In fact, it simplifies our ability to choose by eliminating those choices that are against the Will of God. It takes all of us making good choices and commitments to direct our choices toward the Will of God. We depend on organizations to help direct our efforts. But organizations do not have a guidance system of their own. They are guided by the personal commitments of the individuals making up the organization. We must encourage our representatives in Washington, Jefferson City and Topeka to take their faith into their public life, for the good of the whole country. Epiphany1fwb20170108.docx 12/29/2016 Page 5
Our collect today asked that we may both perceive and know what things we ought to do and also may have the grace and power faithfully to fulfill the same. The lesson today reminds us that it is, as individuals, that we perceive and know what things to do. And it is as individuals that we have the grace and power faithfully to fulfill the same. Our priceless standards: revealed by God the Father; lived by God the Son; and encouraged by God the Holy Spirit; must be followed faithfully to keep us on the right path. Ye shall not appear before the Lord empty; every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord thy God which he hath given thee. (Deuteronomy xvi. 16,17) Epiphany1fwb20170108.docx 12/29/2016 Page 6