“Lord, what do you want to do through me
today?
I
will again be reading from the Epistle of Romans today. When Paul wrote
this letter to the Romans in 50 A.D., both Jews and Gentiles house church
groups in Rome found it hard to accept that Christ died for the sins of
the other group. The Jews said that they are God’s chosen people, and the
Gentiles said that God had rejected the Jews in favor of them. This was a
conflict far more intense and destructive than our evolution conflict in
churches today. Paul’s mission was to help them understand that they both
were members of God’s new kingdom. For the first 11 chapters of this
letter to the Roman Jewish and Gentile Christians, Paul has talked
passionately abut the “Power of God is salvation for all who
believe.” All includes Jews as well as Gentiles. The start of chapter 12
begins with a “therefore,” and Paul is about to begin spelling out the
implications of God’s saving work among both groups.
Read Romans
12:1-8
Men! Does your
wife desire diamonds (they are, after all, a girl’s best friend), a
three-week cruise, or a new luxury car? What would really make her happy?
Women! Does
your husband desire a new set of golf clubs, someone to mow the yard for a
year, or a new truck? What would really make him happy?
You! Your
spouse simply wants you – all of you – your very heart. There is no better
gift. When you truly love - you give yourself to the other – not just part
of yourself but all of yourself. That is the nature of love. Our
literature, poems, movies and songs all speak to the human soul about this
kind of love. We want to love this way and we want to be loved this way.
Love is God’s way for us to live. We know through the life and teachings
of His son Jesus that God is love and He desires that we love Him and one
another as He loves us. He wants all of you – your very heart. To live
other than this is to live in sin.
Paul never
envisioned that a follower of Christ is to be simply on a roll of a church
and come once a week to hear scripture read and a sermon preached. That
just does not make any sense for the followers of Jesus in this first
generation, does it? There is great passion involved, and we know that
because of the persecutions resulted in death of so many followers of
Christ. They gave their all. A Christian was a hearer and doer and
integrated Jesus’ teachings and way in all of his or her life.
But how many of
our congregations today are “ears-only churches” and withhold the rest of
themselves from responding to God’s love? Where are our mouths, our hands,
and our feet to respond to God’s Word? God has given us life and food and
relationships and a world of great beauty. And He says it is all very
good. And what is our Christian response to His gifts? How does the world
see our response? We are known by our legalistic taboos,
not by our joy. We stress to the world that following Christ as our Lord
and Savior is defined by what we cannot do like smoking, drinking, and
dancing…or by our conflicts with the issues of abortion, prayer in public
schools, evolution, and homosexuality. What a lukewarm and un-affirming
response to God’s love for us.
Boy, do we just
love to get into arguments with others about the right rules in which to
live by. Our liberal groups and our conservative groups dig into one
another on the correct stance on evolution, abortion, homosexuality, and
school prayer -- each one saying with superiority that they are right and
God is in agreement with them by using proof texts from the Bible. We say
to ourselves, “I am of more value than these others because of my right
thinking” -- not much different than the “I am better than you” hostility
in Rome between the Jewish and the Gentile Christian groups. Where is our
confession of sins and God’s forgiveness? Where is the heart of the Gospel
that affirms that God loves you and we are to love God and our neighbor as
ourselves? It is missing in action.
Paul says to us
today, “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought to think.”
Humility is a key component in the way that we in the church are to relate
to one another. We are in one body with many members and we are not just
alike. Thank God! We “differ in our gifts according to the grace given to
us.” We must welcome, desire, and nurture diversity among us
so that together we may be strong enough to be agents of the living Christ
in our community today. But that is so hard for us to do. We like the
comfort to associate with those who mirror our egos.
But Jesus says
that the purpose of our lives is to live in a loving relationship with God
and one another. The new covenant that God made with us in Jesus Christ is
relationship based, not rule based. Therefore, Paul says, “we are to
present our bodies (that is, our entire self – ears, mouth, hands, feet,
and heart) as a living sacrifice…which is our spiritual worship.” Our
worship is not confined to the sanctuary of our church. What we do and how
we live in our everyday life is for the glory of God, and it all is our
worship. Our lives are to be lived in worship of our Creator. God has
given us abundance and has made us stewards of His gifts. Stewardship does
not mean that when we have given a percentage to the church that we have
fulfilled our steward responsibilities and we can do what we want with the
rest of it. The whole enchilada is what we give to God. God wants us all,
not just a part of us -- not just a few taboos, or our justifications of
right moral thinking, or a percentage of His abundance. Responding with
love is responding with all that we have and are. We surrender ourself to
God. C.S. Lewis says, “All genuine conversions are blessed defeats.” We
surrender to God and do what He wills for us. Now think about this for a
moment. We surrender to God and do what He wills for us. What does that
mean for you?
To live in this
relationship, we must seek a “renewing of our minds” in order to live this
transformed life. This process of being made into the children of God can
only happen if we focus on Jesus Christ. We must become Christ-centered
and Christ-focused. We do not live by the values of the world but of the
way of Christ. He is for us the means by which our lives can be shaped by
God into a life lived through His will. This renewal changes our attitudes
“so that we can discern what is the will of God – what is good,
acceptable, and perfect.”
What is the
will of God for me? I know that is a question that we often ask of God.
What is your will for me? Why is it so hard for me to understand? It
really is not so hard. We do not have to be some spiritual guru. When we
focus on Jesus Christ, his life and teachings, - knowing that what God
wants for us is a relationship of love and to surrender to Him - there
results that which is “good, acceptable, and perfect.” Then the issue for
us is really not knowing (we know) – the issue is not wanting to do what
God wills.
We have a will
also, and our ego and pride get in our way. We are in a battle with God’s
will and our ego/will. We want to do what we want and have God bless it,
right? It is only when we surrender to God that our stuff and our
culture’s stuff are no longer the driving force of the way we live. Make
no mistake about it. Most of our differences have to do with
our culture not our Lord’s teachings. The knowing and doing God’s will
becomes so much easier and our discernment so much clearer when we know
that the absolute giving of ourselves is the only way.
We are created
to love God and one another. Jesus is our focus and we center our lives on
him and his ways. Every morning arise from your bed and say at the window
of your bedroom, “I am yours God; thank you for your gift of life and
love. I surrender myself as a living sacrifice to you. What do you want to
do through me today? I know that it will be good, acceptable, and perfect.
I will be your ears, mouth, hands, feet and heart as I live for you
today.”
