Offering Ourselves to God

A Sermon by David Bennett

August 24, 2008

Romans 12:1-8

This is one of my favorite New Testament passages and I really appreciate Eugene Peterson’s translation in The Message.  Paul gives us much to think about in these few verses.

        I begin in the middle of our reading where Paul reminds us that, although we are but one part of the body, we are an essential part of the whole body.  But we are not to forget, nor ignore the role our part plays in the whole.

A pastor, trained in the teaching of decision-making skills to federal prisoners, begins each of his training events by having folks repeat after him:

        I am unique

        I am important

        I am irreplaceable

We – each and every one of us – are unique, important and irreplaceable.   Our reading invites us to embrace God by being what we are meant to be.  We are to do so without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves to others or by trying to be something we are not.  We all have different gifts.  We are are to use the gifts we have been given.

And so, unique, important, irreplaceable persons, listen to how Paul invites us to live.  He tells us to take our everyday, ordinary life – our sleeping, eating, going to work, our walking around lives and place them before God as an offering.  The NRSV translation puts it this way – we are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice to God.  In this sacrifice we find fulfillment. In this self denial we find self discovery.  All this takes place through the movement of the Spirit in our lives.

In the taking of our everyday, ordinary lives and offering them to God, God will do what is best for us.  Someone once said: “God will change our life if we let God change our mind.”

We may be famous, or not recognized beyond our family; we may be powerful, or have no power at all; we may be influential, or can influence only ourselves.   Whoever we are, we are unique, important, irreplaceable.

And wherever and however we live – we do so in our unique everyday, ordinary way and when we give our everyday, ordinary lives to God, it’s the very best thing we can do.

Paul urges us to not become so well adjusted to our culture that we fit into it without even thinking.  We all know how easy this is.  Television becomes more and more violent, more and more graphic – and without our thinking about it – it is welcomed into our living rooms.  Words not previously used in public – without our thinking about it – become common place and acceptable.  The Government intrudes into our personal freedoms and civil rights, once considered sacred – and without our thinking about it – these freedoms and civil rights slip away because of the fear mongering of our leaders.  The list could go on.

How often the culture drags us down without our thinking about what is happening.

How to confront this being dragged down by our culture?  Paul’s answer (in Peterson’s translation) – is to fix our attention on God.  This is the “presenting of our bodies as living sacrifices” as translated in NRVS.

What does “fixing our attention on God” mean?   It giving ourselves completely to God.  It is the opening of our hearts, the opening of our spirits, the opening of our minds to the guidance of God’s spirit in every aspect of our lives and our living.

How would our lives be different if we allowed God’s unconditional love to guide our living?

How would our lives be different if we allowed God’s call for justice and righteousness to guide our decisions about poverty, war, hunger, stewardship of the environment, other moral, social and justice issues?

How would our lives be different if we took time each day to be in prayer and meditation and fixed our attention on God’ presence within our spirits?

I would be so bold as to say we would live differently, we would decide differently if our attention were fixed on God.

And, as Paul tells us, not only will we live and decide differently, if we fix our attention on God; he tells us if we are open to the movement of God’s spirit in our lives, God will bring the best out of us, develop in us a well-formed maturity, not a maturity created by our culture dragging us down to its level.

The God I worship will develop within me a mature faith which welcomes all God’s children, seeks peace and justice, cares for the creation I have inherited.  The God you worship will develop within you a mature faith that represents you spiritual and faith journey.

So unique, important, irreplaceable people of Central Church, I invite you, just as Paul invited the people of the church in Rome, take your everyday ordinary lives – your sleeping eating, going to work, walking around lives and place them before God as an offering.  Don’t allow the culture to drag you down to its level.  Fix your attention on God and God will bring the best out in you.