Future Hope: Being Jesus to the World
The Rev. Dr. John Judson
August 21, 2011
Romans 12:1-8
I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.
For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgement, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.
It was his first call. He was a seminary classmate of mine and was thrilled to be the solo pastor of a small membership church in rural Virginia. He loved the people and the challenge of preaching, visiting and taking care of his flock. One day when sitting in his small office at the church, one of his elders poked his head in the door to see how things were going. While they were talking it dawned on my friend that things were getting a bit dusty around the church and so he asked the elder if he would make sure something was done about it. “Not a problem,” was the response and the elder vanished. My friend thought to himself, what a great church. All you have to do is ask and things get done. A few minutes later the elder appeared at the pastor’s door. In his hand were a broom and duster. He set them down beside the pastor. My friend, a little taken aback, asked the elder what they were for. “Why do you think we hired you,” said the elder.
That church wanted the pastor to be a living sacrifice. Any of us who have ever been in a church or other organization know what this is all about. Organizations seem to have this radar that allows them to find the people who will do more and more and more until they are finally burned up and burned out. And that is the image that Paul appears to offer us…and tells us that it is our spiritual worship. We are to be living sacrifices. For those around Paul the image would have been a familiar one. Everywhere they turned, people were offering sacrifices. Sometimes the sacrifice would be an animal, other times grain or perhaps money. Regardless of the nature of the sacrifice the end result was the same…the sacrifice was used up…burnt up, taken away or consumed. There was in the end nothing left. Thus it would seem, at least on the surface, as if this is what Paul was about. We were to offering ourselves so completely to the cause of Christ that there is nothing left of us; not a very appealing image. The question becomes then is this what Paul was asking of us? The answer is…no.
What Paul is asking of us in this portion of his letter to the church at Rome, is not that we burn ourselves out but that we become Christ to the world. I understand how that answer might appear to be quite a bit of a stretch from what we have just read. So what I am asking this morning is that you bear with me while together we open up this part of Paul’s letter. Where we need to begin is to remember that our passage is a continuation of what has come before. The first part of Romans reminds us that we have been called, chosen and justified by God. This second part of Romans reminds us that we have not been called, chosen and justified in order to be spiritual secret agents. We are not Christian 007s who are called to accomplish the entire Christian mission on our own (as James Bond does in all of his movies). We were called instead to become part of God’s redeemed community, or as Paul calls it, the Body of Christ.
I understand that over the years most of us have heard this term, the body of Christ. Yet it is not the term we normally associate with this august body. The language that we use is the church. We are part of the church. When we use the term body of Christ it is simply a metaphor which sounds nice but doesn’t have a lot of meaning. We know this because the church, while it does have its spiritual side, is, well, an institution. It is an institution like many others. It has budgets and committees and organizational charts and marketing plans and well you get the idea. We know that much of the time spent in the church is spent making sure that the wheels run smoothly and plans and programs are carried out. Unfortunately, while all of that is necessary it can sidetrack us from the purpose of the church…which is to be the body of Christ. Paul uses that organic image to remind us that we are literally to be Christ to the world. That with Jesus not physically present we, the called, chosen and justified people of God are the physical and spiritual representation of Jesus on earth. We are those who are living at the intersection of this world and the Kingdom of God.
At the same time Paul tells us that not only are we to be the body of Christ in order to be Christ to the world but that each of us are part of the body of Christ. I use the term part intentionally because it gets at what Paul intends far more than does the term member. I realize that the two words can be interchangeable…an arm can be a body part or a body member. Unfortunately over the last century or so the understanding of member has moved from a functional part of an organic entity to being a member in the same sense as one is a member of Costco or a golf club. Members are those who pay their dues and get their benefits, as American Express put it. Membership is not in the end a functional term. What Paul reminds us of however is that we are not that kind of members of the body of Christ. We are body parts who have been attached to Christ for a purpose. And the purpose is not simply keeping the wheels turning; it is to make sure that we are the living body of Christ showing the love, grace and forgiveness of God to a hurting world.
Paul spends quite a bit of time reminding us that each of us is an essential part of the body; that each of us has a critical role to play. He tells us that if any of us are missing that the body cannot fully represent Christ to the world. We will be incomplete. If you want a visual of what this looks like I encourage you to find a copy of the move “As It is In Heaven”. Now, let me be clear this is not a movie for children or early teens. It is a movie for adults. But none the less it is the story of a world famous Swedish composer who suffers a heart attack because of his intensity and drive for perfection. As a result of his heart attack he retreats to the village in which he was raised. Ultimately he asks if he can be the church cantor and lead the small church choir. As he is beginning to deal with the somewhat untrained and rather dysfunctional choir a young man interrupts one of their rehearsals. It is immediately apparent that this young man is somewhere on the autism spectrum. He is able to make it known that he would like to sing. The leader of the choir goes ballistic and claims that if this young man is allowed to sing it will make a mockery of the choir. As the leader is ranting, the young man begins to produce a resonant bass note. The conductor walks over to him, listens and says, “We have another base.” That action begins a transformation of the choir. Slowly people whom no one would have expected to ever join a church choir, tattooed teens, abused wives and all sorts of outsiders sign up. And through their presence the choir begins to become what only God could make it, a representation of the body of Christ to the world.
Paul appeals to present ourselves as living sacrifices which is our spiritual worship. In so doing he does not intend that we burn ourselves out but that we take the gifts we have been given and give them fully over to the body of Christ. He does so because it is only together that we can be Christ to the world. It is only together that we can fulfill our calling as the recreative community of Christ. It is only together that we can fully impact the hurting world around us. The challenge then before us is to intentionally seek out our gifts and then unleash them for Christ. So here is what I would like you to ask yourselves this week. What are my gifts and how am I using them as part of the body of Christ?
