Proper 16 year A RCL
August 24, 2008
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 judgment, 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.
Let the words of my mouth and the mediation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer. In the name of the Triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Contemporary English Version of the Bible translates the first two verses of today’s epistle lesson as: "Dear friends, God is good. So I beg you to offer your bodies to him as a living sacrifice, pure and pleasing. That's the most sensible way to serve God. Don't be like the people of this world, but let God change the way you think. Then you will know how to do everything that is good and pleasing to him."
And The Message translates it this way: So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
The reason why I offer these other two translations is because the NRSV that we use in worship talks about us discerning what is the will of God-- what is good and acceptable and perfect. It is that word perfect that trips me up. I cannot do the perfect will of God while I am trapped here in a fallen world, which is constantly trying to separate me from God. Certainly, once we are in heaven and no more boundaries exist between us and God, we will be able to do Gods will at all times. In the mean time we pray to God, Your will be done (here on earth) as it is (already) done in heaven.
Interesting that we aren't just praying the Lords Prayer for ourselves, but for all of humanity that all of humanity will eventually be able to do Gods will. I've said before that I think that the second coming of Jesus will come when the Lords Prayer is fulfilled. Jesus will come back on the day that all people have aligned their will with the will of God. A woman at the Macklyn House asked me last Sunday if she thought that humanity is making any progress toward this goal. I said, You bet. For the first time in the history of time we have the ability to feed the entire world. We can do it. But we are held up by distribution. And many people are striving to overcome this. Once more people get on board to make this a priority, it will happen. The same goes with diseases like malaria. We have the means.
Often times Christians want to just jump out of the airplane, pull the ripcord, and parachute into heaven, leaving the rest of us to crash and burn in the plane. Like I've said, I'm not going for it. I'm in for the long haul.
So the issue, as I see it, is how do I live within the will of God this side of heaven? My first task while framing the question in the context of this passage from Romans was to take out the word perfect by showing a translation and a paraphrase of the Bible that do not use the word perfect. That takes the pressure off for me. I am striving to do Gods will as I discern Gods will for me. My discerning wont be perfect so Ill settle with striving rather than some unobtainable goal.
My wife, Paige, has a method for finding Gods will for herself. First, she found herself a set of friends that are like-minded they are also trying to discern Gods will for themselves. Then, when she has a tough decision to make, she consults many advisors. This is a Biblical idea that comes out of Proverbs. (15:22, 20:18) These advisors are not necessarily the part of her regular circle of friends. They are usually people that she respects that have special insight into whatever the particular issue is because they have lived through a similar experience.
This idea of interacting with the people that I would like to emulate is interesting. Growing up down on the docks I developed the vernacular of the docks. I would literally swear like a sailor. Not in my home around my kids or at church, but everywhere else. I use to struggle with whether God wanted me to use that kind of language. I read passages in the Bible that made me think I should refrain. But I also felt that I should be real to who I am and verbally express myself without being pretentious.
Then I hired Matt for a crewman. Matt made a decision not to use foul language many years ago. It is noticeable. We spend a lot of time together. I rarely use words now that used to be staples in my vocabulary. And when I slip or swear for affect, it kind of makes me wince a bit. Other peoples language doesn't bother me much, but when I swear it feels strange now.
It is a matter of who do I want to be as a person. Because who I want to be in a deep down sense is probably who God wants me to be. As Paul says in today's lesson, Do not be conformed to this world. The world tells me who I should be. It tells me what kind of car I should drive, what kind of house I should live in, and what methods I should use to obtain what I want (any means necessary). When I talk about who I want to be I mean in a context that is not selfish, self-seeking, ego centered, involves dishonesty, or is fear based. These are the corruptions of the world that try to displace Gods intent for me.
It wasn't hard for me to change my vocabulary. It happened virtually without me even noticing. There was no conscious decision where I promised God or anyone else that I would clean up my mouth. I just started being around Matt each week and one day I noticed that those words taste bad now.
The subject of Gods will for us in our individual lives is broad. I've got much more to say about discerning Gods will. If you'd like, look me up and we can talk about it.
==Amen==