Our church, like thousands of other churches around the world, follows a three-year cycle of Bible readings for each Sunday. This cycle is called the lectionary. One of the cool things about the lectionary, I think, is that sometimes readings come up that challenge us, comfort us or invite us to something new when we least expect it.
This week features one of my all-time favorite Bible readings, Romans 12:1-8. Paul has spent most of the letter preaching that everyone is redeemed equally and completely by the free grace of God. But then he goes on to invite his brothers and sisters in the Roman church to new life made possible by God's grace. Here's the passage:
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. 2Do 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.
3For 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. 4For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, 5so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. 6We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; 7ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; 8the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.
Generations earlier, Israel had worshiped God by offering animal sacrifices in the temple. There are many details in the book of Leviticus, for example, about how this was to be done properly. These sacrifices were to atone for the sin of the people of Israel. Paul has already made clear in his letter that in Christ, God has given grace freely to all people and therefore sacrifices for sin are no longer necessary.
But he invites those who heard his letter (it would be have been read aloud) to become a living sacrifice for God. He goes on to say that this involves resisting the temptation to be conformed to the "world" and allowing oneself to be transformed by the renewing of one's mind. This is not to earn favor with God, but rather Paul tells us because God has freed us in Christ from the need to save ourselves, we are able to spend our lives as a "living sacrifice" for others.
And what's more, Paul conceives of all of us as the many members of the one body of Christ. We each have a unique and important role to play, and we each have different gifts that enable us to go about our various callings. No member of Christ's body, no person in the church or even in the world, is greater than another. All of us are incredibly loved by God, and therefore each of us is indispensable.
How might God be calling us not to conform to certain things in our world?
What are some ways God is inviting us to be transformed by God's grace?
Consider your own gifts, and your own calling to fulfill in the Body of Christ. Think about how amazing it is that no job or person is more important than any other. All are beloved by God.
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