"Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." (Romans 12:1-2)
For the last couple of weeks, I've been speaking about "life." More specifically, I've been speakng about life as God wants us to live it. A life freed from the things that enslave us and hold us in their bondage. A life in which we're lifted out of the troubles around us and freed to live abundantly as children of God who neither worry about nor fear the future, because we know that God is with us. I want to continue on with that general theme this week, continuing to look at how to truly live life as God wants us to live it. I don't think we should be satisfied with simply waking up every day and having just another day just like all the other days we've had. I don't think we should be satisfied with things the way they are and simply resigned to the idea that things can never be any different. I don't think we should be satisfied with just being followers of Jesus - I think we need to live as disciples of Jesus. To follow is a rather passive activity, but to be a disciple is more active, snd suggests that we're learning from what we're seeing as we follow Jesus, and that we're going to put into practice what we believe Jesus wants of us. That would be a wonderful, blessed and abundant life - but in all honesty it also wouldn't be an easy life. As I searched the Scriptures for an image that I thought might bring forth into our minds what this type of life might be, I was drawn to Paul's description of a disciple of Jesus as a "living sacrifice." There's a lot of imagery connected with those words - some of it challenging, some of it troubling, some of it promising - all of it helpful as we try to discern what it is God seeks from us and the kind of life God calls us to.
The whole concept of a "living sacrifice" seems to be a contradiction. Perhaps that's not surprising. Paradox is a big thing in the life and ministry of Jesus after all. He tends to turn things upside down; He tends to surprise; people were constantly amazed that He didn't do things the way others did them or the way they expected Him to. But I still find myself struggling with this a bit. A "living sacrifice." "Living." "Living?" In my mind I have to work with that image. Sacrifices are dead! I can't read those words without my mind immediately going back to the Old Testament and the complex system of animal sacrifices that the people of Israel lived with and depended on. Those animals were killed. But, of course, that's only partially true, isn't it? The sacrifice has to be alive until it's actually sacrificed. A dead sacrifice would be meaningless. Nobody ever sacrificed a dead goat or a dead bull in ancient Israel. They needed a live one. So maybe there isn't as much of a paradox there as I thought there was. If we are "sacrifices" of any sort, then surely we have to be "living sacrifices" because if we're not living we're not of much practical use to God. Of course, the biggest difference is that the implication of Paul's words would seem to be that as a "living sacrifice" we'll continue living. The old sacrifices of the old covenant didn't. They died. It was part of the required mechanism for the forgiveness of sin, which isn't necessary any more, of course. Christ did away with that. So "sacrifice" today means something completely different. So, perhaps the issue isn't the tension between the words "living" and "sacrifices." The issue, perhaps, is what kind of sacrifice we are. What does it mean to say that our bodies are “living sacrifices?” What is the sacrifice of our bodies meant to accomplish? Even more basic - how do we sacrifice our bodies?
The more I think about what Paul wrote, the more I realize that maybe he means nothing more than that we should be offering ourselves to God by not offering ourselves to the world. A sacrifice is also called an offering. We offer something to God for God's use. We're called to offer the best we have for God's use; the most precious thing we have for the service of God. What's more precious than our very selves? It's easy to sacrifice a bit of money or time or effort. Those sacrifices aren't unimportant. But they only point us to what we're really called to – which is to sacrifice ourselves. Giving something that belongs to us is the symbolic reminder that we're really called to give ourselves; our very being; the best of what makes us who and what we are. Maybe this is about making us what we should be by changing the whole way in which we view life. Maybe this is about formation. God asks us to be “living sacrifices” to remind us that the “things” we sacrifice aren't enough to enable us to enjoy a full and abundantly rich life as a child of God. To do that, we have to give “everything” - as Jesus said to the rich young man who came to Him saying that he had given and done everything God had asked for but still needed to know what he needed to do to have eternal life. You have to give “everything” Jesus said. In essence, He said, “you have to give yourself.” I don't believe Jesus was speaking of martyrdom, and I'm certainly not talking about martyrdom. I'm talking about understanding that everything – up to and including our very lives – belong to God and need to be available for God's service and for God's work. And as much trouble as I might have had at first coming to grips with the seeming paradox of being a “living sacrifice,” Paul actually goes on to explain what he's talking about in very simple terms.
“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” There's the choice for those who truly want to be disciples of Jesus. You have to be willing to stand out. It isn't a matter of pride. It's not about saying “look at me.” It's not about showing others how good we are or how religious we are. It's about pointing others to God by the simple way in which we live - freed from all those things that others still struggle with and are still held captive by. This choice is how we start to understand what Paul meant by calling us “living sacrifices.” To be conformed is no sacrifice at all. To be conformed is to live as people expect us to live. This means not standing out, accepting the status quo, not making waves. This is passive. It requires no effort; it asks little of us. But to be transformed is different. To be transformed is active. It's perhaps even radical. We're being made into something different; we're running the risk of standing out and being noticed, with all the risks and dangers that implies. If we allow ourselves to be transformed, we may change the world - or at least our little part of it. If we settle for being conformed, then we guarantee that nothing will ever change.
"Sometimes it's safer to fly under the radar" is an old saying. To CON-form is to do that; to hide our presence; to blend in; to be unchallenging and unchallenged. To TRANS-form is to be gloriously above the radar for all to see. If we're transformed, then there will be no mistaking that we're there; no mistaking who we are and no mistaking whose we are. This means we will both challenge and be challenged! If nobody notices you, you'll probably stay quite safe and secure – but at the risk of the life God wants you to live. If you stand out, then you are automatically “living sacrifices,” because to live a transformed life is an inherently risky and costly business! But it's God's call upon all our lives – and it's the only way to live life as God wants us to live it – freely and richly and abundantly and truly in the service of others!
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