A Transformed Life Together Flows from God’s Mercy

 

          There is a shift in Paul’s letter to the Romans that occurs here, in chapter 12 that we just read.
Some people describe it as a move from the Theological to the Ethical,
some go so far as to say today’s reading begins a commentary on Jesus’ sermon on the Mount
—this begins a section describing how those blessings are now found wherever Christians gather…

          Paul starts off this section by telling us that:

A Transformed Life Together Flows from God’s Mercy

Prayer

 

A Transformed Life Together Flows from God’s Mercy

A Transformed Life

          “Presenting your bodies as a living sacrifice is a reasonable act of worship.”

          Reasonable.
Some translators try to soften this,
putting the emphasis on the rightness of the worship…
but sometimes…
often even…
Paul says jarring things!

          The Greek word Paul is using is about reason
—A Living Sacrifice is logical…
and it is not…
A living sacrifice is illogical
—the point of sacrifice is the destruction of a thing,
killing of the victim,
to fulfill an obligation,
or cause something to happen.

          There is an If/Then logic to sacrifice
—if I burn some grain,
then I’ve discharged my duty.
If I slaughter an animal,
then the Heavens will look with favor upon me,
we even do that in society today;
if I demonize the scapegoat to the point of destruction,
then we don’t have to look our problems in the face…
at least for a while.

          A living sacrifice is illogical
—or rather there is a different sort of logic to such a sacrifice
—a foolish sort of logic to the eyes of the world…
but to we who find our very lives to be in Christ…
surely, we can be holy fools,
compellingly strange to the eyes of the world.
If Christ is both Crucified and Lord—and he is
—then the logic of the forces that crucified him,
the logic of piety and the logic of power
—they don’t amount to a hill of beans.

          Because the logic of the resurrection is a sort of reversal of sacrifice
—an obligation already fulfilled brings life—new life!
An act done in advance creates… it is a new creation!

Therefore, reasonable worship is transformation!
Reasonable worship is discerning what God is up to and how you can be involved! Reasonable worship is participation in a new creation, it is new life!

 

A Transformed Life Together Flows from God’s Mercy

Together

Reasonable worship isn’t a solo endeavor. Paul’s letters, and ancient letters in general, aren’t written to individuals, but communities
—most of those times Paul writes, “You” it’s actually plural:
“Y’all, or You’se guys, or in certain parts of Pennsylvania, Yins.”

Discernment—ought to be done in community.
I think of my wife’s tradition
—the Society of Friends (Quakers)
—they create “clearness committees”
when someone thinks God is calling them to certain tasks…
such discernment is a group effort!

So too us Lutherans, with our “mutual conversation and consolation of brothers”
yes, when our conscience hurts or is in pain, we can turn to wise siblings of the faith to move us from death to life
—external voices are often the ones who can rightfully see the gifts God has given us to meet the greatest needs of our time…

God’s callings upon our life are not only, or even primarily, internal,
but also external…
not just a vaguely warm feeling in our hearts (after all that might be the venison curry and coffee talking), but someone saying, “you know what you’d be good at!”

An external voice can make all the difference…
I think about my own calling to the ministry of Word and Sacrament…
I was struggling, wrestling, with the strange idea that God might be calling me to be a Pastor…
and I turned to my pastor, Pastor Sarah.

I did so incredulous and embarrassed by my own sense of call
—my plan at the time was to do AmeriCorps and become a teacher,
and her response was a holy, “Well duh! What other teenager organized a weekly theological discussion group at a local fast-food joint?”

          Yes, we can name one another’s gifts and be transformed together,
-some gifted with cheerfulness are called to acts of compassion,
-others graced with a teacher’s spirit teach,
and so on…
See how the great variety of vocations we’ve been given collectively as a church, add up to something more!
Joined to Christ in Baptism,
discovering the gifts God has already given us…
we, though many, are one body in Christ.

 

A Transformed Life Together Flows from God’s Mercy

Flows from God’s Mercy

          All faithful acts proceed from God’s mercy!
It is mercy first, last, and always!
None of this our doing
—all of it flowing from God’s myriad of good acts for all those He loves!
Creation, Redemption, Holy Sustenance
—saved from and saved for
—saved from captivity, saved for a free faithful life in Jesus Christ.

          Lest we start to get ideas of us making the world right on our own,
without the Spirit’s calling
—we need to turn back to the first 11 chapters of Romans.
In a sense, this section of Romans is, the “So What” of God’s grace
—the Therefore
of chapter 1-11s Because.

          Because God acts first,
because God is generous,
because Jesus is Lord,
because the Spirit intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words…
therefore together we are living, in starts and stops surely, living this transformed life.

          Because of God’s triumphant victory over the Devil and all his empty promises,
therefore we can be confident that Jesus Christ is trustworthy!
Because Death could not hold Christ and we are jointed to his resurrected life,
therefore we live life anew.
Because we are saved from Sin by God’s radical ongoing forgiveness,
therefore we can be a forgiving people.

A Transformed Life Together Flows from God’s Mercy.      

Dear friends, may these words be more than the hinge between sections of an ancient letter,
may they be written by God in us.
Amen.