Sermon #5 @ St. Paris UMC (7.26.09)

Pastor Dave Kepple

Text: Romans 12:1-2

Title: “True Worship”

Date: July 26, 2009 (8th Sunday after Pentecost)

Internet Link for primary scripture texts used in this sermon:

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%2012:1-2;&version=72;

While on vacation last year, Janet and I took an excursion one day, right down the road to Cincinnati.
It sounds a little creepy now, but we spent the day looking at bodies – human bodies.
To explain a little further, we went to the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal, where we attended a program called “Bodies … The Exhibition.”
Maybe you remember hearing about this on the news. There was some controversy about the whole thing. The exhibit shows preserved human bodies, dissected to display all the various bodily systems and their inner workings.
Without getting into the controversy, I have to say it was a fascinating thing to see – a very rare opportunity to learn about these bodies we inhabit.
Janet was really into it – she was talking about going to med school! :-)
Something not captured at the BODIES exhibit was the human soul. They got the heart, but they didn’t have the soul on display. And really, it’s the soul which makes us what we are, who we are – as people created in the image of God.
How did Jesus put it?
“What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?”
I couldn’t help but think about the “Bodies” exhibit, as I reflected on this passage from Romans 12 which Laurel just read for us. Here, the Apostle Paul is offering the early church some guidance.
Paul begins by telling the believers in Rome to offer their bodies as “a living sacrifice” to the Most High God.
When Paul talks about offering our bodies as living sacrifices, he’s talking about the whole package – body and soul. He doesn’t actually want us to fling ourselves on the fire of an altar. Rather, he wants us to throw ourselves into living for Jesus Christ – who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. He calls this a “spiritual act of worship” – true worship.
A living sacrifice.
By the time of Christ, the ancient Israelites already had a well-established system for people to make sin offerings on a regular and ongoing basis, as prescribed by the Law of Moses.
These sacrifices consisted of valuable animals who were slain, sacrificed on the holy altar. Trouble was, the blood of bulls and goats and the like could not keep the people in right relationship with God. They kept having to repeat them, over and over.
As the writer of the Book of Hebrews points out, the old rituals for removing our guilt pale in comparison to the redemption Jesus won for us on the cross. It was only through the blood of our great high priest, the one called Christ, that atonement was finally achieved once and for all.
Now here comes Paul, in Romans 12, calling us to offer our bodies – in other words, ourselves – as “a living sacrifice . . . holy and pleasing to God.”
There’s a problem, however, with living sacrifices. Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in California, mentioned it in his famous book, The Purpose Driven Life.
“The problem with a living sacrifice is that it can crawl off the altar,” Warren writes. (1)
Let me repeat that: “The problem with a living sacrifice is that it can crawl off the altar.”
Have you ever done that with the offering of yourself? I know I have.
Sometimes we can start a day with the best of intentions -- striving to live for the Lord, wanting to love God and our neighbor with all our heart and soul strength and mind. But an awful lot can come our way in the course of 24 hours. Sometimes in the whirl of daily living, we can look up and all of a sudden we’re 100 feet or so away from that altar where we started the day as a living sacrifice. Which is to say: we’ve distanced ourselves from God.
Rick Warren notes that surrendering to God “is never just a one-time event.” There is a moment of surrender, when we give our lives to God and put our whole trust in His grace. But in addition, there is “the practice of surrender, which is moment-by-moment and lifelong.”
As a practical matter, Warren says, that may mean we have resurrender our lives 50 times a day!
You see, being a living sacrifice is hard. In fact, Warren adds a warning about it, writing:
“When you decide to live a totally surrendered life, that decision will be tested. Sometimes it will mean doing inconvenient, unpopular, costly, or seemingly impossible tasks. It will often mean doing the opposite of what you feel like doing.”
Did you hear that? Wow! Talk about not conforming to the pattern of this world!
If anything, the pattern of this world is doing exactly what we feel like doing.
Isn’t that why the world seems to be in such a continuous state of suffering and turmoil?
This surrender – and resurrender – has to become a daily habit. That’s what it means to be a living sacrifice.
Jesus put it another way, when he said if we want to become his disciples, we need to do three things. First, we need to deny ourselves. That means our own needs, wishes, wants, preferences and convenience are no longer the axis upon which our lives spin. Jesus Christ and the will of our Heavenly Father becomes the new center of our lives.
Secondly, we have to take up our cross daily. Again, it’s not a one-time thing. It’s something we need to do – one day at a time – for the rest of our lives. Jesus doesn’t tell us we have to do it forever. He simply tells us we must do it today – and every day. We must carry our cross – whatever that might mean for us – but we only have to do it 24 hours at a time. That’s really all we’re equipped to handle anyway. Then finally, Jesus says, we are to follow Him.
Uh-oh. That’s where things can really get sticky. Because Jesus wants it all. He wants us to give complete control of our lives – to Him. He wants us to live – for Him. In other words, he wants us die unto ourselves, so that He might live through us.
It might not be an ideal “marketing plan” for growing the church – inviting people to come and die.
But the funny thing is, dying to self is the only way to find what life is all about. In a sense, it’s the only way to find our true selves.
For as Jesus said in Matthew’s gospel: “Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Matt. 10:39)
The hard truth is that when we offer ourselves as a living sacrifice, we no longer have the right to pick and choose how – or where -- we will serve God. We can’t say to God: “I’ll do this – but don’t ask me to do that.”

Dr. Len Sweet, former president of United Theological Seminary in Dayton, notes that if Christians are going to be faithful, we must understand God very well may lead us somewhere out of our “comfort zone.”
In an article for Leadership magazine, Sweet reflected on the attitudes of some key people throughout the Bible and in the history of the Church. He writes:
“The world’s a better place because a German monk named Martin Luther did not say, ‘I don’t do doors.’
“The world’s a better place because an Oxford don named John Wesley didn’t say, ‘I don’t do preaching in fields.’
“The world’s a better place –
“... because Moses didn’t say, ‘I don’t do Pharaohs or mass migrations.’
“... because Noah didn’t say, “I don’t do arks and animals.’
“... because Rahab didn’t say, ‘I don’t do enemy spies.’
“... because Ruth didn’t say, ‘I don’t do mothers-in-law.’
“... because David didn’t say, ‘I don’t do giants.’
“... because Peter didn’t say, ‘I don’t do Gentiles.’
“... because Paul didn’t say, ‘I don’t do letters.’
“... because Mary didn’t say, ‘I don’t do virgin births.’
“The world’s a better place because Jesus didn’t say, ‘I don’t do crosses.’ ” (2)

To offer ourselves as a living sacrifice means we give up the right to say, “I don’t do. . .”
This act of worship, in offering our selves – our bodies, our minds, our very lives – is not something we can accomplish in the wink of an eye. As a matter of fact, it’s not something we can accomplish at all. It can only happen as God transforms us – as He changes us – by the renewing of our minds.
No doubt there will be many times when we are tempted to crawl off the altar, because being a living sacrifice may not be easy. But it definitely will be worth it. In the end, no matter what our earthly circumstances, following Christ in faith surely will leave us “rich with God” in our lives. It is the path that leads us home – home to the Father’s house.

I want to close with a message from St. Teresa of Avila, a Carmelite nun who lived in Spain in the 16th century.
Though her words are very old, they speak well to any who would be a living sacrifice for Jesus in the here and now. Teresa writes:

“Christ has
No body now on earth but yours;
No hands but yours;
No feet but yours;
Yours are the eyes
Through which is to look out
Christ’s compassion to the world;
Yours are the feet
With which he is to go about
Doing good;
Yours are the hands
With which he is to bless now.” (3)

Jesus gave his body – and his life – for our salvation, and for the glory of God.
Friends, it’s our turn now. Our turn to give our lives away.
Amen.

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1. Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life, pp. 83-84, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, 2002.
2. Len Sweet, “I Don’t Do,” Leadership, Spring 1994, p. 32.
3. St. Teresa of Avila, Walk to Emmaus, p. 52, The Upper Room, Nashville, 1991.