"A Living Sacrifice part 1"
Sermon by the Rev. Matt Kennedy
Proper 17 year A
The Church of the Good Shepherd
Romans 12:1-8

How many people here are or were athletes? What are some things that an athlete does to get ready to compete? Exercise? Eat the right foods? What does an Athlete have to give up? I played basketball in High School. One early morning in the gym, coach Wenzel sat us down in front of a group of foods he’d laid out on a table. Donuts, pizza, chocolate bars, hamburgers, ice cream; if you like it, it was there. “These are the things, “ he said, “you have to sacrifice if you want to be a good player.” He wasn’t telling us we couldn’t eat. There was a lot of good food not on that table. But he was telling us not to eat stuff that would end up hurting our performance. At the time, I loved donuts. I still do, especially glazed jelly donuts. I could eat a whole box of them at a time. I had a decision to make. What did I want more? What did I love more? Did I want to win or did I want to eat donuts? Ultimately I decided I’d rather win. At first it was hard not to grab some donuts in the breakfast line, but over time, I found other things that I liked as much or better. In fact, over a long time, my tastes began to change. I still like donuts, but now I can think of lots I’d rather eat. Coach Wenzel knew this would happen. We all sacrificed junk food for basketball and through that sacrifice, we learned not just to eat, but to enjoy, other foods. The sacrifice itself gave birth to a healthier taste in food and improved our performance. Keep that pattern in mind, because it’s the pattern that Paul gives in the reading from Romans 12:1-8. Let’s turn there together.

The passage starts with the word, “therefore” which means that what Paul is about to say rests on what he’s already said. Every time you read the word, “therefore” in the bible, stop and make sure you understand what’s been said up to that point or else you’ll misunderstand what’s about to be said. In this case, this particular “therefore” is possibly the most important in the whole book. Paul has just finished laying out for the Romans God’s ultimate purpose, his goal in creating the world and I’m going to summarize it for you briefly.

Paul has described a double resurrection for all Christians. There’s the bodily resurrection that will take place when Jesus returns when believers in Jesus Christ, Jew and Gentile, will be raised in the same way that Jesus was raised. And death will be no more. But before that, there’s a spiritual resurrection that takes place in your heart when you come to faith in Christ. Paul says all human beings are spiritually dead because of sin, but when you surrender your heart to Jesus you’re made alive again, resurrected, by God and then indwelled with his Spirit who begins to cleans the sin from your heart. Both the bodily resurrection that will take place then and the spiritual resurrection that can take place now are part of the process, says Paul, of God’s restoration of all creation. The world itself will be remade so that nothing dies or grows old or goes away, but all things, trees, animals, pets, plants, live for eternity. The book of Revelation describes this post-resurrection world like this, “Now, the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away…Behold, I make all things new.” (Revelation 21:3-5)

That’s your future if you’ve given your heart to Jesus. And that’s where the “therefore” comes in. Therefore since you’ve been saved from death by the bodily resurrection to come and from sin by the inner resurrection that you received through faith Jesus Christ, and you’re an heir to this wonderful new world that God is creating and that will one day be complete, how should you live now? What do you do?

Some believe that once you’re a believer that’s it. You’re going to heaven so you can just keep on living like you did before. Free pass.

If you’ve really given your heart to Christ, it is true that there’s no sin you can do, even in the future, that hasn’t already been forgiven. You’re justified in God’s sight forever. But you were saved from sin, not to sin. And if your faith was sincere, you won’t want to just keep on living as if nothing happened. You were saved for a purpose, to take part in God’s resurrected world and something in your heart, the Spirit, knows that and wants to live differently. What do you do?

Your task now, Paul says in verse 1, to offer your body as a living sacrifice. The imagery is of the cross. Think back for a moment to the night before Jesus died. He went to a garden called Gethsemane and he prayed to God and asked if there might be some other way to save humanity, anything other than the cross. His Father said no, there was no other way. Jesus, in his humanity, didn’t want to die on the cross. It was a place of brutal sacrifice and pain. But even more, he wanted to be obedient to God. So he laid his own will and his own wants and his own body down before God and said, “not my will but your will be done.” This is what Paul means by a living sacrifice.

He means that while you’re alive in this body, you constantly and consistently lay everything you have: your body, your finances, your relationships, your time, your toys, and everything you do: your job, your habits, your hobbies, your pleasures, your conversations, your thoughts and words; everything you have and everything you are out before God and say to him, these are no longer mine, they’re yours, “not my will but your be done Lord. You no longer occupy a section or a compartment, or a little box in my life. From now on my life and body and possessions are yours.” I hold everything with an open hand for you to take and my hand remains open to take anything you give. That’s what it means to be a living sacrifice. It will mean a change in your life and habits. You’ll have to live with discipline. Daily prayer, daily study, weekly worship and life-long self denial; a lot like an athlete in training, willing to sacrifice the desires of your body. And when you do this something very unique happens

Look at verse 1 again “offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship.” If you willingly sacrifice every aspect of your life to God, your life becomes a form of worship. Your job becomes a form of worship; your studies, your classes, your work and your play, everything, because your whole life has been dedicated to God. You’re life becomes whole; no longer separated into neat categories, but every aspect open to the power of God.

So far we’ve talked a lot about giving things up and sacrifice and some of you may be thinking, “Gosh what a miserable life.” But let me correct that if I can. Believers who give their lives to God enjoy life more than any other people. It may be hard to believe but it’s true. We enjoy our food more, enjoy our leisure more, enjoy our work more, enjoy our families and our homes more, we enjoy all of creation more than anyone else. Why? Well remember how I had to give up donuts before I could get a taste for better food. This is the same thing. When you give your life as a living sacrifice you find that your old life was more like junk food than anything else. Junk food may taste good but the more you eat the worse you feel and the worse for you. But when you give it up you get a taste good food. Your tastes change. You find better more enjoyable things, more lasting things. That’s exactly what happens to believers who give their lives as a living sacrifice to God. That spiritual resurrection we talked about earlier becomes a reality. You find a new, better, richer and more lasting life. This is what Paul means when he says in verse 2, “Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

It wasn’t until I gave up getting plastered every night, that I discovered the joy of drinking a nice glass of wine in the evening with dinner and waking up in the morning without a headache. It wasn’t until I gave up all of my time during the day and made a point of reading my bible and praying every morning that I discovered the deep intimate joy of God‘s Word and hearing his voice in my heart. It wasn’t until I gave up the idea that my money was my own to be spent on me and my needs and interests alone that I discovered the joy of trusting God giving a tithe to the church watching him provide for my needs when I couldn‘t. It wasn’t until I sacrificed the idea that I could do whatever the heck I wanted with my body that I discovered the true and lasting joy of giving my body to God and then to one person in marriage. It wasn’t until I was willing to give up living life for me, myself and I, that I tasted the true joy and ecstasy of living everyday with the Father Son and Holy Spirit. True joy cannot and will not come if you seek it. It comes only from seeking God. It cannot come if you avoid self-discipline and sacrifice, it comes only as a result of those things. Joy is what happens when you sacrifice your life to God. You find out that Jesus was right. If you lose your life for his sake, you really find it.

The question now is how in practical terms are we do begin doing this and what does such a sacrificial life look like. We‘ll take up both questions next Sunday as the lectionary continues in Romans 12:9-21 and Paul answers these questions.