THE STRAIGHTFORWARD PULPIT

Text: Romans 12:1-8
Theme: “M10: The Diversity” (10th in a Series)
10th Sunday after Pentecost
August 21, 2011
First Presbyterian Church
Denton, Texas
Rev. Paul R. Dunklau

IN THE NAME OF JESUS


1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform 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.
3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. 4 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; 7 if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; 8 if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.

On the last couple of Sundays we’ve had the honor and pleasure of welcoming back members of the military who are part of our family here at First Presbyterian. Last week, MSN.com showed a home video of a soldier who had arrived back in the states after a long deployment overseas. He was met in the backyard by his pet, a Great Dane. This animal – who, on his hind legs, stood taller than the soldier -- remembered him after those many months, was happy to see him, and showered him with love and affection. Hearing just the sound of the soldier’s voice, he raced down the stairs and burst through the back door. He stood on his hind legs, put his paws on the soldier’s shoulders, and gave him the kind of hug that only a huge Great Dane could give.

Join me in entertaining the thought that our God is something like that Great Dane. On Sunday mornings, we come “home”, from our own places of deployment (so to speak), to this place of worship. We’ve fought the battles, big and small, that life has handed us. We’re happy to be with our spiritual family. And it’s as if God hears the sound of our voice and rumbles down the stairs. He remembers us and can’t wait to see us. We’re showered with divine love, unconditional love.

You’ve just heard the beginning verses of Romans chapter twelve. It’s packed with so much good material related to the mission of the church that it’s difficult to know where to begin. Romans twelve is sort of like going to lunch at China Buffet. There’s such a wide variety of things to choose from that you almost have to double-check to see what you’re hungry for.

Basking in the glow of God’s love on this day of rest, what are you hungry for? What is your soul hungry for? I’d venture to say there’s something here for each of us. Thus, we shall entertain a novel idea. We’ll begin at the beginning. “I urge you, brothers and sisters in view of God’s mercy to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship.
“Sacrifice” is the word that jumps off the page and bangs into our eardrums. Our first reaction to the word is likely along these lines: whatever form it takes, it’s probably going to hurt. These days we hear lots of talk of sacrifice and even shared sacrifice. Think of the sacrifices parents make to put their children through college. In times of economic hardship, we sacrifice many wants in order to simply meet our needs. And think of soldiers. Many have given the ultimate sacrifice.

The apostle speaks of a living sacrifice. It seems almost like a contradiction in terms. But it’s not. Sacrifice, understood by St. Paul, is a personal and even communal dedication and consecration to the mission of God. It is an offering of the whole self – and not just the part of the self that finds itself in the church pew or in a committee meeting, diaconate meeting, or session meeting.

Our reading goes on: “Do 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.” Conformity to this world is a powerful process that we all get caught up in. A wise professor of mine once declared that “…the world seeks to domesticate us to its ways.” Conformity to the world finds people thinking that they are little more than lumps of human play dough that the world is going to roll into a ball, flatten out, and take the cookie-cutter to.

You’re not play dough, our text seems to be saying. You have a mind of your own. Instead of conforming to the world like everyone and their sister is doing, renew your mind. Open it. Don’t close it. Use it to discern – to wrestle with and figure out – what the will of God is in any situation. God’s will is good and acceptable and perfect. The world might not think so, but so what. We don’t conform to the world.

Next, we read the following: “For 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.” I like this last phrase: “the measure of faith that God has assigned.” God assigns faith! This runs counter to the prevailing wisdom that faith is little more than agreement, or assent, or answering an altar call. Agreement, assent, or answering an altar call puts the onus of responsibility on us.

This whole idea, while popular, is completely foreign to the New Testament. Here’s what the New Testament says: “For by grace are you saved through faith. And this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. It is not of works – lest anyone should boast.”

Boasting is what someone does when, using the words of our text, someone thinks of himself or herself “more highly” than one “ought to think.” This goes to the first item on the list of what history has recorded as the “Seven Deadly Sins”: pride. Yes, there is sloth and lust and greed and gluttony. They’re all very commonplace. (It makes you wonder why they called them deadly, but that’s a subject for another time.) But towering above them all is pride. Pride is a dicey subject. Isn’t there such a thing as “justifiable pride”? Can we not take pride in accomplishments that we’ve worked hard to achieve? Someone thinks, “Well, okay. God doesn’t want me to be proud, so I’ll work hard at being humble.” Sometime later, the person is ready to boast to the world: “Look how humble I am!” It kind of defeats the purpose, doesn’t it?

Speaking of boasting, there’s this obscure yet wonderful little passage tucked into the Old Testament Book of Jeremiah. It goes like this: “This is what the Lord says: ‘Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,’ declares the Lord.” A New Testament scholar of record tells of a Jewish friend. The friend told him the two things that every good Jew believes: 1) there is a God; and 2) it is not me.
Our text continues: ”Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.”

Every now and then, in the confines of professional sports, we hear of athletes who become what are called “free agents.” In other words, they are not contractually connected to another organization, team, or person. They’re basically out there on their own. This, sadly, is the position many take -- some of them professing Christians -- when it comes to the church. They think, “I sort of like the church; it has done some good things; it has its place in the world. It teaches important values. I even occasionally benefit from some of its services. But I’m going to keep myself at a distance from it. I don’t like the idea of being tied down. I don’t want to be connected.”

But what if your hand could speak, and it said: “You know, I don’t want to be connected to this wrist; I want to go off and do my own thing.” What if your foot said, “Come to think of it, I don’t want to be attached to this ankle.” What if your bicep or your tricep said, “You know, I don’t want to be linked up to these tendons anymore; it’s so confining.” You get the idea.

I want you to know something about my nose. I don’t think I’ve ever shared this. Never once has my nose ever indicated that it doesn’t like my foot. Likewise, it has never really said that it likes my foot either. My nose simply does what it is supposed to do. My foot does the same. They get along just fine. They work together.

Folks, we are all united in the body of Christ. We are connected with one another. This text is reminding us that each of us, as a member, has a function – like the parts of a body have functions.

More than that, there is a great diversity of function. We don’t all do the same thing; we don’t all serve in the same way. The Fellowship
Committee doesn’t have the same function as the Worship Committee. Do you get the idea? We have diverse functions and diverse gifts for the mission, but we’re not disconnected. We’re in this together. We are the body of Christ who was crucified for our sins and raised again for our justification.

Some may indeed look at the state of the church and world and ask “Why?” But others – not thinking too highly of themselves, aware of the gifts they possess, and connected to the body of Christ – renew their minds. They look at the mission of the church and ask “Why not?”

Amen.