"Living Sacrifices" pt.2

[A series of thoughts on Romans 12:1-2]

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers,

in view of God’s mercy,

TO OFFER YOUR BODIES AS LIVING SACRIFICES,

holy and pleasing to God…”

(Romans 12:1)

Sometimes we have the opportunity, or the necessity, to give up something. Several years ago we gave our couch and love seat to our daughter Kellie who was moving into a house with some girls at college. They needed some furniture, we were looking to get rid of some furniture, it worked out great. But it wasn’t really a sacrifice on our part. It didn’t cost us anything (except for the backache of moving it for her). Last summer I had to make one of the most difficult decisions of my life: to give up a job that meant everything to me for the sake of my health and the future of the church. It cost me a lot and still brings a sense of grief when I think about it. Sacrifices costs us something.

Romans 12:1 says that we are to “offer our bodies as living sacrifices”. It says that we are to do this in response to something. “In view of God’s mercy” or “because of God’s mercy” or “in light of God’s mercy”. [See previous post, ‘First Responders’ for more on this.] No matter how you phrase it it still means the same thing. Something has happened that we must respond to, and the most appropriate response is to sacrifice (give up) something of value. If it doesn’t cost us something it’s not really a sacrifice.

Sometimes the things we sacrifice (give up) are not necessarily positive things. We may sacrifice our health because of bad habits; our job because of irresponsibility; our children due to neglect or indifference; a relationship because of an inappropriate word or response. On the other hand, some of our sacrifices are more positive, even commendable. We might sacrifice our time in order to help someone; we may give sacrificially to something (giving more than we can afford) so someone can be blessed; we might give up a dream job in order to take a lesser job because it is better for the family. To sacrifice is to intentionally give up, or lose something, that is of value to us. Sacrifice costs us something.

When King David’s prayer was answered that a plague against Israel would be stopped he went to purchase the place where the angel of the Lord had brought about this miracle. At this place there stood a barn and David made an offer to the owner to buy the barn and the land in order to build an altar of thanksgiving to the Lord (the future sight of the Jerusalem temple). The owner tried to give it all to David along with an ox so that he could offer a sacrifice to the Lord. But David said, “I will not sacrifice an offering that costs me nothing” (1 Chronicles 21:24). Interesting concept: it seems that the nature of the offering is not nearly so important as how much it cost. In other words, what is it worth to the person making the sacrifice?

If you are in need of a car and can’t afford one it’s not a sacrifice to me if I give you my neighbors car (other than possibly some jail time). But if I give you my car, it’s a sacrifice. If you need someone to take you to a doctor’s appointment it’s not a sacrifice for me to say, “I’m sure my daughter Brianne would love to take you.” If a missionary needs a new roof for an orphanage in a poor village in Africa it’s no sacrifice on my part if I go and ask my friend Bill to give to this project because he has lots of money (Bill’s name has been changed to protect him from you going and asking him for money.) These things may be well and good but they don’t constitute a sacrifice on my part.

Paul says we are to offer “our bodies” as living sacrifices. Our bodies are very important to us. You may not like how it looks or how it is performing right now but they are still very precious to us. They house our mind, spirit, and soul. They allow us to do what we do in this life; go where we go, enjoy relationships, hobbies, nature, etc.. We can’t do any of this outside of our bodies and what they offer us. This is why ill health, old age, and disabilities are so frustrating and even devastating for some. They limit our bodies from allowing us to do what we want to do. Our bodies are precious. To offer our bodies as a living sacrifice is to willfully and intentionally give up our rights and ownership of them to someone else. We do this because of (“in view of”) God’s mercy. God’s mercy is the result of the greatest sacrifice of all because it cost Him His only Son. We are to sacrifice (give up ownership of) our bodies, our whole selves, to God and His purpose for our lives.

This sacrifice that we give up is a “living” sacrifice because it is on-going. In the Old Testament if you sacrificed an oxen you only did it once (makes sense doesn’t it?). The sacrifice we make to God is an on-going, daily, regular sacrifice, not done once, but done as a life-style. It’s like breathing. We don’t say, “Yeah, I breathed once when I was born and I haven’t needed to take a breath since.” Likewise, we cannot say, “Yeah, I sacrificed myself to the Lord back in 1981 so I don’t really need to do it again.” It’s a living sacrifice, meaning it’s on-going.

This kind of sacrifice, one that is of great value to us, one that is on-going, one that costs us something, is a sacrifice that is “holy and pleasing to God” . And that, after all, is all we really need to know, isn’t it.

[More on our sacrifice being our "spiritual worship'

in the next posting.]

First Responders -pt.1

[A Series of Thoughts on Romans 12:1-2]

“Therefore, I urge you brothers,

IN VIEW OF GOD'S MERCY,

to offer yourselves as living sacrifices,

holy and pleasing to God ...”

(Romans 12:1)

By nature we are a ‘responsive’ people. There are hundreds of things every day that we respond to, either consciously or sub-consciously.
· Traffic
· An irritable spouse, friend, or co-worker
· The weather
· The news
· Health issues
· Car trouble
· Job frustrations
· Economic fears
· Strained relationships
· And on, and on, and on ……

Our days are full of things that we respond to that then determine our mood, health, success, failure, effectiveness, ineffectiveness, etc. We cannot not respond to these things because we are by nature ‘responders’. I wonder, though, what would happen to these responses if our first and primary response was to God’s mercy and grace.

We are called in Romans 12:1-2 to live in a certain way. We are to be “living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God”. But in order to get to this place we must become people who respond, first of all, to the grace and mercy of God. The problem is that we too often respond first to these other things and then hope that God’s mercy will ‘fix’ our responses. It can, and often does, but how much better our responses would be to these other things if we first were responding (an on-going response) to His grace and mercy.

‘First Responders’ is a term usually used to refer to those who are the first on the scene after an ‘incident’ (accident, storm, crime, terrorist attack, etc.) They are also sometimes called ‘Incident Response Teams’. We need to realize that an ‘incident’ has occurred, and is occurring daily in and around us – God’s mercy, God’s grace, God’s love has been poured out to us in Jesus (Romans 5:5). It is active and alive. It happens in us and to us and through us. It finds its heart and core in the gift of Jesus and His life, death, and resurrection.

But this is not merely an historical event, it is an ever-present event. It expresses itself in salvation, new life (abundant and eternal), comfort, strength, wisdom, healing. God’s mercy has gone before us, it presently surrounds us, and it will take us into our future. Our whole life is to be lived to response to His mercy. We are called to be First Responders to the grace and mercy of God, living as if this ‘incident’ were continuously occurring in our lives.

The question for all of us is this: will we be First Responders to the ‘lesser incidents’ of our lives (worry, fear, ambition, greed, anger, brokenness, etc., etc.), or will we be First Responders to the mercy of God that is “new every morning” (Lamentations 3:23). If we can learn how to become First Responders to the mercy of God maybe our secondary responses to the hundreds of things we face daily will somehow be transformed. “Therefore, in view of God’s mercy . . . .”

Sacred Wounds

“By His wounds we are healed.”

Isaiah 53:5

“To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you

leaving you an example that you should

follow in His steps.”

1 Peter 2:21

As a team leader for several medical teams into the poorest parts of Haiti and Guatemala I have seen a lot of sickness and injury that I would never have been exposed to in the U.S. I remember very well a woman with severe burns that had been treated improperly for several months. I remember the man who came in with a deep machete wound from an attack on his family. The wound was severely infected from improper medical care. I remember a woman who had broken her leg and it hadn’t been set correctly so that now she was permanently disabled. Wounds that are not dealt with properly can have lasting, sometimes devastating, results.

In our culture we usually deal well with any physical wounds that happen to us. What we aren’t so good at dealing with are the emotional and spiritual wounds that come to us all. These wounds often become sources of infection in our soul and spirit. They aren’t dealt with properly and so they continue to hurt us rather than becoming a source of healing. ‘Sacred Wounds’, on the other hand, are wounds that have become ‘healing wounds’ for us and others. Irrespective of their origin they have been transformed by God’s grace so that their destructive or harmful potential is gone. They now become a source of help and hope. It doesn’t mean that they no longer hurt (this is very important to understand). It means that they no longer harm us or those around us.

Some hurts we carry with us for a long time: the death of a loved one; the loss of a relationship; the disappointment of a broken dream; the hurtful words of a friend; a prolonged illness that robs us of strength, vitality, and hope. It is wrong to think that these hurts are only healed when the pain they carry is gone. They are healed when the harm they carry is gone; when they stop doing damage to ourselves and others. Then they become ‘sacred wounds’, wounds that have a redemptive power to heal.

Jesus wounds were sacred wounds. His wounds are what provide for our ultimate healing and wholeness. But Jesus is not the only one with sacred wounds. Listen to these words, “To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you leaving you an example that you should follow in His steps.” (1 Peter 2:21). “Sharing” (Philippians 3:10) or “participating” (1 Peter 4:13) in the sufferings of Jesus means more than simply receiving them as our source of healing. We are to follow His example by allowing our wounds to become sacred wounds – places of healing for self and others. Grace must flow in 2 directions: into us for our healing, and through us for the healing of others. Our wounds can only become sacred wounds as they are healed and transformed by His sacred wounds. Our wounds are only sacred because they exist within a greater wound – the wounds of Christ.

The wounds of Jesus became sacred when He surrendered them into the hands of the Father. “Not my will but Thine be done.” (Mark 14:36). “Father, into Thy hands I commit my spirit.” (Luke23:46). Christ modeled for us how wounds become sacred: through surrender, letting go of them. Not clinging or clenching them tight fisted. When we cling tightly to our wounds we continue to draw out their poison. The more we squeeze the more poison they produce. The more poison they produce, the more harm done to ourself and others.

But when we let go of them in surrender to the Father we allow His healing salve to be rubbed into them. Interesting word, ‘salve’ (ointment used for healing). See how closely it looks like the word ‘salvation’. Salvation is the process of rubbing the healing ointment of God’s grace into our deepest wound (separation from God). Surrendering our hurts and wounds to God is the process (transformation) of moving from poison to grace-filled healing. These sacred wounds of ours then also become a source of healing to others. Bitterness and anger is the poison that comes from wounds we will not let go of. Grace and blessing flow from sacred wounds.