Romans 12:1-8 “Living Sacrifice”

This text is profound. This is one of those shining texts that Paul produces that will stand for all time—until time itself comes to an end. He starts the thought with one very powerful word in the Greek: παρακαλω. This word is still used today in Modern Greek to mean “Please.” It means to literally beg another person for assistance. What a great way to start: “PLEASE.”

When we think about begging or making an appeal, usually that means that WE want something. I beg you for money because I want something to eat. Or, I appeal to you to help me with this work. Considering that Paul has run out of money while he is in Corinth writing this letter, and we know this because he goes back to tent making while he is there in order to feed himself, the people in Rome hearing this probably would have expected Paul to be pleading for money for his own ministry. After all, Rome was the big city where most of the wealth of the Roman Empire was being concentrated. Paul was in dire straights.

Paul does not beg for money for his own ministry. What does he plead for? What is he begging for? For whom is he begging? Paul is begging the new Christians in Rome not to send money to him, but to dedicate their lives to God. That is his solitary appeal. “Don’t give me anything; give all of yourselves over to God!” That is what Paul begs for! Amen to that!

Now, when Paul asks for the new Christians of Rome to give all of themselves to God, he uses the term to “Present your bodies.” Do you see that? I want to affirm for you most sincerely that Paul is talking about the actual human body—our physical being. He also means for us to stand before God. The word here “to present” in this case means to literally stand before God as a present. Yes, wrap yourself up as a gift, put a bow on top, and present yourself to God. Be the living gift or sacrifice to God. Give your life over to God.

In those days, if you were accused of treason against the Roman Emperor because Jesus was your new King, then all you had to do to save your own life was to stand up in the Temple of Jupiter and pledge your allegiance to the old Roman gods, in essence to the Emperor who was himself considered a God. Christians were doing that in order to save themselves. Paul is saying here, okay, now it is time that you stand before the one true God and present your life to Jesus. Now that you have saved your life being presenting it to Jupiter–now make a present of it to Christ!

What do we present? Paul says that we are to prepare a living sacrifice for God. This is in great contrast to a “dead sacrifice.” A dead sacrifice is what the pagan gods require. You are supposed to kill an animal, and in essence cook it on the fiery altar. This was such a problem for Christians in those days in fact that all of the meat had been dedicated to one pagan god or another that they were not sure if they should just give up meat altogether. How could they eat something dedicated to a pagan god?!

Our God in heaven does not want that kind of a sacrifice. It is an insufficient sacrifice. We can read this in Hebrews 10:1-4, “Since the Law has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered year after year make perfect those who approach. . .for it is impossible for the blood of goats and bulls to take away sin. . . .”

Paul tells us that we must be willing to sacrifice ourselves unto Jesus. We do this not by crying out—“Oh Jesus, I would die for you—take me to the lions in the Coliseum that I may be martyred.” No! We are to be living sacrifices. We are instead to say quite calmly and with utmost bravery: “Jesus, I will LIVE for you! My life, every breath I take, is for you, Lord.” It is too easy just to say “I will die for you, Lord.” We have to live for the Lord. We must become that LIVING sacrifice!

Paul goes on to say that this is our “spiritual worship.” I have to admit that this is a confusing statement. At first we think that Paul is talking about our entire lives, but then we hear that he is just referring to our worship—unless, our lives are supposed to be our worship?!

I apologize that I once more have to refer back to the original Greek text here. The phrase is λογικην λατρείαν ύμων. The first word sounds like “logic” in English. It literally means to work something out in your mind. We might say: “logically calculate or figure something out by working all the angles.” In modern Greek the word is used when calling for the check in the restaurant! Even our pew Bibles, which are NRSV, have a footnote on the word “spiritual” here. In the footnote, it reads “reasonable.” What is “reasonable” worship? It is worship in which reason is applied or implied. It is adding up the bill we owe to God!

Place every working thought in your mind to the service of God! The second word here that is translated as “worship” is actually “service.” Still today we talk about “worship service.” We might think that service starts in the Aloha time after worship when we get served all that great food. No! Paul is saying that your living sacrifice is that you place every thought in your mind to the service of God.

Of course, if we can do that, then we would be living the epitome of a worshipful life. I invite you. No, I beg you to put your every thought into the service of God. I am not sure many of us wake up in the morning asking that question to God in prayer: “Lord, what would you have me do with this day? How can I serve in Your Kingdom as You need me to do?”

As we continue to read our Scripture for this morning we see that Paul exhorts us not to “conform to this world but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.” I want to impress upon you that everyone here today is already a non-conformist. Do you know how I know this? Most people in our country this Sunday morning are not coming to worship God. Most people are home watching television or are on their computers. Most people are getting ready to go out shopping. The fact that you are in this place worshipping God makes you very special indeed. The fact that you obey the fourth commandment to keep the Sabbath holy makes you a non-conformist today.

About ten years ago a ruling came down from the Supreme Court in Germany. We were just in Germany last month and experienced how everything is closed on Sundays. The court decided that people may not be compelled to work on Sundays. More and more the society in Germany was becoming a 24/7 computer driven machine. So, now those 24/7 computer-help hotlines, that actually get most of their calls on off hours or in the middle of the night when folks are frantically trying to debug their computers, are closed on Sundays in Germany! Can you imagine calling up your computer hotline only to hear “Sorry, we are closed on Sundays”!? This does not mean, however, that those operators will be in church on Sunday morning. Still, it is a nice thought that the court in Germany agrees with the Bible.

We come to church for the reason stated: “To be transformed and renewed.” Recently, just before we traveled to Europe, our credit card had to be replaced because of fraud. In the mail came the transformed account number with the renewed card. When our lives are breached and our minds become corrupted or defrauded, we come to church to have ourselves transformed and renewed. We can operate as designed once more. That is how we are renewed.

Kind of like a credit card when you first get it, we are given a gift. Sometimes we get air miles for travel. Sometimes we get a special interest rate. You know what I mean. When we are renewed by God, we are also given a special promotional grace: Look at the last lines of our Scripture for today. We are given gifts! What a great way to start the Christmas season!

Look at the list here: we are given gifts to prophesy, minister to one another, to teach, to encourage, to be generous, to become leaders, to live in compassion and cheerfulness. That is so much better than any gift that you could get from a credit card company. We get the gift of “exhortation” too. That is once again the word “παρακαλω,” which means “please.” We get to be the “pleasers.”

As we read this list of gifts—and it reads like a Christmas wish list—it seems to build up to the greatest of all. You see, prophecy is a great gift, but is not being compassionate and cheerful even greater? I love the way Paul puts the emphasis on being cheerful. Paul is giving us a formula for happiness: Wake up in the morning, present yourself as a living sacrifice to God, serve God in all you do, be transformed and renewed, and find great cheerfulness at the end of the day when you lay yourself back down to sleep. Amen.