“80 percent of life is just showing up.”
This well-known quote, often attributed to actor and director Woody Allen, indicates the importance of presence in life. And it makes sense, after all, you can’t get ahead if you aren’t there to receive it. In times of crisis, a friend’s simple presence is often worth the most. A child or teenager in a school production or sporting event will scan the crowd for a familiar face to cheer them on. Showing up matters. “Present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice” Paul writes to the believers in Rome. It’s the ancient version of the above quote, reminding believers of the importance of showing up for God. Paul lays out that how we engage our physical selves is a reflection of our faith and he puts it in terms that they would understand, referencing practices of sacrifice. However, instead of a specific animal brought to the temple, Paul calls it a “living sacrifice,” a phrase that plays on what is known with something new. For Paul, our presence is not some sacrifice that ends in death, but instead is a consecration or dedication to the will and work of God that is life-giving. It marks renewal and wholeness and is even included in many of our communion prayers as a sign that we wish to be made new by God at Christ’s table. Therefore, we present ourselves, freely and openly, trusting that when we show up, God does too. But, as another clichéd phrase goes, “showing up is half the battle.” For Paul, there is more to embodied faith than just physical presence. It also involves an opening of the mind. In order to be our most faithful selves, we need to wrap our minds around things in new ways, ways that push and challenge us to better examine ourselves, our communities, our nation and even our world. However, I think we have to do more than just show up; we have to think about what we’re doing, too. It’s easy to fall into the trap of just going through the motions without really engaging our minds. This is especially true when it comes to our worship. We like to be lulled and comforted and sometimes that’s what we need – a sanctuary from all the chaos and conflict that’s happening in our world, a haven from the shouting pundits and not-so-funny comments and arguments in social media threads. Nevertheless, I don’t think that’s what Paul had in mind for the early church, certainly not in Romans. If anything, the Roman church had a very persuasive argument for the need for shelter and separation from the world. They were under attack, persecuted by the Empire, forced into hiding because of very real risks. But even then, perhaps especially when the world was at odds, Paul called them to reflect on the ways of the world, so that they would not conform to the evils that surrounded them, but could be transformed by the renewing of their minds – something that happened in the context of true, authentic worship within the body of Christ. We must be ready to challenge those parts where the present age shouts, or perhaps whispers seductively, that it would be easier and better to do things that way, while the age already begun in Jesus insists that belonging to the new creation means that we must live this way instead. We have to be a people who personify, in body and mind, what it means to live with Jesus Christ as our Lord, not anyone or anything else. Worship can be a place where we find a balance point of human initiative and divine intervention as we grapple with the concerns of our day and seek to understand what the will of God is in the midst of it. When we’re transformed, we’re able to be a true witness to the work of Jesus Christ. The beginning point of that witness starts with us. It starts with our honest and humble admission that we are prone to conforming to the world’s standards for life and that through our conforming, through our inaction, and through our silence, we have been complicit in the escalation of discord and disharmony within our society. This is a part of the renewing of minds that has to take place within us to live into our identity as the transformed body of Christ. The second part of today’s reading reminds us that God’s work isn’t just a solitary event of internal change. It is, in fact, an act of community and as such, we’re reminded to not get too big in the head, but instead consider what our transformed selves might offer. We’ve been transformed for a reason; to be a part of the body of Christ in the world. During the Civil Rights movement in the US, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had this to say about our work: “Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co-workers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right.” Paul invites us to participate in that through the genuine giving of ourselves as a living sacrifice before God, opening ourselves in body and mind to the work God might do in us, with us, and through us. Our passage begins with Paul begging his listeners to action, using the words “I appeal to you.” Paul is encouraging his readers, and us, to respond to our faith by offering ourselves to be transformed by God and engaged in the work of God’s kingdom. Romans 12 is a call to action for the church in the present age. It starts by us showing up and it continues by us trying to wrap our minds around the issues of our world and the holiness of God’s will for us in it. It leads us into being the body of Christ and it places us in the position to renew our commitments as followers of Jesus Christ. I appeal to you, brothers and sisters in Christ, to take part in this joyous thing God is offering. Hear Paul’s words in verses 1 and 2 as an encouragement and a charge to you in these moments, made fresh to our modern ears by Eugene Peterson’s adaptation in The Message: “So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life - your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life - and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.” I pray that we be transformed in this way. Amen. I trust that you are receiving some helpful spiritual feeding with these weekly Reflections. Even in these COVID-19 times, we still need sustenance - so Lynne & I are taking 6 week’s Annual Leave. Whilst we’re on leave, others will be bringing you the weekly Reflection, so we thank them for their assistance and dedication in keeping the message flowing. Pastor Rick
1 Comment
Karen Paull
13/9/2020 10:48:33 am
Thank you Rick. I was just thinking about how we best worship God now and came to similar conclusions. Eugene expresses tbat passage very well!
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