Dead Animals or Living Dedication? Romans 12:1-8

A text – Romans 12:1-8

12 I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, on the basis of God’s mercy, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable act of worship. ² Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.

³ 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. ⁴ For as in one body we have many members and not all the members have the same function, ⁵ so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. ⁶ We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ⁷ ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; ⁸ the encourager, in encouragement; the giver, in sincerity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.

A reflection:

Paul lived in a time when animals were sacrificed at the Temple as a means of worshiping Yahweh or Adonai, the God of Israel. There were big and small animals – and you bought whatever you could afford that was appropriate to each festival, or each penance, or each grateful celebration. They were probably listed in a table somewhere, going from small to large, etc.

Paul is informing the Jews and Gentiles in Rome who believed in Jesus as the Risen Lord that their worship sacrifices no longer needed to include a dead animal as a burnt offering, but instead their own bodies/lives were to be a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. Instead of offering an animal, they were now going to be offering, dedicating their physical lives in worship to loving God and serving the neighbor. That dedication was to be their reasonable (reasonable is one way of translating the Greek word for spiritual – interesting!) act of worship. The next sentence (verse 2) is about the sort of daily life choices that should follow this weekly dedication in worship: “Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind so that you may discern what is the will of God – what is good, acceptable and perfect.” Paul is telling them (and us) to renew our mind with the Holy Spirit so that we can know what to do with our body/life, so that we can know what God will find good, acceptable, and perfect in our daily behavior from Sunday afternoon right through to Saturday night. Paul is saying, “No animal sacrifice will change your life. Your dedication of your very cells and molecules to living God’s will for you will transform you.”

And then he tells us our bodies/lives already hold the gifts we have for specific activities. We just do what we’re already gifted for as God gives us opportunity and direction. Our bodies will be living sacrifices every day. And since it’s hard to live a transformed life all alone, Paul lists the special gifts the church needs to hold its community together, ideally without ego or selfishness. We’ll be transformed into a life within the life of God, he says, and we’ll be supported in our transformation by the power of Christian community. We can now move from the old way, animal sacrifices and a set of legal requirements, to the new way, the dedication of our bodies/lives to God and discernment of our gifts for loving God and the neighbor: a true transformation. God has made this move from old to new possible by the death and resurrection of Jesus and by the power of the Holy Spirit living with us. What a gift!

A prayer:

Lord God, thank you for loving us. Thank you for the vision and writing of Paul, your transformed servant and our teacher. Help us to think of worship as a time when we praise you and dedicate our bodies/lives to loving and serving you and our neighbor. Help us to discern how you want us to live every day. Amen.