12 I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. (Romans 12:1)
Did you notice the shift in tone? Paul opens Chapter 12 of Romans, not addressing the people of Rome but addresses “brothers and sisters.” He has shifted to family language. He also has shifted from the old burnt offering language to speaking about us being “living sacrifices.” That is huge. Worship is no longer something we do when we go to the Temple but it is something we live daily in our ordinary lives. “Holy” implies that are lives are now being lived for God and his sacred purpose. “Acceptable to God” identifies our audience we live for. Paul is going from theology, big words like justification, faith, or adoption and grafting to how we live our lives.
How would you differentiate between a dead sacrifices talked about in the Old Testament and being a “living” sacrifice? When I think of something alive, I think of something animated, moving and growing. Life implies warmth and not coldness. Life implies interaction with what is going on around the living sacrifice, communication and involvement. What does being alive imply to you and how do you see life being lived out in your faith journey?
Sacrifice implies to me that my faith journey is not about my own happiness and about my will for my life but living to make God happy. Somehow selfishness is put aside and the will of the “other” becomes more important than my own agenda. Humbleness and submission might be operative words.
Paul is tying together the faith theology of chapters 1 – 11 now down to a personal level. What does being a living sacrifice mean to you? Fellow believers are now family regardless of political differences or ethnic differences or theological differences. Now that is a challenge worth praying about! Blessings.
On the Way to Wonder 