Signs of Jesus people: humility and giftedness

Romans 12:1-8
(used Message version)

Signs of Jesus People: humility and giftedness

We’ve spent the summer looking at what are signs of our being Jesus people—and in today’s reading there are two, humility and giftedness, but before we get there I was struck by two images of ‘body’ that show up that Paul uses to make us sit up and pay attention—present your bodies as a living sacrifice to God, as the NRSV says, or as the Msg says Take your everyday, ordinary life – your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life - and place it before God as an offering.

And the second is that we are part of Christ’s body—the only body Christ has now.

And much as I’d like to go with the simple spiritual message of how important we are to one another and to God, there’s a more pressing cultural message in here that I need to start with….

“present your bodies as a living sacrifice”…. Offer all of yourself, all of yourself, to God.

Paul is writing in the first half of the first century to new Christians at Rome….a particular historical and cultural situation….the hub of the imperial cult, the empire that thought it was the centre of the universe.  Doesn’t seem to have that much to do with us in 21^st century America, does it?  And yet….here we too worship at different temples and are devoted to other Gods….one God is our stomach, and we worship at Wegmans or Mcdonalds or Krispy Kreme.  Another God is our technology, worshiped on our couches in front of our tvs or computers or smart phones.

Present your bodies as a living offering to God?   I don’t think so.

Complicating this is that we have an incredibly ambivalent attitude towards our bodies…we dis=ease and demean them, complain about them and spent thousands on making them better…..at the same time we use them, especially women’s bodies, to sell stuff, including happiness.

Present your bodies as a living offering to God?

Think about your day to day life for a minute….what part of your life isn’t offered to God:  working, eating, sleeping, playing, exercising?   Is God assigned only to Sunday morning, or occasional scripture reading, or prayer when you’re looking for a parking place?...........

Present your body as a living offering to God?

It’s yours….it’s the only one you’ve got - it’s precious and made by love and by God.  So, we must tend it and nurture it so we can offer ALL of it to God….eating, sleeping, working, playing ….

And as if that’s not enough of a word from God for this morning, there’s the second body image…..

This body is yours, and its yours for a reason…..you are meant to be part of something bigger, the body of Christ.

So….here comes the bit where you do the spiritual work…...   If you were to think of yourself as a body part, given your personality, what would it be?

…..think, share, then consider how that plays out as your part in the body of Christ, not just in this church but in the wider world?  How are you eyes, ears etc (depending on responses) in all your offering of your body to God?

Now think what that role that body part plays in the body….it means that you are GIFTED (sign of J people) to play that role in the larger community…..it means you are HUMBLE enough to know your own importance, but also that you need others to make your part work right….(that’s humility, sign of J people)

We are called to be there for one another, says Paul….we are all one together – so if someone is struggling with something, someone else is there to help.  God has given each of us gifts that make life full and abundant for others.

If your gift is teaching, then do it well; if your gift is encouragement, then do it well, if your gift is nutrition and education, then do it well for those who need help with their bodies.

Some of you have been anxious about imagined upcoming changes at church, changes in the body of Christ……. understand that as with the body, change happens, not always predictable, not always understandable, but if we understand and use our own giftedness, and remain humble enough to trust God, God will bring good out of our frail human efforts, and we will be able to offer loving transformation for the world; just as Jesus did so is his body to do.

Teresa of Avila wrote:

Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

         What are WE going to do about it?

---