Sermon 10th January 2009
Today, our Vicar, Cameron Barker, preaches based on the reading from Romans 12 verses 1-8.
Well, here we are: 10 January already! How (or just 'are') your New Year Resolutions going, I wonder? Do you wish you'd made different, more realistic ones, perhaps? Like:
- gain weight: anything up to a stone is fine
- stop exercising: too much like hard work
- create loose ends: so much less stressful
- don't swim with piranhas, or sharks, this year
- read less: watch more reality TV shows instead
- or this more general one: avoid disappointment; aim low in all things.
If that is you, you'll need a radical change of mental gear right now! Our focus today isn't on resolutions for a new year – but for a new life. And their aim is as high, as broad, and as far-reaching as it's possible to imagine!
I'm only going to speak very briefly now - because today is mostly about getting practical! My task is to put that call to practical action into context. And the best way to do that is to pay a fleeting return visit to the letter that occupied us last autumn. We've jumped on a fair bit in it, but chapter 12 is where the rubber really hits the road in Romans. Here Paul begins his summary of what everything he has written must now mean for his readers. And he wasn't pulling any punches with his headline summary in verse 1: “Because of God's great mercy to us .. offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to his service and pleasing to him. This is the true worship you should offer. (Good News Bible) / In view of God's mercy ... offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true spiritual act of worship (New International Version)”.
There are, of course, any number of full-length sermons that could be preached on that one verse alone! The main point to grasp from it though, is this: anything that we can do for God is only by way of response to what He has already done for us. In the preceding chapters Paul has spelled out in detail how God gave His Son Jesus to die to give us life. He didn't do that because we earned it, or are worth it. God did it because He is merciful, and He loves us. God gave His all for us, and gave us everything that matters by doing so. Now it's time for us to respond; and how could we not want to, once we have grasped the full greatness of God's gift to us?
None of this is news to church regulars, of course. But the start of a new year is great opportunity to put our life back into its true perspective. We all need regular reminders of what shapes us, and why. And here it is for 2010: it's all about God's loving mercy for us. That reminder comes with a re-issued challenge, though: we are then to live every day and in every way in response to God's mercy. How? By offering every part of our life back to the God who has given us life! That, as Paul put it, is what worship is: it's not 'just' attending on (occasional) Sundays; or singing; or Bible studies; or work; or family: it's offering every part of our selves back to God.
There's only one way this is at all possible, Paul pointed out. It's so radically counter-cultural to human selfishness that we need to let God completely transform our minds! God can do that: he has done it before, not least in Paul's own life. It's usually a process, that takes time; but we should all be able to see significant change in ourselves today, compared to a year ago. And that then encourages us to press on, further along this path of becoming more like Jesus.
The key to it all lies in honest self-evaluation Paul reminds us. None of us must think of ourselves any more highly - or, he also implies - any less highly than we should. To be a child of God, loved so much that Jesus died for you, is no small thing! And you are here, in this church, because this is where God wants, and needs, YOU! We, the church, together are the body of Christ. And, as is so with any body, if any part of it isn't working properly, then all of it is in trouble!
None of us can – or is designed – to do it all. God has given each of us different gifts, to use for Him. When they're used properly, they complement each other, to get the job done fully. Paul then wrote another of his sample lists here, of what just some of those gifts are, and how we're to use them – for God, of course. That is the context which we need to come back to, time and again. What we have are gifts from God; they are to be used for Him. And they are to be offered back to Him as part of our worship – in response to His mercy in giving us life through Jesus.
So, there it is: the briefest – but most vital – summary of what it is that Christians are about: living all of our lives as worship, in response to God. We'll get to the how later in the service; the only starting point is this key question: will you do it? Then let's pray ...
Well, here we are: 10 January already! How (or just 'are') your New Year Resolutions going, I wonder? Do you wish you'd made different, more realistic ones, perhaps? Like:
- gain weight: anything up to a stone is fine
- stop exercising: too much like hard work
- create loose ends: so much less stressful
- don't swim with piranhas, or sharks, this year
- read less: watch more reality TV shows instead
- or this more general one: avoid disappointment; aim low in all things.
If that is you, you'll need a radical change of mental gear right now! Our focus today isn't on resolutions for a new year – but for a new life. And their aim is as high, as broad, and as far-reaching as it's possible to imagine!
I'm only going to speak very briefly now - because today is mostly about getting practical! My task is to put that call to practical action into context. And the best way to do that is to pay a fleeting return visit to the letter that occupied us last autumn. We've jumped on a fair bit in it, but chapter 12 is where the rubber really hits the road in Romans. Here Paul begins his summary of what everything he has written must now mean for his readers. And he wasn't pulling any punches with his headline summary in verse 1: “Because of God's great mercy to us .. offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to his service and pleasing to him. This is the true worship you should offer. (Good News Bible) / In view of God's mercy ... offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true spiritual act of worship (New International Version)”.
There are, of course, any number of full-length sermons that could be preached on that one verse alone! The main point to grasp from it though, is this: anything that we can do for God is only by way of response to what He has already done for us. In the preceding chapters Paul has spelled out in detail how God gave His Son Jesus to die to give us life. He didn't do that because we earned it, or are worth it. God did it because He is merciful, and He loves us. God gave His all for us, and gave us everything that matters by doing so. Now it's time for us to respond; and how could we not want to, once we have grasped the full greatness of God's gift to us?
None of this is news to church regulars, of course. But the start of a new year is great opportunity to put our life back into its true perspective. We all need regular reminders of what shapes us, and why. And here it is for 2010: it's all about God's loving mercy for us. That reminder comes with a re-issued challenge, though: we are then to live every day and in every way in response to God's mercy. How? By offering every part of our life back to the God who has given us life! That, as Paul put it, is what worship is: it's not 'just' attending on (occasional) Sundays; or singing; or Bible studies; or work; or family: it's offering every part of our selves back to God.
There's only one way this is at all possible, Paul pointed out. It's so radically counter-cultural to human selfishness that we need to let God completely transform our minds! God can do that: he has done it before, not least in Paul's own life. It's usually a process, that takes time; but we should all be able to see significant change in ourselves today, compared to a year ago. And that then encourages us to press on, further along this path of becoming more like Jesus.
The key to it all lies in honest self-evaluation Paul reminds us. None of us must think of ourselves any more highly - or, he also implies - any less highly than we should. To be a child of God, loved so much that Jesus died for you, is no small thing! And you are here, in this church, because this is where God wants, and needs, YOU! We, the church, together are the body of Christ. And, as is so with any body, if any part of it isn't working properly, then all of it is in trouble!
None of us can – or is designed – to do it all. God has given each of us different gifts, to use for Him. When they're used properly, they complement each other, to get the job done fully. Paul then wrote another of his sample lists here, of what just some of those gifts are, and how we're to use them – for God, of course. That is the context which we need to come back to, time and again. What we have are gifts from God; they are to be used for Him. And they are to be offered back to Him as part of our worship – in response to His mercy in giving us life through Jesus.
So, there it is: the briefest – but most vital – summary of what it is that Christians are about: living all of our lives as worship, in response to God. We'll get to the how later in the service; the only starting point is this key question: will you do it? Then let's pray ...
posted by Parish Administrator at 12:05 pm
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