A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois on Sunday, August 21, 2011.
(Homily text: Romans 12: 1 - 8)
Two questions come before us this morning as we hear St. Paul’s writing in chapter twelve of his letter to the Romans:
1. Are you living life to the fullest?
2. Have you found your truest self?
These two questions are at the heart of Paul’s appeal to the early Christians who were members of the churches in Rome.
Paul feels very strongly about this matter. He begins (verse one) by saying “I appeal to you”. But the language is actually stronger than the word “appeal” might suggest: He is urging his listeners to find their truest selves, and to live the fullest life possible.
It should come as no surprise, then, that Paul insists that finding our truest self means giving up our lives as “living sacrifices” to God.
Sacrifice: Something that is given up, or offered, to God. A sacrifice can be an offering to make atonement (the ancient Hebrew word meant “to cover over”) for sins. A sacrifice can also be made to give honor to God, or to offer thanks to God.
Now Paul tells us that three aspects of our being are involved in becoming “living sacrifices”. They are the three aspects of our nature that we possess as created human beings who are made in the image and likeness of God (see Genesis 1: 28):
Bodies: Our physical selves, that part of our nature that can be seen and touched, whose actions point to an inner disposition of the spirit and the mind. The physical aspect of our created nature comes from our having been made “out of the dust of the earth” (Genesis 2: 7).
Minds: Our rational nature, the God-given ability to think like no other created beings can, for we are made in the “image and likeness of God” (Genesis 1: 28)
Spirits: That part of our nature that comes from having been created by God specifically and intentionally. Genesis (2: 7) says that God “breathed into our nostrils the breath of life”, and that we became living creatures as a result. Possessing a spirit is also part of having been made in the “image and likeness of God”.
Now, let’s put all of this together.
1. Paul says that each of us possesses a “measure of faith”. That measure of faith was given to us when we became believers. It is God’s gift, pure and simple. In contrast to very common beliefs in the first century (the Gnostics, e.g.) and in our own time today, possessing faith and the wisdom which can come from it isn’t something that we inherently have within ourselves, which we must simply discover. No, faith is God’s gift, a gift we can receive and cultivate into mature living.
2. Possessing this “measure of faith”, we are to use our minds to soberly assess how well we are living up to the example of life that we see in Christ Jesus. This means stepping outside of ourselves to have a serious look back at what we see, both good and bad. The truth is that, if we are honest about ourselves, we are all a mixture of successes and failures where Godly things are concerned. So Paul says, “Have a look, a serious, sober-minded look.”
3. If we have a good, long look at ourselves, we can – with God’s help – amend our lives, casting off the worldly ways (he says, “by the renewing of our minds”) in which we lived before coming to Christ. We are to look earnestly at God’s ways as seen in Christ Jesus, and by doing so, we will be able to discern what is the will of God, and will be able to discover what is good, acceptable (to God) and perfect.
The process leads to true living and true life. To discover what God’s will is, and to apply it to our lives day-by-day means that we will truly live, not in seeking the thrills that this life offers, not in the self-destructive ways that our contemporary culture would like us to follow, but in Godly living, building up one another in the works that Paul enumerates for us in verses four through eight of our reading today.
May we – by God’s grace and by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit – come to the fullness of life and living that walking in God’s ways alone offers.
AMEN.
