Lectionary Reflection—27 August 2017
So brothers and sisters, since God has shown us great mercy, I beg you to offer your lives as a living sacrifice to him. Your offering must be only for God and pleasing to him, which is the spiritual way for you to worship. 2Don’t be shaped by this world; instead be changed within by a new way of thinking. Then you’ll be able to decide what God wants for you; you’ll know what’s good and pleasing to him and what’s perfect.
3Because God has given me a special gift, I have something to say to everyone among you: Don’t think you’re better than you are. You must decide what you really are by the amount of faith God has given you. 4Each one of us has a body with many parts, and these parts all have different uses. 5In the same way, we’re many, but in Christ we’re all one body. Each one is a part of that body, and each part belongs to all the other parts. 6We all have different gifts, each of which came because of the grace God gave us. The person who has the gift of prophecy should use that gift in agreement with the faith. 7Anyone who has the gift of serving should serve. Anyone who has the gift of teaching should teach. 8Whoever has the gift of encouraging others should encourage. Whoever has the gift of giving to others should give freely. Anyone who has the gift of being a leader should try hard when leading. Whoever has the gift of showing mercy to others should do so with joy.
Today’s lectionary reading comes right after Paul’s been talking about God giving mercy to all people, whether Jews or non-Jews. While mercy may appear to be withheld for a season, Paul wrote that, “God has given all people over to their stubborn ways so that mercy can be shown to all” (Romans 11.32; NCV; adapted).
This is an important point in Paul’s overall argument of this letter. Time and time again Paul makes the plea that God is the God of all people, not just the Jews (Romans 3.29). Therefore, says Paul, all people should offer their lives as “living sacrifices” to God because God has shown “great mercy” to everyone.
But how do we do offer our lives as “living sacrifices”?
Paul states we do that by not being shaped by the standards of the world. “Instead,” he says, we should, “be changed within by a new way of thinking” (verse 2). It’s right here, though, that everything gets sticky.
Some people say that the “standards of this world” allow for gay marriage, that “Black Lives Matter,” that climate change is a real, etc. Other say the “standards of this world” only allows for marriage between a woman and a man, that “All Lives Matter,” that climate change is a hoax, etc. So which is it?
One thing that people seem to forget is the way one thinks influences one’s actions. As we saw last week, our actions come from the intentions of the heart. For example, if someone thinks gay people shouldn’t get married, then she’ll probably vote for legislation that prevents that.
So, again, where do we begin?
I think Paul’s somewhat veiled argument about the universality of God and God’s mercy is a good place to start. If our way of thinking leads to actions that endanger the lives of others, that would fall under the “standards of the world.” If our way of thinking excludes others, that, too, would fall under the “standards of the world.” And that’s just the point Paul is making.
In the world of the first followers of The Way of Jesus, some people thought that only the Jews were God’s people. At the same time, non-Jews were believing that Jesus was the Messiah and that meant (to some other people) that God had rejected the Jews altogether and only non-Jews were now God’s people.
Exclusion.
Paul counters that God is the God of all people—Jews and non-Jews—and, therefore, all people are God’s people. If one group is excluded, it would be like we were excluding our own hands from our body because they weren’t the heart (vv. 4-5).
The “standard of this world,” then, would be anything that excludes other people because we don’t think they’re God’s people. “Other people” would include people of color, people of different religious traditions, people of different sexual orientation, people from different nations, people with different political views, etc. All people, Paul tells us, are the receivers of God’s mercy not just the people who are like us.
But changing the way we think isn’t an easy task. In fact, it takes a lot of time. I remember dealing with a lot of these issues when I joined the Lindisfarne Community. I had to really search the scriptures and my own heart before I started realizing that I was being exclusive in my thinking. That, unbeknownst to me, I was excluding people for whom Christ died from God’s mercy and love. And while I can try and claim ignorance, it was really because of my religious tradition that I held these views of exclusivity.
The really puzzling part here is that I’ve been subject to the “standard of this world” my whole life, especially growing up. I only have one eye that works and I’ve suffered from allergies my whole life. When I was a child, I was excluded from a lot of things because of these “deficiencies.” And I learned in high school, like most of us did, that some of us just aren’t the “cool kids.” So I’m fully aware that being excluded is painful.
But then, like most of us, I started going to church and, even though I felt like God loved me and chose me I was taught that God may not love everyone. And I wasn’t bothered that. And the only reason I think I was okay with that was because I believed God loved me. It’s like, “Well, I’m good; too bad for you lot.” But them something happened.
My wife became a Buddhist.
And because of my religious upbringing that meant that she wasn’t “going to heaven” when she died. While that was fine for her (Buddhism doesn’t teach that), it caused me all kinds of anxiety. And that really started me questioning my beliefs on a personal level. It’s like people who are against gay rights until they have a family member come out—they quickly change their tune!
But I didn’t simply “flip a switch” and change my mind. I’ve been on a long journey of discovery about what the Bible teaches about such things (my first blog post about them was from 8 years ago and I really start dealing with them in this post).
So, again, it’s a long journey. When Paul states that we must “be changed within by a new way of thinking” he’s talking about just that—a long process that comes from being led by God’s Spirit, wrestling with issues, and a lot of humility and honesty.
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In the Love of the Three in One,
Br. Jack+, LC
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1. Scripture quotations marked (NCV) are taken from the New Century Version®, copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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