Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
Sermon – Romans 12:1-8 – Be Transformed
Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Churches
August 21, 2011
For the last few weeks we have been looking at Paul's letter to the church at Rome. Paul did not start this church, and we don't really know how it got started. What we do know is that according to the Book of Acts visitors from Rome where in Jerusalem and heard Peter speak on Pentecost. Furthermore we a told that these visitors from Rome were both Jews and converts to Judaism. These converts would be call God Fearers. They were Gentiles who believed in the Hebrew God. So both Jewish and Gentiles believers heard Peter in Jerusalem and around twenty years later Paul is writing a letter to a church of Jewish and Gentile believers. So it is very possible that the church of Rome was started by visitors from Rome in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost. And if this is true the church Paul is writing to a church that has had a 20 history as a multicultural church with both ethnic Jews and roman Gentiles both worshiping Jesus Christ.
This church would have experienced the edict of Emperor Claudius in 51AD expelling the Jews from Rome. The ethnic Jews in the church had to leave. The Gentiles remained. Several years later the Jews were permitted to return to Rome and the church had to once again find a way to be multicultural. Paul's letter is his attempt to help them, and what he told them has become the model for what church is for the last 2000 years.
But before we look at what Paul says in the 12th chapter, let's pray.
“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)
Romans 12:1-8 NIV Romans 12:1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-- this is your spiritual act of worship. 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is-- his good, pleasing and perfect will. 3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. 4 Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. 7 If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; 8 if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.
Two weeks ago Grace and I moved into the Dickinson Memorial Manse. It had been rented for the last ten years until we moved in. A lot of work was required to get the house into shape. After all the house is around 160 years old and a lot of maintenance is required to keep it in good shape. A painter was hired and spent two months preparing the walls and ceilings and putting two coats of paint on everything. It took 8 gallons of paint for the wood trim in the house. A plumber was called in to repair leaking faucets. A shower leak had caused the living room ceiling to collapse just before repairs started. A cracked toilet had to be replaced and new drains installed on the bathtubs. In addition to the painter and the plumber we also needed people to repair the drywall and install new flooring in the kitchen and bathrooms. There are 45 windows in the manse and someone had to install all those curtains. Thankfully Bill and Elaine came out to help with that job. Carpets had to be cleaned, wood floors polished, and furniture moved, and God sent a saint to Grace's church to help with all these things. Willard and Jeanette brought over some covered dishes so we wouldn't starve on our first night in the house. All of these people, and many more were needed just to get a manse ready for a pastor to live there.
The person who helped by assembling furniture was not really comfortable installing new faucets. The plumber was not really comfortable making a washing machine work. The painter was not really comfortable doing the drywall work on the living room ceiling. And I wasn't really comfortable doing all these things myself. What God did was to send people with different gifts to the house. Each of these gifts was necessary to complete the repairs on the house. Each person had a specific gift. So God sent many people with different gifts to repair an old house and transform it into a beautiful church manse for the pastor to live in and entertain guests.
This was the model the Apostle Paul used to design the church. A church is made up of people with gifts from God who use their gifts for the benefit of the church. Using our gifts to benefit the church is what Paul calls spiritual worship. Each of us makes living sacrifices by offering our gifts to the church makings our actions holy. And God takes each of our living sacrifices to transform an ordinary group of people into a church.
The model of church today has strayed from this ideal. We got too large and began to hire profession pastors, educators, and musicians to lead programs. People in the church showed up to be spiritually fed and leave, never contributing their gifts as living sacrifices to benefit the church. We stopped experiencing spiritual worship in the sharing of our gifts. So God has pruned us back so that with fewer financial resources we have had to rely on everyone's gifts rather than paid help. Everyone in the church must make a living sacrifice using the gifts God has provided to benefit the church. We can't afford a Christian educator so people in the church must use their gifts of teaching for the benefit of the church so that we can have Christian education programs for all ages. We can't hire profession musicians to lead our choirs. But people in the church with gifts of music and organization must use these gifts to lead choirs for the benefit of the church.
As each of us must make living sacrifices using our gifts for the benefit of the church so that the church is transformed into spiritual worship.
Now Paul did not know the people of the church of Rome. So he did not know what gifts they could use for the benefit of the church. But he had seen enough people in enough churches to know what gifts God usually bestow on church members, and how those gifts transform a church.
One gift the church needs is that of prophesy. Prophesy is the gift that allows us to know what God is doing in the world around us and to discern what God wants us to do. We have prophets in our church. Last Friday at the men's group we were talking about projects we could support. One person, with the gift of prophesy, pointed out that there are many people in our community who will have difficulty paying their heating bills this winter. Oil prices are so high that people just can't make ends meet. Maybe God is calling Beaver Dam and Pitts Creek churches to do something about this problem. Maybe we could find out what is available to help people with their heating bills from government and christian sources and make our church the place where people could come to find out what is available. So you see how important it is for a church to have the gift of prophesy.
But there are other gifts too. Paul talks about the gift of service. The Greek word he uses is diakonia, from which we get the word Deacon. Literally these are people who provide hospitality to others. Those with the gift of service prepare food, setup and cleanup for coffee hours. They take covered dishes to the sick and those who cannot cook for themselves. They take flowers to those in the hospital and send cards on birthdays. Every church needs people with the gift of service.
Another gift Paul talks about is teaching. Every church needs people with this gift. Our traditions must be passed on from generation to generation. So we need to provide Christian education for all ages. The church needs people with the gift of teaching Bible stories to children, and those with the gift of interpreting the Bible for adults. We have certainly been blessed with many gifted teachers in our churches. Donna and Mary are very good adult teachers and Linda and Chris are really gifted with the children.
So prophesy, serving and teaching are vitally important gifts from God needed by the church. But there are others: encouraging, contributing to the needs of others, leadership, and caring for the poor and the sick. All these gifts are needed by the church. And they are all provided by our loving God.
So if you are making a spiritual sacrifice by using your divine gift for the benefit of the church then you are experiencing spiritual worship. If you are not using your gifts then you are experiencing something else which is not spiritual worship. I urge you to consider what gifts God has given you and make a living sacrifice by using your gifts for the church and experience the reward of spiritual worship.
Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for blessing us with so many gifts. Help us to use our gifts for your great glory so that we may experience spiritual worship. Amen.
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