Scripture Reading: Romans 12

As I pondered the State of the Union address given last week, I wondered what a "State of the Church" sermon might say? Would it focus on this congregation or our denomination? On the churches in America? Or on the churches in the world? Regardless of the focus, the key to such an assessment would be the standard used to measure "the state" of the church. Should we look at the number of members and the level of giving? Or at the extent of the church’s charitable activities? Or at the excellence and exuberance of the music and prayer in worship?

Or, should we consider what the New Testament tells us about the church and what these teachings might mean for us today? Although the four gospels read like biographies, each is a "narrative sermon" written for a different congregation. The first three gospels have a common plot, but each and also the fourth gospel ends differently. And in the ending of each gospel, we may find a clue to the vision of the church that each narrative promotes.

The gospel of Matthew ends with the disciples being charged to go out into the world to convert and baptize. The gospel of John, however, ends with Peter being charged by Jesus to "feed my sheep." The first gospel in the New Testament clearly emphasizes a missionary church and proselytizing, whereas the fourth gospel seems to be more concerned with caring for those who are already members of the church.

The gospel of Luke ends with a transition to the Acts of the Apostles, written by the same author, so we need to look at the end of Acts for our clue about the church. In Acts we read that Paul, after being arrested in Jerusalem to protect him from an angry mob, has claimed his right as a Roman citizen to be judged in Rome. Thus, Acts ends with Paul in Rome, under house arrest, but nonetheless teaching "with boldness and without hindrance." (Acts 28:31) Here is a vision of the church able to proclaim its message of salvation without interference by the state.

In contrast, the gospel of Mark (in its earliest manuscripts) ends with women fleeing from an empty tomb – women who are so traumatized that the gospel reports "they said nothing to anyone." (Mk. 16:8) Unlike the other New Testament gospels, there is no resurrection appearance to the disciples, so we might conclude that this gospel has no vision of the church at all. Yet, ending without empowering the disciples may be how the gospel’s author meant to direct the reader’s attention to Paul, an apostle who was not a disciple and thus not part of the story of Jesus. If so, then the gospel of Mark, like the gospel of Luke, looks to Paul for a vision of what the church of Jesus Christ should be.

So, let us look as well to Paul and, in particular, to his teaching about the church in Romans 12. In this passage Paul talks about the love that is needed in the church among its members. "Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor...If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all." (12:9-10, 18)

Paul uses the metaphor of the "body of Christ" to represent what it means to belong to the church and how the diverse gifts of grace may strengthen its common life. As usual, Paul is articulate and thorough in what he says, and his words ask a good deal of us, as Christians. But his most striking statement, which is generally overlooked, comes at the beginning of Romans 12. "I appeal to you," Paul writes, "to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship." (12:1)

How, we might well wonder, are we to worship God by presenting our "bodies as a living sacrifice?" Certainly, this statement is to be read figuratively, not literally. Christians are not being asked to throw themselves onto sacrificial altars to be burned. Clearly, the image used by Paul is rooted in the Jewish tradition of animal sacrifice, which God demands in the Torah. Here, however, Paul says we are to be a "living sacrifice," and this is the "spiritual worship" that is "holy and acceptable to God."

Perhaps Paul used this image to jar his readers out of their complacency. They were thinking that the gospel message meant tinkering with the old religious system of sacrificial worship, whereas for Paul the gospel was a call to new ways of faithful living and loving in the world. This sort of self-sacrifice, Paul seems to be saying, is what is "holy and acceptable to God."

Therefore, Paul urges, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God…." (12:2) For Paul, the church is the crucible in which our lives are transformed. We worship to renew our minds, and we study the Bible to help one another resist being "conformed to this world." Paul is a great missionary, and certainly he teaches that the church is to be a caring community. But for Paul, the state of the church is not a reflection of its membership or its wealth, or the comfort it provides its members. The state of the church is its power to transform lives.

Paul saw the need to break out of the religious and intellectual boxes of his time. Today, one popular Christian view is that a return to the traditional certainties of the past is needed to secure the future of the church in a pluralistic and secular society. Protestants holding this view argue that only reading the Bible as the inerrant and infallible word of God will provide a firm foundation for the church in today’s corrupt and decaying world.

Another view, however, sees defending the Bible as a book of divine commandments to be a problem in the same way Paul saw as a problem the claim that the Hebrew scriptures are the revealed words of God. An alternative way of reading our scriptures follows Paul in calling for a transformation of the way we think, so we might understand our "spiritual worship" as how we live daily with one another in our world.

From this alternative point of view, the state of the church is no better than the love and grace manifested in Christian living. So, listen once more to Paul’s understanding of what it means to be a Christian: "Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all… Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." (12:14-17, 21) Amen.

9 February 2003

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