“we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.”
+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
How the Christian Ought to Live, Part 1
Today’s Epistle and those of the next two weeks form a continuous reading of the entirety of the twelfth chapter of St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans. I encourage everyone to read chapter twelve in conjunction with these lessons and sermons.
So today’s lesson begins: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” Our bodies are to be pledged to and lived in God’s service. We are noble knights pledging our swords and lives to our king. This is similar to the vows soldiers, sailors, Marines, and airmen make upon enlistment or commission. For the United States Army, the vow is to support and defend the Constitution, to bear true faith and allegiance to the same, and either to obey orders from officers or to faithfully discharge the duties of office without any evasion or mental reservation.
In other words, the soldier must be faithful and loyal to his country. He must not deviate into the service of those opposed to his country. He will fulfill his duty with his country in mind. He swears that he is not coerced into giving false service, but rather he is free to obligate himself to this loyalty and allegiance.
All this points to a potentially horrible truth: The soldier is willing to die for his country. No one swears this oath and undertakes this discipline wanting to die, but all do it knowing that death may happen.
But the Christian knows that death must happen. Christ died on the Cross. The Christian must go to his own Calvary as well. St. John xii.24: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.”
Rather, the image of Romans xii.1 is that of worship. One sacrifices in worship. This is one of the main reasons that pagans can kill animals or burn incense to their false gods in worship, but you cannot adequately sit at home alone with your Bible in worship. In worship, one offers something to God. One sacrifices something.
In the prayer for the Whole State of Christ’s Church, we read: “We humbly beseech thee most mercifully to accept our [alms and] oblations”. Our alms are our physical gifts we give to God, most notably bread and wine which is now purchased with money, and therefore the money we give. Our tithes especially are given in worship. Think of our oblations as our prayers, presence, worship, and intentions.
If you are bound by chains and dragged into our service and hear those words, “our oblations”, then you may well discard them, for they do not apply to you. But for everyone who comes here with at least a little desire to worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness, then these words are for you. Even if you come here intending to show off your new outfit at church, so long as you do intend to show off your new outfit at church, then you too have that little speck of intention towards the worship of God, and thus you participate in the offering up of yourselves.
The Canon of the Mass includes even stronger language. Midway through it, we read: “And here we offer and present unto thee, O Lord, our selves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice unto thee;” Here do I, or any priest saying the Mass, offer on your behalf as well as mine our whole selves over to God “to be a reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice”. We worship our good God by giving back to him the lives he first gave us.
When I swore that military oath back in 1990, I knew I might die. And to be fair, I was willing to lay down my life. But I had struggled for a couple of years beforehand wondering, “If my life was given to me, by what right had I to risk it?” But of course, Christ Himself said in St. John’s Gospel: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
We are fully responsible for the lives which God has given us. And to a great extent, we are free to do what we will with our lives. The question of “How shall we best live our lives?” is an ancient one. Notably, Socrates asked this question centuries before the Incarnation of Christ our Savior.
(1) Many people have answers to this question. Some people think it a good thing to live hedonistically for themselves, avoiding entangling relationships with others, seeking pleasure where they may find it, and avoiding pain at all costs. This only results in death and the grave. Not a good option.
(2) Others strap bombs under their clothes and blow themselves up along with busloads of tourists. To be fair, these people actually think that by killing themselves, they are doing their god’s will. Of course, they do not think that their bloody god is evil and demonic, although he is. Yet they still are reaching outside of themselves and beyond their own pleasure.
(3) Others live for something positive. Some people, especially here in the South and in other traditional cultures, live for their families. I heard of a Japanese businessman some years ago who put a large sum of money in the bank to be drawn upon by his ancestors centuries in the future. With compound interest, even a large number of heirs should be very wealthy then. That’s looking after family that it’s not possible to even meet.
Others lay down their lives for their country and for their country alone. Millions upon millions of soldiers died on the Eastern Front in World War II, Germans against Russians. You might ask yourself what compels a man to die on behalf of his atheist or pagan regime. Laying your life down for another, for your comrade, for your country is the answer. Whether you sacrifice yourself for your family or your country, such a sacrifice reaches out of the depths of one’s own self and reaches for something greater – the good of your people.
There is honor in this. There is nobility in this. Indeed, the noble pagans – Socrates, Confucius, Cicero – aspired to this as the best end result they could manage. But even there, alas, there is no salvation. There is nothing vital and eternal. There is Hades and Sheol, the cold, endless, sleepy afterlife.
(4) But St. Paul shows us yet again a “more excellent way”: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”
We can live for Him Who came down to earth and died for us on the Cross, Who rose again from the dead and ascended into Heaven, preparing for us many mansions in the eternal light of God the Father. Indeed, we can live for Him Who sent God the Holy Ghost into the world to make us meet and fitting tabernacles for God the Father.
We can live for God every single day of our lives. We are to pray continually, and when we lead upright, sacrificial lives of loving-kindness to Almighty God, we become a living sacrifice to our good and generous Father in Heaven.
But St. Paul does not stop there. He has more to say: “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”
As we give ourselves, offer ourselves up as a reasonable, holy, acceptable, and living sacrifice to God, we are not merely to give lip service, we are not merely to hand over the mess which we currently are, but we are to reach even further, and become ourselves transformed by God. In Hebrews we read: “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” God changes us. We do not remain the same. Our minds are renewed by our gracious God. We are so to emulate God in our minds and in our wills that we “may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”
St. Paul continues: “For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.”
Going beyond our private selfish lives, we are to submit to God’s perfect will, we are to become like God, to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, to live lives worthy of offering unto God; and these lives we live here in Augusta and in our families will point towards God. People other than ourselves will see God in us, in our lives, in our humility, in our conduct, in our speech, in our decisions, in what we value, in what we refuse to accept. In knowing us, they will not be unfamiliar with God, for we will have been transformed. They will see us worshipping God and being transformed by him, they will see God working in our lives, and we will be their good examples. They will either be attracted or repulsed by what they see, but if we are living robust lives with spiritual integrity, they will be seeing the things of God in us.
And those outside the Faith, those outside the household of God will not be the only ones who see this. St. Paul continues, finishing today’s lesson: “For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.”
In the Prayer of Thanksgiving in our beautiful Prayer Book, we read: “that we are very members incorporate in the mystical body of thy Son, which is the blessed company of all faithful people;” You right there, and all of your brothers and sisters, are members of Christ’s Body. We call this the Church, the Bride of Christ. Just as when a man takes a woman to be his bride they become one flesh, one body, members of each other, so too Christ takes His Church, which is His Body, to be His Holy Bride. We see in Holy Matrimony a window into the mystery which is Christ and His Church.
And I say that to point out that each one of us are members in this one Body, Holy Mother Church. For in Christ, the Church births new Christians through the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, in which we are renewed, regenerated, born again, made anew, transformed by the action of the Holy Ghost through the ministry of Christ to become a Holy People. We, you and I, are joint-heirs of Christ, for we are adopted by God the Father. Through God’s action, not through our own merit or through any offices of our own, are we united mystically and sacramentally to God.
We can sit down, drink some tea, and think of nice things; we can go to church, go back home, and remain unaffected to the best of our ability. We may think ourselves above, or below, our brothers and sisters. We may hold ourselves aloof, apart, beyond, beside, but not in direct relationship with these other Christians we worship with. But none of that is: “every one members one of another”.
We are to give ourselves entirely over to God. We are to conform our minds, our wills, and our entire selves to the mind and will of God. And we are made one body, “every one members one of another.”
My dear children, we are not fully Christian unless we are these things. The sacramental washing with water in Holy Baptism immerses us fully into new life in Christ, and that requires our hearts and minds make the full journey also.
What is holding you back? It’s probably not patriotism, for this is a cynical age. Family? Perhaps, but we are selfish. Money? Sex? Living our own private lives? Holding to our own peculiar opinions? We are members one of another with our brothers and sisters in Christ. We all together are one Body, which is the Body of Christ, for we are joined with Christ, and made adopted sons of God the Father. Our salvation lies through Christ, and in Christ we are joined together.
Understand this: Without the fools and the snobs sitting to your left and to your right, to your front and to your back, you are not saved. No one can go this alone. Christ wills that we all may be one. We are in this together more than we can possibly understand here in our one short lifetime.
“we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.”
+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Mystagogicon 