Rom 12:1-21 (This was from 2012)
Paul is in “urgent” mode again in Romans 12. After reading this passage a few times I can understand why. In 21 verses he probably says as much about Christianity as is in any chapter in scripture. I sincerely hope you can give pause today; read this passage and hear a heart that has gained heaven while still on earth. I consider Paul to be one of the richest men (in the truer sense of that word) that ever lived. I try and pay close attention to all his heart-investment advise. This passage is crammed with treasure but one phrase stands out above the others this morning from verse 5. “… we, who are many, are one…”.
I recall my wife asking me how I felt once after I had taken a strong pain remedy for my aching back. The drug had just found its way into my bloodstream and I told her that I either wanted to write a brief poem in honor of “asphalt” or I wanted to “buy the world a coke and teach them to sing in perfect harmony”. When I think of God answering the prayer that Jesus taught us to pray, “that Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven“, I wonder if the add-writers of Coke had not inadvertently expressed something about that “good, acceptable and perfect” – divine order of unity and “oneness”.
Verse 5 tells us this “oneness” comes from being “in Christ and being individually members one of another”. At some point, in our corporate “becoming” who God intended us to be, I predict there will be a discovery that “church” was never a building or a scheduled and scripted event. It was always a body of people who had been joined together “in Christ”. At some point in our “becoming”, I anticipate that the “renewing of the mind” that is promoted in verse 2 will include a new way of thinking about “church” and “each other” that will profoundly contribute to God’s will being played out on earth.
Daneille (my wife) has been in Israel for three weeks and where I might have been lonely and disoriented, I have instead been privileged to enjoy a taste of “oneness in Christ” as I have been the beneficiary of different gifts of grace which have been cheerfully offered me from my growing family – the body of Christ: In the way of service (The McDaniel/Lawrence clan, Honey and Sally); In the way of teaching (Tim Keller); In the gifts of exhortation and hospitality (Doris and the Bamburgs); In their gift of friendship (John and Mary Stam). Each of you with your own gift found a way to give preference to me and honor me by being sensitive to and contributing toward my needs. (I am sorry; there are so many I didn’t mention. God bless each of you) These gifts were all given outside any program or building. They all manifested in the context of community.
Thanks to my wife and my precious children for your generous, kind and honoring words on Father’s day. I pray that I am not being overly wise in my estimation of myself or thinking more highly of myself than I ought, but as I took inventory this morning, I felt rich in so many ways that had nothing to do with my CPA’s calculations. Thank you dear family from the depths of my heart for regularly demonstrating to me that church does not start at 10:00 am on Sunday but that it simply who we are and is enlivened when we simply connect to the person next to us in the Spirit of Jesus and discover the need in that life that we are uniquely called and equipped to meet.
Father, open the eyes of our hearts to understand and live out “church” as You intended it. By Your power within, may we demonstrate that “we who are many are one” in the presence of our detractors and those who would persecute us. In this way, may we overcome the evils of our inordinate independence and demonstrate that good; the “unity” that You have foreordained that we should walk out. Amen.
(Note; On Father’s Day my awesome son recommended I listen to Tim Keller’s free-downloadable sermon on The Prodigal Son passage in Luke – which is really about 2 sons and an amazing father. I urge you to check it out. I also recommend a book by Felicity Dale called An Army of Ordinary People which highlights much of the spirit of Rom 12.