Romans 12:1-8; Matthew 16:13-20
Sermon Sunday 23rd August: Trinity 12
Romans 12:1-8; Matthew 16:13-20
“I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”
Every week, after communion, we say the post communion prayer together: “Almighty God, we thank you for feeding us with the body and blood of your Son Jesus Christ. Through him we offer you our souls and bodies to be a living sacrifice. Send us out in the power of your spirit to live and work to your praise and glory.” This is, of course, the culmination of the Mass, the missa! The Dismissal. It is the sending out. Having been spiritually fed by word and sacrament, we are sent out into the world. This is one of the points of our worship: to be sent out in the power of the Spirit to live and work to God’s praise and glory. Each week we present our bodies as living sacrifices here in this building so that we can be renewed by the Spirit, inspired by God’s love and united in the body of Christ and then sent out to live and work in God’s name in the world. It is an immense, awe-inspiring commission for which we need the sustenance of worship, Word and Sacrament and the community of the body of Christ to fulfill. Because we do not ask: send me out, we ask God to send us, the body of Christ, out into the world having presented ourselves to God in our spiritual worship.
There is so much going on in the brief passage from Paul this morning. Firstly, there is family: the body of Christ. We are brothers and sisters, called to come together – though we are many we are one body, we are members one of another. Just as we welcome those who are baptised into this body, into this fellowship of Christ. We. Like Peter, recognise Jesus as the Messiah, the chosen one of God, God incarnate. And this means something. Thomas Cranmer, brought to execution for his beliefs in a time when Christian fought against Christian, exhorted his hearers to: “love altogether like brethren and sisters. For, alas! Pity it is to see what contention and hatred one Christian man hath towards another; not taking each other as sisters and brothers, but rather as strangers and mortal enemies.” (1) And he knew what he was talking about: he was about to be burned at the stake for being the wrong kind of Christian! And yet, he saw all his brothers and sisters in Christ as such: his brothers and sisters, and called for unity, an end to the divisions. Because, of course, we are one body, regardless of denomination, and if we cannot love each other as brothers and sisters in Christ then how can we love those children of God who, although God’s children, are not like us or worship like us or even worship at all but who we are still called to love as fellow children of God because they are God’s children?
But also, we are called to recognise our differences. That although members of the same body, we each bring something to the body, each and every one of us has been given a gift by God, something to give, something to take out into the world to share with the world. Be it prophecy, ministry, leadership, generosity or compassion, we are given gifts to use in the world to God’s praise and glory. And we must use them to this end. We must ensure that everything we do, all our words and actions, are done in God’s name to God’s honour. And so, as Paul says, we must use our minds, renewed through our worship and faith, to discern what God wants from us, how we are to use what we have, our God-given gifts, so that we and our actions will be good, acceptable and perfect in God’s sight.
But what is good and acceptable and perfect in God’s sight? Well, here I turn to the beautiful anthem which ends with the opening words from Paul today. “Many waters cannot quench love neither can the floods drown it .. love is strong as death.” (2) Throughout his life Jesus taught us the importance of love. Love for our fellow human beings – as Cranmer spoke: “But I pray you learn and bear well away this one lesson, to do good to all as much as in you lieth, and to hurt no (one), no more than you would hurt your own natural brother or sister.” (3) Even on the point of martyrdom, Cranmer could speak of love for others, even those who are about to execute him. He, as a Christian, understood Jesus’ call to love: “For this you may be sure of, that whosoever hateth any person, and goeth about to hinder or hurt them, surely and without doubt, God is not with that person.” (4) God is with those who love the other, all others. If we claim to follow Christ then we are to love our neighbour as ourself and wish only good for them, do only good for them, pray only good for them. As St Anselm says in his prayer: “Whatever you cause me to desire for my enemies, give it to them and give the same to me, and if what I ask for them is ever outside the rule of love, whether through weakness, ignorance, or malice, give it neither to them, good Lord, nor to me.” (5) We may not be able to resist the world’s need for vengeance but God can, and God will give us strength to wish only good, even for our enemies: to not just turn the other cheek but to seek their well-being too. And, honestly, wouldn’t the world be a much better place if all, especially those with power and authority or influcence, could pray that prayer and live it!
So, we stand before God as living sacrifices, as sisters and brothers, to offer our spiritual worship to God and be sent out as instruments of God’s love and grace following Christ’s commandment to love one another, inspired and empowered by the Spirit working within and through us, using the gifts God has given us. We call what we do in church service. It is. It is service to and of God. And through it we offer our souls and bodies, everything that we are, in God’s service as living sacrifices, living and energised to be sent out in the power of the Spirit to live, to love and to work to and for God’s honour and glory. By doing this we will be doing what is good and acceptable and perfect in God’s eyes. Loving all others as brother and sister, and working to transform not only our minds, but the minds of others so that all will live and work to God’s glory through loving service each of the other. And we do this because, like Peter, we acknowledge Jesus as Christ, the Messiah. And so at the end of the service, listen and live the words of dismissal to: go in peace, to love and serve our Lord. In the name of Christ, the Messiah. Amen
Revd Jackie
References
- MacArthur B, ed. (2017) The Penguin Book of Historic Speeches, Thomas Cranmer, Penguin Books pp38/9
- John Ireland (1879-1962) Greater Love Hath No Man https://mondoymusic.com/sounds/ChoirRehearsal/GreaterLove_Ireland.htm
- MacArthur B, ed. (2017) The Penguin Book of Historic Speeches, Thomas Cranmer, Penguin Books p39
- MacArthur B, ed. (2017) The Penguin Book of Historic Speeches, Thomas Cranmer, Penguin Books p39
- Prayer of St Anselm