A glimpse

Linda Pollock August 25, 2023 2 2

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Romans 12: 1-8 (NRSVA)

1 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. 2 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—what is good and acceptable and perfect.

3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgement, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. 4 For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, 5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. 6 We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; 7 ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; 8 the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.

Sometimes we get a wee glimpse of what it is to be the Body of Christ and it’s wonderful when that happens, because we are gifted with a sight of our Lord and His union with the Father and the Holy Spirit. The Trinity is the habitat of God which is the quintessential place of hope.

As followers of Christ Jesus, we too are invited to live in that trinitarian union, and that is wonderful and scary all at once because, if we are one with God and one with each other, we are responsible for each other’s wellbeing… and that is huge. (I won’t even touch the idea that we are responsible for God in this short space!)

In our reading today we are exhorted to create a habitat of hope by the way we live as His beloved children. The habitat we are called to live in is one of mutual love and respect, a place where each one is valued regardless. Imagine a community where everybody was affirmed and celebrated as beloved children of the living God.

Sadly, I suspect that for most of us, the hierarchy of affluence, social status, employment status, our understanding of God, the place where we live and perhaps even the clothes we wear, influence us, and tempt us to favour those we think are smarter, richer, more talented — whatever we think matters most.

In the Kingdom of God, we are called to live in a habitat of hope that defies the norms of our broken society – especially in our cultural norms in the Church - and urges us to challenge the biases all around us.

PRAYER:

Holy God, help us to create communities where You are welcome, where everybody is somebody and Jesus is Lord. Amen.