Today’s Advent Reflection is from Phil Wadsworth
Seen as Whole.
Romans 12
I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world but transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
For by the grace given to me I bid every one among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith which God has assigned him. For as in one body we have many members, and all the members do not have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them; if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; he who teaches, in his teaching; he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who contributes, in liberality; he who gives aid, with zeal; he who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.
Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to that which is good; love one another with a brotherly affection; outdo one another in showing honour. Never flag in zeal, be aglow with the spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in your hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints, practise hospitality.
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; never be conceited. Repay no-one evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends upon you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay, says the Lord”. No, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him drink; for by doing so you will heap burning coals upon his head”. Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good.
Reflection
Sometimes reading through a Bible passage of some length, such as this, can leave a “What was that? What just happened?” feeling. The familiarity of the phrases helps them pour through the mind, but perhaps not gain firm purchase this time. The injunctions to do this and not do that, the calls to action, the exhortations come thick and fast. We can struggle to keep pace with them, to try to remember them all, to think how to respond without indulging in a tick-list – “Yes, I think I pass that one”; “Hm, some work needed on that”; “I’ll pretend that one just isn’t there”. It’s all rush and bustle and trying to catch up … rather like daily life, really!
Advent is a season of preparation and consideration, reflection and self-examination. Doing this from within the bustle and detail of our lives doesn’t work – you can’t see the wood for the trees – and, as great teachers and pastors down the centuries remind us, you have to step back and see the whole thing before working out how and where the pieces fit within. That can apply to us individually considering how we are living, and to our church community; but it can also be applied to getting to grips with arguments and ideas – such as those in a Bible passage.
So let’s step back from all the details of Romans 12, and hold the passage in a sort of soft-focus while we see what impression it’s made, what we are hearing it saying, as a whole. There are echoes (or a foretaste, if we take the Epistles in the order we’re given them) of St Paul telling the Corinthians (in 1 Corinthians 12) that there are varieties of gifts, service, working, etc but the same Spirit; and that each part of our own body is different from the others but all have to do what they are designed to do – have been given a gift to do – for the whole to function. Paul ends that passage by reminding the Corinthians (1 Cor 12:27-31a) that, though individual, they are all parts of the body of Christ, and each has an individual and particular rôle in the greater whole – something specifically said in Romans 12:5-6 also.
We are individual members of the Body of Christ and its expression locally, all our church family at St Michael’s, and we therefore glance in the direction of what this passage means for us communally as that community, for we each need to be trying to live as God wants us to live for that church family community to work to its best, just as each part of the human body must perform its function as far as it is able (the alarms and excursions of the passing years permitting) for the body to function.
In Romans 12, though, we mainly focus on ourselves, our own individual lives and minds, thoughts and actions. This is the preparation and introspection part of the Advent narrative. The details are a sketch of how we live as we follow Jesus on our life journey; they present a précis of what we find on that journey and, though each is important individually, the whole picture is much more important: an image of a Christian life. This isn’t an exam sheet – “Answer ‘yes I do’ to each before proceeding to Chapter 13” – that has to be done immediately and fully, but a work in progress, one which we work on, and improve, as time goes by (and hopefully not just in Advent and Lent!).
We know we can’t get it all right, but we’re encouraged to “be transformed”, “prove the will of God”, “use [our gifts]”, “be patient, be constant”. Only Jesus lived a perfect earthly life, but “we, though many, are one body in Christ” (v 5) and thus, in and through following Jesus, we can present ourselves as acceptable to God. Being reminded that we “are individually members one of another” draws attention for a moment back to our church family community, where we help each other to follow Jesus and continue on the road to presenting ourselves to God, though Jesus.
Nor are we doing this in isolation, or in our own strength, of course. Looking at the whole picture painted by this passage, we see that it is all within the will of God. Being parts of “the body of Christ” means that we are living and acting within His will, and that will is that we “prove … what is good and acceptable and perfect” (v 2). We are each working with what God has assigned to us (v 3), just that and specifically to us as an individual, and that is therefore sufficient for His purposes for us.
We can therefore, as the passage exhorts us, “hold fast to that which is good” and “rejoice” and, looking up from Advent preparation for a moment in anticipation of its end-point – Emmanuel, God with Us – see that, though not necessarily apparent when looking at the detail, this passage is indeed one which tells us of comfort and joy.