The Offering: What Happened When God Offered All (Rom. 12:1-2)

Steve Prothero is a Boston University professor and author of the book Religious Literacy.[i]  When Prothero began teaching twenty years ago he found that few students could name the authors of the Christian Gospels.  Fewer could name a single Hindu Scripture.  Almost none could name the first five books of the Hebrew Bible.  This concerned Prothero.  He believes that many political conflicts in world history have had religious roots.  Thus he feels it imperative for students to know something about the religions of the world.  Most of his Boston University students, however, knew nothing.  Thus, this non-Christian professor proposes in his book that students should be required take a course in Bible and World Religions before graduating from high school.

 

I mention Prothero’s book not to raise the question of whether or not Christian texts or other religious texts should be taught in public schools.  I mention it to illustrate the fact that we live in a culture where a vast number do not have even a cursory understanding of the Christian faith or of any faith.

 

Because of this, I’ve committed this year to two quarterly initiatives.  First, each quarter I will offer a two-week Sunday School break-out session called “Storytime.”  “Storytime” is an opportunity to explore and invite friends to explore the Christian story.  The next Storytime will be Sundays April 12, 19.  Second, each quarter I will preach a message that provides a basic understanding of the Christian faith.  This morning’s message is one of those.

 

One way to sum up the Bible is with the image of an “altar.”  Whether through literature we’ve read, paintings we’ve seen, or television or movies we’ve watched, most of us probably have some familiarity with the idea of an altar—a sacred object upon which people present offerings—sacrifices—to a god. 

 

For example last February archeologists in Greece were studying an altar to the Greek god Zeus on Mount Lykaion. [ii]  The New York Times carried the story.  Archeologists found on Mount Lykaion a place there where ancient people would present their offerings to Zeus.  But as the archeologists dug deeper, they found ashes, bones, and evidence of animal sacrifices that were presented to an even older god.  The altar they found under Zeus’ altar dates to 3000 B. C.  On that same spot on Mount Lykaion people had been presenting offerings to the gods since 3000 B. C.  And most of us can make sense of a report like that.  We understand the idea of an offering on an altar.

 

Altar or offering is one image which writers of the Bible used to summarize the Christian faith.  Paul writes this in Rom. 12:1: 1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is true worship. (Rom. 12:1 TNIV).  Romans is a letter written by a Christian preacher named Paul.  Like some of the other documents in the New Testament it is named for the readers—those to whom Paul wrote.

 

The verse I just read comes at an important place in this letter.  It is a hinge around which the letter turns.  Generally everything just before this verse has been an explanation of what Paul calls here, “God’s mercy.”  Paul wrote chapters 1 – 11 to explain “God’s mercy.”  Generally everything after this verse is an exploration of what Paul calls here, “offer[ing] your bodies as a living sacrifice…”  If chapters 1 – 11 explain “God’s mercy,” then chapters 12-16 explain our response to God’s mercy.  Here’s another way of looking at this: Romans 1 – 11 explain what God did and Romans 12 – 16 explain what we do in response. 

 

And what we do is summarized by the image of altar/ offering/ sacrifice.  If you want one image to summarize what it means to be a Christian, this is it—the image of altar/ offering/ sacrifice.  We’ll return to this later. 

 

For most of our time this morning, I want us to focus on what God does.  One place in Romans 1-11 where Paul summarizes “God’s mercy”—that is, what God does—is in Rom. 3:25: God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. (Rom. 3:25 TNIV).  The images used in this text are almost identical to the images used in Rom. 12:

 

Thus, Paul summarizes what God does with this image: altar/ offering/ sacrifice.  If you want one image to summarize what God does according to the Christian faith it is this: altar/ offering/ sacrifice. 

 

What is unusual about this image is that it reversed conventional thinking about offerings.  Paul lived in a culture where there were many religions and most included the idea of a person offering a sacrifice to appease the gods for something the person did wrong.  The average person on the street believed that when you did something wrong, it made the gods angry.  And the best way to resolve that anger was to offer a sacrifice.  The fancy word for that was “propitiation.”  The sacrifice “propitiated” or “turned aside” the anger of the gods.  That’s the word Paul uses here.

 

But here’s the bad news about altar, offering, or sacrifice.  First they were never enough.  Speaker Rob Bell illustrates this in his presentation called “The God’s Aren’t Angry.”[iii]  Something goes wrong, you misbehave—and it’s time for a sacrifice.  People did it in ancient Mesopotamia, ancient Israel, and ancient Rome.  And one problem was that you never really knew if you had sacrificed enough.  If you made the gods angry and you offered a sacrifice, you never quite knew if it was enough.

 

Some of us have experienced this in our spiritual lives.  We’re never quite sure if we’ve done enough to make up for wrong things that we’ve done.  For example, when I was in college I struggled with sexual immorality.  There were weekends when I would choose to be sexually impure and then wake up Sunday morning or Monday morning and realize that God must be very angry with me.  So I would spend the next three or four days offering sacrifices to make it up to God—I would read lots of Scripture, I would pray more than usual, I would invite people to the mid-week evangelistic Bible study, and I would volunteer to help with some project in the campus ministry.  All of it was a kind of offering to turn aside God’s wrath.  But I never really knew for sure if I had done enough.

 

Some of us experience something similar to this in our secular lives.  Despair, Inc. provides what they call “demotivators.”  This demotivator is called “Sacrifice.”  It shows an ancient Aztec temple on which human sacrifices would have been offered to the gods.  It’s a picture meant to be hung at the office.  And the tag line says, “All We Ask Here Is That You Give Us Your Heart.”  So many things in life—like our jobs—require us to sacrifice so much, and it never seems enough.

 

But there was a second problem with the ancient altar, offering, or sacrifice.  Not only was it never enough.  But it was never ending.  You were caught in a never-ending cycle of trying to do right, doing wrong, and then having to go to the altar to present the offering.  You were condemned to a lifetime of offerings because as large as the last sacrifice was, it only dealt with the previous transgression.  Today, there’s a new transgression.  There was a never-ending need for offerings.

 

Some of us still experience this in our spiritual lives.  I remember a woman I’ll call Betty.  She wanted to follow Jesus.  She wanted to be a Christian.  But there was one particular behavior she was wrestling with.  She was attracted to a coworker and found herself constantly having thoughts she shouldn’t have.  She’d repent, attend some church services, feel better, but then stumble again.  This went on for weeks.  And finally, she just gave up.  She didn’t want to continue this cycle.  So, she dropped out of church and gave in to her desires. 

 

But here’s the twist of the Christian faith.  In the Christian faith, God makes the offering.  God himself presents the sacrifice.  Did you notice who’s making the sacrifice in Rom. 3?  It’s not a person.  It’s God.  Paul writes earlier that God is angry.  He never intended the world to be like this.  He never intended your life to be like this.  It disturbs him to see the war, the scandals, the poverty, the corruption, the lies, the betrayals, the abuse, and the unfaithfulness.  But the Christian faith is not just another flavor of all those ancient religions which require us to make some offering to appease the angry gods.  The Christian faith turns that upside down.  The angry God offers his own sacrifice, his Son, himself.  The Christian God is more interested in peace and relationship with us than another sacrifice from us.  So God makes the sacrifice.

 

And because he makes the sacrifice it is more than enough.  And, it is the end.  It’s more than we could ever sacrifice.  It’s so much more that it’s the end of all sacrifice.  It is a one-time once-and-for-all offering which forever ends this altar-system.

 

This amazing twist is still reflected in the terminology used in many Christian traditions.  In many ancient places of worship, like a temple to an ancient Greco-Roman god, there would be an altar.  But it would be the place where you would place your offering.  In the Christian faith, there was also an altar at the place of worship.  But it represented God placing his offering, his sacrifice.  Beginning around the 3^rd century A. D. the table on which the communion was placed was called an “altar.”[iv]  Each Sunday we gather around the altar, not to make our sacrifice, but to celebrate his.  The reason Christians gather each Sunday is to celebrate the fact that there’s nothing left to offer.  There’s nothing left for us to sacrifice.  We’ve been freed from this system.

 

But what then do we do with Paul’s call in Rom. 12: 1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is true worship.  In the Christian faith what we do comes after what God has done.  We do not give our offering in order to get something from God.  We give our offering because God’s already given his to us.  Too many people assume Christianity is about what we offer or sacrifice in order to get saved, or get heaven, or get forgiveness, or get help.  People assume we have to do Romans 12-16 and then we get Romans 1-11.  But the truth is just the opposite.  What God does comes first.  Only then do we respond with our offering. 

 

The word translated “true” as in “true worship” is literally the word “reasonable.”  Paul is saying that in light of what God’s done, it is only reasonable that we would respond in kind.  It only makes sense, now that God has offered us himself, for us to offer him ourselves.  That’s why Paul pictures the Christian life as an offering.  It’s us climbing on the altar and saying with gratitude, “Because you’ve given me yourself, I now give you myself.”

 

Last Sunday Larry McKenzie marked forty years of ministry at the Highland Church of Christ.  We’ll be celebrating that anniversary, along with Jim Chester’s 40^th anniversary in a few weeks.  For four decades Larry has been studying the Bible with non Christians, teaching evangelism courses, leading prayer seminars, traveling the world to do mission work and encouraging missionaries, writing articles on Christian living, visiting people in the hospital, conducting weddings and funerals, getting up early and staying up late.  He has laid himself on the altar for us for forty years.  And I’ll bet if you asked him why, he would say it’s because of what God did on his altar.  God gave himself to Larry.  Larry’s given himself back to God.

 

Every Sunday for the past few months two families at Highland have left the worship service about halfway through the service.  They don’t leave because they are mad.  They leave so they can conduct worship services at a nearby assisted-living facility.  They sacrifice worshiping with their friends and family here in order to lead worship for about thirty older adults who are shut-in.  I’ll bet if you asked them why, they would say it’s because of what God did on his altar.  God gave himself to them.  They are simply giving themselves back to God.

 

But here’s the twist: once we get on the altar, God says, “That is very pleasing.  But, I’m not going to keep you for myself.  I’m going to take you, this offering you’ve given to me, and I’m going to give it to others.”  That’s what the verses after Rom. 12:1-2 go on to describe.  Paul moves immediately into statements about how we are to serve others, help others, and support others.  This is his ultimate example of what it means to offer ourselves to God.  Paul is saying that God takes our offering of ourselves and gives it to others.  We best offer ourselves to God when we offer ourselves to others.  That’s the sum of the Christian life.

 

And where does all this begin?  According to Paul, it begins in baptism.  Baptism is where God’s offering and our offering come together.  Here’s what Paul writes in Rom. 6:  We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.  5 If we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7 because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.   (Rom. 6:4-7 TNIV)  In baptism God’s offering—the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus—and our offering—our own death, burial, and resurrection—come together.  In baptism we both receive God’s offering and give our offering.  Just a few verses later Paul describes it in just this way: 13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life.  (Rom. 6:13 TNIV).  Baptism is where we receive God’s offering and where our offering begins.