Merciful, Sober, Bodies, Together: the Christian Practice of Discernment ~ Romans 12:1-8

 

This morning in our passage we’ve caught Paul mid-lecture. We’re late, in other words, and quickly need to grave a seat and pay attention. We catch him just as he is saying, “Therefore, in view of God’s mercy.” And with that short phrase he summarizes the preceding 11 chapters of serious theology believing that this theology had implications for the church to help them think and act differently. It was this theology that would help the church “test and approve what God’s will is . . .” That’s our discipline this morning – discernment. What are those elements necessary to be able to discern what God wills for us, to help us address real need, to know how to behave?

1.    If you want to discern rightly, start with mercy.  

In the previous chapters in Romans – mercy was the theme. Paul has been recounting God’s mercies toward undeserving people by sending his son to reveal God’s love by dying. In chs. 9-11 mercy receives even greater attention. For salvation depends “not on human will . . . but on God who shows mercy” (9:16), and his purpose is “to make known the riches of his glory for objects of his mercy” (9:23), which, of course, means you. You are an object of mercy. Everyone is an object of God’s mercy! Friends, there is an increasing rhetoric of hate and disgust in this nation that is creating tragic consequences, resulting in a painful silence on the part of us who have been called and formed by God’s mercy. This is “the age” that is currently seeking to conform us – to shape us into a pattern of hate toward one another, particularly those who are different. Don’t be conformed to this world, Paul warns.

How are we to discern how to behave in this world? How will we know “what is the will of God”? Paul’s answer in our passage is not a rule but a story of “mercy” (vs. 1) and “grace” (vs. 3) which includes our bodies and transforms our thinking. Start all investigations of discernment with this book and let mercy point the way, ask the questions, and determine the action. Begin every political solution, every social concern, every judgment on sin, every assumption about God’s will and our response, with the phrase, “in view of God’s mercy.” We will only be able to determine the will of God in any of these by standing in a story of mercy – God’s plan to not give us what we deserve but to give us what we need. You will only be able to resist being “conformed to this age” by experiencing God’s mercy. In vs. 3, Paul restates the idea saying “For by the grace given me I say to every one of you” NOT “by the wisdom given me,” or “the authority given me,” or “by the political power given me.” Speaking “by the grace given” is a sign of discerning in the right way. We have an interesting example of thinking with mercy from the early church.

In third century Rome, a pagan actor became a Christian, but he realized he had to change his employment because most Roman plays encouraged immorality and unchristian behavior, often involving pagan ceremonies. Since this newly-converted actor had no other job skills, he considered establishing an acting school to teach drama to non-Christian students. However, he first submitted his idea to the leaders of his church for their discernment. 

The leaders told him that if acting was an immoral profession then it would be wrong to train others in it. Nevertheless, since this was a rather novel question, they wrote to Cyprian, the bishop of Carthage, for his thoughts because mercy always asks questions. Cyprian agreed that a profession unfit for a Christian to practice was also unfit for him to teach, even if this was his sole means of support. Makes sense, right?

But that isn't the end of the story. Cyprian also told this church that they should be willing to support the actor financially if he had no other means of earning a living—just as they supported orphans, widows, and other needy persons. Going further, he wrote, “If your church is financially unable to support him, he may move over to us and here receive whatever he needs for food and clothing.” Cyprian and his church didn't even know this actor, yet they were willing to support him because of mercy. Friends, that’s committed love in action. It’s a story that reminds us that “in view of God’s mercy” can never simply mean holding to a moral standard that cost us nothing. For mercy cost God gave his own life.

2.    If you want to discern rightly, be a sober sinner.

In vs. 3, Paul argues that nothing is more detrimental to discernment or more toxic to helping others than an intoxicated self. Be sober, he warns. We need to learn from our AA friends. “Hi, my name is Jon and I’m an alcoholic.” They don’t say, “Hi, my name is Jon and Judy’s an alcoholic and so is Stan, Paul, Debbie and Claire.” It’s recognizing the problem that mercy lovingly uncovers in you not others. In Romans 2, Paul reminds, it’s God’s mercy that leads to repentance.

A second element of rightly discerning the Spirit is the sober reckoning of our own sinfulness. And a sober sinfulness is not self-loathing or self-hatred but the self-knowledge that much of the world’s tragedy and despair exists within me. That the villains of this world are rarely sinister people out to sow destruction but good people who refuse to acknowledge the darkness within, who refuse to see they’re complicity in harming others, who refuse to live by mercy and rather choose instruments of moralism, violence, and fear. Remember, the Paul who was persecuting Christians was deeply religious and he believed that he was acting rightly on behalf of God.

But being sober is also acknowledging that we must pay attention to the beauty and knowledge of our bodies which are “holy and pleasing to God.” If we are going “to test and approve what God’s will is” we must be particularly aware of our bodies, Paul says. We need to mindful that our bodies are spiritual and made for relationship with God: flesh longs for God (Ps. 63:1), can come to God (65:2), cry out for God (Ps. 84:2), and bless his holy name (Ps. 145:21). By choosing the metaphor of the body - "the body of Christ" - to describe themselves, early Christians acknowledged that it is through our bodies that we love and serve God and one another. Although early Christians sometimes seemed to mistrust the body, they never called themselves the spirit of Christ. I was recently in a meeting in which there was a sole woman pastor of color in what was mostly a group of white, male clergy. She stopped us at one point and said, “You guys are terribly good at saying what you think but you struggle to say how you feel and bring the wisdom of your body into the discussion. Women are better full-bodied thinkers.” As my faith has grown, I find myself paying greater attention to my body not less and in turn offering my body in worship to the Lord as a way of thinking, a way of perceiving the Spirit. Paul will literally say that doing so, at the end of vs. 1, is logical worship [λογικός which is the word for logical]. Friends, don’t be dumb. Be sober and pay attention to your body as a vehicle for faith and a source for discernment. Last week Pastor Mat reminded us that in Genesis, Jacob only seems to make the right choice when his limp is mentioned. Limping is our logical worship.

3.    If you want to discern rightly, don’t be a Rockette or Mr. Potato Head.

Paul draws a powerful analogy by likening the church to a body – which highlights the unity of the church and the diversity of members.

Some often chafe against such a body image of diverse parts by preferring an identity in which we stress uniformity and conformity. And so the church becomes like the Rockettes whereby everyone must look and sound alike – a sameness that cannot tolerate any difference. And Paul critiques this notion, that we should all be the same. We are many members, he argues. So a healthy church is one which displays such graceful diversity with a certain delight because it is not in our conformity that we are made into a body but through the love and mercy of Jesus Christ. He is the source who calls diverse individuals and gives us different grace gifts to serve one another. To discern rightly demands exploration and conversation with different voices and perspectives.

On the other hand, we find some who prize diversity and yet chafe against Paul’s claim that we should also embrace unity. These prefer a sense of individuality in which the church becomes a loose collection of people who do whatever they want without any claim upon each other. And so the church becomes like a Mr. Potato Head whereby we remove parts or limbs to suit our liking, our needs, our respectability. We can leave whenever for another limb will easily replace us. And Paul critiques this notion saying, “each member belongs to all the others.” So a healthy church is one which displays a shared, resolved oneness because it is not only in our diversity that we are the church but in our unwavering belief that Jesus brings us together as one. It means you hurt others and yourself if you leave.

Both correctives, find their center “in Christ” and “in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.” And that faith is not some individual belief but the gospel itself “the” faith, the shared belief that Jesus is Lord and saves us from our sins. And yet that same Jesus who makes us one through the faith chose tax collectors and fisherman, Roman soldiers, and Jewish terrorists, wealthy women and blind beggars, Democrats and Republicans, Blacks, Browns, and Whites, Jews and Gentiles, you and me. So which perspective might you need to repent of today. Have you maligned another believer and said that they don’t belong? Have you suggested that we have no center and have no claim on each other? You are not a Rockette or Mr. Potatohead – you are one body with diverse members.

“We are a body,” Paul declares, created in mercy, to act mercifully, to thinking mercifully – fully with our bodies and centered upon this (communion).