In Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, we find out early on that the answer to life, the universe and everything is 42. It took Adams five books in the increasingly inaccurately named trilogy to come up with the question to the answer.
Last week, Paul gave us an answer of our own: offer your bodies as a living sacrifice as your true and proper worship. But if that’s the answer, what’s the question? How do we actually live that out?
This week, Paul gives us the question: What does a living sacrifice actually look like?
In 13 short verses, Paul gives us the steps to get to the answer. He echoes the Beatitudes. He turns much of the Sermon on the Mount into bullet points. He shows us the ideal behavior we should aspire to. Paul’s directions are actually easy to follow, while we are in this sanctuary; his ways are easy to attain, until we tumble out of bed tomorrow — to work 9 to 5.
Paul tells us to practice humility and empathy, to live in a way that fosters peace. To give grace. When we do this, we offer ourselves to God as a living sacrifice. Asked and answered.
You may remember Dr. Mackew from last week. He was my Russian professor who showed me grace when I desperately needed it. He had received grace from one of his professors half a century earlier, and somehow that grace made its way to me.
Well, there is one more chapter to that story.
On the second day of the second semester of the second year, the department head came into our classroom and solemnly announced, “Dr. Mackew is having an emergency appendectomy right now. We don’t know if he is going to make it.” He continued, “Come back on Monday and I will share what we will do going forward.”
Friends, the thought of Dr. Mackew having emergency surgery was scary.
I was scared all right.
I was scared of three semesters of Russian “studies” going to waste. I was scared of two years of French staring me in the face.
I was thinking of myself. I couldn’t help it.
The following Monday, the department head introduced us to Father Ted, a Polish priest who would continue our class. We all got along well. Dr. Mackew recovered after eight weeks, and on Father Ted’s last day with us, he announced how proud he was of everybody and their grade. He told us everybody earned an ‘A’ except me; I earned a ‘B’. But since I worked so hard, he gave me an ‘A’ too!
Dr. Mackew came back for the final six weeks, looking a little thinner, but obviously happy to be back in the classroom. He greeted us with a smile and the common hello, “zdravstvuyte”. He was happy see the grades from Father Ted: “A”, “A”, “A”. Until he got to mine. “Mr. Crofman got an ‘A’? These grades are all bad! I throw them all away!”
And he did! We started our semester grades from scratch for the last six weeks. I continued appearing in class and doing my homework, and, as you know, Dr. Mackew gave me my “D” at the end of the semester. I got my degree.
What happens when grace has been given to us, but we don’t know how to respond?
When we discover that receiving grace doesn’t automatically make us graceful people?
How do we learn to respond? Paul says, be transformed.
Paul said in last week’s passage, “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the will of God.”
We often think discerning God’s will means figuring out what God wants us to do before we do it. But Paul seems to turn that around. As God transforms us, we begin to see what God’s will looks like in our everyday lives.
Paul has spent the first eleven chapters showing us the grace God has given us. Now he shows us what that grace looks like when it moves through us toward other people by our transformation.
This is what our response to God’s grace looks like in today’s passage: [SLIDE]
- Rejoice with those who rejoice.
- Mourn with those who mourn.
- Live in harmony with one another.
- Don’t repay evil for evil.
- Bless those who hurt you.
- Feed your enemy when he’s hungry.
- Don’t be overcome by evil; overcome evil with good.
Like I said, the Beatitudes in bullet points.
Jesus had already been teaching his disciples something very similar.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
That’s a lot harder than “love your neighbor.”
Anybody can love a neighbor who loves them back.
Jesus asks us to love the person who doesn’t.
Jesus says, “Pray for those who persecute you.”
Paul echoes, “Bless those who persecute you.”
Jesus says, “Turn the other cheek.”
Paul says, “Don’t repay anyone evil for evil.”
Different words. Same directions.
· I get along great with my neighbor Pete. We constantly do things for each other.
· But Jesus wants me to love the guy who drove in front of me during my run last Sunday and parked where I was running, and then added a commentary about where I was supposed to go. Jesus wants me to turn the other cheek.
o It took me a couple adrenaline-filled miles to come close to meeting Jesus’ expectations.
· Michael Brewer realized he was supposed to love the reckless guy who totaled his Hyundai Ioniq.
o He told us it took him too much time to give grace.
Grace received should also become grace given.
That’s what Paul is asking of us when we give ourselves as living sacrifices.
And I saw that pattern in my own story with Dr. Mackew:
1. Mr. Mackew’s professor showed him grace, 50 years earlier.
a. Grace received.
2. Dr. Mackew showed me grace.
a. Grace passed along.
3. My reaction to his operation showed that I didn’t deserve his grace.
a. When the department head announced Dr. Mackew’s emergency appendectomy, my first thought wasn’t:
i. “Oh no! Is Dr. Mackew going to survive?”
b. It was:
i. “Oh no! What happens to my Russian grade?”
I was given a “D” in Russian and an “F” in giving grace. But I received grace. I passed. I graduated. I was thankful.
Paul’s whole passage is about what grace looks like when it moves outward toward other people.
Yet Dr. Mackew’s appendectomy story introduces the uncomfortable truth:
Receiving grace doesn’t automatically make us graceful people.
I certainly failed:
· Did I mourn with those who were mourning? No.
· Did I follow the Golden Rule as Jesus taught us? Nyet.
· Did I outdo one another in showing honor? Not that day.
· Was I a light to the world through my good deeds? Definitely not in my Russian class.
I had received grace. I just wasn’t very graceful when it was my turn to give it.
But that’s the point of grace.
We give grace because Christ first gave grace to us. The cross is the ultimate reminder that God’s grace was never something we earned. And God’s Spirit is still transforming us.
· So this week, when somebody parks in your way… Live graciously.
· When somebody wrecks your car… Live graciously.
· When somebody needs more grace than you think they deserve… Live graciously.
That’s what it means to offer ourselves as living sacrifices.
That’s how grace received becomes grace given. The question and the answer.
Receiving grace doesn’t automatically make us graceful people. But it should.
To the Lord our God, Alpha and Omega, beginning and end, be all glory and honor forever.
