Living in the Spirit

August 21, 2020

Scripture Reading: Romans 12:1-8
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. 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.

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. For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.

Differentiating what is of the world from what is of God is the challenge in not conforming to the world. The wheat and the weeds do grow in the same field*. As a child going to the garden with my mother, I am sure I was carefully taught what was a weed to pull and what was a plant to nurture and allow to develop. I do not recall those lessons; I also do not remember being unable to differentiate between weeds and plants. Such experiences become a part of our being. What happens when what we learned was wrong or changed over time?

Constant work in the renewing of our minds is necessary to discern the will of God. That is complicated by our discerning what of the world is neutral to God and what is fundamentally different from God’s will. I do not believe God cares whether we dye our hair blue or wear sneakers to church or celebrate the Fourth of July. I do think God cares if any of our actions from the world grow into idol worship. And God cares if our actions denigrate any of God’s other children.

All of us, since birth, are subtly influenced by culturally differing statuses of the worth of other people. Such attitudes are so ingrained in our culture, we may not recognize them as separate from the will of God. Others learned direct discrimination. God calls us to love one another—all others and to appreciate them for their gifts just as they are–our brothers and sisters in Christ. We must dig deep into our beings and do the introspection necessary to cull out those weeds of bigotry that impact the fulfillment of God’s Kingdom becoming a reality in our world now.

Prayer: Lord, changing the way we have always perceived the world is hard work. Give us the courage and commitment to work this work in your name. Amen.

*See Matthew 13.

All scriptures .are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.