In my Acts to Revelation class we are finishing Romans. While we were reading it we were divided into house churches and every person had to come up with a new first century persona in the church so that we could have a better understanding of how to read Romans and what the people who read it first would have been thinking. I was Kalandia, a slave with a background in worshiping Athena and Artemis. This was my personal response to Romans 12 (about being living sacrifices to God and how to live and love people both in and outside the church). I kinda like it.
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This idea of being a "living sacrifice" is very strange. From what I understand, our sacrifices are supposed to be killed, cut, and their blood used however a ritual requires. I thought "gods" wanted blood, or that the death was the major element. To make the sacrifice ourselves and make the sacrifice about how we live is completely different from what I am used to: it is a whole new way of thinking. I did not know that we could sacrifice ourselves while we were alive and have it still be a meaningful sacrifice (besides denial of some sort, but that does not seem as dramatic as killing a sacrificial animal), or pleasing to the god we are sacrificing ourselves to. The only way I can make that make sense is to think that while we are alive, God can work through us. If we die, we die; our lives on earth are over and we can no longer do all these good works that Paul encourages us to do. Maybe these good works are what is pleasing to God, more so than a bloody sacrifice that really seems to be of no use. A sacrificed animal is a ceremony that is focused on giving something to a god, and then after the sacrifice a person just lives for themselves until the next sacrifice. Now that I think about it, a "living sacrifice" in which we sacrifice our own wills to take on the will of God, to act with His Spirit and do His will, that seems to be much more meaningful and long-lasting than the usual sacrifice.
Wow, now that really makes Paul's advice on how to live seem much more significant: these works are our sacrifice to God! Instead of sacrificing an animal and performing a ritual, we live our daily lives sacrificing ourselves to God in order to do His "pleasing and perfect will". That is actually probably harder than the usual sacrifice, and maybe that is why Paul says we will struggle so much with sin, because we need to sacrifice our bodies to the will of God instead of to our own selfish urges. A sacrifice is a giving up of something, so doing the will of God is giving up our flesh, which will be hard while we are still living in it. But that must be where the true worship lies: in giving up what we have every day. As a slave I am no stranger to giving myself up to the will of someone else, but I always thought of it as simply doing my duty. Now I see that giving myself up to God is denying my own flesh and proving my love for God is more than my love for myself, and I can see how that would be a much more pleasing sacrifice than a bloody animal.
*****************
This idea of being a "living sacrifice" is very strange. From what I understand, our sacrifices are supposed to be killed, cut, and their blood used however a ritual requires. I thought "gods" wanted blood, or that the death was the major element. To make the sacrifice ourselves and make the sacrifice about how we live is completely different from what I am used to: it is a whole new way of thinking. I did not know that we could sacrifice ourselves while we were alive and have it still be a meaningful sacrifice (besides denial of some sort, but that does not seem as dramatic as killing a sacrificial animal), or pleasing to the god we are sacrificing ourselves to. The only way I can make that make sense is to think that while we are alive, God can work through us. If we die, we die; our lives on earth are over and we can no longer do all these good works that Paul encourages us to do. Maybe these good works are what is pleasing to God, more so than a bloody sacrifice that really seems to be of no use. A sacrificed animal is a ceremony that is focused on giving something to a god, and then after the sacrifice a person just lives for themselves until the next sacrifice. Now that I think about it, a "living sacrifice" in which we sacrifice our own wills to take on the will of God, to act with His Spirit and do His will, that seems to be much more meaningful and long-lasting than the usual sacrifice.
Wow, now that really makes Paul's advice on how to live seem much more significant: these works are our sacrifice to God! Instead of sacrificing an animal and performing a ritual, we live our daily lives sacrificing ourselves to God in order to do His "pleasing and perfect will". That is actually probably harder than the usual sacrifice, and maybe that is why Paul says we will struggle so much with sin, because we need to sacrifice our bodies to the will of God instead of to our own selfish urges. A sacrifice is a giving up of something, so doing the will of God is giving up our flesh, which will be hard while we are still living in it. But that must be where the true worship lies: in giving up what we have every day. As a slave I am no stranger to giving myself up to the will of someone else, but I always thought of it as simply doing my duty. Now I see that giving myself up to God is denying my own flesh and proving my love for God is more than my love for myself, and I can see how that would be a much more pleasing sacrifice than a bloody animal.
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