Our Spiritual Worship

As most of you know, I spent a major portion of my years in ordained ministry as a college chaplain.  Many of us who ministered on college and university campuses during the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s are now more-or-less retired but we still keep in touch whenever someone has a birthday.  This past week I received some emails in response to birthday wishes extended to some former colleagues.  Here is what two of them had to say:

“Ah, Yes --- the eighties.  At 84 I seemed to have begun a new ‘path’: left hip replacement, rehab unit, a troublesome toe operation, slightly elevated blood pressure, a creeping arthritis, and a total disruption of what ‘used to be’.  I guess the basic issue for us all is not what we USED to be but who and what we now are.  Doors to things past are shut, or are almost closed. I don't think I will own another car than the one I now have, and my working in my yard is more quickly tiring than before.  My eyesight is still o.k. and so is my basic sense of balance. Otherwise I am fit as a fiddle -- with a couple of broken strings.  My deep thanks to all of you who have been part of my life and work.  It has been a wonderful ride.”

Another writer said, “Yes, it has been quite a ride! I've had three hip replacements and a titanium plate in my leg.  I now have so much metal in me that I suspect I set off security alarms at the airport whenever I pull up to a terminal to unload.  But, like you, I still have my eye-sight, sense of balance (ably assisted by my cane), and my Aleve, which coaxes me out of bed every morning…. Life is very good --- even now!”

I share these stories because they are reminders about how we are related to one another and how we are interdependent persons.  St. Paul, in writing in his letter to the Romans says we are “to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.  This is our spiritual worship.”  A problem with Paul’s appeal is that it goes against and is in opposition to what our culture teaches us.  The focus of our culture is primarily on individualism and individual rights.

Earlier this year I was asked to present a reflection paper to a group of faculty and area clergy at Brown University.  The paper was about my years in campus ministry.  One of the topics I addressed concerned issues of ethics in medicine and in higher education.  I noted that the principle of autonomy or individual rights has been the basis for decisions and for adjudicating issues of justice.

I suggested that the emphasis on individual rights is inadequate.  It is inadequate for promoting true compassion and justice.  It suggests that "anything goes" and reflects a failure of Christian morality.  The bottom line is not rights, self-determination or autonomy.  We live in communities, families, churches, and neighborhoods.  As members of communities we have a claim on others, and others have a claim on us.  We have been made to participate in the life of community, and in the life of God. 

Marcus Borg, Professor of Religious Studies at Oregon State University, has said, “God is not a supernatural being off in the distance somewhere.  God, or the sacred, or the spirit, is the encompassing spirit all around us and within us.”

“The central claim is that the Christian life is about the opening of the heart to the reality of God.  Spirituality is for the hatching of the heart, the opening of the self at its deepest level to the sacred.... Spirituality is about becoming conscious of and intentional about a relationship with the sacred,… acting compassionately toward others.  Conscious and intentional because we are already in relationship with God.”

Relationships matter.  St. Paul reminds us that “as in one body we are 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.” 

The Dean of the Chapel at Duke University has commented, “One’s body, one’s whole self, is offered to God, which means this sacrifice is not just a mental exercise.  It involves the entire body of a community…. This is an indication of transformation – and of a lack of conformity to the world’s norm.  The one, holy, living body implies that people are inter-connected, forming a mutual web of loving sacrifice.  There is an ethical thrust embedded in this notion.”

St. Paul says, “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.”  Each of us possesses a gift, a talent or skill that contributes to the body of the community.  What you and I do in relation to our community here at All Saints’ matters greatly.  What we do is our offering to God, both as a single body and as a corporate body.  It has to do with our understanding of what it means to be “members one of another,” to be ministers of compassion and care for one another. And it has to do with our outreach and ministry to the wider community in Providence and beyond.

By the mercies of God may we always present ourselves as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.  This is our spiritual worship; it leads to transformation, the renewing of our hearts and minds in discerning God’s will for us right here in this community.  Amen.