An Antidote to Chaos - A Reflection on Romans 12:1-2

I was in fourth grade when our stable, Christian, home descended into chaos.  Alcohol, abuse, and adultery swirled together in a toxic cocktail that not only tore our family apart but threatened to divide the church where mom and dad were both influential leaders.  My parent’s divorce and subsequent remarriages, negotiating relationships with step siblings, and even remaining physically safe became a slow-moving crisis of faith for me.  If God was not interested or able to provide stability, safety, or reconciliation for our family, as pious and sincere about faith as any person I knew, why should God be relevant to any part of my life?  

Years later, as I rediscovered the beauty of a life with God, I would have seen stability and the antidote to chaos in a passage like Romans 12.  

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. 2Do 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.

In those days I would have appreciated teaching and reflection on this passage that focused on 'living sacrifice' and 'renewing of your minds' parts. Presenting our bodies is often understood as working against our bodily desires, especially sexual desires, and the renewing of our minds is usually understood as learning theology.  I wouldn’t have seen it at the time, but my appreciation for this understanding would have included a belief that my family’s decent into chaos was the result parents’ poor choices about what they did with their bodies.  Even if I’d not articulated it out loud, a part of me would have thought, “if only my parents had devoted more of their ‘minds, hearts, and hands’ to God, our lives would have been different… better.” 

This way of thinking is observable in parts of the church to this day.  I recently read a church leader describe drugs, alcohol, sexual immorality, and addictive consumption as the, “big sins” in our culture.  He seems to believe, like I did, that if only we offer our mind, heart, and hands to God, then we will know and do “what is good, acceptable, and perfect.” (One does have to ask where this idea of “big” and “little” sins comes from, and why these and not arguably much darker stains like racism, economic exploitation, or human trafficking don’t make the list.).

This analysis may have some merit.  To this day I believe that life with God, in Christ, by the Spirit, is the best possible life.  And I believe in daily practices of individual and corporate worship and devotion.  I think these are really valuable in cultivating habits that help us truly live.  That said, I don’t think this has anything to do with what Paul is saying in Romans 12.  

In context the part about living sacrifice draws on a reframing of Jewish worship.  Paul has just spent three chapters discussing the challenge that unbelieving Israel poses to the community of Jesus the messiah.  His argument is complex, but at its heart is an appeal to the community of Jesus to look for and long for God’s re-integrative work within which Jews and Gentiles together will worship the one true God.  As Paul picks up the language of a living sacrifice, he is saying that the worshipping community is the living sacrifice which is holy and acceptable to God. 

This means that individuals can participate in the ‘presenting of our bodies’ and in ‘renewing our minds,’ but that these are primarily communal activities.  It isn’t my abstinence or theological reflection as an individual that’s in view.  Paul is calling the community of faith to be together as one, diverse and yet united, body, demonstrating worship in acts of humble service.  (See verses 3-8 as a development of this thought.). 

How is this good news for my fourth-grade self, or even my young adult self?  One way is that it removes the myth (a Western not biblical myth) of the ‘self-made’ woman or man of virtue.  My parents descended into darkness, not because they didn’t try hard enough, but because of the combination of woundedness and coping strategies each brought into their marriage.  When alcohol, sexual desirability, and intimidation are the tools you bring into a marriage, they will assert themselves.  The solution is not to simply ask individuals to work harder and be more moral, it is to create a new community, the “new family of Jesus,” as my friend Rich Villodas calls it, where followers of Jesus can learn the way of love. 

How has this passage been applied or thought about in your communities?  What emerges for you as you consider these words today?