We don’t offer animals on altars, but the Christian life is more sacrificial than the ancient Jews’, not less. For us, the world is a temple, our lives a continuous offering, our actions moments of a daily liturgy. Paul’s rapid-fire series of instructions in today’s New Testament reading (Romans 12) is not a random list of moralisms. It’s a description of the new covenant sacrificial system, Leviticus redux.
We don’t offer whole-burnt ascension offerings. We are whole-burnt offerings as we discover and use the Spirit’s gifts to benefit the body. Can you teach? Teach. Can you serve? Serve. Can you give? Give, and so offer your bodies as living sacrifice.
We don’t perform sin offerings; we abhor evil, and cling to good. We don’t offer incense; we rejoice in hope and pray. No more peace offerings; rather, we give to the saints and practice hospitality. No more blood and slaughter at church; instead, we bless when others curse, rejoice with the joyful, weep with those who mourning, and refrain from vengeance to leave room for the perfect vengeance of God.
These are the steps of our daily liturgical dance, which is the dance of discipleship. Pattern your time so you can perform this liturgy; nurture these habits in the power of the Spirit; and offer all of it as living sacrifice to God.
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