Present Yourselves

This Sunday we are jumping forward in our journey through Romans. We'll be focussing in the weeks ahead on the final chapters of Paul's letter, chapters 12 to 16. Chapter 12 famously begins with the apostle's exhortation that his readers would "present themselves as a living sacrifice" to God. This idea encapsulates what it means to live in response to the Gospel. Unpacking all that, personally and as a community, will be our focus in the weeks ahead. I'm looking forward to learning together! 

What it looks like for you to present yourself to God reflects who He made you to be and your particular vocation. In all walks of life those in Christ present themselves to God. Yet, even as there is something personal and individual in this, Paul's language is remarkably corporate, as we'll see this Sunday. Your sacrificial worship to the Lord blesses others, and inspires and encourages their God-honoring presentation of themselves. 

This week our diocese will gather to mark the presentation of several individuals to the Lord, including our own Sarah Smith, new to our staff team, in the context of ordained service to the church. Ordination is a response to the Lord's grace in raising up particular people as servants in the church. For some, Sarah joyfully included, presenting themselves to God means the specific service of proclaiming the Gospel in Word and Sacrament that the whole body of Christ might itself be equipped to be a living sacrifice. Some are called to be priests, that the whole church of God might fulfill its priestly and sacrificial call. 

This Wednesday evening will be a joyful time of celebration and, we pray, will serve God's purposes in the lives of the newly ordained and the whole church. Even if you can't be a part of the service on Wednesday evening I want to ask you to be praying for Sarah, and the other ordinands, that the Holy Spirit might strengthen and grace them. Pray too, that the Spirit would empower us all to present ourselves to God, perhaps especially through this ordination service and the faithful work of Sarah and others as ministers in Christ's church, and be transformed in doing so. 

In Christ, 

Peter+