Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship.
I choose this today from a random pack of palms cards on which were written, in English and some sort of Asian language, Biblical quotes. It struck me. No, I didn't start to sing 'Hallelujah' and 'Praise be to Jesus, Lord and God'. But I felt something upon reading the quote. Something about offering my physical body and, along side it, my mind as a living sacrifice to not-the-man-in-the-throne-in-the-sky 'God'. And this would be my spiritual act of worship. Hmmm, interesting. Feelings. I trust my feelings here so I'm looking into this passage a bit more.
I'm a bit unclear about the meaning of some of the words in this passage such as 'mercy', 'sacrifice', 'holy', 'spiritual', and 'worship'. These words mean something to me vaguely, but I do not really
feel. They do not clearly connect my thought processes with my feeling processes. As a whole they did. But as I dissected the passage each word became more ambigious.
Mercy, for instance, vaguely means to me... well I have an image of a judge in a court giving leniancy to a defendant. Doesn't really seem to fit into the context of this passage, for me at least. It means a few things. I find it difficult to narrow the meaning into just one, especially when the subject, God, is one that encompassed all and in which nothing is not. Thus I'm taking two definitions into one word: 1)Compassionate treatment, especially of those under one's power, and 2) A disposition to be kind and forgiving. God, as a supernatural being outside ourself - kind of like the-man/women/whatever-in-the-throne-in-the-sky - is regarded as treating his/her/its with compassion. The 2nd-person God. Thus, the first definition is covered. God, as the felt experience of such - kind of like Buddha, Jesus, Bubba Free John, or that feeling you have had in which it is difficult to explain but you felt it anyway - is regarded, by some, as being of a kind and forgiving disposition. The 1st-person God. Tick to the second.
Rewritten: '...in view of God's compassionate treatment and disposition to be kind and forgiving...'
Sacrifice, to me, vaguely means to kill something as a gift to another something. I have images of goats being sacrificed, and virgins. Its meaning is threefold, all of which are, I think, appropriate. 1) The act of offering something to a deity in propitiation or homage, 2) To forfeit (one thing) for another thing considered to be of greater value, and 3) To sell or give away at a loss. My initial vague associations to the word are appropriate though I'm missing out on so much! The first is appropriately associated with the 2nd-person God in the fashion of worshipping Dark Lords, Mother Gaia, or Father God. A sacrifice is given in respect. Two and three, however, fit in nicely as the 1st-person God experience. I give myself and what I hold dearly, my closest and most cherished beliefs, to gain much more. But, at first, it seems that I'm giving such away at a loss until there is the actual experience of one-with-all-and-nothing.
Thus: '...to offer your bodies as (a) living object in respect of God and a living forfeit of one thing for another and at a loss...'
Holy, to me, can be read as 'whole', as in being complete. In, however, the definitional sense it means, as I'm applying in the context: 1) Belonging to, derived from, or associated with a divine power; sacred, and 2) Regarded with or worthy of worship or veneration; revered. 2nd-person God in the first as 'your' body is derived from God. And in using the second definition the passage is saying that God regards our bodies worthy of worship. Cool! God worship us! That is something different, well for some people.
So: '...belonging to, derived from, or associated with divine power and regarded with or worthy of worship or veneration and pleasing to God...'
'Spiritual' I associate with new agey seekers out for the ultimate truth. There are other meanings that I am not aware of. Here: 1) Of, relating to, consisting of, or having the nature of spirit; not tangible or material, 2) Of, concerned with, or affecting the soul, and 3) of, relating to, or characteristic of sacred things, the Church, religion. It can also mean a line of development in one's personality - the 'spiritual aspect' of oneself. These meanings make it a bit difficult to fit into the picture.
Maybe: '... this is your not tangible or not material act of worship...' or '... this is your soul act of worship' or '...this is your sacred thing act of worship...' The second one feels appropriate to me. Here it is the soul which is acting to worship the body and the experience which parallels the body thus there is a shaking of identification with such experience.
'Worship' is, in my mind, bowing down to a Father God and giving thanks and praise and all that stuff. Other definitions include: 1)
The reverent love and devotion accorded a deity, an idol, or a sacred object, and 2) the ceremonies, prayers, or other religious forms by which this love is expressed. If an individual is praising God then there could possibly, more than likely, be a sort of reverential love for such deity. Ofcourse there is the whole praising for one's own purpose. Which doesn't matter because God is that anyway. He/she/it won't miss out on much.
Sooo: '...this is your spiritual act of reverential love and devotion accorded a deity.'
And altogether now: 'Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's compassionate treatment and disposition to be kind and forgiving to offer your bodies as (a) living object in respect of God and a living forfeit of one thing for another and sell or give away at a loss, belonging to, derived from, or associated with divine power and regarded with or worthy of worship or veneration and pleasing to God -this is your spiritual act of reverential love and devotion accorded a deity.'
Well that doesn't not read as well as the original does it? Not to me, nup. The means has been lost amongs the insertion of longer meanings that were meant to add clarity. Each word was made clearer though at a loss to the full impact of the phrase. It has now become a shadow of itself and upon reading the rewritten version I feel not what I felt before but rather confused and disconnected from the phrase.
I'll throw that all aside and stick to the original passage from which I felt a sense of 'aliveness' upon reading the passage, particular the 'living sacrifices' part. This is an interesting contradiction. As mentioned previously, in my mind sacrifices I equate - as does the definition - with the killing of a physical being, of an animal of some type, human or otherwise. Clearly I cannot be a living sacrifice. I cannot be alive and offer myself to God. Is there a contradiction there? Did the Bible writers miss this passage during their edits? Or did they feel something from it as well. Maybe, I'm not sure. But it was choosen as such. Could 'bodies' be refering to a group of people? Or could it mean the different bodies of our being - gross, subtle, and causal? If it is the latter then we can offer our bodies as a sacrifice to God, as a
living sacrifice. Not killing involved, no murder, not of you or me or any non-human animal. However, there is a killing of Self, of the bodies to which we identify with. Like ouch, ouch, ouch it hurts when he/she/it punches me stop punching me, stop it, stop it. What if I just move away? But he/she/it punched me and it hurts. He did, but he/she/it has stopped. Yeah, so but it hurts and he was punching me and it hurt. Okay, you see what if I sacrificed that body the emotional body to God. I'm letting go and I'm still alive and without pain of the punch. Booyeah!
