Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Romans 11:33 – 12:8
August 23, 2026
Today’s epistle from Romans 12 does not speak merely of faith, but of the fruits of faith. These fruits, such as love, joy, peace, unity, patience, and others, also include the fruit of what is called mortification. We sing in the famous hymn, “Let us ever walk with Jesus,” the phrase, “Let us mortify all passion, that would lead us into sin,” it seems to echo Paul’s words. To mortify means to crush, to humiliate, even put to death, and St. Paul emphasizes the Lord’s call to His people to crush or put to death the passions and desires of the flesh.
Yet, Paul does this in a way quite different than in his other epistles. The call of God to put to death in us our sinful passions and desires is found throughout the epistles, and throughout the whole Scripture in fact, but here, Paul says something quite unique. That we are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice.
We could offer our bodies up as objects of lust and sexual sins as, sadly, many do in our world today. Many Christians leave the church because they’d much rather offer up their bodies to adulterous acts and fornications rather than to the Lord. We could offer our bodies up as objects of idolatry and self-worship. We see this fastly-growing trend among young men today where body building and the pursuit of the perfect physique take over the heart and mind. It’s not enough to be healthy, no, but we must be god-like in how we look.
We could certainly offer up our bodies in the pursuit of fame, of money, of vice or addiction, the pursuit of great knowledge. Solomon, in his wisdom, provides a whole book listing the various things he offered himself to, only to discover that these things failed him time after time. There are just so many things to which we can offer ourselves, to which we can sacrifice ourselves and many, many people do.
The ancient Didache, a 1st century catechism that I’ve mentioned before, says that there are two ways, the way of life and the way of death, and that there is no middle ground between them. The way of death will always be what happens when you give yourself over to the way of sin, the devil, and the world, and the way of life when you give yourself over to the Lord of life.
But who wants to suffer as a sacrifice, living or otherwise? Did the lambs and birds in ancient times look forward to their slaughter? No. Even so, we are called to be living sacrifices. Even our Lord Christ, on the night He was betrayed, took time to pray to His Father that the cup pass from Him. Death is not pretty, and even sacrificial death, dying on the cross, feeling the pain and torture of whip and nail, was not something the Lord of Life looked forward to.
Nonetheless, living sacrifices we must be. Certainly, we need not die because Christ has died. Yet, we do die, and we die every day. We die to sin. We die to the Law, those righteous demands and requirements which we cannot perfectly keep. And we die to the world. But in this way, we live.
For, to die to sin means that we live for Christ. To die to the Law means that we live free, and to die to the world means that we live in a new and eternal kingdom.
To be a living sacrifice means to be clothed in the righteousness of Christ and to learn to follow His example. And what example does our Lord set for us? One of humility, of meekness, of exemplary faith, of submission to God in all things, and of loving service to the neighbor.
We need not contend with hell any longer. Hell and damnation is out of the conversation for we who have been made alive by the Spirit, who have been reborn by water and the Spirit. Therefore, the pursuit of holiness isn’t about fleeing from hell but about realizing more and more what it is to live in the kingdom of heaven, that we should daily learn dependency on our Lord’s sacrifice because we still sin much.
As we learn dependency, we learn humility, and as we learn humility, we learn gratitude, and as we learn gratitude, we learn servitude, that our lives are not lived for ourselves, for selfish gain or pursuit, but lived for others.
Our Lord beseeches us, He beckons us, appeals to us…but He doesn’t command us…to live our lives in such a way, and it is only by His mercies that we have access to such living. Only because we are new people, washed by water and the Word, are we no longer constrained by the Law. Only because we have renounced our old Adam and his control over us can we receive our Lord’s admonition and correction and appeals with joy and humbleness. Only because Christ has died for us on the cross can we live for one another.
The Spirit of life who dwells in and among us brings to life in us a new person who is full of the good fruits of heaven. He desires to follow God’s Law, not from threat, but from joyful duty. This fire kindled in each of us by the Spirit of Christ urges us on as righteous soldiers who march headlong into the world with the love of God in hand and the Gospel on our lips.
All Christians, all believers possess Christ. Some have more faith than others and some have faith which is hardly a flicker, but we all possess Christ and this brings comfort to the weak and strong alike.
And the Lord equips each of us with many gracious and worthwhile gifts and each of us receives such gifts for use in His kingdom. God gives some the gift of preaching, others serving, others teaching, others exhorting and correcting, still others He gives the gift of generosity, of leadership, of mercy, and many other gifts to be sure. He gives these gifts to His church to be used for His church and to bring the Gospel to the lost.
And whether our faith be simple or bold, weak or strong, we each possess the Spirit, and because the Spirit, we also possess His gifts.
But our minds get clouded and our hearts get distracted and charmed by the world and the sinful flesh. The old and drowned Adam finds his way back up from the deep and wants his throne back. And he doesn’t make it easy to say no.
You see, this living sacrifice stuff, this spiritual act of worship stuff isn’t easy, is it? We have a really tough time making the connection between the Christian life and a life of sacrifice. To call suffering a good thing just does not make any sense to us. “Doesn’t God want us to be happy and to live our best lives?” we ask. But does the Lord EVER promise such things? No. And we don’t get that. We do not naturally embrace cross-theology, sacrifice-theology; it’s not in our nature. We have a tough time understanding Jesus’ sacrifice, but then to fully grasp God’s call of being living sacrifices…it’s hard.
But with the help of the Holy Spirit and the company of God’s holy saints of past and present, fellowshipping together before Word and Sacrament, we start to get a glimpse of the true reality of the faith. We discover a joy in confessing Christ even though it often brings hardship and pain. We find it joyful because we know it is bringing light to darkness and freedom to slavery and life from death.
And the gates of hell cannot stand against even the simplest of confessions. See, the world does not consider suffering and mortification of the flesh as progress or growth. The world sees it as foolish, a waste of resources, a backward way of living. For the world, life is all about advancement and money and climbing the ladder of success and status. But for the Christian such things are vanity, a “chasing after the wind” because they gain us nothing where it matters most, in the kingdom of God.
The world will never get this; we struggle with this reality. But does our Lord not teach this in the Beatitudes, the “Blessed be’s”? Blessed be the meek – not the proud, not the competitor, not the popular, but the meek. Blessed be the poor in spirit, not the rich in possessions, not the builders of many barns to fill with wealth, but the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn, not the party animals, not the revelers, not those who celebrate this world’s successes, but the mournful. Blessed are those who suffer for the name of Christ, for theirs is the kingdom.
For the Christian, life is about service, and what the world considers foolish, the Christian holds in highest esteem and considers it more precious than anything. For the Christian, poorness is greater than wealth; being despised is greater than being accepted; being a fool to the world is greater than being wise by its standards; dying to sin and the world is greater than living according to its lies; dying and being with Christ is better than life. We might be wealthy or successful in this life, but we would never trade our Lord in just to be wealthy or successful.
These are concepts we do not fully understand, and yet it is what our Lord has, in His great mercy, called us and made us to be. This faith He has afforded us, made us alive by new way of living, a way marked with humble repentance, joyful faith, and willing sacrifice. Imperfect in humility and joy and faith and sacrifice, yes. But wrapped in Christ and His perfect life, death, resurrection, and ascension, just the same. Heaven is ours, not because we are perfect living sacrifices, not because we worship super spiritually, not because we are completely transformed in mind and heart, but because Christ is righteous and perfect for us. Clothed in Him, He makes us, reforms us, transforms us each day, each moment, into the children God calls us to be, and it will take a lifetime to get there.
But in the life to come, we will look back and laugh at the silly things we held in such high esteem, and we will thank and praise our God and Savior for loving us and serving us and saving us, even when our greatest weaknesses prevailed in this life. Amen.
