Romans 12:1-2 page 1

Many of you know the famous poem Footprints by Margaret Fishback Powers. It describes a man having a dream of walking along a beach with the Lord. Mostly he therefore sees two sets of footprints, but in other places he only sees one. He asks the Lord why he left him at that time but the Lord replies that this wasn't the case: where there was only one set of footprints the Lord was carrying the man.

For those of you who know this, here is an alternative. It's called 'Butt Prints In The Sand'. You can find it in various places on the Internet; I picked it up from a book called A Bucket Of Surprises by Mark Stibbe and J John.

One night I had a wondrous dream,
One set of footprints there was seen,
The footprints of my precious Lord,
But mine were not along the shore.

But then some stranger prints appeared,
And I asked the Lord, "What have we here?
Those prints are large and round and neat,
But Lord, they are too big for feet."

"My child," He said in sombre tones
"For miles I carried you alone.
Challenged you to walk in faith,
But you refused and made me wait.

"You disobeyed, you would not grow,
The walk of faith, you would not know,
So I got tired, I got fed up,
And there I dropped you on your butt.

"Because in life, there comes a time,
When one must fight, and one must climb,
When one must rise and take a stand,
Or leave their butt prints in the sand."

Today, at our annual Covenant Service, is one of those times when we promise to fight and climb, to take a stand. It's a time to renew our commitment. It's a challenge put powerfully to us by Paul in Romans 12:1-2:

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. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is— his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Sacrifices - that's what Paul calls it. Something we know less about than millions of our Christian sisters and brothers around the world. Sudan has been in the news over recent months due to the atrocities in the Darfur region, but as I never tire of telling people, the militant Sudanese government in Khartoum has been oppressing the Christians and the animists for over twenty years. In mountain regions the Christians are not allowed to have a church building. Therefore early on Sunday morning they spend hours to set up a temporary structure so that people may be in the shade. They hold their act of worship. Then they spend hours dismantling what they earlier erected. And that is just to have Sunday worship. Never mind risking their lives by not embracing Sharia law.

Today I want us to think about the kind of sacrifices Paul urges us to make. I suggest to you a slight rewording of the English translation. Not 'living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God' - but 'sacrifices, living, holy and pleasing to God'. All those three adjectives - living, holy and pleasing describe the sacrifices he calls us to make as Christians.

Which conveniently gives us three points. I won't say "Let's examine them"; I will say, "Let's allow them to examine us."

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