Sacrifice

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. (Romans 12:1)

O.K. Here is another trigger word that emerged to my attention. Sacrifice. I now realize that the connotations of this word in my mind, the assumptions that this word conjures up in my thinking and emotions are likely suspect at best and are probably misleading and keeping me from seeing clearly the real meaning of this verse.

As usual I feel the need to start out by flushing out the misconceptions associated with this word so I can unpack them and see some of the fallacy in them in order to make room for fresh insights and replacement truths to take their place.

Sacrifice has typically been associated in my mind with similar feelings as suffering. From a very early age I picked up from the religious people around me the idea that Christians must be suffering people or they are likely not good Christians. This word sacrifice is closely associated with that concept and was probably one of the ways in which we imposed suffering on ourselves as well as on our families.

I can also remember many discussions or teachings about sacrifice and the carefulness with which the teachers deeply embedded their beliefs about sacrifice. It always conveyed the idea of forcing yourself to give up something you liked or needed or cherished. The more important or valuable it was to you the more likely it might be a target of God's demand that you relinquish it for His sake.

Somehow it was implied that if we would be willing to sacrifice whatever was demanded of us that God might then bless us more or at least think better about us. It had the subtle flavor of trying to manipulate God to do something for us although that notion was vehemently denied and opposed in the open teaching sessions. But this was the common and accepted view of all ancient religions and still carries on predominantly today.

In reviewing the long history of sacrifices throughout the Old Testament it became apparently clear that God expected a great deal of blood, death and suffering to keep Him satisfied. Of course it was never put in those words but the effect of the stories had that net effect. Many religious stories, not only from the Bible but from many other sources stressed the centrality of the need for sacrifices as part of living the Christian life. It was emphasized repeatedly that without sacrifice – and the more the better – it was impossible to be a real Christian or to please God.

Implicit in the discussions about sacrifice was the need to give money to the church. To give to the church is synonymous with giving to God without question in most minds. Of course it could only be truly effective and valid as long as it was given to the right church, the denomination that had all the truth. Gifts given to other causes were somehow maybe a little less valuable. Or maybe that was just my own personal feelings that accumulated as I grew up.

Another aspect of sacrifices was the issues of giving up bad habits for God. One could not become a legitimate Christian unless they were baptized into the right church and kept the right set of rules and doctrines. But to join that church there was also a list of prerequisites that had to be met before a person could join (which was also synonymous with being saved). Sacrifices were necessary to become a part of the family of God and so each unacceptable bad habit had to be checked off before a person could be allowed into the baptismal tank and be approved and affirmed as a Christian in good standing. This is still pretty much the same situation today as when I was growing up.

In this context, the idea of sacrifice was similar to that of giving up money or time or being willing to be used or controlled by religious people who claimed to be wiser and more able to discern God's will. For new members sacrifice meant quitting smoking, abstinence from drinking alcohol and not living in immorality. There were many others things more detailed that might be imposed depending on the attitudes of local Christian activists. Some would even include refraining from eating any cheese or eggs, using any cooking oil and even removing salt from the diet. But these were extremes not usually encountered in most places.

I want to make it clear here that I am not condemning or condoning any of these beliefs or practices by listing them here. I am simply reviewing through my memories to see what comes up as associated with this word “sacrifice”. Some of these things I do not agree with and others I believe are important but maybe for very different reasons than how they were taught to me. But many of them are quite reflective of the distorted ideas about God that I have spent a number of years divesting myself of and that God has been working to remove. Many of these ideas perpetuate what is really a false god that many believe to be the God described in the Bible since that is where these ideas are justified from.

I do not want to imply that people who did these things were somehow evil or diabolical or bigoted, though some of them may very well have been. For me to judge them would be to give nourishment to the roots of bitterness that I want to be completely free from and so I don't want to go down that road anymore. But I do need to unmask some of the false notions and triggers associated with many religious words that still haunt me so that I can be free to see their true meaning in light of the real truths about God that I have been learning recently.

The purpose of sacrifices were always a little nebulous to me. Maybe they were supposed to keep one poor. Being poor somehow seemed to imply that one might be more likely to be holy that those who were rich. Of course poor and rich are relative terms and few people consider themselves rich though many who have less might think differently. As I mentioned above, another implied purpose – but not openly espoused – for sacrifices was to please God and cause Him to like us better or whatever we were trying to get Him to be. I guess to sum it up, sacrifices were mainly the function of depleting ourselves for the purpose of enriching the church and somehow spreading what was termed “the gospel” along with changing God's attitude toward us. (That word “gospel” is a whole other discussion of itself)

I would suppose after thinking about all of these things that the thing most often associated with the idea of sacrifice was money. It seemed to be the item most favored in expositions about sacrifice, though time and energy were not far behind. Many stories about sacrificing people like missionaries and other heroes of faith were constantly circulated as examples of what we should do with our lives and where we should invest our money. Again, I am not trying to denigrate the importance or legitimacy of the lives of many of these people. But what was sadly overlooked too many times was the hidden pain and tragic consequences – the collateral damage you might say – that was caused sometimes in the lives of children or wives that suffered neglect or even abuse under the cover of working hard to save the lost and achieve great accomplishments for God.

After reviewing this list of things that are linked to this word “sacrifice”, it is no wonder that I struggle to understand what Paul really was intending to convey when he made this statement to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice. If sacrifice means all of the things listed above, then it is very confusing what it might mean to offer our own physical bodies as such an offering to God. Unless of course, it is referring to martyrs who were willing to allow their bodies to be tortured and destroyed for the sake of their belief in God. But not too many of us are in that position or are even interested in having that opportunity.

So what does sacrifice really mean? I looked up the word in the Greek and it did not provide much help on this one. I suspect that the true meaning of sacrifice as heaven views it is going to have to come from larger resources than simply looking up human definitions for the word. For the definitions recorded in dictionaries only reflect the common beliefs that the majority of people have about a word but often may not reflect what God originally meant for the word to convey. In addition, God has had to “dumb down” all of His communications with humans to meet us where we are in our dullness and confused ideas about reality and often has to use terminology that is not as accurate as He would prefer. Then to add to that problem, religious people take the words that God used in the past and transforms them into even worse misconceptions about His intents based on centuries of false views of God.

I do not want to use this as an excuse for skepticism or to inflame feelings of resentment about past abuses and false religious ideas that have caused untold grief and pain in the lives of many. That would not serve the purpose that I want for my life now – to explore and discover the real truths about God and to reveal His wonderful goodness and beautiful truth. I only want to get everything out on the table, especially the false notions that are hiding in my own heart that often remain overlooked by my consciousness but continue to strongly affect my interpretations of life and influence my perceptions of God. It is precisely because these haunting feelings are so out of harmony with the glory that is now being revealed that I want to bring them to the light and expose and revise them as necessary.

"This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God." (John 3:19-21)

Father, I bring all these things to be examined by Your light. Please show me the real truth about this word that is used so much in religion. Show me what You really want and have always wanted. Show me the real truth about You so that I can see Your beauty and attractiveness more clearly and better reflect that to others in my own life.

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