Don't Try This Alone

In Romans 12, Paul reminds us that the Christian life is not a solo sport. In the wake of the 2024 election, we need to remember that we are one body made up of many different parts. We can't amputate the members of the body who voted differently from us. We are all in this together.

Scripture reading by Bill Eddy.

Sermon by Rev. Beth Demme
For more information, visit www.graymumc.org

Transcript

Bill Eddy (00:01):

Lord, open our hearts and minds by the power of your Holy Spirit that as the scriptures are read and your word proclaimed, we may hear with joy what you have to say with us today. Amen. Today's scripture reading is from Romans chapter 12 verses one through 21. I appeal to you therefore brothers and sisters, on the basis of God's mercy to present your bodies as a living sacrifice wholly and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable act of worship. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind so that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect for by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you, do not think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but think with sober judgment each according to the measure of faith God has assigned.
(00:49)
For. As in one body, we have many members and not all the members have the same function. So we who are many are one body in Christ and individually we're members of one another. We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, prophecy and proportion to face ministry and ministering the teacher in teaching the encourager and encouragement the giver in sincerity, the leader in diligence, the compassionate and cheerfulness that love, be genuine, hate what is evil. Hold fast to what is good. Love one another with mutual affection. Outdo one another in showing honor, did not lag in zeal. Be ardent in the spirit. Serve the Lord, rejoice in hope, be patient in affliction, persevere in prayer, contribute to the needs of saints. Pursue hospitality to strangers. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.
(01:49)
Live in harmony with one another. Do not be arrogant, but associate with a lowly. Do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil with evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible so far as it depends on you, live peaceable with all. Beloved, never avenge yourself, but leave room for the wrath of God. For it is written, vengeance is mine. I will repay as the Lord. Instead, if your enemies are hungry, feed them. If they are thirsty, give them something to drink for. By doing this, you heap burning coals on their head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good dear. Against the reading, Pastor Beth (02:31):

May God add a blessing to the reading, hearing, and understanding of this scripture. Amen. On April 26th, 2003, Aaron Ralston, an experienced hiker was exploring this canyon, blue John Canyon in Utah, part of Canyon Lands National Park. Blue John Canyon is one of these slot canyons. It's one of these really deep, deep canyons with high walls that form in areas that have soft rock like sandstone or limestone, and over time, big periods of time, eons and epics of time, water erodes the rock away and carves out these narrow passageways, some of which are only inches wide. These canyons are remarkable because the walls are pretty smooth and they're curved, and the erosion reveals these beautiful layers of color that have developed over time eon by eon, and there are some slot canyons that are accessible for folks who just want to photograph natural wonder. And then there are some like blue John that really only the most experienced hikers and canyon years should try to tackle.
(03:45)
These are places that they can go for adventure for a challenge. So Aaron Ralston was an experienced hiker. He got into hiking and canyoneering in his late twenties. He had been working as a mechanical engineer, but he was just deeply unsatisfied with his life, so he quit his job. He moved to Colorado and he set a goal for himself that he was going to climb all 59 of the mountains in Colorado that are taller than 14,000 feet, 14,000 feet. That's like more than two and a half miles up into the sky, and he was making good progress on it. In 2003, he and two of his friends, they were in the back country skiing in Colorado. It was actually a search and rescue volunteer group, and they were out doing some training and because of a decision he made, he and two of his friends got caught in a grade five avalanche and just like a hurricane can't be stronger than a category five.
(04:49)
The biggest avalanches in Colorado are grade five avalanches. It was a big one. Ralston and his friends, they were rescued. They made it out alive, but neither of those two friends ever spoke to him again. He had taken unnecessary risks, not only with his life but with their life. Less than a month after surviving the grade five avalanche, Ralston decided that he would head over to Utah and he would explore some canyons, right? He's going to kind of clear his mind from everything that had happened, so he drove his truck to Horseshoe Canyon to the trail head. On Friday night, April 25th, he slept in his truck overnight. The next morning he got on his bike and he rode 15 miles to a trail that would give him access to the fork in blue John Canyon that he wanted to start at. He was so overconfident, so solo, adventure minded, such an I've got this thinker that he didn't even bother to tell anyone where he was going to be hiking.
(05:54)
He planned to be in and out the same day. What could go wrong? I mean, he had just survived an avalanche. How hard could this be? Right? Well, five or six hours into his exploration of the canyon, he was making his way down a 10 foot drop when an 800 pound boulder that he had passed a few minutes earlier shifted. This boulder had not moved in at least a thousand years, but that day it rolled and it dropped, and he couldn't pull both hands out of the way in time, and it crushed his right hand, not only destroying the hand but pinning him, trapping him between the boulder and the wall of the canyon. And once that initial adrenaline push stopped coursing through his body and he could think clearly, he surveyed the situation, took stock of his options. He had two burritos, one liter of water and a candy bar wrapper that still had some crumbs in it.
(06:55)
He thought maybe somebody will come along this trail and they'll see me or they'll hear me and they can call for help and get me out of here. But no one came that night. He transitioned to plan B. He got on his multi-tool and he started trying to chip away at the boulder, but that didn't work. He couldn't chip away enough to make a difference. By Sunday, more than 24 hours in the canyon trapped under that boulder. He moved to plan C. He tried to rig up ropes to hoist the boulder off of his hand to no avail. When he couldn't budge the boulder, he went back to chipping away at it. I mean, honestly, what else could he do right on Tuesday, having survived for three days trapped by the boulder, he ran out of water. It was incredible. He had been able to make that one liter of water last for that many days, but now it was all gone and he was at risk of dying by dehydration, it started to dawn on him that he was in fact going to die in that canyon unless he could somehow some way cut off his own hand.
(08:18)
He carved the words, good luck now into the boulder and then I'll spare you the gory details. But it took him more than a day to cut and break and separate himself more than a day to amputate his own hand and get free from the boulder. After doing that, he still had to repel 60 feet down to the floor of Blue John Canyon and then hike five miles to Horseshoe Canyon. Eventually 127 hours after getting trapped by the boulder, that's more than five days, he was rescued by and flown to Moab, Utah for medical treatment. He survived and the story went viral, the old fashioned way, right? Newspaper articles and magazine articles, and he was on the morning news shows and then he wrote a book, and then they made a movie about his ordeal and his survival and they called it 127 hours because that's how long he was trapped.
(09:20)
Everyone celebrated and still celebrates his survival instinct, his courage. He really did something remarkable in the face of death. I'm glad he survived, but I think there's another lesson in Aaron Ralston's story. Ralston's experience is a dramatic illustration in how dangerous self-sufficiency can be. Self-sufficiency taken too far, can isolate us and expose us to danger, and his unyielding desire to handle things alone made him vulnerable and almost cost him his life. It's an incredible reminder that we are not meant to navigate life alone, especially life's dangers and hardships. Isolation is risky. Isolation leads to death. Community is a source of life. That's the heart of the Apostle Paul's message for us in our reading today from Romans, just as Aaron Ralston learned painfully that he could not conquer nature alone, Paul urges us not to try to live our faith alone. Ralston's experience can speak to us as a kind of a parable.
(10:46)
Aaron Ralston didn't need more courage or more strength. He needed other people. He discovered the limits of going at it alone, and the same thing will happen to us if we try to go at the Christian life alone. Our scripture reading today reminds us that a life of faith is designed to be lived together. It's in community that we find things like safety and strength and the power to endure, but it is also in community that we are transformed. Being a Christ follower is not a solo sport. The first 21 verses of Romans 12 are reading today has more than 30 imperatives, directives, commands telling us how to exist in the world as Christians. They're not suggestions for Christian life. These are directives for how we are to live out our faith in Jesus Christ, and the verbs are plural. In other words, Paul doesn't say, I appeal to you individually, therefore brothers and sisters on the basis of God's mercy to present your bodies.
(12:01)
No, no. What Paul is saying here is I appeal to y'all, all y'all on the basis of God's mercy to present y'all's bodies as a living sacrifice wholly and acceptable to God. Bodies plural. This is not about each one of us individually living sacrificially. No. Paul envisions a whole community giving itself to God in service and love all y'all. He says, imagine what that looks like. A body made of many parts each distinct, yet unified in purpose, unified in serving God. When we hear Paul saying, all y'all, how does that change how we understand the demands of the Christian life? What does it mean to rejoice together, mourn together, live at peace together? These aren't instructions we just carry out in our minds. These aren't things we can do alone. These commands are meant to shape our actions and our life in community.
(13:16)
In a week that highlighted our differences, we might be tempted to hold back, to withdraw into camps and opinions to say, I don't want to be part of a body with members like that. Whatever that is for you. I have to confess to you that I've been tempted to do that this week. As I think about the commercials that led up to the election, I think in particular about the one that said there was a candidate who was for they them, and there was a candidate who was for you, and maybe in the wake of the election you're like, yeah, I don't want to be part of a body or have members of my body that are for they them, or maybe you are struggling to be part of a body that would reject someone who is for they them. Whichever side you fall on, our scripture reading today has something to say to you.
(14:20)
The Apostle Paul has something to say to you. God's story is for us all and we are meant to participate together. Together we step into a divine narrative that calls us to embody mercy, justice and love as a community, not just as isolated individuals. And I admit this is hard to put into practice when unity feels so elusive, but the Bible doesn't give us a pass just because it's hard. Paul says, keep at it. Y'all keep at it. Paul says, y'all don't be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of y'all's minds so that y'all may discern what is the will of God. See, the invitation here is collective transformation doesn't happen in a vacuum. Transformation does not happen when we isolate ourselves. It happens as we gather and share and pray and challenge and encourage one another. Our faith is something we work out in real time and in relationship. To experience true transformation, we need each other left to ourselves. We're likely to just gravitate to what feels comfortable toward what seems easy. But within a community, we find voices that stretch us, perspectives that expand us, and relationships that refine us. Our transformation requires an openness to people who see things differently. Our transformation requires an openness to relationships that can be complicated.
(16:17)
We're called to build a community where each person can bring their true self into the shared space of grace so that together we can reflect more fully the breadth and beauty of God. Paul says, y'all need to let your love be genuine. Y'all got to hate what is evil. Y'all must love one another with mutual affection Together. Y'all got to find a way to rejoice in hope, be patient in affliction and persevere in prayer, y'all, he says, all y'all, you got to contribute to the needs of others and pursue hospitality to strangers. Paul says, y'all know what you need to do.
(17:00)
Paul knows this isn't something we can do alone. We participate in God's mission. We live out our faith. We follow Christ together. The mission of the United Methodist Church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. Romans 12 reminds us that being a Christian is not a solo sport. We will not make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world if we act alone. This is not the kind of thing you can do in your own self-sufficiency. Once we are transformed by God's love and God's presence, when our hearts and minds are changed, then we are empowered to contribute to the transformation of the world. Our personal transformation is like a drop in the pond. One drop falls and it makes ripples, right? One drop can make some ripples, but what happens when there are a lot of drops making a lot of ripples?
(18:08)
More and more ripples of change when we make ripples together, God widens the circles of faith so that more and more of the pond, more and more of the world is transformed by the power of God's love and the ripples of other people's transformation bump into and intersect with our ripples, and we end up changing each other. We end up making life even better. Following Christ is not a solo sport, not a solo endeavor. Paul directs a lot of commands at all. Y'all meaning us, the church Christians throughout time because he understands that we are in this together and it's too big. It's too important a mission to try to go it alone. These commands aren't suggestions. They're pressing calls to action, urging us to live out our faith actively and with deep commitment.
(19:13)
That is always true. Even in the days and weeks following a contentious national election, some of you are quite happy with the results of the election. Some of you are feeling joy and hope, and some are feeling frustration and concern. It has been, and I think it will continue to be an emotional whirlwind. So we gather today coming from different perspectives and different experiences and different feelings about the outcome of this week's election. But here in the heart of Romans 12, Paul's words to call us to something greater than any election, bigger than any political party. Paul calls us into God's story, a story written for us to live out together. We have an opportunity to step into this story that God is writing the ripples of how God is at work in our life, the ripples of how God is transforming us. They will intersect with and join with the ripples of how God is changing.
(20:21)
The person sitting next to you in the pew or standing next to you in line at Publix or waiting next to you at the red light. All of these ripples will come together. This life of faith, this journey of transformation is something we pursue together, and in fact, we can't truly live it out in isolation. We're called to belong to one another, to live and love and change together. Maybe that sounds lovely to you or maybe not. Maybe you're thinking, I can't do it, pastor. I can't be in community with somebody who voted for so and so. They obviously don't see the world the way I do, right? That's kind of the point. They don't see the world the way you do, and that's a gift. If you're feeling that way this morning, you just can't do it. Paul has a word for you. Unity is not the same as uniformity. Paul describes a body with many members, and he acknowledges not all the members of the body have the same function. Not all the members of the body have the same purpose or the same way of operating in the world. Who are you tempted to avoid right now? Who does it feel hard to love in this post-election reality?
(21:52)
Paul's reminder is that the body of Christ doesn't cut itself off. We need each other even across cultural and human divides. Paul speaks of diverse gifts and unique callings. He talks about the ways each part of the body is valued and is necessary. Paul shows us that diversity is even in disagreement. Our strength. Diversity is not a threat to our unity. It is part of what makes us part of God's story. God through Paul invites us to love one another across differences with humility and with grace. Paul says, y'all are to bless those who persecute you. Y'all are to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. Y'all don't repay evil with evil. Paul says, y'all are Jesus followers. So you got to live peaceably with all. Y'all got to be a source of levelheadedness and the peace of God and the love of God in your community.
(23:04)
But to live in peace doesn't mean we all have to think the same way. It means we honor one another even in disagreement. It means that we continue to work together for the common good, holding each other in prayer and choosing again and again to stand in love. Our unity is a testament to God's grace. A reminder that the kingdom of God does not depend on any human system like Wayne put on the sign this week. No matter who is President, Jesus is king. The kingdom of God isn't based in or dependent on human systems. It is in that divine love that transcends all human divisions. Those who seek to divide us would do well to remember that we would do well to remember that perhaps after a divisive, divisive, divisive, perhaps after an election more than at any other time. We need to remember that we don't live out the Christian life alone. We don't do it in a silo where one body, a body with many members, and our transformation unfolds in community, in our togetherness.
(24:28)
We may feel like there is a part of our body that is trapped, weighed down by heavy burdens. A boulder, if you will, but guess what? But can't amputate it and just keep going. Aaron Ralston was trapped and had to make painful choices, and maybe you're feeling trapped by the division in our country. But severing ourselves from one another is not the answer. No matter how you personally voted, please remember that if you voted for the party and the positions that won, you can't cut off the people who voted the other way. If you voted for the party and the positions that didn't prevail, you can't cut off the people who voted the other way. Instead of cutting people out of our lives, we need to be listening to each other. Living as one body means listening, first, learning each other's fears and hopes, and finding ways to support the flourishing of all people, of God's children.
(25:34)
It means taking these plural commands from the apostle Paul seriously and seeing ourselves as inextricably linked. It means holding space for others' journeys, even when we think they're headed in the wrong direction. We're in this messy community together, and God works in and through this messy community to make disciples of Jesus Christ. For the transformation of the world, one drop of transformation makes some ripples, but when we are each transformed, when we each step into this story of to transformation, the whole pond is changed. Imagine what our community could look like if we all committed to making ripples of compassion and justice, ripples of hope for those who are hurting. What would it mean for each of us to reflect God's love in the places and spaces we each inhabit? When we embrace the work of being transformed together, God's love spreads far beyond us.
(26:44)
So friends, let's allow God to renew our minds and our hearts so that we seek a unity that embraces diversity. May we find strength in knowing this is not a solo sport. We walk this path together. We step into God's story of love, justice, and hope, not as individuals, but as members of a family of faith. This week, we can practice patience and kindness, even hospitality with those who struggle to understand, we can make ripples of transformation together. Stepping into God's story as one body, reaching out to all, and just like water, drop by drop has the power to smooth and shape the walls of a canyon, so to our lives, transformed by God, create ripples that can reshape the world around us. Each act of love, each moment of grace, each choice for peace is another drop. Creating another ripple and carving out new paths and softening even the hardest places. Together. Together we become part of the current, steady, relentless, full of hope, bringing life and change to the landscape of our world. This is not a solo sport. We step into God's story together. Amen. Let's stay.