40 Acts of Lent: Day 40 - Delivery

Act forty - Delivery by Michael O'Neill

Prepare to celebrate. You've done it, but He did it first.

"Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship." 

                                                                                                              Romans 12: 1 (NIV)

We started 40acts this year talking about "intentional, uncomfortable, inconvenient, radical, contagious, over-the-top, joyful, and - most importantly - Christ-like generosity."
What has that looked like for you?

Along the 40-day journey, it was my 10 year-old son who taught me that Christ-like generosity was a living sacrifice.
Declan and I were spending a Saturday together. He still loves spending time with me and we were both looking forward to our day: breakfast followed by a haircut, then off to a local shop with a table tennis table to play on for free.

A woman with clear physical and learning disabilities arrived seconds before us.
She wanted to play, then turned to Declan and asked if he would play with her. I knew that more than anything he'd been looking forward to his time with me and table tennis was high on his wish list.

I was unprepared for his response.

Without looking at me, he smiled, shrugged his shoulders, said "sure", and proceeded to the open table with her. Eileen had the use of one arm, so serving was a challenge. When she did connect with the ball, it was to send it flying across the room . . . over and over again.
As he smiled and faced his worthy opponent, Declan was a living sacrifice.

What comes in to your mind when you hear the word sacrifice?

For thousands of years, forgiveness of sin required a blood sacrifice – the killing of an animal. All that changed when Jesus sacrificed himself on the cross. The cross changed everything.

We hear fewer and fewer references to 'sin' in the West. It's a word that jars our sensibilities and disrupts our individualistic tendencies. We want to be tolerant of others and we want others to be tolerant of us, so we downplay sin, and by extension, the sacrifice that frees us from it.

Yesterday we observed Good Friday, the crucifixion of Jesus, the blood sacrifice that, once and for all, offers forgiveness of sin and delivers us back to God, the Father, reconciled.
It cost Jesus everything. It cost us nothing.
But with it, comes an invitation to be a living sacrifice. The Apostle Paul speaks of this in Romans 12 when he urges us to offer our bodies to others as a living sacrifice.

On behalf of the entire team, I would like to thank our writers - who often moved me to tears -for their vulnerability. And I would like to thank all of you who joined us from your phones, homes, classrooms, churches and offices for bringing life to Romans 12 this Lent.

Will you join me in being a living sacrifice and living lives of Christ-like generosity all year round?

Choose how to complete this act...

GREEN OPTION:
Spend five minutes reading Romans 12 today and be refreshed and re-inspired by the words.

YELLOW OPTION:
Think back over the last seven weeks.  What sacrifices have you made that could be repeated during this last day of 40acts in order to be generous to your neighbours?

RED OPTION:
What has your 40acts journey highlighted? Can you see patterns in the way you've used your time, talents and finances? What more could you do with them? Have you made temporary sacrifices in the last seven weeks that should become permanent?