When my children were young, they loved doing the Hokey Pokey. They could it all day! You know, that song and dance that tells us to put our left arm or right leg or some other part of our body into the circle, out of the circle, into the circle, shake it all about, and then “turn yourself around.” It’s an active and sometimes tiring little exercise that ends with the command, “You put your whole self in…”

In Romans 12, this is what Paul says is the appropriate response to all that God has done through Jesus for us. “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.” To “offer your bodies” is Paul’s way of saying, “put your whole self in.”

In Romans, as in all of his letters, Paul concludes with a list of practical outcomes that are based on the doctrines he had discussed. In the Christian life, doctrine and duty go together - that is, what we believe helps us to determine how we behave. What we think impacts what we do. Paul stresses to the Christians in Rome and to us today, in these last few chapters, the importance of presenting our whole selves to be transformed by God and working to find our place in God’s community.

This week we consider the call to action for the church in the present age, presented in Romans 12. It starts by showing up. It continues by trying to wrap our minds around the issues of our world and the holiness of God’s will for us in it. And it leads us into being the body of Christ - becoming love for each other.