DIFFERING GIFTS, ONE SPIRIT

But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into Him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love. Eph. 4, 15-16.

            Little did I know that when, several weeks ago,  I chose this text for this Sunday, it would be in honor of Associate Pastor Paul, whose ligaments need to be joined and knit together in order to promote the body’s growth! We will keep dear Paul in our prayers!

            I stand before you today on this Ordination and Installation Sunday, to speak a good word for the church! The church as the Body of Christ on earth, as often called it, despite all its shortcomings and divisions and theological differences and accents.

            Speaking of differences, I owe it to Eileen McAvoy, and the forwarding thoughtfulness of Betty Berghaus, that there appeared on my computer screen recently an item entitled “Church Squirrels.” It seems there were five country churches in a small Texas town: the Presbyterian Church, the Baptist Church, the Methodist Church, the Catholic Church, and the Jewish Synagogue. Each church and synagogue was overrun with pesky squirrels. One day, THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH called a meeting to decide what to do about the squirrels. After much prayer and consideration they determined that the squirrels were predestined to be there and they shouldn’t interfere with God’s divine will. In THE BAPTIST CHURCH the squirrels had taken up habitation in the baptistery. The deacons met and decided to put a cover on the baptistery and drown the squirrels in it. The squirrels escaped somehow and there were twice as many there the next week. THE METHODIST CHURCH got together and decided that they were not in a position to harm any of God’s creation. So, they humanely trapped the Squirrels and set them free a few miles outside of town. Three days later the squirrels were back. THE CATHOLIC CHURCH came up with a great idea.  They baptized the squirrels and registered them as members of the church. Now they only see them on Christmas and Easter. Not much was heard about the Jewish Synagogue, but they took one squirrel and had a short service with him called circumcision and they haven’t seen a squirrel on the property since.

            It is altogether fitting, I think, to have fun and travel lightly with the various denominations and segments of God’s people on this earth, and for each one to wear lightly the major theological thrusts that mark us from one another. However, despite all its faults and foibles, within the pages of Scripture the church has a serious and determining role to play in God’s purpose for this world.

            I’d like, on this Sunday when we give importance to the place of lay leadership in the church and the gifts God has given to each member and particularly elected officer, to lift up one remarkable aspect of the church’s life on earth, its provision simultaneously for individuality and community. This is a strength that deserves more acclaim. In the church, the “I” and the “We” are joined. In the church, the individual is not negated in the interest of community, neither is community ignored in the interest of the individual.

            The dominant image that brings the two together is the image of the church as the Body of Christ. Paul talks of this at length in his Corinthian and Ephesian letters. Unaware, perhaps, each time we speak of being “members” of a church we are drawing on this figure. Many members of a body, but a single body; differing gifts and functions to different parts, but one Spirit. This is the church as it was meant to be.

            Come closer. IN THE CHURCH THE INDIVIDUAL IS NOT NEGATED IN THE INTEREST OF COMMUNITY. Persons matter in the church. Every person matters. As with the body, each member has a function to perform, a service to render, a gift to use and develop for the good of all.

            Each of us is a gifted person. The Greek word “charis” means “gift.” So in NT parlance we are all charismatic. In the economy of God, within the church every Christian has a charisma. It is regrettable that this word has come to mean those folks who like to participate in a whoop-de-do kind of service. Each has a gift with which to serve all the other members as an agent or an instrument of Christ. Every member is gifted. We are not interchangeable like drops of water in bucket, or like grains of sand on a beach. Each is unique and special. If you are not doing your thing, your thing won’t be, can’t be, shouldn’t be done. That’s how much you mean to the whole.

            The companion truth is that COMMUNITY IS NOT IGNORED IN THE CHURCH IN THE INTEREST OF THE INDIVIDUAL. Solitary Christianity is a contradiction in terms. An arm is really not an arm, except in relation to a body. In fact, any member which is severed from the body becomes grotesque. What is a part except as it helps comprise the whole?

            Now you can go a lot of ways with this truth. Let me say that I find it a FREEING thought and concept. I don’t have to represent the wholeness of the church. I don’t have to allow the church to be miniaturized in me. That would be too heavy. Who could bear the strain? I do my part but I need not function as the whole, or even represent the whole. I do not have to be it all, say it all, do it all, know it all. Which is to say that there is no such thing as a complete Christian. WHOLENESS IS IN THE BODY, NOT IN ANY OF ITS PARTS.

            That is what Paul is getting at in that rather cumbersomely expressed passage in Ephesians.  “…We are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body… as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.” The wholeness is in the body, not in you or me.

            This is important because every so often along our Christian way we feel impelled to become the well-rounded Christian. The grass always looks greener on the other person’s hill. I wish I had his concern for the homeless. I wish I had her concern for teaching. I wish I had his capacity to intellectually express the faith. I wish I had her love for the music of the church.  I wish I had his concern for congregational care. Far be it from me to deny your need to move into new frontiers. But there is something very beautiful about a congregation, a Session, and Board of Deacons, in which it is understood that each of us, by doing his or her thing, frees up the rest to do their thing.

            I am not at all sure that a congregation of completely rounded people would be exciting. I rather enjoy what I call the “Christian contention for priorities” in the church. I like those who teach and relate to our youth to think the whole church turns on youth ministry. I like people who teach little kids and adults to think that everything revolves around Christian education. I like people who are concerned about our witness in downtown Durham or rural Mexico to feel that mission is what we are all about. I like those involved in our music ministry to say praising God in song and spirit is important enough to do every Sunday.

            To assume that anyone could embrace and homogenize all of these concerns is to assume too much. I like that line from The Lady’s Not For Burning, where Margaret, who is irrepressible throughout the play says, “One day I shall burst my bud of calm, and blossom into hysteria.”  A few people blossoming into hysteria are a good thing for the church. “We are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head, into Christ, …from whom the whole body… when each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.”

            As we mature in the faith, dear friends, we learn more and more to appreciate and live as part of the wonderful wholeness of the church. Westminster Presbyterian Church is the great church it is today because for 32 years one man loved and served this church, and gave himself for it. In time, there will be another person who will love and serve this church as its leader. What they both want is for us to make use of our gifts and talents in our love for the church.

Many members, one body. Differing gifts, one Spirit. This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. Christ loves the church and gave Himself for it.  He invites us to love it too.