“Gifted by the Spirit for the Common Good” (1 Corinthians 12:3b-13)

A friend shared with me her commitment to remember, at the end of the day, three things she was thankful for.  It included the loopy flight of a yellow warbler, the sound of silence, the crack of a baseball bat, and ice cream.  But for the most part the list was about people and relationships---a sister or nephew, the stranger on the airplane who shared their story and asked for prayers, the book study group at church, the neighbor across the street who helps shovel the snow, the grocery store clerk with a great sense of humor, and her best friend with whom she can be her real self and not fear abandonment.

 

I don’t think this comes as a surprise.  If you and I were marooned on an island, what would help make the experience more bearable beyond a food source and clean drinking water and perhaps a shade tree?  We’d probably long for someone to lean on—to talk to—to be hopeful with, right?

A few years ago Tom Hanks starred in the movie Cast Away in which his character survives a plane wreck on an uninhabited island.  A few FedEx packages survive the crash as well—producing volleyball.  Hank’s character suffers a bloody hand wound which he uses to make a handprint on the volleyball, and adds a face and a name—Wilson.  Wilson becomes his friend, someone he can talk to.

Friendship is also one of the topics of conversation in the book Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes.  Cervantes introduces us to four main characters; two are human—Don Quixote and his squire Sancho.  And two are not human—Don Quixote’s skinny horse Rocinante and the donkey Dapple. Rocinante the skinny horse and Dapple the sturdy and reliable donkey are dedicated friends.  At one point in the book the author Cervantes describes their relationship this way:  These two friends “used to approach and rub each other, most lovingly, and after they’d rested and refreshed themselves, Rocinante would lay his neck across Dapple’s-- it would extend almost half a meter on the other side---and staring intently at the ground, the two of them could stand this way for three days or, at least, for as long as they were permitted to do so or were not compelled by hunger to look for food.”

In his telling, Cervantes is offering humanity wisdom to live by as he invites humanity to consider for themselves such dedicated friendship.  Cervantes writes, “I say, then, that…we can infer, to widespread admiration, how deep the friendship of these two peaceable animals must have been, to the shame of human beings who do not know how to maintain their friendships.”

Cervantes was on to something when he wrote Don Quixote—humanity struggles to maintain friendships.

In recent years, a west coast architect by the name of Ross Chapin has discovered great success in his Pocket Neighborhood building projects. Observing that so much of our struggles in society (depression, loneliness, latent human growth and development, communication, crime) stem from our tendency to distance ourselves from one another, Chapin builds not one home, but a cluster of homes centered around a commons area where people can meet and greet.  Every home owner is responsible for the commons area, both the grass and the building, as well as their smaller, manageable property.

Every home has a front porch with wide benches for sitting--which Chapin considers to be another room of the house.   Garages are tucked in the back of the development, encouraging persons to walk by their neighbors on the way to their own front door.  His Pocket Neighborhoods have waiting lists for persons who want to live with other people in such a supportive, interactive setting. 

When it comes to figuring out how to be fully human, American author Henry Miller said, “Develop an interest in life as you see it; the people, things, literature, music - the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people. Forget yourself.”

This is also the same quest of the religion scholar who approached Jesus asking Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life (which means fully human)—and Jesus answers: ²⁷ “That you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence—and that you love your neighbor as well as you do yourself.”  For Jesus the depth and breadth of our human experience is directly related to the quality of our relationship with God and others. 

Maturity is not about being able to stand on our own two feet, it’s about being a part of the whole—God, neighbor--- with new understanding.    As Dairmuid O’Murchu observes in his book In the Beginning Was the Spirit, “Belonging is the defining element in this new understanding.  We become who we are---and what our potential makes possible—through our ability to belong.”

Did any of you read the letters to the editor in the Billings Gazette this morning around the NDO?  The story that touched my heart was the one offered by the director of Tumbleweed—our program that addresses the needs of our troubled teenagers.  “We see so many teenagers who, upon sharing with their families their sexual orientation, are expelled from their homes, from their families.” 

I ask you, how are these children supposed to thrive?  Who can they be apart from the family nucleus that nurtures them and gives them security?  Community, beloved community, life-giving community!

We shouldn’t be surprised, then, that belonging and flourishing is the role of the SPIRIT.  In our lesson today from 1 Corinthians the Apostle Paul teaches the Corinthian congregation about Spirit and community.   It’s cutting edge. 

 

First, whatever insight you and I have about God is a gift of the SPIRIT and not our own doing.  What might the invitation be for us here today?  I think it’s simple:  we stand amazed.  And we see ourselves as we really are—acted upon.

Second, God’s gifts originate in the Spirit, are carried out everywhere, and are expressed in a variety of ways. What might the invitation here be for us today?  One might be that we let God surprise us—for us to be open—instead of certain, and closed.

Third, the gifts we’ve been given tell us who God is and not the other way around.  The invitation here is for us to offer devotion TO GOD, instead of asking God to be devoted to us.  By devotion I mean to truly appreciate God for who God us; to love.

Fourth, no one has all of the gifts.  What might the invitation here be for us today?  It might be to do the work to create healthy community where everyone belongs and flourishes—to respect one another—because we are better together.

And that, we understand, is by design.

And that takes us back to Don Quixote and Rocinante the horse and Dapple the donkey standing there in the field, heart to heart, for days. . . or at least until they need to eat.

As we grow in our understanding that we are better together, that we are fulfilled through belonging—what are ways we can defy the odds that we might not be so good at friendship…and redefine community, including our family, our neighborhood, our church, and our town?

What could we share?  What do we have that might be given away?

What effort do we need to make to understand one another—be it a class on listening, or on prejudices, or a retreat on understanding diversity?

Who is lonely?  Can we create some time for them?  If I am lonely, can I create time for God? 

Finally, as Christ asks us, could we figure out what we need—and then do it for someone else?

Mother Teresa once said, “If we have no peace it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.”

 

Let us Pray: Our neighbors are made from the same earth, breathing the same air, held in the same hand, part of the same body, whose health is our health, in whose suffering we have a share, and whose joy, more than we may imagine, is ours to share.   May we fall in love with community—your gift to us—that we might taste and see that you are good.  Amen.

(This sermon was preached on June 8, 2014 by Reverend Dana Keener at Central Christian Church in Billings, Montana.)_

“The Argument of Giftedness” (I Corinthians 12:1-13)

“For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body

—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—

and we were all given one Spirit to drink.”

(I Corinthians 12:13, NIV)

What does it take to be a people of faith?  One biblical commentator, Valerie Nicolet-Anderson, stated, “The more I read the letters to the Corinthians, the more I appreciate the courage and boldness of this community as they wrestled with what it meant to be people of faith.”   Apparently it took a lot in the beginning of the movement of Christian faith, and it still takes a lot today as it was a bold new relationship with God and others that blew apart all of the mores of the times then and now.  Faith is a challenging and tough task when it comes to living up to the desires of God as exemplified by Jesus.

Thus it is that we are gathered together this morning to celebrate the birth of the Christian movement . . . or, as some would say, the birth of the “church”.  We are here to celebrate that day of Pentecost when God bestowed the blessing of the Spirit upon the people . . . the day in which God placed a blessing upon the children . . . the day that God raised the bar on what it meant to be a person of faith.   The day that God affirmed all of creation and stamped it as being good . . . all of us.

Now I do not want to spend a whole bunch of time going over the actual events that took place at that first Pentecost . . . the rushing wind, the dancing flames of fire, the ability to understand other language—the pure ecstasy of it all—because we already know that.  I think that what is more important is that this coronation was bestowed upon everyone . . . that God intended that this be for everyone.  Again, as you recall the story you will remember that there were people from all over the world gathered . . . people of many different races and colors and languages . . . people of different economic statuses . . . men, women, free people, slaves.  There was no division, no separation on God’s part of who was and was not invited to the coronation—everyone was included.  Everyone.

Everyone was invited to the party just as they were.  Most of us, in our personal theologies—our understanding of God, affirm that each of us is a unique and special creation in the image of God.  We affirm that we are all different and that we all have our own gifts.  We are similar in our love for God . . . our love for others; yet, we are all unique and different in what we bring to the party.  Just as it was at that first Pentecost, so it is today.

That is not so easy to accept.  It was not easy to accept then, nor is it easy to accept today.  Oh, we pay a lot of lip service to the idea of accepting everyone for whoever he or she is, but we are not very good at putting it into practice.  And, the reason why is simple enough . . . we want everyone to be exactly alike.  We want uniformity . . . we want conformity.  Uniformity and conformity cannot happen if everyone does his or her own thing . . . no, that is chaos—or what we think is chaos.  Thus it is that the biblical commentator I quoted earlier appreciated the courage and boldness of those early followers of Jesus to wrestle with what it meant to be a people of faith.

Our reading this morning speaks of the variety of gifts that the Spirit exposes in the faithful . . . and, there are a variety of gifts.  It almost seems that with each individual there is a unique gifts—the writer basically rattles off the most common ones while acknowledging that there are as many gifts as there are stars in the heavens.  Plus, the writer affirms that each and every gift—no matter how big or small—is necessary . . . necessary to the body of Christ . . . necessary for the church.  Together they represent the presence of Jesus in the world.  And, it takes each and every one of these individuals and gifts.

But we are human in nature.  As humans we have a tendency to divide, separate, and assign value to people, places, and things in our lives.  With that ability we rank things as to their importance to us as individuals and as a society.  Those with the most value are the things that we prize the most, use the most, and ultimately think that everyone else should too.  Those that fall way down the list towards the bottom of value . . . well, let us just say that those experience a whole different world.  They are forgotten or ignored, and if they cannot be forgotten or ignored they are ridiculed, abused, or denied.  We all do it . . . from the cars that we drive to the food that we eat to the people that we associate with.

Yet, as a society and as a people of faith we proclaim that all are equal . . . all are valued . . . all are wanted . . . and, that all are necessary.  As I said earlier, we put a lot of lip service into what we say while the reality is far, far from what we proclaim.  Therein lies the struggle that the earlier commentator was appreciating in the early followers of Jesus . . . it is tough living up to this coronation—this blessing—flung upon us in the form of the Spirit.  It brings up that argument of giftedness.

For the past couple of years my role at the university has been to provide professional development to teachers.  Professional development is training in the many facets of education . . . math, English, reading, technology, special education, history, Indian Education for All, and even gifted and talented.  There is a lot of areas in which professional development can be offered, but the two that surprised me the most were the Indian Education for All and the gifted and talented.  The state of Montana—through the laws it has passed—gives to schools direct and indirect funding to provide education and educational opportunities in those two areas.  Just like there is a lot of funding going into the special education programs of all the schools in the state. 

Now, I can understand the Indian Education for All . . . we are a state that is smack dab in the middle of the historical lands of many Native American cultures.  These cultures are a big part of who we are as Montanans . . . then and now.  These cultures should be acknowledge as being just as important and vital as the cultures any of us have grown up in . . . they are a part of who we are.  To ignore this part of who we are as the children of God is to ignore nearly ten percent of the whole body.  It is just sad that it took a constitutional law to mandate this acknowledgement.

The one that I did not quite understand, at least when I started my job as a professional development provider for educators, was the gifted and talented.  I wasn’t quite sure why this small group of students was being pulled out and given special consideration and funding.  I mean, come on, these are the smart kids . . . the kids that zip through the curriculum and get all the exceptional grades and academic awards . . . the kids who get all the scholarships.  I thought that this was a waste of time and money to provide special programs and methods of teaching to a select group of students.  Wouldn’t this funding be better spent in another area like special education?  These kids are already ahead of everyone else.

But, that sort of thinking is human nature at work.  It is pushing for uniformity and conformity . . . a “one size fits all” mentality.  This sort of thinking does not take into consideration the uniqueness of these individuals and the gifts that they bring to the party.  This sort of thinking does not affirm the contribution that these individuals bring to the party.  This sort of thinking does not acknowledge them as a part of the body of Christ . . . acknowledge them as being a part of who we are.

Man, was I wrong.  Terribly wrong.

The writer this morning is telling us that we can never be the body of Jesus in the world if we cannot learn how to embrace the uniqueness and differences in one another that are truly gifts that we have been blessed with by God.  The writer is telling us that we are “one body” when we are put together . . . telling us that it does not matter who we are—rich, poor, black or white, educated or uneducated, male or female, we are one together and nothing apart in the eyes and heart of God.  When it comes to giftedness in the eyes and heart of God there is no argument . . . it takes us all to be what God desires. 

The hymn echoes . . . we are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord.  Someone once said, “Unity, not unvarying uniformity, is the law of God in the world of grace . . .” 

What does it take to be a people of faith?  Unity in love . . . which is hard, hard work.  I appreciate that we continue to work on it each and every day.  Amen.  

“Discipleship: Christ Is Found in Humility” (John 13:1-17)

In the song, “Chain of Grace,” Disciple pastor and musician Randy Mark Miles tells the story about a time when he needed help early in his ministry.  The years after seminary were difficult—the small church he served in Indiana didn’t offer a salary that met the denomination’s guidelines, he was paying back student loans, and he and his wife were starting their family.  He was grateful that the call had come to serve a larger church in Texas, but when he looked at the old car and the trailer, well, he wondered if it would make the trip.

He was right to be concerned.  Five miles outside of town the trailer broke down.  At least the trailer broke down in front of a house, which Randy approached.  Much to his amazement it was the home of a former Disciple of Christ pastor he had lost track of. 

What was this Disciple pastor doing for fun in retirement?  He and his son had started a trailer repair business.  They fixed the trailer and told Randy a little story about how this very same thing had happened to him and his family years ago.  “So the way to repay ME,” said the retired pastor to Randy, “Is to help someone else when you are able.”

As Christians we understand that Jesus is in the helping business; the servant business.  One of the stories we cherish is the story of Jesus washing the Disciples’ feet and drying them with his apron, found in John 13:1-17.  Peter is alarmed!  The Master serving the students?  That’s unheard of and he didn’t want any part of it.  “You’re not going to wash my feet—ever!” he says to Jesus. 

Jesus responds to Peter, saying, “Do you understand what I have done to
you? You address me as ‘Teacher’ and ‘Master,’ and rightly so. That is what I am. So if I, the Master and Teacher, washed your feet, you must now wash each other’s feet. I’ve laid down a pattern for you. What I’ve done, you do. I’m only pointing out the obvious. A servant is not ranked above his master; an employee doesn’t give orders to the employer. If you understand what I’m telling you, act like it—and live a blessed life.”

The way Jesus models for how we are to be with each other in John’s gospel is the chain of grace Randy Mark Miles sings about—how we are all caught up in the REALITY of how things are with God—we all have abilities and inabilities—we all have something to GIVE—and we all need to be given UNTO. 

But it’s not easy to see, or even accept.  A lot of folk I know really prefer to be self-sufficient—the only person we plan on trusting is ME.

A blog post I ran across offers this definition of self-sufficiency, “But self-sufficiency is the (mistaken and self-destructive) belief that I am ultimately an island, that I can go my own way with little more than passing reference to others.”

If you think about it, self-sufficiency is the opposite of faith.  The self-sufficient person is closed to the idea that he or she needs help from someone else, even God.  There are no requests for help, and therefore no experience of love. 

            

Jesus expands on this understanding in Luke Chapter 7.  Jesus is eating at the home of a religious leader when a woman of the village came with a bottle of very expensive perfume and stood at his feet, weeping, raining tears on his feet, drying his feet with her hair and anointing them with perfume.  Jesus considers her actions to be impressive.  Jesus’ dining companions are disgusted.

“Simon,” Jesus says to Peter, “I have a question for you.  Two men were in debt to a banker.  One owed five hundred silver pieces, the other fifty.  Neither of them could pay up, and so the banker canceled both debts.  Which of the two would be more grateful?”

 

Simon answered, “I suppose the one who was forgiven the most.  If the forgiveness is minimal, the gratitude is minimal.”  What Jesus is talking about is awareness—awareness of God, of God’s authority, of God as the source of all life, of God as PROVIDER.  The woman is extravagant towards Jesus because she has reached BEYOND  herself for help and discovered that Jesus is there ABLE TO HELP.  She understands the power in the relationship—she doesn’t help Jesus—Jesus helps her.  By allowing herself to be helped she has experienced just how wonderful Jesus is.

 

Because she asked, she saw.  Another way to understand this is to say that the woman was open to the gift hopelessness wanted to give her, which was GOD. 

 

“Help,” reminds Anne Lamott in her book HELP THANKS WOW, “is a wonderful prayer.  We release ourselves from the absolute craziness of trying to be our own—or other people’s –higher powers.”

 

The men at the dinner table, on the other hand, have not asked God for help and experienced God’s grace.  How does Jesus know?  Because they are not extravagant towards Jesus…if they knew who he was and what he was already doing…they’d be on their knees as well.  Their self-sufficiency was evident.  It would be their undoing.  How do you trust a God you’ve never met?  How do you love a God whom you’ve never seen at work?

 

It’s all about the knees.

 

Faith is all about the knees.  Real, honest to God I’m getting on YOUR TRAIN, GOD, FAITH.

 

Jesus is all about the knees.

 

Prayer—which is listening to God.

Service to others---for Jesus, feeding, healing, teaching, restoring people to community—for the retired Disciple of Christ pastor, fixing a trailer hitch and getting a young couple a little further down.

That takes us to Jesus’ story about the fat camel that can’t squeeze through the eye of the needle.  When there’s a whole of ME, there’s little room for God and God’s kingdom.  The only way to enter the relationship is through weight loss; getting tired of “ME.”

Peter writes a LOT about humility because it’s the one virtue that opens the door to our experience of God.  But how do we understand humility?  It’s not belittling ourselves, thinking we are nothing.  Jesus’ life, his LIGHT, shows us the exact opposite—a human life has so much potential!  Humility is all about authority, who we’re listening to. 

As Jesus said we cannot serve two masters—and we have choices. 

As much as we hate to admit it, a lot of the time who we are serving is our SELF.  Who we trust is our SELF. How do we know we are there?  I think there are several signs:

1.   Our prayer life exists in telling God what to do.

2.   Our prayer life is dead—there’s no time set aside to give God our undivided attention—there’s no cry for “help”.

3.   We are more interested in creating an image that we want our neighbors to see than embracing ourselves as we really are—strong and weak, gifted and challenged—in need of many things that only God and community can give.

4.   When we cannot connect with our neighbor’s  needs and feelings—we prefer to find fault—to distance ourselves.

5.   When our knees never hit the ground.

HUMILITY, WE SEE, IS THE ABILITY TO LAY OURSELF DOWN BY ASKING FOR HELP—AND WAIT IN THE QUIET ON GOD’S WATCH—AND LOOK FOR GOD TO PICK US UP.  When we run out of our SELF we run into GOD.

HUMILITY IS also the ability to share liberally what we have been given to share by God because God is the source of our talents—and God is all about renewable energy.

My favorite verse in Peter’s lesson today is 5:7 “Live carefree before God; “(God) is most careful with you.” 

Isn’t Peter’s invitation amazing?  Keep God the main thing.  No one is more tender with us than God.  He can say this, because he has experienced this to be true.

Which is more difficult for you? 

Sharing what you have been supplied with others…

… or asking for help?

Prayer:  Amazing God, you have power to share.  Inspire us to live lives of great faith and trust—may we never be too proud to ask for help, we might miss you.  May we always be ready to help, we might see you!  In Christ we pray, Amen.

 

(This sermon was preached by Reverend Dana Keener on June 1, 2014 at Central Christian Church in Billings, Montana.(