Union Bridge COB, Union Bridge, Maryland, Mid-Atlantic District

James Benedict, Pastor

Sermon for Sunday, January 18, 1998, 1 Corinthians 12:1-13

              "BUT I DON'T WANT TO BE A KIDNEY!"

     "Think team!"

     I've heard that a lot lately while attending my son's Monday 
evening and Saturday morning practices.  The coach is doing his best 
to get a group of rambunctious nine year olds to cooperate enough to 
play something that resembles the game of basketball.  And so he 
stresses it again and again, "Think team!"  This means, as he explains 
over and over, pass the ball to the open player, cheer one another on, 
and take turns in practice so everybody has a chance to get better.
     The boys are starting to grasp the idea, I think, but it isn't 
easy for them.  They still like to show off, to put each other down, 
and to take all the shots.  It is sad to watch them struggle so with 
the team concept and its emphasis on cooperation.  As I stand 
observing from the sidelines, it occurs to me that very little in 
their lives has prepared these boys for "thinking team."  It is really 
a whole new way of thinking, and it is going to take a while to sink 
in.
     The other thing I realize -- or perhaps, to be more precise, 
recognize -- as I stand there watching them, is that unless they outdo 
their ancestors, some of them will never quite get it.  Lots of adults 
struggle with the same issues in their families, at their work places 
and in other settings, including churches.  Lots of adults have a hard 
time remembering to "Think team!"
     This was certainly a problem in the church at Corinth, to which 
the apostle Paul wrote the scripture we just heard.  As a young 
congregation located at a vital crossroads of the ancient world, the 
church at Corinth was in an excellent position to help spread the good 
news about Jesus far and wide.  But instead of focusing on this 
important mission opportunity, the congregation was focusing on 
themselves and on the question of who among them was more spiritual.  
The Corinthian congregation was full of energy and enthusiasm.  But 
all this energy and enthusiasm was being spent on petty competition 
over who was closest to God.
     Sometimes this competition even took place in worship.  People 
would try to out-preach or out-pray one another.  They would get 
louder and more excited.  They might even dance around.  Of course, 
only a few members of the congregation actually did this.  But many of 
the rest picked their favorites and cheered them on, and argued the 
rest of the week about which one was best   that is, most spiritual.
     Paul, their founding pastor, was very disappointed when the news 
about this behavior reached him.  He wrote the letter we call First 
Corinthians to set his spiritual children straight.  To people so 
enamored with spiritual gifts he wrote, "You are all gifted, because 
at your baptism you all received the Holy Spirit.  But you are not all 
gifted so that you can compete to find out who is the most gifted.  
You are all gifted for the common good.  You are all gifted so that as 
you learn to cooperate instead of competing, you will be able to do 
far more together than you could have ever done on your own."
     The situation in the Corinthian congregation was a reflection of 
the culture that surrounded it.  The city of Corinth was an 
individualistic, hard driving, very competitive place.  It was a 
trading center and it attracted ambitious people from all over the 
empire.  Some of that individualistic ambition seeped into the church.  
Some of that competitiveness distorted the Corinthians' understanding 
of what it meant to belong to God through Christ.
     We live in a very similar culture.  Our culture celebrates great 
competitors far more often than it celebrates great cooperators.  Very 
early in life, we identify some children as more likely to succeed in 
certain competitions and, ironically, we use some of Paul's language 
to describe them   we call them "gifted."  The irony is that we make 
the same mistake the Corinthian Christians did.  We forget that 
everybody is gifted, and that the gifts are given to benefit all, not 
to glorify a few.
     Think about it a moment, and you'll see what I mean.  When we say 
a child is gifted, we generally mean that child has special talents in 
one of three areas   academics, athletics or the arts.  And obviously 
some children are blessed in those ways.  But why do we save the term 
"gifted" just for them?  What about the child who is gifted with a 
sense of humor, or with a heart of compassion, or with patience or 
with loyalty, or with determination, or with generosity?
     Paul called the Corinthian Christians to set the church apart 
from the surrounding culture by keeping in mind that everyone in the 
church was gifted.  Paul called the Corinthian believers to stop 
wasting their time and energy in fruitless comparisons and 
competitions.  Paul called the Corinthian congregation to turn away 
from that worldly foolishness and to create an alternative community   
one marked by respect, love and cooperation, a community in which 
every member mattered.  Only in such a community, Paul insisted, could 
they genuinely know what it meant to have the power of God at work in 
them.  
     A couple of years ago, Joann C. Jones wrote an article for 
Guideposts which told about a professor of hers who drove home this 
same point in a rather unusual way. Ms. Jones wrote: "During my second 
year of nursing school our professor gave us a pop quiz.  I breezed 
through the questions until I read the last one.  It asked, 'What is 
the first name of the woman who cleans the school?'  Surely, I 
thought, this was some kind of joke.  I had seen the cleaning woman 
several times, but how would I know her name?  I handed in my paper, 
leaving the last question blank.
     "Before the class ended, one student asked if the question would 
count toward our grade.  'Absolutely,' the professor said.  'In your 
careers you will meet many people.  All are significant.  They deserve 
your attention and care, even if all you do is smile and say hello."
     That is the kind of community Paul had in mind for the 
Corinthians -- one in which every person matters, even if what they do 
isn't glamorous or attention getting.  This kind of community, Paul 
said, is what God has in mind for followers of Jesus everywhere.
     So this is our calling as well.  We, too, are one body made up of 
many parts.  Not all the parts are equally glamorous or as likely to 
take center stage.  But every part, every member of this church is 
important, a part of the whole body.  God has called us together in 
this time and place, and relieved us of the burden of our sins by the 
grace of Jesus, so that we can work together and love each other and 
celebrate God's goodness.  God has gifted us through the Holy Spirit 
so that by working together we can provide the most effective witness 
to the love of God for every person.
     When, instead of working together, we use those gifts to compete 
with each other and enter into to debates about which gifts are more 
important, we squander those gifts and dishonor the giver.  We must 
"think team."  We must think "one body, many parts."  We must work at 
building up one another with encouragement and appreciation.  And 
instead of coveting and glorifying certain gifts while despising 
others, we need to learn to appreciate every gift, exercise the ones 
we've been given to the best of our ability and find the joy in doing 
so that God intends for us to find.  
     Mary Rose Betten, a Catholic lay leader and playwright, shares a 
marvelous story about working with children to put on an Easter drama.  
She was the director, and early on she was overseeing the casting so 
that each child would feel comfortable with his or her role.  If 
you've ever done something like that, you know how hard it can be, 
because you have to deal with several children all wanting the same 
starring roles and then you have to find children to fill other roles 
that nobody wants.  So Mary Rose was surprised when one boy insisted 
on a role that nobody else wanted.  He said he wanted to play the part 
of the rock in front of the garden tomb.
     "Wouldn't you like to have a speaking role?"  Mary Rose asked 
him.  But he wanted only to be the rock.
     The play went smoothly, and afterwards Mary Rose felt she just 
had to know, so she asked the boy, "Why didn't you want a speaking 
part?  Why did you want to be the rock?"
     His smile beamed and he said, "Oh, it felt so good to let Jesus 
out of the tomb."                
      There is joy in every role we're called by God to play.  There 
is satisfaction in the exercise of every gift, no matter how modest.  
Every role and every gift matter, and deserve our respect.  We are in 
the same cast.  We are on the same team.  We are each a part of the 
same body, designed by God to work together, to love and care for each 
other and to share God's good news.
     Embrace your gift.
     Encourage your brothers and sisters.
     Play your part, and cheer them on.
     Amen.