Gifts

from my sermon on 9/20/09 on Ephesians 4:1-16

Every one of us is gifted for ministry. Last Sunday before our contemporary service, a little 4 year old girl named Sammi, came up to me and said, "Will there be ballet music for me to dance to today?" She was wearing her tutu and dancing shoes. I said, "I don't know. Go talk to Frank (who directs the band)." I didn't know it but she did, and Frank said that it wasn't ballet music but it was ok to dance. So during the first song, Sammi took her steps and did her twirls. And we smiled. "How sweet. How precious," we thought. After the passing of the peace and the announcements, the band started playing again, and Sammi was dancing again. Now I sit on the very front pew, so my back was to the congregation, and I didn't see this, but Jay, the chair of our worship committee was walking up the aisle. Some people told me later that they were anxious, "Oh, no. He's gonna tell her to stop. He's gonna shut her down." But when Jay got to the front, he began dancing with Sammi. She would shake her little behind. Jay would shake his somewhat larger behind. It was wonderful. I was crying. I was praying, "Dear God, don't let this moment ever end."
Everyone of us is gifted for ministry--no matter how young or old, male or female, no matter our level of ability--mental, physical, or whatever. The passage says, "Each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ's gift."
And it feels good to share our gifts. You may remember I am preaching about our basic UM beliefs, starting with our vows of prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness. Today, we are on gifts. We "get to" share our gifts for the building up of the body of Christ in the world. It is like dancing together in the house of the Lord. Don't lose this joyful image.
Some of us will be intimidated by this list of gifts in the passage. "Oh, no. Not me. I am not gifted." May I bring this list down to a place we can approach them?
Apostles...."I can't be in that inner circle of 12 that was with Jesus. It's impossible," We say. But I know my Greek. An apostle is one who is sent on a mission. Could that be us?
Mara, a senior in Westlake H.S., came to my office on Thursday afternoon. She is coming up with her senior project. Everyone else in her class is shadowing a doctor, or engineer, or computer software writer. No shame in any of that, but Mara is shadowing Alan Graham, head of Mobile Loaves and Fishes. She is the only one in her class whose project involves a non-profit. Mara wants to create micro-gardens, a garden in a plastic storage bin. Each would have soil, seeds, and airholes in it. People would take them, add water, and grow vegetables. The fresh vegetables would be given to the homeless who live on the street. Pretty cool, huh? Is Mara an apostle, one sent on a mission?
Prophets are not fortune tellers but truth tellers. I am proud of some of our Sunday School classes engaging in the health care debate. The view they are bringing to the discussion is that of the poor, the most vulnerable, who often get left out of the debate. That is the role of the prophet, to speak the hard truth that comes from God.
Evangelist...now we get really scared about this one. We think that we must have "hair that praises Jesus" ( I got that from an American Baptist theologian). But you remember that we did the Unbinding Your Heart series in the spring. What we were learning is that the world wants credible witnesses, people like us who live the faith everyday, who are not afraid to talk in our families, in our neighborhoods, etc. We share good news wherever Christ sends us. That's what evanglism means, "good news." I have a "help wanted" ad in evangelism. I need help with these worship services--people to do technical direction, to film, to audiotape, to link up with our website, do podcasts. Are there some evangelists out there?
Pastors....you may think that just applies to people like me who are ordained, but the work in Greek is literally "shepherds." "Help wanted" ad again...I need some folks who can help me tend the flock. I can't do it by myself. We have formed a Caring and Calling team to follow up on person who miss worship and Sunday School for a time. You see, when someone gets overwhelmed by life, they drop out of everything, even church. We call, and say, "How's it going? We have missed you?" Are there any shepherd out there?
Teachers....okay, we are pretty clear on this gift. I want to put a challenge to the men. We tend to have lots of females who do this ministry. But children and youth desperately need to see positive male role models. We barely have enough teachers in our children and youth departments. Are some of you men gifted for teaching?
There are many more gifts that we find in letters of Paul in I Cor. 12 and Rom. 12 that go beyond our passage, but everyone is gifted for ministry for equipping the saints and building up the body of Christ.
I hope that I have made these gifts more assessible to you. Today, I am asking some of you who were afraid of being gifted to choose one passion that you may pursue. I am asking some of you who do too much to cut back one passion to be more healthy.
A great way for you to find your passion is to go to our ministry fair and take the spiritual gifts inventory. You may find it at our website also. To incentivize (I just love how we make nouns into verbs) the process, we have an anonymous donor who will give $10 for every survey taken to our Nothing but Nets campaign. Ten dollars buys a treated mosquito net for a family of four.
You may have heard that the UMC is trying to rid the continent of Africa of the treatable disease of malaria in a campaign called Imagine No Malaria. You will be hearing a lot more about this in the future. It seems to be overwhelming. How can we possibly do that?
I came across a great analogy this past week. A single snowflake seems so small, so fragile. But put enough of them together in a snowstorm, and they can stop traffic. Or put enough of us together, and we can stop a disease.
That's what this passage is about--unity. Did you see how many times "one" was used? One body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all.
It was probably a baptismal creed, capturing the essentials of the faith for those who felt drawn to become part of the church. Any baptized people here?
I need to tell you a story that comes from Fred Craddock, a Disciples of Christ pastor, theologian, writer, and speaker. I don't remember all of the details, but it goes something like this:
When Fred was first starting out, he was serving a country church, that practiced baptism by going down to the riverside and baptizing person there. By the way, we UM's can baptize by immersion, "Dunking", as well. So Fred and this adult man went down into the river. Fred asked those ancient, ever-new questions: Do you reject the power of sin? Do you accept the freedom and power of God? Do you confess Jesus Christ as your saviour and want to be part of his inclusive church? The man did and was taken under the water that cleanses and brings new life. He came out on shore and was wrapped in a blanket. A big bonfire was there on the beach. He stood next to its warmth while the whole church gathered around him in a circle. One by one, the members of the church said something like this, "My name is Betty, and I cool pretty good. I would be happy to cook for you and with you for others." "My name is Tom, and I'm handy with tools. I would be happy to work for you or with you for others." On and on they went. "My name is Ralph and I like to study the Bible. I would be happy to do that with you and with others." "My name is Millie, and I like to pray. I would be happy to pray with you." After they all had their say, an older man took Fred aside, and said, "Preacher, around here, we call that baptism."
Are you baptized? Are you standing in the circle? What would say is your gift? Everyone of us has been gifted for ministry. That is the good news I have to share with you today. Amen.