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REDEFINING THE
BODY OF CHRIST #4
JANUARY RETURNS
With today being January 9, I can tell you what a huge
segment of the population is still doing on this Thursday. And I'm talking
about the store clerks who work at J. C. Penney's and Wal-Mart and Victoria's
Secret and Sam Goody Music. And do you know what they're doing? They're
still restocking their shelves with all the bad presents people got for
Christmas two weeks ago.
And friend, you know the very present I'm talking about, don't you? You
open up the package — and of course, the person giving it is right there
in the room, three feet away, watching intently the expression on your
face. And when you see it, you can hardly believe your eyes. This thing
is terrible! It's wrong! It's absolutely the worst thing for you! It doesn't
fit; it's ugly; you already have ten of them; it's a 40-CD package of
Gregorian chants, when you'd rather have Del Delker's greatest hits, of
course.
Someone on a TV sitcom was joking the other day about an ill-fitting,
mangy fur jacket they got on December 25. "The thing looked like
road kill," they complained. "Absolutely unbelievable."
And we've all had similar experiences.
Well, what does this subject of bad Christmas gifts have to do with the
writing of the Apostle Paul in the book of First Corinthians chapter 12?
A lot, maybe, especially as we realize that this particular Bible passage
is dealing specifically with the topic of spiritual gifts — God's gifts
to every man and woman, boy and girl who enters into this worldwide organization
called the Christian faith, the Body of Christ.
Let's emphasize, first of all, that these are indeed gifts bestowed on
each and every one of us . . . and they are given by God Himself. That's
explicitly taught in a couple of these verses. Here's verse 11:
"All these [gifts] are the work of one and
the same Spirit, and He gives them to each one, just as He determines."
Then clear at the end of this wonderful chapter, He
says it again:
"Now you are the body of Christ, and each
one of you is a part of it. And in the church God has appointed first
of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles,
also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with
gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues."
And the key phrase there, of course, is this one: "God
has appointed." God has selected these various gifts and He's distributed
them according to His own wisdom.
Now friend, what does that mean? We often get bad Christmas presents from
very well-meaning people. People who love us like our own mothers. Why,
then, are the presents so bad? Often it's because we're simply lacking
in wisdom. (Or I should say that our friends are lacking in wisdom; the
presents we buy are fine!) People don't know that I've graduated from
a 34 waistline to a 36, so the pants they get me don't fit. They don't
know I look bad in purple and don't have a single shirt to match. They
don't know what CDs I already have, so they buy the wrong one.
But God, who has infinite wisdom and knows everything about me — and also
knows what His perfect vision and plan is for my life and ministry — friend,
He's never going to make those kinds of mistakes. You're never going to
look up from the wrapping paper on Christmas morning and say to God, "I,
uh, hate to say, but this really doesn't fit. You gave me the wrong thing."
Actually, you know, maybe I should amend that observation a bit. Because
we're not very wise, because our knowledge — even of ourselves — is so
limited, we might open up God's gift to us and decide that it doesn't
fit. What He's given us doesn't seem right to us; we don't feel comfortable
with that particular gift. But let me ask you: who's right? God or us?
Is it possible that God, in His wisdom, could give us a spiritual gift
that takes us some time to accept and fully use?
It's sometimes an act of faith to trust in the Giver of gifts, isn't it?
But I hope today we can picture a heavenly Father who has an infinite
knowledge of us and an infinite love too. And His gift to you as a member
of His Church is based on those two factors. His gifts aren't arbitrary;
He's not on His throne with a kind of Parker Brothers spinner, handing
out generically wrapped gifts like lottery trinkets.
And as we discussed yesterday, He's also not the kind of gift-giver who
buys the exact same Christmas present for everyone. Like where Grandma
has 101 grandkids and so she gets each one of them a dalmatian. No friend,
all through chapter 12 we're taught that gifts are personally chosen by
God Himself. No one spends more time Christmas shopping than He does;
His painstaking research about you is based on more than the report of
the elves or even your letter to Santa. He knows!
Let me add two more points right here — and they spring out of those two
words: "He knows." First of all, if God gives perfect gifts
which He Himself has chosen, then there should be no thought on our part
that some gifts are better than others or that we deserve special attention
because of our talents. Neither should we feel inferior if we think we've
received a lesser gift, a less glamorous portfolio of divine presents.
Should we ever be jealous of others' gifts? No! Why should we be when
God is the One who chose ours? I like how one respected Bible commentary
observes:
"The disposition of the gifts by God is
to be accepted gratefully, and due recognition given to the One who dispenses
these powers, and not to the recipient as being in any way superior to
his fellows."
I like that, don't you? My getting a particular gift
means that God is good, not me. But this Bible truth runs contrary to
our human instincts; that's for sure. It's very human to think of some
gifts as higher than others. We think of Robert Schuller, who pastors
at the Crystal Cathedral and is seen by several million viewers each weekend.
And then there's the fictional "Eleanor Rigby," the character
in the old Beatles song, who quietly picks up the rice in the church where
the wedding has been. Schuller has the gifts of preaching, of telegenic
media presence, of administration . . . and Miss Rigby has the unnoticed
gift of service. Which one is greater? Right away we assume that Robert
Schuller is the prima donna powerhouse pastor; he gets the blue ribbon.
But friend, that's not heaven's thinking, and it shouldn't be ours either.
There's no room for jealousy, for rankings, for highs and lows within
the Body of Christ.
Here's a second point. As we've been saying all week, the Church belongs
to God. It's His. Its boundaries are defined by Him; its operations are
led by His Spirit. And yes, the dispersal of gifts within that Church
is also completely directed by Him. He's the One who has equipped His
Church for service here in 1999.
What does that mean? Well, for one thing it means that the success of
the Church is up to God. And the performance of the Church is also His
doing and His responsibility.
We've been sharing excerpts recently from Philip Yancey's very stirring
book, The Jesus I Never Knew. And he wonders aloud why the Church messes
up so much. Why are we so slow to learn? Why are there so many denominations?
Why isn't the work done yet? And here's the answer he comes up with
.
"I see no point," he writes, "in tallying up a balance
sheet to weigh the church's failures against its successes. The final
word will come from God's own judgment. The first few chapters of Revelation
show how realistically God views the church" — it's filled with some
very straight talk, you remember — "and yet elsewhere the New Testament
makes clear that God takes delight in us: we are ‘peculiar treasures,'
a ‘pleasing aroma,' ‘gifts that He delights in.' I cannot fathom such
statements," Yancey confesses; "I merely accept them on faith.
God alone knows what pleases God."
So friend, when you mutter to yourself over Sunday
dinner, "Why can't our pastor do a better job? Why are his sermons
so confusing?", remember that God has given the gifts. For some reason
or reasons that you might not yet comprehend, He does know what He's doing.
Despite our Christmas morning confusion, He has given out the right gifts.
Yancey adds a bit more on the same page of his book. Here it is:
"Jesus takes full responsibility for the
constituent parts of His body. ‘You did not choose Me, but I chose you,'
He told His disciples, and these were the very scalawags who so exasperated
Him and would soon desert Him at His hour of greatest need."
So as we've been doing all this week, we give some
things to God, don't we? If we don't understand the current direction
of the Church, we trust God. If some gift seems wrong, we trust God. If
despite what Chapter 12 says, others belittle your abilities and put you
down on a low rung of the ladder, you just keep on trusting in God and
thanking Him for the gift He thought was good for you.
And maybe a final point right here. Even if your gift seems right or wrong,
it often takes time and an active faith in order to make that gift work.
Even a man or woman who's been given the gift of preaching may not give
a very eloquent first sermon! But as they keep at it, keep on digging
and studying and adding some good perspiration to what God has provided,
the preaching gets better and the gift shines ever brightly for the world
to see.
And then the credit goes . . . well, we know where it goes, don't we?
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