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Sunday, February 05, 2012

Serving as the Body of Christ - Are you Listening?

By Rev. Dr. Harvey C. Martz

Romans 12:1-8 New Revised Standard Version

¹ I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. ² Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect. ³ For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. ⁴ For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, ⁵ so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. ⁶ We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ⁷ ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; ⁸ the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.

Nancy Walton of our congregation called my attention a couple of weeks ago to a very moving story by travel guru Rick Steves. Steves wrote it right after his 80 year old mother died. He talks about her as his first ever travel partner, and that partnership began when he was about 14 or 15 years old. She took him with her to Europe for the first time and in that trip began his passion for travel and for introducing people to other cultures, perspectives and other ways of life.

I commend his two page article to you found on his Website, www.ricksteves.com. The article is titled “June Steves: Losing My First Travel Partner.” He writes eloquently about many of his mother’s talents and some of the spiritual gifts his mother demonstrated for him and for his family and community as he grew up. She was a person of deep faith, and she passed on that faith to Mr. Steves it continues through him and his ongoing strong involvement in his mainstream Lutheran congregation in Seattle. He talks in his tribute article about his mother’s great organizational skills that were so important, not only in their travels together, but also on the many weekend family camping and boating excursions their family experienced as he and his siblings grew up. He also shares her love of music and singing, her joy and passion for life, and her wisdom and common sense.

As I read this piece, I was very moved by the story of his mom and I was also aware of how his eloquent tribute relates to our discussion these weeks of our call to be servants of God and our neighbor and how God has given each of us distinctive gifts, skills and abilities that God asks us to use for others in our faith community. Paul characterizes this as THE BODY OF CHRIST. Cindy Bates reminded us in her excellent sermon last week that we are called to use our gifts for others in our community and our world outside the walls of our sacred building.

I am pleased with the number of you who have been in conversation in our Harmon Library over the past few weeks between services to explore all these ideas about taking a next step of service within and outside your church. Our leadership team has identified about 14 different spiritual gifts or abilities and they have been in conversation with many of you about how you are already putting those to work.

The gifts that we are looking at are: ADMINISTRATION/ORGANIZATION (this is one that Rick Steves identified in his mother), DISCERNMENT, ENCOURAGEMENT, FAITH, GENEROSITY, HELPING, HOSPITALITY, INTERCESSION, KNOWLEDGE, LEADERSHIP, MERCY/COMPASSION, SHEPHERDING, TEACHING, and WISDOM.

People usually have more than one gift or talent and our own congregation is just so blessed with members and friends who are gifted and called and are answering that call by serving in a multitude of roles within and beyond our faith community. In our staff meeting we began to name just a few examples of those in our congregation who have shared their gifts. We could have gone on for the better part of the day because you and I are part of a high commitment congregation.

We named church member Mona Stephens for her gift of organization over several years that has helped us in our Rainbows program ministry to serve hundreds of children who are grieving the loss of a parent. We also named Mike and Glennys Lee who are some of the most generous people I have known here and who have served in a variety of roles. They just completed the brand new stations in our atrium area for our Outreach, Pathways and Congregational Care ministries.

We mentioned our singers and musicians who undergird us and inspire us every weekend. This is not only our choir members and ensemble members but a VERY long list! There are people like Jeff Hinton, the director of our newly formed and very successful Men’s Chorus. We mentioned 14 year old violinist Katie Sietz who blesses us often with her talents that have been developed over the last 8 years of lessons and practice/practice/practice. Then there are others like our trio of Price Berryman, Gary Davidson, and Kim Davidson whom we will hear in a moment as they summarize, in song, our whole theme of serving and taking a new step with the gifts God has given us.

St. Paul says in the verses from Romans, and in a couple of other places as well, that we together are Christ’s body. He says, just as in our individual bodies, there are different parts that need each other and complement each other, and so it is in our faith community. Each of us is important and each of our roles is needed. We are diminished if some of us hold back from serving.

It is a coincidence that we talk about being the Body of Christ on a communion Sunday and we can listen for the dual meaning of that phrase. When Jesus is in the Upper Room in Jerusalem on the Thursday night before his death, he takes the Passover bread and tells his friends that this is his body. So when you and I celebrate communion, we are taking these symbols of Christ’s physical presence into ourselves so we can, in reformer Martin Luther’s words, become “little Christ’s” for each other and for our world.

AND, in the Bible that three word phrase, Body of Christ, is used to describe our community, and our faith family just as Paul does in today’s verses. It also communicates what St. Teresa of Avila said to us 450 years ago.

CHRIST HAS NO BODY NOW ON EARTH BUT YOURS, NO HANDS BUT YOURS, NO FEET BUT YOURS. YOURS ARE THE EYES THROUGH WHICH CHRIST’S COMPASSION IS TO LOOK OUT TO THE WORLD.

How have you been doing at identifying the skills and talents you can offer to Christ and to our world in service? We can help you when you are ready. We know that there are different times and different seasons in our readiness. We know that of our 2,000 church members and 2,000 constituents, some of us are not ready yet for a new step. Some of us just need to be cared for, nurtured and to receive comfort and encouragement when we connect with God through the church.

That is okay and good. We have all been in that place of just needing to receive for a while. We also know that others of us are ready to think and talk about some new venture and next step. Wherever you are is okay. You will know what you are ready for next.

We are closing with a song about all this from Price Berryman and Gary and Kim Davidson.