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This
past week I was driving home from the church one evening and as it
seems to happen every time I turn on the radio, I got a blitz of
advertisements. All I wanted to do was to find out the scores to the
baseball playoff games, but instead I heard commercial after
commercial. One of those commercials has yet to let me go. It was a
brief 30-second Public Service Announcement that introduced a woman
who lived alone, unable to get out of her apartment. The ad said,
“This is Sarah. A lot of people almost helped her. One almost cooked
for her. Another almost drove her to the doctor. Still another almost
stopped by to say ‘hello’. They almost helped. They almost gave of
themselves. But almost giving is the same as not giving at all.” Then
the narrator said, “Don’t almost give – give.” Wow. I went home and
checked out www.dontalmostgive.org. It was that
powerful.
The
impassioned Public Service Announcement reminded me of the Christian
imperative for living. Each of us has something to give – it is
called a ministry. For the next six weeks we are going to be focusing
on Finding Your S.T.R.I.D.E. for Ministry. S.T.R.I.D.E. is an
acronym created by the Church of the Resurrection, a United Methodist
Church in the Kansas City area. They developed the acronym to help
people to discover their place for ministry. The S is
for Spiritual Gifts. Listen to how Paul approaches this
topic in Ephesians 4:1-7. Hear now the Word of the Lord:
1I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead
a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2with
all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another
in love, 3making every effort to maintain the unity of the
Spirit in the bond of peace. 4There is one body and one
Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling,
5one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6one God and
Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. 7But
each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift.
The
Word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. In this
passage the apostle Paul encouraged the Ephesians to live up to the
expectations of a gracious God. As I read this passage of scripture I
can almost hear the Spirit whispering to my soul, “Don’t Almost
Live - Live!”
don't Almost Live with Understanding
Paul
wanted the Ephesians to understand God’s love. The first three
chapters of Ephesians was a beautiful explanation of how deeply loved
the people of God are by God. Gentiles and Jews were all alike to
God. Males and females equally loved. Slaves and masters – no
distinction. In fact, Paul concluded the first part of this letter
with an incredible prayer that every reader understands the width and
length and height and depth of God’s love. Then he used that little
word, “therefore” in chapter four verse one. Remember when we
see that word in the Bible we ought to see what it’s there for.
Paul said, “Therefore (based on this incredible love given to
you by God), I beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling.”
He characterizes that life as humble, gentle, patient, tolerant, and
peaceful. They were to understand that all that God had given to them
did not lift them up above everyone else, but rather put them in
service to everyone else.
Thursday night I had the opportunity to speak at Mosaic, our College
worship service. I talked about a man who had been unable to walk for
38 years that Jesus approached in John 5. I invited the students to
close their eyes and get a sense of what that scene looked like,
sounded like, smelled like, felt like. One of the students said, “I
could see Jesus make his way to that man, kneel down at eye level and
look at the man with pure compassion.” The scene came alive for me.
How long had it been since someone looked at this man eye-to-eye.
Perhaps as the Ad Council would say, several people may have almost
looked at him, but I doubt that many had, especially those who were
well. But the Savior of the World did. He looked right at him and
asked him, “Do you want to made well?” Then he served him. He
did the same for the disciples in the Upper Room just before communion
– he served them.
Don’t almost live with understanding – live. We have been loved so
wonderfully and we are to serve others with humility, gentleness,
patience, tolerance, and peace. Don’t almost live – live.
Don’t almost live in Unity
Paul
echoed what Jesus taught his disciples - the distinguishing
characteristic of the church would be unity. He gave seven reasons
for unity. One body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one
baptism, one God and Father of us all. When I was in mathematics in
elementary school I learned that seven times one is one. This passage
of scripture helps me to understand that. We are one because, God the
Father, Son, and Spirit – all mentioned in this passage – are one.
Too
often, I fear, we almost live in unity. We almost get
along with each other. We almost are one family around this
Table – almost. I have told some of you about my Grandma
Gilts’ last attempt to have all her family in one place. It was years
ago, she rented out the Annex at St. Mark’s United Methodist Church in
Findlay, Ohio. Aunt Winnie and Uncle Chuck were there with their
children: Tom, Linda, and Peggy. Dad was there with his children:
Kemp, Kip, Kyle, Kris, Kurt, Debbie, and Diane. All the cousins were
there with our families. It was a huge gathering. We claimed our
spots at the tables. There were two long rows of rectangular tables,
because there were so many people and you can guess how we sat. Aunt
Winnie’s family at one row and Dad’s family at the other. And Grandma
sighed. We almost ate together.
Don’t almost live in unity – live. It can happen so easily – unity
broken by cliques and groups that build an indifference or even an
animosity toward each other – in the church. And God sighs.
Don’t almost live – live.
Don’t almost live Uniquely.
Unity
was not to be confused with uniformity. Paul loved to use the
metaphor of the body when talking about spiritual gifts. We know how
unique and interdependent every part of the body is. We are reminded
of that when one part is not working too well. Stub your toe and you
know it. Get an eyelash in your eye and you know it. Of course,
there are more severe examples of which we are all too well aware.
Each part of the body is unique and indispensable. The same is true
for the Body of Christ. Get this – every Christian has a gift of
some kind, a capacity for service somewhere in the body of Christ.
Verse seven is quite clear about that. Every spiritual gift is given
by Christ to us for a purpose and one gift is not superior to any
other gift.
I
recently read Donald Miller’s book, Searching for God Knows What.
One of the chapters has a subtitle that captured my eye, “Why a Three Legged Man Is
Better Than a Bearded Woman.” He described a circus
with one of those sideshow exhibits of eccentric human beings. One of
the acts was a three-legged man who could walk quite normally, but for
dramatic effect stumbled into the arena when introduced. He would
stumble to the right and then to the left, getting dangerously close
to the gawking crowd. One night one of the guests attacked the man
for getting too close to his family. The newspaper headlines caught
the story and the man’s fame skyrocketed. His wages doubled and he
became the main attraction of the sideshow. The bearded woman
grumbled, “Not everybody is lucky enough to be born with three legs.
It’s not like he did anything to deserve that kind of blessing.”
Miller concludes that such is the curse of humanity,
“It seems when a
group of people come together,”
he writes, “ they will develop a
kind of hierarchy of importance, and the determining factors of a
person’s value are not only unfair but arbitrary.”
When
we do this we deny the uniqueness with which Christ has equipped each
of us. Don’t almost live uniquely – live. What has God given to you
that you can use to serve others? Look carefully at verse seven
before you answer that question, “Each of us was given grace.”
Eugene Peterson paraphrased this verse in The Message with
these words, “Out of the generosity of Christ, each of us is given
his own gift.” What’s your gift?
That
night when I was driving home listening to commercials, I began to
wonder how a don't almost live ad would sound about us:
This is A&M
United Methodist Church.
Here there are a
lot of people who almost lived.
They almost
lived understanding that their experience of God’s love was to
be expressed as God’s love to others.
They almost
lived in unity that their one Father has dreamed about for
eternity.
They almost
lived uniquely with each member doing what he or she had been
gifted to do by God.
They almost
lived as a church, but almost living is the same as not living at all.
Then
the Lord of our life would encourage us at the end by saying,
“Don’t almost live – live.” Amen.
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