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Student Joining Sunday is one of my favorite Sundays of the year at
A&M United Methodist Church. I love welcoming students to the same
church that has ministered to General James Earl and Margaret Rudder,
Dean Edwin Jackson Kyle, John David Crow, and so many other well known
Aggies since 1921. This church has also ministered to individuals who
are not as well known, but just as important in God’s family. In just
the last month the former Webb Parlor has served as a Sunday School
class to the Doers Class, a dormitory to the Hawkins family who had
been forced out of Port Arthur by Hurricane Ike, a Disciple Bible
Study classroom on Monday’s, a place for members to discover their
gifts for ministry on Wednesday nights, and a chemistry classroom for
Texas A&M University – Galveston. Oh yes, when I first arrived in
College Station four years ago I believe that classroom was the
Friendship classroom for pre-schoolers during the week and a
children’s Sunday School class on the weekends. This is just one
designated space in this church that reflects the diversity of this
church.
All
week long I was thinking of possible examples to begin this sermon
that would introduce the topic for the next three Sundays -
Something for Everyone. I thought of Disney World with all of its
theme parks: The Magic Kingdom, Epcot Center, MGM Studios, Animal
Kingdom, and my favorite - the Wide World of Sports. However, I knew
as soon as I mentioned it there would be someone in attendance today
that doesn’t like Disney World. Perhaps it is too crowded, too
expensive, too far, or too clean. Maybe it’s not the place with
Something for Everyone. Then I thought of Golden Corral: soups,
salads, fried food, baked food, grilled food, mashed potatoes, rice,
amazing rolls, soft serve ice cream, and cobbler. However, I realize
there might be some here who aren’t big fans of Golden Corral. I’m
always a little skeptical of buffets. Where is the place with
Something for Everyone. That’s when I recalled the people that I
have met in this church – diehard Aggies, soft-spoken alumni from a
university a couple of hours west of here (no hissing please),
Buckeyes and Wolverines, people in their 90’s like the Dursts, and
newborns like Isaac & Andrew Starns. A&M UMC truly has the capacity
to offer Something for Everyone. And that is exactly how
Christ planned it.
The
Apostle Paul was trying to explain this to the early church in
Ephesus. Listen to the powerful words that he wrote about the church
that was designed to be the church with Something for Everyone.
These were found in Ephesians 4:7, 11-16. Here now the Word of the
Lord:
7But each of us was given grace according to the
measure of Christ’s gift… 11The gifts he gave were that some would be
apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers,
12to equip the saints for the work of ministry,
for building up the body of Christ,
13until all of us come to the unity of the faith
and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of
the full stature of Christ. 14We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro
and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by
their craftiness in deceitful scheming.
15But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up
in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,
16from whom the whole body, joined and knit
together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is
working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in
love.
This is
the word of God for the people of God. In this passage Paul reminded
his readers that God provided Something for Everyone to
participate in the body of Christ. I realized as I look at this three
word phrase that it can be read in two ways. Does Something for
Everyone mean “Something for Each of Us” or does it
mean “Something for All of Us”? On Christmas morning
all the Gilts children would run to the tree expecting something for
each of us, but if Mom and Dad had decided to get us a new car instead
of individual presents, that would have been something for all of us.
So which is it? I have good news - it is both.
God provides
something for each of us.
That is where the story starts. Verse seven reads, “Each of us was
given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift.” This one
verse has inspired so many Christian writers. Francis Foulkes, in his
commentary wrote, “Every Christian has a work of ministry.” F. F.
Bruce one of the greatest New Testament scholars of the 20th
Century wrote, “Every Christian has a gift of some kind.” I think of
all the quotes I have come across related to this verse I like best
how Curtis Vaughan, a seminary professor of mine, put it, “Each
believer has been given a gift of grace, a capacity for service; every
believer has a contribution to make.”
Paul let his readers know at the end of this short passage of the
importance of each Christian recognizing and implementing that
capacity for service. Look at verse 16 where Paul wrote, “as
each part is working properly.”
God provides something for each of us.
My 17 year old son is out of town
this weekend, which is dangerous for him on two counts: One, I get to
drive his car, instead of my daughter’s cute little VW Beetle that
many of you have caught me driving, and two, I get to talk about him
in the sermon without him knowing about it. The car had not even
cooled off Friday before I got behind the wheel. It felt good to be
back in the car that I bought four years ago. My old Saturn Vue still
handled alright. I felt much more at home in it than in the Blue
Beetle with the Red Tulip. Although I generally didn’t keep two packs
of sunflower seeds, three baseball caps, two dress shirts, baseball
cleats, a glove, and dozens of gum wrappers in the Vue when it was my
car, it still felt good. Until I looked down and saw the gas tank was
on empty, then looked up to find the oil change was three months
overdue. Oh well, he is my boy, surely a dad can fill up his son’s
gas tank and get the oil changed. I even got it washed. But when I
got into it for my next errand the battery was dead. It was the
original battery, so it was due to go out. As I drove it to the auto
shop to get a battery I noticed the car was pulling to the left. I
asked the mechanic to check it out. He said by looking at the tires
it was probably just an under inflated tire. He confirmed that when
he identified the two-inch nail sticking out of the left rear tire.
As each part is working properly is a big deal! Now the truth is the car
was getting Zac where he needed to go, not much longer without some
fresh gas and oil, but it runs a lot better now as each part is
working properly.
Whenever this church has members
who are not implementing your gifts for ministry, we are operating
like that car, going places, but in danger of breaking down. However,
I have seen ample evidence of what it looks like as each part
is working properly. I have sent out
three churchwide e-mails in the last few weeks. Two were related to
our need for volunteers to cook, clean, and host our shelter. My
favorite was when I asked Linda Marr, our kitchen coordinator, if we
needed anything. She said, “We need bananas. Everyone likes bananas
and I couldn’t find any at the store.” I asked for bananas. Within
hours we had the corner on the bananas of the Brazos Valley. As our
guests were returning home days later, we were putting bananas in
their sacks to take with them. Last week I asked for volunteers to
welcome the TAMU – Galveston students to our campus, guide them to
their classes, and to man the Coffee House during class hours. Again
the response has been amazing. We may still have a few openings on
the Coffee House, but our hosts were in place the next morning. One
member mentioned to me that she could not get away to volunteer at the
shelter and wondered if it was alright to write a check to cover some
of the costs – as each part is working properly. This is a church with something for
everyone, because it is a church with something for each
of us. You have a ministry here
as do I.
Do you want to know what my
ministry is? To make sure that you have a ministry. In fact, we have
changed the reference to a part of our staff that used to be called
the Program Staff. We are officially the Equipping Staff of A&M UMC,
because that is our task - to equip others for ministry. This is not
the church where some of us do all the work of ministry. It is a
church where each of us is working properly. Remember though, it is not just a church
where God provides something for each of us.
God provides
something for all of us.
Paul pointed out that God gave some to be equipping ministers for the
purpose of all of us coming to the unity of faith and knowledge
of Jesus Christ, all of us coming to maturity, all of us
growing to the full stature of a Christian community. It is not
enough for each of us to recognize that we have a gift for ministry.
All of us have to work together as a team growing into the
mature community that Christ desires. In fact, that team is referred
to as the body of Christ and Jesus is the head giving life and
direction. George Stoeckhardt wrote in his commentary, “The entire
body is held together by all its members uniting themselves
intimately.”
Before I became a pastor I had some very diverse jobs. Some of you
have heard about one or two of these. I worked for Kentucky Fried
Chicken, Diamond Shamrock, Shell Oil, a manufacturer of excavator
teeth, an undercover spy for a retail distributor, and the best of all
- a cookie factory. In fact, it was my job to put the middle in the
Oreo cookies. And you thought I was just a pastor – actually I am
Middleman. It was an amazing operation to work in a cookie factory.
There were people in the mixing and baking part of the plant that I
never saw. I was on the other side of the massive ovens from them.
The wafers came out of the oven, cooled off as they rode on a conveyor
belt, were placed in tubes by some very adept line workers and entered
my sandwich machine which added the essential cream in between two
wafers, pressed them gently, dropped them in the package and guided
them to the sealer. Then there was another group of people that I
never saw. I was on the other side of the warehouse where they made
sure they were boxed up, shipped out, and stocked on store shelves so
I could eat one. It was a fascinating process that never got old.
There were scores of people working together, even if we never saw
each other, for one purpose – the Oreo.
We
have one purpose as a church - to reflect Jesus Christ. As we focus
on this one purpose with each part working properly, all of us mature
toward the stature of Christ. Together then we are able to stand
strong, not being blown around like a Weather Channel reporter during
a storm. We are able to be the church Christ desires us to be – a
church with something for each of, something for all of us
– something for everyone.
So
welcome students. I hope your experiences at A&M UMC draws each
of you closer to Christ and that in turn will draw us all
closer to Christ. Of course, in order for this to happen we will need
to recognize that Christ has provided something for everyone
here. Amen.
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