Last week I shared with you the origin of the expression, “Too many irons in the fire.”  I shared the statement that I found on Dictionary.com that read, “This expression originally referred to the blacksmith heating too many irons at once and therefore spoiling some in the forging.”  Next Saturday we will be going out to Don & Paula House’s Amish-built barn for our third annual Country Fair.  Don will spend some time in his blacksmith shop.  He will have the fire stoked and the irons forged, but he knows that if a blacksmith tries to do too much he will have substandard results.  We can do that as members of a church, but we can also have no irons in the fire, which is even worse.

So I suggested that we consider moving from having too many irons in the fire or too few irons in the fire, to having two irons in the fire, at least in regards to this church.  Those two irons can be labeled missions and service.  The distinction is made by who benefits from your ministry.  If people outside of the church benefit from your ministry, we call it mission.  If people inside the church benefit from your ministry, we call it service.  I am certain that there are more sophisticated definitions, but for this month, please keep these simple elements of distinction in mind.  Mission benefits people outside the church.  Service benefits people inside the church.  These are the two irons in the fire that I want to encourage each of you to have.  I’m not asking you to do everything, but if everyone has two irons in the fire, then this church will explode in meaningful ministry.  Let us pray.

Sometimes when I’m watching movies or listening to songs on the radio, God shows up and starts reciting lines.  So when Jewel sang, “These foolish games are breaking my heart,” God started singing to me about going through the motions, but not being all that sincere.  When John Coffey told the prison guard in The Green Mile, “Mostly I'm tired of people being ugly to each other. I'm tired of all the pain I feel and hear in the world every day.  There's too much of it. It's like pieces of glass in my head all the time.   Can you understand?” Jesus was sitting next to me whispering the same line.  And when Jerry Maguire tells Dorothy “You complete me,” Jesus asked, “Now do you understand the church?” Listen to Paul’s description of the church in Romans 12:3-12 and maybe you’ll see what I mean.  Hear now the Word of the Lord:

³For 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. ⁴For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, ⁵so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. ⁶We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ⁷ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; ⁸the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness. ⁹Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; ¹⁰love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. ¹¹Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. ¹²Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer.

The Return to Antioch in Syria

This is the word of God for the people of God.  In this passage Paul reminded his Roman readers of the unique and universal qualities of service.  The children told us that we are the church – together.  I can hear him saying to us twenty centuries later, “You complete me.”

You complete me because you are different.

The Roman church was not any different than any other church.  They had leaders (who led), they had followers (who followed), and they had wanderers (who didn’t know exactly what to do).  It was easy to develop a little bit of arrogance or superiority.  It was also easy to feel insignificant and inferior.  Paul assured them that the church takes all kinds.  He drew upon the metaphor of the body, one of his favorite metaphors when it comes to the church.  We get the significance of every member of the body.  It’s easy for the fingers to tell the thumb, “You complete me.”  One of my volunteer opportunities in the community is to serve as a small group facilitator for Medical Ethics at the Health Science Center for first year medical students.  Not only do I get to meet some brilliant students and engage in dialogue with them, I also get to sit in lectures with them and listen to experts in psychiatry, pain management, and stuff like that.  Every week I am reminded of the wonder of the body.  No wonder Paul used this metaphor.  There are no insignificant parts of this body.  We are different because the body needs unique, fully functioning parts. 

Paul was clear that whatever we bring to the table has been given to us by God.  One of the commentators referred to these gifts as endowments of which we are the Trustees.  When I went to St. John’s United Methodist Church in Richmond, I received a visit from one of our members.  She was one of the trustees of a sizable foundation.  She shared with me that it was a volunteer position, but that every trustee had a discretionary amount that they could grant.  She asked if there were financial needs in the church outside of the budget.  Oddly enough, there were, more than she could afford.  Together we matched up the needs that best fit the vision of that foundation.  She was an excellent trustee.  The money was never hers, but she was to be responsible for spending it.  I also discovered that it was simply unacceptable for her not to spend it.

You are the trustee of gifts that God has bestowed upon you.  There’s no need to become haughty about it.  It was never really yours, but God insists that you use it.  Some of the ways that we are seeking to help members discover how you can best serve is through a Ministry menu that we will distribute next week, offering a Serving from the Heart class (that focuses on your unique blend of spiritual gifts, talents, resources, individuality, dreams, and experiences), and soon we will be training coaches to do one on one interviews with members to match who you are with current service opportunities.  We are doing all of this because we know that one ministry does not fit everyone.  Some people are great small group leaders and some are incredible small group hosts, some minister in the choir and some greet you in the parking lot, some are answering phones during the week and some are leading activities for the youth.  There are hundreds of identified ministries and I’m sure hundreds that I don’t even know about.  It takes a congregation of unique individuals to accomplish all that we can do as a church.  You complete me, because you are different.

You complete me, because we are the same.

Leon Morris wrote in his commentary on this passage that the first six verses “view duties which are not common to all” while the last four verses “deal with duties which no one can afford to neglect.”  Paul wrote to the Romans, “Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor.”  This is the way that we are told to care for one another – as siblings in the faith.

Several years ago, there was a great internet hoax of a Graduation Speech that was supposedly given at MIT by Kurt Vonnegut in 1997.  The only problem was the speech wasn’t Vonnegut’s who wasn’t the commencement speaker at MIT in 1997.  Still it was a good speech, written my Mary Schmich of the Chicago Tribune.  It even got some air time with music in the background and a narrator.  There are several versions of it on Youtube under the title, “Wear sunscreen.”  Those are the first two words of the essay.  She wrote, “If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it.”  But the line that I remember even though I have not heard it in ten years is the one about siblings, “Be nice to your siblings. They're your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.”  This applies to not only biological siblings, but also spiritual siblings.  “Be nice to your siblings. They're your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.”   Paul told them that if they wanted to compete against each other, they should see who could show the other more honor.

You complete me, because we’re the same.  We belong to the same family, have the same Lord who expects others to recognize us by the love that we show toward one another.  There’s no distinction in the honor we show to one another. 

You complete me, because we are the Body of Christ.

We are as R.C.H. Lenski wrote, “a spiritual organism,” not an organization.  The elements of an organisms move together and in concert.  So when Paul wrote, “Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord.  Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer.”  He was speaking of how we move as members of each other.  We know what zeal looks like.  Watch the freshman cadets run out onto Kyle Field to tackle the Yell Leaders after an Aggie victory and you will have a great picture of zeal.  Every year someone remarks to me, “Wouldn’t it be great if people got this excited about the church.”  I want to say, “I do.”  When I put out a request for people to come to the church and call members of our church, to check up on them, and fifty people email me their desire to minister, I feel like shouting more than just, “Whoop!”  When an appeal goes out for Family Promise volunteers and people respond according to their gifts, I get excited.  When I send out a request for prayers for my Mom, who the doctors suspect has cancer and get the amazing responses that I have received I am zealous about the church.  I guarantee you that I complain about every penny that leaves my wallet at the grocery store, restaurants, tax payments, and other places.  I never once complain about how much my tithes are or about other opportunities to give to this church.  It is the best money I spend every month, because lives are being changed. Zeal, service, rejoicing, patience, and prayer.  These are things we do in concert with one another as living cells in a spiritual organism.

You complete me, because we are the body of Christ.  Have you ever sat in a meeting for a long time and your leg falls asleep?  Do you remember what’s it like trying to walk that sleeping leg out?  That’s what happens when some members are not participating in the ministry of a church.  We limp through sometimes through the efforts of people with too many irons in the fire.  I’m not asking you to do everything, but if everyone has two irons in the fire, then this church will explode in meaningful ministry. 

This past week I had the opportunity to visit Bob & Toby Hoffman.  Bob has been unable to come to church for months because of his health.  He and Toby were every Sunday worshippers and very active before that, in spite of the fact that he is 90 years old.  During our visit Bob looked at me and said, “Tell me one of the best things going on at the church right now.”  I felt on the spot and talked about small groups, new members joining, Wednesday night Church Family Suppers, and a few other things.  But as I left the house I felt like Ralphie in “A Christmas Story” when he hadn’t told Santa everything he wanted to say.  You who have seen the movie remember how he stopped himself from sliding down the exit ramp and said, “Wait!” Then he told Santa about the BB gun that he really wanted.  I almost went back to the door and said, “Wait! We are a living organism that God is using to change lives every single day.  We are moving toward a simpler lifestyle where members identify two irons in the fire; one that benefits people outside the church and one that benefits people inside the church.  Two irons in the fire that are forged very well.”  When every member of A&M UMC who is able commits themselves to that – well, the apostle Paul might even say with me - you complete me.  Amen.