Gifts

5-2-21 Sermon Notes“Reconnect Through Gifts”

Once upon a time, the hands, mouth and teeth of a person started talking among themselves. They had a sort of “committee meeting.” They came to the conclusion that they were doing all the work, but the stomach was getting all the food. They voted unanimously to go on strike. The hands refused to pick up a fork. The mouth and the teeth refused to chew. Pretty soon, the stomach started protesting by growling and cramping. Eventually, all the parts became too weak to function. By trying to hurt one part – the stomach – the other parts hurt themselves.

Does that sound like a strange fairy tale? It should sound familiar. It’s what Paul says the church is like. We are the Body of Christ. The body has lots of parts, and they are all needed! Here’s what Paul writes in 1 Cor. 12:
12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
14 Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot would say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear would say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many members, yet one body. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; 24 whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, 25 that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.
27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. (1 Cor. 12: 12-27 NRSV)
You are part of the Body! I hope you know how important you are!
See you Sunday,
Pastor Sam