Here is today's sermon....
Luigi Tenorio was a collector of fine violins. Violins dominated his life. They were his passion and had become in many
ways, objects of worship. At his death
it was discovered that Luigi had 246 violins stored in his attic. The violins in the attic represented over 146
years of family history.
Luigi had one very special violin which was a
Statavarius. He never played it. Actually, most of his amazing collection had
never been played.
246 violins!!! What
does one do with 246 violins? I mean what
is a violin made for? To make
music? And what good is it if you don’t
use it for it’s purpose! Like Luigi,
many of us aren’t playing our violins!
A few years back, I purchased this bass guitar. But have you ever seen me play it? Thought so!
I don’t know the first thing about playing bass guitar. So, you might ask… what good does it do me to
have a bass guitar and not be able to play it?
Good question… absolutely no good! It does me no good to have something I am
unable to play!
Sir Michael Costa was a great orchestral conductor of the
19th century. It is said that one day he
was conducting a rehearsal in which the orchestra was joined by a great
choir. Midway through the session, the
piccolo player stopped playing. It
seemed innocent enough – after all who would miss the tiny piccolo amidst the
great mass of instruments blazing away?
All of a sudden Sir Michael stopped the entire orchestra and choir. “Stop, Stop!
Where’s the piccolo? What’s
happened to the piccolo?”
In an orchestra, every instrument is necessary and has an
important part to play so that when an instrument doesn’t play it’s part – the
sound is not complete! It is missed!
I’m not much for jig saw puzzles, but I know that there are
some among us who love doing them and spend lots of time in the winter putting
them together. I’m also sure that most
all of us at one time or another, have put one together. Have you ever gotten to the end only to
discover that there is a puzzle piece missing?
Just one tiny piece?
A puzzle without all its pieces is incomplete!
I have seen puzzles at yard sales with a tag saying… pieces
missing. I wouldn’t give you .05 for
one with missing pieces! A puzzle
without all its pieces is incomplete and will NEVER be complete!
Preacher and story teller Fred Craddock tells the following
story… One day, he saw a nine pound sparrow walking down the street in front of
his house and he asked the sparrow, “Aren’t you a little heavy?”
The sparrow said, “Yeah, that’s why I am out walking. Trying to get some of this weight off!”
And Fred said, “Why don’t you fly?”
The sparrow looked at Fred as if he was stupid and said,
“Fly? I’ve never flown. I could get
hurt!”
And Fred asked the sparrow its name. And he said, “CHURCH!”
Like the 9 pound sparrow that is too afraid to fly, when we
don’t all use our gifts, we are not living into the potential God created us
for!
The other day, I was watching the CoB A/C online and often
during the business item they paused for a 5 minute table talk. You see in the past two years we have made a
switch in how we sit for the conference from rows of delegates (about 1000)
(looks like political conventions you have seen on tv) to sitting around round
tables with seating assigned so that you sit with people you don’t know and
have time in the agenda to talk about focus questions that pertain to the
business item. This seating alone has
been a very helpful transformative process for our denomination, inviting
people to be part of the process.
Anyways, when they went to table talk, I did other
things. In one of those breaks, I was
cruising FB and ran across an ad that caught my attention. It was about body building. Since the topic for today was the body
building puzzle, I clicked on it to see what it was all about. The main message of the commercial was about
all the things we have tried to build muscles but that didn’t work and that in
order to get the results we want – we must go about things differently than
what we have been doing.
In many ways that could be said of us here at CoJ! We aren’t getting the results that we want
with building the body and the missing piece to the puzzle is found in this
passage of Scripture that Pastor Sharon read earlier. From the teaching of Paul first shared with
the church at Corinth. I Corinthians
12:12-31
Here’s my summary of this passage.
Just as the body is many parts, so the church is like the
body and is made up of many parts.
Each part has a role
We can’t discount each other.
God arranges the parts.
All parts are necessary and needed!
We are not our best without YOU! Each of YOU!
I believe God has brought each of us here to CoJ and has a
plan for us together.
When you fail to play your part we are like the 9 pound
sparrow named church that is unable to fly!
You are the missing piece of the CoJ puzzle. It takes all of us using our gifts – playing
our part to make the puzzle complete or to fly.
And regardless of what part of the body you are, you are
part of the body and are necessary for a complete and whole body.
Charlie plumb found himself in a North Vietnamese prison as
a POW after his f-4 phantom jet was shot down on May 19, 1967. And he was held prisoner for nearly 6
grueling years. He was released from
imprisonment on Feb. 18, 1973. After he
returned to the states, he and his wife Cathy were eating in a restaurant when
a man came to the table and said, “you’re Plumb. You flew jet fighters in Vietnam.” That’s right answered Plumb, I did!
And the man continued. “It was fighter squadron 114 on the
Kitty Hawk. You were shot down. You parachuted to the ground and spent 6
years in prison.
The former pilot was taken aback. He looked at the man trying to identify him,
but couldn’t. “How in the world do you
know that?” plumb finally asked.
“I packed your parachute.”
The man said.
Plumb staggered. All
he could do was struggle to his feet and shake the man’s hand. “I must tell you, Plumb finally said, “I’ve
said a lot of prayers of thanks for your nimble fingers, but I didn’t think I’d
ever have the opportunity to say thanks in person.”
ALL of us have a role to play. Each of us is necessary! We can not fly to our full potential without
you! No matter how insignificant you
feel your role is, like the parachute stuffer, whatever your role is it is important!
The body building puzzle is we are all part of the body and
a necessary part of it!
There are many tasks/ roles to play around here – some are
necessary for what we do, week in and week out… some are necessary to fulfill
our mission.
I confess that part of what we have been doing around here
that has been keeping us from the results we want is that a few of us have been
doing more than we should, thus keeping others from doing their part!
I am guilty! And I am
committed to doing better. That’s why
last week I advertised for help with the lawn and with stamping offering
envelopes. 2 tasks that needed doing and
that I could easily do, but if I do them, I rob one or more of you from doing
what you can do.
I am thankful for those who stepped up to do their part with
each of those tasks!
We the church are the body.
The body has many parts
Each part has a role to play
We can’t discount each other.
God arranges the parts
All parts are necessary and needed.
We are not our best without YOU!
The body building puzzle is that you are an important part
of CoJ and we are not our best or complete without you using your gifts in the
mission and ministry of Jesus through CoJ.
I hope in the coming months that we will be taking a new/
fresh look at what we do here/ how we do it and ways that we can both receive
love, give love and help each other and people in our community take that next
step toward Jesus.
We the church are the body.
The body has many parts
Each part has a role to play
We can’t discount each other.
God arranges the parts
All parts are necessary and needed.
We are not our best without YOU!
Once upon a time there was a famous house builder and
painter. After designing the homes, he would then build and paint them. As a
painter, he was such an amazing artist that he didn't even need drop cloths. He
had a steady hand, and he was finicky about using good brushes and quality
paint, so there were no drips, just tight trim lines.
This craftsman always designed, built and painted the homes
all by himself—with his own hands … but then one day he had remarkable idea. As
he was standing by one of his houses, he saw a bunch of kids walking home from
the local elementary school. They were minding their own business, laughing and
carrying their backpacks, until he shouted, "Hey, kids." When they
looked up, startled and awestruck (because everyone in town knew about his
amazing skills), he asked them a surprising question: "How would you like
to do some painting?"
"What do you mean?"
"I'll tell you what," he said, "I'll give
each of you a bucket of paint and a brush, and you can paint my new house. Do
you want to give it a try?"
"For real?" they squealed with delight.
The painter nodded as he said, "Yep, for real."
"Cool!" the kids said.
He opened up the back of his truck and pulled out a load of
brushes and paint cans and then pried open the paint cans. They started
splashing paint on his garage door. They got paint on the sidewalk, too, and
some on each other. But they also got a lot of paint on the house—all different
colors, especially on the parts of the house that were under 4 feet high.
As other kids came by on the sidewalk, they asked, "Can
we do that, too?" And they joined in. In about an hour most of the first
floor was now covered with paint.
The house painter's neighbors came over after dinner and
took it all in. "What is going on?" they asked. Another blurted out,
"Look, I gotta be honest, your house looks like a tornado ripped through
Sherwin-Williams. What were you thinking?"
"Well," the house painter said, "of course I
could have painted this house all by myself, but I've always built and painted
houses in order to bring joy to others. So based on that goal, this is the most
beautiful house I've ever made. Then dozens of their friends will want to come
to this house. They'll bring their friends to show what they've painted. And
each one will say, 'This is the home of the master painter and builder, but
it's also our house.'"
In the same way, when God the Father, the master creator and
painter of the world, pours out his Holy Spirit on his followers, he hands
every single one of us a can of paint and a brush, and he says, "Go to
work. Use your gifts and let's paint a beautiful house for the world."
We the church are the body.
The body has many parts
Each part has a role to play
We can’t discount each other.
God arranges the parts
All parts are necessary and needed.
We are not our best without YOU! Each of you using your gifts for the glory of
God!
