Text: Romans 12:3-8
As we start off this morning, I want you to find a blank piece of paper… or if you are on Zoom or Facebook, type in the comments or chat window.
I want you to think of one thing that you are personally good at.
What is one thing that you know how to do and do fairly well?
Now… if we were together in the sanctuary, I’d have you turn to your neighbor. But, since we aren’t, I want you to share in the comments a few words about how you were able to use that skill or talent recently.
For example: one of my skills is that I can grow things. I set out some of my extra seedlings on the sidewalk in front of our house for our neighbors to take.
Take a minute to share and read one another’s comments!
Thank you all for sharing!
This week on our road trip across the United States, we find ourselves in northwest Washington at Olympic National Park.
With nearly a million acres of land, spanning a huge range of landscapes and precipitation, it contains so many different ecosystems that the largest concentration of life on the planet is found here!
You can explore seventy miles of coastline with whales and puffins and oysters, driftwood from ancient trees, and the ever present ebb and flow of the ocean…
Or make your way inland through old growth rainforests where 12-14 feet of rain fall each year. Centuries old hemlocks, threatened species like the northern spotted owl, mosses and ferns as far as your eyes can see…
Or maybe you want to climb to the top of glacier-capped mountains where golden eagles and Olympic marmots play among the alpine wildflowers…
All in one spectacular park.
But the balance between each of these
seemingly separate and distinct elements cannot be ignored.
As the National Park site describes, “Olympic National Park takes an ecosystem approach to management. We believe that the health and survival of individual species depends on the health of entire habitats.” https://www.nps.gov/olym/learn/threatened-and-endangered-species-of-olympic.htm
To put that in our own faith language… the health of any part of the body depends on the whole.
And every unique part of that habitat, or ecosystem, or body of Christ has an important and distinct function.
Each one is necessary.
Each one is valued.
Each one matters.
I want you to think back to that skill or gift that you mentioned earlier.
Maybe it is a skill that you trained long and hard to learn, or maybe it is a gift that came naturally for you.
Whatever it is, it is something you see within yourself.
Hanging on to that gift in your mind, I want you to hear what Paul writes to us from Romans chapter 12.
You see… he continues his message from last week about what it means to be connected to Jesus Christ.
Hear these verses again from the Message translation:
I’m speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you.
Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it’s important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God.
No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.
This gift that you have identified within yourself… it does not represent something that you own or possess or even have control of.
It represents something that God has given to you.
It represents a part of God’s plan for this world.
It represents one way in which the Body of Christ, the church, is called to share the love of God.
Have you ever thought about your gift that way?
Have you ever thought about how your baking or knitting or carpentry was a part of God’s plan for this world?
Or how your mechanical skills or photography or singing could bring the love of God to your neighbors?
Or how your laughter or negotiating skills or sense of direction could be used to share the gospel?
How your mathematical sensibility or your hard work or your ability to listen is an integral and important part of the church?
Or is your first response whenever the call of Jesus Christ comes to look around and say, “who, me?”
When I was in junior high and high school I loved speaking in front of people.
I was always the first with my hand up when it came time to read out loud in class.
I tried out for every play and musical.
I signed up for speech contests.
I competed, I practiced, I simply loved doing it.
Speaking in front of people came easily to me.
It was never something I had to think twice about.
I knew that in whatever field of work I chose, this skill would be useful.
It was something in the background, something I could fall back on, something I never had to think that much about.
But one day in college, I was asked to prepare a sermon for our campus worship.
Easy-peasy… I had written speeches before.
And I had preached before as a part of my youth group.
I didn’t worry too much about it.
In the midst of the preparation however,
in the midst of my wrestling with the text and really trying to find God in the middle, something in me clicked.
I realized that I wasn’t just writing another speech…
I was sharing God’s love with people.
I wasn’t up there acting or putting on a persona…
this was real.
This is what I was made for.
God wanted me to share his good news with people.
God created me to do this!
As Paul tells the people of Rome and by extension us… we are like the parts of a body, parts of a vital ecosystem.
We get our meaning from the body as a whole – our gifts and skills find their purpose only in relation to these other people and parts of God’s family.
Each one of you matters to this body of Christ.
Each one of you has something unique and amazing to offer to the world.
God has created us for this!
I want you to think for just a second about what this church would be like if someone like Rick stopped playing guitar…
or Wendell stopped fixing things…
or Sherrie stopped calling on neighbors…
or Ella stopped serving…
or Becky stopped asking amazing questions…
or Hope stopped reaching out to friends…
What would happen if I decided to keep my gifts to myself, instead of sharing them?
Think long and hard about that gift you claimed earlier.
You have something unique and beautiful and powerful to offer.
You are called by God to do amazing things.
Yes, YOU.
Today, we are welcoming three new people into professing membership of the United Methodist Church.
We are witnessing Becky, Ella, and Hope claim their roles and their gifts as part of this Body of Christ.
Their gifts join together with all of the other ones in our vibrant and rich ecosystem.
Our congregation is filled with teachers and accountants and musicians and creators and parents and builders and leaders and servants…
We are stronger and healthier and more vibrant because each and every one of you are part of us.
As Paul writes:
since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ’s body, lets just go ahead and be what we were made to be.
In everything you do,
in everything that you offer,
from the moment you wake up until the moment your head hits your pillow at night,
ask how God can use you.
Take those gifts you have and share God’s love
through every goodbye you make in the morning
and every meal you deliver to the elderly in our community
and in every car your fix
and in every meeting you have at work.
Share the good news through every post you make on facebook
and every class you have at school
and in every game you play.
Do what you do with integrity, with love, with compassion.
Paul breaks it down like this:
If you help, just help, don’t take over; if you teach, stick to your teaching; if you give encouraging guidance, be careful that you don’t get bossy; if you’re put in charge, don’t manipulate; if you’re called to give aid to people in distress, keep your eyes open and be quick to respond; if you work with the disadvantaged, don’t let yourself get irritated with them or depressed by them. Keep a smile on your face.
We are the body of Christ.
We are his living, breathing, hands and feet in this world.
In everything we do… let God shine through.
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