Under Construction

Robert E. Hall
Tarrytown United Methodist Church

August 2, 2009

Ephesians 3: 11-16

In the body of Christ, though there is one Spirit, one baptism, one Lord, there is a diversity of gifts. Some gifts we discover early in life, some later.  Some abilities are called forth by the needs at hand.  But all who are in Christ are a part of the body, blessed in order to be a blessing.

In Ephesians we learn that “some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers….”

In First Corinthians 12 these gifts are listed: “workers of miracles, healers, helpers, administrators, speakers in tongues, interpreters of tongues; wisdom, knowledge, (extraordinary) faith!”

In Romans 12, Paul identifies as gifts, “service, exhortation (encouragement), generosity in giving, aiding others, doing acts of mercy.”

First Peter tells us that “speaking” itself is a gift.

These twenty gifts and others are identified in the letters of the New Testament---not an exhaustive list, but a sampling for sure, and a good place to start.

There is good news in such a listing. We are freed to be the person God has given us to be. Discover your gift(s) and be blessed! Be open to God’s call on your life to use your gifts in the arena of life in which you are (or could be) engaged. And I am convinced that we discover different gifts  as we grow older, perhaps abilities that we have not had time earlier to develop. At its best the church is the body which calls forth our gifts, blesses us and frees us for their use.

We can admire others’ gifts, but coveting them is a waste of energy.

Gifts discovery can be troublesome if you and I decide that someone’s gift make them closer to God, more “spirit-filled” than others! This was the problem Paul addressed in First Corinthians. Apparently, those who had the gift of tongues and miracles felt they were closer to God than those with the more pedestrian gifts, such a helping or service. This can happen with other gifts that get over-valued: prophecy (inspired speech); administration (steering the ship) are often prized by the church as more crucial to the mission of the church than others.

We get our heads straight about gifts when we remember, as I Peter puts it:

“As each has received a gift, employ it for one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace.” (4:10) Or, as Ephesians tells it: use your gift “for building up the body of Christ,” until we all get built into the persons God wants us to be, “mature, to the measure of the stature of Christ.”

We are one in Christ; we are variously gifted; and the love of God in Christ through the Holy Spirit turns our stony and self-centered hearts into hearts which feel, which are compassionate  Then we see the larger picture, the body of Christ healthily showing and sharing God’s love in the world. We begin to see ourselves as a member of a team instead of being in competition with each other.

We grow toward such a mature understanding: we wouldn’t need love (forbearance, humility, patience, gentleness) unless we had some room to improve! But we can intentionally, resolutely march forward, “eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace,” and “speaking the truth in love to each other.”

When each of us is doing our tasks well, with fervor and consistency, we as a body and individually can be mature---- those who are not “tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the cunning of others, by their craftiness in deceitful wiles.”

Or, as in the Cotton Patch version of Paul’s letters translates this sentiment: these gifts “are to help us quit being babies, so easily swayed and carried away by every windbag that comes along with some clever gimmick, with some big show to snare the gullible.”

(Jesus said we were to “become like children” in our openness and trust in God’s love; here Paul is using this imagery in a different way. Babies cannot know when they are being sold a bill of goods; as adults, we should be wise enough to know better!)

We do not have to hide from new ideas. But we can dig deeper into the great overarching story of God’s love in the Bible and learn how to pray, and to sift ideas and philosophies that are offered to us. We can trust our own experiences of truth as members of the body of Christ.

Our young men too often get picked off by images of manliness as macho, self-serving violence toward others. Our young women get persuaded that femininity means skin-exposure. And we are all being programmed daily with a dose of nihilism: the belief that there is no truth but that which we make up for ourselves, and anybody’s truth is as good as any others. Greed is good, so we are taught; and we are molded by the philosophy that a world in which everyone pursues his or her own advantage is the highest good. Drugs and drunkenness become our escape from boredom and anxiety.

How can we be firmly grounded and growing in the gospel message: this is Paul’s concern in Ephesians.

And his answer is that we all have a part in this work. Teachers, preachers, helpers, aid givers, givers, servers, healers: each of us can make a contribution to the church and its smaller groupings: learning, service, mission, performing, planning, preparing.

I spent a week recently at McCurdy School, a United Methodist K through 12 school in Espanola, New Mexico. It was a short-term experiment in being the body of Christ. There was evidence of a variety of gifts: painting, scraping, roofing, digging, consulting, encouraging, teaching, praying, first-aiding, driving, kidding, discerning, studying, singing, sweeping, mopping, warning, tending----to name a few. We became a microcosm of the larger church.

Paul challenges us to be faithful stewards of the gifts that have been given. You and your gifts bless others and build up the community called TUMC----and beyond! We are God’s outpost, a new people created by God from every race and nation, every persuasion and inclination. As Marcus Barth has written, “We are the construction lot of God on earth.” (Epistle to the Ephesians)