Sermon-Secret of Our True Importance

"The Secret of Our True Importance"

Dr. James L. Mayfield
Tarrytown United Methodist Church

January 16, 2000

Text: I Corinthians 12:4-13

We want to matter. We want to feel our living makes some sort of a difference. Our problem is that either we fail to see ourselves as having anything of significance to contribute to life, or we act as if we are the star without whom there would be no show at all. These are twin killers of the soul. Both self-deprecation and cocky arrogance can keep us from living as God intends us to live.

There are some clues in the passage we read today that can help us discover our true importance in life. In that passage, Paul wrote about the Holy Spirit being at work in our lives. When we are aware of this, we are able to live experiencing both grateful self-esteem and happy humility. When the Holy Spirit is at work in our lives, we are confident that we are important to God and at the same time, we are also aware of our need of God and our need of other people.

This blend of an awareness of our importance and of our dependence is the key to our living as God intends. This blend of confidence and humility is a major characteristic of spiritual health.

Certainly confidence, or a sense of worth, is one of the symptoms of spiritual health. God made us, and God makes no junk. Each of us is a special creation. Listen to what Paul wrote in the passage we read: To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. (12:7) Each of us has something to offer life. Each of us has contributions to make. God has made us for life, and God makes good use of us.

When we live by faith, we live trusting God is using our lives for good; that is to say, when we live by faith, we live with an unprovable, confident belief that our living is of worth to God. This confidence is the result of faith. We cannot prove our worth to God, in fact, most of the time we are unaware of the use God is making of our living.

Some time ago, Rita and I saw the movie Mr. Holland's Opus. I know some of you have seen it because we have talked about it. The basic story is about a man who wanted to be a composer of great music. He took a job teaching music in a public school. He thought it was only a temporary job until he and his wife could afford for him to pursue his real vocation. Of course, one thing after another happened and Mr. Holland taught in that school thirty five years. In the process he discovered his true vocation, his true importance. The great symphony he produced was in the lives of the many students he influenced.

Our worth, the gift we have to offer, is not always what we think it is. Only God really knows our true importance. Part of what it means to live by faith is trusting God so much that we are confident we are of worth to God and that God has used us, is using us, and will use our lives—whether we are aware of it or not. A significant symptom of spiritual health is trusting that God is making use of us and, therefore, we really do matter.

Of course, we can distort this confidence. We can be so confident about our worth, so cocky about what we can do and are doing, so smug about our being important to God that we destroy our spiritual health by our arrogant attitude. We can be so proud of ourselves and of what we have done that we begin to act as if we are the stars of the show.

When we are aware we have some intelligence and some talent we are especially vulnerable to this spiritual illness. When we are high achievers and over achievers it is easy for us to suffer spiritual malnutrition because in our cocky pride in our ability and accomplishments, it is easy for us to be insensitive to our need for God and our need for other people. Rather than seeing the purpose of our lives as serving God, we believe it is God's purpose to serve us, and because we are nice people, every once in a while, we will help God. In our arrogance of achievement, it is easy for us to live assuming God cannot get along without our help and advice. We never say it, but all too often, we who are so full of ourselves live as if we were saying: "Hang on God, we're coming to help you."

There is a passage written by Albert Schweitzer that has meant a lot to me. It is from his classic work about on Bach. Schweitzer wrote: Bach fought for his everyday life, but not for the recognition of his art and of his works. In this respect he is very different from … what we understand by an ‘artist.’ … He did nothing to make his cantatas and Passions known, and nothing to preserve them. It is not his fault if they have survived to our day. … The unique thing about [Bach] is precisely the fact that he made no effort to win recognition for his greatest works, and did not summon the world to make acquaintance with them.

What impressed me in this passage is Bach's blending of self-esteem and humility. He had the self-esteem to create great works of music, and such creativity requires self-esteem. Yet, he did not treat his compositions as what made his life worth living.

Bach was a Christian who read many of the writings of Martin Luther. He obviously understood and lived what Luther had discovered in the writings of Paul in the New Testament. He knew that it was not the recognition from the world that gave his life value and worth. What enabled Bach to know he was of worth was not his works, but rather his living and working out of profound trust in God and God's grace. Bach knew we are saved by faith and not by works.

When we live by faith, our trust, our confidence in God is what shapes our living. This trusting God is what motivates our labor. We know our worth in life is not measured by how much recognition we get for what we do. When we live by faith, we no longer need to have our worth measured by the rewards we receive for our efforts. Because our trust is in God, like Bach, we do not have to do battle for the recognition of our work in order for our lives to have meaning or worth.

This view, this understanding of life frees us from the need to play one-upmanship with our neighbors. Being number one in the neighborhood is not what finally gives our lives meaning and worth.

We were not created to "be number one." Nor did God create any of us to live in isolation. God created us so that we need one another. This is a major part of Paul's message and is especially clear in the verses that immediately follow what we read today. Listen: For the body does not consist of one member but of many. … 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.’ (12:14, 21)

Some years ago I saw an event that has become for me a parable making this point. Back in the days when Earl Campbell was setting records as a running back for the University of Texas, I remember going to a game in which he played. I do not remember the team Texas was playing. About all I remember is that Texas was far ahead in the second half, and Earl Campbell was taken out of the game. One of his younger brothers was put in his place. While he was playing, this younger brother scored his first collegiate touchdown.

In the celebration of that touchdown, Earl Campbell ran on the field. I assumed he was going to embrace his younger brother in celebration. But he ran past his brother, and he began hugging and patting the linemen who get little attention and no headlines or cheers, but who had done the blocking for his brother. Although the world celebrates the one who is carrying the ball, Earl knew what really made it possible for his brother to score his first touchdown.

As I said, I saw in this event, a parable. We each have our role to play, our service to give. Each of us has purpose. Although the world may give recognition and highest salaries to the one who is carrying the ball, each of us has our vital importance. We were created for community. We were created to need each other. We were created to live depending on one another. This is why love is the key concept of the Gospel. We humans are social beings. We have been created to live in community. None of us has been created to go it alone—neither the linemen nor the running backs. Each of us has our own contribution to make. And we need each person's contribution to life. We do not need everyone to be a lineman and we do not need everyone to be a running back.

As Paul wrote, To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit, for the common good. Paul went on to say some are given one gift, others are given another, and so on. Each person is of worth. Each person is needed. And each person needs other people.

I began this sermon saying that each of us wants to matter. We want to feel our living makes some sort of a difference. Our problem is we either fall into inappropriate self-deprecation or equally inappropriate pride and arrogance. These are twin killers of the soul that can keep us from living as God intends.

When we live by faith, when the Holy Spirit is at work in us, we live confidently trusting God with our lives. Trusting God, we do not fall into self-deprecation merely because we cannot see what our lives are accomplishing, nor do we give in to arrogant pride because of what we think we have achieved. When we live trusting God, we experience the spiritual health of living with both confidence and humility. On the one hand, we are confident that we are important to God and at the same time we are also aware of our need of God and other people. This blend of confidence and humility is the key to our living as God intends.

O God, enable us to live trusting You so completely that we will avoid the twin killers of our souls and be able to live each day with both a sense of our true importance and an awareness of our need of You and others. Amen.

Pastoral Prayer:

God, we want to believe our living will make a difference; we want meaning in our lives; we want to experience fulfillment. We have been taught to believe that if we live as you want us to live, our living will somehow make a difference and that our lives will have meaning.

This we believe; and yet, O God, we have our doubts and our doubts make us reluctant to place our trust in you; our doubts make us reluctant to make the commitment that living as you intend requires. And so, because of our doubt, we all too often try to make a difference on our own without you. In our fears and doubts, we try to control everything and manipulate everyone—even you. We try to get you to serve us and give us the kind of importance and success we want rather than us giving ourselves to you, so that you can give our lives meaning and purpose by using us as you see fit.

God give us the faith we need so that we can truly give ourselves to you and willingly allow ourselves to be put to doing what you want done. This we pray, remembering Jesus taught us to ask for your will to be done in our lives when he taught us to pray: "Our Father …"

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