“A Lesson from Church Candles”

I Corinthians 12:1-14

June 8, 2003

St. Paul UMC

Rev. John Fleming

A peculiar thing happened at the parsonage one night a few weeks ago. A thunderstorm blew through our neighborhood and with it came high winds heavy rains, loud clashes of thunder, and a great display of lightning. About half way through the storm, the electricity at our house flickered and then went out. I knew where we kept the candles for nights like that night, so I went down the stairs, to our basement, to the storage room where the candles are kept. Now it was dark thirty if you know what I mean. Other than the flashes of lightning, there was no other light. I felt my way down the stairs making sure that I did not miss the first step. When I got at the bottom of the stairway, I tripped over both of my dogs and a couple of Annie Grace’s toys and I opened the doors to the storage room. I had with me a butane lighter. So there I was standing in front of my candles. They were in perfect order, all four of them, ready for service, or so I thought. None of these candles were new. All of them had been tried and tested at least a couple of times. They were all melted, to some degree, from their previous missions. I reached toward the wicks of the candles and lit all four of them.

Now I know that this is going to seem strange to you, but I wanted these four candles of mine to know how important their work was going to be and so I began to tell them what my plan for each of them was. I said, “You four are doing such a good job burning here in the closet. I am going to put one of you in Annie Grace’s room. One of you will be in the upstairs den, another one of you will be over there on my desk so that I can read and study and you will be upstairs in the kitchen.” Having said that, I reached for the largest of the four candles and said, “You are going to Annie Grace’s room!” I was just about to leave the storage room with candle number one in my hand when I heard a voice. The voice said, “Now hold it right there!” I will have to admit that hearing that voice scared me more than a little bit. After all, things do go bump in the night and this was a voice that I had never heard before. With a tremble in my voice, I asked, “Who said that?” “I did” came the response. The voice was close to me. I could tell that. I know that this is going to sound a little strange, but it sounded like the voice was coming from the candle. I had to ask, “Who are you? What are you?” My suspicions were right. The voice said, “Who do you think that I am! I’m a candle!” I lifted the candle up to my face and there in the purple wax was the smallest of a face, full of expression and definitely full of life. Friends, this candle was bold! He said, “Don’t you dare take me out of here!” I will have to tell you, I was taken aback by that. I thought that my ears were playing tricks on me and so I asked, “What did you say?” The reply came, “I said, ‘Don’t you dare take me out of this room!’” I asked, “What do you mean? I have to take you out of this room. You’re a candle. It’s your job to light up the dark places. I’ve got a little girl who is upstairs and afraid of the dark!” The candle said, “I’d really like to help you out, but I can’t. You see, I’m just not ready!” My candle was pleading with his eyes, “I just need a little more time to prepare.” Church, I could not help but to think to myself, “More time to prepare? You’ve been sitting on one of my shelves since the ice storm three years ago!” My candle said, “You see, I have been doing a little research on this light giving thing. Light giving is not an easy job. I don’t want to go out there and make a bunch of mistakes!” I was more than a little frustrated at this point, and so I said, “Fine! You are not the only candle that I have. I will just blow you out and take these other three candles with me.” I was filling my cheeks with air when I heard three other voices. In unison they said, “We are not going either!” These three were speaking up and saying their peace. I had to ask them, “You are candles, aren’t you? It is your job to light up dark places, isn’t it?” The candle on the far left called out to me, “Well, that might be what you think, but I am really busy. You see, I have been meditating on the importance of light. I have to tell you, it’s very, well, it’s, uh, yeah, it’s enlightening!” I looked over at the two other candles that were there and I asked them if there was anything that I could say that would convince them to help me light up our house. One of the two said, I really would like to help you, but I can’t. You see, I’m trying to get my life together right now. I’m just not stable enough!” I turned to the last candle. I looked at her and smiled. She looked back and said, “I would like to help you, too, but lighting dark places is not my gift. You see, I am a singer. I sing to these other candles and I encourage them to burn brightly.” I was about to tell her that her songs of encouragement were not making a difference in their lives. But before I could, she broke out singing, “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine. This little light of mine. I’m gonna let it shine. This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine. Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.” I blew her out when she came to the line about being blown out. I turned and tripped over my two dogs again and a couple of Annie Grace’s toys. It was then that Susie came down the stairs looking for me. When she asked me where the candles were, I said, “You would not believe me if I told you. By the way, where did you get those candles?” She said this, “From the church across town, you know, the one that recently closed it’s doors.” After I heard that, I think that I understood their reluctance a little better.

You know, of course, that this is a preacher’s story, which means that there is a little truth in it. There was a thunderstorm that blew through our neighborhood the other night and our lights did flicker a time or two, but that is about all the truth that there is to this story. But I do think that it is a great way to think about our scripture lesson for this morning, these words of Paul to the Church at Corinth. If you know anything about Paul’s ministry in Corinth, then you probably know that he definitely had his hands full when he took the pastoral responsibility for the Christians there. There were joys to serving the church there, but there were a lot of pains to serving it, too. I suspect that there were some nights that he slept little worrying about his church in Corinth.

The church, you see, fused and argued about many things, but perhaps their favorite argument was the one that he addressed head on in our lesson for this morning. We catch a glimpse of what the problem was in our lesson’s first line. There Paul writes, “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed.” There was a problem with these gifts and evidently it bothered some enough to write their pastor about it. I think of all of the issues in Corinth, Paul took special care with this one. It seems that the Corinthians thought that because they had a particular spiritual gift, it made them more special than other people. They thought that because they had a particular gift, they were closer to God. I think that their real purpose in writing to Paul is to ask him to rank these spiritual gifts of theirs. Perhaps their argument started at a church board meeting. Maybe their conversation went something like this, “You know, don’t you, that I am closer to God because I have the gift of teaching. God knows that we need good Sunday School teachers here at our church. Another might have countered, “That might be what you think, but I know that I am closer to God because I have the gift of faith.” Another might have said, “Well, I can preach and since Paul is not here with us, my gift is the most important. It makes me closer to God. God speaks to my soul.” Those who had wisdom argued that they were closer to God. Those who could speak in tongues argued that they were closer to God. Those who could interpret the tongues might have said, “No one would understand you if it weren’t for me! Therefore, I am closer to God!” Paul, the absent pastor, had no interest at all in ranking the gifts. Instead of ranking them, he writes that it is God’s Spirit who gives these gifts. I hope that you did not miss it. In fourteen verses, there are nine different instances where Paul says that it is God’s Spirit that enables these gifts. I would like for you to hear one of the lines of our lesson one more time. Paul writes, “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” To each? Did you hear that? For the common good; for everyone’s good, do you understand that? Paul is the one who uses so eloquently the idea and the image of the body of Christ, the church and our own bodies being just alike. He is the one that says that the foot cannot go off on its own or say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” Paul says that everyone is needed. Paul says that everything is needed to make the church the church. It is this apostle who says that it is God’s Spirit that makes these gifts possible, that it’s all of them working together for the common good.

I sometimes wonder what the church would be like if the Spirit wasn’t around. Oh, I guess that we could stay around for a time. We could still be alive for a while. After all, if you have enough time and talent and personality and a bit of money, some projects and a few parties, we could go on for a while, but not forever. Do you understand this? The prayer of the church must be the one from the 51^st Psalm, “Do not take your Holy Spirit from us.” The Holy Spirit is what makes the church possible.

Let me ask the question that I ask most Sundays. What are we supposed to do with these words this morning? What are we supposed to do with the Holy Spirit and this argument from Corinth about spiritual gifts? Here is what I think. I think that we are not so worried about our spiritual gifts being more powerful than the spiritual gifts of the ones sitting next to us in church. I do not think that we believe that our spiritual gift help us to be closer to God. No, in fact, I think that we are more inclined to think that we don’t have a spiritual gift! I think that we struggle and fret and worry about what we are supposed to do in the church. And sometimes this worrying keeps us in the closet of our faiths.

I knew a man in the Harmony Grove Church who came up to me and said, “Preacher, my spiritual gift is counting.” I asked, “Counting?” He said, “Yes, counting.” One Sunday morning our then preacher asked me if I would count the people in our worship service. I liked it so much that he asked me to count once a month. I decided that I could do that. I found that even when it wasn’t my week to count, I would still count. I can even tell you how many ceiling tiles there are in the sanctuary. Are you interested in knowing that? He said this to me, “Don’t ask me to teach, but when you need a counter, I’m your man!”

There is some great advice in our lesson, in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. Maybe the first strong word is this, we all have a gift. It is biblical, read the word again. Paul writes, “To each is given the Spirit for the common good.” God has made you good at something. Paul lists the gifts that the Corinthians are arguing over. He mentions wisdom and knowledge and faith and healing and miracles and prophesy and teaching and speaking in tongues. He lists them, but this is not his only list. In another letter to another church, Paul lists gifts that are more fitting for our church. To the Romans, he says that the gifts are prophesy, teaching, giving, leading. And listen to this one, being compassionate. We are a compassionate church, friends. I am tired of hearing preachers say and I’m tired of saying it myself that what you can do in the church is only teach or lead or preach. We’re a church full of compassionate people, who care about each other and who I think will go to extra-ordinary lengths to help one another. I am telling our staff that our new job is to help everyone here to discover their gifts and to help them use them. That is our job! Everyone has a gift. That is lesson number one this morning.

Let me quickly give you lesson number two. All of our gifts work together for the common good. In one of my favorite Peanuts cartoons, Lucy comes into the living room of her house. There, sitting on the floor, is her brother, Linus, watching his favorite television show. Lucy comes in demanding that the channel be changed to her favorite show. Linus, of course, protests, “What makes you think that you can walk in here and take over?” With one hand on her hip and her other hand raised, she says, “These five fingers. Individually, they are not much, but when I curl them together into this single unit, they form a weapon that it terrible to behold!”

Linus walks out of the room, looking down at his hand, and asking his fingers, “Why can’t you guys get organized like that?” Since the day of Pentecost, 1973 years ago, we have been organized like that, but I don’t think that we’ve claimed the power that we have together. Every gift counts. Knowing that, I’d like to leave you with another of Paul’s words. This time to young Timothy, the young pastor, to him he writes, “For this reason, I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you.” Let us pray.

(Special thanks to Max Lucado’s writings for the story about the candles. It is his story and I used parts of it. Special thanks to Charles M. Schultz who brought joy to so many lives with Charlie Brown and the Gang. And special thanks to St. Paul. If we will all use our gifts, mighty things will happen here).