"Hey, I'm a Minister, Too!"

1 Corinthians 12:1-12
October 7, 2007

St. Paul United Methodist Church of Little Rock

Reverend John A. Fleming

Before he retired, Reverend James W. Moore was the Senior Pastor at St. Luke's United Methodist Church in Houston, Texas. He was born and bred in Tennessee and once was the Associate Pastor at my home church. My family knows him well enough to call him Jimmy. His hands, along with Dr. Paul Lyles' hands, baptized me lo these many years ago.

One of the things Jimmy did with his ministry was to write books. If you will look closely, you will see that his books really are a collection of his sermons complete with a study guide at the back of them. A Sunday School class or two uses his books. I have to stay that the titles of his books are wonderful. Here are a couple of them. One is: Some Things Are Too Good Not to be True. Another is entitled, Is There Life After Stress. His titles invite you in, but the stories in his sermons and the simple way he makes the Bible come alive are what keep you coming back for more.

One of his stories is perfect for our sermon this morning. In his book You Can Get Bitter or Better, Jimmy tells the story of a minister who was having a hard time living out his calling. If you asked him to describe it, he would say they he felt burned out. By the way, statistics tell us that the drop out rate among pastors is very high in the first ten years of ministry. The pastor in Jimmy’s story was struggling. He needed a break. He needed time to himself. He needed time for sermons not to follow him around during the week. He was tired of living with the stress. So he decided to resign from his church. The problem was that he really wasn't trained to do anything else but ministry.

He looked for a job outside the church for what seemed like forever. Then he saw his escape. He saw an advertisement in the paper that told that his local zoo was hiring. He remembered that as a kid he always wanted to work at the zoo. He decided to apply for the job. The zoo keeper was glad to see him. It seems that there was a bit of a crisis at the zoo. The favorite exhibit at the zoo was the monkeys. And the favorite of all the monkeys had died unexpectedly. The zoo keeper didn't want to disappoint the daily crowds who came to see only him and so he hired this pastor, this minister, to dress up in a monkey's outfit. His doing this job would buy the zoo keeper the time to find another monkey.

The instructions for the pastor was that he had to always play the part of the monkey. He could not take off the costume until the zoo was closed. He was to eat bananas from time to time and swing from the bar and the trees and make monkey sounds. As it turns out, the minister loved his new job. There was no one to disappoint. There were no meetings to attend. His stress level was now much lower. He could sleep part of the day, swing from a tree part of the day, and entertain children most of the day.

One day it happened. There was a large group of children at the zoo and he wanted to make them happy and so he began swinging from the limbs of the tree and on a swing made just for him. He swung higher and higher. The children laughed and cheered him on. He lost his balance and fell off the swing. Unfortunately he landed in an area that was not his. He landed among the tigers. The minister forgot who he was supposed to be. Instead of acting like a monkey, he acted terrified. He started screaming at the top of his lungs as a tiger approached him. He thought his life was over, but then he heard a voice coming from what looked like a hungry tiger. “Hey buddy calm down, calm down. I'm a minister, too!”

I wonder what our church would be like if said that when it came time to our involvement in the church. I see a lot of church bulletins. Many of them list the staff of the church, as our worship bulletin does. A trend is to list the word minister and out beside it these words, All members of the church.

This morning, in the time we have left, I would like for us to consider how we can be ministers here at St. Paul in 2008.

Our scripture lesson is a great one for our topic this morning. Paul is writing to the church at Corinth. The church there, at best, can be described as divided. If you will carefully read what we know as First and Second Corinthians, you will discover that there are actually five different letters contained in them. In our lesson, Paul is doing what he often does, settle a dispute among the believers. Unless you like conflict, you might not want to be a member of First Church, Corinth. For sure I would not like to be their pastor. Paul didn’t enjoy his ministry among them. He refers to a thorn in his flesh that might have been someone in the congregation.

Looking at our lesson it is evident to me that one of the members of the congregation had written Paul asking for a little help with a spiritual matter. The Corinthians fought about many things. One of their fights was about spiritual gifts.

Here’s the problem. Those who could preach thought that they were better in God’s eyes than the ones who only taught. Those who taught thought they were better in God’s game plan than those who could speak in tongues. Those who interpreted the speaking in tongues thought they were better because without them, no one would understand what was being said. They are interested in Paul ranking their gifts.

So Paul, their pastor, writes to them and says, “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed.” Another version of this says that he does want them to be ignorant about spiritual gifts. That is probably a better translation. They fought over these gifts. Most churches do not have this fight. In fact, most church members do not believe that have a spiritual gift, anything useful for the church. And here is the problem. When you read the list of gifts Paul offers to the Corinthians, to the Romans, and to the Ephesians, you may not see anything you are good at and so come to the conclusion that you do not have a spiritual gift. Don’t do that!

Paul’s point in our passage for this morning is that it is God’s Spirit who puts these gifts in us. One is not better than another one, and it takes all of them working together for the church to be the church. Paul would also want to say to us that everyone has a spiritual gift. Discovering what your spiritual gift is the real challenge. But you should do that, you should use what God has made you good at, for the common good. Those are Paul’s words.

I want you to see this. Paul is not concerned about who can do what in the church. Paul is concerned that all of the parts fit together and head in the right direction. Paul wants the church to be the church. He uses the image of a body. Barbara Brown Taylor writes that when Paul compared the church to a human body, she gave us an image we are still growing into. We all have a body and so we understand this. Our hands cannot move unless our brain tells them to. It takes hands and feet, eyes and ears for the church to be the church. No one body part can say, “You’re not necessary!”

God, you see, gives us gifts and expects us to use them for the common good. In his letter to the Ephesians, on this same subject, Paul writes, “Christ gave us gifts to prepare God’s holy people for the work of serving, to make the body of Christ stronger.” When Paul penned those words, he reached deep into a medical dictionary. The word prepare is the same word doctors used to describe the setting of a broken bone.

Broken people come to churches. They come not necessarily with broken bones, but they do come with broken hearts and broken homes. They come with broken dreams and broken lives. And if we are doing what we are supposed to be doing, they will find healing here. Pastors and teachers touch and heal. Those who really believe the good news share it. Prophets speak words of truth. Visionaries dream of better days. Some administer. Some pray. Some lead. Some follow, but all help to make the body stronger. And hopefully there is healing.

In his book they Finding Your Sweet Spot Max Lucado tells about a leader in his church. Max tells that besides running a business and raising a family, he encourages those who are sick and calls on the confused. Few men have kinder hearts that he does.

The man’s heart was torn in pieces the night someone murdered his father. His mother was accused and then acquitted, but for a while he had to deal with the pain of that possibility. Max asks, “How do you recover from that?” This man did it through the church. His friends prayed for him and wept with him and stood by him. Finally, after months of wrestling with anger and sorrow, he decided to move on. His decision came in a moment of worship. God spoke to him through the lyrics of a hymn. I wish Max would have told us which hymn. Max writes, “Randy calls what happened a miracle. That makes two of us.” Where would he have been without the church?

In the church God uses us to help others. In the church we use our gifts to love one another, to honor one another, to keep an eye on the troublemaker and carry each other’s burdens. Do you need encouragement? Do you need prayers? Do you need a place to land? God entrusts the church for these things and God uses you to do it. No one is strong all the time. We often need help.

And so friends I hope you will consider your spiritual gifts, those things God has made you good at. If you think you don’t have a gift, pay attention to what people say about you and the things you do well. Pay attention to your passions and where you get your energy when it comes to the church. Use what God has made you good at.

I opened with a story attributed to James Moore. Let me close with one, too. James tells that there was a man who was about to join a church. He told his pastor, “I want to join because I want to be fed.” The pastor replied, “Well that’s fine but we would all be better off if you would take off your bib and put on an apron.” Maybe the pastor was a little harsh, but he makes a good point. Go home with this question on your heart, “What will my ministry be this next year?” Amen.