“The Power of a Helping Hand”

First Corinthians 12:1-14

October 9, 2005

St. Paul United Methodist Church

Rev. John A. Fleming

One of the mile markers in my spiritual journey happened just after my graduation from the Jackson-Central Merry High School in the summer of 1986. That summer like the two or three summers before it, my church’s youth group traveled by bus, a forty-two passenger one, to Panama City, Florida to a Christian retreat center called Panama Beach Retreats. I was active, a leader in our youth group, in those days, but I had never been on one of the Florida retreats. I couldn’t go, after all, because they always went in the middle of June and in the middle of baseball season. There was no way that I could abandon my baseball team for something like a spiritual retreat. Since I worked at that church, my home church, in the gym, I was always there went the bus was being loaded and when the group returned home.

For two years, I had seen the result of the seven days and six nights in Florida. There were sun tans, of course, but when the group, my friends returned home, even after a twelve hour bus ride, they were different. Some of them who hardly had spoken to one another before the trip, were suddenly best friends. There was a spirit there, among them, that lasted at least through the summer. And to be honest with you, because I didn’t go, because I hadn’t gone, I felt left out!

My senior year, I signed up for the trip. I could not muster up the courage to tell my coach that I would miss the four games that week, so instead of being absent without leave, my youth minister came and gave him the news. My coach was not happy with me! But come midnight (we always left at midnight, traveled throughout the night so that we could hit the beach that first day), I took my seat on the bus.

The retreat was all that it promised to be. There were bunk beds and swimming pools. There was a trip to the strip. There were hours on the beach and games of beach volleyball. Never did I dream that the lessons, the twice a day times of gathering in small groups, would be so powerful, so building, so wonderful to me. On the last night of the retreat, knowing that in the morning it all came to an end and a long bus ride ahead of us, our youth leader, our senior minister’s wife, Virginia Burnette, had all of us sit in a huge circle in our meeting room. There were fifty or so of us, sitting next to one another, when Virginia pulled out a ball of yarn that was about the size of a cantaloupe. She sat down next to one of us, and gave us our instructions. She would start. She would wrap a piece of the yarn around her finger, once, maybe twice, and throw the ball of yarn to someone across the room. They would catch it, and then the one doing the throwing would say something to the one doing the catching. There were only two rules. First, you could not throw the yard to someone sitting on either side of you. And second, what you said to the one receiving the yarn had to be about some gift, something of God, that you saw in them. Virginia went first. She set the tone. We had all been together now for seven days. We had slept in the same room, shared the same bathroom, fixed meals together, played together, studied together, and become close together. And so Virginia began. I cannot tell you who she threw the ball of yard to first. I cannot tell you what she said about them. But what I can tell you is that I anxiously awaited the chance for someone to throw me the yard. I also plotted who I would throw the ball to and what I would say. I guess that the evening could have been a popularity contest, one person getting the yarn more than anyone else, but that is not what happened. Three and a half or maybe four hours later, we were still throwing the yarn back and forth. And when everyone had a turn, when everyone had had the yarn thrown to them at least one time, Virginia helped us to see that what we had created. I was a great web, like a spider’s web. We were all connected. Then she gave the lesson. She pulled on the web and we all moved with it. She asked one of us to let go of the string, to unwrap it from her fingers. When she did, part of the web collapsed. It was then, that night, around midnight, that I first understood that I was a part of something greater. I realized that I was a part of a family and a faith community. I was important to someone besides myself. As long as I live, I will never forget the feeling of the string around my finger and the feeling of being connected.

The Apostle, Paul, knew the importance of such a thing. So when one of the members of the Corinthian church wrote to him about a problem that the church was facing, he took great care in addressing it. It was not the only problem that the church wrote to Paul about, but it may have been the most important one. Paul writes, “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed.” It seems that there were members of the church who thought that because they had a particular spiritual gift, it made them special, and it enabled them to have a better relationship with God.

What I think that the Corinthians wanted was for Paul to rank these gifts, give them a special order, so that they, truly, would know who was more important. The argument might have started at a board meeting. Perhaps someone stood up and said, “We need good Sunday School teachers in this church. We can thank the good Lord that I have this spiritual gift. You know, among all of them, it is the most important gift to have!” That would have caused an explosion! It would have added fuel to the already burning fire in that church. Those who had the gift of speaking in tongues may have chimed in. Maybe they said, “Now wait a minute! I have the gift of speaking in tongues; not everyone has that gift and because I do, I’m closer to God!” I have a friend who has a coaster in her office to protect a table from coffee rings. On the coaster are these words, “Jesus loves you, but I’m His favorite!” I would like to have a coaster like that one!

The Corinthians believed because they had a particular spiritual gift, they were God’s favorite. The problem was that they needed to know what the pecking order was. The church wanted Paul to rank the gifts, one through ten. Paul would have none of that. He would not participate in that. Instead he writes back to them telling them that everyone has a gift, given to them by the Spirit, and that each and every one of these gifts is necessary for the good, the common good, of the church.

The day that Paul was inspired to compare the church to a human body, he gave us an image that we are still growing into. It is a strong image, because each of us has a body and so we know what he is talking about. In order for us to do something with our bodies, anything, more than one part has to get in on the action. And so when Paul realized that the body was trying to set up a hierarchy of gifts, he quickly wanted them to know that everyone was important and that every gift mattered.

Now, to be honest with you, I would not have enjoyed being appointed to be the senior pastor at First Church, Corinth. There were too many problems there. Paul even wrote about a conflict that he had there with one of his members. It was painful for him. There were too many factions, too many issues, too many arguments in Corinth for my level of comfort. Like most preachers, I don’t enjoy those sorts of things. I think that it would be nice to serve one church in my pastoral life, who would argue about their spiritual gifts. The truth is that most of the time, when you ask someone what their spiritual gift is, they shrug their shoulders and stare at you with a blank look on their faces. Now that I think about it, I am not so sure that we have the ability to see these gifts, these things that we seem to be good at, in ourselves.

I wonder where I would be if that same youth leader, the one that I mentioned in our opening story had not asked to speak to me following one of our Sunday night youth group meetings. Where would I be if she had not gently asked me if I had ever considered being a minister. Would the thought have crossed my mind? Would God have gotten my attention? Would I have noticed it if it had not been for Virginia’s words? Her words echoed in my heart. Her words placed a seed of possibility inside of me. Her words were these, “I have seen things inside of you. I have seen your leadership. I have noticed your compassion. I have seen your possibilities. I thought that you should know that.” Wow!

Could I ask you to do something for me this morning. It is physically impossible to get a ball of yarn big enough for all of us to throw back and forth to one another today. Gathering in a circle would also be a problem. Moving these pews is not be easy. They are both heavy and bolted down. If it took almost four hours for us to pass that ball of yarn around to fifty of us back in the summer of 1986, it would take longer than that for us to do that this morning. You would not want to stay here ten or eleven hours, would you? The Baptists would beat us to the restaurants. While you know most of the people in this room, you do not know them as well as others.

So let us try this. Let’s do it this way. I would like for you to imagine your own circle of friends and family, those people who have left some mark on your life. You are here this morning because someone in your past believed in you and lavished on you their spiritual gifts. They believed in you. They sacrificed things for you. They used their gift, whatever it was, to build you up. Could I ask you for just a minute to close your eyes and to imagine them throwing a ball of yarn your way. Go ahead and catch it. Get ready to listen. What is it that they are saying to you? What is it that they see in you that you have had trouble seeing in yourself? What is it that they are saying you are good and gifted at? Since they are so important to you, what they have to say to you means something. What are they saying is your gift? What are they saying that sets you apart from everyone else?

Hold the ball of yarn for a minute. Drink in that affirmation. It feels good, doesn’t it? Now it is your turn. I want you to imagine someone sitting in that same circle that you have a little influence over. Perhaps it is someone in this church. Maybe it is someone in our youth or young adult group. Perhaps it is someone in your Sunday School class. In your mind’s eye, tell them what you see in them. If we had time this morning to do those things, you would see the web, you would notice the connection. You would see the strength of it all. At the end of the service, we could sing: Bind us together, Lord. Bind us together with cords that cannot be broken. Bind us together, Lord, bind us together. Bind us together with love. It would be a powerful experience. I can tell you that. It would be great.

It we believe what we say. If we believe that the church is the body of Christ, and individually members of it, then our job, our main job, is to recognize gifts in one another, and to encourage one other to use these gifts, all for the common good. The mailings start this week. Our plan for everyone to have a ministry at this church is so important. You will have a chance to share your gift with someone else and this church. So I hope that you will spend a little time (actually it a very rewarding thing to do) telling someone what they are good at and encouraging them to use that gift in this church. Let us pray.