Looking forward 3 All member ministry

            Romans 12: 1-8

            Luke 19: 11-27

Today we are moving on in our series on looking forward to thinking about the fact that we are all involved in the life of the Church.

At my licensing service I was very struck by how with each area that I was challenged to focus on  like baptism, sharing the word, the sacrament, I was also asked in turn to turn to you all and say words to the effect of – will you join me in this ministry.

This is not my church – but it is OUR CHURCH and we should together seek to move it forward for the next generation.

So today we are leaving you with leaflets which help you to think how you might be involved with the life of the church  in many different areas, and it would really help us if you could fill these in and leave for us as a sense of offering your gifts and abilities to God.

So I start with that but I want to explain this morning as to why this is so important generally for us as Christians and to explain the rationale by looking at the two passages that we have had this morning.

At a meeting of the American Psychological Association, Jack Lipton, a psychologist at Union College, and R. Scott Builione, a graduate student at Columbia University, presented their findings on how members of the various sections of 11 major symphony orchestra perceived each other. The percussionists were viewed as insensitive, unintelligent, and hard-of-hearing, yet fun-loving. String players were seen as arrogant, stuffy, and unathletic. The orchestra members overwhelmingly chose "loud" as the primary adjective to describe the brass players. Woodwind players seemed to be held in the highest esteem, described as quiet and meticulous, though a bit egotistical. Interesting findings, to say the least! With such widely divergent personalities and perceptions, how could an orchestra ever come together to make such wonderful music? The answer is simple: regardless of how those musicians view each other, they subordinate their feelings and biases to the leadership of the conductor. Under his guidance, they play beautiful music. 

When we look at our life together as a church we can perhaps see similarities with the orchestra- individually we are all different, we all perhaps have onuses on different things but together – we make up one body the body of Christ the Church and together we can create something wonderful.

That’s the aim anyway- normally in church life we fall far short of that but if we have our onus on the great gifts that God has given us then we should be working towards being a healthy body – a bit like a beautiful playing orchestra.

So why should this be a priority for us as individuals and as a church.
Well lets start by looking at the parable we read of in Luke’s gospel that of the minas.

To set this in context we need to look at where Jesus is coming from when he tells this parable. Firstly he is on his way up to Jerusalem and he knows what that is going to lead to.
So when is talking of the nobleman going away it is undoubtedly true that he is thinking of himself and of the time between his leaving the earth in bodily form and him coming back as the time that the nobleman was away. That’s this time here and now when we await Jesus coming again.

So this parable is really saying that God will judge us all as to the gift that we have been given and the time that we invest this gift in the work of the King – that is Jesus.

But what is this gift that we have been given that Jesus is talking about here? Unlike the parable of the tenants in this parable everybody received the same thing. Each servant received one mina, which equals about 3 month’s wages.  And Jesus made a point of emphasising that each servant received exactly the same thing.

So what is He saying? What is Jesus teaching us? What does the mina represent?
What is it that we all have that is exactly the same? How are we similar? There are a lot of areas where we are different. But how are we all the same?

So we go through a process of elimination, checking off ways where we are not alike, until finally we eliminate almost everything. But there is one way where we are all the same. We have all received the gift of life. We didn’t earn it. God just gave it to us.
This is the gift that we have been given to entrust and to see how this earns interest in our lives. So Jesus is saying how are we going to use the gift of life that he gives us to further his Kingdom in the world.

In other words  Jesus is saying, "Take this gift & invest it. Use it until I come again." And if we look at the outworking of the parable we see those who do this and those who don’t and Jesus reaction to this.

So the message from here is that our life giving gift is important and shouldn’t stay static but our role as Christians is to work for the coming of the Kingdom in our lives.

And to help us think about how we do this I want to move on to look at the passage from Romans 12

And the first thing I want us to look at is how we use the gifts that we have been given.

The parable from Luke reminds us  we have all been given the same gift which is a free gift from God that is new life in the Spirit. However, we have also been given other gifts which we are told to use appropriately for his service.
And Paul reminds us that we need to have a right view of this – and use the gifts appropriately.
We are told not to think more highly of ourselves but have a right view of ourselves.

SO – you may have the gift of leadership in some way but actually that is no more important than someone else who has the gift of hospitality or encouragement.
We need to think of ourselves as equal – in God’s eyes. This is countercultural. Because the world sees those who can do certain things as somehow more special than others. So we give credit to status, money and power.

And yet here in God’s eyes we see that we have all been given the same gift and we have all been given God given gifts as individuals and we need to see these as all equally important as the other.

I am sure I am not the only one who sometimes looks at others in church and thinks – oh I wish I could do that like them.  The problem is they are probably looking at you and thinking the same thing!

The gifts that God has given each of us – and we have all been given gifts even if we can’t see them for ourselves are unique to you and special to you.

God has given them just to you for a purpose and he wants us to use them for his service.

Then secondly we have all been given these gifts to support each other.

The analogy of the body is really important here – the body is interdependent upon each other.

Most of us don’t think little toes are very important in our bodies do we. But think for a moment about your little toe

If you have a pain in your little toe what happens – well the pain affects the way you walk which then has a knock on effect on the rest of your body from your knees to your hips to your back and so on.

The little toe what seems an insignificant part of the body but one which if it is not well can have a knock on effect on the wider body. Each part of the body is so interdependent on each other that each part of the body is very important.

And Paul here uses the analogy of the body to talk about the Church – verse 5 so in Christ we who are many form on body and each members belongs to all the others.

We belong together – we are not isolated members but we belong together and are interdependent upon each other.

Therefore we need to support each other to work properly as the body of Christ.

The part that we play as individuals in the life of the church is of vital importance for the whole of the body. We are called to play our part.

So we are given gifts as individuals to use for God’s glory and we are called to play our part in the body of Christ and we do this because of the third thing that Paul says in Romans 12. We do this because this is part of the worship that we offer God.

Paul writes in Romans 12 – offer you bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship.

When we offer ourselves all that we are, all that we do to God this is worship as much as sitting in a church on a Sunday.- because as we offer ourselves, our gifts, our abilities, all of ourselves to God we are honouring him and giving him glory.

Johann Sebastian Bach was born into the musical family of Bachs in 1685. By the age of ten, both of his parents were dead. Early in his friction-filled life, young Johann determined he would write music … music for the glory of God … and this he did.

Most of Bach’s works are explicitly Biblical. Albert Schweitzer referred to him as The fifth evangelist, thus comparing him to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. At age 17 Bach became the organist at the church; soon thereafter he was given charge of the entire music ministry.

During his ministry in Weimar, Germany he wrote a new cantata every month … EVERY MONTH! And during one three-year period he wrote, conducted, orchestrated, and performed (with his choir and orchestra) a new cantata every week!

No one had any idea what a mark Bach would leave. His legacy lives on some 300 years later. You can hear his music at will.

At the beginning of every authentic manuscript one will find the letters “J.J.” This stands for Jesu Java (Jesus help me). At the end of each original manuscript you will find the letters “S.D.G.” This stands for Soli Deo Gloria (to the glory of God).

Now I doubt any of us have the abilities or gifting of Bach but we can be like him and do all we do in God’s strength – Jesu Java Jesus help me and Soli Deo Gloria -  to God’s glory.

So we have all been given the same and different gifts. The same is the grace of God in allowing us to be part of his kingdom. But we need to be aware of how we invest in this Kingdom and use the other gifts that we have been given to support the body, to progress the Kingdom of God and as an act of worship.

We started with the illustration of the orchestra.  For the composer each note is pivotal to get the best out of the piece of music. In the orchestra the single drum roll is as important as the intricate series of runs by the flute. For the beauty of the whole each player has a part to play to make up something beautiful and unforgettable.

In our church – we each like the orchestra have our part to play – we have been given the gifts to do it and we do it to make something beautiful not only as an act of worship but to further God’s Kingdom.