Have you ever noticed that communication is difficult business? In the book AMERICA'S DUMBEST CRIMINALS there is a story about a blundering, wannabe robber with speech difficulties in Thibodaux, Louisiana, who just couldn't win for losing. Sam Lincoln entered Bob's Cafe and, speaking in his thick, backwoods Cajun accent, ordered the waitress to "give me all the money." Unfortunately, she couldn't understand a word he said. To her it sounded like he was ordering "a sieve with all the honey."
In desperation, Sam turned to a patron and told him to hand over all hismoney. The diner could have sworn that Sam said to "live a big pile of bunny." When the patron couldn't understand him either, Sam got so frustrated that he pulled out his gun. He pulled the trigger. Click. The gun wouldn't fire. Now Sam grabbed the cash register and began to run. But he didn't get far only about three feet. The register was still firmly plugged into the wall, and he quickly ran out of cord. The register was jerked out of Sam's hands, and he fell. Humiliated and frustrated, he ran out of Bob's Cafe emptyhanded. Waitresses and patrons breathed a sign of relief. Someone hefted the register back up to its place on the counter. But five minutes later, Sam was back. This time, he made sure he unplugged the register before making off with it. Sam was ecstatic for about three feet. A bystander knocked Sam down and made a citizen's arrest. (1)
Communication is difficult especially if you come from the backwoods of Louisiana. But even under the best of circumstances it is problematic. How many times have you heard the phrase, "What we have here is a failure to communicate"?
Experts tell us that one of the most accurate means of discerning communication is to watch body language a nod of the head, a shrug of the shoulders, crossing the arms over the chest, all may tell us what the other party is thinking far more accurately than the words that come from his or her lips. In fact, some business books advise people to feign interest by deliberately using specific body language. For example, one source states that "steepling of hands is usually interpreted as a sign of deep thought. Doctors and psychiatric professionals traditionally steeple when listening to patients. Result: Someone who deliberately steeples tends to be considered a deep thinker and powerful, intelligent person. This expert recommends that business people steeple in meetings, or while listening to colleagues oneonone." (2)
I think that I'll try that the next time we have a business meeting and see if my words carry more weight. Body language another way in which we communicate.
St. Paul uses body language in our lesson for the day when he is trying to describe how a church is supposed to operate. Oh, we don't know if he steepled his hands or not. He used body language of a different sort. What St. Paul does is compare members of a church to parts of a body. Some of us are eyes, some ears. Some of us are mouths, some feet, and some of us noses, etc. I'll leave it to you to figure out who among us is what.
Paul's message is a very simple one and yet it is also vital. FIRST OF ALL, ST. PAUL SAYS, EACH ONE OF US IS INDISPENSABLE. A physical body is in trouble if it loses one of its members. So is the body of Christ.
Arnold Prater has turned Paul's teaching into a parable: Once upon a time, he says, almost everybody was an ear. All the ears had a big convention and were having a wonderful time when a nose and a mouth walked in, sat down on the back row, and were very quiet. But soon the sergeantatarms walked over and said, "You fellows don't look like ears to me. I'm kicking you out." So the nose and the mouth left. But after a while the convention hall caught fire and destroyed all the ears because no noses were there to smell the smoke and no mouths were there to warn them the place was on fire! (3) A person who loses her sense of smell suffers. A person who loses his eyes is in serious trouble. St. Paul is saying the same thing about members of Christ's body, the church. Every one of us is essential. Everyone is indispensable.
C. S. Lewis once said something about the church that I believe is important. He said that the model many of us have in our minds for the church is the same model we have for secular organizations. That is, we think of the church as an organization that we join. Then we do what members of an organization normally do we come to meetings and pay dues. Maybe, occasionally, we read the organization's newsletter, if we have time. THIS IS NOT CHRIST'S MODEL FOR THE CHURCH. Christ's intent is that his people will be joined to his church in the same way that members of a physical body are joined to that body. It is a living relationship. The body gives life to its members and they, in turn, are indispensable to the body. For the person in whom Christ dwells, being actively involved in church is not merely an option anymore than an eye has an option about being involved with a physical body. Losing an eye is a tragedy for both the eye and for the body. Christ is saying that each of us is indispensable. We all have a place in his family.
We are indispensable, says St. Paul, BUT WE ARE ALSO DIFFERENT. A nose and a mouth are different. Both are indispensable, but they are different. They have different functions, different gifts to bring to the body. So it is with Christ's body. Some of us are strong at some things; others are strong at others. It would be a mistake to try to be something we are not. That would violate God's plan for our life.
According to news reports during the last Olympics, one of the most popular places in the Olympic Village was the bowling alley. Interestingly enough, Olympic athletes weren't that good at bowling. One source reports that in more than a halfhour of viewing, she didn't see one strike bowled. (4) Just because you have strengths in one area, doesn't mean you have strengths in others.
Those of you who are basketball fans remember a few years back when Michael Jordan decided he should be a professional baseball player. He put on the right uniform. He used the right equipment. He even was assigned to the right field. But watching Michael Jordan play baseball was not anything like watching Michael play basketball. Fly balls hit him in the chest. His swing lagged inches behind a fast ball. He referred to the umpires as "referees." He ended up being sent to a Birmingham minor league club. (5)
Each of us has strengths. Each of us has places God can use us most effectively. The secret of having a strong and vital church is to make certain that every one of us is using the gift God has given us that we are doing what we can do best. If we do not use our gifts to God's glory, it is a tragedy both for us and for the family of Christ.
Katherine Elliot compares it to a bottle of perfume. She writes: "When I was about 10 years old, Grandma received a gift of perfume in a bottle that fascinated me. Made of green pottery with a long, slender neck and square bottom, it looked like pictures I had seen of ancient ware. I begged Grandma to open it. ˜No,' she said. ˜I'm going to save it until later.' When I was 33, Grandma gave [the perfume] to me saying, ˜Let's see how long you can keep it without opening it.'
"One day when I picked up the perfume bottle, I was shocked to discover that it was empty, although still sealed. Turning it over, I could see why. The bottom of the bottle had never been glazed. The perfume had slowly evaporated through the porous clay. How sad that no one ever enjoyed the perfume not Grandma or anyone else! How disappointing for the gift giver! Then it struck me that I frequently treat God's gifts to me in the same way, not using them because of shyness, selfishness, or just plain laziness. Failing to use our gifts disappoints God, and we deny others the opportunity to enjoy God's blessings with us." (6)
That is God's will for God's people that we shall use our gifts, regardless of what those gifts may be. Pastor Jamie Buckingham tells about a man whose gift is taking out the garbage. Now most of us wouldn't consider taking out the garbage as a gift, but this man does. He stops by a neighbor's house three times a week just to empty his garbage. The neighbor is an invalid. This man says he receives great joy in fulfilling his gift in life; taking out his neighbor's garbage.
What gift have you got to offer Christ? There is something each of us can do to advance Christ's Kingdom. We all have gifts and each of those gifts is important. We are all necessary, no one is better or worse than another. No one gift is more important than any other gift in the church. We are indispensable and we are different.
THE THIRD THING THAT PAUL SAYS TO US IS THAT WE SHARE ONE GIFT THE GREATEST GIFT OF ALL THE GIFT OF LOVE. In fact, our lesson for the day leads right into chapter 13 of I Corinthians, in which St. Paul says that no matter how many other gifts we have, if we don't have love, we don't have anything.
That splendid story teller John R. Aurelio used Paul's analogy for a story in his book COLORS. He says that one day when the heart was feeling in an especially critical mood, it said to the lungs, "Stop nudging me inside. Who do you think you are anyway? You're so filled with your own selfimportance that you're trying to take over the whole place." "You should talk!" the lungs exploded. "Do you ever march to a different drummer? No! All you do all day long is beat your own drum. The noise is driving me crazy. Come to think of it, I'm sick of it and I'm sick of you."
Well the battle lines were drawn. The two of them continued on this way for days, the one beating the same issue to death while the other just kept blowing hot air about it.
"We'll see about this," the heart finally said, pounding furiously as it told its story to the mouth. The mouth agreed with the heart and bit its lip in anger. "We'll see how swelled up the lungs will be if I hold back," it spat out. In retaliation the lungs told its story to the stomach. The stomach became very upset and agreed not to feed into the heart's monotonous monologue. Before long all the other organs began taking sides the nose with the mouth and lungs, the liver and spleen with the stomach, while the kidneys were split in two. Alas, the argument never came to a head. Not that it would have done much good, for by this time the body was so divided and weak, it died. (7)
That can happen to a church. It makes no difference how talented members of a church are, or how able the leadership of the church, if people in that church don't love one another, that church will die! The most important gift, Paul tells us, is love. Even more important, the love of Christ is what we have to offer the world.
James Hewett tells about a family that had gone to the movies, and on the way in the young man of the family stopped by the refreshment stand to pick up some popcorn. By the time he got into the theater the lights were already dim. He scanned the theater and evidently couldn't find his family. He paced up and down the aisles looking for a familiar face. When the lights began to dim even further, he finally stopped and cried out, "Doesn't anyone recognize me?"
Hewett goes on to say that when visitors come into our church they are looking for family and companionship. And often they stand neglected in the aisles, in the foyer or out in the parking lot long after service. In the deep recesses of their hearts these people are crying out, "Doesn't anyone recognize me?" (8) We owe it to them to offer them genuine love and concern the love and concern of Jesus Christ.
This is what the church is all about. This is who you and I are. We are members of the body of Christ. Not members as the world thinks of members of an organization but living members attached permanently to the body each indispensable, but different. All joined to one another and to the world for whom Christ died by an amazing love that longs to call all of the world's people to become one in Christ Jesus our Lord.
1. Daniel R. Butler, Leland Gregory and Alan Ray, (Nashville: Rutledge Hill Press, 1995), pp. 6970.
2. BOTTOM LINE PERSONAL, a newsletter Cited in THE PROGRESSIVE, FORBES, May 18, 1995, p. 30.
3. THE PRESENCE, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1993), p. 101.
4. "Izzy and the party people," by Maria Mallory with Erica Goode, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, August 5, 1996, p. 57.
5. "Grating Expectations," by Bob Moeller, LEADERSHIP, Winter 1996, p. 32.
6. THE UPPER ROOM, Sept./Oct. 1996, p. 11.
7. COLORS! (New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 1993), pp. 3536.
8. ILLUSTRATIONS UNLIMITED, p. 94.