1Cor 12:27-13:3
Whenever the word stewardship is voiced, people immediately start
thinking of money! That’s probably because most know that they
could be doing better. The truth is, there are other areas where
our stewardship is required; the stewardship of time, stewardship of
rest, the stewardship of responsive service to God, to name a few. For
the next two Sundays, I want to speak about the stewardship of
attitudes, because I believe that the attitudes we exhibit are one of
the greatest testimonies for or against the Church.
I remember some years ago, that the
chairman of the Board at Timothy Eaton Memorial gave each board member
a pen with the words, “Attitude is Everything” inscribed on it.
Although that may be too strong a statement, it is certainly true, in
every endeavour of life: one’s attitude is very important. One of the attitudes that I find
very offensive is the attitude that some people hold that somehow they
have a straight line to God and understand the feelings and workings of
deity better than anyone else. They proclaim by attitude as much as by
words that God is somehow going to bestow favours upon them
because of this special relationship. The Pharisees held this attitude,
and it was to such a viewpoint that Jesus was very critical. He
called the Pharisees “white washed sepulchres, outwardly clean and
beautiful, but inside full of dead peoples bones."
A very devout Christian gentleman was
walking on one of the beaches of Southern California, generously
praising himself for his piety. Finally, he cried out, “God, I
have been a loyal follower of yours, and one of the best workers I
know. You owe me!” A
great voice sounded and said, “Indeed you have been a faithful follower
of mine- so faithful, in fact, that I want to reward you by granting a
wish that you may have.”
Overwhelmed and appreciative, the man said, “Thank you; I have
already given this matter some thought. I would like to have a bridge
between California and Hawaii. I don’t like sailing and I hate
airplanes, so if there was a bridge, I could go whenever I wished.” “A bridge to Hawaii”, replied God,
“I am disappointed in your request. It is so materialistic. Just
think of how much steel would required, and all of the power needed to
manufacture that steel. Think of the vast tons of concrete that would
have to be mixed and then think of the forms that would have to built
all the way to the floor of the Ocean. Your request is just too
materialistic. I want you to rethink the issue, and select a
request that is more in keeping with my concerns for humankind” After some time, the man replied,
“OK, then I would like to understand women. I want to know what
they are thinking when they cry and when they are silent. I want
to know what is on their mind when they say "It doesn’t matter" or "Oh,
nothing!" Or they just sigh.”
After a long pause, God replied "Would you like two or four lanes on
that bridge?”
Whenever I hear someone say to me,
“God spoke to me”, I want to run for cover. Immediately, images
of Jimmy Bakker or Jimmy Swaggert, both disgraced tele-evangelists, pop
into my mind. I am much more impressed by the faithful believers
who simply say "I believe, but there is so much I don’t understand," or
as the - biblical character said: "I believe, help my unbelief." That’s the way I believe God works.
The stories of the Bible are testimony to that fact. The stories are, I
believe, human responses to God. Reading the Bible is inspiring
not because it answers or explains anything, but because it forces us
to ask questions. The issue in Biblical interpretation is not
"How did it happen?" The Bible is inspirational because it urges the
question "What does it mean?" The stories may not be factual, but
always they are true.
What does it mean when people say "God
spoke to me? What does it mean when someone says "I felt the presence
of the spirit?" What does it mean when someone says "God has created
and is creating?" What does it mean when we say "You can experience
resurrection here, now?"
Those are questions that humans ask of themselves, but they are also
questions that Churches should be asking of their corporate life.
Over the years, I have heard thousands of reason why people do not come
to Church services. Most of them are rationalizations, I think.
But some are valid, and they force us as Church attendees to ask the
question "What could we be doing better? How can we attract and keep
people who don’t choose to be a part of our church life?" I often hear people say "I
don’t understand the Bible." That is true, to some extent, for all of
us, but it is not an appropriate question. As Mark Twain once
said “The parts of the Bible that trouble me the most are the parts I
do understand.”
In the scripture for this morning,
Paul is talking to the Church in Corinth about attitudes. Corinth
was a critical site in those formation days of the Christian
Church. Corinth lies on a four mile wide isthmus that joins the
southern part of Greece with the mainland. All trafic between the north
and Athens had to go through that Isthmus in order to get to Sparta. Corinth was also a major seaport
city located near the treacherous waters off Cape Matapan. It was
thus a great merchant centre, where all kinds of products and luxuries
were available. But as happens in most great cities where opportunity,
education, the arts and leisure abound and materials are available,
there was also much evil. A temple honouring Aphrodite, the Goddess of love, was built on the Acropolis of Corinth. A
thousand priestesses were part of that temple, and these prostitutes
plied their trade as a religious virtue. As in most cities, people went there
for work, for shopping, for dining and attending the arts. They also
went there for selfish reasons of opportunity, foolish living,
exploitation and anonymity amidst many people.
In that setting. Paul founded a
Christian Church. It was a bickering Church, with many people
believing that their emphasis was better than anyone else’s. The Church
was not working in harmony, and it was largely ineffective. They
even argued about the sharing of food at Eucharistic meals. To that
situation, Paul wrote his letters to the Corinthians. In chapter 12 of his first letter to
the Corinthians, Paul says "Now there are varieties of gifts, but the
same spirit; and varieties of service, but the same Lord." He
talks about that issue at length; i.e. there are many gifts, yet just
one body. Then he says “Now You are the body of Christ, and
individually members of it.” Squamish United Church participants-YOU are
the body of Christ. You are individuals with different talents, but you
are members of ONE body.
Listen to him as he continues. “God
has appointed first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then
workers of miracles, then helpers, administrators, speakers in various
kinds of tongues.” Does that sound like us? Like any Church? He goes on "Are all apostles? Are
all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess
gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? The
inference here, of course, is no, they do not! Paul says, “But, earnestly desire
the higher gifts and I will show you a more excellent way.” That
ends chapter 12, but, it seems to me that once you and I understand
that this is the situation that Paul is addressing, we are much better
prepared to understand why he wrote Chapter 13, which is the love
chapter. Chapter 13 deals with the attitude in which Churches and
Church people operate for maximum effectiveness. For Churches,
love in the biblical sense IS, the more excellent way. “If I speak in the tongues of men
and angels but don’t have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging
symbol. If I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries
and all knowledge and if I have such great faith that mountains can be
moved but have not love, I am nothing.” Then Paul continues "Love
is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not
arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way. It is not
irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in
the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all
things, endures all things.”
Wow! Picture a Church like that! That is the stewardship of
attitudes, and when it is in effect, all other types of stewardship
such as stewardship of time, stewardship of work and stewardship of
money fall into place.
True stewardship says "God has somehow called me to THIS Church, warts
and all. This is my church home. Therefore, this Church is MY
responsibility, and I am going to see that it is a Church of Jesus
Christ in this place.
In 1968, I was a desperate and lonely
man. My first marriage had failed. Because of that, I had
resigned as the youth minister in a large California Church, and I was
working as an executive in the Pomona (California) Chamber of
Commerce. On this particular weekend, I was at Camp Maranatha, a
Christian Camp high in the mountains above Palm Springs. I was
there as the speaker to a group of young people from Southern
California Churches. The
evening ended with a session around the camp fire which was located in
a bowl that had been created by making cement block tiers of seats on
the side of a small hill. After the session ended, and the kids
were gone, I sat there all alone beside the dying fire. It was
one of those nights you get when you are away from city
lights. The town of Idyllwild, where the camp is, is over 7000
feet above the desert floor. It is in the midst of a lovely
ponderosa and sugar pine forest. The stars were sitting there like
diamonds in the sky. At
this point in my life, I had already been a minister for several years
before taking my current job. I was well trained, but I was
uncomfortable with the conservative theological emphasis and conviction
by which I had gone into the ministry. It seems that one of the
major reason was that was what my college peers thought I should do,
and I know that is what my clergy uncle and my father wanted me to do. But that night, there in the beauty
of the mountain, sitting by the fire and stroking the coals, I felt a
conviction like I had never felt previously. The conviction was, I had
to return to the ministry- not in the same old mould, but true to my
own convictions and geared to my understandings of a loving God.
It was for me the most freeing moment in my life, and the beginning of
a more excellent way: a way of inclusiveness, a way of healing; a way
of love. There was no
voice; no tap on the shoulder; just a sense that I believe was the
Spirit’s presence that said "This is a more excellent way, walk in it. "
That dear friends is my hope and my
prayer for this Church.