Bishop Lindsey Davis, our bishop of the North Georgia Conference, is an avid golfer, so much so that when we went to Augusta for the North Ga Conference they gave him a green jacket – I’m not sure why – I’m kidding I do know the significance of a green jacket in Augusta. Anyway, Bishop Davis likes to think of himself as a natural golfer, with a natural talent for the game. He didn’t think he need lessons or anyone to help him with his game.
Until this past year, over the summer he said his game rally went south, if you know what I mean, so he gave in and signed up for golfing lessons. When he arrived at the club for the lessons he was greeted by a young boy and was taken back a bit when this young boy introduced himself as the golf pro. Bishop Davis was anxious to get started so he and this boy pro went out onto the driving range to begin his lesson. The pro told him it would take him just a minute to set up his equipment. The boy then began setting up all this video equipment. By this point Bishop Davis was beginning to become a little frustrated. He had humbled himself and come up to improve his golf game and this young boy was busy taking videos.
Finally the golf pro instructed Bishop Davis to take a couple of swings at the ball. Bishop Davis was pleased with himself and felt he was showing the boy some pretty good swings when the pro stopped him and told him to come inside. By now Bishop Davis was convinced to think he had wasted a lot of time and money on these golf lessons. The young golf pro took Bishop Davis into his office and asked him to sit down. He turned on his computer and pulled up the video of Bishop Davis and his swing up on the computer screen. Then he split the screen and place a video of Tiger Woods and his swing on the other side of the screen. Slowly and painfully Bishop Davis said the golf pro went through and compared Bishop Davis swing to Tiger Woods swing – pointing out all of Bishop Davis flaws in his execution.
When all was said and done, a rather deflated Bishop Davis asked the pro what was the root of his problem and the young pro hemmed and hawed a bit before he told the Bishop, “well, uh Bishop Davis, sir, you have a stagnant bottom.” A stagnant bottom! The Bishop said he expected a dropped shoulder, a lazy hand grip, or wrong placement of the club but a stagnant bottom! The pro went on to point out “You see, sir, when you execute your swing your back side, if you will, just kind of sits there and does nothing. If you really want to experience the full power of your swing you have to get your back side, your whole body into the swing.
Bishop Davis said he began to ponder that a lot and began to wonder if part of our problem in the church was that our pulpits and pews might afflicted with the same stagnant bottom syndrome. He began to wonder what it would be like if the church, the whole church – every member in every church-- the whole body of Christ got into the swing of things, what it would be like for us to experience the full power, full spirit, the full being of the Body of Christ.
I wonder if someone was to take a video of our Church and lay it on a screen next to an image of Jesus Christ as our example and head of the church on the other side – I wonder if they would find we suffer have stagnant bottoms.
In our text this morning Paul is speaking to a church that is definitely suffering from stagnant bottoms. The city of Corinth was a very difficult place for ministry. After having departing from Barnabas Paul stayed in Corinth longer than anywhere else. For eighteen long months he worked to strengthen the church. And then after he left what should he hear but that the Corinth church is in trouble again!
Some of its members had begun to feel they had done they job in the church and that it was no longer necessary for them to do anything. They had done their time and so they were just sitting in their pews waiting for others to do the work. Then there was some in the church who thought they and their job was the most important and that nobody else in the church mattered or had a anything important to say or add to what they were doing. The church had become divided in it purpose and activity rendering itself ineffective – lacking the full power of the Holy Spirit
So Paul wrote these words to the church to encourage and inspire its the members—all the members of the church-- to get up and get moving that they might experience the full power of God.
READ VS 12 Paul makes over 30 different references to the body of Christ in Romans, I Corinthians, Ephesians and Colossians. It is a powerful image, an image the people of then and now can easily understand The human body is a unique and visual, living illustration of what the church, the body of Christ, should be.
You and I, ..….all of us have been baptized into one body. When we choose to accept Christ, when we choose to accept his grace, his love and lordship in our life we were baptized and immersed into the Holy Spirit, united together into one church, one body of Christ. Not just Harmony UMC but the whole church, the kingdom of God here on earth, the universal church. We are the body of Christ – his hands his feet his heart, his eyes his mouth, his body living and breathing in this world.
And as his body each of us, are uniquely gifted, uniquely made and placed here at this time in this place to act on his behalf. The physical body is truly miraculous. Each and every part is unique, different and each and every part has a purpose. Have you ever noticed while you have two feet and they look the same they are still quite different. I mean one little toe is slightly longer than the toe next to it the little toe on the other foot is slightly shorter. You wear a size eight on the right foot and an 8.5 on the left. Even the left and right side of the face are uniquely different; the hair on each side is different. You can get one side of your hair to do flip under or pouf out and the other side just lays there – ladies know what I am talking about. No two parts of the body are identical and no one part is unnecessary.
The family joke at my parents house is that when Dad fixes something there will be spare parts. I mean it doesn’t matter what it is he is fixing. When he is finished “fixing it” there will be a part left over. “Um, dad, thanks for fixing my car and all but what is this springy, greasey thing-amagig here on the ground. And Dad would inevitably reply, “Oh, I don’t know it just a spare part you don’t really need it anyway – see its working just fine.
Now granted you can have a few parts of the body removed and you can still walk, talk and function just fine. I mean I am missing a few of my original parts but I’m still up and kicking. But the truth of the matter is that each body part has a purpose, a function, a role that it serves in our body and when it isn’t working or when it is removed the body, the body suffers. It doesn’t function or work up to its full capacity. Another part of the body has to work overtime to make up for or compensate for the missing or useless part. And we never again operate at the same level we did when we were in our prime – when we were 16, 17 and perfect!
Paul in verse 15 is describing this debilitating attitude of insiginficance in the church at Corinth. It is the same attitude that exists in many of churches today – It is a sense of not being needed or wanted in the church. It is a sense of having “already done my time” and I don’t need to or want to do anything attitude.
2. Youth understand what I am talking about – many feel that the church as a whole, the old people don’t, want them there. Or they feel they don’t need to give anything back to the church the church because the church is merely there to entertain them. Newcomers to a church know what I am talking about –its that feeling that you aren’t really wanted in a church even though people are shaking your hand and smiling at you. The leaders of our churches know what I am talking about. They ask someone to fill a vacancy, to help with a ministry and they are told – I have already served my time get someone else someone younger to do it. And when they ask the young family to do they says sorry we have children and are just starting out get a retired person to do they have lots of time on their hand.
It’s that attitude that says the church doesn’t really need me, doesn’t want me besides I don’t have the time to give to the church. It is that attitude that keeps people from committing to the church. It is the attitude that has all its excuses all lined up and ready why someone is asked to do something in the church.
Each and every person in this church, in God’s, church has a purpose, a place ordained and uniquely designed just for just them by God. READ VS 18. Did you hear that? God has arranged for you to be here. Here at Harmony UMC. You are here, at this time, at this place for a purpose of God. It doesn’t matter whether you were born into this church, lived here all your life, a Johnny come lately. Or a visitor here today for the first time. You have been placed here, at this time, at this moment in history by God. Pretty awesome thought isn’t it! That God has placed you here now and knowing that there are no spare parts, that you are needed, valuable and necessary to the ministry of this church.
If we are ever going to experience the full power of God in this church then we, all of us, each and every person and every part of Christ’s church must work together to fulfill his purpose. That’s not to say that you are or are not working as God has ordained you too. Only you and God know that. What I am saying is that you and I need to stop and assess your activity and efforts in this church to see if we are really doing what God wants, NEEDS us to do.
It is easy to sit and throw money at the church and say that is your purpose and granted that is some gift to be able to give money but it isn’t everyone’s gift – the question is, is it truly your gift, the gift God wants you to share with this church. Likewise, it is easy to give your time and effort and argue that is your tithe and then never give a penny to the church. It is easy to use the excuse that you work all day long, work long, long hours and you don’t have time to give to this church, the church is doing fine without you; BUT, who gave you the ability to work, who gave you the talent to succeed. God did! He has uniquely gifted you to be part of HIS kingdom, to expand HIS ministry, HIS kingdom. The questions is are you fulfilling that task?
As you came in this morning each of you were given a piece of a jigsaw puzzle. Would you please take out that piece of puzzle now and look at it with me. You are holding in your hand an incredible piece of cardboard. There are 500 pieces in this room today and each and everyone one of them is unique and different. No two pieces are the same! Compare it to your neighbors. The shape might be similar, the coloring about the same but I promise you no one piece can fit in another pieces place in the puzzle – Believe me I have tried to force a few puzzle pieces that didn’t belong in my time.
Notice how on each piece of puzzle no picture is complete, in fact for the most part you might not even be able to tell what your piece is part of . Looking just at your piece you can not image hat the completed puzzle will look like. Each and every piece of the puzzle is important to the overall picture. If even one piece is missing the picture is incomplete, unfinished. How many of you have ever worked on a puzzle only to find a piece or two is missing. How aggravating and totally frustrating it is to right there on the verge of complete the picture of seeing the full beauty of the puzzle only to discover a hole, a vacant spot right in the middle of the picture. You may have most of the picture but you won’t have all of it – some of the power but not the full power.
Notice how some pieces are pretty with bright colors, flowers, lights and how some pieces appear APPEAR dark, menacing even ugly and seemingly useless to a pretty picture. Even those pieces that are dark and gray are necessary and important in the overall picture for how could we see the shadow of the trees, the intricacies of the light playing in the sky, the depth and beauty of the water if it is the darker colors, the darker spots that help illuminate the whole picture. The pieces aren’t ugly or difficult at all they are part of a bigger picture, part of a bigger plan than one can see when you looks only at one piece.
Each and every piece is important, significant, precious in the overall scheme of the picture. And each piece has to connect with other pieces in the puzzle in order to complete the picture as it was designed to be. Try to connect your piece to your neighbors. Now it would be a miracle if your two pieces actually fit together- if they do see me afterwards I need your luck and touch in putting the rest of the puzzle together. – but the truth is your piece does connect to two or three other pieces in this sanctuary. It is just a matter of finding where they are, where you are in relation to the rest of the puzzle.
Putting a puzzle together takes a lot of time, a lot patience and a lot of organization. Each piece has to be looked at for its own unique characteristics, colors, shape and size. And sometimes you have to try a piece in several different places before you find it’s perfect fit. But sooner or later you will find that spot that place where your piece fits into the puzzle and as more and more pieces come together we will be able to see the beauty of the puzzle coming together, being expressed in ways each individual piece cannot express.
I think you can see the analogy I am drawing here. You have the ability to be puzzle piece, a connecting part of this church, this church’s ministy. You are piece of God’s puzzle uniquely gifted, uniquely placed in the bigger picture to create beauty beyond description, beauty that only the creator, the person with the box top can see. And when we really start working together, connecting the pieces of our lives, our talents and gifts in the church we will see the beauty that God created us to be, we will experience the full power of the swing.
Stagnant Bottom or Puzzle piece, which are you? Are you keeping the church from experiencing the full power, the full glory of God in its ministry and work? Are you trying to find your place, your ministry? Or are you confident you are doing what God has ordained, commanded for you, you alone to do,
If you are not sure, talk to God, listen to God let him guide you, let him lead you in knowing your purpose, your place. Come talk with me let me share with you the needs, vacancy in this church, in this community where you might fit in. Over the next couple of weeks we are going to try and put this puzzle together. There will be a table in the back with the puzzle on it. Take time this week to look at your piece of the puzzle and see your unique and your place in the big picture and then bring your piece back and find your place in the puzzle.
You are as uniquely and as beautifully made as that puzzle piece you hold in your hand and God has a placed you in this church where you are, right now, right here and you, you alone fit perfectly in the place he has made for you. And you believe me, in God’s design there are no spare parts, each one of you are needed here!
