Spiritual Anatomy

A couple of weeks ago, I used the image of a jigsaw puzzle to illustrate that the gift of God takes some assembling before it starts to take shape in our lives. That is why you were given a piece of a jigsaw puzzle on the way in to the sanctuary this morning. The gift of God’s spirit comes in pieces. It also comes with the world’s best owner’s manual, but we’ll get to that later.

The first thing to notice about these puzzle pieces is that they are all different. And the second is that each one is necessary. If even one piece were missing, then the picture wouldn’t be complete. Each one of you is vital to the church. Unless, of course, you think you’re here (a) by accident or (b) by your design instead of by God’s. Lots of people do think that - it’s part of the consumer mentality that permeates American Christianity these days... people church-shop until they find a place that fits their specifications and stay as long as their needs are being met.

Of course we all have free will, to stay or to go, to visit or to commit, but take it a little farther. Remember what we learned in the opening of John’s gospel two weeks ago: “all who received him, who believed in his name ... were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.” [Jn 1:12-13] God must have something in mind to have brought us all together like this. Wouldn’t it be exciting to find out what it is?

There’s a story that kept cropping up as I researched sermons on this passage. One day, a pastor went to visit a member of his church, someone who had not been to worship in several weeks. The man welcomed the pastor, and served him coffee, which they drank in front of a blazing fire. The pastor said that the man had been missed, and asked if everything was okay. The man said he was fine, and that he was meeting his spiritual needs by studying the bible and praying. “Why,” he asked, “do I need to go to a church building to be close to God? I can do that just as well here.!” As he was talking, an ember fell from the fire, rolling off to the side. As the man spoke, the glowing coal faded to a dull grey. The pastor said nothing. He just got up, used the tongs to pick up the cooling ember and placed in back in the middle of the fire. It instantly began to burn as brightly as before. The man looked up at the pastor and said, “I can see your point. “

There are an awful lot of people who think they can keep their faith alight on their own. But it doesn’t work that way. Because the body of Christ is all of us together.

I would like every one to look at their puzzle piece. Remember the first two points? we’re all different, and we’re all necessary. The third lesson is that none of the pieces have the whole picture. The puzzle is not completed by any one person, or piece. It takes many to complete this picture.

Now try to connect your piece of the puzzle to the person sitting next to you! I’ll bet it doesn’t fit. Don’t force it, just see if it does. Does that mean that you don’t belong? Or that your neighbor doesn’t? Of course not. It just means that your pieces go in different parts of the big picture. Of course, if they do fit, it’s pretty cool - but most of us have to try different things, different mixes, before we find out the right place. Your puzzle piece may fit with someone on the other side of the sanctuary - or with someone who stayed home today - or who hasn’t even showed up yet!

But do you think we could complete this picture without all of you?

We have all worked on jigsaw puzzles. Some of us enjoy it, some of us don’t. That’s because, believe it or not, we’re all different in what we’re good at, what gives us satisfaction. So the analogy falls down a little bit because the Holy Spirit nudges us into place, rather than picking us up by the ears and plunking us down in our designated duty station. It is possible to frustrate the Holy Spirit by exercising our free will in pursuit of other activities. Paul writes to the church in Thessalonike, “Do not quench the Spirit,” [1 Th 5:19] And to the Ephesians, “do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God. “ [Eph 4:30]

Now, it takes a lot of patience to put together a puzzle. It shouldn’t surprise any of us that it also takes a lot of patience to build up the church. It takes a lot of organization as well, even to complete a puzzle. When you open the box, you first try to organize the pieces by identifying colors, marks and designs on the pieces, right? When we try to organize the church, it’s a little harder. Because although we know - more or less - what the whole church is going to look like at the end of time, we don’t have a picture for what each particular church is going look like today. So, we try to figure out what God is up to by seeing who he has brought together. We do that by looking at and listening to each person. We try to find out what people are good at, what they love to do, where their hearts are, all the things that make each one of us unique individuals. By trial and error, we slowly begin to assemble parts of the picture. Sometimes we have to take it apart and start over again. But the wonderful thing is, that even if the finished piece is going to have 1000 pieces - or let’s be realistic, Leadville isn’t all that big - let’s think 250 - the pieces that we have so far are enough to make a picture that makes sense. Because God knows what he’s doing. And if each one of us picks up his or her own piece and starts trying things on for size, it’s amazing what will begin to appear in our midst.