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We Need Everybody
Joel 2: 28 – 32a; 1 Corinthians 12: 1 – 11; Luke 10: 25 - 37

Spencer C. Lawrence, Church of the Cross, Hoffman Estates, IL, November 5, 2006

There are “forces” in life that divide us. Sometimes it’s a crisis. Two men were hiking in the mountains. It wasn't long until they came across a bear. The bear stood on its hind legs and let out a bone-chilling roar. Ever so slowly the first man reached into his backpack, pulled out a pair of sneakers, took off his hiking boots and started to lace up the sneakers. "Are you crazy?" the second man said to the first, "you can't possibly think that you can out run that bear!" "I don't have to out run the bear," said the first man, "All I gotta do is out run you!” Occasionally it’s individual differences that move us to go it alone. Fred, an avid golfer, came in from the course one Saturday. His wife, Mary, asked him whom he had played with that day. He said, "Oh, no one.” She asked," Why don't you play with Bill anymore?” Fred replied, "Would you like to play golf with someone who throws his clubs, swears all the time, lies about his score, moves his ball in the rough, and won't stop talking while you're trying to play a shot?” “Of course not!" said Mary. Fred said," Well, neither does Bill.” The pressure to separate is ever-present.   

“We need everybody,” however, is the theme for this year’s stewardship campaign. At one level it could be understood as a crass appeal for everyone to give a lot of money to the church for the coming year. I suppose in some ways it is that. But it’s a lot more than that. First, the phrase “we need everybody” says that everybody is important. We have all been made in the image of God. Everyone has value. Second, that we need everybody makes it clear that we can’t go it alone. The Christian faith is not for Lone Rangers. None of us is smart enough or so in touch with God that by ourselves we always know what’s best. So we need everybody.

First, we need everybody to dream big dreams. The prophet Joel looked forward to the day when the Spirit of God would come upon people – old and young, women and men – enabling them to prophesy and dream dreams and see visions. A new day would dawn. Acts 2 says that the Spirit’s coming at Pentecost was the fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy. The net result is that everyone who has entrusted himself to Jesus Christ has received the Spirit so he can prophesy and dream and see in ways he never saw before.

So why do we need to do this right now? At least two reasons. One is that before too long the Church Renovation Committee is going to present you with some dreams they have for our building. The dreams they have are big dreams. They will have an impact on the ministries of this church. Some of us have seen the floor plans and the 3-D renderings. We are excited. Be prepared to be surprised, to be jolted a little, and to move out of your “comfort zone.” Get ready to think bold thoughts about the future of Church of the Cross. God’s Spirit is in us to help us to do just that.

Another reason to dream big dreams is that after next June I will no longer be your pastor. (I know this may seem like a bad time to bring this up, but it’s the proverbial elephant in the room. The more we can talk about it openly, the easier it will be for all of us – including me.)  Some people, I am sure, can’t imagine Church of the Cross without me. It is equally hard for me to imagine not being here. But you know what? Dawn will still be here, as will Ann and Dorothy and Kara and Judy, as will the elders, deacons and trustees, as will the choir, as will all the friends you have made over the years. You will not be alone. (Besides that, I haven’t left yet. I will be the pastor of Church of the Cross until the end of June, 2007.)  Even more important, Jesus Christ will still be with you. He’s why we’re here in the first place, isn’t it? Because Jesus stays with us – even to the end of the world, we have nothing to fear.

Second, we need everybody to use the gifts for service the Spirit has given them. Paul wrote the Corinthians about their use of spiritual abilities for service. Some who had the more “spiritual” gifts thought they were superior to other people. They thought they were closer to God. Paul made very clear that everyone who believed in Jesus Christ has a spiritual gift for service. He said that the church is like a body. Every part needs to be working for the body to function well. If the feet said, “We are really angry with the rest of the body, we think we’ll not cooperate any more” what would happen to the body? It would be immobile. It would end up in a wheel chair. If the hands said, “We are so tired of doing the same things over and over again we refuse to do them any more” what would happen to the body’s functioning? The point here is that not only are we not all the same, but that every part of the church, the Body of Christ, needs to do its part. We need everybody.

One of the great mistakes the church has made over the years is that we have decided in advance what needs to be done. We have created little boxes that we want people to fit into. We have boxes for Sunday School teachers, boxes for ushers, boxes for choir members, boxes for worship leaders, boxes for all sorts of things. When someone comes along who doesn’t fit into one of the boxes, we don’t know what to do with her. We say in effect, “Nothing for you to do around here” and her gift – whatever it is – goes unused, and the church is diminished.

I have long believed that the mission of a particular congregation needs to be driven by peoples’ gifts for ministry. God gives those gifts and, believe it or not, God knows what we need to be doing. Too often we ignore what God has equipped people to do and try to do something no one is able to do. More than that, we miss out on some really cool things God wants to be doing around here. We need to be open to people who have gifts that are not the usual “churchy” gifts. Instead of trying to put them into pre-cut boxes, we need to cut them loose so they can do a new thing for God in this place.

Understanding the role of spiritual gifts puts the responsibility back on the person with the gift to offer it to the church. A few months ago a pastor friend said to me, “I have been in this presbytery for six years and no one has ever asked me to do anything.” I said nothing, but then I thought of another friend who said, “I didn’t wait to be asked, I just said, ‘Give me something to do.’” And they did. Look, if you are a follower of Jesus, God the Father has given you a gift for ministry. God expects you to put it to work. Don’t wait for someone to ask you to do something. Just do it!

What about people who are exhausted or who are hurting? Don’t they deserve a time to rest? Of course, but if we’re exhausted we need to consider the possibility that we’ve been doing things we didn’t have the gifts for. Using our gifts should bring us happiness not exhaustion. We may need to reconsider what we’ve been doing. Maybe God wants us to do something else. And, sure, people who’ve suffered a major loss need time to rest and recover. The first two or three years of my ministry here were slowed because of my need to rest following Karen’s death. But one thing that keeps us from being swallowed up by our pain is doing something for someone else. Take time to rest, but remember that God has given us abilities to serve. Using them for Christ’s sake is a fulfillment of who we are.

We need everybody to discover and exercise her spiritual gift. No one can do everything, but everyone can do something.

Finally, we need everybody to give as generously as we can. The Good Samaritan gave generously of his time and money to help someone who didn’t even like him. But it didn’t matter. The man he helped was in great need. Dawn and I have talked about stewardship for the past two weeks. I am not going to whack you over the head with that stick today. The reality, of course, is that the church lives on contributions. We get a little money in interest off the property we sold a few years ago, but it is a drop in the bucket compared to what we need. So every year we come to you with this plea to give a little more in the coming year. Most people do. As your pastor, I am grateful for your gifts.

We need to careful, however, that we don’t fall into thinking that we’re a “poor church.” Because we don’t have any obviously rich people, it would be easy to believe we’re poor. What happens is that if we think we’re “poor” we act like we’re poor, we give like we’re poor and we plan mission like we’re poor. Because we think we have less, we try to do less. I have two problems with this. One is that it dishonors the poor. Truly “poor” people are among the most generous people in the world. You, of course, remember the widow who had only two coins and gave both of them away. The church I served in Columbus, Ohio had some very poor people in it. We also had a ministry with homeless people – who were, of course, extremely poor. I remember an elderly lady who lived in a little house on the far west side of the city. She had very little money to spare, but she regularly gave me a twenty-dollar bill to use in our ministry with the homeless. She knew what it was like to have so little, and she could sympathize with those who had even less. If we were really “poor” we’d be very generous with our money. The second problem is that thinking we are poor dishonors God. It denies the gifts God has given us. Sure, we may not have a lot of rich people like Willow Creek or Fourth Presbyterian in Chicago, but, my lands, we’re situated in a zip code in which the average household income is over $90,000 a year. How can we be poor? Even the poorest in our communities have more that the poor of the world. We have shelter and running water and heat and warm winter clothes and air conditioning and TVs – often more than one – and nice cars and plenty of toys. Many people around the world lack what we have come to consider necessities.

The fact of the matter is that we are a blessed people. God has abundantly showered good gifts upon us. Oh sure, we’ve worked hard for them, but some people work harder and have less than one-fourth of what we enjoy. No, the truth is that we are blessed. God has been good to us in ways we don’t deserve. God’s grace is evident not only in the mercy that comes through Jesus Christ, but also in the material things we enjoy. We are a blessed people. We are a blessed church, too.

Today, before you fill in the blanks on your faith estimate of giving card, instead of thinking of all that you lack, consider how God has blessed you; remember how God has given you good things. Let your giving be shaped not by fear, but by gratitude.

We need everybody today. We need everybody to see with new eyes, to catch a glimpse of the great things God wants to do in this congregation. We need everyone to discover her spiritual gift for service and begin to use it. And we need everybody to recognize the many gifts God has given us, and then gratefully give some of them back to God.

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Church of the Cross
475 Higgins Road
Hoffman Estates, Illinois 60169
 (847)885-1199