February 18, 2007
It’s All About
Relationships (part 6)
“Role Relationships”
I
have to be honest. It is by sheer coincidence that the end of this sermon
series on improving our relationships with one another and with God, falls on
what the Church calls “Transformation Sunday”. While I could call it “blind
luck” or “God’s providence”, its coordination should not escape our attention,
for what Transformation Sunday has to do with “role relationships”, is worth noting.
You
see, while Transformation Sunday recognizes the glory of Christ being revealed
to His closest disciples, “role relationships”
in the church addresses the ability of the church to be revealed as the Body of
Christ to today’s world. In other words: Just as Jesus was seen more clearly
for who He was and is, by Peter, James and John on that mountain top; so too, the
Body of Christ will be seen more clearly by the world as we understand and
exercise the roles God has equipped us to play in the Church.
The major question we are dealing with today
is this:
How is it that we
operate as “the Church”?
Some
of the basic questions I like asking couples who come to me for premarital
counseling, deal with their expectations about the roles husbands and wives
play in a marriage. They are questions which deal with expectations;
-
concerning working inside or outside the home,
-
concerning the roles each would play in making a home;
cooking cleaning, laundry.
-
concerning the role a father plays, and the role a mother
plays in the raising and care-giving of children.
And
when all is put on the table, we discover that people come into a marriage with
expectations that range from “strongly traditional” to “strongly egalitarian”;
“strongly traditional” where the wife is expected to stay at home with the kids
and be a homemaker while the husband is the “breadwinner” who returns home at
the end of the day or the week, and “strongly egalitarian” where there is a sense of shared responsibility for
income-producing, for child-rearing and for home-making.
While
you may have an opinion of “right or wrong” concerning these extremes, and all
the possible blending of expectations which exist between these extremes, a
main issue in premarital counseling is that each person knows the expectations of
the other before the commitment is made, and that there develops a common
expectation for the roles each will be playing in their upcoming marriage. I
sincerely believe that many marriages which have ended in divorce, never took
the time before marriage to develop common expectations of the roles they would
play.
But
for me, this is the goal of counseling, because I believe that common
expectations lead to strong relationships. While life circumstances can turn all
our expectations upside-down, relationships get off to their best start when
people are not caught off guard by the roles they are suddenly expected to
play.
And
the same is true in the Church, as we recognize the commitment we make to become
the Church together; to be the Body of Christ in the world today. I know that
many people view the Church only as an “institution”, when in fact it is a
living organism... a vital presence in the world. So, what is your role in the
church? What is mine? What are the role expectations of those who are formal
“members” of
When
you look around this sanctuary or around the Fellowship Hall as we gather later
on for refreshment and conversation, what do we expect of each other as
together we commit to be the Body of Christ
here and now?
Our
common understanding of role relationships in the Church must begin where all
our understanding begins; God’s Word. So
what can we say about our role relationships in the Church?
The first thing we can say is that...
1.
The roles we play are defined and assigned by God’s perfect design.
If
you recognize one of the quotes from our bulletin’s “A Thought Before Worship”,
that’s because I’ve used it three times. Obviously, I like it:
“God made you as
you are
in order to use you as he planned.”
Now, you’re not
a puppet and I’m not a puppet.... we have full choice as to whether we’ll allow
God to use us as He wishes.... but recognize this; He created you... all of you
according to a plan; your strengths, your weaknesses, your talents and
abilities, even the specific gifts of the Spirit which were given you when you put
your faith in Jesus Christ; all of you was designed by God’s plan to serve His
Kingdom in special ways, but also in cooperation with others.
The roles we play are defined and assigned
by God’s perfect design which necessitates that we work together.
a. We see this
cooperative design in God Himself.
In talking about what was yet to come,
Jesus said to his disciples:
John 15:26-27
26"When
the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of
truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. 27And
you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.
It is in the Trinity, God as Father, Son
& Holy Spirit, that we see roles and responsibilities working together to
accomplish one purpose... to testify to the world about God’s love and
salvation in Jesus Christ. And we have been invited to work together for that
same common purpose. So...
b. With Christ as our head, our
individual roles become part
of the whole.
In Romans 12, the Apostle Paul addresses
our main question; “How do we operate as the Church?” It begins with
self-assessment:
Romans 12:3-8
3For by the grace given me I say to every one
of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think
of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God
has given you. 4Just as each of us has one body with
many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member
belongs to all the others. 6We have different gifts,
according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it
in proportion to his faith. 7If it is
serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; 8if
it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of
others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern
diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.
The roles we play are defined and assigned
by God’s perfect design, and we are connected to one another through Jesus
Christ. What else can we say about our role relationships in the Church?
Well,
we can say that:
2.
While roles will vary in levels of responsibility, each role is crucial.
First
Corinthians 12, together with Romans 12 are wonderful places to find lists of
many of the spiritual gifts noted in the Bible. (If you are not familiar with
these lists, study them as you seek to recognize your own gifts.) At the end of
1 Corinthians 12 there is an interesting and somewhat troublesome phrase worth
our consideration this morning. Hear that phrase in context. The Apostle Paul asks:
1 Corinthians 12:29-31
Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all
teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in
tongues? Do all interpret? But eagerly desire the greater gifts.
“But eagerly desire the greater gifts” is the
phrase with which Christian scholars have wrestled for centuries, for it seems
to promote status seeking. After all, didn’t we just read in Romans 12:3b
Do not think of yourself more highly than
you ought, but
rather think of yourself with sober judgment?
But
I would argue today that instead of promoting greater status, Paul is
encouraging greater responsibility.
But eagerly desire the greater
gifts.
Examine
your own heart and mind these days. When it comes to giving yourself to church
life.... don’t we need to confess that we tend to give only the minimum? Life is
busy, right? Can you hear that worldly voice inside: “What little can I get
away with”? How many of us are actively looking for more responsibility in the life
of the Church?
Now
there are some people who have made themselves available to the church if work comes
up, and there are those people who seem to always say “yes” when contacted with
a need. But the old adage that 20% of the people in a church do 80% of the work
is still generally true. And what I hear the Holy Spirit saying though Paul’s
interesting phrase is that members of the Body should always seek “greater
gifts”, greater responsibilities in the Body. Ultimately it is up to God to
decide who has what gifts..... and usually people have more than one gift. But
here is a call for us to discover and fully utilize our highest level of
responsibility in the Body.
In
short: If you’ve got it, use it! Don’t
hide it. Live up to the fullest
potential given to you by God; “eagerly desire the greater gifts.”
Now
while there may be “greater gifts”, that is gifts which require more
responsibility in the church, all gifts are crucial... they are all essential. One
job in the church may demand five hours per week of time while another requires
fifteen minutes, but each role is equally crucial.
If
we think about a car for a minute, we would probably eventually get around to
appreciating the important role that the engine block and pistons, the battery,
the drive train and tires play in the workings of a car. But, (and I know this
from experience ;-)), when a little oxygen sensor stops working, so does the
car. It may be responsible for infrequently performing only one task, and it may
only cost $85 to replace, but its functioning presence is just as important to
that car as are the tires, the engine block, pistons or the battery.
I
discovered that one day while driving from the Covenant church in
The
importance of each role in the church is overheard when we jump into Paul’s
letter to the Ephesians as he talks about the church being gifted by God for
teaching the way of God:
Ephesians
4:14-16
14Then we will no longer
be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by
every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their
deceitful scheming. 15Instead, speaking the truth in
love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. 16From him the whole body, joined and held together by every
supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
Our roles will vary in responsibility, but
each role we play is crucial to the functioning of this Body of Christ.
The third thing we can say about our role
relationships in the church is similar to a point I made last week concerning
our common goal to love one another, because
3.
Our work in the body is secondary to the love we demonstrate to one another.
Listen
to 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 for a second, without the usual “wedding filter” through
which we normally hear it. Hear its message in its actual context of a young
church struggling with having powerful spiritual gifts, but misusing them in
order to ascend a “pecking order” in the fellowship. Paul writes:
1 Corinthians 13:1-3
If I speak in the tongues of
men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging
cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all
knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I
am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the
flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
This is one of those times where we have to
remind ourselves of our basic purpose, lest we lose that purpose in the
busyness of churchy activities. For
being the Body of Christ in our world, we like Jesus are called to be love. We
are called to incarnate the very love which is God. We are to be love for each
others and love for the world.
Basic
theology, proclaimed in
1 John 4:16b-17
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in
God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that
we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because
in this world we are like him.
But, if in the busyness of “playing church”
we are not the church; in other words, if in the busyness to exercising gifts
we fail to love... then, as Paul proclaims in 1 Corinthians 13, we are
“nothing”.
God has given each of us spiritual gifts not for
our own glory, not for personal advancement, not for the gaining of power over
others. Rather, God has given us these gifts so that we can better love one
another by building each other up in faith and knowledge of Jesus Christ our
Lord. And, He has given us these gifts in order to make us a healthy, active
and loving Body of Christ for our world to recognize and experience.
For
when we know our gifts, and when we all exercise our gifts, I truly believe
that we as the Body of Christ will experience what Christ experienced. Like
Jesus:
-
Some people will be strongly attracted to us, because they
hear in our teachings the answers they have been seeking.
-
Some people will be drawn to us with problems they bear,
because they have heard of others being healed, and they come ready to be made
whole.
-
Some will be pulled into our community because of an
unconditional love they have never felt before in their lives.
But, as Jesus warned, some will be offended
by us, even as others will oppose us even in violent ways. Jesus warned us:
John 15:20b-21
....If they persecuted me, they will
persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. 21They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do
not know the One who sent me.
But remember, as Jesus taught in the
Beatitudes:
Matthew 5:11-12
"Blessed are you when people insult
you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.
Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same
way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
We are part of God’s great work, which includes the loving Body
of Christ alive and active in the world these days, but also a work that
included God’s ancient prophets. And I find that exciting, don’t you? When Jesus
told his followers that:
John 14:12
..... anyone who has faith in me will do
what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am
going to the Father.
...Jesus was talking about the Church, and
about the gifts of the Holy Spirit active in the lives of each of his
followers, working toward the common goals of Jesus Christ as they love God,
and love one another, and love their neighbors as themselves.
Let us grow in our common understanding of
the roles each of us play in a Body of Christ known as
Let us lovingly encourage each other to
strive for our greatest potential, and not to shy away from the
responsibilities that come with exercising those gifts given us by God.
And, let us together grow strong and
healthy as a loving Body of Christ as we all participate as God intended. AMEN
Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL
VERSION (r).
Copyright (c) 1973,
1978, 1984 by International Bible Society.
Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.
|
:: back to main :: All images and text protected by copyright © Copyright 2007 Community Covenant Church of Hopkinton All Rights Reserved. |