Where Do I Fit?

Get yourself a cup and ball and maybe have some paper in the bottom. By the way the Ball needs to be small enough to put in the cup or use a container that will take the ball easy. Get someone to watch you very carefully. Then what you do is drop the ball into the cup. Tell your assistant that you are going to drop this ball into the cup. Make sure they are ready and watching. Drop ball in cup. Then ask your assistant which parts of your body you had to use to drop the ball in the cup, (Hands, eyes, brain). Could you have done it with your eyes closed? What if you didn’t have any hands? What if your brain wasn’t working right? By now you realise that you need everything working correctly to make the ball go into the cup.

This week our reading from St Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, chapter 12 talks about how all of us are like a body. We all do special jobs, and together we get things done. For instance, which people on any Sunday at worship are important in making the church worship work? Some of those involved include the minister, greeters, readers, intercessors, musician(s), children, the congregation, the stewards and if there is to be Holy Communion someone to get things ready, flower people and so on.) All of these people have their special part to play in making the worship of God work on any Sunday and whenever worship is held.

All of us have special talents and abilities to use to share with others which reflect the story of Jesus and God’s great love through his son. Think about the workings of your hands. We can talk about the fingers and the thumb needing to work together to pick up a coin or food. We all have gifts and we help make our community work by using our gifts. In the Church we Christians use our gifts also to let others know about God’s love and grace through his son Jesus.

All of our gifts are important and I bet you that you have a gift that you can use. A gift to help you help others in the making of a working community. Maybe today at your family meal you could talk with your family about the gifts that you have for sharing with each other and making the household work. Again for Christian we can talk about how we use our gifts to share about God’s love and his son Jesus. Christians talk of their faith as being of the body of Christ and individually members of it. Each one of us is a part of that body. This body would not work without you, or without all of you. Everyone in this community today is very important part of the body especially of creation.

In a lively community of caring people and especially in a caring group of Christians there are many functions shared among those who make up the community. One member can speak in a way that conveys profound things straight to the soul. Another has a gift of helping and caring for people and bringing hope to those who suffer. Yet another can explain ideas with such wisdom that it infuses a new, vital strength into our faith.

Still others can have the ability to organise, and another the gift of leading, while another has an understanding of people that is the source of deep consolation for many troubled hearts. You may have seen all this, and yet the one thing that strikes us in such a community is the presence of one spirit in all of them that ties it all together. Since for Christians the gifts are varied expressions of the one Holy Spirit, who distributes them freely, then it is unthinkable that they may be at odds with one another – they are called to and meant to act in harmony.

The gifts that are given I have learned, are not meant for personal satisfaction, their purpose is to serve. They are given for the benefit of all, that the fellowship of believers may be extended and encouraged in love. Such gifts cannot give rise to rivalry or disorder. While St Paul considers that there are certain special gifts which affect the life of the community as such, he also tells us that each member has particular gifts for the good of all. Therefore each of us need to be content and thankful for the gifts that our loving God has given to us.

St Paul in this scripture reading from 1 Corinthians 12 presents the community as a body, and asks, “If your whole body was just one eye, how would you hear anything? If it was an ear, how would you see anything? Instead of that, God put all the separate parts into the body on purpose. If all the parts are the same then how can it be a body? If you do not seem called to some special task, do not underestimate what God is actually asking you to do in the community or neighbourhood where you are. No matter that the daily grind may seem monotonous and not very meaningful, we all belong to the whole body by belonging to that place. God has chosen this for us and calls us with great love.