This tape contains the 11th teaching in the series entitled, Empowered for Ministry. The speaker is the Reverend John W. Howe, Rector of Truro Episcopal Church in Fairfax, Virginia. The 11th teaching is titled, Like a Body. The scripture reference is 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verses 12 through 15. I've now done a series of ten meditations on a single paragraph of scripture. I don't know how many of those any of you have heard. They've been kind of scattered over a lengthy period of time.

I'm nearly at the end of this series. And what I want to do tonight and next week is to put what we've been saying into a slightly larger context. We've been looking at the gifts or the manifestations of the Holy Spirit as they're discussed in 1 Corinthians 12-14.

And we've been looking in particular at that one paragraph in 1 Corinthians 12, verses 4-11, where nine of the gifts of the Holy Spirit are mentioned. And again, I remind you, it's not all the gifts, it's nine of the gifts, nine of the very significant gifts, and nine that tell us a whole lot about the nature of ministry. What I've been trying to do is to see how these gifts were exercised in the ministry of Jesus himself, how he demonstrated what it is to move in the Spirit.

my thesis has been that Jesus ministered under the anointing of the Holy Spirit rather than primarily because he was the Son of God he was the Son of God but it wasn't out of his divinity that he did most of his mighty works it was out of the anointing of the Holy Spirit and so he becomes a model for us what is true of him is supposed to be true of his followers now what remains to be said is this that even though we've spent all this time and we could spend a great deal longer taking a very hard look at the gifts even though we've taken all this time looking at the gifts of the Holy Spirit they are not the real focal point of ministry how many of you know that the focal point of ministry is first the Lord himself and then each other. And the gifts are tools or empowerings or equipment or enablement for ministry. They enable us to minister to the Lord.

We were talking about the gift of tongues last week. And the gift of tongues, one of the things it does is it enables us to minister to the Lord Jesus, to bless Him with our praises. It opens up another channel of blessing to him, and then also to each other, and principally to each other.

They empower us for service and for ministry. One of the major reasons, perhaps the major reason, that this whole book was written, the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians, was that they had gotten so intoxicated with spiritual gifts that they'd forgotten the purpose of the gifts. And if you read it straight through, you'll see that from the opening chapter all the way to the end.

They were enormously gifted. Paul says at the outset, you are not lacking in any spiritual gift. I mean, they were replete with gifts of the Holy Spirit.

But somewhere along the way, they had forgotten, or they had largely forgotten, what the gifts were all about. It's not the gift itself, but that the gift enables me to be a better servant, to be a better minister. God equips me with one or another or many of these gifts so that I can better serve you.

In fact, just think of it for a moment. If I have a gift of healing, quote unquote, and you're sick, and that gift is exercised, you're the one who really receives the gift. I'm just a channel for it.

You're the one who gets the gift. If God gives me a word of knowledge or a word of wisdom or one of the other verbal gifts and it speaks to you, you're the one who has really received the gift and I'm a channel for it. And that's the point.

So I'd put it to you this way, that the worst possible thing would be for me to become so proud of my gift that I've always got to go around and show it off. And call attention to it and call attention to me. Look at how great I am because I can do this or do that or I've got this other ability or God uses me.

That misses the point. And that's really pretty much what 1 Corinthians is all about. You might picture a father giving his son just a marvelous set of tools and setting up a wonderful workshop for him.

And just picture it in your mind. Just a marvelous workshop. It's got light and heat and ventilation and a tool for every purpose.

I mean, stuff you never even dreamed of doing. There are tools for that. There are planes and lathes and saws and hammers and vices and routers and sanders and polishers and electrical tools and plumbing tools and screwdrivers and wrenches and clips and braces and benches.

Sort of like Harry's workshop. And so the son keeps bringing all of his friends in to see this marvelous workshop. And they are impressed out of their minds.

They've never seen a workshop like this. And he keeps bringing his friends in to see his workshop. Until finally one of them says, But how come you never make anything?

See? The point of the tools is that I make something with them. That I do something with them.

They're not just to be looked at and gloried in. That I make something or that I fix something with them. That's the point of the tools, to bless somebody.

And I think that when you really understand that, that very simple point, it will suddenly put the rest of this whole discussion, and especially the rest of chapter 12, into a different light than the one that it's usually interpreted with. Paul goes on at this point to compare the body of Christ to a physical human body. You know the language.

Chapter 12 and verse 12, For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and we're all made to drink of one spirit. This is Paul's favorite image or picture of the church.

He uses it again and again and again. The church of Jesus Christ is like a physical body. And he goes on to say that there are two things that we may not say as members of the body of Christ.

There are two things we may not say if we're in the body. Number one, we may not say I'm not needed. We may not say dat.

your ministry or your function or your role, I don't belong. I mean, I'm just nothing. I have nothing to contribute. I can't do what you can do, and I'm just nothing.

You may not say that. You may not say that. Your role may be quite different from somebody else's, but if you're a part of the body, you are needed.

There are no spare parts in the body of Christ. It is faithlessness to say that. But perhaps even more seriously, we may not say, you're not needed.

Verse 21, the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you. Nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. On the contrary, the parts of the body which seem to be weaker are indispensable.

So I may not say, I'm not needed. And I may not say, you're not needed. may not say that.

And I think that the way that point is usually treated is to say that those whose ministries are very quiet and behind the scenes are just as important as those who have the great center stage ministries and the great public ministries. And they're those little quiet ministries that are just as important. I heard one person say, Why do we always have a banquet for the bishop?

Why don't we have a banquet for the sexton? That's a good point. Especially if the sexton is somebody like Bill Coe.

But that is not Paul's point. I don't think. I don't think that's what that passage is about.

He's not talking about bishops, and he's not talking about sextons. He's talking about spiritual gifts. And that's a different point.

I think that what Paul is saying is this. that those whose spiritual gifts are not very well developed should not be put down. They should be encouraged.

And we as other members of the body are to treat them that way. They're indispensable. And we're to build them up rather than to put them down.

They should be encouraged to develop their gifts to the fullest potential. that's what's being said here I believe and that may be in small insignificant ways or it may be in great wonderful ways but just think of it this way some of us are very excited about the fact that Billy Graham is coming to town and we want to hear him and we want to bring our friends to hear him and I praise God you know I praise God for the ministry of Billy Graham one of the most used Christian leaders in all of history praise God for the gifts that he's given to Billy Graham but how about the person who has never spoken publicly before and who has a sense of prompting that I'm supposed to give my witness at prayer and praise tonight and I'm scared to death of it sit down I want to wait for Billy or do we encourage those who are weaker because their gifts are indispensable. Do you get it?

Completely different, isn't it, than the way it's usually treated? But read the context. What we're talking about is spiritual gifts.

And the body is to encourage the weak members, not put them down. I'll give you a little illustration. my son made this plane a few weeks ago as a Cub Scout project or maybe it was a school project and I can buy a better plane in any hobby store in the country for a few dollars and none of them is as valuable and I need to encourage him do you see that's a little tiny beginning and we could laugh at it and say what a silly thing not worth anything just a couple of boards glued together or we could encourage him and say wow that's terrific I hope you'll do that again this hangs in a place of honor in our home the weaker parts are indispensable and those parts which we think less honorable, we invest with the greater honor.

That's the role of the body. Let's bow our heads together. Father, thank you for gifting us by your Spirit.

Help us to share those gifts that you give, not to take pride in them, but to use them in ministry to each other and help us, Lord, to encourage each other. For we all need it. For your name's sake.

Amen.