You Matter! : The Father, The Son & The Holy Goose

Feel free to watch the video version of this sermon here.

Welcome to Making Waves! As always, it is wonderful to have you back here with us. This week, we are starting a new series, titled “You Matter.” Too often, we are tentative to do anything because we don’t feel like our vote matters, or that we can actually do anything to help anyone anyway. God calls us to something greater than a life of monotony and standing in the sidelines. God calls us to be right in the middle of things, making a difference and actively affecting those around us. I really hope that you’ll make sure to come out and join us next week, as we will be doing a spiritual gifts survey, and that won’t be one to miss.

But before we get any further into this thing, let’s turn to the Word and dive right into it. I’m reading from 1 Corinthians, chapter 12, verses 14-26 today.

“¹⁴ Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. ¹⁵ If the foot would say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. ¹⁶ And if the ear would say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. ¹⁷ If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? ¹⁸ But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. ¹⁹ If all were a single member, where would the body be? ²⁰ As it is, there are many members, yet one body. 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.” ²² On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, ²³ and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; ²⁴ whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, ²⁵ that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. ²⁶ If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.”

                                                                                    -1 Corinthians 12:14-26

Will you pray with me? Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts together be acceptable in Your presence, God. You are our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

Let me tell you a story. Once there were these three young boys, all brothers. They were all three hard workers. The only problem was that they were all quite stubborn. And they never seemed to agree with one another. They would quarrel and bicker until it eventually led to fighting with one another.

Their father noticed this and his heart broke for them. He wanted the boys to be united with one another instead of fighting in this way. He tried talking to them, but they would inevitably end up quarreling with each other once again.

Years passed, and the father grew very ill. He wanted to try one last way to convince his sons of their folly. He told the sons that he wanted them to do one last task for him. Honoring his final wishes, they agreed to play along with his game. He handed each of the sons ten sticks and he told them to break each stick into two.

In a few short minutes, the sons easily broke the ten sticks and began to quarrel with one another over who had done it the fastest or the most precise. The father interrupted their quarreling by telling them that the task was not yet complete. He handed each of the boys a bundle of ten sticks that were tied together by strong leather rope.

He explained that the boys would need to break each bundle without separating the sticks from each other. The boys worked for hours, but couldn’t manage to break the bundle. They approached their father about their failure and the father smiled. He exclaimed, “See? You could easily break the sticks when they were by themselves, but when they were tied together you couldn’t do a thing. It is the same with you brothers. If you stay united, then no one can defeat you. But if you bicker and quarrel, then it will take no time at all for someone to destroy you.”

Friends, we find ourselves in a difficult time right now in the church. We are like a bickering and quarreling family of brothers and sisters. It seems that every issue at hand we allow to divide ourselves instead of unite us further. It doesn’t take long on the local news channels, the mainstream media scene, social media networks, or newspapers to see the division that is taking place. Regardless of your political nature, my heart is breaking for the church right now. It baffles me that I can scroll through my friends on Facebook and see so much anger and hate.

I am not here to discuss our American liberty, nor am I here to discuss the political rat race and it’s candidates. There are people out there far more qualified to discuss such menial things. I am here to discuss something much bigger (much MUCH bigger) than America. Much bigger than Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. Much bigger than church politics. Much bigger than these divisions.

I’m here to discuss the unifying nature of a far-more-powerful, far-more-encompassing, far-more-grace-filled Jesus Christ.

Just like the three stubborn boys from the story, we are naturally inclined to do what? To disagree with one another. To hate and drive one another down because of our disagreements. Where we differ is where we draw the line. But then we turn back to the scripture of 1 Corinthians, where we see Paul encouraging us to do the exact opposite.  Paul describes us as a body. One body, unified in Christ. With each part of the body being equally as important as the rest of the body. I want to say that again. Each part of the body of Christ is equally as important as the rest of the body.

Jesus has this funny way of taking things that we don’t understand and giving us these awesome examples of how to see them in our lives. When the apostles and the people of Jesus era were worried about things, when they were stressed about elections or the job market, when they were concerned and nervous about their lives, Jesus says to consider the lilies of the field; to look to the birds of the air.

In this instance, Jesus is encouraging people to not worry about life, because God takes care of flowers and birds, meaning surely He will care for humanity. But maybe there is more that we can learn from the birds of the air that relates to us today.

I happen to be a huge fan of birds, myself. I desperately want a bird of my own, but I’m afraid I’d have to choose between my wife and a bird, and I happen to like my wife quite a bit. So, I can’t personally own a bird, but I can still watch them in nature. Aren’t they fascinating? As if the ability and knowledge of flight isn’t incredible enough, their teamwork mentality is groundbreaking and revolutionary. The pastor referring to his congregation as his “flock” is certainly no accident. It is every pastor’s desire to inspire the kind of companionship in his congregation as would be seen in a flock of birds.

Take, for instance, the goose. Have you ever seen a flock of geese in the sky, flying about? How do they fly? In a ‘v’ formation, right? I can remember being a kid and wondering what on earth those silly birds were doing. But it’s really quite incredibly once you truly understand it. Let’s break it down into two ways that the flight patterns of geese relate to us as Christians.

First off, every goose in the flock is needed to be successful in this flight. If a goose flies on it’s own, it struggles and flies short distances at a time. Whenever they fly together, the lift created by the flapping of the wings gets passed on to the next goose, which continues to pass it down the row. This makes it much easier on the flock as a whole and makes flight less physically stressful. It allows for the geese to fly nearly twice as far as they would without working as a team. If even one goose gets out of formation, it is noticed and the lone goose will have a much harder time travelling.

Second, the goose formation works together as a single organism. They honk as a group to inspire one another to fly together and to continue persevering.  The head goose, or point goose, naturally gets exhausted, and when it gets tired, another goose will step up in it’s place and continue to flight moving forward.

So, what can we learn from geese? You are needed in this life together. You are a part of this community and you matter in this. Not only that but, like geese, we are one body that is actively working together.

And if we are one unified body, then why do we have such divisions in ourselves? Paul says it himself in the scripture from today: “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.” ²² On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, ²³ and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; ²⁴ whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, ²⁵ that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another.”

This scripture is so incredibly important. Because Paul is not insisting here that everyone become an eye. Nor is he suggesting that everyone become an ear. Nor is he suggesting that we all just split ways and agree to disagree. No, instead Paul says that we are to give even greater honor to the weakest among us.

Perhaps it is time that we stop dividing ourselves by political affiliation. Or by who we think Jesus loves. Or by what we think others should be doing. Or by what we want or think we deserve. Or by who we think are wrong. Friends, I’m sure that if sat around long enough we can find hundreds of things that we all disagree on. Maybe I’m a hand, and you are a mouth. What matters most is that there is one thing that we can all agree on. There is one thing that unifies us all together as one body. There is one voice in the back of our heads that tells us all that “you matter.” Perhaps we can stop listening to the world of division. We can stop posting Facebook pictures about how much we hate our brother or sister and instead share a life of love for another. A life of prayer for those who are hurt. A life of grace and understanding for all of the children of the most amazing God.

Think about it.