June 26, 2005

Penecost 5

Out of the Stands and Into the Game - 3

TOMMY WHO? Those were the words adorning a bunch of posters in the football stands my senior year. The students of our high school had made them to cheer on my roommate, Tommy Spiegelberg. Tommy Who? It wasn’t the fans who had first spoken those words, but it was the fans who had first heard them.

Homecoming Game. The year before. Our team was trouncing the opponent. Since a lot of parents were there, it was a great game to get all the players in. The outcome of the game couldn’t be affected. And the coach got just about everyone into the game.

But with less than a minute to go, Tommy’s uniform looked the same as it always had. White and clean. He had never played in a game. This one either. Tommy was a funny guy, but no one took him seriously. Not even Tommy. But the fans loved him. So when our coach turned around with less than a minute left, and asked loudly: “Who hasn’t gone in yet?” the fans shouted back with a single voice, “TOMMY! Put Tommy in!” And then, Coach spoke the words that he regretted well into the next year: “Tommy who?”

We actually had to point out to Coach the one clean-uniformed player left on the bench. Coach grabbed the chubby player’s shoulder pads and said, “Get in there, Tommy!” “Where, coach? What position?” “Just get in there! Just jump in!” So Tommy just jumped in. He had no idea what position he was to play or where he was to stand or who was his guy. He knew he was on defense, and that was it. But when the other team snapped the ball, to our surprise, Tommy suddenly found where he was supposed to be. And he found the guy with the football. And he tackled him hard. The crack of the hit echoed through the stands, and Tommy got up with a big grin on his face. Tommy who? Tommy Spiegelberg, who found his niche as a linebacker making big tackles and starting every game the next season in his senior year!

What can we learn from this? JUST JUMP IN! Sometimes we have to get off of the sidelines and into the game, to find out what we are good at! Or we may never know. For a couple of weeks, I have been challenging you to get out of the stands and into the game of serving God. Some of you might be fired up and ready to do that. But, you also might be wondering: And do what? You might not yet know what your gifts and skills are. You might not always feel useful or important enough for doing God’s work! Do any of you feel that way?

Then let me remind you what our Bible text tells us: “we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body.” (v.13). Through the amazing news of Jesus’ death and resurrection, and the powerful, miraculous act of Baptism, the Holy Spirit has brought you into one body – people who know they are forgiven through Jesus Christ. You have failed at being a loving person this last week, haven’t you? You have been hesitant to leave your comfortable seat in the stands and help someone you could have, I’ll bet. You’ve probably given in to temptations, greed, and selfishness, today already! But remember this: Those things were washed away in your baptism. Those sins were paid for by Jesus’ love for you. You were made part of his body! Forever!

Verse 27 says: “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.” You are a part of the body of Christ – you are forgiven through Him, a son or daughter of God because of Him, and an heir to his eternal inheritance. Also – you have been given a purpose in life to fulfill. You have a role to carry out as part of the body of Christ!

Each one of you has a gift to serve with! And each of your gifts to serve with will serve the common good of everyone in the body of Christ! Each of you has different gifts. There are all kinds of different ways you can serve. But when you are glorifying God with those gifts out of thanks for Christ, you can be assured that God is working through your unique gift!

Just like your body has many different members and parts that do different things and make your body function properly as a coordinated unit, the body of Christ has many, many parts, doing different things, all to serve his good purpose. You are an IMPORTANT part of the body. Your service to Jesus is just as valuable as anyone else’s. Without you, the body could not function as well. You are an important PART of the body. Don’t forget, the other parts are just as important as you! You are an important part of the BODY. You belong to the others and the others belong to you. You complement each other! (auto parts store illustration)

But are you wondering, “What part am I? What can I do? How can I tell Jesus thank you with my life?” Well, first of all, do what you can to discover it! Grow in the Word. Sign up to take our 201 Growing in Service course like a number of people did last Saturday. Discover how God has SHAPED you. What spiritual gifts has He given you? What do you have a heart for doing? What abilities do you have? What experiences? What direction has God given you? What are the needs of the church and the community? How could you plug in?

But friends, don’t spend too much time analyzing and assessing! You may not be able to get it all figured out before you get into the game. Finally, you have to JUST JUMP IN! Jump in with a willing heart and an open mind. Drape the servant’s towel over your arm and get busy! Realize that learning what God’s plan for you is may be a process. Don’t worry about finding the perfect fit immediately. Give yourself permission to learn as you experiment.

To make it easier for you, we have all sorts of ministries that you can just come to once to try it out. Don’t worry, you don’t have to sign up for 10 years just to try something out! Just come once and check it out. No strings attached! Here are a number of opportunities for you to come and try out once:

Setting up for church. Show up here on any Sunday morning at 8am, and help our set up crew. Try it and see how fun it is. Nursery. Come and spend a day helping in the nursery during church, observing what is done. Bible Camp 4 Kids. These are one day camps – 3 hours long. Try one out! You might like it! Soccer Camp. Next week, our annual soccer camp kicks off. Come for a day to help or just observe. See how rewarding that could be to help out with. Hosting College Student Helpers. You like hosting parties or serving meals. Try your skills out for one night with our 8 person team next week! Working with refugees. You want to help do a little paperwork for our church as we help refugees get status in Canada? Try it out. Helping the poor. You want to try bringing some needed items to the less fortunate. You can try it once and see if that’s your thing. How about hosting a Bible study or fellowship event? Maybe just once, you might try to organize a picnic or a party or a bowling outing or hike or whatever it is that you like to do. Plan it out, invite everyone, and be the point person. A one time thing. You could join the ushers on one Sunday morning. You could be an official “greeter” welcoming the people who come here. You could help out once at Family Fun Day. Help Prepare Newsletter Mailings. The list could go on…

Once you’ve tried one of these things, ask yourself these questions: 1. Did the work feel meaningful? What’s meaningful to one person might not be meaningful to another. 2. Did you feel energized or drained by your experience? A goal for finding your niche in service should be that what you do for the Lord also energizes you! 3. Did you enjoy serving with the people you served with? Some people won’t mind doing anything if they are doing it with people whom they really connect with! 4. Will this service actually fit into your life’s schedule? Can you do this without abandoning your family and making your life stressful?

It probably works better to just try something once, and evaluate your experience with questions like these, than to analyze something to death, sign on for an unending term, and then get frustrated when it doesn’t work out, and end up wishing you were back in the stands!

And when you enter the adventure of serving, you never know what will happen! When Jackie signed up to “meet a need” in the church nursery, she didn’t know she would spend the next 25 years bouncing babies on her knee – and loving it! When Tom decided to use his carpentry skills on Tuesday nights at church, he didn’t know he would end up serving with other men in the church by helping single moms with home repairs, which combined his carpentry skills with his passion to minister to those in need. When Phil gave his pastor some feedback on the church’s budget, he didn’t know that he would end up heading his church’s finance committee for the next 20 years and finding incredible satisfaction!

When Karen began praying over the phone with people who called a crisis line, she didn’t know she would end up on a team that meets faithfully every Thursday evening to pray for individual requests that are phoned in to the church throughout the week. For these people, an initial experiment led, ultimately, to a perfect fit! Thus, our theme for today: Just Jump In! Whether your first step puts you on the fast track to an ideal serving destination or begins a slow process of self-discovery, you will have embarked on the journey you were made for!

So where can YOU serve? A church in Illinois has a CARS ministry. Once a week, volunteer mechanics, people who love tinkering with cars, get together and repair cars for needy people in the community. They either repair cars for people who can’t afford to, or take donated junkers, fix them up, and give them to people who can’t afford cars. All out of love for Jesus!

One man who got involved in this said, “I’m a new Christian. I haven’t been around here for long, but I’ve already caught on that I’m never going to be speaking or singing in front of church. And I probably wouldn’t be good at visiting people in the hospital or teaching Sunday School. But you’re telling me I can help by fixing cars? I’d be glad to show up every Monday night. I never knew I could help somebody by cranking wrenches.” But he can. Maybe you could too! When you find a kind of serving that is in an area of your passion, nobody has to fire you up to stay involved! You can’t help but show up! It feels like recess, when the bell rings and you get to go and do your favourite thing!

So what do you LOVE to do? Gardening? Carpentry? Computer programming? Photography? Playing or coaching sports? Reading and doing research? Administration and clerical work? How about styling hair and doing manicures and makeovers? There is a church where some women get together and give new hairdos, makeovers, and manicures to women experiencing hardships in life: single moms, homeless, & pregnant teens. For one day, they help them feel beautiful outside, and also share some truths about Jesus to make them feel beautiful on the inside. Would that be your thing?

Last week, we learned about a program called “MOMS and ME.” Once a week, moms and their toddlers gather together and learn simple Bible lessons in creative ways, the moms doing the teaching together with the group leader. Many wonderful things happen. Is that your thing? Or is teaching ESL? Or teaching waterskiing? Or what?

Or maybe you need to do something completely different than what you do all day. There is the story of a multi-million dollar business man, who after being asked to be on a Board position at his church for obvious reasons, found the greatest pleasure working each week in the nursery! Changing diapers and teaching simple lessons keep him centered on his Lord and keep him from getting a big head from cutting hundred million dollar deals! Try something different!

But try something! You have a part to play! And God can use your gift for his kingdom! So Just Jump In! None of you are going to be perfect at doing anything. We’ll leave that to Jesus. He was the One who perfectly did what we failed at. We can be thankful for that. And that’s the reason we jump in: because Jesus once Just Jumped In! He jumped in to serve for us to make sure we could serve for Him forever. So friends, let’s just jump in! Amen.

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