Romans 12:3-8
Kalamazoo Mennonite Fellowship
September 13, 2009
Will Fitzgerald
Today, we’ll look at Romans 12:3-8. Last week, we discussed how the real goal of God’s work in the world is to create a people from many nations that work out, in practical terms, “God’s will, which is good, and pleasing, and complete.” But rather than make that very concrete, we left off at that rather abstract thought. But Paul doesn’t do such a thing. In the rest of this chapter, Paul fleshes out what the will of God looks like—not completely, of course, but giving us very specific glimpses into being transformed looks like.
And, he divides this up into two large sections. On the one hand, he discusses how God builds up a body by giving people spiritual gifts; and, on the other hand, he describes a lot of traits that should be true of the people of God. And today, we’ll look at this first section. Now I want to warn you: in a minute, I’m going to make you do most of the work of the teaching when we talk about the second section, so prepare to have some work to do for next week!
In verses three and four, Paul picks up a theme dear to his heart, and which he had written extensively in his first letter to the church at Corinth (1 Corinthians 12-14); that is, the body of Christ and the gifts God gives the body. He encourages us to look at ourselves (both individually and corporately) with God’s own eyes. We are not to tell ourselves we are more than we really are; or even less than we really are, but to consider who we are “soberly.” This, by the way, is, I think, one of the strengths of Mennonites in general, that they/we take this verse seriously.
But note that one of the things we really are as God’s people is a people who are deeply gifted according to God’s “grace,” which, here, I think, means both that these are God’s free gifts to us, but also that God gives us, his people, exactly the gifts we need. So, if the body needs prophets, God raises up prophets; if the body needs teachers and exhorters, God raises up teachers and exhorters; if the body needs compassion and service and resources, God raises up people with compassion or a heart for service, and gives resources to be generous with. God, it seems, takes the initiative.
If we are in a situation where we think we don’t have what we need as a church, there seems to me to be several possibilities. And here I’m thinking especially these days about our little house fellowship, our “poor despised company,” not so much about the church in general.
One possibility is that we actually have what we need as a church, and we’re just wrong about not having what we need. For example, if we thought we really, really needed to have a church building larger than the Kalamazoo Valley Family Church building on I-94, we’d be wrong. That would be a little more space than we need.
Another possibility is that we are mistaking our little fellowship for the church, the people of God. Hard to believe, but I think I do it at times. For example, at times I think we should have more opportunities for our people to meet, study, worship and pray together, but there are lots of opportunities for us to do so with other people and groups. Bess and I are part of discussion group with friends, we sing with others, etc.
Receiving a gift is not the same as using it. We might need to look out for ways to extend the use of our gifts. As a small example of this, Barb, who usually leads our prayers, has been gone for a while, and for the last two weeks, Jane has been our prayer leader. As her father, I am of course proud (not too proud, but just the right amount of sober pride) at how well she’s done that. And, now that Allie isn’t here to be our missions nagger, I wonder if we need someone to pick this up.
Another real possibility is that it is time for our fellowship to begin winding down. The logic is something like this: God gives churches the gifts they need to function. If they don’t have the gifts they need to function, then this is a sign from God to discontinue.
We have always said that we haven’t known what direction God is leading us in the long term, and have been willing to close up shop.
What do we think we need as a fellowship that we don’t have? Which categories do these needs fit in?
Here are some of my items.