All Aboard
Notes
Transcript
Over the years, I have come to really enjoy watching football. When I was younger, I did not watch football much. I do not even know if my mom and dad had a favorite college or pro football team. My father’s parents were fans of the Dallas Cowboys and my mother’s dad was a Baltimore/Indianapolis Colts fan. My mother’s father was from Baltimore and he loved all the teams there, even followed the Colts to Indianapolis. My dad’s parents had no association with Dallas, they lived in New Jersey and Florida, all I can figure to their association is the Cowboys were one of the few teams that was on TV nationally every Sunday. The Cowboys used the national exposure to become America’s team.
Over time, I have realized the importance of teams through sports, especially football. While there are individual efforts that give the appearance of an individualistic sport, without their teammates, their efforts would be useless. I do not care who it is but a 1 on 11 scenario is a losing scenario but when your teammates block and clear the way, then it is possible to have a great performance. It also evens the odds to your favor. But, there is one player that no team can do without. They might be able to get a couple wins but they won’t make it far without a Quarterback. It doesn’t matter the level, the lack of a good quarterback is obvious in the teams record.
Take it from a Georgia Tech fan who hasn’t seen a good quarterback in a number of years and the team has been down for quiet some time now. Even better look at the final four teams in college football, all had good or better quarterbacks. Now, in the NFL, you may get by with a decent quarterback but the need for a good quarterback is evident in the payroll of the NFL. The top players on each team is typically the quarterback. I know there are a number that are not highly paid but that is because they are young, just wait. But, could you imagine a team with only quarterbacks? They would struggle and probably not even have one win. But, these are supposedly the best players on each team, you should be able to put a winning team together with the top player from each team.
If you were to have a team like this it would be missing so much. I mean you might be able to find a wide receiver, a running back, and maybe a tight end but outside of that your team would be hurting. There is not a quarterback in the league that could block a defensive lineman or linebacker. I do not think there is a quarterback who could cover the number four wide receiver on each team. A tight end would abuse every quarterback around. I honestly think teams could win with their third or fourth string quarterback against a team only filled with quarterbacks.
But, what does this have to do with Christianity? I’m sure some of you have a feeling you know where we are going based on the scripture but what does this have to do with our sermon title All Aboard? Well, let’s turn to Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus and begin our discussion. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter 4 verses 7-16. No hear Paul’s words.
God has given his grace to each one of us measured out by the gift that is given by Christ. That’s why scripture says, When he climbed up to the heights, he captured prisoners, and he gave gifts to people.
What does the phrase “he climbed up” mean if it doesn’t mean that he had first gone down into the lower regions, the earth? The one who went down is the same one who climbed up above all the heavens so that he might fill everything.
He gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. His purpose was to equip God’s people for the work of serving and building up the body of Christ until we all reach the unity of faith and knowledge of God’s Son. God’s goal is for us to become mature adults—to be fully grown, measured by the standard of the fullness of Christ. As a result, we aren’t supposed to be infants any longer who can be tossed and blown around by every wind that comes from teaching with deceitful scheming and the tricks people play to deliberately mislead others. Instead, by speaking the truth with love, let’s grow in every way into Christ, who is the head. The whole body grows from him, as it is joined and held together by all the supporting ligaments. The body makes itself grow in that it builds itself up with love as each one does its part.
This text is one of my favorite texts from Paul. I mean it could have something to do with the biology talk found within the text and how that idea is applied to the church. I mean, I love how Paul broke this down to a level that we all understand and is just as important today as it was for the church in Ephesus when Paul penned the text. I do wish Paul would have at least pointed out that all of these people need to have one quality in common and that is listening. Even though Paul could have hit on some other areas, I still like this text and on a day like today.
While today is not a special day in the liturgical year like Baptism of the Lord or Epiphany, the past two years it has been a special day at Concord UMC. See, last year on the Sunday before MLK Jr day, we installed our leadership for 2019 and we will do the same after the sermon this morning. It is the mark of new leaders coming into leadership to help guide the church to follow the will of God. It also is a way of marking the importance of our differences not only in the church but in leadership within the church.
Paul is telling the church of Ephesus that they need these different roles within the church in order for the church to operate and accomplish the will of God. The church in Ephesus must be dealing with too many people wanting to have the same role or others not being involved and Paul needed to remind them of the importance of diverse leadership and importance of all. As I said, in the opening, if a football team was made of only quarterbacks, the team would be that good. The same could be said about a church, if a church only had pastors then nothing would get done and there would be so many different messages preached on Sunday that nobody would know what was happening.
In order for the church to operate well we need people who understand finances. We need people who understand human resources. We need people who are good with their hands. We need people who recognize leadership in others. We need people who can see the big picture within all these areas. Then we need the whole to work toward fulfilling the Kingdom of God here on Earth. But, even with the fulfilling of the Kingdom there have to be leaders and followers. If you have ever worked in a kitchen you know, you can only have so many chefs in the kitchen and then you need cooks. Well, in order to fulfill our purpose we are the same way.
I think the difference is, we are all leaders in our own rights. We are leading others in their journey. We are leading others to know Christ. We are leading others in the mission field. We have many different leaders within this church and it makes it hard for Nominations to get all the leaders into positions that their gifts and graces fit along with have a diverse group. I believe this year we have done it again. In fact we have some new people serving. I will say this, just because you may not be on leadership does not mean anything, it is your gifts and graces match or are close to someone already on leadership.
But, what we need is for everyone to be All Aboard. We need each of you to be in prayer for us as we listen and plan. We need you to be present for activities. We need to be All Aboard in order to accomplish the mission of the church. We will discuss throughout the year how Concord is going to begin to recognize our mission within our community. At this time I’m going to invite some members of leadership to come up front to be representatives of our different committees.