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To celebrate the family went to Red Robin so I could get a free birthday burger (yeah, I that kind of tight). I ordered a Big Sky burger, 1/2-pound Black Angus patty with blackened seasoning, topped with crispy bacon, an onion ring drizzled in Sriracha, creamy goat cheese crumbles, arugula and roasted garlic aioli all on a toasted ciabatta bun.
Who was most important in getting this burger onto my plate — the rancher that raised the steers, the slaughterhouse that butchered the animal, the transport driver who delivered the meat, the wholesaler who supplied the restaurant, the chef who prepared the burger, or the waitress who brought it to the table?
If you are following me, you get it, neither and all of them, it was only as they worked as a team did I have the opportunity to enjoy my birthday sandwich.
Paul takes the metaphor of body parts to express what I am attempting to say:
14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot should 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 should 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. (1 Cor 12:14-16)
Do you see the picture that Paul is painting? The foot is feeling undervalued because he isn’t a hand. He doesn’t get noticed for what he does. He isn’t used to make grand gestures, or perform meaningful tasks. It even seems that he is treated as an embarrassment because he is hidden away, tied up in a horribly smelly leather contraption.
Or the consider the ear — It doesn’t get noticed like the eye. The eyes have these beautiful colors, which people often complement. The eyes are used to communicate our anger, our excitement, our joy, and our sorrow. The eyes are even lauded as the window to the soul. But no one ever notices the ear, unless, perhaps, they are monstrously large. The only recognition the ear seems to receive is as an appendage upon which one can display spangles and dangles.
Some of you fear that you are a foot or an ear. You have been relegated to the backstage, and feel that your talents because they do not shine like the talents of others are needless and irrelevant. Perhaps, you have even wondered at times if God overlooked you in the distribution of gifts for ministry. If that is you, listen to what Paul has to say as he continues …
17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? 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 parts, yet one body. (1 Cor 12:17-20)
We are all necessary parts of the whole. God didn’t overlook you. The Holy Spirit has placed a gifting inside of you that is necessary to the functioning of the whole. You are valuable. You are important. You are a 10 in some area of ministry. Without your involvement and engagement, the church is incomplete.
— Pastor Steve