World Day of Prayer sermon (Romans 12: 4-21)

Having been asked to preach at the World Day of Prayer Service yesterday, here is a condensed version of what I shared, based on Romans 12, the theme being "In Christ, there are many members yet one body":

The source of the discord in the Roman church is the very truth that Paul is trying to uplift and celebrate: the body of Christ has many members. While we are all varied and unique, by virtue of our personalities, talents and upbringing, let alone our geography, economic and social status, we all started in one place and belong to one spirit.

The epistle tells us to let people do what they do best. Allow people to express their gifts, don’t limit them or redirect their energies into doing something that someone else thinks they should do. We look at what our neighbours are doing and think that we should be doing that too.

Especially churches. We compare ourselves to our ecumenical counterparts, counting how many attend Sunday services, noting how many youth and children are involved; we identify ourselves in relation and contrast to the other congregations nearby. The letter to the Romans is speaking across time and space to say that we should celebrate our differences; there is enough for everyone if we narrowed our focus a bit and concentrated on our natural talents.

But nobody wants to be the church that says, “We’re not good at music.” Or, “We don’t know what to do with children.” Or “Our worship services are subpar.” So we continue to think that we have to be everything for everyone and we spread ourselves quite thin over many ministries.

I hope I’m not scandalizing too many of you when I refer to a slogan by a beer company. Steam Whistle Brewing in Toronto is a microbrewery that makes one kind of beer. In contrast to the many different flavours of Molson’s or Labatt’s products, there is only one Steam Whistle product. Their slogan is “Do one thing really really well.” Apparently, they know what they’re talking about because in the summer of 2006 they issued a request for people to return their empties because they were running low on bottles.

So even as faith communities might seek to differentiate themselves from their neighbouring congregations, to discover how their greatest strengths might translate into an expression of spiritual conviction in our tumultuous world, we cannot let go of the things that we don’t do as well, for fear that we would be less of a church. That was a very long sentence. To simplify: we’re afraid. If we can’t do everything, then we’re not good Christians.

Parker Palmer, founder of the Centre for Courage and Renewal (how’s that for a name!), calls this way of thinking “functional atheism”. If we don’t trust that our companion congregations in this community can do something as well as we can, if we don’t trust that God has other ways and means to make things happen, if we think we have to be the ones to do the work, we are functioning like atheists.

In doing so, we lose sight of the lesson to the Romans: love is enough. Share. We are incomplete people and we need others to fully experience and engage the mystery that is human life.
The richness and variety of our gifts are such that we need to combine them together for great and marvelous things to happen. We see glimpses of what could be when we meet together – for World Days of Prayer, for ecumenical fair services, for Food Grains Bank concerts, for funerals, for weddings.

Yet in spite of all our differences, our struggle to coexist peaceably, we have the profound and eternal assurance that God loves us as we are. We already have the gifts and talents that we need for the task ahead. We are equipped and prepared for the work our faith calls us to do.

And we have one another to help with the pieces we’re not so good at. We have gifts of prophetic voice, teaching, serving, encouraging, leading, mercy and generosity. No one has them all; which is why we belong together, united in one body as Christ alive and active in the world. We are not alone. Thanks be to God. Amen.