“Goose Sense”

I Corinthians 12:1-11

Do any of you know much about geese?  I don’t.  So when I came across an article in the First Presbyterian Church of Cedartown, Georgia’s newsletter entitled, “Goose Sense,” I was intrigued.  I didn’t think geese had much sense.  I guess I was wrong.

I’ll share a bit of it with you later, but first I want to speak to you about today's New Testament reading.

The passage we read comes from a letter to a divided community, the congregation that was founded in Corinth just a few years after the resurrection of Jesus.

Some of the people there felt very important because they knew that they were doing important things.

Some were teaching people the gospel of Jesus Christ, others were having visions of what God wanted and were able to share those visions with the community; and still others were healers and teachers and workers of miracles; and as a result of their activities people's lives were being changed and the results were both dramatic and positive.

Those who were doing these wonderful things in the church in Corinth felt important because other people had told them just how important their ministry was to them -- or because they themselves believed that their activities were more important than the things that others did in the name of Christ.

It is all kind of like how many people today feel that doctors are more important and somehow better than people who make cars at a factory, or how attorneys are more important than restaurant workers.

Doctors and attorneys do good things, important things, but are they more important than restaurant and factory workers?

Other people in the church at Corinth felt very unimportant.  They felt that what they were doing didn’t matter very much - that somehow, it wasn’t as good as what others were doing.

They believed for some reason that their activities were not as needed in the church, in part, because people around them gave greater glory and encouragement to those who were doing what seemed to be more "SPIRITUAL" things.

It was like how some people today feel that because they only have, say, a tenth grade education that they’re not as good as those who have gone to college, or how some who cook and clean at home do not feel as needed or as important as those who have a career outside the home.

It’s a sad situation when this happens, and it was a sad situation in the church at Corinth when Paul wrote them.

With all those different feelings about what was good to do, and who was important and who was less important because of what they did, well - the unity that the church once had - vanished.

The church in Corinth began to have troubles, it divided into factions, and groups and parties, each trying to say that they were the best, the most faithful of the lot, and that others should listen to them.

And while this went on those who believed themselves inferior simply faded into the background, tried to survive, and to hope against hope that they mattered to someone somewhere.

Some people left the church in Corinth and others refused to come, and those who remained were by-and-large unhappy and less and less effective in showing the love of Christ to the world.

And isn’t that how it is in some churches today?

Divisions in churches happen in many ways, but most often they arise because of how people are treated, how people act towards each other and think about each other, not because of doctrine or belief.

The great variety of denominations has risen, not so much because people have disagreed about what one should believe or not believe (even though that’s what they claim), but because people have - somewhere along the line - treated those who disagree with them, those who are different than them -- as less important, as mistaken or ignorant.

More churches have split up and formed new churches, and more churches have had their members drop out, because of egotism and pride and pure thoughtlessness, than because of disputes about the trinity or how many angels you can get on the head of a pin.

Doctrine is but the excuse that is used.  Lack of vision and of love is almost always the real problem.

The fact is, the more we insist that what we are doing is the right thing, or the best thing that anyone can do - the more inappropriate we are likely to be in how we actually act and the less effective we are in promoting Christian unity, Christian love and Christian ministry in the world.

Likewise, the more we feel that we are not as important as someone else, the more we put ourselves down or allow others to put us down -- the more we damage ourselves and the whole church.

Not only do we contradict the view that God has of us - the view that we are all precious and valuable to him and so cut ourselves off from the fullness of joy that God wants us to have - we end up confirming in the minds of others that there are degrees of value and worth in the church. 

And that is not good for the church - and it is not good for individuals.

Wherever there are attitudes of superiority and inferiority, wherever people and their gifts are measured against one another -- there is pain and sorrow and anger and the work of God through us, is hampered and hindered.

Think you are more special than you are, then you can kiss the work of healing goodbye.  Think you are less important than you are, or that others are less important, then you can kiss the work of bringing wholeness to others goodbye.

Who is going to believe that God is real, and that faith in God makes a difference, a positive difference, when the people who worship God, are constantly criticizing others or criticizing themselves?

What salvation is there in being made to feel like a piece of a poop? And what good news is announced when one person is busy preening their own feathers, and another envies him or her for it or acts as if they had no plumage of their own to make them glad.

If the church is to work as God intended it to work, then the people of the church must develop a sense of proportion and a godly vision about themselves and their brothers and sisters.

Indeed, wherever a sense of proportion exists, wherever people see each other as God sees them, the church works and works very well.

There may be disagreements, but there will not be divisions. There may be more attention paid here one time, and there another time, but there will not be envy, or pride, or self-degradation because of it.

There will be love, and thus their will be Christian unity.

Our vision needs to be focused on what God wants us to see about ourselves and about others. Our attention needs to be upon what it is God wants for the whole church - and for the whole world.

We are called individually to faith in Jesus, but we are also called into a community, a church, so that we might have all the blessings that God wants us to have and so that we might be able to give all the blessings that God wants us to give.

We are a people who are called to feed one another and support one another - and to witness to the world that God's love is a transforming love - so transforming that it is able to tear down all barriers, remove all walls, and make people who once were many - as one.

Paul wrote to the Corinthians about these matters.  He wrote and he reminded them of who they were and whose they were, of what they should be doing and who they should be doing it for, of where their abilities came from and where those abilities were meant to be applied.

Chapter twelve of his first letter to the Corinthians contains what so many people need to hear about these things:

Listen to verses 4 through 6 again.  Paul writes: “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same spirit.  There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord.  There are different kinds of working, but the same God works through all of them in all people.”

And verse 7 "Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good."

One God, one Spirit, one Lord - and a variety of gifts, all meant to be used for one purpose - to bring salvation and wholeness to the world.

Each gift, and each person is important. No gift and no person is more worthy than another.  And, of course, no philosophy and no theology, is worth more than a used Kleenex in comparison to the love that we are called to bear towards each other.

It’s all goose sense really - the sense that geese have and which we too can have, if we try just a bit harder to see each other and ourselves as God wants us to.

Why do I call it "goose sense"?  Well, that’s where the article from the newsletter of the First Presbyterian Church of Cedartown, Georgia comes in.  It says this:

We will never become a church that effectively reaches out to those who are missing if we shoot our wounded and emphasize our minuses.  Instead of becoming fishers of people, as Christ calls us to be, we will be keepers of an ever-shrinking aquarium.

The next time you see geese heading south for the winter flying in a "V" formation, you might be interested in knowing what science has discovered about why they fly that way.

It has been learned that as each bird flaps its wings, it creates an uplift for the bird immediately following it. By flying in a "V" formation the whole flock adds at least 71% greater flying range than if each bird flew on its own.

Christians who share a common direction and a sense of   community can get where they are traveling on the thrust and uplift of one another.

Whenever a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the draft and resistance of trying to go it alone and quickly gets back into formation to take advantage of the uplifting power of the bird immediately in front.

If we have as much sense as a goose, we will stay in formation with those who are headed the same way we are going. When the lead goose gets tired, it rotates to the back of the formation and another goose flies point.  It pays to take turns doing hard jobs whether with people at church, or with geese flying south.

Finally, when a goose gets sick, or is wounded and falls out of formation, two other geese fall out of formation and follow it down to help and protect it.  They stay with the wounded goose until it is able to fly again, and then they launch out on their own or with another formation, to catch up with their original group. 

If people knew we would stand by them like that in the church, they would push down the walls to get in.

You see, all we have to do in order to attract those who are missing, is to demonstrate to our neighbors, our communities, and the world that we have as much sense as a goose. 

That seems little enough price to pay to win the lost and minister to one another. Geese have enough sense to know that it works every time.

May every one of us have the sense of a goose.

Amen!