Spare Parts

This Sunday morning, Rally Sunday for us, when everyone returned from their summer vacations and church activities returned to full swing, I broke out the power tools. Well, actually just one power tool...a circular saw. But since this was the first time I used a power tool during a sermon, it seemed like a big deal at the time. Preaching on Paul's image of the church as the Body of Christ, with each of us having an important part to play in the overall health of the whole body, I took the saw to a four-legged wooden stool to show that if one leg is removed, or if one wooden support was compromised, the integrity of the whole stool was compromised. I was hopeful that the image of the saw and the stool would stick with people, and that they would see the need for doing their part for the good of the whole.

Towards the end of my sermon I used a catch phrase that I didn't think much of, and it really just came out off the cuff. But over the last 2 days I have had numerous emails and phone calls from folks saying how much that phrase hit home with them, and has spurred them on to find their place in the Body of Christ. I simply said that "in the church, there are no spare parts." God equips each of us, and places each of us, to be a vital and integral part of the whole.

How many times over the years do people often say "I'll help if they really need me", or "Let me know if you get in a pinch". That's not how it works in the church. We each have a part to do now, that is vital to the intergity and health of the overall body. If one part fails to do its part, or if one part holds back and waits, the whole is weakened. There truly are no spare parts in the Body of Christ.

As an owner of an antique car (1971 VW Super Beetle convertible - photo above), I know about spare parts. They sit on the shelf "just in case" the day arrives when you need them. As a member of the body of Christ, specifcally equipped by God for a specific purpose, and placed in a specific place at a specific time, none of us are called to sit on the shelf until "just in case" time. We are called to do our part, and to do it today. And when we do, we together, are indeed the Body of Christ, to the glory of God!