NOTE: I am putting my weekly sermons on the church website. It will be on for two weeks (usually posted on Friday) and then placed in the Archives area by date. You can download in a matter of seconds.
Let me know what you think. The church Email is: slumc@direcway.com, Phone: 480.895.8766
Sunday,
January 25, 2004
Sermon: "Goodwill Ambassadors"
Scripture: I Corinthians 12:12-31
Reverend Larry Gerber
McDonald's
and General Motors take great care that their corporate representatives look
the same. Totally unlike the church, whose people not only look different but
take on roles both big and small.
In 1985, General Motors retired Mr. Goodwrench. Now, he's back, thanks to GM
advertising mavens in Detroit. A new ad campaign last year reintroduced Mr.
Goodwrench in a series of commercials as the friendly mechanic who is everywhere
and anywhere and can do just about anything to help you and your car get on
the road. Stephen Cobert, a Jon Stewart cohort on "The Daily Show,"
stars as "Bob Oglethorpe," a man whose mission is to find the true
Mr. Goodwrench. It's a perplexing problem because — inexplicably —
Mr. Goodwrench seems to be first here, and then there. You could say, to employ
theological language, that Mr. Goodwrench is a gifted apostle for General Motors.
But there's another corporate apostle deserving of mention. Willard Scott. You
know him well from his years as the Today Show's weatherman. Willard Scott began
his rise to fame by clowning around as the original Ronald McDonald back in
1963. In those days, when he dressed up as Ronald, Scott wore a paper cup as
his nose and a cardboard tray as his hat. Ronald was a smash hit. In '66, when
McDonald's decided to take Ronald national by using him in television commercials,
they gave Ronald a complete makeover — redesigning him from the crown of
his cardboard topper to the soles of his flashy feet — giving us the clown
known as Ronald McDonald today. By 1972 McDonald's realized that they needed
more than one Ronald McDonald. So they created their own book: Ronald and How.
It details proper makeup application techniques and appropriate Ronald behavior
— especially around children. Everything you need to know about how to
be a Ronald is in this book. The coveted clown job currently pays about 40 grand
a year. A busy Ronald may earn up to $100,000 per annum by performing 400 shows.
The premier Ronald, who performs for national commercials, pulls in an annual
300,000 big ones. Twice a year there's a secret gathering of the estimated 250
Ronalds. These gatherings aren't visible or open to the public. McDonald's policy
forbids any two Ronalds from meeting in public lest the illusion of one Ronald
be shattered. At the Ronald convention, Ronald trainers enforce strict Ronald
rules. Each Ronald must pass inspection or go home without a job. Both Mr. Goodwrench
and Mr. McDonald, a car doctor and a clown, are corporate apostles representing
commercial kingdoms of vast resources and power. Call them goodwill ambassadors,
if you like. That's the word Paul uses in 2 Corinthians: "So we are ambassadors
for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf
of Christ, be reconciled to God" (5:20). Paul also calls himself a "fool"
for Christ, evoking the clown image: "We are fools for the sake of Christ"
(1 Corinthians 4:10). But there is a significant difference between how corporate
America views its ambassadors and clowns, and how the apostle Paul describes
the role of the people of God in the world. Whereas General Motors and McDonald's
each publish a manual on how to be the same, look the same, talk the same, smile
the same, wave the same — Paul writes an essay on how to be different.
Not just how to be different, but how to recognize the difference, and —
to use the cultural expression of our day — how to celebrate the diversity
in the church. This is not a homily on multiculturalism. Paul's point in this
text is that the Holy Spirit does not gift the church so that its members are
all the same, but rather, the Holy Spirit gifts the church so that its members
might function differently, but harmoniously, for the benefit of the whole!
It might work for General Motors and McDonald's to have all their goodwrench's
and goodclowns look the same. But it doesn't work for the church. Each of us
has different gifts, different passions, and God intends us to use them for
his glory. In developing his argument Paul notes, however, that all of God's
people share some qualities and properties in common: "For in the one Spirit
we were all baptized into one body — Jews or Greeks, slaves or free —
and we were all made to drink of one Spirit" (v. 13). In other words, we
are of one faith, one Spirit, one God. He says this to dispel the notion that
— with the spotlight on our differences — we might forget our origins
and the commonalities that bind us together. In the Corinthian church there
were plenty of examples of men behaving badly — just return to the first
chapter: "Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions
among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose. For
it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there are quarrels among you
... What I mean is that each of you says, ‘I belong to Paul,' or ‘I
belong to Apollos,' or ‘I belong to Cephas,' or ‘I belong to Christ.'
Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in
the name of Paul?" (1:10-13). But, having mentioned in passing our unity
in Christ, he moves quickly to remind us that we are not supposed be Paul clones,
or Apollos clones, or Cephas clones, or whatever. God takes us, if we make ourselves
available, and uses us with our uniqueness to do God's work. That's why some
of God's people are people who — • support Neighbors Who Care
• teach an adult Bible class
* become trained Stephen Ministers • volunteer at the hospital • dye
their hair black
* clean up Riggs Road • keep financial records • lead worship •
write children's books • distribute Christmas gifts to the needy •
organize a blood drive • sing solos, or sing in the choir
* make crafts to create fellowship as well as raise money • tutor disadvantaged
kids
* belong to the United Methodist Women/Men Organization
* clean the church buildings
* trim the bushes
* serve on various committees
• and give free piano lessons . No one child of God can do all of this!
But, Paul says, we all can do something, the way only we can do it! Each of
us has a unique gift or gifts.
Let's take a moment and look around us. We can see the unity and the diversity
within our own congregation
. Please stand if you are able, and remain standing until I have exhausted my
list of uniquenesses: if you are currently on a committee in the church; volunteer
services to UMOM, Wesley Center, The Reservation; are active in the UMW, UMM;
teach a class, take a class, sing in the choir, play the piano or organ for
church services, usher, greeter, sound booth, janitorial care and church yard
cleanup and trimming, hospitality committee (bring cookies, or make coffee for
the fellowship hour), are a trained Stephen Minister.... I have missed some,
I am sure. If you are here this morning, you are serving the church just by
being in worship.
Please stand with the rest of us. Everyone please remain standing while I conclude
the message with a final note: Paul is quick to remind us that in such a diverse
community, our oneness in the Spirit results both in weeping and in rejoicing.
When one suffers, we all suffer, he says. When one is honored, we all rejoice.
Which is as it should be. We're not all called to be Ronalds, or wrenches, even
goodwrenches — just children of God expressing the passions and gifts God
has given us. If we were all alike, we would have to be seen one at a time,
so as not to confuse the populous with the idea that there is more than one
of us.
Yes, I am the church, you are the church, we are the church together. We share
our diversities in a united way. We are one in the spirit and one in the Lord,.
Just as the body is a unit, made up of many parts, so it is with Christ and
His church. We are all baptized by one Spirit into one body . We are individually
unique, and uniquely one complete unit.
I am the church, you are the church, we are the church together....... ``````````````````````````````````````````
Source: Leung, Shirley and Suzanne Vranica. "Ronald McDonald is such a
busy clown, how does he do it? — as chain beefs up his role, mascot is
keeping mum." The Wall Street Journal, May 29, 2003, A1.
LET US PRAY.............
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Let me know what you think. The church Email is: slumc@direcway.com, Phone: 480.895.8766