One of a kind

You sit in the stands at one of the Chiefs games and as you look at the people seated across the playing field from where you are, all you see is a lot of people. Without some very good binoculars you cannot distinguish one person from another.

When you look at the playing field there are two teams of 11 players each and if you do not know them well enough to identify them by their face, they have a number on their uniform that tells you who they are. Each one of them has a particular position to play on the team and when each one of them carries out a particular part of the play called by the quarterback the team scores – sometimes.

Go in either direction on I-63 and you are just one of a group of people trying to get to the same place. Individual identity is important only when those red and blue lights are flashing in your rear view mirror.

It is easy to conclude that we are only a mass of cells like many other masses of cells, and that we really don’t have much value, and we wonder who would miss us if we suddenly dropped out of life.

This kind of thinking is found even in the church, as one member with tongue in cheek said all we’re asked to do is to pray and pay.

If you have come with me this far, I have good news for you. In 1 Corinthians 12:12-31 the word of God spoken by Paul tells us each one is important.

Pointing to the human body Paul asks us which member of the body would we rather do without? Is it the eye, the ear, the hand, the foot, the sense of smell, the sense of taste? Each one of us was created by God as a unique individual, each one of us redeemed by the blood of Jesus, and each one of us incorporated into the body of Christ, the church. Each one of us is given the ability to perform a certain function even as the members of our body perform a certain function.

Unique, important and necessary are words that describe us. Therefore each one of us is in the church, and in the community because God has placed us there. And what is true of each one of us is true also of every other person.

So take a good close look at yourself, at your abilities, and the opportunities to use those abilities. As you and I do what God has given us to do, the team wins!

Go Chiefs! Go Christians!

Elmer Schiefer, Pastor Emeritus
elmer@myglobalemail.com
573-529-0584