Pastor's Pen: Be a Part of Something Bigger

A lesson from Paul

It started one morning when I got out of bed. My feet hit the floor, and I immediately felt a sharp shooting pain in my right heel. It eased up a bit as I headed downstairs to make coffee, but it kept coming back throughout the day. I kept up with my running since it didn’t hurt while I ran. I first thought that this just came with being a fifty-year-old man; aches and pains do come with age. This continued for a few weeks. Then I woke up one Saturday to the same sharp shooting pain in my right heel; except, this time, it didn’t go away. I limped around all day and learned that it is hard to function when one of your feet isn’t working properly.

I decided to call the podiatrist first thing the following Monday morning. Fortunately, I got in to see the doctor quickly and discovered that I was experiencing Achilles tendonitis. She prescribed a break from running (5 weeks and counting now), insoles for my shoes, some exercises and stretches to help the tendon heal and a night splint to hold my foot at the correct angle to appropriately stretch the Achilles tendon and help it heal.

Thankfully, it is slowly healing and the pain is subsiding. This experience has reminded me of a truth that Paul taught in 1 Corinthians 12. In that chapter, he compares the church to the human body:

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ… Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot would say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear would say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many members, yet one body. If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

Paul reminds us that as members of the body of Christ, we each have a role to fill in the life of the church; the church is incomplete without us. If we do not share our time, talent, and financial resources with the church, the body of Christ cannot function at full capacity. It is like if I expected my daily routine to be the same without the full ability to use my right foot. 

In October we reflected upon our stewardship of the resources that God has given each of us to allow the church to accomplish its ministry. On October 27, we were asked to turn in our time and talent survey as well asour financial commitment card so that the church can plan for next year’s ministries and activities. If you have not already done so, please take a few moments to complete them and return them to the church office. Without each of us doing our part, the local body of Christ called “St. Matthew’s United Methodist Church” will not be able to accomplish the ministry to which God has called us. It is my hope that we can do so because God is calling us to exciting things on behalf of his Kingdom.

Grace and Peace,

Pastor John