In 1985, General Motors RETIRED Mr. Goodwrench, but he's BACK! And he's more IMPRESSIVE than ever! A new AD campaign last year RE-INTRODUCED Mr. Goodwrench in a series of commercials as that FRIENDLY mechanic, who NOW seems to be EVERYWHERE and ANYWHERE, and who will do just about ANYTHING to help you and your car get back on the road again. Now, in THEOLOGICAL language, we might call Mr. Goodwrench is a gifted APOSTLE for General Motors, and THAT he IS. And the NEW Mr. Goodwrench reminds me of another CORPORATE apostle we ALL know and love: RONALD McDONALD!

Did you know that Willard Scott, best known for his years as the WEATHERMAN on The Today Show, was the very FIRST Ronald McDonald, back in 1963? In those days, when he dressed up as Ronald McDonald, Willard Scott wore a paper cup for a nose, and a cardboard tray for a hat. And INSTANTLY, Ronald McDonald was a HIT! SO, in 1966, McDonalds Corporation decided to make Ronald McDonald a NATIONAL figure by using him in TV commercials. In the process, they gave him a complete MAKEOVER, and made him into the CLOWN that we know and love TODAY. And THEN, in 1972, McDonalds REALIZED that they needed MORE than just ONE Ronald McDonald. SO, they created their own book called: Ronald and How, which tells HOW to apply the make-up, and offers APPROPRIATE Ronald McDonald behavior, especially around children. In fact, EVERYTHING you need to KNOW about being a Ronald McDonald is SOMEWHERE in that book. And guess what? The coveted CLOWN job CURRENTLY pays 40 grand a year, but a BUSY Ronald McDonald can earn up to $100,000 a year, performing about 400 shows. And IF you are lucky enough to become the PREMIER Ronald McDonald, the one on TV, you can make over $300,000 a year. And TWICE a year, they hold SECRET gatherings of ALL the Ronald McDonalds? There are about 250 of them in all. BUT, these gatherings are NOT publicized, and they're NOT open to the public, BECAUSE McDonalds Corporation forbids ANY 2 Ronald McDonalds from EVER meeting in PUBLIC, so that the ILLUSION that there is only ONE Ronald McDonald will NOT be shattered. Anyway, AT these Ronald McDonald CONVENTIONS, Ronald McDonald TRAINERS enforce VERY strict Ronald McDonald RULES. And EACH Ronald McDonald has to pass inspection, OR, go HOME without a JOB. I mean: THIS is SERIOUS business!

But, my POINT is that, BOTH Mr. Goodwrench and Ronald McDonald, a car doctor and a clown, have become corporate APOSTLES, who represent commercial KINGDOMS of VAST power and resources. But let's call them what they ARE: AMBASSADORS of goodwill.

You see: THAT'S the word that St. PAUL uses. In his SECOND Letter to the church at Corinth, Paul writes about Christians: So, WE are AMBASSADORS for Christ, since God is making His appeal through US (5:20). BUT, there is a significant DIFFERENCE between the way corporate AMERICA views ITS ambassadors, and the way the PAUL describes the role of CHRISTIANS. Whereas General Motors and McDonalds EACH publish MANUALS on how THEIR apostles can all LOOK the same, TALK the same, SMILE the same, WAVE the same, and BE the same, St. PAUL writes an essay to Christians telling us all HOW to be DIFFERENT -- AND how to RECOGNIZE our differences and CELEBRATE our DIVERSITY. And Paul's POINT is that the Holy Spirit does NOT gift the church so that its members might be all the SAME, but RATHER, so that its members might ALL function DIFFERENTLY, and yet HARMONIOUSLY, for the benefit of ALL! It might work WELL for General Motors and McDonalds to have ALL their ambassadors, ALL their goodwrenches and goodclowns, looking and acting exactly the SAME, but it DOESN'T work well in the CHURCH. Each of US has been BLESSED with DIFFERENT gifts, DIFFERENT passions, and DIFFERENT skills, SO that GOD can use ALL of us in accomplishing God's WORK in this world. In fact, it TAKES all of us, and ALL of our VARIED skills and talents, to DO the work that God NEEDS us to DO. We JUST need to discover what GIFTS and TALENTS God has BLESSED us with, and discern HOW God is calling us to USE them. But we ALL have different gifts.

One of my favorite stories about people having DIFFERENT gifts, skills and talents is the story of a young frontiersman in the U.S. Army, back in 1832. He went to WAR against the Fox and Sauk Indians, in what was known as the Black Hawk War. And at the BEGINNING of this war, this young man was a CAPTAIN. Now, even though war is a DREADFUL thing, there is ONE thing about WAR that soldiers LOVE. It's the PROMOTIONS they can receive. If YOU go to war and YOU survive, you are pretty much ASSURED of a RAPID RISE through the ranks. Well, by the end of the Black Hawk War, sure enough: this CAPTAIN was no longer a CAPTAIN. Strangely enough, however, he did not RISE through the ranks. He was DEMOTED! By the END of the war, HE had gone from being a CAPTAIN to being a PRIVATE! Now, HOW a soldier can go from being a CAPTAIN to being a PRIVATE, without doing something DREADFUL thing committing TREASON, is BEYOND me, but THIS young man DID it. I'll tell you: he must have been the WORST soldier in U.S. history, and a FAILURE as an OFFICER. HOW HUMILIATED he must have felt? BUT, this man would eventually find his NICHE, and EVEN achieve a measure of SUCCESS. Does anyone know WHO he was?.... His NAME was Abraham Lincoln, and he PROVES that different PEOPLE have different GIFTS. God has blessed ALL of us DIFFERENTLY, so that TOGETHER, WE can accomplish God's WORK in this world. Let me share a few EXAMPLES with you.

Among the SAINTS in THIS church is a very quiet NETWORK of recovering ALCOHOLICS. And whenever someone is afflicted with an alcohol problem -- or in LOVE with someone who is afflicted -- I can put them in touch with one of these people in our church, and they can get the HELP that they NEED. And I'll tell you: ONLY in the CHURCH would people, who are so often seen by the WORLD as failures, ADDICTED people, be considered SAINTS, or wounded HEALERS, whose WOUNDS become a source of HEALING for others. You see: sometimes in the church, our wounds or failures BECOME our spiritual GIFTS. And WHY should we be SURPRISED that our weaknesses can become our GIFTS? After all: we follow a CRUCIFIED Savior, and the CROSS, of course, was a SYMBOL of failure, SHAME, and suffering. BUT, by the love of God, the CROSS has been TRANSFORMED into a sign of SALVATION, a SIGN of TRANSFORMATION, and a SIGN of NEW LIFE!

OR, another example: in Lake Moore, there is a woman, BERTHA, whose PIES are a LEGEND. Now, they may not be the BEST pies you've ever eaten, but what Bertha DOES with her pies is WONDERFUL. You see: whenever someone DIES in town, or whenever someone is going through a tough TIME, BERTHA shows up with one of her LEMON, coconut, or chocolate PIES. And she REMEMBERS who in town likes WHICH pies. Now, as far as I know, Bertha has only ONE spiritual gift: making PIES. But she USES that gift SO beautifully, as a tangible sign of GOD'S love, and the CHURCH'S love. And whenever I hear that BIBLICAL phrase, one of Paul's FAVORITES -- the ministry of encouragement -- I ALWAYS think of BERTHA.

OR, in my LAST church, we had a woman named Beatrice, who wrote LETTERS. Due to a debilitating NERVE condition, she had MOBILITY problems and was confined to her home. But her SPIRIT was VERY mobile. SO, whenever she heard some GOOD news about someone at church -- maybe a teenager being accepted into college, or someone receiving a promotion at work, or a family having a new baby -- Beatrice would write a LETTER to that person. She ALSO wrote a letter if she heard someone was SUFFERING in some way. Now, MOST people who RECEIVED Beatrice letters had never even MET Beatrice, but ALL of them were THRILLED to have SOMEONE remember them with a letter, and a BEAUTIFUL letter at that. And THAT was a UNIQUE ministry that Beatrice could offer. It was HER gift!

And friends, we ALL have our OWN gifts to offer, and EACH one is UNIQUE! And IF we make ourselves AVAILABLE to God, and to God's CHURCH, God WILL, indeed, USE us to help accomplish GOD'S work in this world, whether that means baking pies or writing letters, whether it means teaching Church School or standing up for social justice, whether it means visiting a shut-in or SINGING in our CHOIR or band, whether it means keeping FINANCIAL records or MOPPING church floors, whether it means attending Prayer Circle or cooking at Breakfast Club, whether it means distributing Christmas flowers or tutoring disadvantaged kids, whether it means working at Habitat for Humanity or going on one of our MISSION trips. Yes, God will use EACH and every ONE of us, and WHATEVER gifts we have been BLESSED with to DO God's WORK this community and world!

Now, NONE of us can do it ALL! That's for SURE! There's just TOO much WORK to be DONE! BUT, says St. Paul, we can ALL do SOMETHING! And while we MAY not all be CALLED to be Ronalds or wrenches, even goodwrenches, we ARE all CALLED to use our own UNIQUE passions, SKILLS and GIFTS, to help accomplish God's WORK in each other's lives, AND in our WORLD. And that CALL from God is SUCH a BLESSING, because it gives our lives MEANING and PURPOSE, HOPE and JOY! AND, it ALSO makes us an integral PART of LARGER body, a WORLD-CHANGING body: the Body of CHRIST! And REGARDLESS of how much NOTORIEITY we receive or DON'T receive for our WORK in the Body of Christ, -- and REGARDLESS of how much GRATITUDE we receive or DON'T receive -- the Body still NEEDS us! And WE still need the BODY! EVERY single ONE of us is an EXTREMELY important member, an INTEGRAL part! And therefore, we ALL need to WORK at getting to KNOW each other better, and TREATING each other as if EACH and every ONE of us were the MOST important person in the church, because EACH and every one of us IS the most important person in the church, thanks be to God! Friends: WE in the church are ONE body. We may have many ORGANS and limbs and BODY parts, but we are STILL just ONE body, the BODY of CHRIST. WE are the hands and the voice of Jesus Christ in OUR world today, the ONLY hands and voice He HAS. And SO, we NEED each other, friends. And I hope that NONE of us will ever FORGET that. We are, and NEED to be, ONE in Christ. And WHATEVER our gifts, talents or skills may be, I hope that we all USE them faithfully, lovingly and JOYFULLY in order to LOVE and glorify God, and fulfill GOD'S purposes in this world. And IF we DO that, and REALLY dedicate ourselves to it, I can't TELL you what INCREDIBLE JOY, meaning, and purpose we will come to KNOW in our lives. And THAT'S God's GIFT to us as well. THANKS be to God. Amen.