August 22, 1999
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church of San Francisco.
Claire’s Boutique
If you are growing up with a daughter, sometime in her preadolescent and adolescent years, you will end up in Claire’s Boutique, a store found in most shopping malls. Claire’s has no tables or shelves to sell its products. It only has hooks on the walls and on freestanding displays. Hanging on these hooks is all kinds of accessories that dads know little about. There are plastic shapes that look like butterflies. There are fancy scrunches that seem to strangle hair. And the section that I have the greatest fears about is labeled “pierced!” Claire’s Boutique is where a young girl shops to accessorize her outfit.
Accessorize. This word—accessorize—is not only an imperative, it’s a temptation.
It’s an imperative because you can’t just not accessorize. You can’t just do the basic thing without adding this or that thingamabob here, or a few doodads there. A beautiful dress still needs an elegant necklace, a dress watch, a small matching change purse, something in the hair, and of course, shoes that match!
Accessorize is also a temptation because it is soooo easy just to keep adding and adding and adding.
Now it’s our turn, guys! Remember when we were in college, getting a cast-iron hibachi grill for about $10 bucks was pretty cool. We even upgraded by buying one that has two grilling surfaces side by side. A few years ago, Lauren and I were in a chimney/fireplace supply store when we saw this propane gas grill by Ducane. It has a warming shelf. It has a fast-ignition starting switch. No more charcoal and lighter fluid anymore. It has an 18-inch by 24-inch grilling surface and a side shelf to hold the cooked food. There were all these added features! After assembling it, the directions suggested that I use car wax to keep the metal finishes clean and water repellent. I felt like I just bought a second car!
The real significance of a $1000 grill for most of us, is that its presence makes buying a $500 unit seems almost frugal. As more people buy these up-scaled grills, the frame of reference that defines what the rest of us consider an acceptable price will inevitably continue to shift. In this age of prosperity, I could easily spend $1000 on a new grill tomorrow, and few people would think I had done anything strange. But far more unsettling is the possibility that it wouldn’t occur to me that there was anything strange spending $1000 to replace a $10 hibachi.
In a grip of a luxury fever, we are tempted to keep adding and adding to what we have, sometimes way beyond our needs.
Diderot Effect
To accessorize is to fall victim to the “Diderot Effect,” the perceived need to buy new furniture for the new house, new dishes for a new dining room table, a new top to match the new skirt, a new laser printer for a new computer. The phrase derives from the 18th century French philosopher, Denis Diderot who, once upon a time, received as a gift a beautiful scarlet dressing robe, and thereupon quickly discarded his old one. But he began to sense that his surroundings now appeared shabby and unworthy of the grandeur of his new garment. The splendor of his new dressing gown caused him eventually to replace his comfortable furnishings with new and finer things, even if they lacked the well-worn features of his old stuff.
Diderot grew dissatisfied with his study, with its threadbare tapestry, the desk, his chairs, and even the room’s bookshelves. One by one, the familiar but well-worn furnishings of the study were replaced. In the end, Diderot found himself seated uncomfortably in the stylish formality of his new surroundings. He regretted ever receiving this scarlet dressing robe that forced everything to conform to its own elegant tone.
“The Diderot Effect” is what keeps the spiraling Nordstrom consumer escalator moving ever upward on Market Street. If we want to get off, we need to develop a new consumer consciousness and new behaviors. The end result was one unhappy philosopher who wished he’d never received that new dressing robe in the first place.
Gifts that Differ
For Denis Diderot, the beautiful scarlet robe forced everything to conform to its own elegant tone. In today’s Scripture lesson, Paul addresses the Christians who are tempted to conform to the world’s mania for accessories.
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of
your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and
acceptable and perfect.”
Paul is saying, “Don’t conform; transform. Don’t accessorize; specialize.”
Paul says there is a variety of spiritual gifts necessary to the harmonious functioning of the Christ Body ministry in the world. So many spiritual gifts and so little time: prophecy, serving, teaching, encouraging, giving, leadership, and compassion. These are not the only ones. Paul lists more in 1 Corinthians 12 and 14 and in Ephesians 4.
Paul says, “One, just one.” Whatever our gifts, we’re to use it, and not worry about using another, or someone else’s. This idea is on the startling notion that all the gifts and the ministers who minister them are of equal and profound importance.
What happens is that we try to appropriate to ourselves the spiritual gifts, or the jobs that aren’t designed to be ours. It’s not that we should try to avoid discovering and using our spiritual gifts—doing this is a biblical imperative. But once we decide that what we’ve received from God isn’t enough, that we need to spiff things up just a bit more—that is
when the problems begin, that is when pride begins to poison the Body and the Spiritual Body begins to break down.
Paul argues that the Body of Christ functions because it is the Spirit that equipped it. With those spiritual gifts, the Body of Christ moves about and does its work.
For as in one body we have many members, and not all members have the
same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually
we are members one of another. We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us.
In Romans 12, Paul says there is the gift of
1. A prophetic ministry—the daring courage to speak out and challenge the powers and principalities around us. As a faith community, what else must we say about Christian stewardship besides recycling paper? What is our voice on affordable housing? As a member of the Chinatown community, what is our Baptist witness?
2. A serving ministry—the enduring patience and attention to meet the human needs of people. Can we give and help out without first judging someone? Is the love that we say we have unconditional as Jesus Christ’s forgiveness is for us?
3. A teaching ministry—the life-long nurture and training that builds strong Christian disciples with Bible study and sharing. How can we commit ourselves to regular and disciplined study of Scripture? With this knowledge in us, how can we acquire skills to teach our own children about the faith?
4. An encouraging ministry—the constant need to provide hope and prayer to those who are facing life’s struggles. What is our next step in our Care Partners program that may strengthen the bond of Christian fellowship?
5. A giving ministry—the sacrificial pledging of our time and resources to actively engage in doing ministry and mission. In a few weeks, you will be challenged once again to consider in prayer your tithe and offerings to the overall mission of this church. How can we learn that when we give in generosity, we receive in return so much more?
6. A leading ministry—the gift to lead others and carry out programs to benefit the whole Body of Christ. How can we involve many others who can lead in diligence that all track of time is lost because we are having so much fun?
7. A compassionate ministry—the mercy and acceptance that we show to everyone because that is how Jesus first showed and taught us. How can we learn to become even more inviting and hospitable to people that come and the many that we want to come and worship God with us?
God has given each of us one gift of the Spirit to use complementarily with each other to make up the Body of Christ. We can be happy with the gift the Spirit has laid on us and not try to accessorize out ministry with something else.
Conformed and Transformed
This is the difference between the conformed and the transformed. The conformed are always trying to add on, do something else. Our culture says that you can never have enough. You always need more. More. More.
The transformed are focused on the ministry the Spirit gave them.
*The conformed seek a promotion; the transformed seek a ministry.
*The conformed seek more stuff; the transformed seek the right stuff.
*The conformed seek glorification to oneself; the transformed seek the welfare of the Body of Christ.
*The conformed seek the comfort of the flesh; the transformed seek the renewal of the mind.
*The conformed invests in the temporal; the transformed invest in the eternal.
It seems a basic part of human nature, or perhaps postmodern American nature, that we want the whole pie or enchilada; we want it all, and we want it now. We want the first, the best and the finest.
That emphasis in our consumer culture can sometimes translate into misadventures in the church. It started in the days of Jesus when James and John, those sons of Zebedee, sought the prime spots next to Christ, on earth and in the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus didn’t belittle their request—he merely told them that what they asked would require a sacrifice similar to that Jesus would make, and even then, it wasn’t up to Jesus to give them their reward. To “sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it had been prepared” by God, Jesus says in Mark 10:40.
Notice what happens next: “When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John” (Mark 10:41).
Seeking a gift that isn’t ours is a good way to get other people’s noses out of joint. It can cause dissension and dilemmas within the group, ruin friendships, and even cause schisms. But it also does something else: It gets us out of sync with what God wants for us.
So what is our responsibility in all this? It’s to be sensitive to the voice of God and to the needs of the entire church community. We’re a family, a fellowship here—this isn’t another version of the “rat race” where I win if you lose, or the other way around. That kind of thinking, frankly, doesn’t belong in the business world either. It doesn’t belong in the church community. It’s what Paul decries when he says, “Do not be conformed to this world.”
It requires a different way of thinking and looking at things; it requires a spiritual vision nurtured by prayer and study and gratitude. These are gifts that God wants all of us to
have and enjoy. He wants us to worship him in this spiritual way, and then bring that worship to bear on whatever tasks we may face as a church.
Yesterday at the church picnic, we held our very first “Bake-Off” contest. The church, and your role in it, is not like there is only one cake or pie that’s the best. All the entries contributed to a successful picnic. Everyone receives a ribbon! Instead of you winning and me losing, it’s more a matter of each of us discovering the best that God has for us. Everyone wins.
Living Sacrifice
When I was preparing myself for Christian ministry, I imagined that I had to be skilled and gifted in everything. I thought I needed to be good teacher, an effective administrator, a relevant preacher, a friendly pastor, a patient listener, an in-tune song leader, a compassionate counselor, even a good basketball player, a good this, an effective that and on and on. I thought I needed to accessorize what I had already.
I can’t be good in everything I want to be good in. Actually I don’t need to be good in everything. It’s like not giving much thought to your spleen on a daily basis. Any doctor will tell you how important it is. In the same way, in the things that I am not gifted in, I have all the necessary skills and abilities to proclaim the Lordship of Christ at FCBC from you. I think the most important gift I bring to you is my love for Christ and this church. You bring all the rest.
The person who encourages those who are sad or the one who softly says, “I’m praying for you” and then does it. The person who makes phone calls to say that we missed them last Sunday to the one who sings faithfully in the choir. The person who greets visitors to the one who picks up after Sunday worship. The people who have worked almost daily in getting our building prepared for retrofit to those who stand up on Sunday morning to thank God for dedicated volunteers. These people are just as important as the evangelist who fills a baseball stadium, if not more so.
Paul begs us as brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is our spiritual worship. Our lives are on the altar as a proper offering to God. There is no room for self-important ego in such an act.
We are called upon by God to find or discover our dressing robe, a robe that fits us and suits us perfectly. We won’t need to accessorize it.
We are called to wear it and be happy with it, and to not even begin to think about getting a house full of new furniture to match its splendor. The new furniture can be found in the gifts we see in each other. There’s no need to accessorize.
The robe we’ve been given is enough.
The gift is Spirit-given.
Wear it. Use it.
Wear it out—to the glory of God.
Let us pray.
Dear God, we offer ourselves as living sacrifices gifted by you for Christian service. Help us to give thanks for that one special gift that you gave to each of us. Let us join together as sisters and brothers to serve you in glory and for reconciliation in the world. In the name of Jesus who gave his life so that we may have life everlasting, we pray. Amen.