Can you imagine a church in which some of the people actually thought they were better than others?  Some who thought that their idea of God was far superior to anyone else's?  Some who thought of themselves as "more spiritual" than the others with whom they worshipped and served?  Some people just a little too much in love with power?   Some who thought their prayers went just a little higher than anyone else's?  Some who hadn't learned that loving means forgiving instead held grudges for years and years?  What in the world would you do with a church like that?

Well, one thing you could do, if you are that church, is create a denomination and invite a lot of other churches just like yours to join so that you can believe that, when you are together, you are collectively more spiritual than the whole world.  But, what do you do if you are the one responsible for helping that one particular church find her way again in God's kingdom?

Well, if you are the church-repair genius the apostle Paul was, maybe you start by remembering that people tend to treat other people like dirt only when they are so spiritually empty themselves they have to treat others like dirt in order to feel like they are worth anything.  Even Christians behave like that when they think there is something they need that only treating others in inferior ways will get them.  So, you start by reminding those people that, in Christ, they lack nothing.  That they are not only of immeasurable worth to God just as they are but that they already have everything they need.   So much so that they can start giving it away in generous and loving acts that announce to others their worth as children of God.   You start by reminding them that, in Christ, God has "graced" them.  You say it this way, "I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus," and then began to spell out how it is that the grace, or love, of God expressed in the birth, death, burial and resurrection of Christ, covers all the bases of human need.  It in His love that all human need ultimately finds its satisfaction.

What you do is try to get people more grace-focused.  Grace-focused people tend to be more generous in spirit.  More forgiving.  Less condescending.  More humble in spirit and gentle in their treatment of others.  So, again, we take from others and abuse others when we believe ourselves to be in need of something that taking and abusing will get us.  Only those who are fundamentally empty in their souls can be consistently destructive toward others.  On any given day, any of us can be that way toward others.  But, when we believe that we already have all in inexhaustible supply, we can give and share and love.  So, to move a person, or a church, in the different direction that love demands, you start by saying to them that, all you really need, by the grace of God, you already have.  "In every way you have been enriched in him . . ." Paul says to this Corinthian family of faith.  With that as his starting point, he lays out for them, in detail, the affirmation that, all you really need, you already have.

For one thing, you know what you need to know.  "In every way you have been enriched in him . . . in speech and knowledge of every kind . . .." Strangely, this is not telling the know-it-alls that they do, in fact, know it all.  This is affirming that, in Christ, we know what we absolutely have to know.

This year has had one headline after another reminding us of how vulnerable our children are, especially at places we once thought them safest.  Innocent children and young people suffering for inexplicable reasons.  Columbine.  Wedgewood.  A&M.  And, at every turn, someone saying God has a reason in it all.  Well, if I may be so blunt, I take no comfort in laying the responsibility for all of this tragedy at God's feet.  I refuse to make God accountable for human insanity and tragic accident.  What I am willing to say is that I know God can give meaning to even the greatest senselessness.  And, in that sense, we can lay it all at God's feet and trust Him because what we do know is that God's grace can bring life and hope where it appears, for the moment, only death and despair rule.  We know that much.  And, that is all we have to know right now.  In Christ, and only in Christ, you know what you need to know.

Second, in Christ, your past is not your future.  "He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ."  Blameless.  Think about it.   God's guarantee to you that, whatever judgment day may bring for you, it will not bring God's blame for your failures and sin.  In Christ, God's blame was settled on the cross.

This past week I heard about a young lady I knew years ago but have not seen for quite some time.  In her teenage years she was rebellious almost beyond description.  I don't have to fill in the details.  Your imagination can do that.  Quite frankly, I had just about given up hope that her life would ever count for much.  But, just this week, a phone call came that brought news of something else going on.  Something has happened.  She has started back to the church from which she once rebelled.  She has started building friendships that enrich her spiritually and has started studying the Bible and is actively bearing witness of God's love in her life.  What happened?  Grace happened.  And, I was reminded again that where someone has been in life doesn't have to mean that is where they are headed.  In Christ, your past is not your future.

Part of this young woman's new journey has been made possible because of the third thing of which we are called to remember we have uniquely because of God's grace.  In Christ, you are not alone.  "By him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ."  Fellowship.  The church.  A place to discover hope beyond the isolation in which most of us live.  You are not alone.  Not alone in your fears.  Not alone in your loneliness.  Not alone in your grief.  Not alone in your joy.   Not alone when your best friend or mate of fifty years dies and you heartbreak is unbearable.  Not alone when your first child is born and you must have someone who can lovingly listen to your brag as though no other child had ever been born.  Not alone in failure or victory.  Not alone.

At the edge of a small West Texas community is a sign the folks have erected which is meant to welcome newcomers.  It describes this little crossroads town as the "Home of 1,000 friendly folks and a few old soreheads."  I've often wondered if that might be the most appropriate sign most churches could put up to welcome visitors.  It's hardly cutting-edge marketing.  But, it seems to say it all.

The church continues to amaze me.  You look around at all these different kinds of people.  Different not just in looks but in ways of thinking and believing and living.  Conservative.  Liberal.   Unidentifiable.  Positive thinkers.  Hopeless cynics.   People who can sing us to heaven on angels wings and people who can't snore in tune.  All of it in one place at the same time.   And, miracle of miracles, it actually works.  And, what makes it work is the same thing that makes it work when we gather around Thanksgiving tables this week and say grace with people as different from us as night from day.  What makes it work is that we are, at the core, family.  And, in this family, the big brother is Jesus.   And, the great gift in all of that is in knowing that whatever else you must do in this life you don't have to make this journey alone.

And, on this journey, by the grace of God, you will always have whatever it takes to do whatever God has given you to do.  "You have been enriched in him . . . so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift . . .."

To me, the most amazing thing I observe in looking back across my life is that I have never been without what I absolutely had to have in any given moment.  Especially when it came to responding to what I perceived to be the call of God on my life.  That doesn't mean I have always had everything I wanted.

When I was in San Francisco this past week, seeing a different part of the world I had never seen before, I couldn't help but marvel at all the wealth in that city.  Not that there is not wealth all around me here.  But, I guess there is just something about seeing it in a different place makes it stand out more.  I just found myself gawking.  My friend who was showing me around said, "you're such a tourist!"  I think he was a little embarrassed.  I even took my camera into restaurants and took pictures!  Nancy must have seen it coming.  The last thing she said to me before the flight took off was, "Glen, I know this is your first time to fly first class.  But, please try to remember that all those people around you do this all the time.  Try not to let it show!"  Nonetheless, first class and wealth beyond description.  I'll be honest.  It felt good.   But, it was also a reminder that there is no such thing as satisfying the human spirit that defines its sense of worth by what it doesn't yet have.

Church is a good place to come because here, of all places, you are reminded that, in Christ, you have all you really need.  You may not have all you want.  But, right now, in this moment, you have everything you really need.  Especially, you have all you need to do whatever God has called you to do.

A couple of weeks ago I went to make a sandwich.  I was home alone and got a little frustrated when I couldn't find the pickles and Nancy wasn't there so I couldn't blame her for misplacing them.  I looked high and low.  We had just bought this huge jar of my favorite pickles the day before.  But, I couldn't find them anywhere.  I looked on every shelf in the refrigerator twice.  I went to the pantry and looked high and low.  No pickles anywhere.   So, in one final act of desperation I went back to the refrigerator for a third time and began looking high and low.  My right arm defiantly parked up on top of the door, I leaned over determined to find those pickles when I saw something I needed to move aside.  But, when I went to move it aside with my left hand I realized I couldn't because my left hand was holding - the jar of pickles!  All I needed, I already had!

As long as you what you want is something outside of yourself your whole life will be consumed pursuing a mirage of material impossibilities.  Peace comes only when you decide, by faith and hope that, all you really need, you already have.  If you don't have it and you need it God will give it.  If you don't have it and you never get it then you didn't really need it.  In Christ, all you really need - absolutely must have - you already have.  That is the promise of His grace.  And, all of that is true because, above all, you have all you really need because your "God is faithful."

"All you need is love.  All you need is love.  All you need is love, love.  All you really need is love," the Beatles sang.   They were closer to the truth than they could have possibly imagined.  Few of us would believe the brand of love they marketed would cure the ills of humanity.  But, if you accept the higher authority of scripture as a witness, you can baptize those words of popular music from thirty years ago into a hymn of thanksgiving that transcends the ages by singing, "all you really need is love."

Especially when that love means the presence of a God in your life who gives meaning to what would otherwise be hopeless and senseless insanity.  A God who removes the guilt of your sin as far as the east is from the west.  A God gives you a family of hope with which to make this journey and all you need to make it.  A God who will never abandon you.  A God who is faithful when all you have left to give him is your worn-out hope.  Or is it possible?  "Have you not known?  Have you not heard?  The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.  He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.  He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless.  Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint."  (Isaiah 40:28-31)

All you really need - you already have.