"If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?"~1 Corinthians 12:17
(On Friday night, I went to a Christmas party involving a White Elephant gift exchange. One of the gifts was a Mr. Potato Head, which caused me to chuckle because I was thinking about the story that follows. I am including the story in this space so that the other attendees of the party, and you, my loyal readers, may read about and enjoy it.)
During my college years, one of the most memorable sermons I heard was preached on 1 Corinthians 12. However, the passage itself wasn't what made it memorable. In fact, I have heard many sermons preached on this topic in my 27 years because it is such an important one. What made this particular sermon so memorable was how the pastor illustrated his point.
The sermon started off like all the others with the pastor talking about the different types of gifts mentioned in the passage, and how our different gifts serve different purposes in helping to further God's kingdom here on Earth. Then when he got to the verse quoted above, he drew a Mr. Potato Head on a whiteboard to use as a visual aid. He drew in eyes, ears, a mouth, a nose, and a pair of hands, and he talked about how each feature served a different purpose as a part of the whole. He then erased the mouth and put two eyes in its place. Unfortunately, since they were perfectly round, evenly spaced, and had perfectly round, perfectly centered pupils, they looked like a different feature altogether: a pair of breasts. Slowly, chuckles began to erupt throughout the room, despite the congregant's desire to focus on what the preacher was saying next. As the chortling reached a crescendo, the pastor took another look at his drawing and realized immediately what was so funny. He quickly erased the offending eyeballs, but the damage had already been done. He then ended his sermon by saying that his illustrative flub was proof that the body wouldn't work with more eyes than necessary. Thus the sermon that started out with the purpose of teaching us that our gifts, whatever they may be, could be useful in furthering God's kingdom, taught us another lesson as well: always think before you draw.
(On Friday night, I went to a Christmas party involving a White Elephant gift exchange. One of the gifts was a Mr. Potato Head, which caused me to chuckle because I was thinking about the story that follows. I am including the story in this space so that the other attendees of the party, and you, my loyal readers, may read about and enjoy it.)
During my college years, one of the most memorable sermons I heard was preached on 1 Corinthians 12. However, the passage itself wasn't what made it memorable. In fact, I have heard many sermons preached on this topic in my 27 years because it is such an important one. What made this particular sermon so memorable was how the pastor illustrated his point.
The sermon started off like all the others with the pastor talking about the different types of gifts mentioned in the passage, and how our different gifts serve different purposes in helping to further God's kingdom here on Earth. Then when he got to the verse quoted above, he drew a Mr. Potato Head on a whiteboard to use as a visual aid. He drew in eyes, ears, a mouth, a nose, and a pair of hands, and he talked about how each feature served a different purpose as a part of the whole. He then erased the mouth and put two eyes in its place. Unfortunately, since they were perfectly round, evenly spaced, and had perfectly round, perfectly centered pupils, they looked like a different feature altogether: a pair of breasts. Slowly, chuckles began to erupt throughout the room, despite the congregant's desire to focus on what the preacher was saying next. As the chortling reached a crescendo, the pastor took another look at his drawing and realized immediately what was so funny. He quickly erased the offending eyeballs, but the damage had already been done. He then ended his sermon by saying that his illustrative flub was proof that the body wouldn't work with more eyes than necessary. Thus the sermon that started out with the purpose of teaching us that our gifts, whatever they may be, could be useful in furthering God's kingdom, taught us another lesson as well: always think before you draw.
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