Out Our Way: The Master's toolbox

"Aeneas," Peter said to him, "Jesus Christ heals you! Get up and take care of your bedding!" And immediately Aeneas arose  - Acts 9: 34

Out our way, a lot of folks spend the winter and wet spring fixing equipment. I don't know of a rancher or a farmer who wouldn't put a mechanical engineer to shame with the way they can jury-rig an old tractor, combine or baler, or just keep "old Blue" (that broken down pickup you couldn't trade in on a skateboard) running a few more miles. I suppose that's why nearly every rancher or farmer I know has a fair size toolbox - for, as I have had to learn the hard way, there is no substitute for having the right tools for the job.

  In our study of the Book of Acts, we may have noticed that God has a pretty fair assortment of "tools" in His toolbox: the church. As the Holy Spirit descended upon the first Christians, they began to realize they all had special or unique gifts - differing from each other as much as a hammer differs from a screwdriver, or a wrench from a jigsaw.

  Take Peter for example. In the Book of Acts he really isn't the evangelist that Paul is.  Indeed, we find him following in the footsteps of others who preceded him in founding the church in various places. In Acts 8 is the story of Philip who went up into Samaria and began to evangelize the country. Only later after Philip had laid the groundwork did Peter get involved, building on what Philip had begun (Acts 8:14). In the next chapter of Acts we see Peter traveling along the coast of Judah and working with already established Christian communities. Yet nowhere do we see any sign of jealousy, envy or division within the early church.   My, how things have changed!

Rivalries between congregations, denominations and even within the community itself have arisen. Feuds and divisions have become common, cliques and rivalries within the same body as each struggles for dominance and power in the Church. Yet we seem to see none of that in the early church.

Perhaps we can get a hint of why that is when we look at how the church responded to the healing of a paralyzed man named Aeneas and the raising from the dead a beloved woman named Tabitha (Acts 9).

Although Peter was the instrument by which God healed Aeneas of his condition and raised Tabitha from the dead - nobody is focused on the person of Peter! Especially not Peter himself. Instead, it was always Christ who was worshipped and esteemed. The same was true of his journeys to work with other pastors and bless their labors, always as a fellow laborer, never as a rival.

  Indeed, there was no sense of rivalry or competition between congregations or pastors or evangelists - because all understood they were merely the tools in God's toolbox, each being used according to God's design and as God needed them.

Nobody praises Michelangelo's brushes for the brilliance of "The Last Supper" or his chisel for the exquisite sculpture of David. Nobody praises the quill pen Thomas Jefferson used to write out the Declaration of Independence, nor the envelope on whose back Lincoln penned the Gettysburg Address. These were incidental to the real event - to what was really important.

Peter, Paul, Philip, you and me - we are only the instruments God uses as He chooses. The hammer cannot boast to the nail that it is more important when both are necessary to build the house. And the screwdriver should not say the wrench has no value when it knows nothing of plumbing.

As has been said, the value of the individual Christian is not their ability so much as their availability. God will use each of us in His time for His purpose. Thus none of us have cause to boast or despair, just be ready. In His time, in His design, He will use each of us for His work.

God's toolbox has many instruments within, some used more often than others - but all necessary for the Master Craftsman's work.

  John Bruington is pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Havre. "Out Our Way" columns, "Bruin Town Tales for Children"and sermons are available on the church website, http://www.havrepres.org.