Childhood taunts-words we threw at each other when our feelings were hurt. I know you are, but what am I? If you love it so much why don't you marry it? It takes one to know one. That last came uncomfortably to mind reading the letter to the church in Corinth. As if it's OK to read someone else's mail. The Bible editors must have thought, regarding Paul's letters to those early churches, "It takes one to know one." They must have thought we might recognize ourselves in the early Christians and learn something.

      In today's passage the salutation teaches call. Paul claims an apostle's call, but his readers are also called. Called to different jobs, but like all Christians, he says, called to be saints. Paul then eases into thanks. It is Paul's habit to start letters with some kind of thanksgiving, and if you know anything about the axe Paul had to grind with this particular church, you might wonder if he's being sarcastic when he gives thanks for the Corinthians' speech, knowledge, and spiritual gifts. Those are precisely the things he rags them about later in the letter: speech that is gossip, arrogance about knowledge, one-upmanship about spiritual gifts. But this isn't sarcasm, it is genuine thanks-to God for gifting this church with all it needs. He's not praising the Corinthians for what they have or haven't accomplished. God is faithful, he says. God promises and God delivers.

      If Paul is so thankful, what's his beef? What's going on in Corinth that requires two letters to set straight? And today, who cares? If, in fact, it takes one to know one, is there something in Corinth we ought to recognize at Springwater? Given that this is the scripture lesson for the day on which we have our belated annual congregational meeting.

      My thoughtful husband gave me something I had been lusting after for some time -an audio set of lectures on preaching by Fred Craddock. Now, that may not fire your jets, but Fred Craddock is one of the best preachers in the country, and he shares what he knows. All of his opinions are strongly-held, and one of them is that the structure of the Biblical text should set the structure for the sermon. Since today's text is a letter, and as long as we're reading someone else's mail, let's unpack it (search for its meaning) in letter form. Not as if it is someone else's mail-as if Paul's wrote a letter to Springwater. Would his concerns for us be similar to his concerns about Corinth? Let's see if it really does take one to know one.

      Dear Springwater. No, that's how modern letters start. Ancient letters anticipated the universal desire to know as soon as possible who the letter is from and put the "from" in the greeting. We've already checked the return address label, and we know it's from our founding pastor who left us to start new churches. He cares enough about us to still be interested in our well-being. That's the way apostles did things-they would start a church community and then turn the congregation over to itself to continue its particular mission while they moved on to founding new churches. But back to the letter.

      Dear Springwater. When I left you, we agreed it was time for me to go. I'm a church-starter and you are church-doers. You knew I couldn't 'do' church for you. That was up to you. When I left, you had the wherewithal for personal and corporate growth, including a strong community out of which to worship and learn and grow and do mission and evangelism. You have all the gifts and tools you need, simply and only because the God who called you to be Christians gives you all you need to be Christians.

      And wow! that fills me with gratitude. I give thanks to God for wonderfully giving you everything you need. I don't mean God gives each individual everything, because that would mean you could be Christians all alone, and God never intended that. I mean that God gifts the whole by gifting individuals, so that you-as-a-church have everything you need to be Christians. And to be "Christian" means to be "church." You need each other, thank God!

      The beauty of how God gives means that everyone contributes to the good of the whole. No one can say, "I didn't go to seminary; the pastor is the real Christian." Not everyone is called to that job, but everyone (simply because they're Christian) is called to holy growing-in a way that fits them, in a way that builds up the whole church. Each of you is called to be intentional and on purpose about your faith. Because everyone's gifts are needed. No one has an excuse to say, "Someone else can volunteer." You can't be passive about what programs the church offers or how things get done, because you are the ones who are the church. Don't feel inadequate because your prayers aren't as fancy as someone else's or because you can't teach or you're not as nice as so-and-so. Don't think you can't volunteer because that's so-and-so's job. Don't stop volunteering because people don't thank you well enough. Because you are called by God, you are the church!

      Thank God the whole bunch of you has what it needs to keep on being a church! But when you don't show up or you don't volunteer, the whole church suffers. Thank God you've got what it takes to be Springwater. You're not East Hill, you're not Westminster or even Lake Grove. But God didn't put those churches here. God put Springwater here, in all your wonderful and limited and crazy and fabulous ways that make you particular. Which means you don't need to look at what you can or cannot accomplish. Being church isn't about accomplishing. There's no room for feeling inadequate and second best and wanting to bark like the big dogs. Who called you in the first place? God. Who gives the mission for this particular church? God. If God calls, God provides what is needed. This is no reason to lord it over others because you think you've got more gifts or more insight than they do. Who gave the gifts? God! Who directs how they should be used? God. For whose benefit are your gifts? They are for the benefit of the whole church and the glory of God.

      No fooling. You can listen all day to the "ain't it awful" tapes, "I'm no good, the church can't use me because I'm not [insert name here]." That won't get you anywhere. Some of you talk like "I'm the authority" to hide your fear of failure, and that says you aren't trusting God. The gift is Jesus Christ. The glory is God's. You get to be the church.