In Romans 12, Paul is taking upon himself a formidable challenge. He is trying to tell people who have obvious talents and abilities that they should handle their talents in two ways. First, they should handle their talents with humility. They should recognize that whatever talents they have were given to them by God. And they should recognize that there are many other talented people around them. They may not have the precise same talent or ability, but they possess something that is of equal value to the life of the church.

Second, Paul wants to remind them that nothing great can happen for the Kingdom of God if people with talents are operating separately and in isolation from one another. We are all members of one body, and all of the body parts are meant to work together. Yes, you may have great ability, but you need somebody else working alongside you or the task cannot be done.

Have you ever considered what it takes to have a world-class symphony orchestra such as we have here in Cleveland? At one point, Time magazine named the Cleveland Orchestra the best orchestra in this country, and perhaps the best orchestra in the world. Now what is required in order to make that happen? It does not require a stage full of nothing but string players. As beautiful as the sound of violins, violas, cellos and basses might be, they alone do not account for a world-class orchestra. You need some woodwinds to contribute; clarinets, bassoons, flutes and piccolos. But that is not all that you need.

Somebody better be able to play the music assigned to the brass section; you will need some trumpets, French horns, trombones, tubas and cornets. But can you imagine a truly great orchestra without the sound of the deep timpani drums, the cymbals, and all the other percussion instruments. All of them are needed, and without any of those sections you could not have a symphony orchestra.

The conductor's job is not just to wave his hands while the musicians play whatever they want. His or her job is to select a single piece of music, make sure that each section knows its part, and then blend all of the sections into a beautiful symphony of music. Everybody on the stage has talent. Everybody on the stage is good at what they do. And there may be some on the stage who really believe that what they do is more important than the role performed by anybody else. What the conductor has to do is transform a large group of extremely talented musicians into a symphony orchestra. When that task has been accomplished, the sound is something worth hearing. But it does not happen without work on everyone's part.

That is what Paul is saying about how the church has to work. Everybody in the church has talent. There is nobody here today who cannot do something for the Lord that really needs to be done. There are no talent-less Christians. There are Christians with differing talents, but each of them and the work they do are important. And in the church, as with an orchestra, we have to learn how to acknowledge our own talent, appreciate the talent that is within others, and then blend all of our talents together into a common effort to build up the kingdom of God.