“Center in Your Gifts” – November 5th, 2023

Rev. Sophia preaching, with Carole Katz, Samantha Eyster, Charlyn Bethell, and Guy Urban. 
Caring for ourselves and one another is the bedrock of our Unitarian Universalist faith, and foundational to building Beloved Community. As we move into this month’s theme of Generosity, let’s consider what care looks like in action and how our gifts and needs are nurtured, shared and met in a spiritual community. Directly following worship, we will have a short conversation about the Parish Care ministry here at FPW. This is something all of us offer each other. Nothing is more important than love and care these days. Give yourself the gift of both and come to church on Sunday.

READING: “Wild Geese,” by Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine. Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting — over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

Some of you will remember the exercise I once led you through one Sunday morning:  I asked you to take a moment to return to the day that you first came to this church–what it felt like, what you were looking for, what you needed… And afterwards many of you shared what came to mind with me and I’m afraid that what you shared makes you utterly un-unique from other churches and places of worship. The particularities are different, but the overarching themes are the same. This gives me the confidence to speak in universals now:

People come to church for a sense of belonging and community; and they come to church for spiritual solace, meaning making, and transformation.

Every ministry that exists in this church and drives us to live out our faith in the community and in the world is bound to these tenets. In fact, as a helpful exercise, you could apply this measuring stick to every endeavor, event, plan, leadership role or whacky offering around here to gauge its success: does it nurture belonging and community? Is it spiritually deepening, and meaningful?

The churches and faith communities that are growing and vibrant and thriving have figured out how to partner the two in all things: a deep sense of belonging in community and hefty spiritual deepening and meaning making. In all things.

As you pastor, I take these needs seriously. And I know you do too. I also spend a lot of time thinking about how to do this, and attempting to apply that measuring stick to everything I do–sometimes with success, sometimes not. And especially, I think a lot about how we share in this–for no one can meet these needs alone. Or build this alone. That’s not possible.

The answer to ‘how do you do this?’ is simple: Center in your Gifts.

These words, ‘Center in your Gifts’, come from Meck Groot. Meck served as a UUA regional leader, and even worked with this congregation on several occasions. She recently retired from this long tenure in our faith, but at one of my colleagues’ recent installations offered wise words about centering in gifts as the charge to the congregation. And I am going to offer some of them to you now, with her blessing, and I have intermixed some of my words in with them. Here we go:

Why center in your gifts? Meck Groot asked.

Because no one gets a greater sense of their value and place in a community–no greater sense of their worth and dignity–than when their gifts are acknowledged, affirmed, and received in community. The free and generous exchange of our gifts is a basic human longing.
And a community that centers in gifts is more likely to be experienced as Beloved.
In a community that is beloved everyone experiences belonging, purpose, meaning and value.

So, there’s the WHY. Now for the WHAT and HOW…

What does it mean to center in your gifts?
It begins by taking your genius seriously.
Yes.
Your genius.
Something you do so naturally you might not even think of it as your gift.

Of course, there are the obvious talents.
For example, people who sing or play music like angels.
Those who organize events around here as easily as a duck swims.
Or those who can create and manage a complicated excel chart in their sleep.
This congregation’s life and longevity–it’s ability to offer belonging and spiritual deepening–depend on these obvious gifts.
These gifts are worthy and glorious.

But there are other gifts here too.
The unidentified gifts.
The hidden talents.
For example, there are people with a gift for deep listening.
And those who encourage others quietly from the sidelines.
Those who know how to make people feel at home and at ease.
There are those who are genius at fixing things.
And growing things.
There are those who love research and keep records.
Those who bring humor and spark insight.
There are those who mediate conflict.
And those who bring comfort in times of grief.

In this sanctuary, and I am including all of you Zooming in from home, and those whose gifts make this Zooming possible, in this sanctuary RIGHT NOW are both recognized and unrecognized glory.

Each of you has treasures within you.
And those treasures are hoping you will bring them forth.

And this is what church is for–said Meck.
Bringing those treasures forth takes the whole community.
Gifts need to be recognized and affirmed.
You need to know what your gifts are and you need to know everyone else’s gifts too.
If you can’t identify your gifts,
It’s the responsibility of the community to help you with that.
It is the responsibility of the community to support you to deliver those gifts.
It is the responsibility of the community to ensure those gifts are received–within or beyond the congregation.

Hear this:
When you are centered in your gifts and sharing in your ministries,
You will tap into joy.
You will feel spiritually deepened.
You will feel connected.
And this joy and spiritual deepening and connected-ness will spark resilience and wonder and presence and hope and healing.

But listen, this does not mean you don’t ever have to do things you don’t feel like doing.
Even great painters need to clean their brushes!
Dishes still need washing and trash needs taking out.
So, take your turn!
Do the maintenance tasks that allow your gifts, and the gifts of others, to flourish and flow.
But keep your gifts centered.

My call to ministry is a long story–call stories are never simple. But I want to offer you the uncomplicated, where the rubber met the road, part. Twelve years ago, I was welcomed into a 500-person church by people who treated me as if I was the most blessed gift to the community. This was THEIR genius. And me-oh-my does this exist here too–the welcoming geniuses. And these welcoming geniuses whispered my name to the other geniuses: the gifted hosts who seem to carry around satchels of invitations to a variety of parties and the geniuses of recruiting, planning, implementing, communicating…and the asks flooded in.

And the geniuses on the sidelines (blessed be the geniuses on the sidelines!) lovingly whispered to me: do only what you are called to do. You can say no. And the geniuses of worship (blessed be the geniuses of worship!) week after week gave me a place to rest and just…be, while the geniuses of RE (blessed be the geniuses of RE!) took care of my young daughters.

All of these geniuses–the community–helped me to discover MY gifts. Ultimately, my call to the ministry was born out of these discoveries.

Each of you has treasures within you; both recognized and unrecognized glory, Meck Groot tells us.

You are a ruby embedded in granite. How long will you pretend it’s not true? Speaks Rumi.

This little light of mine…I’m going to let it shine…Everywhere I go! So says the African-American spiritual.

The world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting — over and over announcing your place
in the family of things. Prays our poet, Mary Oliver.

It is the responsibility of this spiritual community to support you in discovering and delivering your gifts.

This parish is grounded in so much love and care and gifted-ness. True genius. You take my breath away. And you are growing. Many of you are realizing that you no longer know everyone’s names. Think about how many new unidentified gifts are here in our midst, right now. We need the gifted matchmakers and genius-finders and name whisperers to step up! We need your genius right now. Because we are growing.

But Beloveds, stop saying yes to the things that are burning you out–making you feel disconnected and spiritually snuffed. That’s burnout. Stop it. This is a church. This is not your workplace. It’s your church. Tell others that you need help. Someone right now needs, more than anything, to be asked to help BY YOU. Because they need to feel useful, and trusted, and valued, and they need a place to cultivate and bring their gifts. That’s why THEY are here. Their genius and treasure longs to be expressed! Your ‘hell no’ might be their ‘hell yes’!

And I’m going to say something bold now. If NOBODY has the gift for it–the genius for it–if NOONE is stepping up to do it, it’s time to let it go–lovingly lay it to rest–or apply the measuring stick. Wisdom tells me that it’s probably a ministry that isn’t offering a deep sense of belonging and much spiritual heft. That’s why no one wants to do it. Time to make some changes! Where are our creative visionaries that can help us stand at a different angle and do brave, big, new things? Whose got this genius? Let us call upon them.

Offered in balance, received in balance, shared in balance, you will feel great joy. You will feel connected. You will feel spiritually fed.

Yes, this is what church is for.

I want to circle back to the patron saint of Unitarian Universalism, Mary Oliver’s prayer for us all. Let’s let her have the last word here.

“Wild Geese,”

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine. Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting — over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

May it be so for us all. Center in your gifts.

Amen.