First Congregational Church of Somerville, UCC
Year B, AdventIII, John 1:6-8, 19-28
The Rev. Laura Ruth Jarrett
12/14/08
“Room in the Inn: Spiritual Purpose”
Advent is the time to prepare, to confess, to clean up, to make ourselves ready, to remember the light coming into the world. In Advent, we will remember that light came into the world as a human baby, a baby borne to a teenager, a baby adopted by a cuckolded fiancé, a baby raised by a besieged and impoverished community.
I want to say it a different way - that the ineffable, indescribable, invisible God, the one who existed before time and space, the original presence, the maker and guide of stars, water, light, rock and air, the love of love and the light of light, that this God should, because of love, take on the limited imperfect form of a human being, that this miracle should happened in our ancestor’s memories, that we still possess the story of this miracle, that this miracle continues to live in our collective spiritual imagination, this story, this reality that is truer than fact, this is what we are preparing our minds to remember and spirits to understand, this un-understandable truth, this is what we are doing in Advent. Our work in Advent is to open the eyes of our wonder, to listen for the cellular applause of our bodies in praise of God, to feel the breath of the trees as they exhale with the song of this miracle, to behold all of this, to prepare ourselves for this, for this baby, for this light, for this saving act of God, this is the work of Advent.
So I ask you, how do we do this work, how do we prepare ourselves? We do it in a thousand ways, we sing and pray, shop and remember seasons and people past. We contribute time and resources for the poor among us, including ourselves. And in our church this Advent, Molly has been preaching to you in a series called, “Making Room in the Inn.” Molly preached on the first Sunday in Advent, about making room for God by cleaning out our closets, and getting rid of all of what that we no longer have need. Last week Molly preached about making room by attending to our relationships.
This week, I want to ask us to make room in the in, the inside, by attending to our spiritual purpose by way of practicing our spiritual gifts.
Gianna, one of our Deacons, and I went to visit one of our elders on Thursday, Eva Mahoney. It was my first time to meet Eva, but Gianna and her husband Keith, also a Deacon, have know and have been visiting Eva for three years. Eva is eight-six. She’s lived for 20 years in elderly housing in North Cambridge with her cat Timmy. Small, about 4’10” with small, beautifully tapered hands that disappear in mine, Eva has a head of white hair. Eva lived through the great depression. She made her living operating a rooming house near Harvard University for, for more than 30 years, she hosting scholars and lodgers from here and from around the world. As a child, she survived pernicious anemia in a time before there were healing medications. She lived through other life threatening conditions, and she has survived three cancers. On Thursday night, while we were there, Eva said to Gianna and me, “I have lived through so many things, there must be a reason I’m still alive. I wonder what I’m supposed to do.
What is my purpose, and how do I live my purpose? These are some of the most enduring questions we humans have. What was I made for, why do I exist? What does God expect of me?
I believe each of us has a purpose for our lives, a spiritual purpose, and I think we begin to know what it is as we practice the use of our spiritual gifts. I believe that we know when we’re hitting our purpose, when we’ve aligned ourselves with the purpose that is uniquely ours, because the practice of it lights us up with spiritual light. We cannot talk about purpose without talk of gifts. We cannot talk of gifts without talk of the light that fills as we use our gifts for fulfilling our purpose.
So let’s talk about spiritual gifts. How do you begin to know what your gift or gifts are? I believe we begin with what we love to do.
So tell me, what you love to do? What comes easily to you? What is so easy that you think, “Pshaw, that’s nothing. “
Go ahead, tell me what you love to do. Shout it out. These things that you love to do, these things that come easily to you, that are effortless, these things are not nothing. They are significant, they are everything, they are your spiritual gifts. OK, maybe not gifts yet, but here’s how to make them gifts.
One, notice what you do with ease, with grace with joy. Next, notice the ease, the grace, the joy. Also, notice if what you are doing fills you with hope and expectation. Notice the feeling of shy dignity. Notice your conviction to the doing, and notice when you kind of like it, what you are doing. Then do that again, and do it again for yourself, for the pleasure of it. Then do it again as prayer and again as prayer. See if over time, the ease, the grace, the joy, the conviction holds.
Next, do it for the congregation or your other communities. Try it out, give it to someone, your gift. Say a prayer, say, “I don’t know God, this seems (little, not perfect, not complete, not loyal) but I’m giving it, I’m doing this because it fills me with shy dignity, hope, love,” and see if it is received by the community with joy and a recognition of the rightness of you and it. I believe this process, over a life time, let’s you know your purpose. Sometimes, if you’ve live a long time, like Eva, you can look back see that your purpose has been following you. It is said that you can’t fail your purpose.
I believe a good reason for this congregation, and all congregations to exist, is to encourage, to foster, to receive the gifts of the people. God may choose to come herself, but most often, at least in my experience, it is through the gifts of Jesus, John the Baptist, and the other living, breathing human beings, that we see the light of God.
For example, when I preach, I preach, not for the benefit of the congregation alone, ‘though I am bound by my ordination vows to preach for the benefit of the church. I preach also because I long to fulfill my spiritual purpose, which is to point toward the divine, to love God, and to love God’s people. It is through the process of preparing sermons, which includes the act of loving consideration of you and your journey, combined with the study of scripture, that I get to give my gift of ministry. Because you are here, because I long to exercise my spiritual gifts, I get to be the person God made me.
In the same way, for example, Gianna, Kathy, Leslie, Ben and I, we five Strings of Glory, need you, our congregation to receive our gifts of music so that we can live out our purpose by the practice of our spiritual gifts. Healers need to heal, prophets need someone to tell their truth to, builders need someone to occupy what they have made.
Our church is a place that will receive and encourage your spiritual gifts of solidarity with the poor. We are here so that you who have the gift of prayer have people to pray for. We’re here so that that you who love to organize, will have things to organize; so that you bean counters have beans to count. I know a man for who making budgets, paying the bills for his church, and refining how to present a financial report so that all may understand the financial health of the church positively lights him up. So beautiful is he, all lit up with God’s light. I find myself wanting to testify to his light.
What about the light? When we are busy with our spiritual gifts, when we are hitting our purpose, we light up. You’ve seen this. We recognize this light with a spiritual recognition. You’ve seen people who seem to be all shining, who are all attractive with their light. We say this about Jesus. We say Jesus is a lamp for our feet, a light on the way. We say about Jesus, that we have seen a great light. We say that Jesus is the way, the truth and the light. We can say this about each of us, too. When we are practicing our spiritual gifts, our own light, our own light of God shines so brightly, even in this season, the darkness cannot overcome it. The ones who love you will see it, they will know it as the light of God, and they will testify to it.
Don’t do what dims your light, leave it, trim down, stay away from what makes you sour, cranky, depressed. What ever that is that makes you dim, that’s someone else’s work. It will light them up and contribute the light available to the world.
Do you want to know your spiritual purpose? Practice doing what you love until your practice becomes your gift. Give your gift in a way that sets you ablaze spiritual light. Notice the light in others, receive their gifts in love so they may know their purpose for the congregation and for the world.
We stand ready as a congregation to receive your gift, because we love to see the light of God in you. We stand ready as witness to the light, we are poised to testify to the light of God in you.
Amen.
