Today's Sermon

 

"Finding Ourselves in the Gifts We Offer the World"

 

“Finding Ourselves in the Gifts We Offer the World”

            Ron Magill loved animals from the time he was young.  At 7:30 every Sunday night—it was like church—he would sit captivated in front of a black and white TV at his home in New York watching Jim Fowler’s “Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom.”  (The show was so successful, they went on to found an insurance company.)   For Magill, being Fowler was the dream.  He thought the best way to pursue it was to become a veterinarian.  However, in college he proved not good enough in chemistry to get into vet school. 

            Have you ever wanted something, maybe even thought were meant for something, or someone, and it just didn’t materialize?  I didn’t have the same singularity of mind as a kid as Magill.  Until about 7^thgrade if you’d asked me what I wanted to be I would have said, without hesitation, and actor, but then the plays turned into musicals and to self-conscious to sing, I bowed out. When I got to college, I thought I might be a doctor.  Both of my grandfathers had been physicians.  About 6 weeks of calculus for the biological sciences with pre-med and pre-pharmacy majors was enough to cure me of my delusion.  It’s probably for the best.  I’m not great around blood. 

            There are these times when we run into a dead end and are left asking, where now?  It’s disorienting.  We struggle to pivot from what we thought was our gift or our chosen path.  That’s compounded by a cultural mythology that we can do anything.  As Magill’s story illustrates, an many others like it, this just isn’t reality.  I love a good perseverance story as much as the next person, but for every one of those, there are scores where it didn’t pan out.  Dead ends are real, and the question is do you want to keep driving in circles or are your ready to find a new, and perhaps more adventurous path, maybe one truly chosen for you, if you believe in that kind of thing?

            Today’s scripture lessons come from the Apostle Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians starts to show us a way.  It’s a teaching about spiritual gifts, which can become our guides.  We’ll read from the twelfth chapter, verses 4-26 in two parts:

4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; 6and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. 7To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.

12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

            There is one Spirit and it manifests or equips in different manner and measures.  This is the basis of “you’re special just as you are,” thinking.  We give lip service to this in our culture, while we go on trying to make people who they aren’t.  Paul believes that the Spirit blesses people with special gifts and each should embrace theirs.  How much time do we spend working on what are not our gifts neglecting the very things that come naturally to us and, moreover, give us joy, give us life? 

            Part of what may distinguish Paul’s way of thinking from our own is that Paul is operating within the rubric of a community of committed members.  We individualize everything and thus it makes sense that we would want to be as whole, and therefore, independent, self-reliant, as possible.  Paul knew we were strongest in community and gives us the good news that in the community the diverse strengths and interests will be sufficiently distributed to make a greater whole.  Together, we are the body.    

            Take the church as an example.  It’s largely a volunteer organization.  Bethany and I have this philosophy that the Spirit will provide us in our people, those with enough different interests and abilities that we will have what we need.  Rather than do a lot of arm-twisting, guilting people into roles they really don’t want, we trust that some will like to organize, some others will want to be worker bees, some will want to speak out on important issues, some will want to quietly serve, and some will enjoy, yes even these, spreadsheets.  Praise God for those who like spreadsheets and flow charts.  It’s always a struggle to get adequate volunteers, but I see no evidence our way is any less successful than anyone else, and hopefully we spare people the experience of being resentful over a role they didn’t want. 

            We just finished a series on purpose in our Wednesday adult study, and we considered the ways in which gifts and purpose are so closely connected.  We tend to limit living out our purpose in our society only to paid work, but we must break from this mold.  Purpose, as executive coach Richard Leider teaches, is the reason you get up in the morning, what drives you, what you’re here to do.  It can be huge or small, and defined in just a sentence.  Someone in the class who lives in a retirement community said her purpose is to call people by name and make them feel welcomed when they move in, a huge transition for people.  You could say her purpose is actually making sure people feel seen and humanized.  Their identity is honored, their place in the community recognized, their connection firmly established.  It takes people who see others and recognize them.  It takes all kinds.

            Another member once told me about how when they’re on a call with customer service, or at a store, they love to ask to speak to a supervisor.  It’s not what you think.  If it’s gone well, they tell the supervisors so they can reaffirm their employees’ good work, how helpful and dedicated they were in what can be a thankless and even hostile job.  How often do you think supervisors get that call, and what impact do you think it has on them or their employees?  This member has been involved in all kinds of pursuits in their professional life, including working with religious and other leaders on a world stage, but you might say their purpose is to be an encourager.  It takes encouragers.  It takes all kinds.

            We’ve got another member who is really good at systems. She’s an elder and is using the opportunity to help us improve the ways in which we do some things as an organization. To her it seems to come very naturally, but to some of the rest of us it feels a little like magic, and we’re so much better off for it.  I know she does this professionally as well.  You might say her purpose is to help groups of people function more effectively together.  How important is that!?  It takes systems-thinkers.  It takes all kinds.

            Start to identify the gifts of those in the circles which you exist.  Start to look for the gifts of the Spirit.  Start to do so in yourself.  We’re in this series on finding our true selves, and today we say that we find our true selves when we discover our gifts and share them with the world, and no matter what the gift is, it’s important if you take Paul’s teaching seriously.  COVID taught us that many roles that are essential in our society are not treated as such. 

            Paul goes on,

14 Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15If the foot were to say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body’, that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16And if the ear were to say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body’, that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? 18But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20As it is, there are many members, yet one body. 21The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you’, nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.’ 22On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23and those members of the body that we think less honourable we clothe with greater honour, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; 24whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honour to the inferior member, 25that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. 26If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together with it.

Paul seems to know some roles will be less naturally honored, so he teaches a counterbalance, as Jesus did:  Honor more the less honored.

            When we learn to trust and lean into our gifts, we can find clarity and direction. 

            One day I took a mini pilgrimage, walking from my home to the church.  Along the way, I got a call.  It was a Florida number, but sometimes folks have old zip codes so I thought it could be a member, and one of my pastimes may be having a little fun with telemarketers, and I have some family and friends in Florida, so I took it.  It was…Ron Magill. 

            You may be thinking, wait a minute, how did the guy who failed to go to veterinary school call you?  Well, let me round out the story.  Ron Magill didn’t give up on his love for animals, nor to his ability to work with and on behalf of them, for their wellbeing.  He went on to be a zookeeper in Miami, a curator, then communications director.  He found himself a regular guest on the widely popular Spanish variety show, Sabado Gigante.  He became a regular on Good Morning America and The Today Show. He’s been on ESPN.  He’s appeared on the Discovery Channel and the History Channel.  He was on Letterman.  You’ve probably seen him even if you don’t remember his name.  He’s a regular on a podcast I listen to, ostensibly about sports, but really about hijinks more than anything, answering questions such as what animals would you most want at every position on a football team or who would be tougher to fend off 1,000 duck-sized horses or 1 horse-sized duck. All of that opens up the opportunity for him to talk about the incredible nature of animals, to inspire people, and to advocate for conservation, like his hero Jim Fowler did.   

            I was so impressed with Magill when he was early in promoting his conservation foundation that I wrote him a letter to encourage him and offer some gentle guidance on fundraising.  I have a background in philanthropy, and I thought was being far too passive and leaving, in my opinion, a lot of money on the table.  I don’t have the skills or training to work with animals, but I know a little about raising money. 

            When I answered the phone that day and heard, “Hello, this is Ron Magill,” I could hardly believe it. I have no memory of what I said to him, but I do remember what he said to me:  “You took the time to write me such a nice letter, the least I could do was call and say ‘Thank you.’”  (I don’t know if he took my fundraising advice. )

            There in that call, so much purpose coming together – loving animals, championing their wellbeing, and by extension ours, connecting as people, wanting to help wherever we can, honoring the gift or efforts of another.  In the end, Magill’s career has probably surpassed Fowler’s, though it’s not a contest—we all have a path. 

            You don’t have to become what you’re not, conjure gifts you don’t have.  You just have to see what God’s given you and then look for ways right in front of you to share them with the world.  Then where you thought was a dead end a trailhead appears.  It will take you places you never imagined, and you will find your true self along the way.

            Amen.