- Christmas Eve Services at 7pm: Love Comes Down
- Christmas Day Quiet Prayer 9-10am
- Christmas Adopt-a-Family Tree gifts are due this morning
- We are beginning our collections for Fuel Assistance for local families in need
- Death Cafe January 24th at 4pm (we meet monthly)
- Discussion Circle is the Last Sunday after Church.
- Bible Study with Seth 1st & 3rd Sundays after Church (no 12/21)
Visit our Calendar of Events to learn more.
Our Sunday Reflection is recorded and can be found HERE (posts each Sunday by late morning or early afternoon).
Our lives are filled with Gifts. Real and beautiful gifts. Each new season. Every passing season. Every day. Every moment. We are gifted—yes all of us, yes you—incredibly precious gifts. Sometimes, we forget to open our ears too listen—sometimes we muffle the sound of gifts. Sometimes, it seems too dark to see—sometimes we close our eyes and refuse to see.
Today, our kids offer their celebrations through their talents and gifts and offerings of readings, music, and creation (if you missed this, don’t miss out next time…they are all fabulous!).
This week, we celebrate the birth of Jesus. Jesus was a great gift. I read a lovely quote recently that one of the wonderful gifts of Jesus is that he belongs not just to the faithful, but to everyone. I thought that was…a gift to treasure in our hearts.
Jesus was born with a special gift—a litany of these gifts could be an infinite list. Jesus was born with a talent. Even though he was born with a gift and a talent, he took some time before he presented it, and himself, fully to the world. I like to think he was learning…that even with a precious Gift it took time before he was ready to share it.
We, each of us, is born with special gifts and talents. We are in good company if we too take some time to practice and learn. But, eventually, as scary as it is, we must offer our talents and gifts back. We were given gifts for a reason. To share…we are a part of humanity and creation. Our gifts are a part of a wholeness.
Sometimes, it is so hard to take the stage. It’s scary. What if we make a mistake? What if we have to start over? What if? What if?
But, eventually, we hone our gifts enough to offer back…and it’s always Imperfectly Perfect! I think if we are most concerned about our own perfection, we may have missed some of the point of this journey—this gift of life.
Each time we offer our gifts to the world, we learn something. We hone our skills. We get better. We try new things. We discover and uncover new gifts and talents. We let things go and take on new things. Some of us are much better at trying new things we’re not sure we’ll be good at. Some of us are very careful to shy away from things we might not be so good at. These are also gifts of character that help us to learn and become.
It is easy to forget, or ignore, that we do not do anything “alone”. We’re very well trained to feel “self made”. We are never really alone…even those times when we feel alone or feel like we did it all by ourselves..
We have a gift of Grace and are held by a divine Grace.
We have teachers who teach us and help us get ready (one of my favorite versions of Jesus is: Jesus as a [forgiving] Teacher). We have those who came before who’s gifts and talents helped to grow into our learning. So many of our discoveries are built on foundation stones that “came before”. We have parents and parent-figures, aunts and uncles, siblings, and friends who support us along the way. We have been gifted ancestors who never die, but become a part of us.
We have help. We always have help in so many ways.
We’re all in this together. And we are surrounded by a greater Love that echoes this earthly love and support.
We are always learning from each other.
We “feed” off of one another’s gifts. We are inspired by one another. We watch one another and learn. We see something new and explore and try our hand at something new. We see a gift or a talent and we encourage and awaken it. We work together and we help each other.
Jesus helps us and inspires us, and also, works with us. All along the way.
Jesus has a special gift, but many of his gifts are things that we too can pick up and try in our own lives and in our own ways. Jesus is a pretty great guide.
Jesus brought down Love. We practice this live by being kind to one another: saying nice words and thinking nice thoughts. Jesus was a gentle Presence. We can practice this by softening our words and not letting our anger build firewalls or our despair build ice-walls. PAUSE Jesus took care of the sick and the poor and the unseen. We can also use our time to tend to the ills of this world.
We refine our gifts and share our gifts and inspire one another to share our talents, to bring joy, to open one another’s eyes to see in new ways. That’s often what a story or a poem or a piece of music is doing: it’s teaching us to see the world in a new way. It is awakening us to awe and wonder! Awe and wonder always awakens our lives to the bigger Mystery all around us.
And we have a community that is with us when we share our gifts and talents. A community to gather and cheer one another on as we learn and grow and practice and let our gifts take off into the world. Some of our greatest work is not done by our very own hands, but done by those we have given the nudge and gift of support to use their gifts and talents for this world (and vice versa: it is often a community that gives us the space we need to fly).
Sometimes the hardest thing is letting someone else take the center stage. Sometimes the hardest part is stepping back and watching!
It’s one of the things we are born to be for one another. We are meant to be there for each other. To use our talent to show others how to see the world in new and different ways. To cheer and to be cheered. To nudge. To worry for. To learn and to teach.
Every one of us will make mistakes and fall. It’s much nicer to have good friends to pick us up and dust off the dirt and help us get back on our feet to try again.
We are constantly needing to try again. Always.
Every one of us is learning and growing…it’s nice to have good friends with whom to learn with and a larger family to grow with. We each have our gifts. Our gifts alone do not make a whole. Wholeness is a collection plate of our gifts gathered together for goodness sake.
Jesus is really special. Jesus came to teach us. And what he taught us is to love one another…and the best way we express that love in community is to help each other. To offer help and to accept help. The best love we can offer is to uncover and shine up the true gifts we are given to be the hands of goodness in this world with and for one another.
That is love in the living world. That is the most precious of Gifts. God truly does give the best gifts. And each and every one of us has been gifted the best gifts!
Community Church of North Orange & Tully 