Celebrating Each Other's Gifts!

Last night our Living Vision community met for our weekly gathering at my place. After spending about 8 weeks working through our common text, The Way of Jesus: Re-Forming Spiritual Communities in a Post-Church Age, and agreeing on some foundational principles for our life together, we have turned our attention to forming the bonds on which our relationships may be based.

Each Tuesday night for the rest of the summer, one participant in our Living Vision experiment will lead us in some activity designed to help us know and appreciate one another better, so that we can journey side by side together in the way of Jesus. Last night, Tim Pickett hosted and led the gathering. Having recently completed his doctorate in Composition – he is a jazz composer – we sat around a piano as Tim played various tunes and pieces for us. We asked him questions about the ways his music intersects with and grows out of his spiritual quest.

Tim has been spiritually initiated in two traditions – the Vedanta Society, followers of Ramakrishna, and a monastic tradition within Christianity. For him, Jesus has been central in both initiation rites and in his daily practice of contemplative prayer. He spoke passionately about honesty, a characteristic his mentor in the Vedanta Society called “Thee spiritual practice of the current age.” Tim is zealously committed to honesty in everything he does, including his music. To see him at a piano as our community did last night is to witness the deep, authentic expression of his heart.

As I sat there, gathered in by Tim’s music and musings, I felt profoundly grateful that finally, at long last, I was a part of a spiritual community that was valuing ALL gifts as holy and sacred – not just the ones that we seminary graduates tend to have. For so long I have been a part of and even led churches where the gifts of public speaking, teaching the scriptures, and administering committees were the only gifts that seemed to matter. In Living Vision, we have set out from our very origin to honor and lift up all human gifts – whatever the true passions and expressions of our hearts are.

This commitment to each other’s gifts grows out of a conviction that the Creator God crafted each of us in the very image of Him/Herself. As such, we have different gifts – none of which is more important to our life together than any other. When only those gifts that shine in a Sunday morning worship service are honored, it becomes so easy to think of gifts like Tim’s as somehow less sacred or even secular. But what a slap in the face of a God who purposely made each and every human being with unique gifts and inclinations. Is Sunday a more important day to be in God’s presence and to serve God than Tuesday or Wednesday? Of course not, and neither is the ability to speak or sing hymns with a choir more important than the ability to compose jazz or to cook a meal that satisfies or even transports.

Last night was a true spiritual turning point for me, sharing and celebrating someone else’s gifts, recognizing God in those gifts, and seeing their transforming power on the rest of us. Those who were present last night will never look at Tim Pickett the same way again. We’ve seen his true heart. We’ve seen him at his most honest and most vulnerable place. What a privilege for all of us, and, I would imagine, for Tim as well.

I truly look forward to the coming weeks when other members of our small community will take the lead in offering their gifts to us. Why don’t you come join us? We would welcome you at 1905 Maple St. in Bay View. We’ll be on the porch and have a glass of lemonade waiting for you!

Grace & Peace!