How Your Gifts Change the World | Rev. John Riley

We are here in June and it is time to stir up your spiritual gifts. Are you ready? Alright, we’ve got a third of the audience that’s ready. I’ll warm the rest of you up. So, this idea, I want to start with this idea that Lisa was talking about earlier, the idea that God is, God is everywhere present. In Unity we teach that God is a part of each one of us, not hidden inside of us somewhere, but the allness of us, that God is everywhere present.

You may call it Spirit, or you may call it divine mind or wisdom or the universe but that presence and power is the substance and the intelligence innate in every person and in all creation because each of us is created in the spiritual image and likeness of God. Each of us is created in that spiritual image and likeness and so that’s our true nature, is that expression of God.

Our Second Principle

That’s really our second principle and the reason this is so important is that when you look inside of everything that you do, the goal here is to stir up those gifts and to give those to the world, to give those to the world in everything that you do.

I would like to just read where some of this comes from, this idea. Of course, there’s this wonderful quote in the book of Acts, chapter 17, verses 24-25 and 28, “God does not live in shrines made by man, nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything. Since he gives to all human beings, all people, life and breath and everything, yet he is not far from each of us, for in him we live and move and have our being.” We live and move and have our being in this.

Now, as I was reading this I became aware of the pronouns that I was using and of course Unity doesn’t, moves away from that idea of calling God him because that personifies God, because God is not that being out in the sky, as we teach it, but God is that presence that is within each one of us. God is that loving energy that flows as Spirit. God is that harmony that flows as divine love, that infinite intelligence that we call divine mind.

So, all of these are synonyms for this idea of that presence and power that is the allness of life. I like to call that the allness of life. That includes everything. You and me and the trees and the fleas. Yes, even the fleas. I can’t believe it but it’s true. That allness of creation is part of this exquisite expression of God. So, each one of us has that expression within us, that unique power, that unique energy that flows through us.

I like how Eric Butterworth — he’s a Unity minister who lived not too long ago, in the last decade or so — and in one of his books he talked about this, as God is being the allness of everything in which you and I are an eachness in that allness. Oh my gosh, is that confusing? I’m an eachness of God, but it’s true if you think about it because we’re each here individually to express that divine consciousness, the consciousness of the universe, and allow that Spirit to flow in, through, and as us.

When we start to realize and recognize that that’s the energy within you, that’s the creative power within you, when you start to identify that as it being a part of you as opposed to separate, then we start to really feel the energy flowing. Then we start to really become a part of that expression of that divine essence.

Thomas Troward was a judge and metaphysical thinker and author in the last century and what he, the way he described it as “Wherever Spirit is, the whole of Spirit must be”. Wherever Spirit is, the whole of Spirit must be. So, if Spirit is within you, the whole of Spirit is within you. When we start to come into contact with that, we realize that the whole of that divine consciousness is available to us at any point in time, when we’re ready to shake it up, to stir it up and to express it and to be a part of it and to allow it to flow.

Eric Butterworth, in his book, Practical Metaphysics, said “Jesus discovered this principle of divine sense. He discovered his own divine image and fulfilled a personal requirement of living it out into expression fully and completely, demonstrating his own ministry was devoted to the repeatability of the Christ.” The repeatability of the Christ.

Christ as a State of Consciousness

Now, Christ is a term that we use as a state of consciousness. That’s the consciousness that this individual achieved and the idea that the words that he said is, “all these great things that I’ve done you will do and even greater things you will do”, when you start to realize that Christ consciousness that’s within you. That’s how Unity defines that word Christ and that idea of that Christ essence that’s within you, the I AM of you. I love that term. The I AM of you, that divine part of you that is pure, that is untouched by all of the things, all of the stories, all of the rigmarole that we have going on in our life — anybody have any rigmarole going on in their lives? That’s a great word, I’ve got to use it more often. Rigmarole. Just roles off my tongue. Okay, shut up. — the allness in which you is being expressed. So, I am an expression of Spirit. I am an expression of Spirit.

Would you affirm that with me? Together:

I am an expression of Spirit.

An expression of it. It’s not hidden within you. You’re here to live it and to bring it out into humanity, into everything that you do. I love this word expression because I looked it up and expression comes from the Latin word to press out, to express, to press out. So just think about Spirit within you trying to press itself out through you, trying to express through you. That’s what I think is our true nature and what we’re here to do.

Now we get to do it in a hundred, a million different ways. We get to express it however we feel like we want to express it. We get to express it in our time of creative thinking, in our time at work, in our time doing the dishes. That’s really the great gift that we have to give into the world. And we get to do it in our own way. We get to have pride in that work. We get to have pride in who we are as spiritual beings because we are spiritual beings having a human experience and the human part of us is as much a part of our experience as anything. I’m not pushing away the human experience, I’m welcoming it. You might as well. You’re here. You might as well make it a good one. We do that through that idea of living in alignment with those principles, by aligning our thoughts and our words and our actions with those principles in everything that we do, in every argument, in every disagreement, in every time we come together, every celebration, every interaction, every time we sleep.

I had really bad dreams last night. I don’t know what was going on there. I was outside of Spirit. My subconscious was working through something, I’m sure. Anyway, that idea here is that you are spiritual though, that even though we have situations that come up. Even though we have those bad dreams in our lives, those diagnoses or those experiences, even in those situations God is. We are here to express our gifts.

Our Spiritual Gifts

So, what are our gifts? What can we express out into the world? What are these things that we can give to the world? Well, you know a lot of times because we’re in church – sorry, we’re in the spiritual center — a lot of people want to talk about it as, “Well, we have to do good in the world” and that’s great. I think that’s important. In fact, there’s the spiritual principle in the yogic tradition of CEVA which is selfless, more than selfless service but it is giving your gift to someone else. You support someone else without the sense of self, of ego, small self. Not the sense of “hey, I just washed the dishes for you”, but giving to the world from a sense of an open heart, a pure heart, giving from that place of love, giving in that understanding, that sense of harmony and allowing that harmony to guide us, allowing that wisdom to guide us.

Now, we know it’s good. We know it’s the right path when it’s for our beneficial presence, it’s for all of the beneficial, it’s for our global beneficial presence, right. It’s not when I’m doing something that’s going to cause someone else harm because that’s not in alignment with this idea of the harmonizing energy of love. So, our gifts are based in love and compassion and connection and support.

So, this sense of CEVA is giving from our heart without a sense of needing something back, without a sense of, “I give you this and therefore you give me that”. It’s like, it’s the same thing as eye for an eye. An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind because we’re giving from the sense of, “this is what I got”. Instead, give from the sense of love for the willingness to give, for the sense to see that divine essence in someone else, to honor their experience in life, to honor who they are, to honor that divine essence within other people, within all creation.

So, our spiritual gifts are more than just giving, serving, going to your favorite charity. I think that’s really important. I think it’s really important to give and support the places that spiritually nourish you. I think it’s really important to give and support the places and the activities that help other people, vitally important for the world, and it doesn’t stop there. Stir up your spiritual gifts and how you can give to the world.

So, what would that look like for you? Just take a moment to think about today and the rest of your day as you’re going on. How can you stir up that spiritual gift and how can you give that gift to the world? Now, it may not necessarily, it doesn’t have to be I’m going to work at a Foodland or I’m going to go build a house or I’m going to do something like that but it’s in our daily activities. How can you share your gifts each day in everything that you do?

One of the things I mentioned, washing the dishes earlier, but one of the things now because covid, we’re all, we learn to live differently within our home. The kids all have their rooms. Thank goodness we have a house big enough for all of our kids to have a room. My wife, Tiffany, has the master bedroom which is her office and I have everywhere else. My favorite is the backyard. The idea here is that we come together, and we all have figured out that we need to go in a different place at times. We need to have our own space, our own sense of self for whatever reason.

When we come together, it’s like, what can we do to support each other, and I don’t know whether it’s just my kids are trying to suck up to me or something, but they have been very helpful. They have been very enthusiastic about it. And it’s weird now that school’s over they’re like, “Well, now what do I do?” “It’s summertime!”. “Well, yeah, but I want to go back to …” So, they are so used to being active and now we’re together and what’s being expressed is the willingness to serve each other, and then when we need to escape, we all go to our rooms and we escape.

Giving to LIfe

But in you there is something that you can give to every aspect of life. So, think about all of your agenda for the week, all of the work things, all of retirement things that you’re planning on doing, all of the housework, all of the interactions with friends and family, all of the papers that you may need to be writing or grading or all of those nitty-gritty details, the details in life. How often are you living those details in life, out of a day, 24 hours a day, how much? We’ll take 8 hours off for sleep. Okay, I’ll do the math for you. That’s — where’s my mathematician? How much? 16 hours a day – how much of the 16 waking hours a day are you dedicating to the nitty-gritty, just the mundane, the everyday. How much? 12. Yeah, that’s a lot of time. Maybe I get 4 hours out of the day really doing something important or serving. “Oh, I’m going to be serving the world here today”.

The rest of the time we’re just living life and that’s the time when we get to practice, as Lisa talked about. That’s when we get to experiment and try on these spiritual principles and see if they work for you. You’re not required, there’s no line, contract that you have to sign that says you have to believe in what I’m saying. What I’m suggesting is go try it and see how it works for you. I know it works, but try it on and see how it works for you. In your day as you are washing the dishes, give thanks. Give thanks for water. Oh my gosh we’re a little short on water here. Give thanks for the sunshine today, the little droplets of rain that came down. Amen.

I know that some of our cars are going to be like mud after the service here. Mine included. Give thanks for, you know, when you’re taking out the trash that we have somebody to come and pick up the trash. Give thanks for your friends and family, for the love that they give you. Give thanks for not having to deal with your friends and family, whatever the situation is. Sometimes we need a little space.

But stir up those gifts because that’s what you’re doing. That’s what you’re giving to the world. That’s how we change the world when we really focus on how we show up on the day-to-day basis, how we create a sense of peace and understanding and compassion and empathy and joy, how we share in each other’s sorrows, and how we lift each other up and hold each other during those times.

That’s how we are giving to the world and we have to stir up those gifts in a conscious way, in an intentional way because otherwise we’re back into our old behavioral patterns. “I’m just going to go play five hours of Call of Duty. I’ll see you guys later.” You guys don’t do that. It’s just me. Okay. Well, whatever your version of playing Call of Duty, whatever your version of distracting yourself, whatever your version of that is, stir up those gifts and allow them to guide you into doing something that’s wonderful and expressive into the world, that brings to the world a sense of joy and peace without any expectation for it to come back to you.

Here’s why. That expectation is our doubt, our disbelief, our selfishness. That expectation is keeping us separate from each other, from our good because the good will come when we’re open and receptive without any expectations, just with an open heart, an open hand. I like to call it non-resistance. Resistance is an expectation. It’s like you’re holding onto something like this, “I’m giving you this, but you had better give it to me back.” I’m holding onto it because if you don’t give it back to me, then what happens? All kinds of things happen. Our stories happen. We get triggered. We get upset.

Non-resistance is like giving like this, giving with an open hand, saying “Here you go”, not expecting anything in return. But in those open hands your good flows because that’s God’s will. That’s the idea. God is flowing, expressing, from you. God is expressing from each other as we give to each other this sense of love and harmony, as we hold each other in that. All of that worldly manifestation comes after that. All of the goodies, all of the tchotchkes, all of our titles, our certificates, whatever we want to call them, all of those things. They’re great and they’re a by-product of living in that flow of giving your gifts.

You may have a very unique and special gift so give it with love. You may have a skill set that no one else has or you may have a skill set that a lot of people have but you do it really well. Give it with love. Whatever you have to give into the world, give it with love, that harmonizing energy because that’s being non-resistant, being open and not expecting anything back.

And your good will come. Your good will flow to you with ease and grace. Whatever that good looks like for you and how you can interpret it, but that divine flow of life, love and wisdom is here to flow through you with ease and grace, to express, to press out. Just feel that energy, that light, that wisdom expressing from you today.