Humbled and excited as I was that you all had called me to serve as the pastor here, on September 6th of 2015, I was moved for my first sermon to preach on this parable of Jesus’:

Jesus said, “The Realm of Heaven is like treasure hidden in a field: when someone finds it, they cover it up again, and out of sheer joy goes and sells every last possession and buys that field.

Again, the Realm of Heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.” – Matthew 13:44-45

  Rachel and I had just pulled up stakes and said goodbye to kith and kin and made our way across the “great raw bulge and bulk” of this North American Continent, Rachel approaching eight months pregnant, all to resettle here in this land of many waters, nestled against the Blue Mountains, the ancestral lands of the Cayuse and Umatilla and Walla Walla, these fertile valleys of wheat and wine,  here in the watershed of the great Columbia River. 

Any why? 

Because of a luminous pearl. I had been called to commit an act of sacred recklessness for the sake of a luminous pearl, which, as sure as I could be about anything, I was sure I had been called by a Higher Power to help to care for and to share. 

“That treasure,” I said in my sermon that day, “that luminous pearl is here. It is here, in your midst, at First Congregational Church of Walla Walla.”

“And like the people in Jesus’ parable,” I said, “when you find a pearl beyond price, when you find a treasure hidden in a field, you drop what you’re doing, you give up what you have, and you go for it. You don’t let that opportunity pass you by. 

“Because this pearl is not a pearl, of course … this is about that which is beyond all value. This is about the kinds of things that inspire sacred recklessness. This about that luminous mystery that draws us into this astonishing venture: a community of people who come together again and again for the sake of the presence of God’s love, to search for it, to yearn for it, to dig for it, to find it and share it and welcome others into the abundance of that love. Allowing the tremendous mystery of it all to transform us into people of faith who commit more and more acts of sacred recklessness for the sake of God’s extravagant grace and mercy and love and power.”

That’s what I said then. And that’s what I gladly say again now. After these six-and-a-half years here doing ministry with you all, I’m pleased to report that I had not misread the signs. Not just one, but numerous luminous pearls have been here in abundance here to be found and shared – thanks be to God – through all that our shared life has brought. 

We’ve been through many seasons together – many autumns, and winters, and springs, and summers – and many seasons of life – seasons of birth, seasons of rebirth, seasons of death, seasons of renewal. We have blessed new babies, we have grieved the dear ones we have lost, we have welcomed new friends, and said good-bye to others. We have prayed together, broken bread together, passed through Advents and Christmases, Lents, and Holy Weeks, and Easters. We have encouraged each other to be faithful and loving through strive and violence and crisis and uncertainty, through opportunity, through renewal, excitement and joy, through creative adaptation, courageous calls to action, manifestations of sacred dignity and holy defiance. 

Through it all, we have sought out and discovered and shared the luminous pearls of God’s wisdom– and there are ways that we have not – but by God’s grace we have helped to ensure that this sacred inheritance is shared in the community and passed down yet again from one generation to the next. 

Recently at a meeting with the Pastoral Advisory Committee, Nicole Gryler shared this quote about the nature of gifts, from Robin Wall Kimmerer, a botanist and ecologist from the Potawatomi people, who wrote this astonishing book, Braiding Sweetgrass:

“This is the fundamental nature of gifts: they move, and their value increases with their passage. … The more something is shared, the greater its value becomes.”

This indigenous wisdom resonates with what Jesus taught, through all of his parables and acts of mercy. All that nourishes us – mind, body, soul, and society – are gifts that obey an economy of grace, which is outrageous and extravagant according human measure. Jesus showed time and again, that when we share the gifts of God, those gifts multiply.

You all have helped me to learn how to share the gifts that God has given me for the sake of community centered on the good news of God’s love and justice as manifest by Jesus. You all have shown me a lot of grace as I’ve learned some things the hard way. It’s worth sharing with you all that on reflection the times when I’ve messed up have been because I let ego and its clutching – whether out of fear or greed – impede the free flow of gift and grace. And the times when I have been more of a servant of the higher purpose here has been when I’ve gotten out of the way and allowed the reckless abundance of grace to just do its thing. 

It has been a real blessing to witness so many of you to discover and share the gifts that God has given each of you and this dear church community. The world needs it, Walla Walla needs it. Many people in the wider community here yearn for the kinds of spiritual gifts that flow through this creative, caring, earnest, affirming, open minded, open hearted, broken and beautiful community of faith. Be attentive to what in you can impede those gifts; and celebrate what liberates them..  

For my part, it is clear that a Higher Purpose is calling me to discover and share the luminous pearls that abound through your kindred spirit community of faith in the Schuylkill River Watershed in Valley Forge Pennsylvania. That means I need to release the gifts that abound here to another whom God is in the process of calling to join you in ministry. 

This is as it should be, when it comes to the nature of gifts. 

So let me leave you with the words of a poem by Jan Richardson, 

Blessing in the Round

This blessing

cannot help it;

it’s the way

it was designed.

Lay it down

and it rises again.

Release it 

and it returns.

Give it away 

and it makes a path

back to you.

There is no explaining

how it delights

in reappearing

when you have ceased

to hold it,

no hiding the sly smile

it wears 

when it shows up

at your door,

no mistaking the wonder

when it circles back around

just at the moment

you thought you had

spent it completely,

had poured it out

with abandon

where you saw

the deepest thirst for it,

had put it entirely

in the hands

of those desperate

in their hunger.

But here it is,

the perfect circle of it

pressing into your hand

that curls around it

and then lets go,

receiving

and releasing

and receiving again,

like the breath 

that does not belong to us

but sets us in motion.

So, keep it moving, you all, these blessings, these luminous pearls. 

The need is too great. 

Go for it. Be willing to be reckless with your gifts. Keep digging, keep yearning, keep sharing, keep inviting. And keep it real, for God’s sake. Keep committing acts of sacred recklessness, for the sake of the higher purpose that God has entrusted to you, out of the abundance of grace we enjoy in this way of Jesus. 

Thanks be to God.

(Delivered Sunday, March 20th, 2022, at First Congregational church of Walla Walla, by Rev. Nathaniel)