Hillary Clinton's Foundry United Methodist Sermon: 'We All Have Different Gifts'
The Apostle Paul is pretty clear that we can't just celebrate our gifts, we've got to use them, especially in service of others and in service of a better, fairer and more peaceful world. We should be — in Paul's words — generous and diligent and cheerful in our service. That's how we honor God, who gave us these gifts in the first place.
I think again of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who once preached, "God gave all of us something significant, and we must pray every day, asking God to help us accept ourselves. That means everything. If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, go on out and sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures; like Handel and Beethoven composed music; like Shakespeare wrote poetry. Be the best of whatever you are."
In that way, Dr. King said, we learn to love ourselves. "Love your neighbor as yourself" doesn't mean much unless you love yourself first. We aspire to use our gifts to the fullest, and that's what gives us the grace and strength to truly love and serve God and one another.
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I see a second challenge in Paul's letter to the Romans, and I think it's particularly relevant today — for our nation, and for this church as it enters its third century. It's not enough to just use our gifts. We also have to make it possible for other people to discover and use their gifts too. The truth is there are so many people in this community, in our country, in our world, who have so much to offer — but never get the chance to live up to their God-given potential. Talent is universal, but opportunity is not yet.
Too many people are held back by economic pressures and social barriers. It's still too hard for too many to find a good job that pays enough to support a middle-class life. Too many children don't get the education they need to succeed, and too many families find that no matter how hard they work, they just can't get ahead. And as we've been reminded again and again recently, there are still hard truths to face about race, gender, and sexual orientation in America.
Now, too many people want to let their light shine, but they can't quite get out from under that bushel basket. It is way too heavy to lift alone, and that's where the village comes in. Together, as a church, a community, and yes, a country, we can open doors that are still closed.
We can lift each other up and leave no one behind. We can unlock the potential of every American. And when we do that, we will unlock the potential of America itself.
Foundry has helped people for the past 200 years discover their gifts every day through worship, hospitality, community outreach, interfaith dialogues, the youth ministry, and millions of other expressions of love, faith, and service to this community and around the world.
"Love God, love each other, change the world." — that's the Foundry way. Now, it also says elsewhere in the New Testament, in James, that, "Faith without works is dead." But we know that grace and salvation are unmerited gifts from God. The question is what we do with those gifts — to use that gift of grace wisely, to reflect the love of God and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ to the greater good of God's beloved community.
So thank you, Foundry. Our family is just one of so many over the past 200 years that this church has inspired. We are proud and grateful to be members of this community. We hope that in the years ahead, Foundry's mission just grows deeper and stronger. That many more people will feel the embrace, the support, the love and acceptance.
Shortly after we came to Foundry, this church became a reconciling congregation, which only added to our joy of being part of it. The movement for reconciling goes on. The movement for healing, for reaching out, for loving and serving will never end. In addition to this being a special day for Foundry, it's a special day for my family because we have been given so much — to the church we walked into on that snowy day so many years ago. And of course, it doesn't get any better than the fact that today is also Grandparents Day. So this is just a winner all the way around.
But let us rejoice in this day that, yes, the Lord has made, and 200 years of hard work has built a congregation, a church in our capital city that serves as a kind of reminder, if you will, every single day of what we truly are called to do. Let us remember that and let us go forward with the hope and commitment to make this church the living example of how to live as described by Paul in Romans 12.
Thank you all very much.
This article was originally posted here
