The Gift To Be Simple

On Sunday in my sermon, I referenced the Shaker hymn, Simple Gifts.  The text on which the sermon was based was 1 Corinthians 12:1-11 which speaks of the different gifts of the Spirit.  For those of you who are not familiar with the hymn, it is appropriately simple but profound non-the-less:

‘ Tis the gift to be simple, ‘ tis the gift to be free, ‘

Tis a gift to come down, where you ought to be.

And when we find ourselves in the place just right, ‘

Twill be in the valley of love and delight.

When true simplicity is gained, to bow and to bend we shant be ashamed.

To turn, turn will be our delight ‘til by turning, turning we come round right.

In these days of COVID, I think many of us have been living in simple ways.  We have been restricted from engaging in our usual activities and found new and possibly simpler ways to live our lives.  I’m not sure that utilizing Zoom has been all that simple - it certainly wasn’t initially having to constantly remember to unmute and deal with other technical challenges.  But it was simple when you didn’t have to travel for meetings or workshops or conferences. 

I’m not sure that anyone would have found themselves in the ‘place just right’ while engaging in a Zoom call but there were other occasions in the last year and a half where I did find the Covid restrictions to be a simple gift.  This was, I’m sure in part, because of my introversion, and in part because I am retired and I didn’t have the challenges related to working in the pandemic milieu or having school aged children who had to be home schooled.  I certainly admire the people who dealt with all those challenges, especially the essential front-line workers in health care and other essential services.

With that, I wonder about the experience of living as the hymn proclaims and being in the place just right where we ought to be.  I have been accessing my memory bank to see if I could remember a time or times in which I was in the place just right.  One that comes to mind is my decision to seek ordination as a priest.  I had a number of signs that gave me the assurance that this was the right decision – these included dreams and an experience of synchronicity.  Those signs have been born out in subsequent years.  It doesn’t mean that my experiences as a priest have been ones in which it felt like I was in the place just right.  Indeed, there were times when I wondered if God knew what He, She, or It was doing or perhaps that I had misread those signals.  However, for the most part it has been an experience of being in the place that was right and true for me.  And for that I thank God.

May you be blessed to find yourself in the place that is just right on your journey.