Being
Together in Times of Loss, Beauty and Joy.
Good morning to you all!
As we join together –
perhaps not all at the exact same time – I invite you to have a
candle or special object to focus on during times of contemplation.
It is a great privilege to be
sharing my thoughts and those of others with you all during these
extraordinary times as we gather together feeling loss, seeing beauty
and hopefully experiencing joy in a new and different way.
[If you have copies of the
Purple Hymn book [Sing Your Faith] and like to sing-along, you may
like to have it to hand.]
Chalice
Lighting
[ by Rev. Cliff Read]
We kindle the spark of God
within ourselves when we serve others,
and
bring a glow of joy to other people's lives.
Opening Words
[
by Rev Cliff Read]
We gather to share our faith
in the spirit of freedom,
our doubts
in
the spirit of honesty.
We gather to focus our love in
prayer,
to send it to those who suffer
and grieve-
in our own community
and in the wider world.
We gather to strengthen
the goodness that is in us,
that goodness may be
stronger on the earth.
We gather to worship.
Welcome to this time of
sharing.
Whatever time it is, and
wherever you are this is a time for us to come together with the
sense of community, to turn aside from distracting pre-occupations
and to make time for contemplation and prayer and a space for you to
bring to mind your own personal joys and concerns and the prayers in
your hearts.
I know that hymns are meant
for singing! However, sometimes reading them can bring a greater
meaning to the words when are not struggling with an unfamiliar
tune!
So
with this in mind...I invite you now to sing or read the words of our
1st
hymn taken from:
SING
YOUR FAITH 181..Wake, now, my senses...
Wake, now, my senses, and hear
the earth call;
feel the deep power of being
in all;
keep with the web of creation
your vow,
giving, receiving as love
shows us how.
Wake, now, my reason, reach
out to the new;
join with each pilgrim who
quests for the true;
honour the beauty and wisdom
of time;
suffer thy limit, and praise
the sublime.
Wake, now, compassion, give
heed to the cry;
voices of suffering fill the
wide sky;
take as your neighbour both
stranger and friend,
praying and striving their
hardship to end.
Wake, now, my conscience,
with justice thy guide;
join with all people whose
rights are denied;
take not for granted a
privileged place;
God's love embraces the whole
human race.
Wake, now, my vision of
ministry clear;
brighten my pathway with
radiance here;
mingle my calling with all who
would share;
work toward a planet
transformed by our care.
A story...
I imagine that many of you,
like me, are wondering what are the right things to be doing at the
moment...how can we be of best use to each other and the world.
Some of the time I feel
selfish here in my own home and garden surrounded by a lovely tree
filled green space and not being able to do much to help those in
desperate situations.
I found some comfort in this
story which although better with pictures [and maybe some puppets!],
I will attempt to share with you now.
The Three Questions
[based on a story by Leo
Tolstoy, adapted by Lindy]
There was once a boy named
Nikolai who sometimes felt uncertain about the right way to act.
“I
want to be a good person” he told his friends. “But I don't
always know the best way to do that”
His friends wanted to help him
and so he asked them three questions:
-
When is the best time to do things?
-
Who is the most important one?
-
What is the right thing to do?
-
His friends were Sonya the
heron, Gogol the monkey and Pushkin the dog.
They all did their best to
answer and be helpful and in answer to “what is the right thing to
do?” this is what they came up with:
-
“Flying” said Sonya the heron
-
“Having fun all the time” answered Gogol the monkey.
-
“Fighting” barked Pushkin straight away.
......but Nicolai, however
much he loved them, did not think their answers were quite right.
“ I
know” he thought.. I will go and see Leo the turtle. He has lived
for a
very long time...he will know
the answers to my questions.
And so after a long hike up
the mountain where Leo lived, Nicolai found him digging in his
garden...he was old and digging was hard for him.
Nicolai then asked Leo his
three questions:
-
When is the best time to do things?
-
Who is the most important one?
-
What is the right thing to do?
Leo listened and sat down as
he was tired, and Nicolai carried on digging for him.
Just as he had finished, the
wind blew and it started to rain heavily and as they moved to the
cottage, Nikolai heard a cry for help. A little way down the path he
found a Panda whose leg had been injured by a fallen tree.
Nicolai took the Panda to
Leo's house – made a splint for her leg. He put her to bed and she
went to sleep, but on wakening she said:
“Where
am I and where is my child?”
The storm was still raging,
but Nikolai went out to look for the young panda. He found her, cold
and shivering in the woods and took her to her mother who was so
happy to see her.….
In the morning the storm had
eased, the sun was shining and the Pandas were happy to go back home.
Nikolai felt as peace with
himself...he had wonderful friends and he had saved the panda and her
child...but he still had a sense of disappointment... he had still
not found the answer to his questions.... so he asked Leo once more..
“But
your questions have been answered!” he said.
“Have
they?” said Nikolai
“Yesterday,
if you had not stayed to dig my garden, you wouldn't have heard the
Panda's cry for help in the storm. Therefore the most important time
was the time you spent digging my garden. The most important one at
that moment was me, and the most important thing to do was to help me
with my garden.
Later when you found the
injured panda, the most important time was the time you spent mending
her leg and saving her child. The most important ones were the panda
and her baby and the most important thing to do was to take care of
them and make them safe.”
“Remember
then that there is only one important time, and that time is now.
The most important one is
always the one you are with. And the most important thing is to do
good for the one who is standing at your side.
For these, my dear boy, are
the answers to what is most important in the world”
“This
is why we are here”.
Time now for personal
reflection on these words by Henri Nouwen:
“We
cannot change the world by a new plan,
project or idea,
We
cannot even change other people by our convictions,
stories, advice or proposals,
but we can offer a space
where
people are encouraged to disarm themselves,
lay
aside their occupations and preoccupations
and listen with attention and
care to the voices
speaking in their own centre.”
I invite you now to take
the time you need
to meditate on your own
joys and concerns....
to the story of the three
questions...
to the voices in your own
centre..
Now let us “sing”
again!!
SING
YOUR FAITH: 211,
Where are the voices for the earth?
[verses 1, 2&4]
Where are the voices for the
earth?
Where are her eyes to see the
pain,
wasted by our consuming path.
Weeping the tears of poisoned
rain?
Sacred the soil that hugs the
seed,
sacred the silent fall of
snow,
sacred the world that God
decreed,
water and sun and river flow.
We are the voices of the
earth,
we who will care enough to
cry,
cherish her beauty, clear her
breath,
live that our planet may not
die.
Shirley Murray b. 1931
A Story from “The Moth
Snowstorm” by Michael McCarthy.
River estuaries play an
important part in Michael McCarthy's book – the story of his
heartbreak of the destruction of wildness, of wilderness in the name
of progress.
This story focuses on the
South Korean determination to build and modernise their country in
the name of economic growth, being blind to what they were doing to
the natural environment.
There was protest after
protest about a project to build a sea wall – possibly the longest
in the world – at Saemangeum, a tidal flat on the coast of the
yellow sea in South Korea.
Yes, Saemangeum, the tidal
estuary, home to a vast population of wildlife is gone because of the
sea wall.
To feel the real impact of
this story you need to read it – but I would like to convey a
little of the pain suffered by so many as they watched this awful
event unfold. - being powerless to stop it.
Finally in 2003, two Korean
Buddhist monks and two Korean Christian ministers led a SAMBOILAE.
This is a long spiritually and
physically demanding “physical meditation”.
SAMBOILAE means”Three steps
and a bow”. Doing three steps and then dropping on their knees and
bowing to the ground.
This was done to express their
sympathy with the creatures that would die in the estuary's
destruction.
This meditation took them 65
days – done in all weathers- from Saemangeum to Soul.
When they arrived in Soul, the
two monks and two ministers were met by 8,000 people.
This story brought up many
feelings for me – gratitude, the need for forgiveness, regret, a
humbling and sense of powerlessness and much more.
All of us, in varying degrees,
are complicit with so much of the destruction going on in our planet.
We cannot help it – we can only do our best.
For me I have thought that
such a simple and deeply spiritual action could be used in other
situations – helping me to be more mindful of things I take for
granted ….on my daily walk pausing occasionally and bowing my head
for a few moments to increase awareness of what I can so easily
forget.
You might like to try this now
for a few minutes, walking slowly round your chosen space with
occasional pauses to bow your head in contemplation....
And now words of meditation
leading to a time of quietness
and personal reflection.
“You
can't remake the world
without remaking yourself.
Each new era begins within.
It is an inward event,
With unsuspected possibilities
For inner liberation.
We could use it
to turn on our inward lights.
We could use it to use even
the dark
and
negative things positively
We could use the new era to
clean our eyes,
To see the world differently
To see ourselves more clearly.
Ben Okri from his book
“Mental Fight”:
Thoughts and reflections..
Writing
this on May 8th,
VE day 75 years ago, I am mindful of the mixed emotions that day [and
today] of the great sense of loss as well as joy and relief.
There have been many
comparisons made between World War 2 and what we are experiencing
now.
Although different in form,
many of the same emotions are being triggered.... fear and division
together with sadness and loss and anger.... and maybe hope for a
better future from lessons we have learnt.
.... we can also perhaps see
that there could be a similar root cause for both of these worldwide
events.......the need for power and control...and the drive towards
material greed and benefits for a few, ignoring the needs of the many
including of course the natural world.
And so, using some of the
thoughts of Joan Bakewell – writer and broadcaster – she says
that:
“The
war taught us many things: fellow feeling, shared values,
resourcefulness. ...we knew it would end and that the world would be
changed.
Above all, we appreciated the
power of the state to organise for the benefit of
everyone.......today we acknowledge the damage the recent years of
austerity have done to the lives of the poorest and in that sense to
us all. With both the war and the pandemic have come the resolve,
hardly formulated today but widely shared, that we can't go back to
the old days.”
Words of hope.
As well as the grief, despair
and loss that has and is being experienced, the one great gift that
they have given the world, I believe, is this sense of togetherness.
Of course, even without wars
and pandemics, pain and suffering goes on all day, everyday
everywhere, and we can so often be caught up, as is only natural, in
our own personal concerns that we can forget that the way we live can
have a much larger impact on all our sisters and brothers world wide.
Wars and pandemics force us to
focus – they make us sit up and be more aware – to open our
hearts and see beyond our own green and pleasant land, our own
circles of family and friends, our own local communities.
Of course it can also do the
opposite. It can create barriers of fear and greed, encouraging us to
hunker down and look after our own.
I feel a bit hunkered down
right now, but like many of you, not through choice.
I feel limited as to what I
can do to help those in far more desperate situations than mine..I am
aware of how fortunate I am...
It is easy then to feel
guilty, and then to feel uneasy about feeling guilty because it is
not a very helpful emotion! Or is it?
It could be used as a stimulus
to help us to focus and unlock the the gifts we have that can be used
to make a difference.
So on Thursdays we go out into
the streets to show our appreciation to all the front line workers...
This Friday is VE day, a day
when we give thanks for the ending of the war in Europe 75 years
ago....in both cases not forgetting the enormous pain and loss
created in these situations.
So this is where we start,
being together in loss laced with gratitude and thanks. Loss can
bring into sharper focus other emotions and feelings and actions.
My loss of freedom has given
me a greater sense of what is going on around me – friendship with
neighbours I hardly knew.......the opportunity to grow plants from
seeds knowing I would be able to take care of them...[ not always
going away!]
Children not going to school
are finding new ways of getting on with their siblings and doing
remarkable things to help [some of the time anyway!]
Our Unitarian Heart and Soul
Zoom gatherings are connecting us with a wider community – some
world wide – some of no faith. This “Doing Church” without the
usual building and format and expectations can offer a more open and
safe space for people to explore their own spiritual needs.
Loss brings with it new
experiences.
Crisis creates new
opportunities.
I have shared Michael
McCarthy's story about the Monks and Christian leaders expressing
their sorrow to the earth and creatures sacrificed in the name of
progress.
In the same book Michael tells
stories about beauty and joy.
Here is one of them I am going
to simply call “Bluebells” [slightly adapted]
He starts...
.”Let me tell you about a
wood. Five times in the one week I went to this wood.
Five separate trips, on five
successive days.
And each time, after the first
time, I paused before entering. I savoured the moment. It felt like
the anticipation before meeting a new lover – the elevated heart
beat, the certainty of impending pleasure – but it was more than
that, it was the anticipation of a sort of ecstasy, at beholding what
the wood contained, hidden in its depths, which was something truly
exceptional, as exceptional as a crashed flying saucer, I found
myself thinking.
Each
time I stopped at the gate I said to myself, I
know what is in there........
It was blue
It was a blue that shocked
you.
It was a blue that made you
giddy.
It was a blue that flowed like
smoke over the woodland floor, so that the trees appeared to be
rising out of it, a blue that was not solid like a blue door might be
solid but constantly morphing in tone with the light and the shade,
now lilac, now cobalt, a blue which was gentle but formidably strong,
so intense as to be mesmerising: at some moments it was hard to
believe it was composed of flowers...
But that was the beauty and
joy of the bluebells.....their floral richness...a dozen bluebell
heads nodding on every thousands of stems......an overwhelming
blueness at the bottom of the woods.”
…..........................
It is, I believe, this beauty
which can bring us great joy even in times of loss of whatever kind,
human kind or in the natural world.
Faith in something greater
than ourselves...
Beauty
and joy come in many forms... through love and care for those we know
and don't know and by receiving the kindness of strangers.....
Yes, this crisis has created
opportunities to find joy in places we least expect or may have taken
for granted or just not noticed.
For me:
-
Finding a meal in my porch as a gift from my new neighbours:
-
Watching my runner bean seeds germinating and the leaves unfurling.
-
Noticing the incredible beauty of the pine tree flowers before they turn into cones.
I could go on, but now it is
your turn!
If you are on your own, you
might like to make a list of what brings you joy...
If you are with a partner or
family you may like to share with each other.
Now it is time for our last
hymn:
Sing Your Faith 98: Love
will guide us.
Love will guide us, peace has
tried us,
hope inside us will lead the
way
on the road from greed to
giving.
Love will guide us through the
hard night.
If you cannot sing like
angels,
if you cannot speak before
thousands,
you can give from deep within
you.
You can change the world with
your love.
Love will guide us, peace has
tried us,
hope inside us will lead the
way
on the road from greed to
giving.
Love will guide us through the
hard night.
Sally Rogers
Closing Words
“Hold
in your thoughts all that lies in your heart.
Hold in your thoughts all that
gives you joy.
Hold in your thoughts all that
gives you solace and peace.”
Amen.
With very much love to all of
you and hope to “see” you soon, and also to truly “be with you
soon.”
With thanks
Lindy
