Prelude Stella del mattino by Ludovico Einaudi
Opening Words The beauty of the whole by Meg Barnhouse
We gather to worship, our hearts alive with hope
that here we will be truly seen, that here we will be welcomed
into the garden of this community,
where the simple and the elegant, the fluted and frilled,
the shy and the dramatic, complement one another and are treasured.
May we know that here,
each contributes in their way to the beauty of the whole.
Come, let us worship together, all genders, sexualities, politics,
clappers and non-clappers, progressive or conservative,
may we root ourselves in the values of this faith:
compassion and courage, transcendence, justice and transformation.
Chalice Lighting (you may wish to light a candle in your own home at this point. I will be lighting my chalice for worship at 11.00 am on Sunday morning) (words by Martin Gienke)
As we sizzle in summer, fall into fall, then wither in winter –
Now let us spring into spring!
As the joy of each bud breaks forth,
Let our hearts burst,
With the warmth and radiance of renewal.
New life, new hope.
Let us spring into spring!
Opening Prayer
Spirit of Life and Love,
be with us as we gather for worship,
each in our own place.
Help us to feel a sense of community,
even though we are physically apart.
Help us to care for each other,
in this world in which Covid has not yet gone away,
and the clouds of war and climate change overshadow us.
May we keep in touch however we can,
and help each other, however we may.
May we remember that
caution is still needed,
that close contact is still unwise.
Help us to be grateful for the freedoms we have
and to respect the wishes of others.
May we hold in our hearts all those
who are grieving, lost, alone,
victims of violence and war,
suffering in any way, Amen
Reading from The Seeds of Heaven by Barbara Brown Taylor, shared by Richard Rohr on 1st September 2022
In this reading, Barbara Brown Taylor asks whether our familiar interpretation [of the Parable of the Sower] may miss the more dramatic message of God’s radical grace:
It has been known for centuries as the Parable of the Sower, which means there is a chance, just a chance, that we have got it all backwards. We hear the story and think it is a story about us, but what if we are wrong? What if it is not about us at all but about the sower? What if it is not about our own successes and failures and birds and rocks and thorns but about the extravagance of a sower who does not seem to be fazed by such concerns, who flings seed everywhere, wastes it with holy abandon, who feeds the birds, whistles at the rocks, picks his way through the thorns, shouts hallelujah at the good soil and just keeps on sowing, confident that there is enough seed to go around, that there is plenty, and that when the harvest comes at last it will fill every barn in the neighbourhood to the rafters?
If this is really the parable of the Sower and not the parable of the different kinds of ground, then it begins to sound quite new. The focus is not on us and our shortfalls but on the generosity of our maker, the prolific sower who does not obsess about the condition of the fields, who is not stingy with the seed but who casts it everywhere, on good soil and bad, who is not cautious or judgmental or even very practical, but who seems willing to keep reaching into his seed bag for all eternity, covering the whole creation with the fertile seed of his truth.
Alternative Lord’s Prayer
Spirit of Life and Love, here and everywhere,
May we be aware of your presence in our lives.
May our world be blessed.
May our daily needs be met,
And may our shortcomings be forgiven,
As we forgive those of others.
Give us the strength to resist wrong-doing,
The inspiration and guidance to do right,
And the wisdom to know the difference.
We are your hands in the world; help us to grow.
May we have compassion for all living beings,
And receive whatever life brings,
With courage and trust.
Amen
Reading Gardening is necessary by Betty Rathbone, from With Heart and Mind
“Il faut cultiver notre jardin.” (Voltaire, Candide)
Voltaire came to the simplicity of this statement after a complex and sophisticated life and it can be used as the jumping off place for a number of ways of looking at the complex task of deciding on the right way to live.
We are not expected to be lazy and let the rest of the world carry us as parasites: parasites become bloated and unhealthy (see the stories of kings told by their wise men to go and dig for their own treasure).
We should see that we have our own patch in order, rather than trying to impose our ideas on other people and their affairs. We should keep ourselves alive to the beauty of what grows and sensitive to the changing of the seasons.
We should expect to live with change and see the whole cycle of life from tender beginnings to growth and decay as valuable, not expect to be able to stay all the time with the bits that we enjoy most. We need to realise where we are in our life cycle and continually revise our ideas of our place in the world.
We can learn both to be patient and to be opportunist while we are trying to work with the natural world. Some plants will flower only after many years of care… seeds are best sown when there are rain and warmth available… removing weeds before they seed saves much future trouble.
In finding that we are responsible but not omnipotent, we may undergo the best of spiritual discipline.
Prayer by Teresa Honey Youngblood
Greater Good to whom we belong,
let us remember that we are loved and needed,
however in-process our presentations of self:
rough and overgrown in some places,
stunted and pinched in others.
Help us make the spaces we inhabit—
bodies and gardens and neighbourhoods—
places of giving.
Help us let go in the [autumn], learn in the winter,
and try again with exuberance in the spring and summer.
May we grow into our goodness together.
Amen
Reading Garden of Your Mind – Thought for Today 6th February and 30th January 2024
The most important part of you is your mind (not your brain – the brain is the hardware and the mind creates the software). Care for your mind, make friends with it, always feed it healthy food, engage it in positive activity, exercise it with knowledge and wisdom.
Like a garden returns fragrance and beauty according to the care invested, so your mind will repay you with thoughts, ideas and visions of great beauty when tended and invested with care.
Your mind is not made of matter but it does matter what you give it and what you create with it. Where your mind goes, you go. What your mind creates becomes your destiny.
Thoughts have great power, they are like seeds you plant in your mind. The more you hold onto a particular thought, the more power you invest in it. Positive thoughts give us energy and strength. Negative thoughts rob us of power and make us feel tired and strained.
We are by nature positive. Negativity is the result of faulty thinking. You can change if you want to. You can’t control other people, situations or circumstances, but you can control what is going on inside you. It takes time to change and transform those old patterns of thinking.
Time of Stillness and Reflection Spring won’t take “No” for an answer by Richard S. Gilbert (adapted)
We move in miracle this spring… day:
Life is straining to change brown to green,
To warm the air we breathe,
To fill our nostrils with fresh fragrance.
We, the sceptical ones, know it is never so simple.
Green comes slowly, painfully, painstakingly, in its time.
Great northern winds can cut us to the bone
Even as we prepare the house of our spirit for spring.
Nonetheless, we make ready to be surprised by spring,
Lying restless within us, despite chill of body and soul.
Winter has reminded us that life must end in death,
That there are times of barrenness and loss
Which cannot be denied, only endured.
Yet we know the winter, as the spring, is not forever.
[silence]
Always there is change – the changing of the seasons –
The changing seasons of the self.
Always there is the patience of the grass,
The cautious courage of the flowers,
The undaunted human spirit, ready for what may come.
Spring won’t take “no” for an answer.
Neither should we.
Amen
Musical Interlude Onde corte by Ludovico Einaudi
Address Gardens of the Mind
I love the idea that our minds are like gardens, and that it is up to us to cultivate “thoughts, ideas and visions of great beauty”, as the Thought for Today author said, and to tend them carefully. And that our wider communities (whether of family, work colleagues or congregations) can also be seen as gardens in need of tender care. So these are the two themes of today’s service.
The metaphors of gardening and of the cycle of the seasons are useful ones in relation to the spiritual journey of our lives. In the words of our Time of Stillness and Reflection, Richard S. Gilbert speaks of, “the changing seasons of the self.” The self’s seasons change not only as we grow older, but also within time – sometimes even in the same day, as we move through our lives. Last weekend for example, I received two pieces of bad news, which were then (at least partially) eclipsed by an amazing piece of good news, so that my thoughts ricocheted from worry and sadness to great joy, in the space of a few hours.
Which reminded me that my mind and my emotions are quite separate entities. It was my emotions which were all over the place, and I had to bring my mind to bear on the rapidly evolving situation, to regain some stability and balance. As the Thought for Today author reminds us, “Thoughts have great power, they are like seeds you plant in your mind. The more you hold onto a particular thought, the more power you invest in it. Positive thoughts give us energy and strength. Negative thoughts rob us of power and make us feel tired and strained.”
Which is not to say we should ignore the negative things which happen to us, or to our loved ones, and bury our heads in the sand, in the mistaken belief that if we don’t think about something unpleasant, it will go away. That does no-one any service. What I mean is that an awareness of the “changing seasons of the self” may help us to moderate our reactions to what Shakespeare’s Hamlet calls “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.” So that we are able to take one step back, invite a little objectivity into our minds, and so regain the ability to make sensible choices about how we are going to respond to whatever it is.
The American author Annie Dillard once wrote, “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” In other words, whatever we choose to pay the most attention to will shape our responses to the whole of our lives. Which is a sobering thought. It means (returning to the gardening metaphor) that we have to be really careful about the habitual thoughts or attitudes we allow to take root in our minds, as they have the power to influence our entire lives. Sometimes, of course, we will have very bad experiences, and it is almost impossible to uproot our reactions to them – we cannot help but be influenced by them.
Nevertheless, I do believe that we have the power to move on from them, if we choose to cultivate the precious plant of resilience. In her wonderful book, Rising Strong, the American sociologist Brené Brown, describes this process in wonderfully salty language. She writes,
“When I see people stand fully in their truth, or when I see someone fall down, get back up, and say, ‘Damn. That really hurt, but this is important to me and I’m going in again’ – my gut reaction is, ‘What a badass.’
There are too many people today who instead of feeling hurt are acting out their hurt; instead of acknowledging pain, they’re inflicting pain on others; rather than risking feeling disappointed, they’re choosing to live disappointed. Emotional stoicism is not badassery. Blustery posturing is not badassery. Swagger is not badassery. Perfection[ism] is about the furthest thing in the world from badassery….
People who wade into discomfort and vulnerability and tell the truth about their stories are the real badasses.”
A few pages later, she goes on to say,
“Humans are not either thinking machines or feeling machines, but rather feeling machines that think… and engage with their own emotions and the emotions of the people they love, parent, and lead. The most transformative and resilient leaders that I’ve worked with… have three things in common: First, they recognise the central role that relationships and story play in culture and strategy, and they stay curious about their own emotions, thoughts and behaviours. Second, they understand and stay curious about how emotions, thoughts and behaviours are connected in the people they lead, and how those factors affect relationships and perception. And third, they have the ability and willingness to lean in to discomfort and vulnerability.”
I believe it is important for us to understand this, as it is fundamental to our ability to negotiate the ups and downs in our lives well; to learn from our mistakes; to overcome our sorrows; and to be able to move on. And what she says is equally true for church communities, as it is for businesses or friendship groups or families. Because not only the gardens of our individual minds need careful tending, but also the gardens of our faith and other communities. We have to be really careful about the plants we allow to take root and grow there, tending the positive ones with care, and uprooting the negative ones, before they take deep root and strangle our efforts to grow and thrive.
And yet, to extend the metaphor even further, we are not responsible for each other’s gardens, each other’s minds. Yes, we each have some responsibility for our communal gardens, but we also need to recognise that all of us have plants to contribute. I liked Betty Rathbone’s thoughts about this, which we saw in our second reading. She wrote, “We should see that we have our own patch in order, rather than trying to impose our ideas on other people and their affairs.” And (perhaps more importantly) “We should expect to live with change and see the whole cycle of life from tender beginnings to growth and decay as valuable, not expect to be able to stay all the time with the bits that we enjoy most. We need to realise where we are in our life cycle and continually revise our ideas of our place in the world.”
The opposite of growth (whether spiritual, human or horticultural) is stagnation. This happens when we are reluctant to embrace change, harking back to the (almost always mythical) “good old days” when we were younger. Sometimes, our imperfect memories carefully edit out the less positive parts of our past experiences, and seduce us into believing that “That’s the way it’s always been done” is a good enough reason for not seizing the opportunity to grow and change.
And yes, I get it. Change can be frightening. But I believe we are doing ourselves a great disservice if we close our minds to change, strangling the new shoots which will keep cropping up, however often we try to weed them out. It is a brave thing (badass, as Brené Brown would say) to approach change positively. And I believe it is essential, if we are serious about wanting to grow into the best, most vibrant people or communities we can be, so that we are in a position to influence the world for the better.
Surely that prospect is worth a little discomfort along the way? Our “comfort zones” can be reassuring places to live, which feel safe and secure, and it can feel positively dangerous to venture out of them, to poke our heads up over the proverbial parapet and try something new. But I can tell you with absolute truth that in my own life I have never found it to be a bad thing. Scary? Yes. Intimidating? Also yes. But worthwhile? Absolutely.
And, for those of us who believe in a Creator God, a Divine Sower, we may find comfort in Barbara Brown Taylor’s idea that, “What if it is not about us at all but about the sower? What if it is not about our own successes and failures… but about the extravagance of a sower who does not seem to be fazed by such concerns, who flings seed everywhere, wastes it with holy abandon, who feeds the birds, whistles at the rocks, picks his way through the thorns, shouts hallelujah at the good soil and just keeps on sowing, confident that there is enough seed to go around, that there is plenty, and that when the harvest comes at last it will fill every barn in the neighbourhood to the rafters?”
Even if we don’t believe that, it is worth embracing change and growth for ourselves and for those we care about. So let us tend (with or without Divine aid) the gardens of our minds and our communities with assiduous care, choosing only the best seeds, which will grow into the most glorious flowers. Because in the gardens of our communities, as Meg Barnhouse said in our opening words, “Each contributes in their way to the beauty of the whole.”
May it be so, Amen.
Closing Words
Spirit of Life and Love,
May we cultivate the gardens of our minds,
tending them carefully,
and heed the nudges of the Divine Sower,
so that beautiful flowers of compassion may grow,
alongside trees of stability and love.
May we return to our everyday world refreshed,
may we share the love we feel,
may we look out for each other,
and may we keep up our hearts,
now and in the days to come,
Amen
Postlude The Swan from Carnival of the Animals by Saint-Saëns