APOLOGY: my CD player broke down part way through the service, so the musical interlude is only partly there, and the postlude not there at all… I have ordered a new one. 🙂
Musical Prelude: I will play some gentle, reflective music to centre myself, before the start of the service. Roots and Wings by Elizabeth Hornby
Opening Words
In this time of insecurity and social upheaval,
When we are unable to meet in person,
I invite you into this time of online worship.
For this short time,
Let us put our worldly cares aside,
Close our eyes and imagine ourselves
To be in our places of worship,
Surrounded by members of our beloved community,
And be together, if only virtually,
For this space of time.
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)
We light our chalice today
Remembering with gratitude all the front-line staff
Of our hospitals, shops and public services,
Who are selflessly carrying on,
To meet the needs of the people they serve.
We light our chalice in the hope
That our loved ones may be safe,
That all people may be safe,
And in faith that normality will return,
And that we will return to normality
As kinder, more compassionate people.
Opening Prayer
Spirit of Life and Love,
Be with us as we gather for worship,
Each in their 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 difficult time,
Keeping in touch however we can,
And helping each other,
However we may.
We hold in our hearts all those
Whose lives have been touched,
In whatever way,
By the coronavirus and the fall-out from it.
Amen
Reading from The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
Then a mason came forth and said, Speak to us of Houses. And he answered and said:
Your house is your larger body.
It grows in the sun and sleeps in the stillness of the night; and it is not dreamless. Does not your house dream? and dreaming, leave the city for grove or hilltop?…
Tell me, people of Orphalese, what have you in these houses? And what is it you guard with fastened doors?
Have you peace, the quiet urge that reveals your power?
Have you remembrances, the glimmering arches that span the summits of the mind?
Have you beauty, that leads the heart from things fashioned of wood and stone to the holy mountain?
Tell me, have you these in your houses?
Or have you only comfort, and the lust for comfort, that stealthy thing that enters the house a guest, and then becomes a host, and then a master?
Ay, and it becomes a tamer, and with hook and scourge makes puppets of your larger desires. Though its hands are silken; its heart is of iron. …
Verily the lust for comfort murders the passion of the soul…
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 from The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
But you, children of space, you restless in rest, you shall not be trapped or tamed.
Your house shall not be an anchor but a mast.
It shall not be a glistening film that covers a wound, but an eyelid that guards the eye….
You shall not dwell in tombs made by the dead for the living.
And though of magnificence and splendour, your house shall not hold your secret nor shelter your longing.
For that which is boundless in you abides in the mansion of the sky, whose door is the morning mist,
and whose windows are the songs and the silences of night.
Prayers
Spirit of Life and Love,
Some of us may feel trapped in our houses
At this time, rather than sheltered.
We may feel that we are going “stir crazy”,
That we are missing seeing friends, family
And work colleagues in the flesh.
Help us to understand How fortunate we are,
To have a roof over our heads that doesn’t leak,
Warmth and shelter, food on the table,
And in refrigerator and cupboard.
Clean running water that we can drink
and wash our hands in, as often as we need to.
and a door to close behind us.
Help us not to hoard unnecessarily,
leaving the extra packet of whatever it is
on the supermarket shelves,
so that it can be picked up by someone
who really needs it.
May we hold in our hearts all those
whose houses are not homes, but places of fear and terror.
Who have lost family and friends to this virus,
and who are shut in with their grief,
the walls closing in on them.
Help us to reach out to those less fortunate than ourselves,
And to count our own blessings.
Amen
***
God, our Father and Mother,
Great Spirit of Life and Love,
All of us need love and connection,
In order to thrive as human beings.
In this time of social isolation,
Help us to show our love in other ways.
May those of us who are well,
Give generously of our time and effort,
To help those around us who are in need,
And to make them feel less alone,
By keeping in regular touch.
May those of us who are vulnerable, or ill,
Receive the help we need, and accept it with grace.
Although e-mails and phone calls
Are no substitute for the warmth
Of closer human contact,
May we all share whatever love we can,
And grow together in virtual community.
Amen
Reading Eternal life – now? by Catherine Robinson, from With Heart and Mind 2 (shared with permission)
An encounter with the Infinite. Out of nowhere – unexpected and unearned. …
I am on the edge of the Sahara Desert. It feels like the middle of nowhere. I am with a small group of Oxfam colleagues. We have been stuck in a meeting in a stifling office in a small town all day. It is night-time, and we decide to get a breath of air. We walk out into the street, and the brilliance of the stars in the immensity of the night sky leaves us all speechless. There is a full moon. The sky is like black velvet, pierced by a multitude of stars. The edge of the earth seems to have disappeared into the sky.
All the people of the town are sitting outside their mud-built houses, talking quietly. As we walk past, we exchange greetings (in French, because this is West Africa): bonsoir, Mesdames… bonsoir, Messieurs… bonsoir, bonsoir – in whispers, because to raise one’s voice would be an act of sacrilege at such a moment.
My home in Oxford seems very far away. And then realisation begins to dawn on me: this is home; any point on this planet is home. And until the day I die I will never forget what I experienced then: a sense of being very small – of occupying a tiny space in the universe, of being one among an infinite number of human beings, each with an equal value. And what held the whole thing together was God.
Time of Stillness and Reflection
Let us now join in a time of stillness and reflection. The Buddhist Mettabhavana, or Prayer of Loving Kindness, is often used in Unitarian services, or for personal meditation. This is my version of it. After each line, I invite you to close your eyes, and pray for the people concerned, using the words given, if you wish…
First of all, we pray for ourselves: May I be well, may I be happy, may I be free from harm, may I find peace.
Next, we pray for our loved ones, those people who are dear to us: May they be well, may they be happy, may they be free from harm, may they find peace.
Next, we pray for someone less well-known to us, about whom we have no strong feelings, but whom we might know better, if we made the effort: May they be well, may they be happy, may they be free from harm, may they find peace.
Next, we pray for people we don’t know, for all the people who are doing their best to make a positive difference in the world, and for those who are lost in places of scarcity and fear: may they be well, may they be happy, may they be free from harm, may they find peace.
Next, we pray for someone we dislike, or find it difficult to get on with: may they be well, may they be happy, may they be free from harm, may they find peace.
Finally, we pray for the world: may all be well, may all be happy, may all be free from harm, may all find peace.
May all find peace, today and always, Amen
Musical Interlude Clouds by Elizabeth Hornby
Address On Houses and Homes
All of us will have been spending much more time than usual in our houses, our homes, these last few weeks. Indeed, we have been ordered by our government to do so, to prevent us from infecting others with the corona virus. So when I saw that the next reading in Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet was about houses, I thought, “oh, this is going to be easy…”
But the concept of “home” is a complex, multi-faceted one.
First of all, I loved the Prophet’s statement that “Your house is your larger body.” In normal times, I enjoy walking into other people’s houses, to discover how the décor, the layout and the contents reflect their personalities. And I’m sure people do the same thing, when they walk into our house. My daughter once posted on Facebook, “Coming back home is basically just like living in a library #books” with a photo montage of five of the many bookcases we have scattered round the house. Which made me laugh, because there is a good deal of truth in it. As reading is an important part of my life, so my home reflects that.
The homes of some of my friends are spotlessly clean and tidy, with every item of furniture placed just so, and a minimum amount of carefully-chosen pictures and ornaments. A place for everything and everything in its place. Clutter is not allowed. I used to think that I might aspire to be like that, but I have really known for years that I am much happier in a space which has many pictures and ornaments (and books!) which reflect our lives. I try to keep it clean and tidy, but housework is far from being at the top of my to-do list. I have a fridge magnet which reads, “My house is clean enough to be healthy, and dirty enough to be happy.” And yes, that’s good enough for me (unless we’ve got visitors coming!!)
I found the questions which the Prophet has for the people of Orphalese very thought-provoking.
“What is it you guard with fastened doors?
Have you peace, the quiet urge that reveals your power?
Have you remembrances, the glimmering arches that span the summits of the mind?
Have you beauty, that leads the heart from things fashioned of wood and stone to the holy mountain?
Tell me, have you these in your houses?”
Because they reminded me that turning a house into a home is not about filling it with material possessions. It is about the atmosphere we build in it. I hope that our house, our home, is a place of peace, full of remembrances, and even a little beauty. Because I believe that these immaterial things are far more important than the latest gadgets or designer furniture. A plaque on my kitchen wall, a birthday present from a good friend who knows me rather well, reads, “This home is blessed with love, laughter, friendship, and a cat.”
Peace, remembrances, beauty, love, laughter, friendship… if we can fill our houses with these, then we make them into homes, to which our families and friends will return with joy (even if we might have rather too many books).
And are we content with the possessions we have? Or has “the lust for comfort, that stealthy thing that enters the house a guest, and then becomes a host, and then a master” as the Prophet puts it, lured us into buying more than we need, always yearning for the latest, newest, brightest, glitziest gadgets available? The advertising industry has a lot to answer for, if we are to avoid the trap that the Prophet warns of, “the lust for comfort [that] murders the passion of the soul…”.
In our consumerist society, it takes some self-awareness, and a lot of confidence in our own judgement, to step back from this mad rush to ‘get on, get ahead’, and to say, “Thank you, but I am content with what I have.” Because most of us have enough material possessions, probably more than enough. We just need to learn to appreciate them, and to realise their secondary importance in the scheme of things. No material possession can turn a house into a home. The most important things – love, self-esteem, companionship and contentment – cannot be bought with money.
Saying all this, I realise how very lucky I am, how very privileged. To have a pleasant, spacious home, full not only of the material things that meet the basic needs that all human beings share – food, clean water, clean air, shelter and security – but also of the intangible things that answer the “higher” needs of love and belonging, mutual respect, and space for being creative and growing into my best self.
Which is not true of so many other people, not only on our planet, but also in this country, and almost certainly in my home town. Our government blithely orders us to “wash your hands frequently, for at least 20 seconds”. But if we are living somewhere that the heating for that water is controlled by a meter, and we are running out of money, or if we have no home at all, it’s not so easy. And I have been saddened to hear of the rise in domestic abuse, as (predominantly) women are forced to share their homes with abusive men, who are out of work, at home all day, and take their pain out on their partners and children. How can they escape when they are being told to “stay home”? There are no simple answers to this.
I rather loved Catherine Robinson’s insight, which formed my third reading. It came to her in a small town on the edge of the Sahara Desert, that “any point on this planet is home”. Her recognition, in a moment of grace, of her place in the world, her “sense of being very small – of occupying a tiny space in the universe, of being one among an infinite number of human beings, each with an equal value. And what held the whole thing together was God.”
This small, blue-green planet is indeed our home. And it may be shocking for some of us to realise that this corona virus, which has closed down much economic activity, kept us at home, and caused so much human hardship and grief, has been so beneficial for the rest of creation, for our larger home. Our seas and rivers have become less polluted, our air is cleaner. It is as though the whole planet has relaxed, and breathed out, blissfully happy to have a respite from the noxious pressures we, humankind, are putting on our fragile environment.
“When this is all over”, I hope that we, the human race, will not go straight back to our old polluting ways, but will work towards a new, better, healthier-for-everyone normality, in which we not only care for ourselves, and for each other, but also for the rest of creation. I think we’ve been given a real opportunity to stop what we are doing, to take stock, and change our ideas. Because our planetary home is the only one we have, and it is in great need of our nurture. As we have cared for each other in these strange times, let us care for the whole world when they are over.
Because as the Prophet truly remarks, and as Catherine Robinson realised, “that which is boundless in you abides in the mansion of the sky, whose door is the morning mist, and whose windows are the songs and the silences of night.” We live in the wide world, which has supported us for countless centuries. Let us repay that support in the new normality.
May it be so, Amen
Closing Words
Our time together is drawing to a close.
May we return to our everyday world refreshed,
May we share the love we feel,
And do the work that is ours to do.
May we look out for each other,
And may we keep up our hearts,
Now and in the days to come,
Amen