Prelude Chanson de Matin by Edward Elgar
Opening Words from the Sanskrit
Look to this day –
For it is life, the very life of life.
In its brief course lie all the verities
And realities of your existence:
The bliss of growth,
The glory of action, the splendour of beauty.
For yesterday is but a dream,
And tomorrow is only a vision,
But today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness
And every tomorrow a vision of hope.
Look well, therefore, to this day.
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 Cliff Reed
We light this chalice
to bring light to our minds,
wisdom to our souls, and
warmth to our hearts:
light to show us the Way,
wisdom to walk it truly,
warmth to enfold our fellow
pilgrims with compassion.
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,
Suffering in any way,
Amen
Reading: Uncertain World by Cliff Reed, from Beyond Darkness
In a world that is uncertain,
where all our plans may be swept away at any moment,
we can put no trust in the structures we erect,
the structures we inherit.
If they are all that we bequeath,
then we are bequeathing nothing that will last.
But we are human beings who have found in each other
a community of values.
It is these that unite us, inspire us, move us.
It is the love which underlies them that gives us
joy in one another, that gives us what strength we have.
As we face the tumults that await us,
that will make our plans as meaningless as any
that human beings have ever made,
we dedicate ourselves to the values
that make us truly human –
humble before the Infinite,
humble before each other’s deepest needs,
humble before the glory
and the terror of Creation.
We draw on our fund of values
and offer one another
what strength we have – and, in love,
we offer the world what we have found.
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 I May Never See Tomorrow (author unknown)
This reading was sent to me by Ann Harrison. She heard it at a Sunday service aboard the Black Prince, during a Mediterranean cruise in November 2008.
I may never see Tomorrow;
There’s no written guarantee,
And things that happened yesterday
Belong to history,
I can’t predict the future,
I cannot change the past,
I have just this present moment
I must treat it as my last.
I must use this moment wisely
For it soon will pass away
And be lost to me forever
As part of yesterday,
I must exercise compassion,
Help the fallen to their feet,
Be a friend to the friendless,
Make an empty life complete.
The unkindest thing I do today,
May never be undone,
And friendships that I fail to win
May nevermore be won.
I may not have another chance
On bended knees to pray
And thank God with a humble heart
For giving me this day.
Prayer Let Be by Jo James (adapted)
Spirit of Life and Love,
As the seasons change we can be especially conscious of our spiritual connections, our deepest connection with the world as it changes, our consciousness that the changing season reinforces a sense of the endurance of the earth and the natural world, that these things remain constant while we must go through change.
So we come to consider the changes we have gone through in this passing year – some good, some not so good.
We consider our changes,
embrace what is positive – and learn from what is negative.
So let us resolve to continue to learn.
Resolve to be open to transformation in ourselves that change can bring, and so relinquish the resentments of our own disquiet.
Let us – let be …
Sometimes we have failed to do our best by others and sometimes we have failed to do our best by ourselves –
By learning from, but not holding on to our mistakes, let us relinquish the resentments of our own failures.
Let us – let be …
We acknowledge the suffering of pain and loss –
but know that only if we face up to our feelings will we be able to endure them.
We pray for all those we have lost
and pray for the endurance
which allows us to go on.
We know that our hearts must make room for our memories
and allow healing, in time,
to be such that we can carry
our loves and our losses
together through life.
Let us – let be …
May we find the strength to do so, Amen
Reading Balancing Knowing and Not-Knowing by Richard Rohr
The great spiritual teachers always balance knowing with not knowing, light with darkness. In the Christian tradition, the two great strains were called the kataphatic (according to the light) or “positive” way—relying on clear words, concepts, and ideas—and the apophatic (against the light) or “negative” way—moving beyond words and images into silence, darkness, and metaphor. Both ways are necessary, and together they create a magnificent form of higher non-dual consciousness called faith.
The apophatic way, however, has been underused, under-taught, and underdeveloped largely since the Protestant Reformation and the Enlightenment. In fact, we became ashamed of our “not-knowing” and tried to fight our battles rationally. Much of Catholicism and most of Protestantism became highly cerebral. God (who is really Mystery) became something you perfectly observed, a service you attended, words you argued about, or worthiness you worked for. But God was never someone you surrendered to.
In the capitalist West, the very word “surrender” is not to our liking. We are all about winning, climbing, achieving, performing, and being the best. In that light, contemplation and non-dual thinking (I use the words almost interchangeably) are about as revolutionary and counter-cultural as you can get.
Time of Stillness and Reflection words by Tony McNeile (adapted)
Let our prayers be a path of discovery towards knowledge of that which we cannot see.
Let our prayers be a question to the something which is in everything and is everywhere around us.
What is it, who is it, that touches the heart when the sun rises on the morning, or splashes the sky with colours as the sun goes down?
What force, what mind created the scenes so splendid, so calm, so serene?
Whose touch, what touch added beauty to the mechanical process of growth, that notified the trees of their seasons, when the bud should open and when the leaf should fall, that roused the slumbering seed and set it to grow?
How was the picture of decay engraved ?
What hand painted the delicate shades of each species to distinguish them unique, that gave the fox its tail and the kingfisher its colours?
Something from within, something from without, touches each of us in the highs and lows of life.
When the spirit soars it is lifted by unfelt wings; when life collapses into a heap of worry, the soul is caressed by the gentle touch of hope.
What name can we give to this life that fills our life and reveals itself unseen?
[silence]
The prayer that seeks to know will find the answer in the still moments, as well as in the storm.
May our prayer unite us with the unknown that is within everything, and seems to come from the deep unknown of human life.
Amen
Musical Interlude Clair de Lune by Claude Debussy
Address The Unpredictability of Life
I don’t know about you, but I can’t keep up with the weather at the moment. Last week (the third week in May: this service is being written before I go on a week’s holiday on the 25th, so that you aren’t left without a service for 2nd June) we had some gorgeously warm and sunny late Spring days and I began to feel hopeful. Then yesterday, the heavens opened and it’s been pouring with rain ever since. My husband went out for chips yesterday evening and reported that water was running down our hill like a miniature river and that further on, there was flooding across the road. Happy June!
Yet the unpredictability, the changefulness of British weather is one of the reasons why our island is lush and green, so beautiful.
Our lives are likewise unpredictable, with each new experience contributing to its rich tapestry. Which means we are vulnerable to change… I mentioned a few weeks ago the vulnerability that comes with choosing to love someone – because we cannot predict that they will love us back, that they will love us next week, next year, that they will still be in our lives next week or next year. It is entirely outside our control.
Our lives are, in fact, in a constant state of change. Each day, each moment, we experience something new, something that has never happened before. And it may be good for us, or it may be bad. The only thing we can predict with any certainty is that change will happen. No-one lives in a safe cocoon, immune to change.
The Hungarian spiritual writer, Elisabeth Haich, once wrote, “Life is movement, change, transformation.” And of course, she’s right. Much though we may hate to hear it, as often as we may kid ourselves that our lives are going on very much the same as they always have, it simply isn’t true. I’m not the same person as I was yesterday, or last week, or last month, let alone last year. And neither are you.
Because we live in a world where we are always encountering new things – new experiences, new people, new thoughts and ideas, new nudges from the Spirit. And we cannot help being changed by them. It may take us a while, screaming, protesting, and dragging at the hand that is trying to lead us forward, but we’ll get there in the end.
How much better to be open to movement, change, transformation. To embrace it, even… I honestly believe that it is up to us to keep our hearts and minds and spirits open to new experiences, so that we may grow as people. It’s also important to be nice to ourselves, to understand our natural inclination towards the status quo, and not beat ourselves up when we resist movement, change, transformation. And to understand that these things are just as hard for everyone else we know, and not to blame them when they, too, resist.
Some years ago, I was given an amazing little book called Who Moved My Cheese? which had the subtitle, An amazing way to deal with change in your work and your life. The basic plot was simple: four beings (two mice and two Littlepeople) are living in a maze and looking for cheese – “cheese being a metaphor for what we want to have in life, whether it is a job, a relationship, money, a big house, freedom, health, recognition, spiritual peace, or even an activity like jogging or golf” as the author, Dr Spencer Johnson, explains. The two mice are Sniff “who sniffs out change early” and Scurry “who scurries into action.” The two Littlepeople are Hem, “who denies and resists change as he fears it will lead to something worse” and Haw, “who learns to adapt in time when he sees changing can lead to something better.”
Although on one level, it is a very simple tale – when the cheese runs out at one Cheese Station, the two mice immediately head off to another part of the Maze and eventually find some new cheese, whereas the two Littlepeople take longer to react – on another level, it is a profound metaphor for our attitudes to change. Some people sense very early on that change is in the air, and trim their sails accordingly, and some rush straight into action in the new direction. But others, like the Littlepeople, find change very challenging. Some, like Hem, simply cannot accept that a change has taken place, and stay as they are, in the stubborn and despairing belief that things will go back to what they were. (note: this never, ever happens). Others, like Haw, are afraid of change at first, but then common sense kicks in and they realise that anything is better than staying on the sinking ship, or in the losing situation, and slowly, warily, move on and discover that actually, change can be positive.
In the story, Haw leaves Hem at the old, empty Cheese Station and sets out to find New Cheese. On the way, he makes a series of discoveries about himself, and leaves little notices up on the walls of the Maze for Hem to find, should he summon up the courage to leave the old Cheese Station. In the process, he learns how to cope productively with change, so that it is an opportunity rather than a challenge. I’d like to share the notices with you:
- They keep moving the Cheese. (change happens)
- Get ready for the Cheese to move. (anticipate change)
- Smell the Cheese often so you know when it is getting old. (monitor change)
- The quicker you let go of Old Cheese, the sooner you can enjoy New Cheese. (adapt to change quickly)
- Move with the Cheese. (change)
- Savour the adventure and enjoy the taste of New Cheese! (enjoy change!)
- They keep moving the Cheese. (be ready to change quickly and enjoy it again and again)
So we have to be open to change, even to embrace change. Because we cannot control change – it will happen, whether we want it to or not. The only thing we can control is our response to change. I believe it will be easier for us to do this, if we have something in our lives to fall back on, to support us. Which is where the love of family, of friends, of our Unitarian community, comes in. The sense of being held and supported while we cope with the unpredictable changes in our lives (or even, embrace them!) will be hugely helpful to us.
Some of us, like me, also find the daily routine of our lives an enormous support. When something new and unexpected happens, I find myself thinking, “Right, I’ll get my morning writing done, do what I need to do for work, then I’ll deal with (whatever it is).” And that’s okay, so long as our instinct for procrastination, for putting off facing change, does not lead to us running away from it, not facing it at all.
I love the quotation by Forrest Church, late Unitarian Universalist Minister at All Souls in New York City: “Do what you can, where you are, with what you have.” In other words, we don’t need to conquer the world right off the bat. Changes are made by individual people, doing what they can from where they are, using the skills that they have, and being open to change and growth.
Each of us has the capacity to move forward in our lives, to embrace the new, and relinquish the outworn. It takes courage and resilience and hope to do this, all of which are qualities which have to be consciously nurtured within. Sometimes, we simply have to surrender to change, even when we don’t know what the consequences of so doing might be. We have to embrace the “not-knowing” that Richard Rohr talked about in our second reading, and have faith that everything will work out in the end.
Each of us has been given a brain and a heart to approach the new and the unpredictable in a spirit of curiosity, rather than dread. Let us use them as best we can, so that we may grow into the best people we can be. Because it is only by embracing the new that real change, necessary change, will happen in the world. Let us pray to be awake and aware and open to new experiences.
May it be so, Amen
Closing Words
Spirit of Life and Love,
May we not only be open to change in our lives,
but also embrace it,
so as to live our lives to their fullest.
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 Romance No. 1 by John Brunning