Prelude Melodia Africana I by Ludovico Einaudi
Opening Words by Francis Terry
We have been brought to where we now are,
with hearts sensitive to sympathy,
and still reaching out in pursuit of happiness.
Therefore, Creative Spirit, we trust ourselves
to you for the time to come,
and ask you to fulfil our heart’s desire.
Carry us forward to where we may
find again all the good that
we have met with on our journey,
with the cure of every ill, and
the justification of every hope,
and where we may share the happiness
of all beings, with no end
of their number and variety.
Give light upon each person’s path and
show us the next step towards our destination.
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)
Come into this house of virtual worship.
May we enter this hour with joy,
May we rejoice in our fellowship,
Even if we cannot share the same space.
May we hold each other in love,
May we listen with the ears of our hearts.
Come! Let us worship.
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
Story Animals in the House from The Shortest Distance by Bill Darlison
Many years ago, a man, his wife, and six children lived together in a one-room house. Can you imagine what it was like? They had to sleep, work, play, cook and eat in just one room. It was terrible! The children seemed to be fighting and arguing all the time; there was no privacy, no peace and quiet, and as the days wore on, the situation was becoming more and more intolerable.
‘We can’t go on like this,’ said the man to his wife. ‘We’re driving each other mad. But we haven’t enough money to buy a bigger house. What can we do?’
‘Go to see the rabbi,’ she replied. ‘He is a wise man. He must surely be able to offer some advice.’
So, off he went to see the rabbi. ‘You have a real problem there,’ said the rabbi, after he’d listened carefully to the man’s tale of woe. ‘There is a remedy, but you’ll have to promise me that you’ll do exactly what I say. Do you promise?’
‘I promise,’ said the man, excited at the prospect of hearing a solution to his problem.
‘Do you own any animals?’ asked the rabbi.
‘Yes, I have a few chickens, a goat, and a cow.’
‘Right,’ said the rabbi. ‘This is what you must do. Take all the animals into the house to live with you.’
The poor man couldn’t understand how this would help. In fact, he thought it would make matters much worse, but he had promised to do what the rabbi suggested, so when he got home he took the chickens, the goat, and the cow into his little one-room house.
It was chaos. Smelly chaos! Noisy chaos! Messy chaos! The next day the man rushed back to the rabbi, and said, ‘What have you done to me? The animals are creating havoc! The squawking of the chickens is driving me insane! Your idea is crazy!’
The rabbi smiled. ‘Things are going according to plan. When you go home, take the chickens back into the yard,’ he said.
The man went home and took the chickens outside, but the next day he went back to see the rabbi. ‘I got rid of the chickens, but the goat is eating everything in sight! He’s chewing the furniture, knocking over the ornaments, ransacking the cupboards. What can I do?’
‘Good,’ said the rabbi. ‘Now go home and take the goat out.’
So out went the goat, but the next day the man hurried to see the rabbi again. ‘I took out the goat, but the cow is still there, and it’s disgusting. It’s leaving great big cow-pats all over the place and its mooing is keeping everyone awake. We can’t possibly go on living like this!’ he said.
‘Right’, said the rabbi. ‘Take the cow back into the field.’ So the poor man rushed back home and, with a huge sigh of relief, took the cow out of the house.
The next day he took a leisurely stroll to the rabbi’s house. ‘Rabbi, thank you! We have such a good life now! The house is peaceful, the smells are gone, and we have plenty of room. It’s wonderful.’
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 Let us give thanks and praise by Peter Sampson (hymn 90 in Sing Your Faith)
Let us give thanks and praise for the gifts we share,
for our food and our friendship, for water and air,
for the earth and the sky and the stars and the sea,
and the trust we all have in God’s love flowing free.
Give a shout of amazement at what life can bring,
put your heart into raising the song all can sing.
What a world we could build with our minds and our hands
where the people live freely and God understands.
Let us give of our best with the tools we shall need,
use our eyes, hands and brains so that we may succeed.
Inspire us to cultivate what we have sown
so that nature and nurture make a world we may own.
We adore you, great Mother, O help us to live
with a love for each other that each one can give
let the pain of our brothers and sisters be faced
and the healing of all souls on earth be embraced.
Prayer from In one direction by Cliff Reed, from Carnival of Lamps (adapted)
Spirit of Life, we are grateful for the things we need for our existence –
our food and drink, our shelter from the storm,
the clothes on our backs, the basics that everyone on earth should have.
But, as Jesus said, ‘life is more than food’.
Help us to receive with gratitude
the things we need to live:
the loving touch, the words of comfort, the vision of earth’s glory,
the sense of your presence in all Creation.
Above all, help us to know you in ourselves and in those we meet –
though sometimes we make it hard.
Our lives move in one direction, there is no going back.
May joy be ours on the journey,
joy in sharing it with those who share the Way.
However long the road, however hard,
help us, amid the tears, always
to find reasons for laughter, song, and praise as we travel together.
May it be so, Amen
Reading Gratitude by Nicky Jenkins, from With Heart and Mind 2
It is often difficult to be thankful. I sometimes wonder if it is part of the English habit of modesty and reserve that encourages this. ‘You have a lovely house,’ says the visitor. ‘No, no,’ we demur. ‘It has all sorts of things wrong with it.’ Well, to agree that we have a lovely house would not be modest, and we don’t want anybody to think we might be stuck-up, or to envy us for our wealth and nice things.
But do we carry this over into other areas of our life? To accept and be thankful for our blessings requires a proper humility, not a false one, which is in any case a form of arrogance. By acknowledging the many good things already in our lives, we are better able to let go of that striving for even better, even more possessions, which seems to have become a part of our Western society. When we are able to acknowledge that we do indeed have an abundance of material wealth, perhaps we will be able to give more away, and to share our resources.
And it is not only our material possessions that we should be aware of, but also the rewards of the spirit. If we set aside time daily to be thankful for our material possessions and spiritual growth, then we start to change.
I have found that remembering with gratitude the gifts of the day, before I sleep, counteracts my anxiety and concerns, and keeps me in touch with the truth that I am loved, and helps me to trust in life. There is nothing very new or profound in this idea, but I believe, if practised regularly, it could transform our outlook on, and attitude to, life; and make the world a better place.
Time of Stillness and Reflection (words by Nicky Jenkins, adapted)
Spirit of Life and Love,
Too often we focus on what is wrong.
Teach us to focus on what is right,
and to finish each day in gratitude.
Too often we look to the future in fear.
Teach us to expect joy,
and to look forward to what may come.
Too often we try to control our lives.
Teach us to trust in life,
and to welcome the gifts without fear.
Too often we close down the doors of our hearts.
Teach us to risk opening them,
and to receive love.
[silence]
May our hearts and minds and spirits be open to all that is good in our lives. Amen
Musical Interlude I Giorni by Ludovico Einaudi
Address Small Pleasures
More than a decade ago, I came across a blog called Three Beautiful Things written by Clare Law. It has the tagline, “Every day I want to record three things that have given me pleasure.” I have been grateful to her ever since, for introducing me to the wonderfully nourishing spiritual practice of gratitude, which I have blogged about many times (and written services about, too!)
These days, I record what I call ‘Small Pleasures’ in my Bullet Journal, each evening before I go to bed. Sometimes, they are HUGE, such as the overwhelming joy which flooded my heart when I saw my son cradling his newborn son in his arms last November, but generally they are less spectacular… yet still, occasions for gratitude.
My husband and I spent last week in mid-Wales with my son and his family, and my daughter and her fiancé. It was a week of love and relaxation and fun, with so many small (and HUGE) pleasures, including:
- finding another pair of lovely earrings at the market stall in Barmouth
- S paddling in the sea and building sand castles at Benar Beach
- all of us visiting Dolgoch Falls (my spiritual home) together
- finding S’s lost baby tooth in a puddle, so that he could put it under his pillow for the Tooth Fairy. It was the first one he’s lost, so a big rite of passage
- playing a hilarious game of Articulate! with my husband and daughter and her fiancé
- eating all together on more than one occasion
- having a go on a swing and flying high!
- completing the Nana’s Hug blanket for my daughter’s unborn son
- buying some wool from my favourite wool shop in Harlech, and showing the owner what I’d crocheted with the wool I bought from her last year
The trick of gratitude, I have found, is sacred living – weaving moments of attention into our lives, so that we are aware of all the lovely things happening around us. As I have written before, “Through sacred living, we will come to realise that God’s grace is everywhere. Sacred living is about living with a new level of awareness. It is about going through our days paying attention to what is happening at each passing moment. It is about noticing the presence of the divine, the numinous, everywhere: in the natural world, in other people, in ourselves, and in things that happen to us. Sacred living is about rediscovering our sense of wonder, and living our lives in response to that. Sacred living is about truly appreciating what we have.”
I have found over time that actively keeping a record of the many small pleasures in my life has exponentially increased my general level of happiness. And there is *always* something to be grateful for. Even when I’ve had a fairly crappy day, I can still be grateful for having got through it…. On less good days, I sometimes read back through previous ‘Small Pleasures’ to remind myself how very lucky and blessed I am.
I know that not everyone will agree, but I firmly believe that gratitude is a spiritual practice which can transform our lives, if we let it. It is only too easy to focus on the things that are going wrong for us at any time – particularly as we get older. Parts of our bodies ache or give us more severe pain; we are perhaps not sleeping as well as we used to; and some days, just getting up and facing the day can be an effort.
I wonder how many of you have read Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter? I used to love it as a little girl and found her ‘just being glad’ approach to life inspirational. The book’s heroine, Pollyanna, played a special game, which helped her to be cheerful and happy in her life. As she explains, “The game was to just find something about everything to be glad about—no matter what ’twas.” One of my favourite passages is when she tells the story of her parson father, who was feeling depressed one day about his ministry, and went through the Bible and counted how many times God had instructed his people to be glad. She says, “He said he felt better right away, that first day he thought to count ’em. He said if God took the trouble to tell us eight hundred times to be glad and rejoice, He must want us to do it – SOME.”
This starts a process of transformation in the town where Pollyanna is living with her stern Aunt Polly, who doesn’t know about the Game – she goes around making friends with everyone and explaining how to play it. Some of her suggestions border on genius – she persuades her Aunt’s gardener, Old Tom, who is bent over with arthritis, that he can be glad that he doesn’t have to stoop so far to do his weeding, and her Aunt’s maid, Nancy, who hates Monday mornings, that at least she can be glad she won’t have another one for a whole seven days.
My favourite quote from the whole book is the following: “What men and women need is encouragement. Their natural resisting powers should be strengthened, not weakened…. Instead of always harping on a man’s faults, tell him of his virtues. Try to pull him out of his rut of bad habits. Hold up to him his better self, his REAL self that can dare and do and win out! … The influence of a beautiful, helpful, hopeful character is contagious, and may revolutionize a whole town…. People radiate what is in their minds and in their hearts. If a man feels kindly and obliging, his neighbours will feel that way, too, before long. But if he scolds and scowls and criticizes—his neighbours will return scowl for scowl, and add interest! … When you look for the bad, expecting it, you will get it. When you know you will find the good—you will get that…”
“When you look for the bad, expecting it, you will get it. When you know you will find the good – you will get that.” This is beautifully illustrated in the traditional Jewish story, retold so ably by Bill Darlison, which we heard earlier. It is only when the man realises just how bad things could be if he had to share his house with his animals, that he appreciates what he had all along, but didn’t value.
Being grateful is about being alert for things to be thankful about, rather than dwelling on the things which are going wrong in our lives. As Nicky Jenkins wrote, in the words that formed our Time of Stillness and Reflection, “Too often we focus on what is wrong. Teach us to focus on what is right, and to finish each day in gratitude.”
There are many ways we can put this wisdom into practice in our daily lives. For example, if I’ve sent someone an e-mail, asking for some information, and they don’t get back to me straight away, I’m in a fever of impatience and fed-upness, waiting for the response. Whereas, I should actually be grateful for the wonder that is e-mail, which makes instant communication with multiple people possible. And for computers in general, which make my life as a minister so easy (comparatively speaking)! I cannot imagine how much more difficult my life would have been in pre-computer days (or rather, I can – every letter would have had to be typed laboriously by hand, stuck in an envelope, and posted, with no surety as to how long it would take to get there). Whereas with e-mail, to give just one example, I can send out a communication to lots of people at the same time, just by clicking on the Send icon. Or if I want to juggle around the order of ideas in this address, I just need to cut a paragraph, and paste it in elsewhere, rather than having to tear it up and re-write it. It really is rather marvellous, in the best sense of that word – full of marvel.
So why not give it a go? Make a conscious effort to look around your life every day and find something to be grateful for. If it is something that someone has done for you, thank them for it, and give them a smile, or send them a note . If it is something less tangible, thank God for it. Because what Eleanor H. Porter wrote all those years ago is true: “When you look for the bad, expecting it, you will get it. When you know you will find the good—you will get that…” And even in these days of doom and gloom, there is still so much good in the world.
It really does work – our lives can be made happier by practicing gratitude. There are many ways we can do it – we might have a writing practice, of recording what we feel grateful for. Or we might decide to put aside a few minutes every day to remember what has gone right in our lives, that day. Some people do this at the start of their evening meal. Others have a ‘Blessings Jar’, and every day they write something they are grateful for on a little slip of paper, put it in, and then go through them at the end of the year, or whenever they are feeling down. Give it a go – because in Pollyanna’s words: “there is something about everything that you can be glad about, if you keep hunting long enough to find it.”
May it be so for you, now, and in the days and weeks to come.
Closing Words
Spirit of Life and Love,
Our time together is drawing to a close.
May we return to our everyday world refreshed,
Perhaps even challenged…
May we appreciate the people around us,
May we share the love we feel,
May we look out for each other,
Sharing our joys and our sorrows,
And may we keep up our hearts,
Being grateful for the many blessings in our lives,
Now and in the days to come, Amen
Postlude Stella del Mattino by Ludovico Einaudi