Sunday Service on 28th January 2024 with Reverend Elizabeth Harley
Welcome Music: Follow the Sun, Xavier Rudd
“So follow, follow the sun
The direction of the birds
The direction of love
Breath, breath in the air
Cherish this moment
Cherish this breath”
From our opening music – ‘Follow the Sun’.
Welcoming Words
Good morning, this is the Chapel in the Garden and you are most welcome here, just as you are. Be comfy, be at home, you are welcome- we usually stand as you are able for singing, we light candles of joy and concern and all are welcome to share in that, we also take a collection toward the end which is also optional. The theme today is ‘finding the centre’ the sometimes illusive present moment, so we will take our time together today to breathe in the now, to arrive and appreciate every second. I will now light the Unitarian chalice – the symbol of welcome and of our faith.
Light the chalice
In touch with those unique lights of our own being…*
Rev. Jone Johnson Lewis
As we light our candles this week, we imagine the lights that shine within each of us. We each have intention, we each have experience, we each have thoughts, we each have feelings, and we each have wisdom. May these candles remind us to be in touch with those best and most unique lights of our own being, and to bring them into this room today and into all that we do in the world.
Greeting & Breathing
Song Don’t Be Shy, Cat Stevens
Reading
Satish Kumar, a former Jain monk, is an activist and educator who has studied both Eastern religions and Western economics and cultures. He writes that recognizing a benevolent universe helps us participate in the flow of generosity:
We live in a benevolent universe. . . .
The benevolence of the soil is endless; it helps one single seed to multiply into millions of seeds for hundreds of years, producing colourful, aromatic, juicy and delicious fruit, feeding birds, bees, humans and animals. The tree celebrates the benevolence of the soil and becomes benevolent in return, offering its fruit to whoever is in need, without condition and without judgement. . . .
The benevolence of the sun is beyond the capacity of words to describe. It burns itself to maintain life. . . . It provides conditions for photosynthesis for the whole plant kingdom to nourish itself and give nourishment to bacteria, insects, birds and animals.
The moon is benevolent. It maintains the cycle of life and cycle of time. Time and tide are sustained by its presence. . . .
Rain is benevolent. It . . . delivers itself to every farm, field, forest, mountain and human habitat, free of charge, without needing any external supply of energy. It moistens the soil, quenches the thirst, fills rivers, ponds, lakes and wells and in partnership with the sun it feeds the world. . . .
Air is benevolent. We breathe, therefore we are. Air is related to the spirit, to inspiration, to spirituality. . . . Air is breath of Brahman, breath of the universe, breath of God. In Sanskrit air is prana, which means life itself. . . .
Space is benevolent. All and everything is held in space and by space. All movements, all changes and every kind of dynamism are sustained in the stillness of space. We always need to be mindful of reducing our clutter and maintaining spaciousness in order to be detached and free.
Soul is benevolent. Compassion, kindness, generosity and inner luminosity are the qualities of the soul. Mind, intelligence, and consciousness are held in and processed by soul. Soul is the seed of life. Feelings, emotions, sentiments, intuition and reason pass through soul and manifest in the world. . . . It is not only humans who have soul; animals, birds, insects and microbes have soul. Soil, trees, rocks and rivers have soul.
We live in a benevolent universe. . . .
Short talk from Rachael: On finding the still moment when swimming in cold water and reading from her beautiful poetry book, ‘Seas the Day’ available here.
Candles of Joy and Concern
Silence
Let us take these prayers, these joys and concerns into our hearts as one heart of this community. We will have a few moments of silence to bring into your mind any unsaid prayers knowing that you are held by this loving space today. We will end the silence with some quiet words of prayerful meditation.
Prayer/Meditation https://www.uua.org/worship/words/prayer/rest-peace-moment
Rest now,
Rest in the peace of this moment.
Be at ease.
Look up at the stars, and down at the grass:
Imagine the stars looking back at you over years and centuries, across oceans of empty space.
Imagine the feel of the grass on your bare feet and feel it—dry and crunchy, soft and supple.
Rest now,
Rest in the peace of this moment.
Dream for a little while of young people and young animals, innocent in the way of the young, careless and uncaring, accepting everything in their newness.
Dream for a little while of the elders and the wisdom they have to give, the voices that say to you:
It is right and proper to rest now,
Rest in the peace of this moment.
Be still,
At the turning axis of the world,
And let go,
Of the long unspooling of history, of sorrow and joy and birth and death and all the long years between.
Rest now,
Rest in the peace of this moment.
by Kris Cervantes
Contemplative Music – Have a little faith in me, SYML
Prayer –
The world won’t stop spinning on her axis if you don’t rise to all occasions today.
Love won’t cease to flow in your direction,
your heart won’t stop beating,
all hope won’t be lost.
You are part of the plan for this world’s salvation,
of that I have no doubt.
The world needs its oceans of people striving to be good
to carry us to the shores of hope and wash fear from the beach heads,
and cleanse all wounds so they can heal.
But oceans are big and I am sure there are parts that don’t feel up to the task of the whole
some days.
Rest, if you must, then, like the swimmer lying on her back who floats,
or the hawk carried on cushions of air.
Rest in pews made to hold weary lives in space carved out for the doing of nothing much
but being.
Perhaps then you will feel in your bones,
in your weary heart,
the aching, healing sense that
this is enough—
even this.
That we are enough.
You are enough.
Enough.
For these and all the meditations of our hearts unspoken in this hour, I say, “Amen.”
by Vanessa Rush Southern.
Address:
There are lots of centres – the sun, the centre of our known universe,
the centre of our bodies, the centre of gravity, or our heart centre,
Part of finding the centre is knowing who we are, appreciating stories that help us find our truths as a community, a culture, as humanity. We read the piece on the benevolent universe by Satish Kumar, this beautiful piece of writing reminds us who we are, what we are made of and a part of and that helps us connect to the centering thoughts that we may need to get through the day.
I love a musical puzzle! I am always listening out for music and guessing whether it is the original, a cover or a mashup of multiple sources. Sometimes I am so caught out by a song I thought I knew inside out – that it I have to reorientate myself to include new information – for example, I absolutely love songs that sample other songs, or more than one song even and reference other songs in the lyrics – it creates a magical web of musicians and lyricists and helps keep music alive and organically changing deliciously.
And because of this web, I find myself with musical puzzles to solve WHICH… I ….LOVE . I remember dancing (at least a decade or two ago) to a Sugababes song that I didn’t know at the time was sampling another song in the background but I did find out a few years ago and was delighted to hear the original. BUT recently I found that the main chorus is also a sample.. There is a point to this…..And if you want to look it up to see what I am going on about, it’s Freak Like Me, by the Sugababes which mixes ingeniously Gary Numan’s Are Friends Electric with lyrics from Adina Howard’s Freak like me. The song’s drum beat is sampled from Sly & the Family Stone’s “Sing a Simple Song”. The ORIGINAL tune is, “I’d Rather Be with You” by Bootsy’s Rubber Band.
It’s not really the right song to play at the end for our chapel dance but I’ll suggest it to Angie for her Friday morning ‘Get up and dance’. I attended for the first time recently, an hour of dancing with other women outside (but under cover) and part way through the icy sunny morning the sun broke through and found our faces – so we all turned our bodies to the sun and danced, this helped me find my inner self, the soul and in connection with the others felt calm, yet joyful. We orientated ourselves towards the sun, towards the centre of our universe.
Finding the centre in our lives – is a little bit like the puzzle I have described. When I found out new parts of the puzzle I didn’t even know existed – I have to shift slightly to accommodate new information. I am orientated. but the gift was that there is a new piece of the puzzle to appreciate , a new song, a new bit of our collective soul that is now available to love and share with others.
Mary Oliver makes writing about this kind of connection with nature look so easy, it isn’t of course but that is her, and Rachael’s gift to us. I read an interview with her, titled “I got saved by the beauty of the world”. She always brings things back to a simple appreciation of beauty, of nature. Mary Oliver says, “I don’t know exactly what prayer is, I do know how to pay attention”
And that is what I have to offer you, an invitation to pay attention, to come to a standstill, to be still and notice. And I think what is offered by the religious and philosophical texts over the ages. In the Old Testament, the psalm
Psalm 46:10 – “Be still, and know that I am God”
And that can be redacted until you come to a standstill like this….
Be still and know that I am
Be still and know
Be still
Be.
We have points of orientation throughout history, people who have been so in tune with their inner reality, that to be near them is to know who you really are. Jesus, I believe was one. Stillness followed him around – people wanted to carry on feeling this inner light and believed that it came from him. But Jesus said as he broke the bread at passover, do this to remember me, the I AM/Great spirit/ God. People around him felt strong, full of love and faith in his presence. He said, Do not forget that you are like me, we are brothers and sisters, how you are when you are with me is how you really are, who you are when you are with me is who you really are. Don’t forget!!
However we get to the still silent point within, whether through a religious leader, or sitting in nature, through breathing, through talking, through swimming in freezing waters or dancing in the morning sun, we owe this to our true selves, and we owe our true selves to each other. We are community, living alongside each other intentionally.
I have this little piece of paper which I will pass round to you in a moment. It’s just a straight line, there’s this side, and this side and you are that side, and I am this. If I make it into a circle, we now have an inside and an outside, and it’s true, I can draw a line on the inside and you could travel with your pen, on for infinity in a circle. But I could also draw a line on the outside and do the same and they would never meet. But if I twist and connect – it becomes a true infinity loop, a mobius strip. When I start drawing a line, it will cover every part of the paper and join in an infinite loop. Run your finger over it and see!
(the following capitals are for slowing down, not for loudness!)
EVERY PART OF THIS MOBIUS STRIP IS THE CENTRE, you can start anywhere. – so the point is – THIS MOMENT, THIS VERY MOMENT YOU CAN FIND THE CENTRE POINT, TO COME INTO THE POWER OF THE ONLY MOMENT WE HAVE –
THIS ONE, THIS ONE, THIS ONE.
BREATHE WITH ME,
THIS MOMENT, THIS ONE, THIS ONE, THIS ONE.
(SILENCE)
Song Church of the Earth, Peter Mayer
Collection
Notices
CLOSING WORDS
Sharing What We’ve Found,
Rev. Scott Tayler
Having found stillness, may we share peace.
Having received connection, may we reach out to others.
Having heard the call of our deepest self, may we live in greater alignment.
Having returned to our center, may we expand the circle of love.
Amen.
Benediction
Let us go in peace, with love and compassion in our hearts. Amen.
Dance –Eric Morris, Oil in my lamp, then Bomboleo, The Gypsy Kings