The Gift of the Ordinary

I will begin with an extract from “How the Light Gets In: Writing as a Spiritual Practice” by Pat Schneider

"What I want back is the common everyday walk in awareness of the presence of mystery. Mystery isn't always strange. What is strange is how seldom we see it, how seldom we hear it. Mystery is as common as the gravel road and the blackberry hanging ripe on a vine in August heat in my childhood; it does not have to be paid for by any particular belief. It doesn't go away. I'm the one who goes away. Walks away. Runs away. Crashes away. The mystery is as common as the beam of light, spruce-filtered, falling on the fifth step of the stair this morning in my house in Amherst, Massachusetts. It is the common, seen uncommonly. When we see, when we hear, when we intuit how much we are loved, it is the common that is uncommon. It is the ordinary that is the body of spirit, the physical presence of mystery. I think I was reaching for this understanding when I wrote this poem:

"The Patience of Ordinary Things"

It is a kind of love, is it not?
How the cup holds the tea,
How the chair stands sturdy and foursquare,
How the floor receives the bottoms of shoes
Or toes. How sales of feet know
Where they're supposed to be.
I've been thinking about the patience
Of ordinary things, how clothes
Wait respectfully in closets
And soap dries quietly in the dish,
And towels drink the wet
From the skin of the back.
And the lovely repetition of stairs.
And what is more generous than a window?

Lovely isn’t it.

I was chatting with a friend on a beautiful early summer evening when I noticed a flower tree in the gardens. I hadn’t noticed it before. It had white petals and yellow centre, with a gentle pink around the edges. It had thorns like a rose tree. I said to my friend I hadn’t noticed it before that day, I don’t know why. We didn’t know what type of flower it was, so my friend got out her phone and through her camera looked at “Google Lens”. It said it was a “Dog Rose”. It certainly looked like one, although apparently they are not meant to be climbing bushes and this was standing alone. Whatever it is it is beautiful and it doesn’t really matter that much what name we give it. It reminded me of a conversation I had a few weeks ago with friends who had obsessed with an app that told them what bird was singing around them. I remember thinking and saying at the time how that didn’t really interest me, I was much more interested in the song and perhaps joining in myself. By the way I am not decrying knowledge here, I am interested in many things, I just don’t want to get too interested in the intricacies of things that I lose sight of feasting on their natural beauty. This some thing that is so easy do.

I went for a walk around Altrincham on Monday evening with Molly. As I walked around I had the words of e.e. cummings singing in my heart “I thank you God for most this amazing day”. I had been carrying this feeling with me for a couple of days. I was not ignoring the troubles of life, I was just experiencing the giftedness of simply being alive. We had been out a couple of times already that day drinking in the gifts of the ordinary. We bumped into a couple of half drunk people who I know from the gym who were sitting in the sun outside the ”Con Club”. They told me how lovely Molly is and how lovely dogs are. They both had perfectly white teeth and perfect skin, it made me smile and wonder at my love for imperfect beauty of nature. We walked on and passed the town hall. There was a choir performing, I think it was part of “Pride in the Town Hall”. It was beautiful to listen from the open windows taking in these angel voices. When they had finished, I called out a bravo and applauded their efforts. We walked home chatting with a neighbour about the delights we had listened to before bumping into more friends who delighted in Molly.

It brought to my mind the following from “Small Graces” by Kent Nerburn. “We seldom pause to shine a light upon the ordinary moments, to hallow them with our own attentiveness, to honour them with gentle caring. They pass unnoticed, lost in the ongoing rush of time. Yet it is just such a hallowing that our lives require… For though we may not live a holy life, we live in a world alive with holy moments. We need only take the time to bring these moments into the light.”

There is a beautiful gift in the ordinary. It brought to mind a wonderful book, “The Gift of the Ordinary” by Katrina Kenison. At its heart is an encouragement to appreciate the simple, everyday moments and aspects of life that can so easily be overlooked and taken for granted. It's about finding beauty, wonder, and value in the unremarkable, and recognizing that the ordinary act of living itself is a gift. In essence, "the gift of the ordinary" is about shifting perspective and finding joy and meaning in the everyday, rather than always seeking out extraordinary experiences. It's about recognizing that true richness can be found in the simple things. Something I noticed while simply walking with Molly the other evening. Something I offer to us all as we step into the summer.

“The Gift of the Ordinary” is at the heart of “Ignation Spirituality”. Which is a form of Christian Spirituality developed from the teachings of St Ignatius of Layola. He was the founder of “The Society of Jesus” (The Jesuits) in the 16th century. At its heart is spirituality centred around seeking “God’s Will” through every day, life and prayer; to seek through the ordinariness of life, through love and service. Its emphasis is on finding God in all things and forming a personal relationship with God through this. It is so easy to miss the beauty and the divine nature of a flower because we are like Dorothy always looking for whatever is beyond the rainbow. It is about being fully present to everything right here and now and recognising the sacredness of everything.

I see parallels to the Buddhist concept of mindfulness. Not exactly the same of course, but there are similarities. A key component is to be present to everything, to most ordinary aspects of life. The following contemporary tale illustrates the point. A Buddhist student was trying to stay present to life but was struggling with why he had to do so. He was aware that the lessons he needed to learn could from any place, if only stayed open to everything. So, he was going about his day practising doing so, while not understanding exactly what that meant. Now while he was walking round town, in this open and aware mood, he heard a loud noise from what seemed like hundreds of people in a large hall he was passing by. It took his attention and so he walked into what turned out to be a Bingo Hall. There was a big game going on. He looked up at the wall of the hall and there in front of him was the lesson he was seeking. There was a huge sign that said, in large block capitol letters “YOU MUST BE PRESENT TO WIN”.

It is said that when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. Well, the teacher is always present, if we are awake and paying attention to everything. There is another lesson too. It is up to us to choose to be present, or you won’t notice these simple gifts of the ordinary. In fact if you search for the wisdom on some mountain top you might just miss it, because you are too focused on the peak. The lessons are everywhere in life. As Rob says it is in Tesco’s in Baguley just as much as some spiritual site in the back of beyond. It’s about where we are at within ourselves as opposed to where we are at geographically.

It is about being present, being open, paying attention to everything. As Mary Oliver has pointed out “Attention is the beginning of devotion”. There is something beautiful, simple and humble in her poetry. Her work was so real, something I identify with deeply; the spiritual has to be real for me, or not at all. Her beautiful and often life affirming poetry grew from her empathically observing her own life and experiences. Having observed the life in front of her she asks about life and how to live it. To her this is religious, devotional living, “attention is the beginning of devotion”. To love this world is to pay attention to the simple gifts of the ordinary.

Here follows one of Mary’s great poems. This one is essentially about Spring, and what a beautiful Spring we have lived through. It is also a poem about how we ought to live our mortal lives. The poems simply describes a black bear awakening from hibernation, coming down the mountain, and showing her perfect love by simply being a bear and doing what a bear does. For Mary there is only one question, “how to love this world”. How do we love the world, by paying attention, by recognising the gift of the ordinary.

"Spring" by Mary Oliver

Somewhere
a black bear
has just risen from sleep
and is staring

down the mountain.
All night
in the brisk and shallow restlessness
of early spring

I think of her,
her four black fists
flicking the gravel,
her tongue

like a red fire
touching the grass,
the cold water.
There is only one question:

how to love this world.
I think of her
rising
like a black and leafy ledge

to sharpen her claws against
the silence
of the trees.
Whatever else

my life is
with its poems
and its music
and its glass cities,

it is also this dazzling darkness
coming
down the mountain,
breathing and tasting;

all day I think of her—
her white teeth,
her wordlessness,
her perfect love.

This loving the world, seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary is a concept explored by the great Rabbi of the later 20th century Abraham Joshua Heschel who said “Let us love the ordinary. Let us love the closeness of God and the sacred, here and now. Let us cherish the everyday, the every breath, the where we are.” He also said “It takes three things to attain a sense of significant being: God, A Soul, and a Moment. And the three are always here.”

You see we live by breath, by moment and if we do so attentively we can know and experience the Divine in this life, in the extraordinariness of each and every ordinary moment.

How Heschel viewed the extraordinariness is exemplified in the following story from his life. It is something he would say when he gave an evening lecture. As he began he would say the following words.

"Ladies and gentlemen, a great miracle has just occurred!"

As the audience began to stir in puzzlement, the great theologian would elaborate…

"Ladies and gentlemen, a great miracle has just taken place...the sun has gone down."

Of all the things we take for granted in life, perhaps the fact that the day begins and day ends might be the greatest. Life is the greatest gift of all.

We can cultivate the miraculous out the ordinary out of what may seem mundane, the everyday. The sunrise and the sunset. Just simply being here with one another. This is the gift of the ordinary. We can help create and find the miracle and magic in the ordinariness of life, by simply truly being here and being present in life. We can help one another to do so too. We can find ways to plant little bits of magic in life for one another and for ourselves. We can leave little clues for one another too, things that can point the way. I am going to end this morning’s service by sharing a little story from “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek” that Annie Dillard published in 1974, over 50 years ago. There is a beautiful peace of wisdom in this that for me brings to life “The Gift of the Ordinary”, a simple act with the humblest of objects, that can transform lives. I will leave it with you, with no further explanation.

She wrote:

“When I was six or seven years old, growing up in Pittsburgh, I used to take a precious penny of my own and hide it for someone else to find. It was a curious compulsion; sadly, I’ve never been seized by it since. For some reason I always “hid” the penny along the same stretch of sidewalk up the street. I would cradle it at the roots of a sycamore, say, or in a hole left by a chipped-off piece of sidewalk. Then I would take a piece of chalk, and, starting at either end of the block, draw huge arrows leading up to the penny from both directions. After I learned to write I labeled the arrows: SURPRISE AHEAD or MONEY THIS WAY. I was greatly excited, during all this arrow-drawing, at the thought of the first lucky passer-by who would receive in this way, regardless of merit, a free gift from the universe. But I never lurked about. I would go straight home and not give the matter another thought, until, some months later, I would be gripped again by the impulse to hide another penny.”

May we all find ways to discover the gifts of life in the most ordinary places. May we know the “Gift of the Ordinary”

Let us learn to bless this world with our extraordinary ordinariness.

Please find below a video devotion based on the material in this "blogspot"

I was recently present at two funerals. One I conducted, the other I attended. A week last Thursday I conducted the funeral of Hugh Pitcher at Queens Road. The funeral felt like a song of praise for Hugh’s life. Hugh was a truly gifted and humble man. He was a truly gentle and gentleman, one of integrity and humility. It was a pleasure to know him and to be able to conduct his funeral service. That evening, I attended a V.E. Day memorial service at St Margeret’s Church, up the road. I was asked to sing “Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen. I spent time learning the song, so I could sing it “A Capella”. I found it a soothing experience doing so, as I got lost in the music. The next day I travelled back home for my friend Stuart’s funeral service. Now while there were elements of songs of praise during the service, especially the music he entered into by “Killing Joke”, the service itself left me frustrated and somewhat empty. Now that was partly how I was feeling, but it was also to do with the service itself. We did sing our own songs of praise to his life as I shared with friends later. We sang our own Hallelujah’s to Stuart’s life. Throughout the day and the drive back and forth, the words of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah were singing and ringing in my heart and soul.

As I have said I spent time learning “Hallelujah” last week. There are many versions of the song. In fact probably the better known version was not the one originally recorded by Cohen. Over the years Cohen himself would sing many different versions of the song. It took him seven years to write the song, re-working it and obsessively immersing himself in it. Some claim that the 7 years mean something deep and profound as the number seven has Biblical significance.

Cohen has claimed that he wrote 180 verses for the song and that he changed the lyrics he himself sang as time went by. There is a universal quality to “Hallelujah” as it blends the sacred and secular. It is not enough to simply call it a song, it is somehow more than that, it also a prayer that beautifully commentates on the nature of humanity. The singer song writer Regina Spektor has said of “Hallelujah”, “You get this feeling of hearing a modern prayer.”

Hallelujah was not immediately successful. In fact it was made famous by other artists, covering it and developing it, as the mystique grew. Jeff Buckley transformed the song into emotional masterpiece while Cohen was on a five sabbatical training to become a Zen Buddhist Monk. Buckley’s version is deeply emotive and following his tragic death the song gained even more prominence. Many artists have covered it and it is now a kind of secular anthem. That said as Cohen sang “It doesn't matter which you heard/The holy or the broken Hallelujah

I sang my own adaptation based on the lyrics of John Cale’s version, last Thursday. I did not sing a laid back version, certainly nothing like Cohen’s original, or Cales adapted version. I sang a song of Praise to God, symbolic in my eyes to the feeling that must have been experienced on that first V.E. Day. How the people must have cried out “Praise the Lord” that war in Europe had ended. I hope we can sing that song again soon. I felt that my version was also an impassioned plea that we humans could one day live in peace.

To me to sing in praise it to sing with passion, to let the spirit take you where it will. "Isaac Watts once likened singing hymns to 'breathing toward heaven.' In so doing we our singing our praise to the God that gave us life with his own breath. It is not just about the words and music, but what is felt in the experience, the emotion and the breath, joining with the Divine breath of life. To sing Hallelujah is to sing with enthusiasm, that Divine spirit within, bursting into life. As John Osborne observes:

“How I long for a little ordinary human enthusiasm. Just enthusiasm — that's all. I want to hear a warm, thrilling voice cry out Hallelujah! Hallelujah! I'm alive.”

With passion and enthusiasm in mind I will sing a version of my own. This time though I will sing the original lyrics that Cohen recorded in 1984

Now I've heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do you?
It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth
The minor falls, the major lifts
The baffled king composing Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you
She tied you to a kitchen chair
She broke your throne, and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

You say I took the name in vain
I don't even know the name
But if I did, well, really, what's it to you?
There's a blaze of light in every word
It doesn't matter which you heard
The holy or the broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

I did my best, it wasn't much
I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch
I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you
And even though it all went wrong
I'll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah

“Hallelujah” has several biblical threads woven through it, but there is so much more to the song than these stories. There are deeper metaphors, some of which are explored in later verses. There are many stories to found in “Hallelujah”, including our own story which if you look for it, you will find in it. I feel sure that each person who has performed it has found theirs. I found some deep solace last week as I struggled with grief and one or two personal and communal challenges. I have found my own “Hallelujah”

There have many and varied interpretations of the song. Some say it is simply a song about desire, lust and betrayal, themes Cohen explored constantly. Others have spoken of a deep longing for covenant, for putting things right again in our relationships with others and with God. Others see it more literally and claim it is a story about King David’s great mistake. I hear real pain and regret in the song, but there is more to it than this. One verse, that was added later and can be found in many versions recorded since, suggests this

Maybe I've been here before
I know this room, I've walked this floor
I used to live alone before I knew you
I've seen your flag on the marble arch
Love is not a victory march
It's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah

To me it is hymn of praise, much like the original Psalms attributed to David. There is real faith at the heart of “Hallelujah”, despite the cries of pain and suffering, as well as despair and regret. The opening verse speaks of “The minor fall and the major lift”, The song only works when the two are sung together, surely this is the song of life, those “Blessings and curses”, that Moses spoke of. Surely this is Hallelujah. I was thinking of this as I reflected on both Stuart’s and Hugh’s funeral services, both so contrasting and yet echoing many of themes of “Hallelujah”.

Now as you know I enjoy my etymology, so I thought I would look at the word “hallelujah” itself. It is word made up of two parts. The first “hallelu” means “to praise; the second “jah”, is an abbreviation for Yahew, one of the many words for God, often translated as “Lord”. So “Hallelujah” means that often heard phrase “praise the Lord”. It is a song of praise to God, the Divine. This can be one of celebration, in a major chord, or a more melancholy one, in a minor key.

Leonard Cohen himself has explained what he was trying to express in the song. He said, “It’s a desire to affirm my faith in life, not in some formal religious way, but with enthusiasm, with emotion…It’s a rather joyous song.”

Alisa Ungar-Sargon has said that ‘The song’s central premise is the value, even the necessity, of praise in the face of confusion, doubt, or dread.’ The song speaks of the whole of our humanity, our capacity to achieve greatness and also destructiveness. King David the primary character being the ultimate example of this. That both the holy and the broken exist within each of us. Something also explored in another famous song of Cohen ‘Anthem,’ and that classic line, ‘There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.’

“Hallelujah” is a song about humility, but also about grace and faith, that no matter how far we have fallen we can still sing our hallelujah and no matter how much we achieve, we can still be humbled by life.

The key for Cohen is to remain open and that no matter how many times we fall we can rise again. This is exemplified in that final verse of “Hallelujah”.

I did my best, it wasn't much
I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch
I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you
And even though it all went wrong
I'll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah

“Hallelujah” has a universal quality. Leonard Cohen explored many themes through his music. There are both Jewish and Christian dimension, as well as other traditions, such as Hinduism. He spent five years studying in silence at a Zen Buddhist monastery in California after being brought to his knees again when he was swindled out of all his money. Perhaps the solitude appealed to him; perhaps he felt a need to quiet himself, to get away from the rush and tumult of the entertainment business and the hard labor of seeking after fame. But it did not suit him well, as he notes in two poems: "The Lovesick Monk" and "Leaving Mt. Baldy." In the first, he gently pokes fun at the austerity of the place and the rigors of Zen practice. In the second, he admits:

"I finally understood
I had no gift
for Spiritual Matters."

His love for women was probably too much too, another theme that Cohen constantly explored. Zen Buddhism was not for him in the end, the denial of this physical life, His spirit was far too embodied. There were cracks in him, that needed to let in the light, and he wanted to sing “Hallelujah”

These two themes are powerful message, the cracks and the joyous sing to my heart and soul, in this time and place, of all times I suspect. This is the beauty and the joy of living.

The song “Anthem” took ten years to write, three years longer than “Halllelujah”. The line, “there is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in”, might well be Cohen’s credo, the beginning and end of his personal theology. This is something he revisited in in other songs, although from slightly different angles, like “Suzanne,” with the following line “look among the garbage and the flowers / there are heroes in the seaweed,” and again in “Hallelujah”, “There’s a blaze of light / In every word / It doesn’t matter which you heard / The holy or the broken Hallelujah”.

Havinf said all this it is “Hallelujah” that calls out to me. So, it is back to “Hallelujah” that I am going to return as I come to an end. That “secret chord” of King David, that flawed hero, 'the baffled king,' who sang songs of praise to God, songs of hope and despair. Those four original verses and the hundred plus Cohen has written since describe this human need to sing our praise, even if the song is only to life itself, to sing the joy of living. It’s the praise that saves us, that lets the light into the cracks and out of them too. It is in the singing that we light the flame once more in our own hearts and one another’s too. It is something I experienced several times last week, when amongst people who were remembering with love, friends and family and the sacrifice of previous generations.

Those cracks in our hearts, let the love both in and out. It allowed us to come together in that same spirit and to sing out in praise, to sing the song of love.

You see I have heard that it’s not so secret that chord
We can all sing and play, it will please the Lord
Because you have the music in you, don’t you?
It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth
The minor falls, the major lifts
We’re cracked open by love, let’s all sing Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Please find below a video devotion based on the material in this "blogspot"

Choose Life: Learning to Live from Regret

This last Thursday 8th May marked “VE Day”, “Victory in Europe Day”; a day that must have been of the most incredible celebration 80 years ago, as the war in Europe ended, as the liberal democracy overcame Nazism. The Second World War had not yet fully ended, that was not until August 15 when Japan surrendered, with the formal ceremony taking place on 2nd September. It is important to remember such times as these, I have come to believe. That said it is not just that we need to acknowledge, to remember them, but to live lives of remembrance, in the hope that we do not repeat the horror that led to the Second World War again. It is vital to learn the lessons from the mistakes of those who came before us. I am not sure we have. I think we human beings have a long way to go before we can make the claim that we have learnt how to live in peace. I don’t just mean on global scale, but also much closer to home, including our own lives.

I have been thinking about memory quite a lot of late. Much has happened in my own life and the life around me, that has caused me to pause, to reflect. It has brought memory to the surface. At the same time, I have felt some of my own memory getting a little fuzzier. I have struggled to remember exact details of events. Whilst at the same time I have experienced real clarity in some deep old memories, and yet other more recent ones seem less clear. I know what this is, what is causing this, it is grief. I have experienced a lot of losses these last few months, tragic ones to be clear. I travelled home to Yorkshire on Friday for the funeral of a dear old friend.

I have found myself reflecting on so much, recently. Yes, good times, but I’ve also been visited by a few ghosts of the mistakes I have made and the regrets I live with. These are very common feelings when grieving, for myself and many others. I am not someone who claims that they have no regrets. I am not sure that is either helpful or honest. Regret is ok, so long as you do something with it, turn it into something beneficial for yourself and others, learn from the mistakes, live with regret, rather die or stagnate in it. This counts for individuals, communities, nations and the whole of humanity for that matter. The key to everything is to learn to live with regret.

You may recall a couple of weeks ago that I spoke of spending a bit of time talking with the new and upcoming ministers at the recent General Assembly Annual meetings. What I didn’t say is that I also spent time with some colleagues, who are precious to me, who are now retired. I spent some time in the company of Rev Dr Ann Peart, the one who loves Hope’s ankle in the stain glass window at Dunham Road. Ann and myself have a deep care and affection for one another and it was lovely to see her. We are both very different people, have our faults and our qualities. Talking with her brought back memories of my time at college, the challenge, the characters and the lessons learnt. One thing I remember was a little sign of Ann’s door that read “I have learnt so much from my mistakes that I think I am going to make a few more.” I was smiling as I remembered this, as I know that the only way to do so, is to keep on journeying, “Choosing Life” to paraphrase good old Moses and Wham of course. Yes, making some mistakes at times, but doing mainly good, certainly doing whatever I can for the creation of life and not it’s destruction.May we all choose life every day.

Some say that they have no regrets about anything. It is interesting that perhaps the most heard song at funerals is “My Way” by Frank Sinatra and that famous line “Regrets I’ve had a few, but then again too few to mention” or perhaps the famous Edith Piath “je ne regrette rien” no regret. A more modern version would be Robbie Williams’ “No Regrets”

Is this really true though? Can any of us truly say that we have no regrets? I’m not sure I can. I cannot make the claim that I have no regrets at all. There have been many failures and mistakes along the way. Most folk live with regret and struggle with parts of their past. Like King David I am sure we could all write our Psalms of Lament.

Regret is an interesting word, originally it was a kind of lament, from the Old French word ‘regreter”, meaning “one who bewails the dead,” which comes from a Germanic root meaning “to greet.” As Mark Nepo has said of regret “We always face these two phases of regret: to bewail what is dead and gone, and, if we can move through that grief, to greet the chance to do things differently as we move on.”

Nepo notes something of real value here, it is a lesson from grief. Yes, regret is a lament for what has gone, what has died, but if we greet it fully with love we can learn from the past and do things differently in the future. The response to regret is both of life and death. The choice is ours. By the way this is the one choice we have in life. We do not choose what happens to us but we can choose how we respond to what happens to us. This is the one ultimate freedom, that is open to all of us.

To quote Viktor Frankl:

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.”

So, the response to regret is ours. We can either choose life or death. We can close in and shut down or we can create with love.

There are two powerful examples of responses to regret in the New Testament. They are found in the Easter narrative, following Jesus’s betrayal. Luke’s Gospel (Ch22 vv 60-62) depicts Peter regretting his betrayal of Jesus. He wept bitterly for his fear based denial and yet how did he respond. Well, it was on Peter that the earlier Christian Church was built. For Peter Hope was once again born. Matthew (Ch 27 vv 3-5) depicts a very different response to regret that of Judas Iscariot. This is much closer to the original meaning of regret, which meant to bewail the dead. His response was to take his life. Both Peter and Judas can be seen as examples of how we can act with guilt or from shame over the things we regret in life. One chose life and the other turned away from life. One chose to create and the other to destroy. One turned further inward in shame and other turned out to do something creative with their guilt and regret. Peter lived with his regret, where as Judas died with his.

Regret has its place; we need to feel it and to respond in life giving and affirming ways. It matters how we live with regret, is it in life affirming ways, or shame based life denying ones. We can learn from our mistakes if we choose life.

As Joan Chittister wrote in “The Gift of Years”

“The burden of regret is that, unless we come to understand the value of the choices we made in the past, we may fail to see the gifts they have brought us.

The blessing of regret is clear — it brings us, if we are willing to face it head on, to the point of being present to this new time of life in an entirely new way. It urges us on to continue becoming.”

We all have regrets. It is delusional to say that we should never have them, in fact a person who never feels regret or guilt has something missing in their humanity. Yes, regrets, fuelled by shame, can gnaw away at our souls, but it we are wise, regrets can be powerful teachers. We need a lot of humility and curiosity to learn from our regrets rather than simply allowing them to whittle away at the spirit. Above all we need hope: if we regret something but are willing to learn from it, we must dare to hope that we can learn from it. All humility is, in some sense, a thing of hope: when we humble ourselves, we are living in the hope that we can do better.

Of course, before we move on we need to put right what we have done wrong. This may just take an acknowledgement, or it may take more, an action. Once we put right what is needed and wanted though we can begin again in love, in so doing we are choosing life once more. Not only for ourselves, but for all humanity. This is the key to everything, I have come to believe, to “Choose Life” once again.

So, I say let’s face and truly know those things we regret, no matter how many times we have failed to live up to our ideals. Let’s be powered by appropriate guilt and not fetted by inappropriate shame. We need not be paralysed lamenting the past, nor do we need to close the door on it. Let us instead move through the grief of regret and greet the future with its possibility of what might yet be.

Let’s choose life and infinite possibility. Let’s make lives of remembrance from the ashes of what went wrong before. Let’s do so as individuals, communities, nations and humanity.

I’m going to end this "Blogspot" with a meditation, with something to reflect on. It is adapted from “The Land of Regret” a spiritual practice created by Steven Charleston from the book “Spirit Wheel”

Steve invites us to enter into the mystery of the following words asking us to hear “What Native America has to say, to teach, to share…. When you enter into the mystery of these words for yourself, do so without preconception or judgment. With honesty and humility. Enter the deep earth of our ancient longing and reach for the highest branches of our collective hope…. Take each message as you find it. Let it speak to you directly. Ponder its meaning.”

So I invite us to still our thoughts, quieten our minds, connect to our bodies, to our breathing…Let us be still and silent together…

I have visited the land of regret more than once
But have never lived there, for the land is barren
And no person would make their home there

Unless, as the elders say, they have been so focused
On their sorrow and shame
That they have lost their way to forgiveness
The sacred well in any desert

Lost their way to repentance and reconciliation
So they haunt the wild lands of their own memory
Seeking responsibility like a mirage.

Better, the elders say, to let regret do its job:
Be a teacher with a lesson that must be learned.

Then make your cairn to mark your passing
To express your regret, to accept the teaching
And walk on, keeping to the straight path before you

Please find below a video devotion based on the material in the "blogspot"

May the Fourth Be With You: May the Love that Moves the Sun and the Other Stars, Be With Us All

May the Fourth be with you, and also with you. I am not being flippant, please do not misunderstand me. May that love that moves and connects all things, “the love that moves the sun and the other stars” as Dante described it, be with us all; may we recognise that this love is with us, in body, mind, heart, spirit and soul; may we recognise that this love is in everyone; may we recognise that this love is in everything; may we live this way, the way of love and if we do, then we will begin to build the land that will bind up broken.

Today, May the fourth, is Star Wars Day. It is a little play on the phrase “May the Force be With You”. Which is also a play on the phrase “May the Lord be with you”. “The Force” of course is at the heart of the “Star Wars” mythos The original Star Wars, which began at Episode IV “A New Hope”, is almost 50 years old. My mum loves to tell the story of us going to see it upon it’s release. I was 5 years old that Christmas 1977. She says I stood up staring at the screen in utter awe for the whole two hours. I did not speak and I did not move. This was probably sometime early in 1978, when it reached our local cinema. Interestingly I do not remember standing in awe, but I do remember my little sister having a similar reaction to E.T. Interestingly no one else remembers this. They say it was me and not her. I do wonder if what I remember is her, or my own experience. Memory can be a trickster. Who knows maybe I had some kind of outer body experience. I do know I was utterly enchanted by the film and the other two in the initial franchise. My brother was too and other science fiction. The other stuff did not have quite the same grip on me as Star Wars did. It wasn’t just the film, it was the spirt at the heart of it got into the soul of me. I felt so powerless as a child and here was a power, a good power as I saw it, that I could be a part of. Interestingly the later films had little or no impact on me. Science fiction in general too, but those first three Star Wars films did, as did the mythos. It was the time and place I suspect, both the films and me.

George Lucas the creator of Star Wars has said that his aim was to awaken something in young people with this film. In a 1999 interview with Time magazine, he reflected on the Star Wars “Mythos” stating:

“I see Star Wars as taking all the issues that religion represents and trying to distil them down into a more modern and easily accessible construct…I put the Force into the movie in order to try to awaken a certain kind of spirituality in young people – more a belief in God than a belief in any particular religious system. I wanted to make it so that young people would begin to ask questions about the mystery.”

Well as a child it certainly had that impact on me. I recall as a child going to church with my dad’s family, upto the age of about 11. Looking round at the images and listening to some of the words, whilst also playing out the “Star Wars” scenario in my heart and mind, including the phrase “May the Lord be with you”, which translated as “May the Force be with you.” Not that I ever discussed this, I never did. This was disappearing by the time that “The Return of the Jedi” came out in 1983 and I headed towards my teenage years. Something that would bubble under the surface, but was not much of a part of my outer life. It was still alive somewhere deep inside of me

George Lucas, in creating Star Wars, wanted to do more than merely entertain. He wanted to introduce young people like myself to spiritual teachings, to the universal mythos. As he said:

“I see ‘Star Wars’ as taking all the issues that religion represents and trying to distill them down into a more modern and accessible construct.” He was hugely influenced by the scholar of mythology Joseph Campbell, who believed that all cultures impart their values to the next generation through archetypal stories. Campbell believed that organised religion attempted the same, although always struggled to keep up with the times, stating that it must “catch up” to the “moral necessities of the here and now.” The struggle goes on.

Joseph Campbell’s book “A Hero of a Thousand Faces” is at the heart of Star Wars. Lucas had written two drafts of the story when he rediscovered this book, he had loved at school. It seems this was the missing piece. In “The New Hope” you can see all the various elements of “The Hero’s Journey”, that Campbell described - the awakening, the resistance to leaving home, supernatural help, leaving home, the training period where the young hero becomes strong, the battle with evil, the temptation to become evil, finding out that evil is part of you, (When Darth Vader tells Luke, “I am your father”), resisting your new training, losing your patience with the wisdom, choosing to fight rather than use the power of the mystery. It goes on and on. You also the archetype’s that Campbell described that “The Hero” meets along the way. “The Father” (Darth Vader), “The Goddess” (Leia), “The Mentor” (Obi Wan,) “The Oracle” (Yoda), “The Trickster” (Han Solo). “Star Wars” spoke to so many as it has continued to do so in the generations that have followed we Generation X’s. Of course I didn’t know any of this at the time, but “Star Wars” or was it “The Force” had me in its grip.

“The Force” was not strong in this little boy who felt so powerless in the world he was alive in, but it was certainly awake. As Obi Wan tells Luke “The Force is what gives a Jedi his power. It’s an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together.” I responded to this as a little boy as did so many. Yes, ok I couldn’t lift an X-wing out of the swamp of Dagobah, but I did have a sense of something that would protect me. Something I would tap into as I wandered about often as young boy, feeling safe and protected from the world. There were many times during my teenage years when I would go off alone, feeling safe in my little bubble and wander around the towns and cities of West Yorkshire alone, not speaking to anyone, seemingly surrounded by some unknown force. Well at least that’s what it felt like. A force that had awoken as I stood up and stared at that cinema screen early in 1978.

Now many have claimed religious parallels with Lucas’ “Force”, this is not surprising. Many have seen both Buddhism and Taoism at its heart. Lucas has been called a “Buddhist/Methodist”, not that he himself has claimed any particular religion, preferring to describe himself as “spiritual”

Throughout the saga the dark side seems to constantly point to the dangers of attachment, a strongly Buddhist concept. Yoda, the Jedi master, this wise and cryptic creature with an impish quality is clearly based on some kind of Zen Buddhist teacher. Irvin Kirshner who directed “The Empire Strikes Back,” said of Yoda and the second film “I want to introduce some Zen here, because I don’t want the kids to walk away just thinking that everything is a shoot-‘em-up.” There are clearly a great deal of Buddhist teachings and symbolism in Star Wars. There are parallels with Taoism too. “The Force” itself seems similar to the Taoist concept of “chi”, the subtle stream of energy that animates the world.

What I see at the heart of the Star Wars mythos is my understanding of the Kingdom of God or as I have come to call it “Kin-dom of Love”. Earlier we heard the third saying from the none Canonical Gospel “The Gospel of Thomas” and a parallel saying from Luke’s Gospel

Saying 3 “The Gospel of Thomas” “Rather, the kingdom is inside of you, and it is outside of you. When you come to know yourselves, then you will become known, and you will realize that it is you who are the sons of the living father. But if you will not know yourselves, you dwell in poverty and it is you who are that poverty."

And from the Gospel of Luke Chapter 17 v 21 King James translation:

“21 Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.”

“The Force” speaks powerfully to me of my understanding of panentheism; it speaks of an essence that is somehow more than life and yet it is present in all of life drawing us on but not controlling everything. Some have described this as the “Lure of Divine Love” that never leaves us; we just need to turn to it. The characteristics of which are both male and female and yet way beyond the limits of gender; way beyond the limit of time and space and human conceived constraints. When I think of God I think of a guiding loving hand that holds, guides and sustains and encourages you to be all that you can be. Not only for ourselves though, but to build that “Kin-dom of Love” for all. “The Force” for me is to be used to create good, whilst not being seduced into darkness.

Having said all that I am not sure I like the phrase “The Force” these days and there are elements to the mythos that trouble me too. I will not be putting Jedi, as my religion, on the next census The problem with it and for that matter some contemporary spirituality, as well as old style religion is the language. Words like “Power” and or “Force”, sound like having power over people, places and things and this troubles me. “The Force” needs to be understood as “Love”. At it’s heart it must be about love, certainly this is how I understand the “Kin-dom”, it can’t be about separating people, it has to be universal. Another issue with the “Star Wars” mythos, is the idea that “The Force” is strong in some and weak in others. I suppose you could translate that as faith. “The Force” can be the opposite of this, it could be a power that harms and destroys, as well as creates. It is important to recognise the darkness in life, something that is also in everything, in everyone. Something akin to what Carl Jung called “The Shadow”. “The Shadow” sounds very much like the “Dark Side” of “The Force”.

The spiritual paths that speak to me appear to be counter cultural, they are not really about force and power. They are actually about disarming violence. They are for building something, but not walls, no they are about building bridges, they are about disarming the forces of destruction and chaos, they are about connection not separation. Yes it is about defeating or overcoming darkness, but in so doing not becoming the very thing that is causing destruction. I do believe that is the very essence of the Star Wars mythos; at its heart this is what “The Force” is really about. Or at least his is what this 53 year old man believes now, just like that 5 year old boy did.

I remember as a little boy it was this that really spoke to me. This is what was at the heart of that little boy walking around feeling powerless in a world that utterly bewildered him. It has never left me, although I have lost sight of it for a while. I believe it is open to all of us. It is a beautiful and precious thing and needs to be deeply cared for and nurtured.

So, “May the Fourth be with you” “May the Force be With You” May that love that moves and connects all things, “the love that moves the sun and the other stars” as Dante described it, be with us all. May we recognise that this love is with us, in body, mind, heart, spirit and soul; may we recognise that this love is in everyone; may we recognise that this love is in everything. May we live this way, the way of love and if we do, then we will begin to build the land that will bind up broken.

May the Force be with you.

Please find below a video devotion based on the material in this "blogspot"