You can also enjoy a Zoom version of this service at 11am on Sunday 3rd May. If you wish to access the serivce the code is as follows: Meeting ID: 841 9082 8195
This is a recurring meeting so it will be the same code each week and for all future
"Service 3rd May 2020 "The Call of the Wild Geese: Keep on honking on and on and on"
It explores the many and varied sources of inspiration and encouragement that available to us if we have our eyes and ears open to them. How we too can be those sources. It will look closely at one of my favourites the Canada Geese and their wild honking. We need to honk together and honk and on and on. sorces of inspiration Wendell Berry, Parker J Palmer, Mary Oliver, The Gospel of Mark, a Story from the native american tradition, Angeles Arrian, Wild Geese and ordinary folk.
Welcome
Invocation
I invite us to join together in a time of silence…Let us invite a loving presence to be amongst us and to awaken from deep within us…
Chalice
“Let Us Sing a Song to the Eternal” by Eric Williams
I call us to sing joyfully to fulfill our role as part of creation
Let us sing a song to the Eternal.
Let the earth and her children break forth in song.
Let the sky and its creatures in chorus reply.
Let the sea and all that is within it sound out praise.
Let the storms raise their voices, the river clap their hands, and the mountains echo a verse from their rocky peaks.
May we who are joined together in heart, mind, spirit and soul, despite our physical seperation sing with great rejoicing so that we can fulfill our part in the great choir of all Creation.
Source: Based on Psalm 98
Amen
Hymn number 3 (Green Hymn book) words Deane Starr Music St Theodulph 76 76 D
We sing the joy of living,
We sing the mystery,
Of knowledge, lore and science,
Of truth that is to be;
Of searching, doubting, testing,
Of deeper insights gained,
Of freedom claimed and honoured,
Of minds that are unchained.
We sing the joy of living,
We sing of harmony,
Of textures, sounds and colours,
To touch, to hear, to see;
Of order, rhythm, meaning,
Of chaos and of strife,
Of richness of sensation,
Of the creating life.
We sing the joy of living,
We sing of ecstasy,
Of warmth, of love, of passion,
Of flights of fantasy.
We sing of joy of living,
The dear, the known, the strange,
The moving, pulsing, throbbing —
A universe of change. (Deane Starr, 1923 —)
Prayer followed by Lord’s Prayer
“We Dwell Between” by Burton Carley
I invite us to join together in a time of prayer...Let us pray...
O god of our yearning, trembling, and vulnerable hearts, there is so much precious to us:
The beauty of this earth always awakening;
The dark and bitter coffee of the slow morning dawn;
The strains of music that express what is beyond the reach of words;
The realization that the same terrible tide that swept us away will bring us back again;
The sweetness of the kiss that says yes
The child born of love and grown in the blink of an eye making a vow at the altar;
The friend who knows all our faults and still cherishes us;
The courage that says no to loveless power;
The glory of the alert red fox, who gives us wonder;
The full moon that beckons us to leave ourselves;
The great privilege of tears and laughter shared in the bond of covenant.
O God, there is in this precious world so much that bewilders and challenges us:
The shifting ground during the dark night of the soul;
The numbing loss of a loved one that deadens the drift of days;
The shadow side of this greening season that will not keep it so;
The sudden mistake, accident, or illness that changes everything;
The aching pain in the beloved that we cannot soothe;
The rending of the earth and the rising of waves, wrecking lives;
The taste of ashes where delicate flowers once delighted;
The driving compulsion that overwhelms a healthy impulse;
The dreams forsaken and hopes denied;
The inhumanity justified by service to the Holy;
The good intentions that produce unintended consequences.
Between the light and the darkness we dwell, knowing both joy beyond measure and trouble beyond imagining. Keep us as we would keep each other, knowing that we belong together and that when we walk through the valley of the shadows we need not do so alone. Help us to be that good companion.
Lord’s Prayer
Story
Here is a story taken from “The Woman Who Lived with Wolves & Other Stories from the Tipi” by Paul Goble
Paul Goble retelling the Mandan story of nature, or The Old Woman Who Never Dies.
The Old Woman Who Never Dies
"In the late summer, when the crops were ripening in the Mandan gardens, the women would build log platforms in the shade of trees beside their gardens. From there they overlooked their crops, to guard them from the flocks of blackbirds seeking to enjoy the harvest. There was corn, beans, gourds, and melons, and also generous patches of squash, which they cut into thin slices and dried to eat in the winter. The women would take it in turns to stay out by the gardens all day long. Sometimes whole families gathered at the platforms, but usually women were alone. They sang to the ripening corn, and they would not feel lonely.
"Once a young woman, who was guarding her garden, was captured by enemy warriors. They took her to their village, far away.
"Months passed, and then one springtime she escaped. She walked for many days, always hurrying, fearful her captors would overtake her. Just when she felt she would never see her home again, long lines of geese, and flocks of ducks and swans, flew low overhead, singing cheerful songs encouraging her to go on.
"They sang to her about the Old Woman Who Never Dies, who every spring sends out the multitudes of water birds. They tell people it is time to plant their gardens: rows of corn like lines of flying geese, beans as many as the flocks of ducks, squash and gourds like beautiful swans. The cheerful geese sang honoring the Old Woman Who Never Dies, telling that it is she who blesses the gardens and makes them grow.
"When the young woman reached home again, she taught her people the songs which she had learned from the geese. Ever since that time, each springtime, when the water birds returned, women would gather together to sing the songs, to feast, and pray to the Old Woman Who Never Dies, that she would bless their gardens."
1st Reflection
Now anyone who knows me will be well aware of my love for Geese, especially Canada Geese, the grey longer necked ones that have been native to this country since Tudor times, perhaps 500 years now. There songs are not beautiful like the blackbird’s, they are quite harsh actually, but they are powerfully encouraging both to one another and to me. Like “The Old Woman Who Never Dies” the geese have taught me songs, theirs are songs of encouragement for, they inspire and encourage me to keep on, especially when I am feeling a little dispirited. I first fell in love with geese when I was a student minister and was struggling to find myself as well as struggling to learn to drive. The geese of Platt Fields park somehow kept me going that as I watched them arrive, from Scotland, mate and produce their young, nurture them and then watch them fly off again. When they fly off they do so in that flying V formation. This is beautifully explained in the following meditation on “Lessons from Geese” by Angeles Arrian
Reading
“Lessons from Geese” by Angeles Arrian
It is adapted from a speech given by Angeles Arrien at the organisations Development network in 1991 and is based on the work of Milton Olsen
When flying in V formation each goose creates uplift for the birds flying behind it, by flapping its wings. The whole flock together creates 71 % greater range than if each bird flew alone.
People who share a common sense of direction and community can get where they are going quicker and easier because they are travelling on the thrust of one another.
When the lead goose tires, it rotates back into the formation and another goose flies to lead position.
It pays to take turns doing the hard work and sharing leadership, as with geese, people are interdependent on each others skills, talents, understanding and capabilities.
The geese flying in formation honk to encourage those at the front to keep going.
We need to make sure our honking is encouraging. Groups where the honking is encouraging work much better. The power of 'encouragement (to stand by one's core values and beliefs and encourage the core values and beliefs of others in the group) is the quality of honking we seek.
When a goose gets sick, wounded or shot down, two geese drop out of formation and follow it down to help and protect it. They stay until it dies or can fly again. Then they launch out with another formation or catch up with the flock. .
If we have as much sense as geese, we will stand by each other in difficult times as well as when we are strong.
May we have at least as much sense as geese.
from a speech given by Angeles Arrien, based on the work of Milton Olson
2nd Reflection
May we have as much sense as geese. These words came to me as I sat in silence the other morning. Each day as part of my daily spiritual disciplines I share a Zoom meditation, with many other people on line. During the silence that morning I heard that familiar sound of geese honking through my open window. It brought a smile to my face and lifted me up when I felt a little dispirited, it re-connected me in so many beautiful ways. It felt like they were honking for me, when in fact they were encouraging one another. I have been honking along and encouraging others to honk on ever sense.
We humans can and do have the same sense as the geese, certainly the folk in my meditation group do as they do in fact take it in turns to encourage each other, when they need it, each takes their turn in leading and when one gets tired and even falls they help one another. This is the basis of any spiritual community, actually any community even one that does not physically meet.
Hymn Number 76 (Green hymn book) “Immortal Invisible” words Walter Charles Smith music St Denio 11. 11. 11. 11 Welsh Hymn Melody
Immortal, invisible, God only wise,
In light inaccessible hid from our eyes,
Most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days,
Almighty, victorious, Thy great name we praise.
Unresting, unhasting, and silent as light,
Nor wanting, nor wasting, Thou rulest in might;
Thy justice like mountains high soaring above
Thy clouds which are fountains of goodness and love.
To all life Thou givest, to both great and small;
In all life Thou livest, the true life of all;
We blossom and flourish as leaves on the tree,
And wither and perish, but nought changeth Thee.
Great Spirit of Glory, pure source of all Light
Thine angels adore Thee, all veiling their sight;
All laud we would render, O help us to see:
'Tis only the splendor of light hideth Thee.
Reading
“The Abundance Within Us and Between Us” by Parker J. Palmer
I’m struck by how often we act as if what we need is in scarce supply, making life a grim contest to get our share, or more, of scarce resources.
I’m not talking about folks who live with real scarcity when it comes to basic needs like food, shelter, and a living wage. I’m talking about those of us who have enough or more than enough — and still cling to the “scarcity assumption” as if we needed more.
Even more striking is how the scarcity assumption can reach beyond our material needs. We sometimes act as if non-material goods — like attention, care, or love — were in scarce supply. If you get more than your “fair share” then I get less than I “deserve.” Things like these are available in abundance within us and between us, but how easily we forget!
Sadly, the scarcity assumption leads to all kinds of things that kill the spirit: anxiety, resentment, hoarding, overwork, competition, and an inability to enjoy life.
When I find myself drifting in that direction, I return to this poem. If I read it slowly enough — savoring what Wendell Berry celebrates about nature and human nature — I am better able to open my eyes and see the truth in its last line.
The “scarcity assumption” is a self-fulfilling prophecy; the more I live as if it were true, the truer it becomes for me. Abundance comes as I break free of scarcity thinking and remind myself again and again that “What we need is here.”
“The Wild Geese”
Horseback on Sunday morning,
harvest over, we taste persimmon
and wild grape, sharp sweet
of summer's end. In time's maze
over fall fields, we name names
that went west from here, names
that rest on graves. We open
a persimmon seed to find the tree
that stands in promise,
pale, in the seed's marrow.
Geese appear high over us,
pass, and the sky closes. Abandon,
as in love or sleep, holds
them to their way, clear,
in the ancient faith: what we need
is here. And we pray, not
for new earth or heaven, but to be
quiet in heart, and in eye
clear. What we need is here.
From “Selected Poems of Wendell Berry”, by Wendell Berry.
Third Reflection
What we need is here, we just have to notice it, pay attention and share in this beautiful abundance, not hoard it and or keep it for ourselves. It is not for us alone, nothing is, it is for all to share. Last Sunday, late afternoon I felt this need to get out of the house. I had not done so since Saturday lunchtime. I didn’t go for a run as I said I wouldn’t at the weekend. I had about an hour or so to kill. There was a little tension in the house that day and we were all going through a low mood. Sue was under a lot of stress, there were many demands from the families she is trying to help. So I decided I needed to walk and to connect with nature and the world around. So, I decided to walk the route I usually run. It did it’s magic as I connected to the sight and sounds of the wild things that do not trouble themselves with the worries that we humans become dispirited by.
I noticed so many things that lifted me up, but it was something at the very end of the walk that lifted me beyond anything I could have imagined. Outside a house was a collection of children’s books and a note that read please take any that you would like. There were loads of book, mainly Little Miss and Mr Men stories by Roger Hargreaves, but several others too. I spoke through the window of the house offering money for the books, but the family would not take any. I told them that I was recording children’s stories each night and would include their daughter in a shout out. The name of their daughter is Seren, which I later discovered is Welsh for Star and what a star she is. Was this serendipity I wondered, who knows. I do know that it lifted my spirit, it encouraged me continue on, doing what I can. It felt like more of those honking geese, honking on and on and on.
I am oh so grateful for all the letter, emails, phonecalls and social media messages I have received these last few weeks as I offered material offering a balm for the heart, mind, spirit and soul. I am surrounded by geese who keep on honking, on and on and on. Let’s keep on honking on together.
Meditation
I invite us to join together in a time of prayer, meditation and contemplation. Following words of settlement let is share a time in silence together. Following the silence please play some music of your own choice.
I invite us to quieten our minds, still our thoughts, connect to our bodies, to our breathing to our life sustaining breath, the breath of all life…Let us be still and silent together.
5 minutes of silence
Music for reflection of our own choice
Hymn Number 233 “Others Call it God” words William Herbert Carruth Tune Aurelia 76. 76, D. Samuel Sebastian Wesley
A fire mist and a planet,
A crystal and a cell,
A jellyfish and a saurian,
And caves where the cave men dwell;
Then a sense of law and beauty,
And a face turned from the clod —
Some call it Evolution,
And others call it God.
A haze on the far horizon,
The infinite, tender sky,
The ripe, rich tint of the cornfields,
And the wild geese sailing high;
And all over upland and lowland
The charm of the goldenrod —
Some of us call it Autumn,
And others call it God.
Like tides on a crescent sea beach,
When the moon is new and thin,
Into our hearts high yearnings
Come welling and surging in;
Come from the mystic ocean,
Whose rim no foot has trod —
Some of us call it Longing,
And others call it God.
A picket frozen on duty,
A mother starved for her brood,
Socrates drinking the hemlock,
And Jesus on the rood;
And millions who, humble and nameless,
The straight, hard pathway plod —
Some call it Consecration,
And others call it God.
Reading
Mark Ch 4 vv 21-33
21 He said to them, ‘Is a lamp brought in to be put under the bushel basket, or under the bed, and not on the lampstand? 22For there is nothing hidden, except to be disclosed; nor is anything secret, except to come to light. 23Let anyone with ears to hear listen!’ 24And he said to them, ‘Pay attention to what you hear; the measure you give will be the measure you get, and still more will be given you. 25For to those who have, more will be given; and from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.’
26 He also said, ‘The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, 27and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. 28The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. 29But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.’
30 He also said, ‘With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? 31It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; 32yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.’
33 With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; 34he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples.
4th and final reflection
I have been thinking a lot about those honking geese and all the other signs and songs of encouragement I have experienced and witnessed in these weeks of lockdown, there has been much that has both inspired and encouraged me. How do we keep on honking on together, sing those songs of encouragement to one another? How do we encourage one another how do we inspire one another in these challenging times? How do we fill our children’s hearts with love and their spirits with faith in love and life? Well I believe it begins by allowing them to witness what it is that makes us come alive. Howard Thurman said “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and do it. For what the world needs is people who have come alive.”
That is so true. This is what the world needs more than anything, people who come alive, this is how we inspire and thus encourage, by our simple example. This is what I love about the conversations that I have with people. Yes they often tell me about their pain, but also their joy. I am constantly amazed by the conversations I have with people, they tell me beautiful love filled things about their passions and joys. It has been happening all over the place these last few weeks. Ok the setting has been different as the conversation have not been face to face, but people keep on sharing amazing things to me from their hearts, encouraged by what I myself have shared. It continues to blow my heart open as I feel that spirit in me coming alive. I see it all around me in those wonderful examples of people dedicating themselves to helping others to find what is already within them, I find it beautifully inspiring. They honk on in their own beautiful ways.
It brought to mind a rather beautiful mantra I once heard. It goes by the title “It’s time somebody told you”:
“It’s time somebody told you that you are lovely, good and real; that your beauty can make hearts stand still. It’s time somebody told you how much they love and need you, how much your spirit helped set them free, how your eyes shine full of light. It’s time somebody told you.”
When was the last time someone told you? We all need this kind of love and encouragement.
Who are the people who have inspired you? Those who did not hide their light, they let is shine so bright so that others could see. Who planted the seeds of love or who nurtured those seeds and enabled them to grow and flower? Who have been your inspirations in your lives? Who are the people who have encouraged you to come alive?
The truth is that we all inspire or dispirit one another, we all encourage or discourage one another. No one lives a neutral life.
It is an interesting word inspiration. Like so many others it has been reduced in meaning over the years. Today it means someone or something that gives you an idea for doing something, but originally it meant “immediate influence of God or a god”. It comes from the old French word “inspiriacion” meaning “inhaling in or breathing in from the Latin “inspirare” meaning to blow into or breath upon so as to excite or inflame. This is the meaning in the following verse from Genesis Chapter 2 “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.” It really meant to infuse or animate to affect to rouse to guide to put life into the human soul. It meant something much more profoundly powerful in the past that it does today.
That said I believe that we can and do inspire in this way and in so doing we can bring the kingdom to life in our own hearts and lives. We can ignite that divine spark.
I believe that this is what Albert Schweitzer meant when he said:
“Sometimes our light goes out but is blown again into flame by an encounter with another human being. Each of us owes the deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this inner light.”
Those who rekindle the light are the inspirers amongst us.
I strongly believe that it is our task, our religious imperative to enliven the spirit within us, to truly come alive, our world needs it. And as we do to breath out that loving spirit and encourage love within one another.
It is our religious task to both breath in and breath out inspiration, to bring to life that seed of love at the core of our being. To shine as we are meant to shine and to not be afraid to be all that you are meant to be. For as Howard Thurman said, “what the world needs is people who have come alive.”
And how do we do this? Well by simply living the life we love, by simply doing so we inspire those we meet to do the same and all life benefits and in so doing we might just bring the kingdom alive, right here right now. Actually there is no might about it we do bring the kin-dom of love alive within us and in so doing we shine a little bit of light on all those we share our lives with. In so doing we inspire and we encourage others to bring love and life alive.
Amen
Final thoughts and poem
Now before we sing our final hymn for today I thought I would offer a final poem on Geese, Wild Geese as a matter of fact, from the wonderful and now sadly deceased Mary Oliver
It sings a beautiful if at times harsh song, just like the Wild Geese within it. The beauty of the poem is in its reminder that even when we feel out of sorts, or we feel like we don’t belong here, when we feel dispirited or discouraged, that we do infact belong here, that we are indeed wanted, needed and loved. The beautiful gift of this poem, that has lifted so many, is that it reminds us that whoever we are and however we are, each of us has a place of welcome and honour in the family of things. Those honking geese remind me of this every day.
Wild Geese by Mary Oliver
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting -
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
Let’s keep on honking folks, honk, honk, honk.
Hymn 70 (Purple hymn book) “I wish I knew how” Words and music Billy Taylor and Dick Dallas tune Mandella 11.11.11.12.12.
"I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free"
I wish I knew how
It would feel to be free
I wish I could break
All the chains holding me
I wish I could say
All the things that I should say
Say 'em loud say 'em clear
For the whole round world to hear
I wish I could share
All the love that's in my heart
Remove all the bars
That keep us apart
I wish you could know
What it means to be me
Then you'd see and agree
That every man should be free
I wish I could give
All I'm longin' to give
I wish I could live
Like I'm longin' to live
I wish I could do
All the things that I can do
Though I'm way overdue
I'd be starting anew.
Well I wish I could be like a bird in the sky
How sweet it would be
If I found I could fly
I'd soar to the sun
And look down at the sea
And I sing 'cause I know
How it feels to be free
Blessing
“Worship need not cease” by Gordon B McKeeman
Worship need not cease.
It can echo in our lives,
in our words,
in our deeds,
in our moods,
in our dreams.
Carry worship with you wherever you may go.
Be a blessing in your going out and your coming in.
May you all that you meet…In all that you feel, all that you think, all that you say and all that you do…
Amen
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