Stepping Through the Threshold

"Stepping Through the Threshold"

This is the thirtienth piece of devotional worship (14th in total) that I have put together for sharing, during the shutting down of worship due to the Corona virus outbreak. I am posting it before Sunday. If you would like to share it with myself and the two congregations I serve, please feel free to do so. We will worship together but physically apart, either at 10am or 11.30am on Sunday 28th June. All you need is an open heart, mind, spirit and soul. A small candle will be helpful. All are most welcome. come as you are, exactly as you are, but do not expect to leave in exactly the same condition.

You can also enjoy a Zoom version of this service at 11am on Sunday 28th June. 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

Invocation

We are here to worship…In this spirit I invite us to still ourselves in silence…to invite a loving presence to be here amongst us and to awaken within us…

Chalice Lighting

We speak to the god, the goddess, the spirit of life, the eternal.
We speak to the mysterious thread that connects us one to the other and to the universe.
We speak to the deep wisdom at the center of our beings.
We embody the yearning of all people
to touch each other more deeply,
to hear each other more keenly,
to see each other’s joys and sorrows as our own
and know that we are not alone,
unless we create solitude for ourselves;
and even then, community awaits us.

Out of our yearning we have come
to join in the spirit of community despite our physical separation.

May we help each other to proclaim the possibilities we see,
to create the community we desire,
to worship what is worthy in our lives,
to teach the truth as we know it,
and to serve with justice in all the ways that we can,
to the end that our yearning is assuaged
and our lives fulfilled in one another.

Let us go, now, into the silence of the faith that is
unique to each of us, and still the same.

Let us be silent together for a moment.

[Pause.]

May peace be ours.

Hymn 158 “The Flame of Truth is Kindled” (Purple) words Cliff Reed Music “Morning Light” 76. 76. D George Webb

The Flame of truth is kindled,

Our chalice burning bright;

Amongst us moves the Spirit

In whom we seek delight.

We worship here in freedom

With conscience unconstrained,

A pilgrim people thankful

For what great souls have gained.

The flame of thought is kindled,

We celebrate the mind;

Its search fro deepest meaning

That time-bound creeds can’t bind.

We celebrate its oneness with body and with soul,

With universal process,

With God who makes us whole.

The flame of love is kindled,

We open wide our hearts,

That it may burn within us,

Fuel us to do our parts.

Community needs building,

A Commonwealth of Earth,

We ask for strength to build it –

A new world come to birth.

Prayer

Spirit of Life, known by many names yet by no name fully known—we gather today with hopes and dreams and also with fears and wounds, wondering what might be in these uncertain times.

May we be reminded that all things come and go; that today’s joys and today’s sorrows will in time give way to those of tomorrow and that those of us who have strength to share today ought do so while we can, and that those who are in need ought allow ourselves to receive, for tomorrow those roles might well be reversed. Spirit of Life, mother and father of us all, help us to remember those who are not with us physically, but joined in heart, mind, spirit and soul. Let us remember those who need to be held in love in their struggle and despair, those who feel dispirited, lost and lonely. May we open our hearts to all in need this day and in the days to come. May we always be open to growth and change, to movement, to grace. In the name of all that is holy, and in all the holy names that have ever been uttered (and those that have not even yet been imagined), let us say Blessed be, Shalom, and Amen.

Lord’s Prayer

Stories

A famous spiritual teacher begged an audience with the king, and was shown into the palace.

“What can I do for you?” asked the king.

“I would like to spend the night here in this hotel,” replied the teacher.

“But this is not a hotel,” said the king. “This is my palace. You cannot stay here.”

“May I ask who owned this place before you?”

“My father.”

“And where is your father now?”

“He’s dead.”

“Who owned the place before him?”

“My grandfather.”

“And where is your grandfather now?”

“He’s dead.”

“So, this is a place in which people live for a while and then move on. How is it different from a hotel?”

Many years ago an American tourist visited the famous Polish rabbi Hafrez Hayyam. He was astonished to see that the rabbi’s home was only a simple room filled with books. The only furniture was a table and a bench.

“Rabbi, where is your furniture?” asked the tourist.

“Where is yours?” replied Hafez.

“Mine? But I’m only a visitor here.”

“So am I,” said the rabbi.

However many years we have lived it is important that we remember that we are merely visitors on this earth…Nothing is permanent…Nothing lasts for ever…The only thing that is permanent in life is change…

Reading

“A Ritual to Read to Each Other” by William Stafford

If you don't know the kind of person I am

and I don't know the kind of person you are

a pattern that others made may prevail in the world

and following the wrong god home we may miss our star.

For there is many a small betrayal in the mind,

a shrug that lets the fragile sequence break

sending with shouts the horrible errors of childhood

storming out to play through the broken dike.

And as elephants parade holding each elephant's tail,

but if one wanders the circus won't find the park,

I call it cruel and maybe the root of all cruelty

to know what occurs but not recognize the fact.

And so I appeal to a voice, to something shadowy,

a remote important region in all who talk:

though we could fool each other, we should consider—

lest the parade of our mutual life get lost in the dark.

For it is important that awake people be awake,

or a breaking line may discourage them back to sleep;

the signals we give — yes or no, or maybe —

should be clear: the darkness around us is deep.

2^nd Hymn 46 “Breath of God” (Green) Words Edwin Hatch Tune Carlisle S.M. Charles Lockhart

1.     Breathe on me, Breath of God,
Fill me with life anew,
That I may love what Thou dost love,
And do what Thou wouldst do.

2.     Breathe on me, Breath of God,
Until my heart is pure,
Until with Thee I will one will,
To do and to endure.

3.     Breathe on me, Breath of God,
Till I am wholly Thine,
Until this earthly part of me
Glows with Thy fire divine.

4.     Breathe on me, Breath of God,
So shall I never die,
But live with Thee the perfect life
Of Thine eternity.

Readings

Matthew 7 vv 1 - 13

7‘Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. ²For with the judgement you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. ³Why do you see the speck in your neighbour’s^* eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? ⁴Or how can you say to your neighbour,^* “Let me take the speck out of your eye”, while the log is in your own eye? ⁵You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbour’s^* eye.

6 ‘Do not give what is holy to dogs; and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under foot and turn and maul you.

7 ‘Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. ⁸For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. ⁹Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for bread, will give a stone? ¹⁰Or if the child asks for a fish, will give a snake? ¹¹If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

12 ‘In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.

13 ‘Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy^* that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. ¹⁴For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

“To Pause at the Threshold: Reflections on Living on the Border” by Esther de Waal

Esther de Waal on the importance of honoring thresholds as sacred things.

"There is a traditional saying of ancient wisdom: 'A threshold is a sacred thing.' . . . When I visited Japan I experienced the role of the threshold in a very simple daily experience. Before entering the house, the Japanese stand on the lintel in order to remove the shoes worn outside in the street. Upon entering the house, they put on slippers placed inside the door. This forces a very deliberate and conscious way of standing still, even if for only for a moment, in order to show respect for the difference between two spaces, the outer and the inner; the preparation for the encounter with another person, another household.

"This is very similar to the traditional monastic practice of statio, which also pays homage to the threshold moment, and shows reverence for the handling of space and time. The monk or nun enters the church for the saying of the daily offices, but always leaves him- or herself time to stand, to wait, to let go of all the demands of whatever the previous activity had been, with all its concurrent anxieties and expectations. That stillness permits each one to enter into that space kept empty in the heart for the Word of God. By rushing whether through a sense of duty or obligation, or to save a few extra moments for the task at hand, they may gain something in terms of daily work. What is lost, however, is the attention, the awareness of crossing over into the time and place for opus Dei, the work of God."

To Practice This Thought: Whenever you arrive at your home after time away, briefly pause before you open the door and take a breath of gratitude for this place which offers you essential shelter.

Silence

I invite you now to join together in a time of prayer, meditation and contemplation…a private time, a personal time, but a time we share together in communion with one another…

I will lead us into this time with some words that I will sing for you…

So let us still ourselves, lets quieten our thoughts, our minds, lets connect to our bodies, to our breathing, let’s be still and silent together…

Long Silence (5 minutes)

Music for Meditation (Music of own choice)

Hymn 255 “This Land is Your Land” (Green) Adapted from Woody Guthrie 10.10. 10. 8. (Irregular) Woody Guthrie

This land is your land, this land is my land
From California to the New York island,
From the redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters;
This land was made for you and me.

As I was walking that ribbon of highway
I saw above me that endless skyway;
I saw below me that golden valley;
This land was made for you and me.

I've roamed and rambled and I followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts;
And all around me a voice was sounding;
This land was made for you and me.

When the sun came shining, and I was strolling,
And the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling,
As the fog was lifting a voice was chanting:
This land was made for you and me.

As I went walking I saw a sign there,
And on the sign it said "No Trespassing."
But on the other side it didn't say nothing.
That side was made for you and me.

In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people,
By the relief office I seen my people;
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking
Is this land made for you and me?

Nobody living can ever stop me,
As I go walking that freedom highway;
Nobody living can ever make me turn back
This land was made for you and me.

Reading

From “A House for Hope: The Promise of Progressive Religion for the Twenty-first Century”

By John A. Buehrens, Rebecca Ann Parker

John A. Buehrens and Rebecca Ann Parker on celebrating progressive religious communities of commitment, hope, and renewal.

"We are here at the threshold.
We are here,

We who have crossed many thresholds already
To arrive at this space and time,
Coming out — from identities and locations that
didn't embrace the fullness of who we are;
Coming across — distances, boundaries,
discoveries that have beckoned us to deeper life
and challenged us to change;
Coming with — our loves, our partners, our children,
our memories, our knowledge,
our wisdom, and our willingness;
Coming to — our senses, our awareness
of the critical issues that threaten the well-being
of earth's creatures, communities, and cultures;
Coming again — to decisions, commitments, hopes,
determinations that we know matter.
We are here at this threshold,
the threshold of a house of study,
where minds and hearts are on fire;
the threshold of a house of spirit
where prayer and contemplation
take us deeper;
the threshold of a house of hope
for greater justice and compassion in the world;
the threshold of a house of history
that can inform our present lives
and link us to a communion that
crosses the boundary of death;
the threshold of a house of preparation
for the thresholds we will lead others to cross,
for the thresholds yet to come,
for the thresholds the world stands on —
poised, now, as always
between the possibilities of violence
and the possibilities of peace.
Come, let us cross this threshold
together."

Address

I have heard it said many times these last couple of weeks that are standing at another threshold, a space between one thing and another. A transition phase, in liminal space. That we are stepping back into the world as it was before the current Covid 19 crisis that has struck our world. Certainly, we in Europe appear to have come through the worst of it. Or at least the first phase of it. Medical experts are preaching caution and I feel it is important to heed their advice. Some say that the disease is not as intense as it once was, but I am not sure anyone knows for sure. There is no doubt though that we have come through the worst of the first phase. This though of course is not the same for other parts of the world. Firgures show that this week has recorded the highest number of Covid cases globally in a single day. We here though are opening up more and more. We are currently considering how we may be able offer public worship again, finding ways for us to gather together and worship physically, to cross the threshold of our places of worship. We are allowed to open for public worship, under certain conditions, from the 4^th of July.

So we are once again in a place of transition. We don’t know what will come next, to be honest this is the nature of life. We are always at the threshold of something, the end of one moment moving into another. People say live in the moment, well I have discovered that the moment is not some static thing that you can live within, the moment is liminal in nature, it is the space between the past and the future. You cannot really live in the moment. Maybe it is more accurate to say that the moment lives in and through you.

To truly alive is to inhabit the liminal space to live by threshold. We are constantly living in the season of change, moments when the future is unknown, and times where we just feel stuck in the in-between. However, with awareness and intentionality we can even make meaning out of the seasons of our life in which it seems like all meaning has been stripped away.

As we step out of lockdown and back to the life perhaps, we will do so with a new outlook, a new perspective. Are we going to step out into the world as the same people we were before or has something changed within us? Perhaps we have gained a new awareness, a new perspective and we have awakened to something within or perhaps without.

Earlier we shared a wonderful poem, that Sue and I have on wall in our living room, “A Ritual to Read to Each Other” by William Stafford. It is the line “For it is important that awake people be awake, or a breaking line may discourage them back to sleep” that speaks powerfully and intensely to me. It is not merely that we need to keep ourselves awake, but that we need to remind one another who and what we truly are in order that we remain awake and do not go back to sleep. We have to bring to life what has awakened within each and everyone of us and share that with each other so as to remind one another of the importance of staying awake, or we will go back to sleep.

There are been many concerns that have awakened in society these last few weeks; one that has awakened in me has been a growing concern for the most vulnerable in society. As I have shared before I have become deeply troubled with the growing sense that some that there are those in society that are expendable, or seen as a burden. What has occurred within our nursing and care homes has troubled me deeply, thankfully this is becoming more public and I feel the need to do something about this, to become more involved in ensuring better provisions are put in place. I feel as we step back into life once more that I want to become involved in ensuring that we take greater care of one another, particularly the most vulnerable in society. For what we do to the least amongst us we do each other. Who will be the next to become expendable, to be considered of less value in life.

As we step back into life I must remember these feelings, these passions and not allow them to go back to sleep. I must remain awake. I must bring these memories to life, in order to live alive and awake in the moment I will find myself in and thus play my part in making a better future for all.

If I have learnt anything from the past it is that it brings the present to life. No one lives passively in the moment, or they ought not to. By being informed and inspired by the past we bring the present to life, we live alive in the time we find ourselves and we can then build something for the future of us all. This is why history is so important, something we are having a good look at and reassessing in this time and place. This can only be a positive thing. A true sense of history is vital to understanding the present. May it inspire us to bring this our time to life and inspire us to build a better future for all.

We bring the time we are living in now alive by bringing our whole being alive within it. The moment has to be lived actively and not passively. It is about opening our whole selves up to the present moment and not just passively experiencing what is there; It is about wholly living in the moment and then carrying this experience into the future; It is about truly living on the threshold of life. The truth of course is that this is how we are always living, on the threshold of something, as one moment ends another begins. We bring our memories into the present and it is this that opens the future to new possibility.

As David Whyte so beautifully put it “Memory is an invitation to the source of our life, to a fuller participation in the now, to a future about to happen, but ultimately to a frontier identity that holds them all at once. Memory makes the now fully habitable.” It’s not just about living in the moment, but about bringing the moment to life. This is what it means to be truly awake to life and to live spiritually alive. Let us remember this and not allow one another to go back to sleep

This sense of aliveness brings to my heart and mind a short poem by Ann Hillman “We look with uncertainty”

“We Look With Uncertainty” by Anne Hillman

We look with uncertainty
beyond the old choices for
clear-cut answers
to a softer, more permeable aliveness
which is every moment
at the brink of death;
for something new is being born in us
if we but let it.
We stand at a new doorway,
awaiting that which comes…
daring to be human creatures,
vulnerable to the beauty of existence.
Learning to love.

As we continue to step into life more and more what matters is finding ways to live more alive and awake, to allow what is new within us to be born and come to fruition.

Sometimes before we can be born again and step into new light, we have to take shelter as we reform quietly in our cocoons waiting to give birth to what is within. I recently learnt of wonderful illustration of this. It was during another time of fear and distress of not knowing what might be, during the London Blitz of the Second World War. It was a story about the great sculptor Henry Moore. He joined with many thousands of others seeking refuge in the tunnels of the underground. He brought with him his art supplies and spent the nights sketching his sleeping companions. One in particular stands out “Tube Shelter Perspective”. Using water colour, crayon and pencil he depicted people sleeping in two rows just like the tube tracks themselves. As they lay there like caterpillars in coccons, waiting in liminal time and space waiting to re-emerge as something new, he depicted them cocconed together in the glistening walls of the tunnel. Henry Moore beautifully captured this inbetween state. Those lying, asleep could not see what was outside, above the ground. Yes, some of are depicted as being awake and sitting up listening to the life beyond and above, anticipating what might yet be. I can just imagine them holding their breath in anticipation of what might come once they passed through this terrifying threshold, will it be destruction or the new dawn. As they lay there together they were living in a communal threshold, alive in the moment they were in, awaiting the new life, when they would step through the threshold into the light of a new dawn, in those hours and days, weeks, months and even years they were alive in this liminal space.

“Liminal Space” is a threshold, a space between things. The word “Liminal” comes from the Latin “limens”, meaning “a threshold.” A threshold is a doorway or the entrance, it is a place or point of entering or beginning. In psychology the term “Limen” means the point at which a stimulus is of sufficient intensity to begin to produce an effect.

So “Liminal Space” is that moment when something changes from one state to another.  Such as the dawn of each day when the morning sun rises high in the sky to bring in daylight.  Or at dusk when the evening sun sinks into the horizon bringing nightfall.

“Liminal Space” is that moment when we move either into or out of a deep fog, whether physical or one made from our own minds. Sometimes in that fog we find a complete stillness and in that stillness a new truth can be revealed. As we do we come out of the fog once again and step into a new clear light. This is similar to those moments when we awaken from a deep sleep, when we are not yet fully awake but no longer asleep.  And at the other end of the day is that state when we move from being fully awake and conscious into deep sleep. Then there are those moments of life’s transitions, between life and death itself.

“Liminal Space” is a boundary. Think of fences, walls and trees between property. It is the edge between things. Such as water and land, a valley or a hill. When I think of where I come from in West Yorkshire, such boundaries are everywhere in those hills and valleys of green and grey, as the land changes in shape. Another example is the East Coats of Yorkshire , around Filey and Flamborough Head where the cliffs are eroding and falling away into the North Sea. It is amazing to stand there sometimes and stare out into the sea watching the waves hitting and then retreating from the coast . It is that moment of contact, just before the sea withdraws once again that is a kind of “Liminal Space”.

“Liminal Space” is not only physical in nature though. It is that moment, which may last a lifetime, that lies between the known and the unknown. It is a moment of transition a space of heightened intensity when we cross the threshold of what we think we know. That moment of abandon when things change and are never quite the same again. Moments that can change us forever. Moments that change everything. We all have them, it’s just that too often we are not fully awake to them. We all of us stand in that space, between the changing of the light. Between every sunrise and every sunset, a whole new world of possibility is born.

We are always changing, we are always on the threshold of something, moving through liminal space. Some of those changes are physical, others psychological and still others spiritual.

So here we are at another threshold, wondering what the future holds. Coming out of our shelters like those people that Henry Moore painted. Has something changed within us? Have we awakened to something new? What world are we stepping into? How will we impact upon it, how will it impact on us? If something has awakened within us how do we keep that awake, to impact positively as we step out into the future.

The key is to remember and to bring the memory alive in this moment we find ourselves in right here and now. To communicate what we have learnt and to listen to what has awoken within each other. We are not alone in these uncertain times, it is important to remember this, even in our physical separation, we are still tied together in mutual love and support.

As I step over the threshold into the new life I am going to be holding those words by William Stafford deep in my heart, I will attempt to live that ritual and keep on reading it to others and listen to it as they read the ritual to me. I will remember the line.

“For it is important that awake people be awake, or a breaking line may discourage them back to sleep”

Let us stay awake, may we never go back to sleep. Let’s step over the threshold and bring alive ever moment of our lives and thus build a new future for us all.

I will end with some words of blessing by Mark Belletini “Spiritual History”

“Spiritual History” by Mark Belletini

Let my body remember.

Let my hands and feet remember.

Let my breath remember those who came before me, those who have come before us.

Didn’t Muhammad wait quietly in his cave?

And didn’t Jesus sigh silently by the blue lake?

And Guan Yin, didn’t she sit in silence thinking that what to do before doing it?

And what was Siddhartha the Buddha doing anyway under that tree if not sitting quietly?

And Susan B. Anthony, didn’t she push back from her desk, and take a breath now and then?

And Florence Nightingale, didn’t she put down her nurse’s hat and think silently about what to write in her essay on mysticism before she actually wrote it?

And Sophia Fahs, didn’t she stop telling stories sometimes and just sit there?

And didn’t Black Elk just notice the sunlight glancing on his chair sometimes?

And Starhawk, does she only talk and write, or does she too keep silence?

Let us remember them all with our bodies.

Let us remember them with the silence they too knew.

Hymn 208 “When my heart is in a holy place” (Purple) Words and music Joyce Poly tune Holy Place

Chorus:
When our heart is in a holy place,
When our heart is in a holy place,
We are bless’d with love and amazing grace,
When our heart is in a holy place.

When we trust the wisdom in each of us,
Ev’ry color ev’ry creed and kind,
And we see our faces in each other’s eyes,
Then our heart is in a holy place.

Chorus

When our heart is in a holy place,
When our heart is in a holy place,
We are bless’d with love and amazing grace,
When our heart is in a holy place.

When we tell our story from deep inside,
And we listen with a loving mind,
And we hear our voices in each other’s words,
Then our heart is in a holy place.

Chorus

When our heart is in a holy place,
When our heart is in a holy place,
We are bless’d with love and amazing grace,
When our heart is in a holy place.

When we share the silence of sacred space,
And the God of our Heart stirs within,
And we feel the power of each other’s faith,
Then our heart is in a holy place.

Chorus

When our heart is in a holy place,
When our heart is in a holy place,
We are bless’d with love and amazing grace,
When our heart is in a holy place.

Benediction

Loving Spirit, be with us as we part.

Bless those who are here.

Bless those who are not here.

Bless those we love and those we should love.

Bless those who need our love and those whom we need to love.

Bless those we would love if we knew them and those we may never love.

Bless all who love and help us to love when we find it hard.

And may we carry these blessings, the blessings of love with us…in all that we feel, all that we think, all that we say and all that they do…

Amen