Not giving things up, simply giving to and having a good time

Last week I attended two interfaith events. It was wonderful to come together with people from different traditions all working with the same heart and spirit. We may not think or believe alike, but we certainly loved alike. The first event was an entertainment evening. We enjoyed offerings from different traditions; a variety of songs, storytelling, poetry and dance. It was wonderful. We all reflected on the troubles in our world and we all shared joy, blessing and gifts for all to share. I shared songs of Rogers and Hammerstein while telling the story of Hammerstein and how his Universalism had shaped his song writing and his life.

On Sunday afternoon I attended the Mayor of Trafford’s multi-faith Civic Service, organised by Jane Brophy. It was held at Altrincham Baptist Church, where Jane is a member. Several folk from Dunham Road were in attendance. Gwyneth Roper played a huge role in making sure the event ran smoothly and Peter Flower and myself participated. Peter stepped in to play the keyboard at the last minute. Again, this was a wonderful occasion, full of spirit and culture. Wonderful to see mostly community cohesion in these divisive times. Jane insisted that I led the singing which I dutifully did. I do not need much encouragement. Towards the end of the service Jane mentioned that she wanted to share a secret about me to the people gathered. I wondered what on earth she would say, I was a little worried. She teased at it a couple of times and then publicly thanked me for something I had done over 10 years ago. Her son Edwin was very poorly at the time and she said that I had visited him in in the Moorside Unit at Trafford General every week. Edwin had grown up in the Sunday school at Dunham Road and ever since I have been minister there we have always got on well. This has not always been easy has he has one or two challenges. I have to say it brought some emotion in me, which I manged to contain. It is not something I have thought of much since. I was simply doing what I could do and what I thought was right at the time. As I left a woman approached me to talk of a friend of hers named Sheila, who had died in recent times. Sheila would attend both congregations, both services and other activities. She got a lot from her time with us, although the woman said her priest discouraged this. The woman wanted me to know how much she thought of me and welcome she received from both congregations. What a lovely gift to freely offer and in keeping with the spirit of the occasion.

Later that evening I noticed that the video promoting the “OYEZ” share option had been released. “OYEZ” is an art collective that has taken over the running of the town hall in Altrincham. They are doing amazing creative and community work there. The choir I sing with rehearses there. We had recorded a song for the launch of the share option and appeared in the video, as do other local figures, including Barbara Thackray. The whole project is another wonderful example of people giving what they have, from their heart for good of not only themselves, but their community. It gave me marvelous sense of well being. It is also hilariously funny. While I may well be a singer, I am not a dancer.

Here is the video 

Last week I saw another example of people giving what they have from their hearts. I have mentioned my two writer friends in the past. Well one of them has just written his first one person play. It is about to be performed in London. Last week it was being rehearsed in the schoolrooms at Dunham Road and by the weekend it will be performed. It is the first new thing he has written and produced in some time and my other friend, who owns Ronnie the dog who Molly loves to play with is directing it. It is oh so wonderful to see him getting back into what his heart desires, giving what his has from what he has been given.

A week last Saturday Molly, myself and a few friends who are singletons went for a walk together to Dunham Massey, on what was Valentines Day. During the walk a couple of my friends began to talk about the things they are planning to give up for Lent. They were talking of luxury items such as sugary drinks and chocolate. Things they will struggle with no doubt. I did wonder though if this is really what Lent is about. Is it really just about giving up luxury items, or is there more too it? Maybe it is better to think about what we can give to life, from our capacity and perhaps giving up things that get in the way of doing so. What that might be is probably different for each of us.

So, I’ve made a decision. This Lenten season I’m going to attempt to let a different spirit live through me. To see what I can give from my heart and soul and attempt to let go of the things that get in the way of that. To not give up things, but to give what I can and give up what blocks me from doing so. It is so easy to live in cynicism and say well what’s the point, but who does that serve, certainly not my soul. I’m going to live by the examples around me and do what I can. I’m going to live in what I consider the solution is as opposed to what I see as the problem. I am going to give love, even if it’s in small ways. I am going to do so while recognising how difficult that is, even to my nearest and dearest. That said I do know that by doing so my outer world is bound to improve and my inner world will become healed, even if it is just small ways.

I will invoking the spirit of Derek Brown in my activities, whose funeral I conducted this week. To live by his example with people. His warmth, his care, his welcome and his good humour too. These were the natural gifts that he had lived by, in so doing he touched so many lives. He was a man dedicated to his community in Urmston. This was proved by the outpouring of love this Thursday.

Last Sunday Peter spoke of the many forms of love, not just the romantic kind that is celebrated on Valentines Day. The day before on the walk with my friends we were practising friendship or “philia” love. Now the kind of love I want to talk about giving and giving up whatever gets in it’s way is Agape Love. Some call this “Spiritual” Love. It is the kind of love that the faith traditions speak of, although sadly too often fail to practice. It is what everyone was invoking at the interfaith events I participating in; it is was fuelled the songs of Rogers and Hammerstein and it is what I witnessed in Derek’s life. This is a kind of love that is none exclusive, it is open to all, it is supposed to have no boundaries; instead it builds bridges between the walls we create around ourselves.

Agape is the love that Jesus spoke of in the Gospels. He commanded his followers to “Love one another as I have loved you.” He is not talking about something soft and mushy here though, please do not be fooled. When he preaches that we should love our enemies he is commenting on the commandment in Leviticus “You must love your neighbour as yourself.” When Jesus spoke of love he was talking about an action that put someone or something else at the centre of their life, rather than themselves; he is talking about yielding for the good of all, instead of self-interest.

This message is of course not unique to the Judeo-Christian tradition it is the essence of all the “Great Faiths”. It would appear that selfishness and self-centredness has been the root of so many of humanities troubles throughout our history, therefore it is hardly surprising that the idea of yielding for the good of all is at the core of the great faiths; that putting something other than our selfish needs at the centre of what we do is vital to human survival. The great Chinese guide to statecraft “The Daodejing”, authored by Laozi made similar claims. “The only person who is fit to rule is the man who has overcome the habit of selfishness.”

To quote the Dao itself

“The reason there is great affliction is that I have a self.
If I had no self, what affliction would I have?
Therefore to one who honours the world as his self
The world may be entrusted,
And to one who loves the world as one’s self
The world may be consigned.”

Agape was the foundation of Rev Dr Martin Luther King’s ministry, the great champion of civil rights in 1950’s and 60’s America. He saw it as an abundant overflowing love that seeks nothing in return, that is open to all and rejects self interest. It is not sentimental and has nothing to do with whether we like a person or not. It is the kind of love that recognises our common humanity and reveres the other as our self; it recognises the sacred mystery in everyone. It is this that forms the beloved community that he spoke of. You could call it the Kingdom of God, the commonwealth of love, the kin-dom of Love, or simply “Fellowship”.

Although Agape is not soft, mushy or sentimental it is still a condition of the heart, it is a way of being that encompasses all aspects of our humanity; head and heart as well as mind, body and spirit. It is about how we are and how we act. In his sermon titled “Love in action” Dr King preached that “one day we will learn that the heart can never be totally right if the head is totally wrong...only through bringing together head and heart, intelligence and goodness – shall man rise to a fulfilment of his human nature.”

It is wrong to believe that Dr King ministry focused purely on the injustices of society external to him. He also talked of healing our inner violence. None violent action, motivated by love, that he adapted from the teachings of Gandhi was about committing not only to non-violent resistance externally but also internally. Both he and Gandhi knew how vital it was that we transformed our inner lives first before we looked to the world. Gandhi named this Satyagraha (soul-force). They both knew that in order to transform society for the better, they first had to develop themselves spiritually.

Why was this? Well they knew that if a person did not heal the violence within themselves that when they did overcome the injustice they were experiencing they may well end up replacing it with something just as destructive. Just look at the revolutions of the past two hundred years. They began as a protest against tyranny and yet in many cases they replaced the former tyranny with something worse. We must all be wary of the “dark side of the force”, of how corrupting power and self-righteousness can be. Human history is littered with examples of this.

Love is a way of being and this can be tough at times; it is not sentimental and or mushy and it is something I will be focusing on this Lenten season. It always amazes me how something like Lent, which in my view is about self-sacrifice, about giving of self for others, has somehow become so self-centred. As I was reminded by my conversation with my friends, too often people give up things for Lent, but they seemingly do so for their own good. People often given up certain food stuffs, for their own vanity, they do it for themselves. Is this what Lent is about? Well, it doesn’t seem to be the right focus to me. Surely, it’s actually about Agape, about self-giving love, about loving all without prejudice, about recognising the “inherent worth and dignity of all” Isn’t this the example that Jesus gave to humanity, in the same way that Gandhi and Dr King did, they gave themselves wholeheartedly for others. And they were murdered for it. That said their message survived their physical deaths, it lives on today. This loving spirit is timeless, it is immortal, but it needs a body, it needs to be embodied.

So, I’ve made a decision. This Lenten season I’m going to attempt to let this spirit live through my body; this Lent I’m going to focus on giving, instead of giving things up. I’m also going to see if I can give up what gets in the way of me doing so. This Lenten season I’m going to see what I can give to life instead of what I can give up; this Lenten season I’m going to live in what I consider the solution is as opposed to what I see as the problem. I am going to give love, even if it’s in small ways. I am going to do so while recognising how difficult that is, even to my nearest and dearest. That said I do know that by doing so my outer world is bound to improve and my inner world will begin to heal.

I’m also going to have a good time doing so. I’m going to sing more, dance more run and scream and shout more. I’m also going to encourage others to do the same. To live as much as I can from the heart. I’m going to follow the example of those who sang the joy of living in all its mystery. I will invoke the example of Derek Brown and let his spirit live on.

My question to you is what are you going to give to the world from yourself this season? What are going to let go of, that gets in the way of you doing so.

I will leave you with that one.

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

Wondering while you are wandering into Love: A reflection for Lent

 

I find myself wandering a lot. As I wander I do in fact find myself wondering about so many things. I wonder at the beginning of the week where this Sunday’s wandering may lead. I wonder about the state of the world, our humanity, our capacity to do incredibly beautiful and loving and grotesque things to one another. Sometimes I wander and wonder with others, sometimes alone, well apart from Molly. She though is just off investigating, far less troubled by the state of her own being and or the state of the world. I would do better to follow her wanderings than my own wonderings, but then again she doesn’t have to create and deliver worship.

I was out with a friend and her dog Ronnie, Molly’s best friend, on Wednesday morning. We were wandering and wondering together. My friend is a writer and I was asking them about their current work. They told me that something had got stuck in production. I told them I was struggling to come up with something for this week, despite spending the last two days exploring, wandering down all kinds of blind alleys and getting nowhere. We wandered and wondered for a bit longer and I eventually headed for home.

I had notes and thoughts galore, but my wandering had brought no more clarity to my wondering. I did read a rather beautiful quotation posted by Rev Laura Dobson reflecting on Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent, that she had posted on Facebook It is by A. Powell Davies a Unitarian minister in the first half of the twentieth century. It read

“Be with us, O God, when we think of the wrongs we have done to other people; lest, hating ourselves for our evil-doing, we turn our hatred outward on to them. Help us to forgive ourselves, acknowledging that we are no better than we are; and then help us to believe that we can be better.”

As I read I thought it was a beautiful prayer to take into the season of Lent. It got me wondering as we begin our 40 day wander through Lent, what this season is actually about. Surely it is not just about deprivation, but about creation. About creating something beautiful for lives and in the lives of others. Surely its about love coming to life once again in human form. Well at least this seems to be what is at the end of Lent and the joy and celebration of Easter.

We have entered the season of Lent. I hope you all enjoyed your pancakes on Tuesday. On what some still call Shrove Tuesday, or as many prefer to call it “Pancake Day”, or as I prefer to call it “Flat Yorkshire Pudding Day”. How do you eat yours?

The following day “Ash Wednesday”, for Christians, marks the beginning of 40 days of fasting and self-sacrifice that lead up to Easter, the day of re-birth re-newal and new beginnings.

In the account found in Matthews Gospel, that we heard earlier. Jesus is “led by the spirit” into the wilderness, a place of transformation and temptation. He is taken to the pinnacle of the temple and to the top of a high mountain. Here he is offered the world, but rejects the allure of an easier showier more obvious path. Instead he chooses the road less travelled, the heroes path. He is tempted by “Satan” but resists the temptation. Satan is not a physical being, some horned character of cartoons, but the tempter. Satan is an illusory obstacle that keeps us from keeping our responsibilities. It is that power that distracts us from living the loving life that we can. I felt like I was distracted somewhat this week, as I found it hard to focus. Not that I had been wandering around in the desert, starved and exhausted for 40 days, so I didn’t have much of excuse for being distracted. That said I found it hard to focus on the task at hand. I am not alone.

Jesus resisting temptation is a universal tale; many of the great sages went on similar journeys, before embarking on their missions to heal their people. The Buddha had to leave the comforts of home, abandon his weeping family, shave his head and don the robes of a world renouncing ascetic when he began his journey to discover a cure for the pain of the world. Long before his revelations Muhammad used to retreat to Mount Hira, outside of Mecca, where he fasted, performed spiritual exercises and gave alms to the poor. He did this in an attempt to discover a remedy for the troubles of his time. It is currently Ramamdan, a time of fasting for Muslims. When Ghandi began his mission he left the comforts of the elite in which he had lived his whole life and travelled to India carefully observing the plight of the ordinary people.

During their own times in the wilderness the great sages found their answers. Through taking the road less travelled, the hard road, the difficult road, the answers came to them. They discovered the knowledge they needed to impact positively on their people in their time and place. This is the spiritual life in its essence. It is often the hardest most difficult path and it can certainly appear to be the loneliest, one filled with temptations. That said it is the one where the answers are usually found.

The great sages were not just wandering alone, they were wondering what they felt they must do with this one wild wonderful life.

In being called out into the wild they didn’t just wander aimlessly they wondered, often for a long time. I have heard lent being described as being a long time, as in length. The forty days are symbolic of a long time, just as 40 years in the desert symbolised a long time wandering round the desert for Moses and his people seeking the “Promised Land”. So too the story of Jesus in the wilderness echoes this struggle. His was to remain true to his covenant, theirs was to establish a religious community.

Wandering and wondering in the wild is part of everyone’s spiritual journey. I’m sure most have experienced this in recent times. The journey is individual as well as communal. It is a time of struggle, but also transformation. It reminds us that we are alone, but also not alone. As Sarah York puts it:

“We are neither where we have been nor where we are going. There is danger and possibility, risk and promise. In the wilderness, the spirit may descend like a dove and lift us on its wings of hope, then drive us into the depths of despair; it may affirm us with a gift of grace, then challenge us to change. In the stories and rituals of Eastern as well as Western religions, a journey into the wilderness represents a time when we both pursue and resist the Holy.

We may choose to enter the wilderness like the people of Yahweh, to escape bondage, or, like Henry David Thoreau, to “live deliberately.” Or we may, like Jesus, be driven there without much choice. Once there, even our markers of time and space collapse, for this wilderness is not in space or time, but is the boundless territory of the soul.”

It is easy to look at Lent as merely a time of deprivation. Of denying ourselves in solidarity. There is an element to this, people choose to give things up for Lent and deny human pleasure etc. it is the same with fasting in other traditions too. There is more to it than this though. To me it is a time of preparation. Yes, of purification, but in the sense that it is readying us for something new. Something that will be given birth to on the new day of renewal and re-birth that is Easter.

As I wandered home and thought of Easter and the enjoyment of chocolate and the Easter eggs in the shops etc my wonderings turned to a film that seems to me to be a fascinating allegory of what is at the heart of what was discovered during those wanderings and wonderings in the desert,

The film is “Chocolat” by Lasse Hallstrom. It is set during the season of Lent, in a small French town in 1959. The town Lansquenet holds fast to tradition. The Mayor of the town has the young priest in the palm of his hand and he gets him to preach sermons each week to the people about the dangers of temptation, the threat to morality posed by outsiders, and even the evils of chocolate.

A beautiful and mysterious woman Vianne enters the town and opens a chocolate shop, this infuriates the mayor. She is seen as the ultimate symbol of temptation. Her joy for life leads her to reaching out to others who are excluded in the village. She guesses their favourite chocolate and pours out her love and acceptance. All the while the mayor attempts to have her driven out of town. Throughout the film all the characters seem to go on a journey, the classic heroes journey. A journey that is the length of time, that is Lent, is perhaps all about.

The young priest Pere Henri goes on the same journey and finally he finds his voice. On Easter morning he wakes up and realises he has had enough and instead of preaching a sermon on the divinity of Jesus, instead he speaks of his humanity. He talks of the religion of Jesus, rather then the one that had been made around him. He spoke of the lessons of his life, about inclusion and universal love saying:

"We can't go around measuring our goodness by what we don't do. We measure goodness by what we embrace, what we create, and who we include."

Isn’t this the message that came into being in the desert after those 40 days. A message that was brought to people about a new religion, a message that stood in contrast to the tribalism and blind following of rules of the time. A message that brought the spirit alive in people’s lives. a message that needs to be heard again in this our day and age. A message of inclusion of radical love; a message of universal acceptance.

So, this is my message this Lenten season. This is where my wanderings and wonderings have led. It is nothing new. It’s message that has been heard for millenniums. It might sound radical in this day and age, but I’m not sure it is. Unless love and acceptance is considered beyond the pale. I invite you to journey with me this Lenten season and see what you might uncover and perhaps discover as we wander and wonder, sometimes alone and sometimes together.

I’m going to end with a little Mary Oliver. It’s a kind of question really. The poem is “A Summer’s Day”, so yes it is not seasonally correct, but hey we are somewhat unorthodox round here. So here it is.

“Summer’s Day” by Mary Oliver

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean —
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down —
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

Below is a video devotion based on the material in this "blogspot"

Spring: Is it here? Belum: Not quite yet?

“In the springtime of our year, silver buds of hope appear.”

I was struggling to get going on Monday. There had been a lot going on over the last few days and there was much heavy with me this week. There was grief in the air and in my heart. It was a grey grim day too. The weather forecast for the few days ahead was not good. February had fooled me. I had been seduced by the belief that Spring was here, or nearly here, but the weather this week has had other ideas. Spring will come, but not in my time.

Despite how I was feeling on Monday morning, I got on with my day, I managed to get quite a lot of work done in the morning. Then after taking Molly for a long walk I headed to the gym, wondering what we might explore in worship this week. I started on the cross trainer, facing out of the window, looking at the bus station across the road, watching the world pass by. I saw several folk I knew, including from the congregation. I saw Helen and David Copley and then Barbara Thackery, how it lifted my spirits. I had a seen a video of Barbara in the Altrincham Matters Facebook group. It had been of her happy smiling face running the Trafford 10k on what was her 85 birthday, raising money for St Anne’s Hospice . Barbara has become a bit of a local inspiration, a celebrity dare I say. Seeing her pass by certainly lifted my spirits and I found myself singing the lyrics “In the spring time of our year, silver buds of hope appear.” Such inspiration and hope can come in so many forms. As I continued on I thought to myself, ok it still feels quite wintery, but spring and new life and new hope will soon be here. We are heading in the right direction.

It is now March and we have stepped into the season of Lent, but we are still experiencing wintery weather. It even snowed this week. There have been some signs of spring these last few weeks but it is not quite here yet. I know most of us want winter over and the new life of spring. We want Easter and the re-birth of spring to come oh so soon, but first we have to travel through the barren wilderness of March and Lent. Yes, new life will soon be here and we will get to enjoy the full blooming promise of warmer time, including that gorgeous pink snow that comes with the cherry blossom. The new life will soon be with us.

We are now well into the 40 days of Lent; Lent a time of reflection; a time of temptation; a time to observe and find answers; Lent a time of preparation. These forty days or so are meant to be a barren time, where we strip ourselves down of luxuries and distractions to give birth to new treasures that can be symbolically born again at Easter time. Not an easy time and a time to experience a sense of loneliness as we enter our inner wilderness. We may feel a little lost at times, but do not fear we are headed in the right direction.

This is not the end of winter, but maybe it’s the beginning of the end or at least the end of the beginning. There are seeds of hope being planted and there are new shoots all around us. Hope springs eternal and we do not seem too far from spring. The seeds are there planted beneath the earth, waiting to give birth.

Maybe there are lessons that we can learn from the patience of seeds as we wait for the spring of re-birth. They lay there buried, surrendered to the process that is yet to come, when they will flower and flourish for all to share. Like those seeds there is so much buried within us waiting to be born, ok not today, but it is coming soon. There are signs of hope though, may we nurture them.

Spring begins tentatively, but it advances with tenacity. All the new life touches me deeply. No matter how small and delicate the roots are they insist on coming to life; they insist on their way as they press up through ground that looked, only a few weeks earlier, as if it would never grow anything again. The crocuses and snowdrops don’t bloom for long. But their mere appearance, however brief, is always a harbinger of hope — and from those small beginnings, hope grows at a geometric rate. The days get longer, the winds get warmer, and the world grows green again.

This brings to my heart the wonderful poem “Metamorphosis” by May Sarton; a poem about transformation during springtime.

“Metamorphosis” by May Sarton

Always it happens when we are not there —
The tree leaps up alive in the air,
Small open parasols of Chinese green
Wave on each twig. But who has ever seen
The latch sprung, the bud as it burst?
Spring always manages to get there first.

Lovers of wind, who will have been aware
Of a faint stirring in the empty air,
Look up one day through a dissolving screen
To find no star, but this multiplied green,
Shadow on shadow, singing sweet and clear.
Listen, lovers of wind, the leaves are here!

Spring is coming. No it is not here yet, but it is coming. We just need be patient and keep on moving in the right direction. People though are not patient, we want what we want and we want it now. We don’t like uncertainty either. Life though rarely offers such things, especially not with regard to weather in March, certainly not here in the North West of England. The only thing certain about late winter and early spring is how uncertain the weather will be. Tuesday was as blue and beautiful a day as we could wish for and yet by Wednesday it was snowing.

Is spring here? Well it seems not quite yet.

This brings to mind a wonderful bit of wisdom from the American author and Unitarian Universalist minister Robert Fulgham, it is simply titled “Belum”

“Belum” by Robert Fulghum

"Americans, it is observed, prefer definite answers. Let your yea be yea and your nay be nay. Yes or no. No grays, please.

In Indonesia, there is a word in common use that nicely wires around the need for black and white. Belum is the word and it means ‘not quite yet.’ A lovely word implying continuing possibility. “Do you speak English?”

“Belum.” Not quite yet. “Do you have any children?” “Belum.” Do you know the meaning of life?” “Belum.”

It is considered both impolite and cynical to say, “No!” outright. This leads to some funny moments. “Is the house on fire?” “Belum.” Not quite yet.

It’s an attitude kin to that old vaudeville joke: “Do you play the violin?” “I don’t know, I never tried.”

Perhaps. Maybe. Possibly. Not yes or no, but squarely within the realm of what might be. Soft edges are welcome in this great bus ride of human adventure.

Is this the best of all possible worlds? Belum.

Is the world coming to an end? Belum.

Will we live happily ever after? Belum.

Have we learned to live without weapons of mass destruction? Belum.

In some ways, we don’t know. We’ve never tried. Is it hopeless to think that we might someday try? Belum. Not quite yet."

I love this piece of wisdom from Robert Fulghum on Belum, this concept of uncertainty, but a faithful uncertainty, that nothing is ever fully sealed, not yet at least. However hopeless things may feel at the present moment it does not mean that all is despair. Look around you, look into your own heart. There is love and goodness present both within you and in life. There are those around you that can bring inspiration to your being, who have the courage to say yes to life, that have hope lightening and inspiring their hearts. I witnessed this so many times these last few days. Is it spring? Belum, not quite yet. That said if we keep on heading in the right direction, it will soon be here, just not quite yet.

“In the spring time of the year, silver buds of hope appear.” They are appearing all around us. I was talking with Nick and Aled the other day as they were working away in the gardens of the chapel, as the flowers and buds were appearing. Aled said I think that the snow might hold off until tomorrow. We said, it’s in the south and might not reach here. Is it snowing? Belum, not quite yet. For within two hours it was snowing.

Is it spring yet? Belum, not quite yet.

It is coming, we are headed in the right direction. Our task, to keep on planting our own seeds, so that in the spring time of all our years, those silver buds of hope keep on appearing. This is our task, to plant the seeds of hope, and someday they will bear fruit. They may not come to fruit in our time, “belum, not quite yet.”

It is up to us. What are we going to do? Are we going to keep on planting the seeds in our hearts and souls right here right now in this near spring. You never know who you might be inspiring one cold Monday morning when they are struggling to get going.

t’s up to us right here right now. Hope is not something we passively dream of in the future, something beyond this life. It has to be born here right now, in our heart and souls or not at all.

I wish for you the courage to allow the seeds of Hope to form in your hearts and souls. Let’s not give up on our belief in love and life, well at least not quite yet, Belum.

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

 

“Resting in the Grace of the world: Bearing witness to the horror and finding the courage to do what you can”

“The Peace of Wild Things” by Wendell berry

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

This short piece constantly sings in my heart. It nudges me, it comes often when despair begins to grow in me again. Such feelings grow inside every single one of us at times, there is nothing more human, well unless you have become utterly detached from your heart. This poem is often shared back to me by others and whenever it does how it lifts my heart. Sue recently contacted me to tell me that a family had asked for it to be shared at a funeral service she was creating and leading. How it lifted my heart, just as I was feeling the pain of the loss of someone.

I have recently found my own place, where I find a similar peace to Wendell Berry. I often wander down to Stamford Park in Altrincham. I like to walk around but really I like to go and see my favourite duck. The mystery has been solved as to what type it is. It is a Rouen Duck. The only one of its kind in the pond. It is a lonely displaced one, perhaps a refugee. Now while I don’t lie down where he lies down, I do rest in the grace of the world whenever I go there and I feel free.

There is so much grief, suffering and anxiety around at this time. I was talking with a friend the other day who had spent hours staring at the news, at the horror in Ukraine, fixated on the suffering, feeling utterly powerless. I had awoken slowly myself last Sunday, caught up the suffering, both close at hand and in the wider world, despairing at inhumanity. I worked myself into the day slowly and did my job, I always do, trying to carry three groups of people through worship, whilst constantly being contacted about the suffering of many folk, particularly two dear friends. Two more souls died last week.

In the midst of the suffering, I found myself surrounded by so many folk, doing all they can, coming together in love, living by that spirit and resting in the grace of this world whilst finding freedom too. Not turning from life. They were bearing witness to the horror and fear and then finding the courage to do what they could. No, we cannot change the world, but we can do something, we do not have to sink into the utter despair and suffering. The key is the find what that something is; our duty is to find out what that is and to do it.

Last Sunday several folk seemed to go out of their way to tell me how much they appreciated the worship I had created and shared with them. They too had awoken with a sense of despair, they felt lost and confused and were suffering deeply despairing at the world, concerned for their loved ones and due to the horrors they had seen on their tv screens, a horror that has continued. I thanked them and I thanked God for this work. It certainly lifted me out of myself, gave me meaning in the very real suffering, there was no despair. I had an extra service on Sunday, in Dukinfield, I go there several times a year, I have been doing so for years and I love the folk. The last time I was there I had heard of a lovely woman who had given up on life, she had stopped eating. Well this time I learnt that she had died, as a member said, a victim of Covid, but who had not died from the virus. There have been many more and there will continue to be many more. I was talking to her lovely partner, they had both been widowed and had been together these last 15 years. It was beautiful to listen to him, although distressing, I felt deeply his pain and I understood it. I have felt this pain so many times, this deep grief, the loss of love, the sense of being unable to do something for someone you love so deeply, except bare witness as their life slipped away.

Monday, I felt even more tired than I normally do. I awoke and slowly moved into the day, I had begun it in my usual manner. On returning from the gym I noticed a couple of missed calls and a message on my phone. The number read private, and the message was from an obviously distressed woman, who I do not know, asking me to call her back. Sadly, I was unable to do so as her number was withheld. I wonder who this poor lost soul is. It was one of those days when I felt somewhat hopeless against the suffering in this world, both close at hand and in other lands too. There is so much suffering in this our shared world. The horrors in the Ukraine being just one terrible example.

I know that the answer is not to stare at the rolling news all day long, that will help no one. The answer is in find a way to rest in whatever grace we can find in the world, where we can find our solace and then to turn back to life and do what we can. I have been doing that all week; I have been doing that for many years. I have turned and I have kept on turning toward the world again and again. As I find that peace, that love, that strength to do what I can, with what I have.

No one can take away the suffering that is a part of life, but we do not have to fall into utter despair. We cannot do everything, but we can do something, it is our task, our duty, our purpose, our meaning, to do so.

I hope you can find yours and I hope that you can share it with others. I hope you can offer them some of the grace of this world, something that that they too can rest in and share it with the world.

We have entered the season of Lent. I hope you all enjoyed your pancakes on Tuesday. On what some still call Shrove Tuesday, or as many prefer to call it “Pancake Day”, or as I prefer to call it “Flat Yorkshire Pudding Day. How do you eat yours?

The following day “Ash Wednesday”, for Christians, marks the beginning of 40 days of fasting, reflection, penitence and self-sacrifice that lead up to Easter, the day of re-birth re-newal and new beginnings.

Lent is a time of reflection, a time of temptation, a time to observe and find answers. It’s a time of preparation. These forty days or so are meant to be a barren time, where we strip ourselves down of luxuries and distractions to give birth to new treasures that can be symbolically born again at Easter time. Not an easy time and a time to experience a sense of loneliness as we enter our inner wilderness time.

Lent is not just about giving up luxuries. It is also a time of reflection a time to go inward and search out answers to the troubles we face as individuals, but also as families, communities, nations and the world. It is a time for repentance and for re-building relationships with those we share this world with.

Lent shares this focus on repentance with many other religions. Such as Yom Kippur, the Jewish New Year. where prayer and fasting accompany acts of atonement. There are parallels with Ramadan in the Islamic tradition, a time for fasting and spiritual engagement as well as charitable works and act acts of atonement. Both have a key focus on putting right relationships with God and the people around us. You see similar rituals in both Hinduism and Buddhism too, where fasting atonement, forgiveness and reconciliation are key components.

You can see clearly two key components in all these traditions that is at the core of Lent. These being fasting, denying oneself of life’s luxuries and therefore connecting with those less fortunate and the other healing relationships with one another and with whatever we believe is at the core of all life. It is a time to go in, but with the intention of going out and bringing healing to our shared world.

Our world is suffering, both close at home and in other lands too. We have all continued to witness the horrors in the Ukraine. It is easy to just despair and to give up, or to become utterly fixated by the suffering that all we can do is stare at our screens, paralysed by the horror. This is of no use. We need to find our way to seek solace in this world, to go and find our own “peace of wild things” and then turn back to the world and do whatever it is that we can. We do not need to wait for Easter, or some hope to be born in the future to do this. We can begin now, we can find our meaning here and now, we can give birth to that love right here and now, no special date in the calendar is needed. We are responsible for our lives and our world. It is up to us. The time is now.

Lent is about attempting to practise love in life. It’s not about giving up luxuries, not really, it’s about giving of ourselves to life each and every day in whatever way we can. It’s about preparing for the new love that can be born again in our hearts and lives and for this we are all responsible. The time is now. And because I cannot do everything

Like Wendell Berry we all feel despair at the world at times. We all fear for our own lives, our loved ones and the lives of others. We all seek to come into the peace of something. We can find that peace. I know this to be true and when the peace comes, provided we do not close down or close in, hope can once again come to life and we can begin to bring healing not only in our lives, but in the lives of those around us stretching out to the wider reaches of this our shared world. We cannot avoid suffering, but we can give birth to meaning in that suffering in the way that we live our lives. We need not despair, we can live in hope, we can live in love.

We can live in love. We can do so in all that we feel, all that we think, all that we say and all that we do.

I’m going to end with following I saw posted on facebook the other day. It is by John Roedel

I can’t make the
world be peaceful
I can’t stall tanks
from roaring down roads
I can’t prevent children
from having to hide in bunkers
I can’t convince the news to
stop turning war into a video game
I can’t silence the sound of bombs
tearing neighborhoods apart
I can’t turn a guided missile
into a bouquet of flowers
I can’t make a warmonger
have an ounce of empathy
I can’t convince ambassadors
to quit playing truth or dare
I can’t deflect a sniper’s bullet
from turning a wife into a widow
I can’t stave off a country being
reduced to ash and rubble
I can’t do any of that
the only thing I can do
is love the next person I encounter
without any conditions or strings
to love my neighbor
so fearlessly that
it starts a ripple
that stretches from
one horizon to the next
I can’t force peace
on the world
but I can become a force
of peace in the world
because
sometimes all it takes
is a single lit candle
in the darkness
to start a movement
“Lord, make me a candle
of comfort in this world
let me burn with peace”

Below is a devotion based on

the material in this "blogspot"

 

The Golden Rule Plus 20%: Multiplying by subtraction

I was talking with a friend over the weekend. He is not a religious man although he told me he had given up certain food items for Lent. Now his primary motivation was to lose weight. Like most folk, including myself, he has gained quite a bit of weight this last year, this seems to be especially so during the second “lockdown”. It has been tough going staying physically healthy, food is often such a comfort. I have stepped back into good eating myself this last week. Not so much as a Lenten practice but for general well-being.

As I said at the beginning of Lent, I think we have probably given up enough this year and that perhaps instead of focusing on this at this time, that what we ought to be doing is focusing on what we can give instead.

Earlier that day I had come across a rather wonder “Meme” posted by Bill Darlison on Social media. It comes from the Marginal Mennonite group, a progressive religious organisation. The “Meme” read:

“I have something that I call my Golden Rule. It goes something like this. Do unto others 20% better than you would expect them to do unto you, to correct the subjective error”

I liked this quote by Linus Pauling, who twice won the Nobel prize for Chemistry, one of the greatest scientists of all time and who was a committed Unitarian Universalist. The quotation suggests that the golden rule, do unto others as you would have them do to you, no longer cuts the mustard, because subjective error is involved. And what is subjective error? Well, it is an error caused by bias or prejudice. No one can be truly objective and the problem with treating others as we would like to be treated is that it doesn’t fully take into account the perspective of the other. We do not put ourselves in their shoes, we cannot fully. So instead of treating them as well as we would like to be treated, what we ought to be doing instead is actually treating them better than we would want to be. By doing so we begin to raise one another up. Maybe by doing so we might all begin to treat one another better. And if we keep on adding to one another, we may just raise up our shared humanity and create a better more loving world. Yes, the golden rule is a great starting point and certainly an improvement on an eye for an eye, which itself was actually an improvement on unlimited revenge. All are steps in progression, but perhaps we could go further and I suspect that the twice Nobel prize winner for Chemistry Linus Pauley, may have the answer to raising up our shared humanity.

It is an idea that Viktor Frankl proposed in my favourite video clip which you can find on YouTube. In it he states “We have to be idealists, in a way, because then we wind up as the true, the real realists. And so you know who has said this? If we take man as he is, we make him worse, but if we take man as he should be, we make him capable of becoming what he can be. This was Goethe. He said this verbally. Now you will understand: this is the most apt maxim and motto for any psychotherapeutic activity. 

So if you don't recognize a young man's will to meaning, man's search for meaning, you make him worse: you make him dull, you make him frustrated. While if you presuppose in this man, there must a spark for meaning. Let's presuppose it and then you will elicit it from him, you will make him capable of becoming what he in principal is capable of becoming.” 

Here is the video clip

As many folk know Viktor Frankl is my favourite. I love the twinkle in his eye that is so evident in this clip, as well as his obvious humour. He takes what he does seriously without taking himself too seriously. In this wonderful little clip he makes an argument for the idealist in all of us, as he points to what we are all capable of being, if we could just tap into our God given human potential. 

As he says by definition the idealist always overestimates what is possible. Where as a realist will only estimate exactly what is possible and no more. In fact perhaps a realist will ever so slightly underestimate what is possible, just to be on the safe side. Just to ensure that they don’t over estimate things and aim too high. Just to avoid disappointment. 

Is this truly realistic though? 

Frankl suggests by aiming at a realistic level we always fall short of the mark. By taking a realistic view of people we are setting them up to fall way short of what they are capable of achieving. Where as if we aim high and become idealists about human nature we can lift people up to where they are capable of reaching and thus if they fall short of this mark, they fall to a "true" realistic level. For Frankl a true realist, must be an idealist. To achieve what we are capable of we must overestimate what is possible. To become our true selves we must be optimistic. To achieve what we are capable of achieving we must believe that we are capable of more than we actually think we are. And by giving out more than we think we are receiving we will receive back far more than we thought was possible. In so doing we will encourage others to do the same. 

I see clear parallels here with Linus Pauling’s Golden Rule plus. I will repeat his quotation:

“I have something that I call my Golden Rule. It goes something like this. Do unto others 20% better than you would expect them to do unto you, to correct the subjective error”

I love Linus Pauling’s uncommonsense, especially when I combine his wisdom with that of Frankl. In expecting more from people in giving more than we expect we take the risk of love, that is at the core of living faithfully and in so doing we pour out more love than we believe is available and thus love grows. This is the strange mathematics of giving, classic uncommon sense. By giving out more than we receive; by overestimating what is possible, we encourage others to do the same and thus they will give out more and thus we will receive even more that we give. Love will somehow become multiplied by subtraction. All we have to do is take the risk. 

If we want to know love, we need to give out love into this our world, we need to risk our hearts to that love. We need to be true realists by being idealists about ourselves and humanity and life itself. This is not to ignore the darker side of life, far from it. We need to acknowledge what is wrong with the world, without becoming weighed down by it. 

The Kin-dom of Love is truly within us and amongst us. It is our task to bring it alive through our lives. It is up to us to raise one another up, to aim as high as we can and become the people we never knew we were capable of becoming.

The great medieval heretical mystic Meister Eckhart said:

“God is not found in the soul by adding anything, but by a process of subtraction.”

Another example of this uncommonsense, that defies the perceived laws of nature as we understand it and yet it is true. How by giving away a particular commodity not only does the person receiving gain, but so does the giver and all who are caught up in this activity. You see if you give 20% more than you would like to be given to you, you will know more love than you ever thought was possible. In fact if you want to fill the cup of love, that you hold in your heart, the first thing you must do is empty it and pour it out all who you share this world with you. In so doing you will encourage others to give as much as their heart desires and 20% more and in so doing more is poured out for all to share and in so doing, we will begin to create that “kin-dom of Love” that we have all be seeking.

Over the next few months, we are going to be returning to some level of normality. I’m sure that we cannot wait to get to live the lives we used to, but is that enough? The world was not exactly perfect before. There was much wrong. Surely, we ought to be striving for more, for a better world. A world that begins to fulfill is potential.

Yes, the golden rule is a good starting point, but it is not enough, for as Frankl so wisely pointed out if we only aim at what we believe is possible we will fall short of this, whereas if we aim 20% higher, if we see one another as better than we actually think we are we might just reach what is possible, what is achievable. If we do, we will encourage one another to give more of ourselves and thus add more to the lives of everyone and everything. We will begin to multiply by subtraction. Maybe, just maybe this is what the “kin-dom of love” looks like.

So, let’s begin with the Golden Rule plus 20%; let’s begin to give more of our love and let us do so abundantly; let us take the risk of love; let us aim high and then it won’t matter if we fall short, because in so doing we will reach a realistic level. We will also encourage others to do the same and thus love will begin to grow. We will somehow multiply the love in the world by the miracle of subtraction. Now isn’t that amazing! In so doing we may just begin to create the “kin-dom of love” right here right now.

Let us begin to create what they tell us impossible. Let us build the land right here, right now.

Please find a recording based on this blog in the video below

Common Sense and the Common Good

I recently spent more time than is probably healthy watching the second impeachment of the former US president Donald Trump. Many of the prosecutors spoke powerfully, but one deeply. This was the lead prosecutor Rep Jamie Raskin. His closing remarks hit me in both the head and the heart, they stirred my soul. I was already aware of the personal tragedy that he and his family had recently struggled with. On the 5^th of January he had buried his son Thomas who had sadly taken his own life following a struggle with deep depression. Raskin persuaded several members of his family to attend the capitol building, to be together on January 6^th, they day of the attack that led to Trumps impeachment. Raskin seems to be a man of deep integrity with sense of duty and purpose. Quite remarkable really in this day and age, to stand up and do your duty, even though you and your loved ones were suffering the deepest kind of grief. Raskin though clearly has a sense of a higher purpose than just himself. Of course his grief was not only for the loss of his son, but also for what had happened to his country.

Throughout the trial Raskin invoked Thomas Paine, who his son Tommy was named in honour of. Paine authored the pamphlet “Common Sense”, in which he famously advocated for American independence in 1776. Raskin stated "Senators, America we need to exercise our common sense about what happened," He continued,  "Let's not get caught up in a lot of outlandish lawyers theories here. Exercise your common sense about what just took place in our country." Later he paraphrased Paine again, from another pamphlet called "The Crisis". "Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered, but we have this consolation: The more difficult the struggle, the more glorious in the end will be our victory." During the trial he said “I’m not going to lose my son at the end of 2020 and lose my country and my republic in 2021. It’s not going to happen.” He closed the prosecution case by updating some of Paine’s language, to be more gender inclusive stating  “These are the times that try men and women’s souls.” Raskin appealed to common sense throughout his addresses, urging the 100 hundred senators who were the jury to use theirs “Common Sense is also the sense we all have in common as a community…Exercise your common sense about what just took place in our country” when deciding whether to impeach former President Donald Trump.

Thomas Paine offered a common sense approach to religion, rejecting authority and creeds of any kind. That each is compelled to seek their own truth and that what mattered is how we live our lives as he stated  “I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavouring to make our fellow-creatures happy.”

Jamie Raskin and Thomas Paine got me thinking about “common sense” in general and how vital that is not only at this time, but all times. To repeat Raskin “Common Sense is also the sense we all have in common as a community.” Common sense is about seeing things as they actually are and doing what ought to be done, for the common good.

Generally speaking when we talk of “Common Sense” we speak of something innate within us that does not require specialised training. This is true, but it can go too far. We ought to not reject expert views on matters, just because we believe our guts tell us something else or because someone on the internet told us otherwise. This brings to mind an old word shared by Susie Dent from Countdown this week, “ultracrepidarian” a nineteenth century word meaning “a presumptuous critic; one who loves to give opinions on matters they know very little about.

We must trust all our human senses of course we should, including the sixth, what Carl Jung called our “Collective Unconscious”, that said we must never suspend our reason, our capacity to think and have the humility to listen to those who perhaps know more than we do. If recent times have proved anything it is that just because you have a YouTube channel it does not make you an expert. Neither does some ones passion mean they are correct. It brings to mind a cartoon I saw this week that said, “Let me interrupt your expertise with my confidence.”

There is nothing new in this appeal to “Common Sense”. Aristotle described it as the ability in animals, including humans, to process sense-perceptions, memories and imagination to reach judgements. He claimed only humans have true reasoned thinking which takes them beyond common sense. So he seemed to suggest that in and of itself common sense was not enough, we still need to reason.

Our modern understanding of “Common Sense” dates back to the enlightenment era. In French the saying is “Bon Sense” which means “Good Sense”. I suspect that Descartes thought that common sense was pretty uncommon, suggesting that all have access to it, but that it is rarely used well, he suggested that we ought to be skeptical of it. Needless to say common sense did seem to develop during this time, and it was Paine’s “Common Sense” that became the most influential document of its time, influencing the revolutions of both France and America.

“Common Sense” seems vital right now. There has been an urgent appeal to it these last 12 months as we have struggled to live through this pandemic. In an age when trust in “experts” has eroded people have struggled to know who they should trust. Sadly we are living in the age of the “ultracrepidarian”.

“Common Sense” is vital as we continue to roll out the vaccine. Many people are skeptical of the vaccine, they have their fears. I watched a interesting program on Panorama on this only this week. Vaccines: The Disinformation War It focused on a recent video that has been spread throughout the internet primarily targeting folk who have genuine concerns about the vaccines. It is quite effective. There are many forces who are spreading disinformation about the vaccine and it is feeding into people’s fear. Vulnerable people are being targeted and this is dangerous. It is key to listen to those who know what they are talking about and then use our common sense, a sense that is shared by all and yet at times can appear so uncommon. To quote Jamie Raskin again  “Common Sense is also the sense we all have in common as a community.” Remember that we are in this together folks.

I was very grateful last week that both myself and Sue were able to get our first dose of the Astra Zeneca vaccine, due to our work. I do hope that we will all be in this position soon and that we can begin to return to live the lives we would like, to return to a full common community.

The season of Lent has just begun. I trust that you enjoyed your pancakes on Tuesday, on what I like to call “Flat Yorkshire Pudding Day”. How do you eat yours? Do you prefer savoury or sweet? Being a good Yorkshire man I prefer mine with a thick onion gravy. I know that others think that this is utterly disgusting and makes no sense at all. Makes perfect sense to me, after all that a pancake is a flat “Yorkshire Pudding”.

People often give things up for Lent. I personally though prefer to think of what I can give towards the common good, it makes sense to me, rather than give things up. I suspect that we have all had to give up enough these last few months. So let us instead focus on what we can give to the common good, seems like common sense to me.

Matthew’s Gospel, Chapter 4 describes Jesus facing temptation from “The Devil”, now my common sense cannot believe in a literal being that embodies all that is wrong in the world. That said my commonsense has no problem believing that there are voices both within and without that can knock me from my path. It is so easy to be distracted and tempted down so many pathways in life. Which of the voices both within and without do we trust? How do we rely on our senses, so as to make the right decisions in life? It is not always easy or that simple. We live in an age where there is so much distrust. I have a questioning mind and I ask questions of everything. Sometimes I have to ask the common questions that apply to all, I can’t always do as David Whyte suggests ask my own questions and give up on other peoples question, there are at times that common questions matter to us all. There is a common good and there truly is common sense.  To quote Representative Raskin once again “Common Sense is also the sense we all have in common as a community.”

There is a great deal of power in fear and in anger it influences our reason and our decision making. Who and what do we trust? Some say that we should trust our gut. Should we whilst also ignoring our reasoning faculties? What if what our guts are saying is coming from fear? Sometimes your intuitive feeling is the correct thing, but not alone, sometimes it might be completely wrong. I have noticed an example of this in recent weeks. Actually, it has come to light during the weekly quiz. Sometimes the first thought, the instinctive thought, that seemingly comes from nowhere is correct. Answers that come from some strange hidden place, that you didn’t even know you knew. I am unaware of so much until I find myself in conversation with someone and then suddenly this knowledge is there that I was not even conscious of, the human mind is an incredible thing, a complete mystery to me. That said sometimes that intuitive thought has proved to be completely wrong.

Sue and myself have proved to be a good team at these weekly quizzes, but we could have done better if we had not only relied on our gut feelings but also our reason. We have talked ourselves out of the correct answer on several occasions. One example was last week. We were asked where Mozart was born, which city? Now I knew he was Austrian and so we said to ourselves Vienna, the obvious answer. I then began to doubt this initial feeling and kept on saying, "I don’t think that is right, for some reason I think he was born in Saltzburg." We did not trust this reasoning and stuck with our initial answer Vienna. Mozart of course was born in Saltzburg. It didn’t matter as we won the quiz that week. That said it was still frustrating.

So how do we find the common sense, which seems so un-common at times; how do we trust that sense that we all have in common? Maybe Jamie Raskin can be the example to follow. He stayed true to his moral compass, he followed the greater common good, despite living with intense personal grief. He is certainly an example to me in this time when such people are portrayed as folk who should not be trusted. We have lived through a difficult year, there is light at the end of the tunnel. There is a fresh hope, there is "Respair", if we remain sensible if we live with common sense, a sense that we all have in common a sense that considers the common good, the good of all. It is up to us, it is up to all of us.

For the Greater Good: Masada and the Wisdom of Chimpanzees

A friend of mine has been in a new relationship for a few months now. His girlfriend has moved north from the south of England and he, like me, is an outsider who has come to live in Cheshire. He is obviously spending time showing her the sights of Cheshire and Manchester. The other day they visited Chester Zoo, it sounds like they had a good time.

While we were chatting he told me about the different monkey enclosures, particularly a group of Chimpanzee’s. Now the name for a group of chimpanzee’s is a “congress”. My friend observed himself, the chimpanzee’s and the other people there that day and said it was like sitting in an AA meeting. He noticed a couple of elders who seemed to be getting on quite well. The zoo keeper spoke with him and said that the day before the two old timers were screaming at each other, but had made up today. She said that the reason that they do not carry their arguments into the next day is that they know that the congress needed them to put aside their differences for the greater good, that it could not function if they were at war with each other. So they put aside their personal wants and needs for the greater good.

Oh if only we humans could be that wise and see the wider view, give up our small little grievances and live for the greater good. Maybe that’s something to work towards this Lenten season. If we are going to make any personal sacrifice this year, maybe we should put aside our personal grievances and move towards building a human “congress” for the greater good of all.

We seem to be living in ever dividing and divided times, this is something that troubles me deeply. Violence also appears to be on the increase, both here and in other lands. I was deeply shocked by the death, by stabbing, of the young man in Hale Barns last Saturday. Apparently, it was due to a turf war. Knife crime is something that young people have to face increasingly. Not that violence, or the glorifying of it, is anything new, sadly it has always been with us. Thank god that we do not have a gun culture in this land and our young people do not have to face what the school children in the USA have to. Surely of all the freedoms we cherish, the one not to be killed trumps all others.

As I look back at my time in Israel – Palestine I think one of the saddest sights I saw was that of teenagers in army uniform with machine guns. Yes our young people have their troubles but compared to many in other lands it is not on the same scale.

I see no glory in violence and yet so many of our "heroes" have lived by it. During the last century society seems to particularly glorified gangster culture, from Al Capone, to “The Krays”, “The Godfather”, “Scarface” and or in recent times “Peaky-Blinders”. Is there really glory in violence towards others, just to get your own way or protect your “patch”.

I would much rather hold up those who promote none violence. What was it Jesus said on “The Sermon on the Mount” “Blessed are the Peace-makers, for they shall be called children of God”. Aren’t we all children of God? Aren’t we all from the one tribe of life? If only we could be as wise as that congress of Chimpanzees at Chester Zoo and put aside our personal squabbles for the greater good.

Glorifying violence is not a new thing by the way. I remember as a child I loved films like “The Alamo”, “Khartoum”, “55 Days in Peking” and the mini series “Masada”. Now I lacked the understanding of what these historical events were really about, instead I got caught up in the pomp and ceremony like most young boys. So I do get what these young people experience, although I was never violent myself as a boy and teenager. Committing violence has always felt deeply unnatural to me, I thank God for that.

“Masada” and the heroic defense and sacrifice that its mythos has portrayed is one story that has stayed with me over the years, which is why I so wanted to visit it during my recent trip to Israel - Palestine. We set off very early one morning and drove their and began the long walk as they day awakened. We had planned to get there for sunrise but didn’t quite make it. It was long walk to the summit, it really took it out on the calves. Something I noticed all week, I am too use to the flatlands of Cheshire. We reached the top and took in the ruins and attempted to empathise with those brave souls who had fought off the Roman legions for so long, until they chose to sacrifice themselves instead of being captured.

Masada is said to have fallen on 16th April 63CE. Its "mythos has risen to enormous symbolic importance in Jewish history, particularly since the Holocaust and the creation of the state of Israel. The story did not have the same importance in early Jewish history as it was considered controversial due to the nature of its mass suicide, forbidden in Jewish law. The story survived because of its recording by the historian Josepheus.

The inhabitants of Masada, from the rebellious Zealot sect known as the Sicarli held out the Romans for months but in the end facing starvation and or capture into slavery they chose mass suicide. Lots were drawn and ten took the lives of the other 950 and one took the lives of the other nine, before taking his own life. It is said that when the Romans finally found them they were deeply disturbed by what they saw. It was a strange feeling walking round the ruins and soaking up the history and atmosphere.

As we travelled down from the summit of Masada, this time in the cable car, I thought of another example of self-sacrifice for the greater good that I had visited last summer with Sue. This was the village of Eyam in Derbyshire, just three miles from Great Hucklow. Another powerful story I remember from my childhood. Eyam is known as the “plague village”. It was the village that basically quarantined itself during the plague of the seventeenth century. It cut itself off from all the surrounding villages so as not the spread the plague that had arrived on cloth from London. Of the 350 village inhabitants only 83 survived. Incredibly one of the survivors was the grave digger. This is a powerful example of self sacrifice for the greater good. That said it is not one that is glorified in the same way as Masada and I did not buy a hat saying “Eyam” on it when I visited, as I did at Masada.

Sacrifice is heralded as one of the great human qualities and it is certainly the theme of Lent, that we have now entered. That said sacrifice can at times lead to all kinds of destruction and is not always for the greater good at all.

One story that has become central to the three monotheistic traditions is that of Abraham and Isaac. It is found at the beginning of the Bible in Genesis, when it is thought that God is working out his relationship with man. It is a story that makes little sense in any literal way for we who live in the 21st century. And yet there are universal themes if we pay close attention. It portrays moments of truth, something we all face and unavoidable decisions that must be made within these moments. There are lessons about paying attention and not being too focused on your perceived mission. There are lessons about the dangers of sacrificing others for your perceived view of what is right. Ultimately I discover a lesson about the sanctity of all human life, but maybe that is just my eyes.

It is a story about sacrifice in a religious sense, as it is about Abraham’s willingness to give up his son to prove his fealty to God. Sacrifice is generally seen as act of giving up something of great value for something considered to be of greater, perhaps of ultimate value. Sacrifice I suppose is about giving up something personal for a greater good. What is so horrific about the Abraham and Isaac story is that he is willing to give up his son to prove his obedience to God. Now of course in the end he does not, God intervenes and he passes the test. What a cruel test and yet it is a story and test that is central to all three of the great Abrahamic faiths “Judaism, Christianity and Islam.”

How many from all three traditions have being willing to sacrifice others for what they see as obedience to what they understand is God’s will? By the way such action is not limited to monotheism or even religion. How many people have been willing to sacrifice others for what they see as the greater good? The last century is littered with such examples.

This brings to mind a story I was recently told. “A warrior stands before three seated men, a king, a high priest and a rich man. The king says, “I command you to kill these other two men for the good of the realm.” The high priest says, “I command you to kill these other two men in the name of God.” The rich man with bags of gold at his feet says, “I command you to kill these other two men and I will give you all this gold if you do it.”

Which one did he choose?

Well it depends on the warrior. Could he walk away and obey none? Maybe instead he listened to the beat of his own heart and for once refused the command for violence. Abraham did not take his sons life. Instead he was awake enough to hear that voice that I believe never stops speaking if we could just listen to it. Sadly too often we are closed off to empathy for one another and somehow justify violence for one reason or another, or sometimes none at all.

I believe that at the heart of The Unitarian tradition is the principle that we do not follow anyone or anything blindly, to test what we are told and make wise decisions, not only for ourselves but also for the greater good. Our tradition teaches the importance of listening to the heart but also to discern what is the compassionate thing to do.

There is a form of sacrifice to which I believe we ought to be adhering, that is to live beyond our narrow selves and do only what enhances life and to think of creating a human congress, like those chimpanzees.

So let’s look for the great examples all around us and attempt to live our lives by them. Those from the past and those from the present. Let’s not glorify violence in any form, lets instead hold up as the great example those whose work was doing good, not merely for themselves, but for the good of all.