From Nothing to Everything, from Despair to Hope: What Makes You Want To Sing Alleluia

Happy Easter

Easter begins in emptiness and despair. In the example from Mark, the three women go to the tomb and find it empty. They are told Jesus has been raised and to go tell the disciples. They flee in amazement and terror, they tremble in awe. They are in utter despair. The despair soon turns to hope, a new hope, a fresh hope, respair. This is the message at the heart of Easter. This is what folk sing praises to. That new hope can be born again, even in the bleakest of despair. That said it is up to us to bring that hope to life.

I woke up exhausted on Tuesday morning. I spent some time with friends I sit in meditation with regularly. We shared together and I began to feel a little revived. I was tired after the annual meetings and looked ahead at the things I have to do in the next 10 days. I wondered how am going to find the strength to come through all this. I had a few personal troubles too. The loss of one of my oldest friends and another friend who was really struggling. I began to work on the tasks of the week. Another friend called who is also grieving, part of me didn’t want to take the call, but I did. He began to off-load and share his struggles and then asked me about my stuff. For once I told him. It was interesting what came out, including my struggles to uncover what to explore this Easter. As we spoke clarity came, as did human connection. There was something beautiful in the connection. I shared about a hilarious conversation I had with some young new and student ministers I had been engaged with at the annual meetings. We moved onto conversations about the difficulties one can face in expressing ourselves. A little later I went out again on a pastoral call. Interestingly in this conversation I spoke much more about myself than I would normally. The person I visited wanted to know things about me, and asked directly. Again, it was a lovely conversation. We both shared about our lives. Those dark moments, those times of renewal and re-birth, of discovering new things, of coming out of the empty cave of unknowing, to be born into new light and life once again.

I returned home and got down to trying to write this sermon, I had made a start when there was a knock at the door. It was the man who had come to read the chapel gas meters. Molly and me let him in the cellar. As he stepped out of the darkness of the cellar he began to ask me questions about the chapel and Easter. He then began to tell me about himself and his own beliefs. He called himself a cafeteria Catholic. He told me about his heritage and what he thought about resurrection and Easter. He preached me a wonderful Universalist Easter sermon. I invited him to take the service this Sunday, but he didn’t turn up. I left and smiled and then returned to writing the sermon. I thought about all three conversations and I sang songs of Hallelujah. I sang a song of praise for that spirit that moves through us as I stood in the chapel gardens surrounded by the pink cherry blossom, that had already fallen.

I then began to think about Easter. How do I speak about Easter? What do I think of Easter? What does Easter mean to me? Well as with everything you should start at the beginning. Easter begins in grief, in emptiness. Something I was actually experiencing as I sat down to write. Something that had been on backburner these last few days, as I had been caught up in my work, and been away with many folk at our annual meetings.

There is something deeply universal about Easter. There is something in its spirit that can speak to all people in every culture at every time and in every place. It points to those moments in all our lives when something deeper within us comes to life, or perhaps it comes back to life. If we truly enter into what is at the core of Easter, its spirit, it can bring us to a deeper understanding of life right here, right now, in our world. I thought of this as I looked at the life so alive in the chapel gardens, as well as those many conversations I had had with folk, folk in grief and suffering, who are coming back to life. All examples of Love born again from that empty tomb.

I thought about what Tony (The gas man) had spoken of, about resurrection and what he believes lives on. It is possible to celebrate Easter without having to believe in the actual resurrection of the body of Jesus, which is of course the traditional Christian view. The early followers of Jesus believed a variety of things. You can believe in Easter without having to accept the uniqueness of Jesus’ resurrection. You see there is something deeply universal in the spirit of Easter that has the capacity to awaken everyone’s spirit regardless of whether or not they believe every aspect of the Gospel accounts.

Easter can also be understood as the festival of the renewal of life that comes at springtime; Easter can be seen as the resurrection of the earth after the seeming death of winter. These last few weeks you surely have felt powerfully this deep sense of the renewal of life. The other evening I could both feel and smell this powerfully in the air. There is a real electricity in the air at springtime. Now of course the renewal of the seasons is recognised in the pre-Christian roots of our Easter celebrations. According to the Venerable Beed the word Easter is after all derived from “Eostre” the Anglo-Saxon Goddess of spring; the goddess of fertility and renewal.

The Easter “mythos” can also be seen as the triumph of the human spirit, over all that would crush it, even death itself. This triumph also has pre-Christian roots, such as the Jewish “Passover” which of course Jesus and his disciples were commemorating on what has become known as Maundy Thursday. In Latin speaking countries Easter is known as “Pascha” or similar words that are derived directly from “Pesach”. Easter isn’t even called Easter in many parts of the world. The root of Easter lies in the Jewish festival of Passover. Remember that Jesus was a Jewish Rabbi who wanted to bring the religion back to the people. In the eyes of those who followed him, he was the Messiah. This is why they cried Hossanah as he entered the city at the beginning of the week. Last Sunday was Passover.

Jesus’ resurrection is a powerful example of love overcoming death; a perfect example of the spirit of love living on even after physical death. I think it is impossible to argue that the spirit that was in Jesus did not live on after his bodily death. The spirit of love that incarnated in his life has survived all that we have done to it these last 2,000 years as we have remembered him, rather badly.

All love lives on, again something Tony (the gas ma) spoke passionately about. All we have to do to bring it once again to life is remember those who have touched our hearts and souls. What has been bound into one another’s hearts cannot be unbound. Love is stronger than death. This for me, above everything else, is the universal “mythos” that is at the root of Easter. A festival for everyone.

I awoke on Wednesday morning in a new spirit. I had to go into Manchester first thing, as I had to sign something legal, for a dear friend who is herself grieving the loss of her beloved dog. I saw things differently as I headed out. I enjoyed the pink snow covering the gardens. My eyes felt raised up once again, I saw new vision, new hope, not expectation or optimism, but new hope, fresh hope, “Respair”. I realised that my eyes had been a bit down recently. I knew it was grief, a grief I had not been fully aware of up to then. As I travelled home on the tram, a lovely poem “Vision” by May Thielgaard Watts, came to me.

"Vision" by May Thielgaard Watts

To-day there have been lovely things
I never saw before;
Sunlight through a jar of marmalade;
A blue gate;
A rainbow
In soapsuds on dishwater;
Candlelight on butter;
The crinkled smile of a little girl
Who had new shoes with tassels;
A chickadee on a thorn-apple;
Empurpled mud under a willow,
Where white geese slept;
White ruffled curtains sifting moonlight
On the scrubbed kitchen floor;
The under side of a white-oak leaf;
Ruts in the road at sunset;
An egg yolk in a blue bowl.

My love kissed my eyes last night.

Isn't it lovely. Now the ears of my ears are awake. Now the eyes of my eyes are open.

When we live in heart, in courage, in love, we can see these signs of hope everywhere. It comes in the little things.

All we have to do is keep our senses open, in order to see these things. It begins with our hearts and souls.

Today is Easter, let us rejoice and be glad; let us celebrate the joy that is this day whatever it may mean to us. For no matter the conditions of our lives, the state of our hearts. The lives of those dear to us and the struggles in this our shared world, the spirit of Easter can be born again and anew, in our hearts and lives. Life continues. Spring is here, the new life cannot be denied. Easter is here, let us rejoice and sing Hallelujah!!!

And what is Easter? Well it is different, perhaps unique for each and every one of us. What makes you want to rise up and sing Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah?

What is your song, the one that makes you want to feel like you belong. I was lovingly listening to the new bird song on Wednesday, it made me want to sing hallelujah.

I believe that each of us have a song in our hearts, that will bring us hope when hope is hard to find. We need to find a way to learn it, sing it and share it and thus help one another through those dark times, to times of love and joy, so we can enjoy the milk and honey. So that we can bring the spirit of Easter alive in us and through us.

For we all experience alleluia moments, isn’t this the heart of Easter; We all have alleluias in our lives, those moments of triumph and wonder, of insight and rebirth; we all have alleluia’s, those moments of transformation, when our way of being in the world is fundamentally changed; alleluia moments when we are strengthened and life is deepened; alleluia moments when we feel more connected, more whole; we all have moments when we want to sing alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.

That said there cannot be Easter without Good Friday. Hope is born from Despair. Easter begins with an empty tomb and fear. It is often the same with all life, this is the universal message of Easter. Sometimes our most profound transformations emerge out of the loss we face in life. This may be the empty hole left by grief, at the loss of a beloved, something so many are facing. Or it may be one of those thousands of lesser losses we experience in life. All forms of grief are barren, empty places. They can feel utterly God-forsaken, where all hope is gone, that leave us in sorrow and suffering not singing songs of alleluia, but instead singing song of lamentation.

This though is not the end. Feeling forsaken is not the same as being forsaken. The message of Easter is that love triumphs over death. That new life is born again, like those spring buds of hope, or the poppy born out of the battlefields of the First World War. Hope is born once again from the despair, just as life continues on into this awakening Spring. The Cherry blossom has been and almost gone, but it will return once again.

The Universal message of Easter is the power of love coming back to life, transforming in new and wonderful ways. It can happen at any time in our lives. Easter implores us to live, to allow the renewal and resurrection of our souls, to risk living life alive, fully alive, to love abundantly. To risk our hearts in love. To take the seeds that are planted in us, water and nurture them until they blossom and can be handed to another. To take the gift of blossoms and warm them with the sunshine of our souls and the rain of our energy, until they bring forth fruit.

Easter begins with an empty tomb, but that ending is just another beginning. Life continues on, in fact new life is born again in the emptiness and the loneliness and the despair.

So let us roll our own stones away and let love once again incarnate in our lives...In all that we feel, all that we think, all that we say and all that we do...

Happy Easter, Alleluia, Alleluia.

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

It’s How You See Things: Perception and Perspective

They say that perception is everything. It matters how we look at things, how we see the world, it creates our perspective. It also matters how the world sees us. I care a lot about what people think of me, I care a lot.

There was an amusing moment at the last "Singing Meditation". An attender mentioned that when a friend of theirs met me they were surprised by my attire as they thought I would be in robes and sandals. They obviously had an image of a holy man; I am just a man no more or less holy than anyone else. They had formed this view from reading the services I publish and distribute; her friend passes them on to her. Another woman who was attending for the first time said that she thought I would be in robes and a dog collar. She said that this is the image of me in my Watts App profile picture. This puzzled me and so I found my profile picture and showed it to her. I then said I had never worn a collar and or robes since being in the job. Somehow in her mind this is what she had seen in the picture. I find this fascinating. I did say that the picture is taken in a holy place, it is underground beneath "The Western Wall" in Jerusalem. I am dressed casually though in jeans, t-shirt and a hooded top. Isn’t it interesting what we see or believe we see, our perception and how it often does not resemble reality; isn’t it fascinating how what we see is often what we expect to see and not reality at all? The conversation at the recent “Singing Meditation” being a classic example of this.

Here is the profile picture in question.

 

At a recent ministry retreat I attended, ministerial attire was discussed on several occasions. One of our number had written her dissertation on the subject. It is interesting what different colleagues choose to wear, some formal and traditional and others more casual and informal. I prefer to be as informal as possible. I want people to find me approachable, so I wear nothing that would be considered traditional ministerial attire. For people to perceive me as approachable, is very important to me. I cannot imagine ever wearing a clerical collar or robes. Most Unitarian colleagues these days wear a “stole”. Again, I do not. In fact I may be the only colleague I know who never has. Again, I feel that they give a priestly impression and would somehow separate me from those I serve. I am a minister of religion. To minister is to serve, but it in no ways separates me from others.

Having said all that people do still form opinions of you, whether they have met in person or not. Perception truly is everything. It matters how we see the world and it matters equally how the world sees you. I hope that I am the kind of person that people feel is approachable and who encourages others to journey on spiritually together. For me this is what it means to serve as a minister in a free religious tradition.

I would be interested to hear your views on such things. I know some folk think a suit and tie is appropriate and for some time I dressed this way. I never felt comfortable like this though, as I felt like a used car salesman. No doubt the conversation will continue. I suspect I will never find anything that feels just right. What matters the most though is that whatever I wear is not a barrier to anyone. To minister means to serve. I serve this community in many different ways, it is important to me to understand this. I hope that I am perceived this way.

“Perceive” is an interesting word. It shares the same Latin root as the word “receive”. The both come from “percipere” which meant “to understand”, from “per” meaning “entirely” and “capere” meaning “to take”. So to “perceive” something means to take things in entirely, completely, in a way that covers us with understanding. So yes it is interesting how we perceive things, how we take things in. I wonder already how you are perceiving this devotion.

It matters how we perceive how we take in life. Do we do so directly? Do we experience things as they are or do they come to us through all kinds of filters? We all have our biases and prejudices about all kinds of people and experiences. Do we ever really see things as they ever actually are. Do we ever look at the world with fresh eyes? With open eyes? I am sure we all have our own examples of not seeing reality as it actually is, just like the woman who was convinced she had seen me dressed in robes and a collar. She had created an image that simply does not exist in reality.

The physicist David Bohm asserted that: “What we take to be true is what we believe. What we believe is based upon our perceptions. What we perceive depends on what we look for. What we look for depends on what we think. What we think depends on what we perceive. What we perceive determines what we believe. What we believe determines what we take to be true. What we take to be true is our reality.”

Reality can be very different for each of us. It matters how we see the world and how the world sees us. It is the same with what happens to us, our perspective and how we respond to what happens to us and the life in which we live and breath and share our being. This brings to mind my favourite story, I have told before, from the Zen tradition.

“Let’s Wait and See”

The story goes that an old farmer is working hard in the fields. He has a wife and a son, and ekes out a meagre living. One day, his only horse runs away. Upon hearing this, his neighbours comment "Oh, how awful! That is terrible!" to this the farmer replied:

"Maybe, maybe not."

A few days later, the farmer's horse returns and with it is another, exotic horse from far away. The horse is a mare, and is of rare value. The neighbours, upon hearing this, exclaim "How wonderful! It's fantastic that your horse returned and brought another horse with it!". The farmer shrugged and said:

"Maybe, maybe not."

The farmer's horses gave him many young, prized colts making the farmer very wealthy in the town. The neighbours were very happy for the farmer saying; "This is so fantastic! Your new horses have brought you much fortune!" The farmer responded:

"Maybe, maybe not."

The farmer's son, now a young man, tried to tame one of the young colts and was thrown from the horse, breaking his hip. This left the son unable to walk. The neighbours came to help and tried to console the farmer saying; "Oh, how awful! Your only son will never walk again!". The farmer, who was not upset, simply said:

"Maybe, maybe not."

Later that year, the farmer's country went to war, and the army came by to conscript every able bodied man for duty. The farmer was too old to be taken, and his son could not walk, therefore he was excused. The army simply took the farmer's horses, leaving him just his original horse to allow him to keep farming.

Was the farmer's life good? Maybe. Was the farmer's life bad? Maybe not.

Good luck and bad luck are two sides of the same coin...it really depends on the perspective that we choose to view in any given situation.

How we perceive ourselves and how we perceive life matters, it shapes our perspective, how we view the world. Perspective shapes the contours of our lives. Our lives are not shaped only by our circumstances but how we respond to them. Do they close down our hearts, minds and souls or do they open us to new possibilities? |If you are anything like me, it will be mixed. We all go through dark times, when how we see life is not so beautiful and we all go through times when how we perceive life is both beautiful and refreshing. Our perception of life really matters. For as Jesus said in Luke 11 “Your eye is the lamp of your body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light; but if it is not healthy, your body is full of darkness.”

Perception is vital. It matters how we see the world and how the world sees us. It matters what we believe about ourselves and life. I believe that we are created in the Divine image, that there is that of God in each and everyone of us. I believe in the “inherent worth and dignity of every person.” It is important that is what people perceive when they see me as a Unitarian minister. I believe in original blessing and that it is our task to bring this blessing alive through our human being. Our vulnerable and sometimes broken human being. That we all have feet of clay, that we are perfectly imperfect, that it is ok to stumble and struggle at times. I trust this is obvious to you. We all have feet of clay, we are all more human than otherwise. That said this does not mean that we are wrong that we are fundamentally flawed, that there is something wrong at the core of us.

Perspective is so very important. It matters how we see things and how we are seen. It is important to see things as they are and to be seen as we are. It matters what we perceive and how we are perceived. Perception shapes how the world looks at us and equally perspective shapes how we look at the word. How we look at others is so important. We can look on people with compassion, or we can give them a “hard look”. Think about it when someone gives us a “hard look”, what do we do? Well often we turn away in fear, or respond in anger or aggression. What if someone looks at us with compassion, how do we respond to this? Well usually we look back with compassion. Well we do unless we have fallen so far down into that pit of nihilistic despair that we respond to love with utter hatred. I’m sure most folk have been there at some point. I know that I have. So it matters how we view our own humanity and how we view the humanity of each other.

How we act towards others really matters too. But it’s not just about doing what is right; it’s also about the spirit in which each task is conducted. We can appear to be encouraging and loving and doing the right thing, but our eyes may well say otherwise. Think about a smile. We think we smile with our mouths, but we do not, we smile with our eyes. When I smile my eyes almost slant shut. Whatever we do and however we do something our eyes will reveal the truth of our hearts and people will intuitively pick up on this. They will see it into our eyes.

How we see the world matters and how respond perhaps even more so. Life truly is in the “eye of the beholder”, it is about perception. How we see one another is vital, it is all about perspective. Try not to look so hard today and you never known those eyes looking back at you might just be stretched by a smile.

Please find below a devotion based

on the material in this "blogspot"

Epiphany: The Magi Were True Spiritual Seekers

Where shall I look for Enlightenment?”  by Joan Chittister

“Where shall I look for Enlightenment?” the disciple asked.

“Here,” the elder said.    

“When will it happen?” the disciple asked.

“It is happening right now,” the elder answered.

“Then why don’t I experience it?” the disciple persisted.

“Because you do not look,” the elder said.

“But what should I look for?” the disciple continued.

“Nothing.  Just look,” the elder said.

“But at what?” the disciple asked again.

“At anything your eyes alight upon,” the elder answered.

“But must I look in a special kind of way?” the disciple went on.

“No.  The ordinary way will do,” the elder said.

“But don’t I always look the ordinary way?” the disciple said.

“No, you don’t,” the elder said.

“But why ever not?” the disciple asked.

“Because to look you must be here.  You’re mostly somewhere else,” the elder said.

“

Today is the 12^th Day of Christmas, you all know the song. So if you haven’t already you had better take your decorations down. Today signals the end of Christmas. Today, at least in the western church, is the feast day of “Epiphany”.

The word Epiphany comes from the Greek meaning “to appear” or “to be made manifest”. In the western church Epiphany signifies the day that Jesus was shown to be the divine Christ; the day that divinity was revealed to the three wise men as they had completed their journey following that wondrous star; a journey which had taken 12 days, as they had travelled afar, or so the ancient story says.

Now the Eastern Orthodox Church takes a different view. They celebrate “Theophany” on the January 19^th. It is regarded as the day that Jesus was Baptized in the river Jordon by John the Baptist and proclaimed as the Son of God. Epiphany is marked in diverse ways in different cultures. In Spain and the countries of Latin America children leave hay in their shoes over night in the hope that the wise men will leave sweets and presents for them. In France each family bakes a cake with a coin in it and whoever finds the coin in their piece is made king or queen for the day, rather like our like our own tradition of the Christmas pudding. There are many other traditions throughout the world. We live in such a rich and wonder filled world.

Now of course Epiphany has taken on a more universal meaning in more recent centuries. Today when someone proclaims that they have had an epiphany they are usually claiming that they have experienced a sudden awakening to a new truth. These sudden awakenings generally do not occur in special settings. In fact what is usually significant is that they occur in a seemingly ordinary way. Like the Christ child in a lowly stable.

During my time as a minister I’ve had many myself. I have had several early in the morning as I walked out my front door and heard bird songs. Those little birds speak a language that I now understand. Several have occurred as I have travelled in my car, watching the world from my window, often as I past through the mist between Carrington and Flixton. I have experienced several spots of time moments when a new deeper truth has suddenly come to me. It comes in the ordinary things, in the unexpected things and when it comes it is beautiful. I know that many others have had similar experiences too. I know this because they have shared them with me. This is one of the many gifts of ministry. People come to and ask you questions about experiences that they have had, that they cannot make sense of and are nervous to talk about. I think to some degree we are all afraid of ridicule. I have had several of these conversations in the last few days. What a wonderful gift. Thank you!

Now while most folk have not have been Baptised in the river Jordan or been visited by three kings from the orient we have had our own personal epiphanies, those magic moments, those inexplicable spots of time that changed us forever; moments that are so vivid, that they stay with us and can be instantly recalled whenever we begin to talk of them. Why do we so rarely talk of them?

There is so much in the story of the Magi’s journey. Personally I am not interested in debates about its factual accuracy; I will leave that to the historians, the scientists and the Biblical literalists. I am more interested in the mythos, the universal truth that speaks beyond the story. You see I believe that the journey has so much to teach we who live in the 21^st century, actually perhaps it speaks to our times more than at any other moment in the last 2,000 years. I believe that the impulse that was present in the Magi is also present within us all. Those three figures were after all true spiritual seekers. Isn’t this why they were following that wonderous star? While they were committed to their own Zoroastrian tradition the star drew them beyond these truths and they passed over the Rubicon of their day and stepped into another tradition in search of answers. They travelled from afar to Judea; they came from Persia seeking to expand upon their spiritual awareness and understanding. The Magi experienced divine revelation and yet they were pagan’s they were not from the elite, the elect, the chosen people. This story tells me that the revelation is open to all, that we can all gain access to this truth if we seek it, if we are open to it. This is why we experience those epiphanies those moments when life, the universe, when God speaks to us and life is never quite the same again. Those extraordinary moments that occur in the ordinariness of life.

The story of the Magi has something to teach about the purpose of religious community too, certainly for a free religious tradition like the Unitarians. Such communities are a place for the seekers, the travellers, to come and journey together toward new light, new truth. There are many people out there seeking a spiritual home, a place where they can journey with others without being constrained by beliefs and dogmas. Those who claim to be spiritual, but not religious, well guess what they need community too. I believe that those people can find a home with we Unitarians, it is our role to let them know that we exist and that they are welcome in our communities. This 2013 I am making it my mission to connect to those seekers and to welcome to the communities I serve. I am inviting the congregations to join with me on this journey; I am inviting them to be inspired by the Magi and find a way to invite all those other seekers out there to join them. I know that congregations need them as they have so much to teach us. We just need to discover a way to journey together; we need to find a way to invite them in.

There is something else about the Magi that we spiritual seekers can learn from, something that sets them apart from the other characters in the Natvity story. They are the archetypes for the spiritual seeker within all of us. Remember that they were moved by a rising star. Were they told to go to Bethlehem? No they “saw” the star with their own eyes and had vision enough to be moved by it.

They say that seeing is believing. Well we live in a visual culture. Think about how we communicate truth to one another. When someone tries to explain something to us and we try to show that we understand do we say “I hear you”? No we usually answer “I see”. When going visiting do we say “I am going to hear, or smell, or touch, or taste my family? No we say we are going to see our family. When we hear a strange noise outside what do we say? We say we are going to see what has happened. Of all our senses we tend to trust our eyes the most. Hearing of something is not enough; we have to see it with our own eyes. This is what inspired the Magi. The star drew them out of the confines of their own understanding to witness something remarkable with their own eyes.

There are moments in all of our lives when something we see sends shock waves of understanding in and through us; moments that lift us way beyond normality. These are Epiphanies, moments when something we see transforms our lives with freshness and gives us a new found perspective.

Remember that the Magi observed a sacred vision that transformed them. They witnessed a star and it was this that compelled them to begin their journey. It was not just that they saw the star it was that they had vision enough to be moved by it. What is it that has inspired you on your journeys? Perhaps you who read this could think about that and begin to share it with those who you share community with.

For the Magi this star in the sky was an opening to something new, something beyond their current understanding. The Magi looked and they saw and drew them to Bethlehem. Most of us will experience these openings, these peepholes at some time or another and they will allow us to see beyond our current understanding. Let us hope that we have vision enough to respond to them.

Life speaks to us all the time, all we need is vision enough to respond to it. We do not need to search madly for enlightenment. All that is required is that we pay attention to our lives and the world all around us and to not be afraid to talk about those moments when they do occur. This to me is the purpose of free religious communities. They are places for the Magi in all of us; a place for those who wish to seek beyond their current understanding and to share that with others who also wish to seek beyond theirs.

So I say to you are reading this let us all journey afar, let us follow that wondrous star, but let’s do it together.