.Prelude Melodia Africana I by Ludovico Einaudi
Opening Words by Julie Nedin
We gather together in search of the divine spirit and look for the light in each other and in ourselves.
We hope that every step we take on this earth will be lit with love for our planet, and that we will deal compassionately with all those we meet along the way.
We seek the path to a life of truth, wisdom and right living. It’s there in the known and in the unfamiliar faces and places of daily existence, in the daily challenges and demands of life. We sometimes need help to recognize it.
We will not always make the right decisions.
We look for ways of living the best way we can, giving and receiving support from fellow pilgrims.
We seek refreshment of our souls in community.
May we find transforming love in our daily lives.
Chalice Lighting (you may wish to light a candle in your own home at this point). Words by Laura Dobson
As Unitarians we are people seeking
Truth, meaning, love and deep connection.
As we seek to discern our path,
May we follow the guidance of our hearts,
May our hearts be open to unexpected truths.
May our chalice flame remind us
To welcome all the truth of our lives
To welcome each other
Into the beloved community
Of love and compassion.
Opening Prayer
Spirit of Life and Love,
be with us as we gather for worship,
each in our own place.
Help us to feel a sense of community,
even though we are physically apart.
Help us to care for each other,
in this world in which the clouds
of war, poverty, and climate change hover,
and help us to make a difference,
starting where we are, with what we have.
May we keep in touch however we can,
and help each other, however we may.
May we be grateful for the freedoms we have
and respect the wishes of others.
May we hold in our hearts all those
who are grieving, lost, alone,
victims of violence and war,
suffering in any way,
Amen
Reading Conscious Choices Thought for Today 28th July 2024
Everything in our lives is chosen either consciously or unconsciously. All your choices yesterday, last year, ten years ago, have resulted in where you are today, what you do today, what you have around you today. This is hard for many people to swallow. They prefer to see life as fateful, or luckful, and therefore avoid responsibility for their own destiny.
There are many random, uncontrollable and unpredictable events, but our destiny is not defined by these events – it is defined by how we respond to them. And our responsibility – ability to respond – is always in our own hands.
If we respond with desire, we will likely be disappointed at some future stage when we do not get what we want. If we respond with expectation, we will, again, at some stage, be let down. If we respond with annoyance or frustration, we only disempower ourselves. Desire, expectation, and getting upset are never the best choices. Until you can see this, you will not choose how you live. Life, circumstances, and events will likely choose for you!
Alternative Lord’s Prayer
Spirit of Life and Love, here and everywhere,
may we be aware of your presence in our lives.
May our world be blessed.
May our daily needs be met,
and may our shortcomings be forgiven,
as we forgive those of others.
Give us the strength to resist wrong-doing,
the inspiration and guidance to do right,
and the wisdom to know the difference.
We are your hands in the world; help us to grow.
May we have compassion for all living beings,
and receive whatever life brings,
with courage and trust. Amen
Reading Maybe you have other plans by Bob Wightman from With Heart and Mind 2
I woke up early today, excited over all I get to do before the clock strikes midnight. I have responsibilities to fulfil today. I am important. My job is to choose what kind of day I am going to have.
Today I can complain because the weather is rainy, or I can be thankful that the grass is getting watered for free. Today I can feel sad that I don’t have more money, or I can be glad that my finances encourage me to plan my purchases wisely and guide me away from waste. Today I can grumble about my health, or I can rejoice that I am alive.
Today I can lament over all that my parents didn’t give me when I was growing up, or I can feel grateful that they allowed me to be born. Today I can cry because roses have thorns, or today I can celebrate that thorns have roses. Today I can mourn my lack of friends, or I can excitedly embark upon a quest to discover new relationships.
Today I can whine because I have to go to work, or I can shout for joy because I have a job to go to. Today I can complain because I have to go to school, or eagerly open my mind and fill it with new knowledge and understanding. Today I can murmur dejectedly because I have to do housework, or I can feel honoured because God has provided shelter for my mind, body and soul.
Today stretches ahead of me, waiting to be shaped. And here I am, the sculptor who gets to do the shaping. What today will be like is up to me. I get to choose what kind of day I will have!
Have a great day, my friend; or maybe you have other plans.
Prayer by Laura Dobson (adapted)
Eternal One,
Grace us with serenity to accept the things we cannot change,
Courage to change the things we can,
and wisdom to know the difference.
May we live one day at a time,
Being present, one moment at a time,
Taking the world as it is, not as we would have it,
Trusting that all will be well,
Surrendering to the heart’s desire,
And knowing Heaven as Earth,
here and now.
Amen
Reading from Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope by Brian D. McLaren, quoted by Richard Rohr in Daily Meditation, 11th January 2021
Brian says a framing story “gives people direction, values, vision, and inspiration by providing a framework for their lives. It tells them who they are, where they come from, where they are, what’s going on, where things are going, and what they should do.” While we all have stories that answer those questions on a personal level, a “framing story” dictates the general beliefs of a culture, nation, religion, and even humanity as a whole.
Brian writes convincingly that “our growing list of global crises, together with our inability to address them effectively, gives us strong evidence that our world’s dominant framing story is failing.” He reflects:
“If it [our framing story] tells us that the purpose of life is for individuals or nations to accumulate an abundance of possessions and to experience the maximum amount of pleasure during the maximum number of minutes of our short lives, then we will have little reason to manage our consumption. If our framing story tells us that we are in life-and-death competition with each other . . . then we will have little reason to seek reconciliation and collaboration and nonviolent resolutions to our conflicts…
But if our framing story tells us that we are free and responsible creatures in a creation made by a good, wise, and loving God, and that our Creator wants us to pursue virtue, collaboration, peace, and mutual care for one another and all living creatures, and that our lives can have profound meaning if we align ourselves with God’s wisdom, character, and dreams for us . . . then our society will take a radically different direction, and our world will become a very different place.”
Time of Stillness and Reflection words by Geoffrey Usher, from With Heart and Mind 2 (adapted)
God of the simple life, we withdraw
from the noise and confusion of the world around us,
and seek the stillness at the heart of life.
Help us to put aside the many distractions
that clamour for our attention:
the concern with getting and spending,
rather than listening and reflecting,
the accumulation of material goods,
rather than spiritual insight,
the assumption that wealth of possessions
will satisfy all our needs.
Help us to clear away the confusion of our daily lives,
and to focus on what is truly important,
not only for our physical needs but also for our spiritual welfare.
Help us to be satisfied with enough,
and not always to crave more.
[silence]
May we be grateful for the abundance of good gifts
that are available to us,
but may we not be wasteful.
May we build right relationships with our families,
with our neighbours and friends,
with you,
and with ourselves.
Amen
Musical Interlude I Due Fiumi by Ludovico Einaudi
Address Making Conscious Choices
The fact that our lives are the sum of our past conscious (or even unconscious) choices, as our first reading explains, may be a sobering one. As the anonymous author says, “All your choices yesterday, last year, ten years ago, have resulted in where you are today, what you do today, what you have around you today.”
But the important part of that reading is not the past choices we have made; it is about how we respond to circumstances and events in the present. “Our destiny is not defined by these events – it is defined by how we respond to them. And our responsibility – ability to respond – is always in our own hands.”
Which is illustrated beautifully by Bob Wightman’s words, which formed our second reading. I am sorry for repeating it so soon, but it fits the theme of this service so perfectly, I could not resist. As he wrote, how we spend our days is, to a great extent, our choice. Each “Today stretches ahead of me, waiting to be shaped. And here I am, the sculptor who gets to do the shaping. What today will be like is up to me. I get to choose what kind of day I will have!”
Obviously, this is not entirely true. To a large extent, our circumstances will dictate the shape of our days. BUT it is our choice how we react to what happens to us. Unless, of course, we are suffering from depression or some other debilitating mental illness. For those of us in those situations, on a bad day, even getting out of bed and getting dressed can be a major achievement.
But most of us are able to choose how we respond to circumstances and events in our lives. We can make knee-jerk reactions, or we can choose to respond more consciously, taking into account the wider setting, the other person’s point of view.
I love Brian McLaren’s idea that we can choose our “framing story”, which “gives people direction, values, vision, and inspiration by providing a framework for their lives. It tells them who they are, where they come from, where they are, what’s going on, where things are going, and what they should do.”
This framing story not only works for individuals, but can also, as Richard Rohr comments, “dictate the general beliefs of a culture, nation, religion, and even humanity as a whole.” In his book, Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope, McLaren explains that there are two very different ways of building up a framing story: “If it tells us that the purpose of life is for individuals or nations to accumulate an abundance of possessions and to experience the maximum amount of pleasure during the maximum number of minutes of our short lives, then we will have little reason to manage our consumption. If our framing story tells us that we are in life-and-death competition with each other . . . then we will have little reason to seek reconciliation and collaboration and nonviolent resolutions to our conflicts…
But if our framing story tells us that we are free and responsible creatures in a creation made by a good, wise, and loving God, and that our Creator wants us to pursue virtue, collaboration, peace, and mutual care for one another and all living creatures, and that our lives can have profound meaning if we align ourselves with God’s wisdom, character, and dreams for us . . . then our society will take a radically different direction, and our world will become a very different place.”
It is undoubtedly easier to go with the flow of our current society’s mores, and concentrate on Number One, making sure we (and perhaps our nearest and dearest) have plenty of “stuff” and that our lives are as pleasurable as possible. And the devil take the hindmost. It is far more challenging to see ourselves as tiny individual cogs in an enormous wheel, all interdependent, all needing care and consideration. More challenging to “pursue virtue, collaboration, peace and mutual care for one another and all living creatures.”
In the lovely words of our Time of Stillness and Reflection, by Geoffrey Usher, he pleads for the “God of the simple life” to “Help us to put aside the many distractions that clamour for our attention: the concern with getting and spending, rather than listening and reflecting, the accumulation of material goods, rather than spiritual insight, the assumption that wealth of possessions will satisfy all our needs.”
Let’s say we do choose to re-frame our framing story. How can we achieve this? Being aware that we have a choice is an important part of it, I think. That we don’t just blindly have to “keep up with the Jones’s” but can choose our own path. We are all thinking beings, we can all choose to live our lives in consonance with our best values. But it is not an easy way to live. It is not a one-off decision that we can make. Yes, choosing to live our lives following the best that we know is (or can be) a one-off choice. But keeping on making the right choices, day in, day out, when we are feeling tired and stressed as well as when we are feeling well and rested, is much more difficult. It takes a conscious awareness of ourselves and our actions in relation to the world as a whole, so that we choose to “lighten our steps as we walk upon the earth” as Cliff Reed suggests.
But if we are serious about our responsibilities to the planet that bore us, and to the next generations, we need to critically consider what impact our current lifestyles are having on, well, everything. My husband and I were watching the David Attenborough programme last week, The Perfect Planet. Attenborough commented that if all the energy released by volcanoes, together with wind and solar power, was utilised properly, we would no longer have to use gas and coal for light and warmth. And that is just one example. On a smaller scale, there are things that each of us could do, if we really wish to reframe the world story, stop being irresponsible consumers, and turn our backs on conflict and competition as be-all and end-alls. We can choose to live our values, rather than just trumpeting them. Maybe that way, as Brian McLaren suggests, we can change the framing story in our society to one that asks us to live in a spirit of collaboration, peace and mutual care for one another and all living creatures. So that “our society will take a radically different direction and our world will become a very different place.”
All of us have free will, and can make a conscious choice to embrace wonderful things like inclusion, empathy, compassion, equality, dignity, diversity, community, kindness, integrity, honesty, respect, justice, peace, the planet and humankind. We can choose to fact-check before we react to the latest sound-bite. And above all, we can choose (or at least try) to live our lives in a spirit of Love.
Love is an amazing phenomenon. It is fundamental to human well-being, and enables the rest of the good attitudes listed above. I would go so far as to say that we can only become fully-rounded people, able to respond kindly to those around us, if we love and are loved in return. It is the most powerful emotion in the world. When we truly love someone, we will put their welfare before our own, we will grieve when they are sad or unwell, and share in their joy when things are on the up and up. Loving affects every particle of our being.
However, it isn’t easy to live in a spirit of Love: little that is worthwhile in this life is easy. With so much happening in the world to grieve and upset us, the natural human response may be to become angry, vengeful. The process of growing in love is a challenging one. When we choose to try to live in a spirit of Love, we are choosing to make ourselves vulnerable, and vulnerability can hurt. Love can only be offered. We can never guarantee that the other person will love us back, or love us next week, next year… or that they will remain healthy and with us. Choosing to love another person is undoubtedly a vulnerable choice. Love comes with no guarantees – it is without strings. And that applies, whomever, or whatever, the object of our love is. We have to be all in. It involves trusting that the universe is a benevolent place (the evidence around notwithstanding) and that the best thing we can do is to love one another as God loves us. It takes both faith and courage.
And conscious choice. We can choose to curl in on ourselves, look after Number One, and the rest of the world can go hang. Or we can choose to stand up for love, for all the wonderful qualities I listed above, and strive for a better world.
May we choose well, today and always. Amen
Closing Words
Spirit of Life and Love,
Our time together is drawing to a close.
May we choose to live our lives in a spirit of Love,
and take responsibility for our actions, our choices.
May we return to our everyday world refreshed,
may we share the love we feel,
may we look out for each other,
and may we keep up our hearts,
now and in the days to come.
Amen
Postlude Stella del Mattino by Ludovico Einaudi