Reflection for Sunday 5th July 2020
By Rev Anna Jarvis, Minister of Monton Unitarians
Jumping off the Edge
Opening words
Please light a candle or electric tea light if you are able, and think of all those who are also lighting a candle at this time.
We come here, looking for a safe space and time when we no longer have to hide our true selves. When we can take off the mask and the disguise, and show the world our true face.
So often we feel we have to conform to certain ways of being, of behaving, of looking, of living. But conforming can often mean contorting – twisting our true selves into a shape that does not fit.
And yet not contorting or conforming, but showing our true shape, brings vulnerability, brings fear, brings risk – of rejection, of mockery, of hurt.
In this community, may we know that we are loved for who and what we are, our true shapes, our true colours, our true, deepest selves. May we feel safe enough to let down the guard, take off the disguise, and take that risk of being – us. It is a risk – for ourselves and for others. For in a moment of true encounter, both parties are changed.
But yet I invite you, despite the risk – come. Come as you are – exactly as you are – but do not expect to leave in exactly the same condition.
Hymn
In our purple hymn book, number 167 is by Don Besig, called ‘There is a place I call my own’. These are the first and last verses.
There is a place I call my own, where I can stand by the sea,
And look beyond the things I’ve know