Prelude Melodia Africana I by Ludovico Einaudi
Opening Words from The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward.
And there are those who give with pain, and that pain is their baptism.
And there are those who give and know not pain in giving, nor
do they seek joy, nor give with mindfulness of virtue;
They give as in yonder valley the myrtle breathes its fragrance into space.
Through the hands of such as these, God speaks,
and from behind their eyes He smiles upon the earth.
Chalice Lighting (you may wish to light a candle in your own home at this point.) words by Yvonne Aburrow
The flame rises from the chalice
as prayer proceeds from the heart.
The flame spends itself in giving light
But the heart is never spent in prayer.
May our hearts be inflamed with love
for all that is.
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 Covid has not yet gone away,
And the clouds of war and climate change hover.
May we keep in touch however we can,
And help each other however we may.
Help us to be grateful for the freedoms we have
and to respect the wishes of others.
May we hold in our hearts all those
Who are grieving, lost, alone,
Suffering in any way, Amen
Reading from The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer
If the Sun is the source of flow in the economy of nature, what is the “Sun” of a human gift economy, the source that constantly replenishes the flow of gifts? Maybe it is love.
This pail of Juneberries represents hundreds of gift exchanges that led up to my blue-stained fingers: the Maples who gave their leaves to the soil, the countless invertebrates and microbes who exchanged nutrients and energy to build the humus in which a Serviceberry seed could take root, the Cedar Waxwing who dropped the seed, the sun, the rain, the early spring flies who pollinated the flowers, the farmer who wielded the shovel to tenderly settle the seedlings. They are all parts of the gift exchange by which everyone gets what they need.
Many Indigenous Peoples, including my Anishinaabe relatives and my Haudenosaunee neighbors, inherit what is known as a ‘culture of gratitude’, where lifeways are organized around recognition and responsibility for earthly gifts, both ceremonial and pragmatic. Our oldest teaching stories remind us that failure to show gratitude dishonors the gift and brings serious consequences.
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 from The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Enumerating the gifts you’ve received creates a sense of abundance, the knowing that you already have what you need. Recognizing “enoughness” is a radical act in an economy that is always urging us to consume more… Ecopsychologists have shown that the practice of gratitude puts brakes on hyper-consumption. The relationships nurtured by gift thinking diminish our sense of scarcity and want, in that climate of sufficiency, our hunger for more abates and we take only what we need, in respect for the generosity of the giver…
If our first response to the receipt of gifts is gratitude, then our second is reciprocity: to give a gift in return. What could I give these plants in return for their generosity? I could return the gift with a direct response, like weeding or bringing water or offering a song of thanks that sends appreciation out on the wind. I could make habitat for the solitary bees that fertilized those fruits. Or maybe I could take indirect action, like donating to my local land trust so that more habitat for the gift givers will be saved, speaking at a public hearing on land use, or making art that invites others into the web of reciprocity. I could reduce my carbon footprint, vote on the side of healthy land, advocate for farmland preservation, change my diet, hang my laundry in the sunshine. We live in a time when every choice matters.
Gratitude and reciprocity are the currency of a gift economy, and they have the remarkable property of multiplying with every exchange, their energy concentrating as they pass from hand to hand, a truly renewable resource. Can we imagine a human economy with a currency which emulates the flow from Mother Earth? A currency of gifts?
Prayer Litany on Life’s Good Gifts, adapted from Dorothy S. Wilson, from Songs for Living
For the glory of the sunshine and the clear air of the out-of-doors,
For these, and the health to enjoy them, we are thankful.
For the shapes of the hills and the trees, and for the colour of flowers and the sea,
For these, and the sight to enjoy them, we are thankful.
For the songs of the birds and the streams, for the music of human laughing voices,
For these, and for hearing to enjoy them, we are thankful.
For the stories and books of all ages, for the arts and songs of all peoples,
For these, and a mind to enjoy them, we are thankful.
For all who have loved us and cared for us, asking only our love in return,
For these, and a heart to love them, we are thankful.
For all who have made the world better, for their hope and courage,
For these, and the power to do good, we are thankful
Amen
Reading Let us give thanks and praise by Peter Sampson (hymn 90 in Sing Your Faith)
Let us give thanks and praise for the gifts we share,
for our food and our friendship, for water and air,
for the earth and the sky and the stars and the sea,
and the trust we all have in God’s love flowing free.
Give a shout of amazement at what life can bring,
put your heart into raising the song all can sing.
What a world we could build with our minds and our hands
where the people live freely and God understands.
Let us give of our best with the tools we shall need,
use our eyes, hands and brains so that we may succeed.
Inspire us to cultivate what we have sown
so that nature and nurture make a world we may own.
We adore you, great Mother, O help us to live
with a love for each other that each one can give
let the pain of our brothers and sisters be faced
and the healing of all souls on earth be embraced.
Time of Stillness and Reflection words by Laura Dobson (adapted)
I know it’s not Christmas, but these words of Laura’s fit in with the theme of this service so well, I decided to use them anyway…
The Gospel of Matthew tells us the magi brought the gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to the newborn Jesus. Gold represented Christ’s kingship, his sovereignty; frankincense represented his divinity; myrrh represented his humanity, his mortality.
Let us consider how these gifts have manifested in our own lives over the past year – taking them in reverse order to the order they are given in the gospel story.
We start with myrrh – the gift of humanity, of mortality. How have the gifts of myrrh manifested in your life in the past year?
Perhaps you have had a brush with mortality yourself or have lost loved ones.
How have experienced your own physicality? Perhaps your physical health has been poor or perhaps you have been filled with vitality and strength.
How have you experienced the world through your senses in the past year – sight, sound, smell, taste, touch? How have you experienced the physical closeness of others? Perhaps you have given warm hugs or felt the comforting touch of a hand on your shoulder. How have the gifts of myrrh manifested in your life in the past year?
[silence]
We move on to frankincense – the gift of divinity. How have the gifts of frankincense manifested in your life in the past year?
How have you experienced the divine or the sacred within and outside yourself? Perhaps there have been times when you have felt particularly close to Spirit or Source, experienced awe and wonder, felt at one with the universe. How have you experienced divinity or the sacred reflected in others?
How have the gifts of frankincense manifested in your life in the past year?
[silence]
Lastly, we consider gold – the gift of sovereignty. How have the gifts of gold manifested in your life in the past year? Have you felt in charge of your own destiny or have you felt that outside influences have controlled what has happened in your life?
Have you been free to make your own choices and to live your life to its full potential?
Have you owned your own mistakes and successes, taken full responsibility for your actions?
How have you experienced sovereignty in others? How have the gifts of gold manifested in your life in the past year?
[silence]
May we be grateful for the gifts we have received. Amen
Musical Interlude I Due Fiumi by Ludovico Einaudi
Address Flourishing is Mutual
Robin Wall Kimmerer’s idea of a gift economy, based on gratitude and reciprocity, which we heard in our first two readings, rang deep bells with me. Our world would be a so much happier place if we were grateful for the gifts we received and were generous in our giving in return.
I’ve just got back from an early morning walk around the village, and the sun was shining, the sky was a pale blue, and I was amazed by the number and variety of flowers in my neighbours’ gardens and on the verges. The birds were singing and I exchanged cheerful “good mornings” with the dog walkers I passed. It was just gorgeous.
At one point on the walk, I stopped and gave thanks for the beauty around me. As Meister Eckhart advised, if thank you is the only prayer you put up, it is enough. It seems to me that there are so many things to be grateful for in our lives.
I know that not everyone will agree, but I firmly believe that gratitude, which is another way of saying ‘giving thanks’, is a spiritual practice which can transform our lives, if we let it. It is only too easy to focus on the things that are going wrong for us at any time – particularly as we get older. Parts of our bodies ache or give us more severe pain; we are perhaps not sleeping as well as we used to; and some days, just getting up and facing the day can be an effort.
I guess it depends very much on how we look at the world, on our perceptions of it and our place in it. There is a lovely quotation by the Romantic poet, William Blake, which reads, “If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is: infinite.”
I think that the “doors of perception” he refers to are our senses, which may be “cleansed” through spiritual awareness and through moments of grace. At such times, we may experience the ordinary world, everyday events, with a heightened awareness and infinite gratitude. Which may in turn enable us to respond with generosity to those around us.
Such an experience might occur when we are out in the natural world, and are brought up standing by the singular beauty of a sunrise, or a waterfall, or a single flower in all its wondrous complexity, or a mountain. Or by the sight of a star bearing bright witness in the darkening sky. Or by the sound of a beautiful song or piece of music. The song Pilgrim, by Enya has been doing this to me over the past few days. And I can remember bending over my sleeping children and being filled with so much love, that I felt my heart might burst.
I do believe that gratitude and an awareness of grace could transform our world, if we let them. We just have to be awake to the possibilities and aware when the moments arrive. Because come they will. And they are blessings. Sacramental vision is available to all of us.
It is only too easy to miss these moments as we rush on through our lives, get it done, get it done, then on to the next thing. But by slowing down, and looking around us with our mind’s eye, we can become aware of the many gifts we receive, each and every day. I have a gratitude practice: each evening, just before I go to bed, I write down three things that I have seen or experienced, which I am grateful for. Over time, it has helped to strengthen my gratitude muscle. To give a silly example, when I’ve sent someone an e-mail, asking for some information, and they don’t get back to me straight away, I sometimes end up in a fever of impatience and fed-upness, waiting for the response.
Instead, I try to remember to be grateful for the wonder that is e-mail, which makes instant communication with multiple people possible. And for computers in general, which make my life as a minister, so easy (comparatively speaking)! I cannot imagine how much more difficult my life would have been in pre-computer days (or rather, I can – every letter would have had to be typed laboriously by hand, stuck in an envelope, and posted, with no surety as to how long it would take to get there). Whereas with e-mail, to give just one example, I can send out a communication to lots of people at the same time, just by clicking on the Send icon. Or if I want to juggle around the order of ideas in this address, I just need to cut a paragraph, and paste it in elsewhere, rather than having to tear it up and re-write it. It really is marvellous, in the best sense of that word – full of marvel.
So why not give it a go? Make a conscious effort to look around your life every day and find something to be grateful for. If it is something that someone has done for you, thank them for it, and give them a smile, or send them a card. If it is something less tangible, thank God for it. Because what Eleanor H. Porter wrote all those years ago in Pollyanna is true: “When you look for the bad, expecting it, you will get it. When you know you will find the good—you will get that…” And even in these unsettled days, there is still so much good in the world.
Doug Good Feather, of the Standing Rock Lakota Nation and a descendant of Grandpa Chief Sitting Bull, is the spiritual leader of Spirit Horse Nation, a human rights and environmental protection organization, who once wrote, “Gratitude and generosity are similar virtues, but they differ in that gratitude is an internal characteristic and generosity is our external expression of our sense of gratitude. Basically, gratitude is how we feel, and generosity is how we express that feeling out in the world.” Generosity is another word for reciprocity, I think.
But are we less aware of it? Of the need to respond to the things we are grateful for with generosity? I think we may be. I certainly am – when I checked on my blog for posts on either virtue just now, I found I had blogged about being grateful no less than forty-one times, but only once about generosity, and once about giving.
Mother Teresa once wrote, “He who gives with joy gives the most.” This view of the spirit of giving (another way of describing generosity) chimes in well with Maimonides’ Ladder of Charity, which I first came across when I did the UK Unitarian Build Your Own Theology course some years ago. Moses ben Maimon (Maimonides) was a 12th century Jewish rabbi, physician and philosopher, one of the greatest Hebrew scholars. He compiled a vast mass of Jewish oral law into the Mishneh Torah, also called The Strong Hand. One of his best known writings is The Golden Ladder of Charity, in which he ranked the spirit of giving or charity or generosity as follows:
- To give reluctantly, the gift of the hand, but not of the heart.
- To give cheerfully, but not in proportion to need.
- To give cheerfully and proportionately, but not unsolicited.
- To give cheerfully, proportionately and unsolicited, but to put the gift into the poor person’s hand, thus creating shame.
- To give in such a way that the distressed may know their benefactor, without being known to him or her.
- To know the objects of our bounty, but remain unknown to them.
- To give so that the benefactor may not know those whom he or she has relieved, and they shall not know him or her.
- To prevent poverty by teaching a trade, setting a man or woman up in business, or in some way preventing the need for charity.
He says that giving is most blessed and most acceptable when the donor remains completely anonymous. There is a lot of food for thought here. We in the privileged West are very good at giving “aid” to those less fortunate than ourselves, but very often our motivation is not pure – part of it is to make *ourselves* feel better. Most charitable giving these days is on level seven of Maimonides’ ladder (except that most of us rarely give unsolicited, so perhaps we’re only at level three).
And the absolute best way of giving, the most compassionate and generous response to need is, as Maimonides says, to bring someone out of poverty by setting them up to function independently, so that they no longer need our “charity”. Oxfam offers us the ability to do this – every year for the past decade, I have bought my sister in law and her wife such a gift. It works very simply: you choose which gift you’d like the recipient to receive e.g. help with education, a goat, help with clean water, then donate the requisite amount on behalf of the person you are buying it for. You then get a card from Oxfam to give to your loved one, so that although they do not receive a gift themselves, they know that they have helped to end poverty and violence in the developing world.
Gratitude and reciprocity – two spiritual practices which can help make our world a better, happier, kinder place.
Closing Words
Spirit of Life and Love,
Our time together is drawing to a close.
May we be grateful for the gifts we receive,
and reciprocate with joy and love.
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