#1 GATHERING
Hello again, friends.
It’s lovely to see you.
We’ll begin properly in 5 minutes, but how are you doing? Everything okay?
Remember to set your notifications for each Event to “All”, as it’ll help you keep up. If you “Like” each post as you see it, that will let me know how many people have caught up to where we are.
If you refresh your page every now and then, that can overcome the problem of posts getting stuck and failing to arrive on your page.
#2 A READING:
The apostles rejoined Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught. Then he said to them, “You must come away to a quiet place all by yourselves and rest awhile”; for there were so many people coming and going that they hardly had leisure even to eat. So they went off in a boat to a quiet place where they could be by themselves.
(Mark 6.31-32)
#3 PRAYER
Thank you, God of all things strange and wonderful
for the internet that allows us to be together
and by ourselves
at the same time.
Thank you for the comfort and encouragement
of each other’s company.
Thank you for the quietness of solitude.
Help us to find, gratefully, time to breathe and be.
Help us to settle quietly into you company.
Help us to centre ourselves in you.
#4 SONG — “Jesus be the centre”
#5 THINKABOUT
LETTING LIGHT IN (honesty and transparency in public and private life).
You’ll probably get the best out of the Thinkabout with the video, but in case that’s difficult for you, or you like to read as well as listen, I’ll give you the full text below.
I once took a funeral for a woman whose name was Lark. An exceptionally beautiful soul, she had been a devotee of Sai Baba and her life was conditioned by the spiritual principles she believed.
Sitting with her family as we talked through what would be appropriate for the ceremony of blessing upon her onward journey from this life, I listened to them describe how she had lived and who she was. One of her daughters said that, in making choices and deciding which way to go, Lark thought we should always look for the path the light shines on. I never forgot that, and it has stood me in good stead.
Light. What is it like? What is its nature, what are its properties?
Well, an obvious one is that you can see through it swell as seeing by it. Light isn’t thick or lumpy like porridge or bread, it’s like lemon juice or a precious gem. It’s transparent, and it illuminates and reveals.
What does that mean for the choices we make and the discipline we practice?
In our private lives, walking in the light means honesty and authenticity. Grace will be unpacking that for us tomorrow morning — what it might mean to be our authentic selves.
Looking for the path the light shines on in our everyday lives also implies paying attention — living simply and quietly so we are not plagued by confusion and distraction, we are then free to bring our full attention to whatever needs our help or participation or contribution in the present moment. Then we will arrive with heart and mind prepared at the now reality of what life is asking of us today. Our calling requires us to refrain from entanglement and overcommitment, to give ourselves breathing room and space; otherwise we’ll find ourselves making mistakes and grabbing the first thing that comes to hand, choosing what is expedient instead of what will create hope and health for our body and soul (and other people’s too), or being carried along by the tide.
Not everything in our lives is purely personal and private, though. There is always a relational community dimension, which then widens out into the public sphere. We have a contribution to make, and this is a responsibility we cannot evade.
How is it expressed?
It’s there in our personal relationships. In my own life, I’ve been a preacher and a writer and a pastor and a chaplain, but I’ve noticed that the people I have most influenced are those who have lived with me. I’ve seen our path drawn into accord and commonality. My second husband, Bernard, was very angry with the church when we got married; he thought religion was a power game. It is, of course, but there’s more to it than that, and during the brief time we were together before he died, he came to understand how the cross sits at the heart of creation, holding all things together, the starting point of the new and living way. He made his peace with Jesus, and in the last weeks and days of his life he was able to plug into the light and strength of Jesus. It sustained him and carried him home. That was better than dying angry and defeated.
In our personal relationships, it is wise to choose as friends those who enable others to shine — someone who radiates light, not someone who absorbs it for their own aggrandisement. Someone who lights up the room for everyone, not someone who insists on hogging the spotlight. Humility. Encouragement. Generosity. Responsibility. That’s what we’re looking for, the path the light shines on.
The light we shine is also expressed in our consumer choices, and in this time of urgent ecological threat, it’s important that we stand firm in accepting this responsibility. Living simply is critical here because we’re dealing with the minutiae — what shop we buy from, what food we pick, which fabrics we choose for our clothes, how we heat our homes, what transport we decide on; oh, my Lord, there is so much to consider, and all of it matters. Living simply gives us space to think it over and enquire.
Again, we look for the path the light shines on, pick out the thread the light shines on, and take that way. We take the trouble to ask questions, and we flow with the answers that remind us of the life of Jesus.
In the political sphere, as voters, we also have choices to make. Anyone who says politics has nothing to do with religion is talking through the back of their neck — politics is how we express our organisation as community, there is no more obvious way of loving our neighbour as ourselves.
Party politics is not so much the issue here as the presence of light. There are different methods and systems for running a country; some of them are better than others, but most of them are beneficial and effective in the right hands.
In our political affiliation, the thing to attract us should be not so much the traditions we trust because they’re familiar — voting the way Dad voted — as the life the light shines from and the path the light shines on. We should be looking for the soul, the life, that reminds us of Jesus. We should familiarise ourselves with the New Testament and look for a good match.
As political voters, we can look out for honesty and transparency in a politician’s life and conduct, look for consistency — do they practice what they advocate? We can look at how they treat others: light reveals and illumines, it doesn’t conceal or suppress.
If we see subterfuge and deceit, our vote should never be cast there. Nor should we cast our vote where we see greed or exceptionalism or hubris or frivolity. We are looking for the serious and sober life, for something that will bear the searching of light. “My burden is light,” said Jesus; and we are looking for the life that is carrying the light, like his.
There is also artificial light, and we have to be wary of that. There are the floodlights and footlights created by marketing and promotion — the sort you can buy with money to make a showman look good. We have a responsibility to note the use of that kind of illumination and set it to one side; it’s something people do, but it’s not what we’re looking for.
We are looking for the light that comes into the world to enlighten all humanity, the living light that shines from the way of Jesus and can shine as a lantern in our hearts, enabling both ourselves and our fellow travellers to see which way to go.
At this season of Candlemas when light strengthens and illumines the house, finding every nook and cranny and showing up what’s there for what it really is, may you be rinsed and lit up, may you receive the light and glow, may you be blessed with clarity and insight, may you put your finger on truth, may you find the path the light shines on for you.
#6 REFLECTION
Remember the clear light,
The pure clear white light
From which everything in the universe comes,
To which everything in the universe returns;
The original nature of your own mind,
The natural state of the universe unmanifest.
Let go into the clear light, trust it, merge with it.
It is your own true nature, it is home.
~ The Tibetan Book of the Dead
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