This May, 2021 service was our last in-person service with Celeste Wilder for the time being. We thank Celeste for all of her wonderful contributions to the church and she may return as a guest minister again one day!
If you plan to read Celeste’s archived reflections, here is some biographical information about her.
Celeste Wilder was involved in the Denman United church for approximately 7 years. She led monthly unconventional gatherings, heavy on group participation. She has a repertoire of life and work experience including: schooling in South America, work with people with disabilities, living on a sailboat, and co-founding a wilderness retreat centre. She is a multifaceted artist and a lifestyle cyclist. She brought a background in Biblical studies, participation in pagan rituals and her personal contemplation to her leadership. For a time she served as our co-ordinator of the hub branch of the DIU Church. She nests in rural Courtenay where she enjoys time by the river, in her garden, and exploring Strathcona park.
Celeste’s May 16th service:
Welcome
We gratefully acknowledge the land, beings, and ancestors of this place. We regonize the Komox, Pentalach, and Qualicum First Nations, who enjoyed this land for generations. We also recognize that there will be many other beings, in human and other forms, who will come to this place after us. May our actions be of service to them all.
Opening Prayer
God, Divine, Powers that Be,
We gather here to still our hearts and mind and to welcome in Your presence and Your wisdom. Grant that we may feel something of the nature of things, and leave with a helpful nugget of truth or a question to ponder. Amen.
Reading: Matthew 7 New King James Version
Do Not Judge
7 “Judge[a] not, that you be not judged. 2 For with what [b]judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. 3 And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? 5 Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
6 “Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.
Keep Asking, Seeking, Knocking
7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? 11 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! 12 Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.
Celeste’s reflections on Seeking and Finding
“Seek and you will find what you’re looking for”
I wonder if you have any special techniques for finding something you’ve lost. Maybe think back to the last place you had it? Visualize it coming towards you?
My technique is to say outloud what I’m looking for with a descriptive word like: I’m looking for my green headband.
This week the passage I chose is from Matt 7 where we have recorded Jesus teaching “Seek and you shall find”.
What comes to mind for you when heard this?
Have you ever had this passage “come true” in your own life?
About 7 years ago I was living on a Sailboat, and during that time I came across an alternate translation of this oft quoted saying of Jesus’.
I used to hear: Seek and you will find, like if you search then your wishes will come true. This could be the case, and often is.
The alternate translation brought another angel to light for me:
Seek and you will find what you’re looking for.
This phrasing helped me to notice that the seeking and finding is not just about positive wishes that we wish would come true. This also applies to anything we are looking for: if you look for it, you’ll find it.
For example, if you look for reasons to be grateful, you will find them.
If you look for examples of hatred and terror, you will find them. If you look for reasons to complain, you will find them.
I’ve had this come true in a bunch of different scenarios, some humorous and amazing. Some disappointing.
For example, while on the sail boat we needed to continually find firewood for our little woodstove since we didn’t’ have room onboard to store more than a few days worth. Finding wood dry enough to burn got increasingly difficult as we moved from summer into fall and then winter. One day we were getting in dire straights, about to run out. The key was to find more before we ran out so that we could dry the next bath with the heat of the last. I was getting very worried that we’d be cold.
So we were definitely seeking firewood. Everywhere we looked we were looking for something dry that could be burned. Along the beach, away from where we were moored we found an old collapsed boat shed. It was only the roof laying on the ground, the walls had collapsed. We poked around, and sure enough, what did we find, but a collection of dry foot long lengths of wood, protected by the old roof and completely ready to burn. What glee! What delight!
What I notice is that, if that day we hadn’t been seeking firewood, we wouldn’t have found it. We would have noticed something else instead on that beach, maybe rope or shells or a particularly beautiful pebble.
Let me take this a step further….you can reverse engineer this and go backwards….
If you examine what you’re finding, that will tell you what you’re looking for, what you’re paying attention to.
Which brings us back to the first part of this passage: Judge not so you will not be judged. If you look for reasons to judge someone, I guarantee you will find them.
The middle part of this passage is interesting: 6 “Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.
What does that mean to you?
To me, it means know your audience. Some things are best kept to oneself. Some sacred things are best kept close to heart and not publicized.
A few examples come to mind:
-there are aspects of my life I don’t share with my family because I know they won’t understand.
-there are some places I visit that I never take pictures of -I keep the location of a backcountry cabin’s secret.
This winter my boyfriend and I heard of a mountain cabin. We had actually wondered whether there was one in the area, and then heard the description from an acquaintance. Twice we trapsed around in our snowshoes, looking. The second time, while we were still far from where we thought it was, we saw a suspicious straight line amidst all the curvy snow-covered trees. Sure enough, there it was: the legendary cabin.
We were so thrilled, and shoveled out a walkway to the door. Once inside, we enjoyed looking at the guest log book of other people’s time there, the weather, the wildlife and the supplies needed or left. The cabin was in good order when we found it, but we were sad to read multiple entries with multiple swear words, denouncing the “Budweiser drinkers” who left the place a complete mess. This seems like a very tangible example of a pear: the cabin, getting trampled on and left like a “pig sty”.
I wonder, is there something in your life you would do best to keep secret?
And also, is there some area of someone else’s life that you’d best not tread on? Is there some privacy that you could honour? Something sacred you could treat with more reverence?
To summarize:
If you are looking for something to judge, you will find it.
What you look for, you will find. And what you’re finding is likely what you are looking for.
And lastly, consider what is sacred or private and how to best honour that. I’d like to finish with a reflection from Richard Rohr entitled:
Generosity of Spirit
Richard Rohr Reflection Thursday, November 29, 2018
For a week in April 2015, Archbishop Desmond Tutu visited His Holiness the Dalai Lama at his residence in exile in India. Their dialogue and interactions, facilitated by Douglas Abrams, became The Book of Joy. I’d like to share some of their hard-won wisdom with you today.
Suffering is inevitable, they said, but how we respond to that suffering is our choice. Not even oppression or occupation can take away this freedom to choose our response.
As our dialogue progressed, we converged on eight pillars of joy. Four were qualities of the mind: perspective, humility, humor, and acceptance. Four were qualities of the heart: forgiveness, gratitude, compassion, and generosity.
[Archbishop Tutu said:] “Our human nature has been distorted, . . . I mean, we are actually quite remarkable creatures. In our religions I am created in the image of God. I am a God carrier. It’s fantastic. I have to be
growing in godlikeness, in caring for the other. I know that each time I have acted compassionately, I have experienced a joy in me that I find in nothing else.”
When we practice a generosity of spirit, we are in many ways practicing all the other pillars of joy. In generosity, there is a wider perspective [italics mine], in which we see our connection to all others. There is a humility that recognizes our place in the world and acknowledges that at another time we could be the one in need, whether that need is material, emotional, or spiritual. There is a sense of humor and an ability to laugh at ourselves so that we do not take ourselves too seriously. There is an acceptance of life, in which we do not force life to be other than what it is. There is a forgiveness of others and a release of what otherwise might have been. There is a gratitude for all that we have been given. Finally, we see others with a deep compassion and a desire to help those who are in need. And from this comes a generosity that is “wise selfish,” a generosity that recognizes helping others as helping ourselves. As the Dalai Lama put it, “In fact, taking care of others, helping others, ultimately is the way to discover your own joy and to have a happy life.”
[Near the end of their time together, Archbishop Tutu offered this blessing:]
“Dear Child of God, you are loved with a love that nothing can shake, a love that loved you long before you were created, a love that will be there long after everything has disappeared. You are precious, with a preciousness that is totally quite immeasurable. And God wants you to be like God. Filled with life and goodness and laughter—and joy.
“God, who is forever pouring out God’s whole being from all eternity, wants you to flourish. God wants you to be filled with joy and excitement and ever longing to be able to find what is so beautiful in God’s creation: the compassion of so many, the caring, the sharing. And God says, Please, my child, help me. Help me to spread love and laughter and joy and compassion. And you know what, my child? As you do this—hey,
presto—you discover joy. Joy, which you had not sought, comes as the gift, as almost the reward for this non-self-regarding caring for others.”
Reference:
His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu with Douglas Abrams, The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World (Avery: 2016), 7, 193, 257, 275, 298.
Offering/Prayer Shells
Song: Sky is Open by Donna De Lory
Song: Soul Speak by Trevor H Oswalt, East Forest
Benediction
May you notice that you are finding what you’re searching for.
May you have eyes to see the pearls and know how to hold them precious. May you have the generosity of spirit to be kind, humorous and un-judgmental. May you go in peace.
Namaste.
