This past Sunday, Cathie Talbot led our service, filling in for Reverend Elaine Julian/
Land Acknowledgement:
As we gather, we acknowledge with respect the history, spirituality, and culture of the K’omoks First Nation and the Coast Salish peoples on whose traditional and unceded territory we meet. We also honour the heritage of all indigenous peoples as we recognize the need to seek a new relationship between the descendants of settlers and of those who were here before colonization. As a congregation of The United Church of Canada, with them, we take responsibility both for past injustices and the need for healing and reconciliation. We love and honour this land upon which we meet and live.
Welcome & Announcements
GATHERING
Meister Eckhart (twelfth century prophet and mystic) said that “Silence” is God’s first language; that nothing in the universe resembles God so much as silence—to come into silence is to come into the presence of the Divine.
So let us begin worship with silence, attentive to the presence of Holy Mystery.
(The SINGING BOWL is sounded, the CHRIST CANDLE is lit, and SILENCE is held.)
Call to Worship:
Light within all light, Soul behind all souls…
at the breaking of dawn, at the coming of day,
we wait and watch.
Your Light within the morning light.
Your Soul within the human soul.
Your Presence beckoning to us from the heart of life.
In the dawning of this day
let us know fresh shinings in our soul.
On this Sabbath day, let us worship God
in word and song and silence. Amen.
(From “Praying with the Earth” by John Philip Newell)
MUSIC: “Creator God You Gave Us Life” (MV 27)
(Solo: Heather McLean)
Creator God you gave us life, your image formed within our souls,
yet through the mist of time and space,
we search for that which makes us whole.
Refrain:
Through hands that paint majestic skies,
and voices chanting melody, with words that reach
beyond the page, we comprehend your mystery.
In ev’ry flow’r and ev’ry tree, we see your great diversity,
yet greater still we see your love, expressed in our humanity. Refrain
When with our hearts, our hands our minds,
we share our gifts with all the world, our spirits soar beyond the veil,
to touch the very face of God. Refrain
EXPLORING
Scripture Reading:
Psalm 104 (Selections; read responsively)
Bless the Radiant One, O my soul!
O Heart of my heart, You are so very great!
You are clothed with justice and mercy,
arrayed in Light as your fine attire.
You stretch over the heavens like a tent,
your Radiance covering the waters;
you shine through the clouds, and ride on the wings of the wind;
the wind, like the Breath of life, carries your Voice,
fire refines the dross of our souls…
The majesty of Creation is seen throughout the land,
the sounds of Creation mingle with the music of the spheres…
You created the moon to mark the tides and season,
the sun, that rises and sets in beauty…
The earth is filled with your creatures.
we look to the seas, great and wide,
which teem with life innumerable,
helping to maintain the balance…
You continue to send forth your Spirit,
and the earth, though not without turmoil, is renewed…
O, that we might receive your gifts,
taking only what is needed with grateful hearts…
May all who feel separated from You
open their hearts to new Life!
Praise the Creator of the Universe!
Bless the Heart of my heart, O my soul!
Amen.
(From Psalms for Praying by Nan Merrill, Continuum Press, 2002)
REFLECTION: “Light…Wonder… Mystery”
poem by e.e. cummings
i thank You God for most this amazing day:
for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes
(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)
How should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any – lifted from the no of all nothing –
human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?
(now the ears of my ears awake
and now the eyes of my eyes are opened)
I recite this poem by almost every morning. On sunny summer days I say it standing on the deck, looking out over the often exquisitely beautiful early morning sea and sky. And on stormy winter days, looking out from the comfort of my warm couch, I say it to remind me to be grateful for life and creation in all its variety.
As we near the end of summertime, a season which offers so many opportunities to spend time in nature, I invite you to pause and ponder with me the wonder and light and mystery of creation.
In the church calendar the month of September is sometimes called “Creation Time.” It is a relatively new addition to the cycle of the church year, which begins with Advent, moves into Lent and Easter, and finishes with the Season after Pentecost.
Creation Time offers us an opportunity to reflect on the loveliness of creation and the Creator; to become “God-noticers” (as my friend Ingrid Brown suggests) in the world around us. This means not just waiting for dramatic sunrises or northern lights to incite our awe, but noticing all the small daily revelations of beauty and wonder that help us attune to the Holy in all things.
I chose Psalm 104 as the scripture reading for today because it is a song about God’s creation and providence, which seems fitting as we enter the season of Creation Time. This psalm and many others provide a window through which we can glimpse the presence and action of the Creator, and images that express some of the profoundest truths about the created world.
St. John Cassian, a monk in the third century, said that the psalms carry in them “all the feelings of which human nature is capable.” More recently the Catholic theologian, Richard Rohr, says that the psalms lead us to a truer image of ourselves, reality, and God.
Poet Kathleen Norris writes of her experience singing the psalms three times a day as a guest in a Benedictine monastery: “In expressing all the complexities and contradictions of human experience the psalms act as good psychologists. They defeat our tendency to try to be holy without being human first.”
This is one of the reasons that I try and read one of Nan Merrill’s psalms each morning (from her book “Psalms for Praying”). The subtitle of this book is “An Invitation to Wholeness” and I feel that as I meditate and dialogue with these psalms, especially those in praise of creation and the Creator, I become more attuned to the holiness and beauty in our world and its inhabitants, which serves as a helpful antidote to much of what is going on in the world today.
In addition to delving into the Psalms over the last few years I have also been drawn to Celtic Christianity and my soul has found profound resonance in the writings of both ancient and modern Celts. Their words have opened me to the wonder of creation in new ways.
Celtic Christianity arose in Ireland and parts of Scotland around the fifth century and celebrated a life of simplicity in close harmony with the created world. It is a spirituality based on ancient, mystical beliefs about God, human beings, and their relationship with all of creation.
In the Celtic tradition, God is understood as speaking through two books: the book of the Bible and the book of creation. Many Celtic monasteries were situated in remote regions close to nature, and Celts sometimes refer to the whole of the created world as a “great cathedral.”
One ancient Celtic writer puts it this way:
“There is no life in the sea, no creature in the river,
nothing in the heavens, that does not proclaim God’s goodness.
There is no bird on the wing, no star in the sky,
nothing beneath the sun, that does not proclaim God’s goodness.”
And so, the Season of Creation invites us to remember the story we tell of our beginnings in the book of Genesis, which describes a Creator who sings light and life into the dark unshaped silence of the universe.
In the beginning…light…
Psalm 104 begins with the words, “Bless the Radiant One, O my soul!
The psalmist speaks of the Creator being “arrayed in light.” A fundamental belief of Celtic tradition is that at the heart of all that has life is the light of God and that the whole fabric of creation is woven through with the thread of God’s light. All life is rooted in the light of that first day of creation and the essence of that life, both visible and invisible, is the light of God.
The poet Gerard Manley Hopkins recognized this in his poem “God’s Grandeur”: “The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil…”
The light that was in the beginning still glows at the heart of life but we do not always notice its brilliance. Sometimes we become so familiar with our little corner of creation, that we lose our sense of wonder at its beauty and our sense of awe at its mystery. During this season of Creation Time let us resolve to pay attention to the artistic majesty of God’s creation which surrounds us.
In the beginning…light…
In the beginning…wonder…
There are so many wondrous images of the Creator God in Psalm 104: Radiance covering the waters, shining through the clouds, and riding on the wings of the wind; the wind, like the Breath of Life, carrying God’s Voice; the sun, rising and setting in beauty; the sounds of creation mingling with the music of the spheres…”
These are such powerful and beautiful images of God as the creative force and wisdom within and throughout all of creation. I invite you to spend some time during this coming Season of Creation exploring some of the psalms of praise and opening yourselves to the wonder and beauty of our created world.
In the beginning…light…
In the beginning…wonder…
In the beginning…mystery…
In the words of the hymn that Heather sang for us this morning, we search for words that reach beyond the page, and in our search we begin to comprehend the mystery of the Creator…
The created world is full of thin places, spaces where we can encounter the Sacred. We don’t have to go to the island of Iona or hike to the top of Mt Albert Edward. These spaces are all around us if we are open to the mystery. In these experiences we are called back to our beginnings in light and goodness. We are called forward to walk in wonder, open to the mystery that surrounds us in the book of creation, and to reverence creation as the dwelling place of God.
I began this reflection with a poem and in closing I share another poem, this one written by my favourite poet, Mary Oliver.
It is called “Mindful.”
“Every day
I see or I hear
something
that more or less
kills me
with delight,
that leaves me
like a needle
in the haystack
of light.
It is what I was born for—
to look, to listen,
to lose myself
inside this soft world—
to instruct myself
over and over
in joy,
and acclamation.
Nor am I talking
about the exceptional,
the fearful, the dreadful,
the very extravagant—
but of the ordinary,
the common, the very drab,
the daily presentations.
Oh, good scholar,
I say to myself,
how can you help
but grow wise
with such teachings
as these—
the untrimmable light
of the world,
the ocean’s shine,
the prayers that are made
out of grass?”
(From: “Why I Wake Early” by Mary Oliver; Beacon Press, 2004)
Questions for further reflection:
Light: How have you seen God’s light reflected in the world?
Wonder: What images have made you mindful of the wonder of creation?
Mystery: Where have you encountered “thin places”?
RESPONDING
[Selection of music for listening and meditation.]
A Shared Time for Reflection, Prayer and Offering
You are invited to use the quiet to reflect on the readings and ideas shared today, to light a candle or place a stone or shell as an expression of your intention or prayer, and/or to place an offering in the basket. If you get up to move about, please maintain safe physical distancing. And if you have a thought to share, please feel free to offer it aloud. For those of you sitting with this Service later in your own time and place, you might want to take time for personal prayer and reflection before continuing further.
PRAYER (in unison)
O Creator,
we celebrate your many names.
May your wisdom dwell among us,
may your will be our will,
unfolding from the depths within us.
Each day you give us all that we need.
You remind us of our limits, and we let go.
May we act with courage and justice.
For you are the dwelling place within us,
the empowerment around us,
and the celebration among us, now and always.
(Adapted from a prayer by Sr. Miriam Therese Winter)
BLESSING
May God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth,
bless you with awe and wonder.
May you be out of your depth—as the deeps of the night sky contain but cannot explain God’s mystery.
May you be lost for words—as the Word is spoken in the silence of the night, in the beauty of God’s creation.
May you live each day,
compassionate of heart,
gentle in word,
gracious in awareness,
courageous in thought,
and generous in love.
May you experience each day as a sacred gift
woven around the heart of wonder. Amen.
(Based on a blessing by John O’Donohue)
