Holding anger and letting it go — Unitarians in Ringwood gathering for reverence 11 September 2022

On Thursday 8 September 2022, Queen Elizabeth II died.

On Sunday 11 September 2022, we gathered in that light of that event, but also recognising that 21 years had passed since the bombing of the Twin Towers in New York.

These were both events that drew many people closer together, in recognition of the many more things that we hold in common, as compared to the smaller number of things that separate us.

Thus it was good to meet.  To pray, and sing, and keep silence together, as well as to hear readings and some thoughts on them.

Unitarians are never shy of using scissors and paste on texts, to make them relevant and useful.  Both the readings were compilations, firstly from the book of Ecclesiasticus (also known as Sirach after its author, Jesus ben Sirach) (2:12-18, 3:26-31, 4:2-10) and secondly from the books of Mark (3:1-5) and Luke (18:9-14), in the Christian Bible (Roman Catholic version).

The Sirach reading evidenced the Graeco-Jewish wisdom tradition in the centuries BCE, in which the people of the region we now know as Israel/Palestine would have been soaked.  Sirach enjoined the wise to keep the law, with humble and prepared hearts; to pay attention to those in poverty; to support the needy; to be courteous to the destitute; to give alms; "Save the oppressed from the hand of the oppressor, and do not be mean-spirited in your judgments."

We remembered that Jesus of Nazareth came after this time, during a period in which Rome was an oppressive and brutal overlord.  That second Jesus would have known the sort of texts exemplified by those of Jesus ben Sirach, and so would have the people who heard him speak.

The second reading brought to our attention the anger that Jesus of Nazareth felt when he saw hard-hearted people showing reluctance to restore someone's health and well-being on the Sabbath day.  And that his instruction regarding prayer and standing aright with God went far beyond the sort of advice given centuries before, by ben Sirach.  In the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, Jesus of Nazareth criticised the very people who thought they were living and praying in the best way, according to all the old texts.

Our president for the day gave us her reflections on the readings.

"The course of this winter is looking quite bleak for people in UK, with households and small businesses quite frightened by the prospects of rising fuel costs.

There's an unimaginable catastrophe pending, owing to the re-setting of the climate and its weather systems into a highly energetic state, by our continued abuse of the planet through our use of fossil fuels.  People in Pakistan are the latest to suffer with the extreme and widespread floods, but we will go down like dominoes, one land mass after another, and all eventually be affected  — even those nations that are currently in denial.

We see people pulling up the barricades against other people who are simply enterprising people trying to make new lives for themselves.  Fear or dislike of the person viewed as 'other' is rife.

We see the effects of pay systems that have traditionally relied on artificially cheap labour now rippling through the whole of the economy.  Even our lawyers now cannot make ends meet, meaning there is a loss of legal aid for those victims who had thought that our justice system would see them right.

We see our loved ones being nursed by people who are made to feel unwelcome through their skin colour, and we hear of medics at all levels being faced with constant stress, and at risk of catching COVID again and again and again.  COVID is by no means over.

We see the loss of honesty and transparency converted into a breakdown of trust between the electorate and those who have offered themselves as representatives.

Not all of us may feel directly affected, at present, by all or indeed any of these.  But sooner or later, we will be, whether directly or indirectly.  And already, those of us feeling untouched ourselves may be seeing the difficulties facing our families and friends; and we may rail at the injustices they face.

We need to do that — we need to rail against injustice — because society cannot afford for everyone to not look at how our country works, ‘under the bonnet’.  Those who can need to be part of tackling root causes; or if not tackling root causes then those who can must be part of the action that locally relieves pain and struggle.  If we don’t then who is there who will come and save society?"

She went on to suggest that we need to notice the gap between how the two authors 'Jesus' gave advice, advice which in both cases was aimed at making community life better.

"Our first reading from Jesus ben Sirach shows that the Hebrew Bible contained layer upon layer of wisdom and advice on how to behave in community together.  This advice went into some detail and encouraged minute examination of circumstances, in order to decide exactly what to do. Men (in particular) made a real study of these texts, and one can imagine the style of advice in those books suffusing the whole public space and flavouring the dealings between people.  All with the aim of trying to make life better.  Nonetheless, in this world of community and layers of wisdom, many people were neglected and abused.  

Jesus of Nazareth lived later, in a turbulent, brutal, oppressive and restive time.  He by turns (1) got angry about it and (2) did something else quite remarkable: he learned how to achieve peace within himself in the face of his anger.  This is a lesson we could all do with learning.

In Mark, we heard how Jesus was angry with those concerned about the finer points of Sabbath behaviour while a fellow was suffering in front of them.  And in Luke, we heard him dismiss the educated, genteel way of praying.  In essence, Jesus said: “Don’t be complacent and taken up with yourself like the Pharisee, the lettered man striving in his silent prayer to follow the details of the Law.  Life’s too short and change is so crucial.  Cut instead to the chase.  Recognise your fundamental woundedness and incompleteness.  We are all wounded and incomplete. Pray by confessing that, simply and single-pointedly: keep that focus, like the tax collector.  Ask to receive the healing mercy that is there for you. Then from that focus, love your enemies, people just like you.  Pray for those who persecute you.” "

Our president suggested that Jesus' way of praying was a way of getting back to wholeness, or, if you like, getting into wholeness.  Remarking that Jesus was unconventional in his use of metaphors to reveal something of God, she listed some other metaphors she has come across or found useful: 

~ Source

~ Eternal Realm

~ Life

~ Underlying Order

~ The Great Unfolding

~ Overall Dance

~ The Silent Whisper

~ Truth

~ Field of being

And then she said:

"But also this: Complete Entirety. 

Everything all together is God

God is everything all together

All that there is

Complete Entirety

Complete Entirety means 'all of us together, all that we live in together, all that underpins the universe that we live in together, and all that lies beyond those underpinnings, all together and more than we can imagine'; all of that together can be pointed at by the word ‘God’.

That places us all in the same essential spot, the same spot as each other.  Much though we would all like to distance ourselves from some people, there can, in essence, be no ‘othering’ between us.

Each of us taken as a person is an incompleteness  —  we are the universe experiencing the woundedness of incompleteness. 

Erazim Kohák (1933-2020), a philosopher has said: "Our pains and woes are not so much removed from us as we are reconciled to them as we suddenly see them as if from under the perspective of the whole.” (A)

So what Jesus’ instruction about prayer turns into is this:

“Pray like this:

Lord have mercy on me, someone who misses the mark by the very nature of my humanity, my essential woundedness

Lord have mercy.

And have mercy also on all my fellows, on every other human, being in the same essential spot as I am

Lord, have mercy.”

Jesus’ way of praying is a way of bringing interior peace, even in the face of exterior suffering."

The gathering closed with recent words by Rev Philip Waldron, currently Minister with Unitarians in Merseyside, who said:

“It is time to work on our fragmented inner world; if we don’t our external world will be broken, fractured and in pain.  When our inner world is unbroken, our external world is healing for those we meet, and in our presence, we become a blessing to those who travel with us on our journey.”

(A)  Erazim Kohák (1933-2020) The Embers and the Stars, University of Chicago Press, 1987, pp. 42-46, via 'Caute' blog

A new beginning after COVID, with help from text messages, Isaiah and Mark — gathering of Unitarians in Ringwood 14 August 2022

What a joy it was to be together again, in the Meeting House, to be starting anew by meeting in person.  After a gap of two and a half years owing to COVID19, for us as a congregation this felt like a new beginning.  And though for each of us it will be different, we shared this new beginning.

Now, for first time blog visitors and regular readers alike, here is the periodic reminder.  We are not Bible scholars, nor do we hold that the Bible contains more or better quality wisdom than any other source.  What we say is that the Bible is where our forebears started; hence referring to the Bible can provide a shortcut to a shared understanding, as the same words and pictures have been re-interpreted in each generation, over centuries.

We say too that the practice of reading it with new eyes is something else we have inherited from our forebears.  We don’t start from “What is God saying to us through this text?” but from “What words has the author put together here and why (and what is the crucial influence of the translator)?”

And thirdly, we say that what the Bible may convey must be supported by our lived experience; and that this stance too we have inherited from our forebears.

Early Unitarian congregations and communities came out of Presbyterian congregations, Baptist congregations, Congregationalist congregations, and even Anglican ones. They were joined by individuals from many other backgrounds to boot. It wasn’t ritual, or theology, or even practical organisation that they had in common.  It was these three things:

The Bible, the drive for lived Truth, and the measures of reason and conscience as their guide.

These three taken together was what was new in their beginning.

In the early days there may in any case have been a shortage of other sources of wisdom to tap into.  The Bible may have been the only book seen and read.  It would have been natural for congregations to focus their attention on it.  

But now we face the diametrically opposed problem: there are so many sources of wisdom open to us, from cultures worldwide, that as we take each our own path of exploration, it can be a lonesome journey — and the concept of ‘an experience in common’ lies in splinters and shards.  Let’s face it, it’s hard enough to find someone to chat with about the same television programme last night  — we never watch the same things — how much more difficult is it now to have a shared ground to stand on when discussing deep matters of the spirit?

So though we value influences from all religious, philosophic, artistic, scientific, natural and just plain suburban sources, we hold that hanging onto the practice established by our forebears is a good and authentic rallying point.  Rallying — congregating — is what we are about.  We walk our own private paths between gatherings, but the whole point of a congregation is to congregate on a shared ground for mutual support.  So we tend to start from the Bible.

"We light our chalice-candle, invoking the divine light that shines in stars and suns and the bright eyes of a child. 

We light our chalice-candle to invoke the warmth that wakens the divine life in cold earth and cold hearts. 

We light our chalice-candle so we can see the divine beauty in a flower and the human beauty in courageous love

Amen"

 Spirit of Time and Place, Cliff Reed, pg. 29 (https://www.unitarian.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/2002_Spirit_Time_Place.pdf)

When we met on 14th August, our first reading was from the book of the prophet Isaiah chapter 61, verses 1 to 4.  What we heard were the words of the prophet, as recorded.

The spirit of the Lord God is upon me

    because the Lord has anointed me;

he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed,

    to bind up the broken-hearted,

to proclaim liberty to the captives

    and release to the prisoners,

² to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour

    and the day of vengeance of our God,

    to comfort all who mourn,

³ to provide for those who mourn in Zion—

    to give them a garland instead of ashes,

the oil of gladness instead of mourning,

    the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit.

They will be called oaks of righteousness,

    the planting of the Lord, to display his glory.

⁴ They shall build up the ancient ruins;

    they shall raise up the former devastations;

they shall repair the ruined cities,

    the devastations of many generations.

Our second reading was from the book of Mark chapter 1, verses 1 to 11.  This is the story of John the Baptizer and his baptism of Jesus, as narrated by the poet-author we know as Mark.  Depending which translation you read, the first line is,

“Beginning of the good word of Jesus the Anointed, Son of God.  

“As is written in Isaiah the prophet, 'Look, I am sending my messenger before your face, who will prepare your road, the voice of a crier in the desert...', so John came along, bathing others in the wilderness and announcing the washing of a changed heart for the forgiveness of wrongs.”

Our president for the day reflected on the two readings he had brought to our attention, as follows.

“Over the course of the past few years we have been on a journey of new beginnings as a congregation and as individuals. We meet together today, in some ways different and in others the same as when we last gathered here. 

“One of the things that has flourished over the past two years has been a book reading group, by way of daily SMS text exchanges sharing thoughts and feelings around what has been read that day. We’ve read a variety of books together, but one stands out as having been a game changer for me. Perhaps we worked up to it in some of our other reading, perhaps other books helped remove some barriers first, but this book opened doors for me in a way I can’t help but want to share.

“It was a book I had read before, but I very much felt as if I was reading it for the first time. I had had clear ideas what the book was about and opinions about the author, but this time I realised how much I had assumed, how much I had taken onboard other people’s opinions and understanding without being aware of it.  So when I stopped reading it how I thought I was ‘supposed’ to read it, it suddenly looked very different and far more interesting. It was a new beginning.

“That book was the Gospel of Mark. Did you know that it has no nativity, no virgin birth, no Trinity, no Jesus as God-Man, and that it even stops before any Resurrection? 

“Did you know it is possible to read it simply for fun like a novel, to read it as an ancient tragedy play, to read it as a philosophical dialogue, to read it as a political commentary?

“Did you know you can read it and never once find yourself in Sunday School, or being told what it means or what you have to do?  I’m suggesting trying it.  Many Unitarians have personal histories with the Gospels and the Bible in general. For some of us, those histories are painful and complicated. So the Bible can be triggering as well as inspirational, but if you can do it safely it’s worth trying.

“The readings today are an offering of a shared new beginning for anyone who’d like to take up this suggestion." 

“Right from the opening lines of Mark’s Gospel we think we know what he’s talking about, because we’ve imbibed enough through our shared culture and personal religious histories to give particular meanings to ‘good news’ and ‘Christ’.  But let's rewind — we started with the earlier section from Isaiah, which was written much earlier.

“There in Isaiah we read of a good news that has nothing to do with redemption from sin or getting into heaven.  Nothing written there about Jesus.  Instead, we meet another ‘anointed one’, another ‘Christ’, showing us that this title is far more shared and far less narrow in its application — it’s not just Jesus who is denoted 'Christ', 'anointed one'.

“If we can read this very first line of the Gospel of Mark differently — if we can, straight away, start reading a different book from the one we thought we knew — what else can be different, what else can be new?

“Your reason will interpret what you find in Mark.  Your conscience will tell you what is of value and what you can happily forget. Your drive for a lived Truth will decide if anything there nourishes your spirit or changes your practical life.

“And maybe, by holding some images and stories in common as a community we’ll have a framework for ready expression of ideas, a place to start talking and sharing our personal insights. The aim is never that we all think the same, or that we limit the places we find inspiration and wisdom, but it's this: that here at our new beginning perhaps we can learn from our forebears’ shared new beginning.

“It’s an offer, a suggestion, no time limits, no tests.  I got a lot out of re-reading Mark as it’s written and not as I thought it was. Today’s readings start us off together.  Where any of us goes from here is up to them.”

Gathering for Reverence 12 June 2022 - Jesus and the Law and Prophets

Just in case you haven’t read any of our other posts, some are think pieces and some are reports of the gatherings we have held.

For those that are reports of gatherings we have held, it may appear that our gatherings are centred on the reflection given by the person presiding for the day (the president).  In fact, our gatherings are centred around a few bits of practice that we do together, of which only one is to listen to a reflection.  The other, perhaps more useful bits of practice are listening to music, singing, keeping a shared silence (for our own private purposes, such as meditation, decompression, prayer, cogitation), listening to words of wisdom that have survived thousands of years, reciting some agreed words together.  It is easy to see that a reflection by just some person who happens to be there at the time may actually be the least important bit of the whole proceedings.

So, when you read this blog, the reflection assumes an importance it might not really have.  And yet it’s all you have, if you’re not able to come to our gatherings.  I’ll just leave you with that conundrum.  Meanwhile, please take all the other activities as a given, as you have a quick read of what was said.

In the June gathering, we had two readings.  The first was from the Hebrew Bible, in the books of Deuteronomy and Micah (Deuteronomy chapter 5 verses 1-22 & Micah chapter 6 verses 6-8).  It can be summed up as a listing of the famed Ten Commandments, tempered by an observation by the prophet Micah.

The second reading was a combination from the Hebrew and Christian Bibles (Deuteronomy chapter 6 verses 4-5, Leviticus chapter 19 verse 18, & Mark chapter 12 verses 29-31).  This was basically one of the most famous and important sayings of Jesus, preceded by the Hebrew Bible sources that Jesus would have known and which he may have been making reference to.

And the reflection on these readings follows, with the normal caveat that the readings are being looked at, not as immutable words in a framework of belief that we all hold, but, as possible sources of inspiration in our ever changing position on shifting sands, as we journey on in our company together.

“Let’s notice that seven of the Ten Commandments are things God requires people not to do, contrasting with only two commandments being things that are to be done — which are honouring elders and the wisdom they bring, for survival’s sake; and having regular rest every seventh day, for well-being’s sake.  

“So it can be argued that this is actually a very liberal contract between God and the people.  It says that providing you use the handed-down knowledge, and care for those who bring it, provided you care for your own well-being, and providing you avoid doing the few other things listed, you can largely do what you like.  

“Micah, on the other hand, thought there was more to say.  Micah put a style overlay on top of the message that you must act in accordance with the rules: Micah said you must also be kind, be humble. 

“The first five books of the Hebrew Bible contain many other strictures and rules about living, rules which were largely aimed at some form of purity.  Purity of heart, purity of marriage, purity of the relationship between the tribes, purity of the priests who administered the sacred rituals, they go on and on. When we add onto those all the side commentaries, the rich interpretations, that the wise teachers living the Jewish faith added alongside the Hebrew Bible, it could be felt that the rules applying to Jewish people are actually anything but liberal, anything but simple.  Indeed, it could be felt as very constraining.  

“I remember a conversation in the 1990s with a friend, about a work colleague of his who was also a rabbi.  This rabbi was always being accosted by one or other of his congregants with questions — such as how one should eat a custard cream biscuit.  The story pivoted around the legalities of food mixing and food preparation.  As I understood it, the problem with a custard cream biscuit lies in its three-layered, sandwiched nature — biscuit, cream, biscuit.  I think I was being told that, being of different food types, the biscuit layers and the cream layer couldn’t be eaten together.  Worse, it seemed that it was legal to remove biscuit layer from the cream centre, but not to remove the cream layer from the biscuit .... The rabbi was no doubt exaggerating and having fun with his colleague (and remotely, me too), but he had made his point.

“So there were all these laws, which had accreted significantly by the time of Jesus.  It is attributed to Jesus that he said that he came not to sweep away the law and the prophets but rather to fulfil them (Matthew 5:17). Traditional Christians have taken this to mean that he — Jesus in his person, in his character, in his make up, in his very being — somehow is the very point of the law and the prophets.  That Jesus is somehow the bringing to life or fruition of the law and the prophets.

“Unitarians do not take this view. Perhaps that’s an outrageous generalization — I have heard very few Unitarians comment on what Jesus might have meant — or rather, what Unitarians think the authors of the Gospels might have had in mind when they attributed those words to Jesus.

“So might not the Jesus character have meant, 'Look! We already have the law and the prophets, there's nothing more to be given, by way of direct instruction.  But yet we all struggle with it.  Well, I've got a few ideas about what fully living within (not just the letter but also the spirit of) the law and the prophets might actually look like; what living devoutly in covenant with God might entail on a minute-by-minute basis.  I come not to sweep away the law and the prophets but to make your covenant with God fit a wider perspective and to make it more real in your daily lives.' ?

“Moreover, we see Jesus speaking in metaphoric terms, non-legalistic, non-precise.  'You do not light a lantern and hide it under a bowl.  You set it up on a stand where it will light the whole room.' (Matthew 5:15, Luke 8:16, Luke 11:33).  What was that supposed to mean to people who were used to hearing: on such and such a day you must do this and then you must clean the knife in this way according to the teaching of the certain rabbi and after you've done that you must pour the oil and set it aside in a container... etc etc etc. ?

“Again, this character Jesus is written so as to perplex people, with riddles, with stories about imaginary, unlikely characters.  For instance, a son who persuades his father, against all convention, to give him his birthright — his inheritance — early.  Who then squanders it all, yet is welcomed back again by the father (Luke 15:11-32).  This is an imaginary tale.  

“An outsider, an alien, someone normally shunned, is the only one who stops to help a severely mugged man at the roadside (Luke 10:25-37).  This is an imaginary tale.  

“A comment that unless you become as little children (Matthew 18:3) — “Did he just say we must be born again?” — you cannot encounter God. This is an impossible circumstance. 

“A comment that it’s more difficult to find the kingdom than it is for a cable to go through the eye of a needle (Mark 5:25-26, Jubilee Bible 2000).  “Then who can be saved?” asks an incredulous audience, for this is an impossible circumstance.

“These words of Jesus are not legal instructions.  These are challenges to move beyond the law.  To break out of our thought patterns.

“These are challenges to live a whole life, an integrated life, a life of one-through-ness, by way of dismantling our own assumptions about where justice and mercy lie in any given situation.  These are challenges to think about what it means in any moment to be in right relationship, humble and neat and clean and innocent before God.  Humbly walking with God, loving kindness, doing justice.

“Jesus may or may not have lived; he may or may not have been one person.  But, as written, he may be understood as the voice of a wisdom that demands that whilst we know the law of goodness, commitment and conscience we must know also the limits of that law.  A wisdom that demands we seek ever to move beyond law to that unique fulfilment, that ‘bringing to life’, which only we, each and every one of us, can live. 

“A wisdom that advises that we spend our lives challenging our own assumptions and our own behaviours so that we do indeed fulfil — not the law, but — what is pointed at by the law and the prophets.”

“To live is to care

may it be given to us 

to care

and when our need is greatest 

may care be also shown to us — 

not because we have earned it

through act of goodness or strength

nor because we have bought it

by virtue of wealth 

but because we nonetheless 

deserve it 

by grace of our 

nearness to holiness 

closer than the pulse in our own neck

that divine spark which we embody

our inspiration of that breath which we have inherited

that breath which unites us 

to one another 

and to all breathing creatures.”

Rev Jo James, Mill Hill Chapel, Leeds, 29 May 2022