Oldham Chapel Update – Bob Pounder

Dear Friends,

Following on from my June ‘Ministers Message’ in which I sought to emphasise the necessity for independent thought and the importance of trying to put things in a rightful perspective, I offer this as prayer and also, as a meditation for self-reflection.

Prayer

Gracious and loving God alive to the pure in heart, and friend to all who love the truth, clear our inner vision of insincerity and self-deception.  Fill us with the power of all that is right and beautiful, so that we spurn the insidious distractions of shallow self-centeredness.

In a world giddy with the excitement of politics, help us to keep a sense of what is truly important and lasting.

Help us in all we think and say and do, to live in the light of your perfect love, with all our minds, with all our hearts and with all our strength. Amen

Finding the Divine in the Ordinary

Friends, the truly religious mind does not separate the hand of God from all that we see and experience in this life. All of creation is a manifestation of God’s creative love. In that lively hymn, A Melody of Love by Joseph Johnson (1849-1926) is really the message that the divine is always present in the ordinary and that above the tumultuous roar of events and angry politics, God’s presence can be found:

God speaks to us in bird and song,

In winds that drift the cloud along,

Above the din of toil and wrong,

         A melody of love.

In his book ‘The Pastoral Nature of the Ministry’, Frank Wright gives us another true example of how we may see God in the world. Amusingly, he wrote how Bishop Ian Ramsey ‘Liked to quote the example of Charles Raven walking back from Liverpool Cathedral one winter evening at the time of the early 30s depression in Lancashire, and passing a crowded fish and chip shop. The old familiar sight of the shop, the ritual of scooping out the chips and emptying them onto the greaseproof and the newspaper needs no detailing: but of that customary scene – Raven wrote, ‘All of the sudden, the glory. . .  ‘The ordinary became the extraordinary: the proprietor symbolised in that context the heavenly Father giving his children their daily bread.’

If we are open to this way of thinking, then like the theologian, Charles Raven, we too may be able to experience such profound insight. Thomas Merton, in a more idyllic setting wrote:

When we are alone on a starlit night; when by chance we see the migrating birds in autumn descending on a grove of junipers to rest and eat; when we see children in a moment when they are really children; when we know love in our own hearts’

 It’s all beautiful stuff and in the gospel of Matthew we can see how Jesus used the ordinary things in life to illustrate the great spiritual truths when he said, ‘And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?’

Once I posted a wayside pulpit that read, ‘ When you touch, life touch it deeply’. When you touch life, touch it deeply, and the thing that occurs to me is that often I do not touch life deeply at all! Do any of us? We go to our chapel in Oldham to find a sacred space, to find time to reflect, to hopefully hear inspiring words and to worship. Amidst all of this I would hope that amongst the sixty or so minutes that are put aside each Sunday (under normal circumstances), that some inspiration, solace or insight may be obtained; to sustain us in the week to come. Outside of Sundays, may we also seek such presence of mind, allowing us to disengage from a busy world, to slow down, to become present to the moment, and to touch life deeply.

Leisure

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.
No time to turn at Beauty’s glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.
A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

William Henry Davies (1871 – 1940)

When we take time to stop and simply observe, we give ourselves an opportunity to break through the barriers of everyday consciousness to find that other reality if only for a moment. At best we may experience that sense of inner peace leading us to feel that in this world of impermanence there is also that underlying eternal presence.

The universe in which we live contrary to pessimistic thought, is an open and generous universe alive with fruitful potential, full of possibilities. Given time for reflection we may see that this is true. We each have been given a life and not only that, but a beautiful planet on which to spend this life. In Genesis, the first book of the Bible we can read that, ‘God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.’ When we look at this planet, this Earth we should know that we have been truly blessed.

However, I have heard critics accuse the Judeo-Christian tradition of being ‘anthropocentric’. The word anthropocentric in this critical sense means an attitude of putting the short-term interests of humanity above the concerns of the planet. Such critics say that this is so because according to the Bible, God has given us ‘dominion’ over the earth, and as a consequence it has been ravaged and ruthlessly exploited. But I would observe that you don’t have to be a ‘Christian’ to engage in such thoughtlessness. In any case, if God had literally presented us with the earth as a father or a mother presents a child with a valuable gift there would be of course the either spoken or an unspoken injunction to look after this precious gift. Indeed, there is an argument on the translation in Genesis that says the word ‘dominion over all the earth’ is not an accurate translation and that ‘stewardship’ of the earth would be nearer the mark. 

When we can see the divine in the ordinary, we can feel a great love, and a gratitude. We can feel that we do have a responsibility to each other and to all creation because we are all part of it. Indeed, we would be nothing without it.

I end with these words of blessing by Annie Besant:

O Hidden Life vibrant in every atom,

O Hidden Light! Shining in every creature;

O Hidden Love embracing all in Oneness

May each who feels himself as one with Thee,

Know he is also one with every other.

Bob