Hello friends.
This is Mark Gladman,
Also known as Brother Frederick James,
Your friendly neighbourhood monk in docks.
Welcome to The World is Full of God.
Let's take a moment to settle ourselves into this time.
Just let your body find a comfortable position.
Bringing ourselves fully into this moment,
Body,
Mind and soul.
Take a nice deep breath in.
And out.
.
.
And as you allow yourself to be here in this moment,
Just notice the ground beneath you.
The air against your skin.
The quiet sounds around you.
Let yourself arrive in this moment as one small part of a much larger world.
Today we're turning to Psalm 8,
A song of wonder about the vastness of creation and the surprising significance of human life within it.
I never stood beneath.
A night sky and felt really small for a moment.
Or maybe you looked out across the ocean,
Stood among ancient trees,
Watched clouds move across the wide open sky.
There's something wonderfully disorienting about those moments.
The world becomes bigger.
Than us.
And our place within it seems both smaller and somehow more precious.
And Psalm 8 begins right there with this kind of wonder.
The psalmist looks at the heavens,
The moon,
The stars,
And asks a question.
That's so simple but so profound.
What are human beings that God should be mindful of them?
It's a question that's born out of astonishment.
We are small in relation to the universe.
Our lives are brief.
The world existed long before us and will continue long after us,
But the psalmist doesn't conclude that life is insignificant as a result.
Instead,
The vastness of creation deepens the mystery of our place within it.
So today,
Let this psalm invite you to hold two things together,
The humility of knowing that we're not the center of everything,
And the wonder of discovering that our lives,
Nevertheless,
Matter to God.
And so let's read for the first time,
Psalm 8 verses 3 to 9.
And in this first reading,
Listen slowly and allow the words to open up space that you can sit in,
In the silence that will follow.
Noticing perhaps a phrase or a word or an image or a question.
That you can hold in that silence.
When I look at your heavens,
The work of your fingers.
The moon and the stars that you have established.
What are humans that you are mindful of them?
Mortals that you care for them.
Yet you have made them a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor.
You have given them dominion over the work of your hands.
You have put all things under their feet,
All sheep and oxen and also the beasts of the field,
The birds of the air and the fish of the sea,
Whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
O Lord,
Our Sovereign,
How majestic is your name in all the earth.
The psalmist looks at the heavens and wonders why God would pay attention to human beings at all.
It's a beautiful question because it begins with perspective.
When we glimpse the immensity of creation,
Our own lives can seem very small.
The things that occupy our minds each day suddenly lose some of their weight.
And yet the psalm speaks of humanity as entrusted with a place within creation.
We're not its absolute owner.
But we're creatures within it that are given responsibility and dignity,
And I think this is part of the wonder.
We're neither everything nor nothing.
We belong.
The stars don't need us to shine.
The sea doesn't rise and fall because of us.
The birds,
The trees,
Countless creatures of the earth,
They live their own lives within the great unfolding of creation and still we're a part of this world.
Our lives are woven into it.
We depend upon it,
Receive from it.
And have responsibility to care for it.
Is a freedom in recognizing that we're not the center of the story.
We don't have to make the whole world revolve around our needs.
We can learn to receive our place with gratitude.
And to live within the world with greater humility and care.
So maybe for a moment,
Bring to mind something that makes you feel small,
In the best possible sense,
A night sky,
A mountain.
A tree that's centuries older than you.
Or that sheer complexity of another living creature,
And let the experience remind you.
That being small doesn't mean without worth.
You are part of this world held within a mystery much larger than yourself.
So let's hear again from Psalm 8 verses 3 to 9.
And as you listen,
Again,
Notice what changes when you hear the psalm.
Not as a statement about humanity as such,
But as an invitation to wonder at your place within creation.
And let the words settle within you as we enter the time of silence.
When I look at your heavens,
The work of your fingers.
The moon and the stars that you have established.
What are humans that you are mindful of them?
Mortals that you care for them.
Yet you have made them a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor.
You have given them dominion over the work of your hands.
You have put all things under their feet,
All sheep and oxen and also the beasts of the field,
The birds of the air and the fish of the sea.
Whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
O Lord,
Our Sovereign,
How majestic is your name in all the earth.
God of the vast heavens and the smallest living things.
When we look upon the world you have made,
Teach us the wonder of our place within it.
Keep us humble before the immensity of creation.
Yet help us recognize the dignity of the life that we've been given.
Free us from the need to make ourselves the centre of every story.
Teach us to receive the world with gratitude,
To care for what's been entrusted to us,
And to live gently among all your creatures.
When we feel insignificant,
Remind us that we belong.
When we're tempted to believe that everything exists for our sake,
Open our eyes to the life and wonder that flourish beyond our own concerns.
May we discover the quiet freedom of being one small part of your extraordinary creation.
And may grace,
Peace and love be with us and remain with us as we find our place in this world today and always.
Amen.
Until tomorrow,
Friends,
Remember the world is full of God.
