Hello my friends,
This is Mark Gladman,
Brother Frederick James,
The Monk and Dogs.
Welcome,
As we move even closer towards the end of our pilgrimage walking to Jerusalem.
With the songs of ascents from the Book of Psalms.
Let's take a moment.
Become still and settled for our time together today.
Let's find a comfortable position.
Feel the ground beneath you.
Notice the rhythm of your breathing.
And as your breathing begins to slow,
Just notice that you are here,
You are present.
You are held.
And you are loved and just for a few moments allow yourself to rest in the quiet presence of God.
Our pilgrimage.
Is nearly complete.
For 14 ancient songs,
We've walked alongside generations of pilgrims making their way to Jerusalem.
We've prayed through longing and trust,
Joy and sorrow,
Gratitude and hope.
We've discovered that the journey of faith is never simply about arriving at a destination,
It's about becoming.
It's about becoming people of peace.
People of trust.
And people of hope,
And today.
As the pilgrims draw near to the holy city,
They remember something essential,
That no one makes the journey alone.
Faith is never a solitary achievement.
From the very beginning,
God has called people into relationship.
Yes,
With God,
But also with one another.
And so as the pilgrimage nears its end,
The psalm celebrates one of God's most beautiful gifts,
The gift of belonging.
And as always in this first reading,
I invite you just to listen carefully as the voice of the Spirit draws your attention to a word or a phrase.
And just sit with that for a moment in the silence that follows.
Psalm 133.
How very good and pleasant it is.
When kindred live together in unity.
It is like the precious oil on the head.
Running down upon the beard,
On the beard of Arryn.
Running down over the collar of his robes.
It is like the dew of Hermon.
Which falls on the mountains of Zion.
For there the Lord ordained his blessing,
Life forevermore.
I wonder what word or phrase sat with you.
Maybe it was how good and pleasant it is may be living together in unity.
Or there the Lord ordained his blessing.
Just stay with whatever's found you and let it plant deeply and root down in your heart as we reflect today.
Now this psalm is just incredibly simple,
Three verses.
Yet the vision that it offers feels absolutely beautiful,
But there's a a sense of,
What's the word,
Fragility to it as well.
How good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity.
Now it's important to see.
That the psalmist isn't referring to uniformity here.
There's no talk here of everyone thinking the same or seeing the world the same way.
Unity is so much deeper than that.
Unity is the decision to remain connected even when there's differences.
It's a commitment to seek one another's good.
The willingness to choose love over division,
And for the pilgrims travelling to Jerusalem.
The psalm was way more than some sort of utopian ideal.
It was a reminder.
Of the reality that was going on around them,
That people from different tribes,
Different villages,
Different experiences were all making the same journey together.
Their unity.
Never erased the uniqueness that each person,
Tribe,
Family and so on held,
But It gave their diversity.
A common purpose,
Something to draw them together,
And maybe.
.
.
Maybe this is one of those beautiful invitations again that the spiritual life draws us into to recognize.
That we belong to one another.
To paraphrase Mother Teresa.
That our lives are somehow intertwined in ways that we often can't see or that we often forget.
And because of that no active kindness.
Is insignificant.
Every movement towards compassion strengthens the bonds that hold us together.
So let's listen again.
To the psalm.
And this time,
Rather than words and phrases,
Just see which images.
Stick with you.
And stir your mind in the silence that follows.
Psalm 133.
How very good and pleasant it is.
When kindred live together in unity.
It is like the precious oil on the head.
Running down upon the beard,
On the beard of Arryn.
Running down over the collar of his robes.
It is like the dew of Hermon.
Which falls on the mountains of Zion.
For there the Lord ordained his blessing,
Life forevermore.
Now the images in this psalm are actually quite vivid.
Oil.
Flowing over Aaron's robes.
Dew descending from Mount Hermon.
And both of these images speak to abundance of blessing that can't be contained.
The oil that was used to anoint priests was a sign of consecration and it was a reminder to the people who watched this happening that life itself is holy.
And dew,
Of course,
Brought life to dry and weary lands.
And the blessing of unity is like that.
It refreshes us,
It heals us,
And it gives life.
Now the world we live in today will often try and teach us to protect ourselves or our tribe or our group,
To compete,
To retreat into smaller and smaller circles,
But the Pilgrim Path invites us to a complete a completely different way.
A way that is full of hospitality and listening.
A way of forgiveness and a way of community.
You'll notice that the way the world thinks,
That whole tribal,
Competitive,
Us and them mentality.
Jesus.
Sought to move us completely beyond that.
It is searching.
He said,
Love your neighbor as if they are you,
Basically because they are us.
In his prayer in John 17.
He prayed to God that we would realise that we are one and united in the same way.
That the Father and the Son are united within each other.
Paul spoke of the body.
As being connected.
And that each organ,
While it does its own thing,
It works in synergy with the others so that You know,
If the little toe's hurting,
The rest of the body hurts along with it.
We run a huge risk of losing that sense of reality,
A reality that is found in that beautiful image of the Trinity,
That although not being a biblical word,
Is an image for how we see God moving in relationships.
This dance between those three persons of God and who God is.
The perichoresis,
As the ancient calls us,
The circle dance.
A dance that.
.
.
We're told we're made in the image of.
So this is how we're meant to dance with one another,
To relate to one another,
To encircle one another.
And what's beautiful?
Is that the oneness who we are as humanity?
Is called to enter into that life.
With God.
To be.
If you want to get technical,
A fourth.
In that Trinity.
That we're talking about.
And this sense of community and oneness is something that Saint Benedict understood quite deeply,
The monastery.
Was never meant to be a gathering of perfect people.
It was a school of love.
A place where ordinary people learned day by day how to live together with patience,
Humility and compassion.
And this is why Benedictine monks.
One of their vows is stability.
Because when we take this vow,
We're promising that even though there'll be others who rub us the wrong way.
Who get on our grill.
Who irk us.
Who infuriate us at times.
We will study.
And we will commit.
To living in unity.
With them.
So maybe this psalm is inviting us to ask,
Where am I being called to become a maker of peace?
Who in my life needs understanding rather than judgment?
How might I contribute to that?
To the healing of the communities to which I belong.
Can I commit to stability,
To staying,
To abiding in these spaces?
And to being someone who will help shape it.
That cohesiveness,
Even with people.
Who may think differently.
And move differently to how I do.
Let's listen.
To the psalm one final time and this time allow these ancient words to become a blessing for your relationships,
Your communities and our prayer for the wider world.
Psalm 133.
How very good and pleasant it is.
When kindred live together in unity.
It is like the precious oil on the head.
Running down upon the beard,
On the beard of Arryn.
Running down over the collar of his robes.
It is like the dew of Hermon.
Which falls on the mountains of Zion.
For there the Lord ordained his blessing,
Life forevermore.
Let's pray.
God of communion,
Thank you for the people who walk beside us,
For family and friends,
For teachers and companions.
For strangers who become gifts.
Teach us to cherish the sacred bond that unites us.
Where there's division,
Teach us reconciliation.
Where there's misunderstanding,
Teach us compassion.
Where there's loneliness,
Teach us hospitality.
Help us become people who create space for others to flourish alongside us.
Give us the humility to listen.
The patience to forgive.
And the courage to love.
And as our pilgrimage draws closer to its end,
Remind us that we're never meant to walk alone.
May our lives be places of welcome.
May our communities become places of peace.
May your blessing flow through us like oil upon the head and dew upon the mountains,
Bringing life wherever it falls.
And may grace,
Peace,
And love go with us and remain with us today and always.
Amen.
We have another psalm to go,
Friends,
And I hope you'll join me as we reflect on that psalm tomorrow.
Until then,
God bless you and peace be with you.
