We Kindred Pilgrim Souls
Preached 7/11/2021 at SouthWest UU in N. Royalton OH
By Rev. Meg Mathieson
I’d like to begin my message this morning with a prayer. In the spirit of journeying towards wholeness, I invite you to hear these words by UU Rev. Kristen Taves:
Spirit of Life and Love, God of grace and mercy, Source of all things that changes us as we cannot change ourselves,
We gather this morning as a covenanted community of spiritual seekers, coming together in a rainbow of diversity united by our conviction that the wounds of this world can be healed through compassion, forgiveness, acceptance, and courage. And by healing we do not mean restored to some mythical original purity, but brought to a new place, with greater wisdom, wholeness and liberation than could have been envisioned before.
This community is on a journey from one home to another, and yet in truth we know that each one of us is on a journey, and all our journeys place us before forks in the road. These places ask us to make choices, saying yes to some things, saying no to others, grieving in what we must leave behind, rejoicing in the blessings, often unexpected, that come our way.
In these journeys, some will choose to walk with us, and some will choose another path. Some will pause for a while, withdrawing into their own places of transformation where we cannot follow. Some of these partings happen gently and lovingly, others with judgment and disappointment.
It is our calling to accept these things as a testament to our strength and our fragility, and to trust in the process, even as we fear the unknown, even as whispers of beloved memories draw us deep into our own hearts, even when we see more clearly where we have come from than where we are going. The journey asks us to keep walking.
Let us enter into a time of communal silence for the individual prayers and meditations of our hearts.
Spirit of Life, we ask for patience, we ask for understanding, we ask for compassion, we ask for hope and gratitude so that we may welcome our collective and individual journeys with open hearts, open minds, and open hands.
Amen and blessed be.
This communal journey, from one home to another, feels like a very apt analogy right now, because even though our beloved building is still standing firm in space, in geography, solidly awaiting our return, it will not necessarily be the same place that we left. When we return together, it will have been after a great and arduous journey. A journey, maybe not of geography, but a journey of spirit.
And this is a journey that we have weathered together. Not all of the same beloved faces will return, as some have moved away, and some have died, and some new faces will be in the crowd as we have picked up some new visitors and friends along the way. We are a changed people. And this building, steadfast as it may be, will welcome us, changed as we are.
So our journey continues. UU Rev. Susan Maginn speaks of journeys, pilgrimages and wholeness when she tells of the time she visited the Anne Frank house:
“And as I tried to say goodbye to her, I realized how I could not let her go, even if I wanted to. Her spirit had already changed my own. She had accompanied me through so many of my formative years and would be forever woven into the ground of my being. She taught me how to take up the brokenness of my youth and re-forge the wholeness of my emerging adulthood.
Perhaps this piece about brokenness and wholeness is an important one to consider before we choose our pilgrimage: Are we going on a pilgrimage as someone who is broken seeking wholeness, or do we go as someone who is whole seeking to bless a broken world?
…I’m …reminded of the renowned Peace Pilgrim who has been called ‘a 20 century St. Francis of Assisi’. She took the following vow in 1953: “to remain a wanderer until mankind has learned the way of peace, walking until given shelter and fasting until given food." She traveled without any money and without aligning with any particular organization. Peace Pilgrim walked over 25,000 miles throughout North America, beginning in 1953 and ending when she died in 1981. She walked to share her simple message for complete disarmament for each person and for each nation.
…We Unitarian Universalists are people of the wandering pilgrimage. We wander in the ways of love as best we know them today, wandering toward wholeness, healing and transformation, becoming our deepest and truest selves together, knowing we will stumble along the way, and we will restore one another.
So, …where are you going? What would be the embodiment of your spiritual journey? Would you come broken seeking wholeness? Would you come whole, ready to give a blessing?
Whether or not we ever plan a grand trip to faraway lands, why not live each day as if we are all on a wandering pilgrimage right now? Because we are. Any day can be a day of relishing the triumphs of the soul, and our greatest pilgrimage sites might be much closer than we know.
Of course, our pilgrimage, our journey this past year and a half has been an odd, non-geographical journey. We have borne a pilgrimage our ancestors would have found bizarre, even incomprehensible, by staying put, by learning how to use zoom to continue our spiritual journeys. And we now draw ever close to the pilgrimage to this very building.
I adore the Christian poet Jan Richardson, and she has penned several beautiful poems about the journey toward wholeness. This one, titled For Those Who Have Far to Travel, is a blessing for all of us on our journey toward wholeness.
(Read poem here)
What is that gift that Jan Richardson speaks of? What is the gift that only you can offer?
I’d like to turn to our final hymn for the answer, Blue Boat Home. We will sing it in a moment, and one of the things we will sing together is that we are all wandering pilgrim souls. Not just me, not just you. All of us, wandering, journeying, connected souls who each have the ability to give a gift. Like the wise men in the Jesus story, we each journey to the place in our hearts where we can offer our special gift to the holy of holies.
The most holy - the unnameable, the ineffable, and that includes our Dear Mother Earth, herself a small, vulnerable child in a vast universe. What can you offer to the most holy? There is something special, something sacred that only you hold. That only you can choose to offer. That is your own divinity. Let’s offer that divinity to our Mother Gaia as we join our voices in song.
Preached 7/11/2021 at SouthWest UU in N. Royalton OH
By Rev. Meg Mathieson
I’d like to begin my message this morning with a prayer. In the spirit of journeying towards wholeness, I invite you to hear these words by UU Rev. Kristen Taves:
Spirit of Life and Love, God of grace and mercy, Source of all things that changes us as we cannot change ourselves,
We gather this morning as a covenanted community of spiritual seekers, coming together in a rainbow of diversity united by our conviction that the wounds of this world can be healed through compassion, forgiveness, acceptance, and courage. And by healing we do not mean restored to some mythical original purity, but brought to a new place, with greater wisdom, wholeness and liberation than could have been envisioned before.
This community is on a journey from one home to another, and yet in truth we know that each one of us is on a journey, and all our journeys place us before forks in the road. These places ask us to make choices, saying yes to some things, saying no to others, grieving in what we must leave behind, rejoicing in the blessings, often unexpected, that come our way.
In these journeys, some will choose to walk with us, and some will choose another path. Some will pause for a while, withdrawing into their own places of transformation where we cannot follow. Some of these partings happen gently and lovingly, others with judgment and disappointment.
It is our calling to accept these things as a testament to our strength and our fragility, and to trust in the process, even as we fear the unknown, even as whispers of beloved memories draw us deep into our own hearts, even when we see more clearly where we have come from than where we are going. The journey asks us to keep walking.
Let us enter into a time of communal silence for the individual prayers and meditations of our hearts.
Spirit of Life, we ask for patience, we ask for understanding, we ask for compassion, we ask for hope and gratitude so that we may welcome our collective and individual journeys with open hearts, open minds, and open hands.
Amen and blessed be.
This communal journey, from one home to another, feels like a very apt analogy right now, because even though our beloved building is still standing firm in space, in geography, solidly awaiting our return, it will not necessarily be the same place that we left. When we return together, it will have been after a great and arduous journey. A journey, maybe not of geography, but a journey of spirit.
And this is a journey that we have weathered together. Not all of the same beloved faces will return, as some have moved away, and some have died, and some new faces will be in the crowd as we have picked up some new visitors and friends along the way. We are a changed people. And this building, steadfast as it may be, will welcome us, changed as we are.
So our journey continues. UU Rev. Susan Maginn speaks of journeys, pilgrimages and wholeness when she tells of the time she visited the Anne Frank house:
“And as I tried to say goodbye to her, I realized how I could not let her go, even if I wanted to. Her spirit had already changed my own. She had accompanied me through so many of my formative years and would be forever woven into the ground of my being. She taught me how to take up the brokenness of my youth and re-forge the wholeness of my emerging adulthood.
Perhaps this piece about brokenness and wholeness is an important one to consider before we choose our pilgrimage: Are we going on a pilgrimage as someone who is broken seeking wholeness, or do we go as someone who is whole seeking to bless a broken world?
…I’m …reminded of the renowned Peace Pilgrim who has been called ‘a 20 century St. Francis of Assisi’. She took the following vow in 1953: “to remain a wanderer until mankind has learned the way of peace, walking until given shelter and fasting until given food." She traveled without any money and without aligning with any particular organization. Peace Pilgrim walked over 25,000 miles throughout North America, beginning in 1953 and ending when she died in 1981. She walked to share her simple message for complete disarmament for each person and for each nation.
…We Unitarian Universalists are people of the wandering pilgrimage. We wander in the ways of love as best we know them today, wandering toward wholeness, healing and transformation, becoming our deepest and truest selves together, knowing we will stumble along the way, and we will restore one another.
So, …where are you going? What would be the embodiment of your spiritual journey? Would you come broken seeking wholeness? Would you come whole, ready to give a blessing?
Whether or not we ever plan a grand trip to faraway lands, why not live each day as if we are all on a wandering pilgrimage right now? Because we are. Any day can be a day of relishing the triumphs of the soul, and our greatest pilgrimage sites might be much closer than we know.
Of course, our pilgrimage, our journey this past year and a half has been an odd, non-geographical journey. We have borne a pilgrimage our ancestors would have found bizarre, even incomprehensible, by staying put, by learning how to use zoom to continue our spiritual journeys. And we now draw ever close to the pilgrimage to this very building.
I adore the Christian poet Jan Richardson, and she has penned several beautiful poems about the journey toward wholeness. This one, titled For Those Who Have Far to Travel, is a blessing for all of us on our journey toward wholeness.
(Read poem here)
What is that gift that Jan Richardson speaks of? What is the gift that only you can offer?
I’d like to turn to our final hymn for the answer, Blue Boat Home. We will sing it in a moment, and one of the things we will sing together is that we are all wandering pilgrim souls. Not just me, not just you. All of us, wandering, journeying, connected souls who each have the ability to give a gift. Like the wise men in the Jesus story, we each journey to the place in our hearts where we can offer our special gift to the holy of holies.
The most holy - the unnameable, the ineffable, and that includes our Dear Mother Earth, herself a small, vulnerable child in a vast universe. What can you offer to the most holy? There is something special, something sacred that only you hold. That only you can choose to offer. That is your own divinity. Let’s offer that divinity to our Mother Gaia as we join our voices in song.