Wonder

A service titled ‘Wonder’, led by Rev. Dr. Jane Blackall and Dr. Azita Chellappoo, with readings given by Marianne Harvey, Sonya Leite and Chloe Harewood, and music from Abby Lorimier and Grace Cross.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 2:41

Because we are finite, we lift up our eyes to the infinite sky and feel wonder and awe. Because we have stumbled. We take the tender hand which beckons us to rise, and we feel strength and reassurance. Because we are lonely, we reach out to those around us and feel warmth and acceptance. Because we are human. We do all of these things, and in our worship we feel the presence of the divine. And to notice the wonders that abound is to be grounded here and now. And to be grounded here and now is the beginning of finding love for this life today. So let us ground ourselves in this instant in the worship of all things good and right. Welcome to everyone joining from far and wide via Zoom, and indeed anyone tuning in at a later date via the YouTube channel. For anyone who doesn't know me, my name is Jane Blackhall and I am minister with Kensington Unitarians. I'll be leading this service this morning with help from our own Azita Chellapu. If she gets home on time, she'll be joining us via Zoom for the sermon later. This morning our service is on the theme of wonder, and this was inspired in large part by this book, Wonderstruck, written by Helen DeCruz, who was a friend and colleague of Azita's. And we'll be hearing a lot more about Helen's life and work and their insights from Azita later in the service. Wonder is such a core part of the spiritual life. As the process philosopher Alfred North Whitehead once said, philosophy begins in wonder. And at the end, when philosophic thought has done its best, the wonder remains. And Edward Hayes wrote, We need to continue to cultivate a sense of wonder and awe to live our lives fully alive. And if you'll let me one have one more quote, Sean McNiff said, Wonder is something we bring to the perception of the world. Or perhaps the world gives this gift to us. It is a way of looking and it can be applied to anything. It's a moment for us to pause, to take a breath, to be here now. Put aside any preoccupations or worries we might have come in carrying. This simple ritual connects us to Unitarians and Unitarian Universalists the world over, and it reminds us of the proudly progressive religious tradition of which this gathering is part. For all the times we have stood in awe and wonder at the depths of our inner lives and the beauty of our outer lives. Made one. Time to sing. Our first hymn today is number 209 in your Green Hymn books, and it's an old favourite, A World Transfigured. For those who are joining on Zoom, the words will be up on screen. Feel free to stand or sit as you prefer, but sing up as best you can. A world transfigured. This is based on some words from Adam Slate. You might want to adjust your position to get more comfortable. You might want to close your eyes. Perhaps there's some posture that feels more prayerful. Whatever helps you to get settled and centred into the right state of body and mind for us to pray together now, be present to ourselves, to each other, and that which lies within us and beyond us. We turn our full attention to you, the light within and without, as we tune into the depths of this life, and the greater wisdom to which and through which we are all intimately connected. Be with us now as we allow ourselves to drop into the silence and the stillness at the very centre of our being. You have given us a day unique and unlike any other. You have connected us with all of us. You've connected us with each other and with the world in ways that are largely a mystery. You've given us little instruction other than to be present in our own lives, to feel wonder at the creation of the universe, and to love one another as best we can. Joys and sorrows, strengths and frailties, some of which we've already encountered, and others we have yet to discover. On this unique day, may we receive the blessings that we need to flourish, and the courage that we need to act in the service of the good. And we call on you for insight, healing, and renewal. As we look forward now to the coming week, help us to live well each day and be our best selves our unique gifts in the service of love, justice, and peace. Amen.

SPEAKER_04 15:22

Today's headline by Rosemary Wattola trauma. And then one day, while I read aloud to my husband the news and felt the widening hole in my heart, he raised his hand to quiet me. I followed his gaze out the window to see in the yard a small fluffy thing with black and white eye spots on its head. A northern pygmy owl beside our door. Stulk body slightly smaller than my fist. It turned its neck a full half circle to look at me with bright yellow eyes. In an instant I shifted from disgust with the world to awe. This wonder of feather and beak and claw. This small being in the grasp looking back at me as if to say here is also the news How surprising the world can be, how quickly when I let it, amazement overrides my fear and makes of the hole in my heart the hole.

SPEAKER_01 16:52

Thanks, Marianne. We're going to sing again now. Our second hymn today is number two hundred and forty-seven in your green hymn books, A World of Wonder.

SPEAKER_06 19:04

A few years ago, when we'd been married only a short time, my husband asked me what I wanted to do on our trip to Sedona, Arizona. I thought a minute and then asked, could we go on a hot air balloon ride? He made the arrangements. Once in Sedona, we got up at 5 a.m., saw a beautiful sunrise, and watched them ignite the inside of the balloon. We climbed in the basket with a whole bunch of strangers. That was when I told my husband, I'm afraid of heights. It was an amazing ride. We saw the red hills up close, close enough to land. We floated past tall trees and watched the sun continue on its journey. I held the basket tightly almost the entire time. The rest of the time I held on to him. The horizon seemed to never end. It was an amazing flight. Yesterday I told my three-year-old son about the ride. I promised him that he could go too once he's old enough and tall enough to be in the basket. I realized that it would also be terrifying to take him because I'd be worried about his safety. At the same time, I would love to watch his face, to experience his wonder as a parent. Life is full of seesaws. It offers us moments of extreme wonder and moments of fear. There's a choice to be made, sometimes between the two. Sometimes you have to live through the fear for the wonder to arrive. And sometimes they arrive separately. You have to hold on to the basket, and sometimes your loved ones, during the ride. But oh man, is the scenery worth every moment. At the time we took the balloon ride, I was a hospice chaplain. Now I'm a bereavement counsellor. First with patients and now with clients I love. The experience of death as a part of life is a seesaw I live daily. This work has transformed me. My desire for wonder overcomes the awareness of my fear, tilting the seesaw. I choose to put more life into my years. And then she concludes with a few brief words of prayer. Spirit of life and love and transformation. May we hold the moments of fear with wisdom and awareness. May those moments be our teachers and open us wider in spirit. Seek out the moments of wonder. May we open ourselves to be overcome by their possibilities so that we too can become transformed. May it be so. Amen.

SPEAKER_01 22:22

Thanks, Sonia. We're moving into a time of meditation now, and to take us into the stillness, I'm going to share some words by the Estonian poet Jan Klesplinsky, titled The Wonder Is, which reminds us how wonder is within reach even among the mundane rounds and all our daily aggravations. I should mention all the poems today, because I know it's hard to take in poems sometimes at first reading, they're all on your hymn sheet, so you can read them again at a later time. After the poem, we'll hold a few minutes of silence, which will end with the sound of a bell. And then we're going to hear some more beautiful music for meditation from Abby and Grace. So do what you need to do to get comfortable. You might want to get your feet flat on the ground, you might want to close your eyes. The words are just an offering. Feel free to use this time to meditate in your own way. The furnace never gets heated. Books never get read. Life is never completed. Life is like a ball which one must continually catch and hit so that it won't fall. When the fence is repaired at one end it collapses at the other. The roof leaks, the kitchen door won't close. There are cracks in the foundation, the torn knees of children's pants. One can't keep everything in mind. The wonder is that beside all this, one can notice the spring which is so full of everything, continuing in all directions, into evening clouds, into the red wing song, and into every drop of dew on every blade of grass in the meadow, as far as the eye can see into the dusk.

SPEAKER_05 31:38

No strategy for arrival. No finish line. No pot of gold. No perfect score. No striving for. Meeting a life form that old. Can I be that new as I meet this infinite world? To wonder, not just with my mind, but with my belly. To let every neuron spark. To notice where there is a channel and imagine the great wing of life is scraping it clean, so the stream might flow in new ways. To wander beyond the edge of the known. And in that spaciousness, play.

SPEAKER_00 33:00

Hi. Beyond their contributions to philosophy, they wrote fiction and short stories, were a talented illustrator, and played the lute. They sadly passed away last year at the age of 46, and their vibrant and infectious intellectual joy is sorely missed. That intellectual joy shines through in the last book they published called Wonderstruck: How Wonder and Awe Shape the Way We Think. After Helen's passing, I was helping organise an event in their honour, and we decided that having a symposium on this book would be the most fitting way to honour their memory. So I sat down to read the book. I read quite a few philosophy books for work, and some are more interesting than others, but it's rare that a book gives me a new perspective, not just on philosophy, but on life, and stays with me long after I've put it down. Wonder Struck is about the power of awe and wonder in shaping our lives, in being curious and open to the world around us, and in finding joy, hope, and meaning. Helen describes wonder as the emotion that arises from a glimpse of the unknown terrain which lies just beyond the fringes of our current understanding. Awe and wonder are about firstness, seeing the familiar as wondrous or strange, as if we were encountering it for the first time, or what Descartes called the sudden surprise of the soul. The book covers the role of awe and wonder in many domains of our lives, from philosophy to psychology to science to magic. But now I'll say a little more about the power of wonder in religion and in transforming the world. For most of their life, Helen identified as a Christian. However, after moving to the United States, they came to feel alienated from the kinds of American Christianity they found themselves surrounded with, although not alienated from spirituality. They described themselves as DIYing their own spirituality, the core of which meant charting their own path while being open-minded, valuing and learning about the views of others. A perspective which resonates with a Unitarian commitment to individual freedom to seek one's own truth. Going through a period where I actively stayed far away from anything religious, to then pursuing my own spiritual path and becoming Unitarian. As I continue to figure out what religion and being religious means for me, I really like how Helen describes one aspect of religion in the book. That religion nurtures our response to enduring human needs and desires. They write, some religious practices are ore technologies. They help us to kindle a sense of awe and wonder at both our natural and our social environment. These or technologies transform how we see the world. Due to a sustained sense of awe and wonder, we engage with the world and with other creatures in an altered way. They can help us to see the world not in flat, drab, and purely instrumental terms, but as filled with marvels, valuable for its own sake. Deep knowledge of the kind attained by profound scientific insight or religious wisdom requires that we see the world as an end, beautiful in itself. We develop habits in how we engage with the world. This can be habits we wish we didn't have, like scrolling social media or procrastination, or good habits we've worked to develop, or habits that we do every day without really thinking about it, like brushing our teeth or putting on a seatbelt. There are also habits or habitual ways of seeing the world that we might not usually think of as habits, seeing things through predetermined mental categories, which pull our attention towards some aspects and not others. For example, I have a mug that was made by my cousin and given to me as a wedding gift. When I pick it up off the shelf in the morning to make my coffee, I could see it in a habitual or utilitarian way, just as a mug for filling up, for getting caffeine to my brain and getting me to start work. But I can also see it in a different way, as a beautiful object, as a piece of clay that was shaped with skill and love and given as a celebration of love. Looking at this mug can make me think about family, connection, and giving. Religious rituals or practices can be habits too, but these habits can dishabituate us, pull us out of our everyday life and every way, everyday ways of thinking and doing and being, and therefore make us receptive to experiencing awe and wonder to seeing the world in a new way. Rituals like seeing grace before a meal can open up the mental space to appreciate different aspects of the food in front of us. Seeing it as not just food for eating, but appreciating the interconnected work of humans, animals, and plants that brought it from the field to the plate, the care that went into its preparation, and the joy of sharing food with others. Contemplative practices like quiet reflection or meditation can also make us receptive to experiencing wonder, helping us rediscover our sense of firstness when we engage with the familiar world around us. Something I loved when I came across it in the book was Helen's rejection of productivity. The ways in which we're pushed to be productive and even practices like meditation become co-opted into tools for productivity. Helen writes, Contemplative practices are all too often discarded as a waste of time. At best, they're reduced to mind hacks or productivity enhancers, divorced from their spiritual and metaphysical roots. It would be an impoverishment, though, to reduce contemplative practices to mere means to fulfill our role in producing work or capital. Religious awe and wonder technology can be liberating. It can free us from seeing the world in certain set ways, allowing us to meet the wondrousness of the world we are part of on its own terms. Religious practices that aim at wonder afford a kind of freedom in their limitations. We don't need to think about how meditation or mindfulness make us more productive. Engaging with these practices for that reason would be contrary to their aims. Rather, in pursuing them, we can begin to question the idea of productivity and what role it plays in our collective lives. And this leads me to another part of the book that really spoke to me. That wonder can not only help us find joy, hope, and meaning in our own lives, but can also help transform the world. Wonder can help us see the natural world not as a means or resource, but as valuable in itself. It can give rise to a sense of being interconnected not only with our fellow human beings, but also with nature and even the universe at large. Wonder can be a source of resilience and strength in doing the work of protecting the world around us and fighting injustice. Wonder can be an antidote to despair. Wonder is something we can cultivate in ourselves, seeking out opportunities to experience it. I'll finish with a final passage from Wonderstruck. We can choose to see things with firstness, and for that, we do not need to travel anywhere. You can watch the sun pour through a stained glass window in the afternoon, dust emotes falling onto a warm hardwood floor. You can observe people as they talk together quietly in a cafe, say their goodbyes at a train station or rush to catch the bus, allowing you glimpses of a bigger picture of lives intertwined. These delicate social dances are atoms briefly coalescing in time, creating our everyday situations, our mundane concerns. Any connection to nature, even in a bland suburban environment, such as a hardy dandelion growing from between paving stones, affords opportunities for wonder. We can also find solace and wonder in literary fiction and visual art, not purely as a means to escape, but as a way to expand our sense of the possible and to question our reality. This kind of wonder resists resolutions or clear teleology. It propels us to query the everydayness of our existence and pushes us to change. The world is strange and paradoxical, but we're mired in everydayness, and so we often forget that. Awe and wonder can become catalysts that help us reclaim what makes life worth living.

SPEAKER_01 44:04

Thanks so much, Azita, for joining us from the bed. I didn't say it earlier. Azita's back went on the way to church this morning, so this was a very last-minute rearrangement. I hope you can have a rest this afternoon, Azita. Really appreciate it. Let me just check, Ramona. Are we all right technically to move on to the next bit? In that case, our last hymn is on your hymn sheets. It's to a familiar and stirring tune. All of life is filled with wonder. Thanks again to Azita for her reflection under difficult circumstances. Thanks to Ramona for hosting under difficult circumstances. And a lot of them for co-hosting online. Thanks to Abby and Grace for beautiful music. Thanks to Andrew for accompanying using in and Benji giving us that extra support. Thanks to Marianne, Sonia, and Chloe for our readings. Thanks to Patricia for greeting and David for putting the kettle on. If you're here in person, do stay for Cake. We have got a Victoria Sponge or Berry Lime Drizzle. If you're online, please do stay around for a chat if you can. This afternoon, from 1 until about 3.30, we've got our Equinox Labyrinth Mini Retreat. If you haven't already signed up for that and you want to stay, we can squeeze a few more people in. Just let me know after the service so that I know how many chairs to put out. We've got a very short turnaround time for making this room how we need it to be. So if I can encourage you to move into the hall for coffee in a swift manner, um this side of the chairs do need to go away. This side of the chairs, please leave out. That makes our job a little bit easier. Tonight, the Better World Book Club is talking about Afropean. If you're expecting to come to that and you haven't had the link yet, let me know and I'll make sure you get it this evening. Next month, we're reading Finding the Mother Tree by Suzanne Simmard. We have a few copies to lend out. I think a couple of them have already been snapped up, so come and grab this one off me if you want to come to that. On Friday at 7, we've got our online heart and soul spiritual gathering. This week the theme is I don't know. That is literally the theme. John is taking care of that while I'm away at the annual meeting. So let him know if you want to go along. Sonia will be offering Nea Dance on Friday lunchtime here at the church. Next Sunday, our own Patricia will be leading the service title. Keep on keeping on, and Margaret will be offering her singing cast after that. And it's sneaked up on me, but we are going to have a congregational lunch on Easter Sunday, the 5th of April, and Marianne is coordinating this time. So let Marianne know what food or drink you're planning to bring if you're going to be part of that lunch on the 5th of April. A bit further ahead, we've changed the date for our next walk on the 21st of April. Now we're going to be going for a walk around Greenwich Park and possibly a bit beyond. Sign up with me if you want to come along to that. One last thing for me to mention, it is time for members of the congregation to renew their membership. It's just a simple online form to fill in, to reaffirm that you're belonging to this church. The link is in the Friday email, and I will be sending reminders at some point. If you're not yet a member and you've been coming along for a while, whether that's in person or online, let me know and we can have a chat about that. It's not about money. We don't actually ask for a subscription fee. It's about you affirming your support and your wish for this church to continue existing into the future. Um Brian.

SPEAKER_02 50:55

A week tomorrow evening in the church. Kensington Choir will be giving their Easter concert. What else have I got to say? Oh yeah, yeah, it's a charity concert in a Windows Kids charity, so please come along if you can. Sorry, I've got this anywhere.

SPEAKER_01 51:21

Thank you. All these activities are on the back of your order of service, they're in the Friday email. We've got the spring newsletter in the Friday. Please do take a copy, it's very fancy. Um we've very much got a life beyond Sunday morning, so do what you can to look out for each other and nurture those supportive connections. Among other wonders of our lives, we are alive with one another. We live here in the light of this unlikely world that isn't ours for long. May we spend generously the time we're given. May we enact our responsibilities as thoroughly as we enjoy our pleasures. May we see with clarity, may we seek a vision that serves all beings. May we honor the mysteries of passing outside. May we hold in our hands and give the good word.