08/08/2021

MUSIC: ‘ANNANDALE’ by Phamie Gow from album ‘Softly Spoken’
Label Decca/Classic FM CFMD29

RICHARD: Introduction
Welcome to this time of worship, coming to you today from the heart of Edinburgh at the beginning of the Edinburgh Festival.

During our reflections today, we hear some of the music of Phamie Gow, who adds much to the creative life of Greyfriars Kirk.

In normal times, this heroic city, set on seven hills, would be bursting at the seams with people from across the world, bringing their energy and creativity to audiences hungry to be enchanted by human artistry and the stories of the lives of others.

But, for the second year in a row, the Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted plans. And yet, we are seeing green shoots, and, thanks to the determination of organisers and the people of the city and artists of all sorts – and the people who have made it here – there is colour, artistic endeavour and the dynamism of the human spirit to be found.

MUSIC: LET ALL THE WORLD IN EVERY CORNER SING (Tune: Luckington)
From album ‘Ultimate Hymns’ CD2 Track 10 Label: Authentic Media 8204672

RICHARD

The Edinburgh Festival began in 1947 as an effort to re-enchant the lives of people following the bleak horror and destruction of the Second World War. It was also an attempt to rebuild relationships with peoples who’d only two years before been at war.

Just like at the end of the war, we need to re-enchant our lives after all we’ve been through. We long for better days to come. And we know that music and laughter, hope and creativity will help us dig ourselves out of the pit that we have found ourselves in over the last 18 months.

As we navigate our way, many of us have become thoroughly disenchanted. People have experienced loss: loss of loved ones and livelihoods; some have experienced profound isolation and been filled with fear about an uncertain future.

The psalms are full of songs that ask for help when people have found their lives sinking into a pit of greyness. So here’s part of psalm 130.

GILLIAN:

Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord.
Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my supplications!

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
and in his word I hope;
my soul waits for the Lord
more than those who watch for the morning.

RUTH: Prayer
Let us pray. All embracing God, source of our life, all time is in your hands. All creatures and every living soul is held by you. Your grace shines upon us and you fill our mouths with singing and our tongues with laughter. Your faithful help is with us. Amen.

RICHARD
As a child growing up in Edinburgh, my three siblings and I would be taken to church every Sunday morning. We’d wear kilts and tweed jackets.

MUSIC: ‘PEACE SONG’ by Phamie Gow from album ‘Softly Spoken’
Label Decca/Classic FM CFMD29

And, I have to say I got thoroughly disenchanted with church as I sat through interminable services, itching and wriggling in my woolly kilt on a horsehair mat.

But, when was about 14 one of our Sunday school teachers took a small group of us to the Island of Iona on the west coast of Scotland, where St Columba, whose 1500th birth anniversary we celebrate this year, began his mission to Scotland.

It was Holy Week and we spent the week in a very simple croft house and every evening went to a candlelit service in the ancient, atmospheric abbey that had been rebuilt in the early part of the 20th Century. And I was completely enchanted, and I realise that that the experience has stayed with me ever since, nourishing my sense of the presence of the Spirit. Many thousands of people have visited that blue green gem of an island and found it to be a ‘thin place’, where it feels as though heaven and earth come very close.

There are times when that sort of thing can happen with people too. I wonder if you’ve ever had the sensation of looking at someone you know well. Someone you might see and interact with day in, day out, and for a moment you suddenly see them through a fresh, transfiguring lens and you are captivated by the sheer depth and wonder of this living being beside you. It’s a form of re-enchantment.

During these difficult times, we have witnessed a great outpouring of ingenuity and imagination as people have navigated their way around the restrictions and limitations we’ve had to live with. Much of the kindness and creativity we have seen is helping us to re-enchant our lives in many different ways, and to lift us out of the pit of despair that has sometimes overshadowed our world.

RUTH: Prayer
All embracing God, source of our life, all time is in your hands.

In these last months, we have been walking through many valleys of deepest darkness and will have to do so still. But in the times of darkest sorrows you invite us to accept your love with the openness and trust of a little child and to know your presence as a source of strength for all that might harm us.

At this time, breathe into us the breath of your life, re-enchant lives that have lost hope and give us courage to be the people you want us to be. In Jesus’s name. Amen

MUSIC: ‘DUN EIDEANN’ (Edinburgh) by Phamie Gow from album ‘The Angels’ Share’
Label Scotdisc CDITV817

RICHARD
In the Gospel, there is an intriguing passage in which Jesus talks about people who get stuck in situations where they cannot see beyond gloom and despondency. It is so easy to get trapped and we need to find ways of getting out of the miry pit, putting our feet back on higher ground and allowing our hearts to sing and soar once more. It can be easy to wallow in gloom and find it difficult to share another’s joy.

Jesus says this:

GILLIAN:
‘But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the market-places and calling to one another,

“We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;
we wailed, and you did not mourn.”

(Matthew 11: 16)

RICHARD: It is often children, or those with a child-like heart, who can help us to break free from situations of doom and despondency and help us to learn how to dance once more.

I heard about a wonderful initiative where a children’s nursery was located in a nursing home. The interaction of infants with an older generation brings lightness to elderly lives, but I have also seen how enriching it can be for young people to befriend much older people.

And of course, there is that charity founded by Sally Magnusson, ‘Playlist for Life’, where carefully chosen music can bring people living with dementia out of the wilderness of confusion, even for a few moments of reverie and joy, and a return to moments of wonder..

Children, and those with a child likeness openness, such as many of those who perform at our festivals with such care-free abandon, can help re-enchant our lives. Jesus also rebuked those who tried to prevent children from approaching him and he suggested that people can end up taking themselves more seriously than is helpful to them and fail to understand the kingdom he wanted to show them.

GILLIAN:

‘Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.’Matthew 19:14

RICHARD: Sometimes children understand simple things better than adults, who can so readily over-complicate things. A child can spend an age watching a curling caterpillar with rapt wonder, whilst we adults can sometimes become so preoccupied with heavy, ‘grown-up’ concerns that we lose the capacity to be enchanted by nature’s beauty.

And many of us remember the magical journeys of the imagination we discovered a children between the covers of a book or in the beauty of music, art and movement.

As a minister, I have often been disappointed by people who want to protect their children from the realities of life and death, thinking that children won’t cope with the loss of a grandparent or a funeral; but I sometimes wonder if it’s the grown-ups that struggle to cope! And children are often able to understand and accept deep realities, even those that older people struggle to grasp.

MUSIC: ‘THINK OF HOW GOD LOVES YOU’ by James MacMillan, performed by Cappella Nova directed by Alan Tavener.
From album ‘Who are these angels?’ (New Choral Music by James MacMillan)
Label: Linn CKD 383

RICHARD: Art, music and theatre – they all have the ability to restore a sense of wonder and enchantment and that is what we all need. We’ve been feeling the weight of existence and have been reminded of our own fragility.

Throughout his ministry, Jesus sought to re-enchant withered and broken lives. One day, he went with his friends to the town of Jericho. As the story goes, the local people clearly saw Jesus as an important visiting dignitary.

So, when a blind beggar, Bartimaeus started to shout out to Jesus, people were embarrassed and tried to keep him quiet. They didn’t want to give these important visitors a bad impression.

Sometimes, people have wondered where all the beggars disappear to in Edinburgh during the festival period. Maybe they are just a bit less visible in the throng of festival goers. I certainly hope that there aren’t people who want to cleanse the streets of the poor because they fear giving visitors the wrong impression of our lovely city. It’s a city that shares the strengths and the frailties of all humanity, its beauty but also its darkness.

So here’s the story from Marks’ Gospel;

GILLIAN:
[Mark 10: 46 – 52]

They came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’ Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me!’ Jesus stood still and said, ‘Call him here.’ And they called the blind man, saying to him, ‘Take heart; get up, he is calling you.’ So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. Then Jesus said to him, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ The blind man said to him, ‘My teacher, let me see again.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Go; your faith has made you well.’ Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.

RICHARD: By giving Bartimaeus time and attention, Jesus re-enchants this man’s life. The recovery of sight becomes a metaphor for the healing of his personhood. He is lifted out of the miry clay of despair and given back his worth as a human being. No longer pushed aside, scorned and neglected, and told to keep quiet, his dignity is restored.

Many people today find themselves feeling second rate. It might be because of their colour, their sexual orientation or the fact that they have set off from their home to find a better life elsewhere. Life can be a bit like it was for Bartimaeus, and people cry out for mercy, they long to be able to see their purpose clearly again.

Here’s a wonderful hymn that beautifully expresses the intention of Jesus to move towards those who live on the edge. He refused to be steered away by those in power from people who reveal a different version of a charmed life, from that of the polished and the elegant.

MUSIC: ‘A TOUCHING PLACE (CHRIST’S IS THE WORLD IN WHICH WE MOVE)’ (Tune: Dream Angus) Performed by RSCM Millennium Youth Choir
From album ‘A Land of Pure Delight’ Label: Lammas LAMM140D

RICHARD: Here at Greyfriars Kirk, we walk with and learn from people who have experienced all kinds of hardship and difficulty in their lives. There are people in our community who have been homeless, some who’ve lived for years with mental ill-health and others who have suffered from addiction or have come out of situations of abuse or neglect.

There are times when your heart would break as you listen to people’s stories. So often, whatever a person’s circumstances, there is a common thread. It is the idea that hopes have been crushed, ideas and dreams have been shattered and the spirit of enchantment has been lost.

Not long ago we lost one of the most loved and valued members of our community, a lady called Agnes.

She’d had a good life and had loving children. Things had, largely, gone well for her until some setbacks in life caused her to feel that there was no hope left. She had lost the sense of her own self-worth, even though she’d been a great mother. She had lost a sense of purpose and her life was spiralling out of control. Perhaps more than being disenchanted, she was in danger of losing her home, her connection to her family and even her own life.

But, just when all hope seemed lost, hope gently took her by the hand.

A social worker suggested she come to our Community Project. And she came along, very tentatively and completely unprepared for what happened next.

MUSIC: ‘PEACE SONG’ by Phamie Gow from album ‘Softly Spoken’
Label Decca/Classic FM CFMD29

Instead of being told she was helpless person that needed support, the people at our Grassmarket Centre saw some inner strength that she’d lost sight of. Not long after arrived with us, she was put in charge of a small social enterprise we’d been developing, making products like Greyfriars Bobby dogs, out of the Greyfriars Tartan that we’d just had designed. It took a while, but Agnes grew in confidence and began to flourish.

She rediscovered her gift as a caring and compassionate person, the person she’d been as a younger woman, before her troubles set in. And, it wasn’t long before she became a shoulder to cry on for many of the members of our project and one of its best ambassadors. It was a sad day when we heard of Agnes’s passing earlier this year, but we will always be grateful for the wonderful way in which she came to us thinking she needed help, and ended up being the best of helpers.

There is a story in the Gospel that reminds me very powerfully of Agnes. Jesus met a Samaritan woman at a well. She is a woman of no standing in the society of Jesus’s day. She doesn’t expect to be spoken to by Jesus, let alone be asked by him to help. But that is exactly what Jesus does, he turns the tables. So here’s the story:

John 4: 7 - 15

GILLIAN:

A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink’. (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?’ (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.)Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, “Give me a drink”, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks, drank from it?’ Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give them will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.’

RICHARD:
Jesus lifts this woman out of the depths of her low self-esteem and puts her feet on higher ground. There are times when our societies seem still to be structured in such a way that we ‘do not share things in common’ with others. There are times too, when all we see are people’s problems and we don’t see the strength within that might be buried deep.

For many of us, the great gift of the arts is the stories we can share that reveal something of the resilience, creativity and wonder of what it is to be human.

And working alongside people who have faced challenging circumstances has taught me that most people have a story to tell, and some inner talent or strength. They also nearly always have a longing not just to be looked after but to contribute to their community. It’s all about rediscovering self- worth, re- enchanting lives that have had some of the lustre taken off them by the things that can happen to any of us.

So many of us long for re-enchantment. Each one of us has some unique purpose or calling, and though it may take a lifetime to discover what that might be, because of setbacks and disappointments, and tragedy and loss, hope teaches us that it is never impossible to rediscover our true selves, and find our lives re-enchanted.

We saw that fulfilled in Agnes, who, for a time, had lost her way in life, but who found a place in which to minister her wonderful gifts and share her generous heart once more.

MUSIC: ‘COME, MY WAY, MY TRUTH, MY LIFE’ (Words: George Herbert/ Music: Ralph Vaughan Williams). Performed by Scottish Festival Singers directed by Ian McCrorie, Organist: John Langdon
From album ‘Hymns and Songs from Common Ground’ Published by Church of Scotland Panel on Worship, 2000

RUTH:
Jesus was always to be found in the public square. He didn’t hide away in holy places, he went to befriend blind beggars, forgotten women and the sinners that others looked down on.

He was frowned upon, opposed and, ultimately, he was executed for speaking the truth about the human condition. But his radically alternative imagination was destined to turn the world upside down.

Let us pray:

We thank you for Christ who comes in the name of the Lord to re-enchant our lives and help us find our true identity as children of God.

MUSIC: ‘ANNANDALE’ by Phamie Gow from album ‘Softly Spoken’
Label Decca/Classic FM CFMD29

Help us to rediscover Jesus’s radical message in the midst of our own lives, which have been so diminished by the events of this last year.

Gillian: We thank you for the gift of the arts, and festivals where people can come together to share their creativity.

Ruth: For those who explore meaning and change perspectives:

Gillian: For those who seek to tell the truth as they see it:

Ruth: For those who challenge complacent thinking and see life in a different way

Gillian: For those who seek to refresh withered lives:

Ruth: We give thanks and praisefor music that lifts us close to the realm of wonder:

Gillian: For drama that tells the human story of our common struggles to live full and fulfilling lives:

Ruth: for comedy that bursts bubbles of arrogance and self-importance, and reminds us that there is laughter at the heart of the universe: We give thanks and praise.

Gillian: Hear us as we pray for the needs of the world. We ask that the gentle rays of heaven might rest upon this weary world:

Ruth: spreading warmth where relationships have gone cold;

Gillian: shedding light where darkness has set in;

Ruth: granting consolation where there is tragedy;

Gillian: bestowing wisdom to conquer foolishness;

Ruth: inviting gentle nurture to challenge the greedy living that blights creation;

Gillian: encouraging acts of justice and kindness to confound the heedless;

Ruth: inspiring honest enquiry and beneficial insight among those who hold power, to ease the hardship and burdens of those whose lives are crushed by poverty or illness;

Gillian: sowing the seeds of Christ’s kingdom in the soil of this good earth.

Ruth: Especially this morning, we pray your blessing on all those who have been involved in the Olympic Games over the last two weeks at the games come to an end this weekend. It has been a different games, without large crowds cheering on the athletes, but we give thanks for so much achievement and endeavour.

RUTH:
We remember loved ones and friends who are sick, anxious or grieving.

We remember places exhausted by war and injustice and we pray for those displaced by violence, asking that there might be generous hearts ready to welcome the weary.

GILLIAN: We pray for peace and justice throughout the world. We remember the poor of the world and all whose future is uncertain.

And we pray for ourselves, seeking your help, strength and guidance.
In Jesus’s name. Amen

RUTH:
Together we say the words of our family prayer:

RUTH, RICHARD AND GILLIAN together: The Lord’s Prayer

RICHARD:
Deep peace of the running wave to you.
Deep peace of the flowing air to you.
Deep peace of the quiet earth to you.
Deep peace of the shining stars to you.
Deep peace of the gentle night to you.
Moon and stars pour their healing light on you.
Deep peace of Christ,
of Christ the light of the world to you.

Deep peace of Christ to you. Amen.

MUSIC: ‘FOR EVERYONE BORN, A PLACE AT THE TABLE’
Published in Scottish Church Hymnary 4th Edition (CH4), Canterbury Press.
Words: Shirley Erena Murray / Music: Lauri True
Performed by Glasgow University Chapel Choir directed by Kathryn Lavinia Cooper. Organist: Kevin Bowyer
From BBC Archives