From the festival city of Edinburgh

LIVE BROADCAST: CHANGES TO THIS SCRIPT MAY OCCUR AFTER PUBLICATION TO MEET THE NEEDS OF THE LIVE TRANSMISSION

Very Revd SALLY FOSTER-FULTON:

What is heralded in a dawn chorus, or seen in a sleepy, sinking sunset? When the wind sends the leaves singing, what do you think they’re saying? When music moves you, when words wing their way to your soul and settle there, when dance holds your secrets effortlessly in its embrace, truth is being told.

Revd NEIL GARDNER: Welcome and Introduction

Good morning and welcome to Canongate Kirk, the parish church for both the Palace of Holyroodhouse and Edinburgh Castle at either end of the Royal Mile.

I’m the Revd Neil Gardner and I’m glad to be joined today by former Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, now working with Christian Aid, Sally Foster-Fulton, whose voice you’ve just heard. Also with us are singers of Edinburgh University Chamber Choir, and a Scottish folk trio, Siskin Green.

Against the backdrop of the bustle and busyness of the city as the Festival and Fringe gear up for their second week, let’s share a time of relative calm and reflection as we seek a sense of God’s presence through the words of our opening hymn, Come down, O Love Divine.

HYMN: COME DOWN O LOVE DIVINE (DOWN AMPNEY)

SALLY: 

The theme of this year’s Edinburgh International Festival is ‘The Truth We Seek’.
Let the Holy Spirit take you by the heart, journeying with you towards the truth you seek.
Let’s pray.

Prayer litany

SALLY: ‘Teach me your way, O LORD, and I will walk in your truth:’ (Psalms 86:11)

NEIL: ‘What is truth?’ (John 18:38)

SALLY: ‘My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. (John-1 3:18)

NEIL: What is truth?

SALLY: ‘I am the way, the truth and the life.’ (John 14:6)

NEIL: ‘What is truth?’

SALLY: Let us come to God and conjure with that question.

NEIL: “The way, the truth, and the life – if you want to get to God, that’s how.” That’s what you said Jesus … but which way? All these paths to choose from – all these ways to go.

SALLY: Tell us again Jesus – about forgiving our enemies and sharing our bread and laying down our weapons. Tell us again about the path to peace, the freeway of forgiveness, about journeying with communal supplies. The way can be hard, but it gets you to God. Walk the way with us Jesus.

EIL: “The way, the truth, and the life – if you want to get to God, that’s how.” That’s what you said Jesus … but which Truth? There are so many versions, so many sincere voices assuring us that they can be trusted, so many face values to conjure with. All these conflicting truths.

SALLY: Tell us again Jesus about the lilies of the field and the birds of the air, remind us that we are salt and light, tell us again about laying down our life for a friend.

NEIL: The way, the truth, and the life – you walked the way, you told the truth, you lived your life so that we could be free. If we want to get to God, this is how – that’s what you keep saying Jesus. Help us hear you and follow on.

SALLY: Siskin Green now sing words expressing faith that if we listen to the truth of love in our hearts, we can take part in God’s work for the world.

MUSIC: SISKIN GREEN – LOOK AT YOUR HANDS

SALLY: INTRODUCTION TO SIDIKI DEMBELE

At Festival time, Edinburgh welcomes performers from everywhere on the globe.
Sidiki Dembele is from Côte d’Ivoire in West Africa, and his parents came from Mali.
He plays djembe – a type of drum whose name means ‘everyone gather together in peace’.
Sidiki is performing as part of the International, or ‘official’ Festival, and his music has been described as spiritually charged.

Sidiki is from a long line of griots. I asked him earlier about this important heritage.

PRE-RECORDED INSERT: SIDIKI DEMBELE

NEIL:

Sidiki Dembele with wise words reflecting how creativity offers deep human connection in the search for truth.
Alison now reads about a call to wisdom from the Book of Proverbs, Chapter 1.

READER: PROVERBS 1: 20-23

20 Wisdom cries out in the street;
in the squares she raises her voice.
21 At the busiest corner she cries out;
at the entrance of the city gates she speaks:
22 “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?
How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing
and fools hate knowledge?
23 Give heed to my reproof;
I will pour out my thoughts to you;
I will make my words known to you.

SALLY:

The words of Proverbs might leave us reeling – we must listen and discern the words of true wisdom amongst the cynicism and deceit and denial of the truth.
How can we find the way?

Dan now reads from the Gospel of St John, Chapter 14. 

READER: JOHN 14: 1-6

14 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe[a] in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?[b] 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And you know the way to the place where I am going.”[c] 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

SISKIN GREEN –– THE GLORY AND THE GREY

SALLY

Lady Wisdom is audacious. She does not blend into the background nor take to the backstreets to whisper her message to a few unlucky passersby. She sets herself up at the centre of everything and she cries out to everyone – listen to me. I will pour out my thoughts to you; I will make my words known to you. If you will only listen.

Busiest corners … that’s where the power converges.

City gates … that’s where policies are debated and decided.

And Proverbs reverberates with words reserved for the prophets – I will pour out my thoughts to you, she says, echoing the torrent of wisdom that brought about the Torah in Exodus. She speaks strongly of disapproval – the same bitter disappointment the Old Testament prophets had for the people of God, who would not or could not hear their cries to repentance. How long?, she weeps. How long before you seek the truth?

Interestingly, in John’s gospel, when Jesus comes before Pilate and claims to be the Truth; Pilate’s iconic response is enigmatic … ‘What is truth?’ Funny how power finds ways to distort, cancel out, change the truth to suit their ends because they are in a position to quash all challengers, such is the power of power. It could have been written today – fake news, alternative truth, might makes right no matter the cost to the most vulnerable.

22 “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?
How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing
and fools hate knowledge?
23 Give heed to my reproof;
I will pour out my thoughts to you;
I will make my words known to you.

I have an incredible mentor who offered this way to hear the words made known to us. When you wrestle with the sacred text, ask these questions. Does the interpretation close your mind, harden your heart, clench your fists - perhaps you should listen again.

Does the interpretation open your mind, break your heart, widen your embrace, then consider that you have listened well.

Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life. Notice what he did not say. He did not say I have all the answers or I am a sat-nav to salvation. He did not say my story is fact, but when could truth be confined that way? And he did say I am with you on your journey, love lights your path, wisdom whispers to your soul in the quiet tomes of contemplation and refuses to be ignored where power converges and policies are put in place. She may be scoffed at but she will never be silent.

Hear her heralding a new dawn, reminding you that new things will be born, even when all you see is a sleepy, sinking sunset. When the wind sends the leaves singing, when music moves you, when words wing their way to your soul and settle there, when dance holds your secrets effortlessly in its embrace, rejoice that truth is being told. Let the Holy Spirit take you by the heart, journeying with you towards the truth you seek. And never stop listening. Never stop learning.

MUSIC: CHOIR - LLOYD: VIEW ME LORD

PRAYERS FOR THE WORLD 

NEIL
‘View me, Lord, a work of thine’, an anthem by Richard H Lloyd, sung by members of Edinburgh University Chamber Choir.

Now, let’s pray for our world and all its people. 

SALLY
Great goodness, God! What a dream you have of us … crafted, created, loved entirely. 

Great goodness, God, what a vision you have for us … sharing, equity and energy, no ‘them and us’, just us. 

Great goodness, God, open the eyes of our hearts to your vision, and then guide our feet to the places you dream of. So many broken hearts needed mending, so much unfairness and pain that does not need to be.

NEIL
Today, we ask you to breathe your peace in Israel and Gaza, in Russia and Ukraine, in Sudan and South Sudan, in places splashed across our media and places never heard of and not likely to be; but they break your heart every second they suffer.

Today, we ask that you breathe change into our lacklustre, ‘head in the sand’ response to climate chaos. It is the challenge of our time and time is running out.

Today, we ask for your spirit of truth in all that we seek to be. Where there is fear, hunger, hatred, sorrow, apathy, breathe the fire of your love.

SALLY

Without sight, you see into the depths of our dreaming.

Without sound, you hear the deepest whispers of our souls.

Seek us out and share your truth. Amen.

SISKIN GREEN – WE STUMBLE ON

SALLY:

(That was a reworking of words by Christina Rosetti.)

Jesus taught us to pray, but the Lord’s Prayer is not a magic mantra. It calls us to movement, it asks us to seek truth by living for the good of each other, by discerning between what we want and what we need and then sharing until all have enough. The Iona Community offers this different interpretation of those ancient words.

Creator and Kin, as near as breath, 

And yet far beyond our understanding, 

Holy is your name.

Your new reality come, 

Your justice be done, here and now. 

May we feed each other, as you feed us. 

You hold us in grace when we don’t understand / get it.

May we hold others in grace too. 

May we resist complacency,

And strive for justice and peace, 

For all people, and all times, Amen. 

(Ⓒ Alex and Jo Clare-Young)

NEIL Blessing

Go now in peace to love and to serve the Lord, and the blessing of God Almighty, Father, Son and Holy Spirit descend upon you and lead you to the truth that sets us free...

HYMN: THE TRUTH THAT SETS US FREE (ABBOT’S LEIGH)

ORGAN VOLUNTARY: FESTIVE MARCH, COMPOSER: HELEN LEACH

Publisher - United Music Publishing https://share.google/s2mmTs6hLoaUFfdbH