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A Little Reflection on Genesis 1

by Melissa Taft
written by Melissa Taft

by Michaela Atencio – originally posted here, this is a reprint with permission. You can find Michaela on their website here.

I’m nonbinary. How does this reconcile with the verse, “male and female he created them,” you may ask?

The variety in God’s creation emphasizes God’s creativity as an artist. Genesis gives us several examples of this.

God made “day and night.” This sounds like a binary, similar to “male and female,” right? But that isn’t quite all we experience in 24 hours. Sunrises and sunsets do not fit into the binary of day or night. Yet God paints the skies with these too.

On the second day God separated the sky from water. Seems like another binary. Yet the clouds hold water for us in the sky, the condensation and rain cycle refreshing our earth constantly. The sky, separate from water, contains and releases water.

God also said “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” That isn’t the full story, either. Consider marshes, swamps, bogs, and fens. Not fully land, not fully waters. There is such glorious variety in God’s creation.

We see another binary in the celestial bodies God made: “the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night.” And then, almost as a footnote, “and the stars.” There is more than just sun and moon in outer space. Planets, asteroids, black holes, supernovae.

……

Side note: these magnificent stars hundreds of times more massive than our sun, as simple as that to God.

“and the stars.” I marvel. Hallelujah.

……

“God created the great sea monsters” and “every winged bird of every kind.” A split again between water and sky. Yet we see creatures like penguins that are definitely a “winged bird,” but do not fly and instead walk and swim.

And finally “male and female he created them.” First off, intersex people exist.

But, and perhaps more importantly, friends, look around. Listen. Do you have friends or family that say they don’t fall under “male” or “female?” If so, honor that.

Does all this variety invalidate God as creator? Of course not!

I believe that this instead is an example of how authors weave words to tell a story. We see the author in Genesis give examples of the extremes that God creates. It doesn’t exclude the possibility of more.

And so we worship the God of more. The God of the marsh, the penguin, the God of the sunrise, the cloud, the supernovae. The God of the nonbinary.

You are loved. -m.

Photo by Simon Berger on Unsplash

Editor’s Note: Godspace is transitioning from our theme Restoring Rhythms and Seasons to our brand new theme Living As Christ Lived – Towards Justice, Love, and Peace for All Creation. We hope you enjoy the reflections!

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Holidaysresources

Holiday, Celebration Days, Observances, and Saint’s Days Resources

by Melissa Taft
written by Melissa Taft

With Pentecost Sunday now past, the church enters into Ordinary Time. There are still feasts and holidays and Saint’s Days and celebrations of other special people, but it is no longer the long church season that spans Advent through Pentecost. You can find resources about Ordinary Days and select church holidays on our Pentecost & Ordinary Time Resource Page. If you are curious what the difference is, you can find information and resources on the Liturgical Calendar in this post. Whether we are in Ordinary Time or not, however, did you know that there are many fun celebrations, many Saint’s Days, and many holidays throughout the year that Godspace has resources for? As we ground ourselves and our spirituality in the rhythm of life and seasons around us, it can be helpful to observe even ‘secular’ days as sacred. Perhaps to engage in the awe and wonder of fun or perhaps to practice a whole-hearted ethical spirituality, there are many reasons you may wish to observe various days. Here is a round-up of some of our posts on special days, month by month! Note that this is by no means complete; if you click on the holiday it will take you to the tag. Not all relevant posts are tagged, and not all holidays have been cataloged. But this list will give you a good place to start for any celebrations or observances! For Celtic Saints, be sure to check out our Celtic Spirituality Resource Page as well. Happy Observing!

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

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HM in pastels May 2022

Seasons of Hope

by Melissa Taft
written by Melissa Taft

words, photo, and painting by Keren Dibbens-Wyatt

It is 1977. I’m six years old and the Queen is about to celebrate her Silver Jubilee. It’s a pretty big deal. Everyone is organising events and parties. I am going to be in the school choir. For some reason, we are singing a medley of songs from the musical Oliver. There is certainly a lot more food, glorious food, around than usual. Red, white and blue cakes with silver orbs on them. That you can eat the little globes of space-age metallic icing blows my tiny mind.

I was bought a long brown dress with flowery panels (think your Granny’s curtains and you won’t be far off) to wear for the concert. My best friend’s Mum has made her a white one with Union Jacks on it. Later in life she will doubtless be one of the kids who never forgets her P.E. kit or ingredients for Home Economics. I won’t know, because in a couple of years my whole world will change and I’ll lose touch with her.

This same year is when my teacher tells me I have no talent for art after all. She seems more disappointed than I am, and I won’t discover she was wrong until I’m in my mid-forties. Here and now, I spend most of my time alone with my library books or my imagination in our garden and the plum orchard behind it. I build broomsticks which inexplicably fail to fly, and see how many skips I can do with the rope before I fall over (clue, not many) watch bugs, listen to birds, pretend I am a tiger in the grass and help my Dad shell peas.

When we move, two years later, I am heartbroken. The gardens we will have from now on will seem tiny in comparison, and the houses too. I feel folded away, packed into smaller and smaller spaces as I get older, disaster after disaster appears to befall me. Bad choices anyway. I don’t remember the Golden Jubilee. There must have been one.  I’m too busy being a catastrophe. But eventually a catastrophe who prays. This saves me.

By the time I’m fifty, I’m squashed into one room of a damp bungalow by a debilitating illness. Yet I have found ways to fly back to that garden of imagination. I write and I paint. Astonishingly, with practice, quite well. I surprise myself. I have a book published and have completed many more. Portfolios stuffed with art line the room. My beloved was a rare, good decision, and he keeps me going. We survive, somehow, two broken origami kits with lost instructions. Folded, scored, uncertain of what shapes we are meant to be.

And then, everything changes again. We have held on so tightly, so desperately, we struggle to believe it. A new place. Social housing, still, yes, but in a rural setting. The rooms are large, airy, cool, clean, dry, free of mould. There is space to breathe. There is a garden. It is huge. There are oak trees next door, squirrels, rose bushes, birds everywhere. I can’t get outside much, but I can see all the green pouring in through the windows. It feels like coming home.

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It is 2022. I’m fifty-one years old and the Queen has just celebrated her Platinum Jubilee. So much has changed. So much is the same. The seasons of life have overtaken us. Her Majesty is very elderly now, clearly unwell after Covid. She is tired. She has been a constant, a compass, a stalwart, a fulcrum for the nation. God bless her.

I’m still ill, still not likely to burst into songs from Oliver any time soon. I don’t know how long I’ve got here. But I can breathe again, I can hope again. There are books to write and somehow, I’m starting to believe people might read them. I want to speak hope into the lives of the desperate, tell what I know of hanging on to the truth that God is love, even in dark, dank corners. I want to give that six-year-old me the magical stories that kept her going, and the thirty-year-old me spiritual guidance. I want to reach out with my imagination and paint my roses and push on the backs of wardrobes, and let myself bloom in the garden.

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Meditation Monday

Meditation Monday – The Value of Naming

by Christine Sine
written by Christine Sine

by Christine Sine

A couple of years ago I wrote a post that talked about how, when we name something we give it value. It was recently reposted on the Circlewood blog, a great reminder for me of the importance of knowing people, nature and objects wherever we are, well enough to name them.

Shortly after, in preparation for my last Facebook live session with Lilly about sacred space, I reread a great little book by Daniel Taylor: In Search of Sacred Places: Looking for Wisdom on Celtic Holy Islands. In it, he mentions that everything on Iona has a name and when we name things then we begin to value them. Those names often tell the history of the island too. Columba, the famous Irishman who established a monastery there over 1,400 years ago, came ashore at what is now known as Columba’s Bay. The hill behind the bay is called Cairn of the Back to Ireland, or Back Turned to Ireland. In other words, these Celtic saints knew they had come to stay.

The name we know someone or something by really does matter, and as a place gets developed the names around us often hauntingly reflect a landscape and a people that no longer exists or else they are changed so that the history is forgotten or devalued. Or we give them generic names – streets and houses are numbered not named and our primary landmarks are the mall and the commercial district, not the bay or the lake on which they are built. In fact those once upon a time landmarks may have been destroyed to give us our modern cities.

One advantage of the COVID lockdown was that it sent us out into our neighbourhoods and many of us learned the names of the shops and the landmarks that surround us, for the first time. Some of us were awakened to the beauty and value of the place where we live and the people we live with, for the first time. Interestingly, it seemed to me, that by doing so we not only learned to value what we saw. We also learned to value ourselves more as important elements in the midst of our environment as well. Many of us learned – I matter here, and now. I matter because of my connection to this place.

As I said in the Circlewood post: In Landmarks , Robert McFarlane explains that when the moorland on the island of Lewis in Scotland was in danger of being converted into a major wind farm that would have permanently destroyed the countryside, the residents realized they faced a challenge. They needed to re-enchant people’s perception of the moor so that it had intrinsic value. They mapped out the moor and its walking paths. They gathered poetry and songs. They heightened people’s awareness of the descriptive language of plants and landscape. Re-enchanting the moorland came through the naming of every detailed part of the moor. This gave it value in the sight not just of the islanders but of the whole country. And the moorland was saved.

This example inspired me not just to rename the animals, birds, and people around me, but also to learn the hope-filled names of places and plants given as the results of destructive actions, replacing violence with language and symbols of the peace that surrounds us. My mind always goes to the peace rose that has an incredible history of survival and naming as a result of WWII. Then there are the trees that survived the horrors of the Hiroshima nuclear explosion. There are 170, known as peace trees. Seeds from them are now being sent around the world. There is also a pear tree that survived the 9/11 terrorist attacks. It is known as the survivor tree. I find hope and inspiration in the resilience and survival of these trees. They encourage me to believe that by renaming important structures around us, we could one day see an end to war, gun violence, and the destruction of creation.

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I wonder if one of the challenges we should all give ourselves in this post-COVID season is to continue to get to know our neighbourhoods and our country in this way and not just learn it by the names that places have now, but by the names that it used to be known by. I love that Uluru, the huge rock at the centre of Australia, was returned to the name given it by the aboriginal peoples after 100 years of being called Ayers Rock. In so doing not only did the rock gain value as the spiritual centre the aboriginals saw it to be, but also as an important distinctive landmark for all Australians.

This year I recommend a different kind of neighbourhood walk for us all. Start at the library. Find out if you can, what the native people used to call the landmarks around you. In some situations you will find yourself grieving for the trees that were cut down, the habitats lost and the people displaced by our building of houses and commercial districts. Is there something you could do to raise awareness of these names and their significance for other people in your neighbourhood? Are there ways you could bring about a renaming of these places to once more speak of the people that lived here and the nature that was destroyed?

I am about to make some major changes in my garden. Part of my intent is to add more native plants that speak of the history and the ecology of this place and not of the European countries whose descendants now dominate it. I feel that steps like this can help us deepen our connections to the land and make us value it more. What do you think?

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Christine Sine is giving away two copies of her latest book Digging Deeper: The Art of Contemplative Gardening. For more information click here!

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Worship & liturgy

Taize Style Contemplative Service

by Christine Sine
written by Christine Sine

A contemplative service with music in the spirit of Taize. Carrie Grace Littauer, prayer leader, with music by Kester Limner and Andy Myers.

 

Permission to podcast/stream the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-710-756 with additional notes below:

Thank you for praying with us! www.saintandrewsseattle.org

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pentecost image by Gerd Altmann @pixabay.com
Pentecostpoetry

Pentecost: A Fresh Perspective, Poem, and Meditation Exercise

by Melissa Taft
written by Melissa Taft

by Joy Lenton

Then…

We’ve gathered together for the feast of Pentecost, like bewildered sheep who have lost their shepherd. An air of uncertainty hangs over us. A frisson of anxiety haunts our days and nights. What will happen next? Will the authorities come after us?

Jesus has ascended to heaven, left us feeling bereft even though He promised us His Peace and the gift of the Holy Spirit. But we’re unsure what that means for us. Meanwhile, we take comfort from one another as we reminisce about the good old days when He was still with us, and the great miracles we witnessed.

Tears and laughter mingle as we share our stories. It feels good to look back because looking forward is much scarier. We’ve already lost Judas and appointed Matthias in his place as one of the twelve disciple witnesses of our beloved Teacher and friend. 

As I rub my beard and muse into my drink, there’s a sudden rushing noise outside. A strong wind or a violent storm seems to be developing. But wait a minute… it’s in the room we are in! How can it be? And oh my goodness, the place is on fire. It must have been struck by lightning! 

However, as I anxiously search for the exit and check on those present, I realise these tongue-like flames are not burning anything. Instead, they settle over our heads like a benediction kiss. A warm glow develops inside, and euphoric joy rises in my heart and mind.

Our tongues loosen themselves into languages we are unfamiliar with, yet they appear to be understood by those listening outside. Some are awed and amazed to hear us simple Galilean fishermen speaking their own native tongue, while others are convinced we’ve become drunk. 

We’re awestruck by these events but I somehow discover I have the courage, wisdom and words to speak to the gathering crowd and explain what is happening. As I speak, passages from Scripture resound in me with a deeper understanding than ever before. 

Now…

Like tongues of fire

You came like licking tongues 

of fire, alighting lightly,

mimicking a devastating 

forest inferno that clears

 

the undergrowth, sweeps through

with great power and might,

makes way for new plants to grow. 

 

But you swept into a room, 

into tongues, minds and hearts,

filling them with power

as you cleared out the cobwebs

 

of fear and uncertainty,

made way for the new, the brave,

the strong, the hope-filled and free.

 

Oh Holy Spirit, how we need

you now to return in power,

fire up the fading embers 

of our hearts, refuel us 

 

inside with holy hope and joy,

increase our love for man and God

provide your wisdom and insight.

— joylenton 

 

A Meditation Exercise:

Pause—linger a while—with open hands, open heart, and open mind.

Catch your breath—inhale the fragrance of Spirit—an unseen, invisible, yet immensely real presence.

Let it flow—right through your lungs—like liquid gold, filling and spilling, unlimited and uncontainable.

Hold it fast—so it can leak freely into your heart— beat strong, invincible, giving courage as your soul’s true North Star.

Exhale slowly—a holy wisp of wind—let it blow wherever and however it wishes to a place of hopeful, faith-filled waiting. 

Begin again—gently inhale and exhale—until you find a releasing, an outpouring of joy and peace seeds in the mind.

*  *  *

Pentecost Like tongues of fire poem excerpt C joylentonPhoto credit – both Pentecost images by Gerd Altmann @pixabay.com

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freerangefriday

FreerangeFriday: Taking Time for Pilgrimage

by Lilly Lewin
written by Lilly Lewin

By Lilly Lewin

Wednesday this week, Christine and I held a Facebook Live discussion* about pilgrimage and sacred places. I got to share a bit about my recent art pilgrimage to Scotland on the Isle of Iona. Iona has been a place of pilgrimage almost since its founding by St. Columba in 563AD… more on him next week!

I believe in the practice of pilgrimage. Taking time out of our regular life to go on a journey of discovery with God. In the practice of pilgrimage, I have taken students to Holy Island, climbed Crough Patrick in Ireland with my family, visited the Red Light District in Amsterdam, walked the beaches of Normandy, and lived in community on Iona for a week. The Red Light district was one of those gifts of Pilgrimage where the Holy Spirit takes you somewhere you didn’t expect. Our air BnB happened to be right in the middle of everything and this led to some great discussion about where Jesus would go and love people if he were in Amsterdam. Pilgrimages have taught me to think as a pilgrim in my regular life too. They have taught me to take time to notice what God is doing around me and to see interruptions as gifts rather than a curse.

crough patrick in ireland

crough patrick in ireland

Why a pilgrimage?

For centuries faithful men and women have journeyed together to sacred places.

Think back to Abraham and Sarah going to the Promised Land (Genesis 12:1), or the children of Israel going up to Jerusalem every year to worship (songs of ascents in the psalms) and perhaps you remember the colorful pilgrims in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales from English class. Today people still go on pilgrimage. Some go to Jerusalem to walk the places where Jesus walked and to see where the events of the Bible took place. And young people from all over the world journey to Taize, in France to sing and pray together and live in community. Others walk the Way of St. James in Spain to Santiago de Compostela, known as the Camino.

And I just followed along with Will Parsons as he traveled the Old Way along the southern coast of England where he is reopening an ancient pilgrim trail that I would love to walk someday soon. https://www.facebook.com/pilgrimtrust/?timeline_context_item_type=intro_card_work&timeline_context_item_source=100004325043985

These modern pilgrims seek to connect with God. They are journeying to “thin places” where heaven and earth seem to touch and where they can experience God and feel God’s presence.  God speaks to us in the thinplaces of life, along the edges where life is less busy, less noisy and when we are less preoccupied with the worries of everyday life. God speaks to us in community, because we need each other to grow and expand and process our faith. All of these things can happen on pilgrimage. We too can grow on and in our journey of faith by practicing pilgrimage!

On pilgrimage we can live this out eating together, living together, learning together, traveling together. On pilgrimage, everyone participates.  No one just gets to observe. The leaders and participants are all pilgrims. Leaders act as spiritual directors and curators of the experience, but they don’t just direct things. The leader is a pilgrim and is able to engage God and process too.

take a pilgrimage

Become a Pilgrim

The Mindset of a Pilgrim.

As pilgrims, we are NOT tourists, we are not just on a trip to see sights, but we are there to be present and learn.

As pilgrims, we are open to new things, new people, new experiences and new places.

Each person that one meets on pilgrimage is a gift, from the crying baby, to the bus or taxi driver, to the person you stand behind in line. And even interruptions are seen as opportunities to see God at work. We ask, “What is God showing us and teaching us through this?” As pilgrims, we are on a journey directed by the Holy Spirit and it may not always turn out as we’ve planned! Like standing up on a train from London to Newcastle because you didn’t have the right tickets! You have to ask, “What is the Gift in this Jesus?”

Pilgrimage gets us out of our comfort zones and our regular routines. And it helps us establish habits and practices that can carry our relationship with Jesus beyond the bounds of a church or youth group.

What do you do on a pilgrimage?

We Journey together to a new place.

Pilgrims Live and work in community.

Practice silence.

Practice listening.

Teach and learn from each other.

We have a question to ponder.

Sometimes, we have a saint (or famous Christian ) to travel with and learn about along the way.

There is time to process and ask questions about what we’ve learned as we travel.

There is time for Biblical reflection or reflection on the place, the people and a time to journal or create from what the place inspires.

There is time to Rest and just Be with God.

And we take time to learn from the pilgrims who have gone before us.

Pilgrims have an opportunity to meet God on their own…on pilgrimage we ‘create space” to meet with God.

You don’t have to go out of the country to go on pilgrimage, you can go on pilgrimage in your own country and even in your own town.

A mini pilgrimage might include a day trip around your city…praying for the people you see along the way…praying over the police station, the city hall, the fire department, the hospital, buying lunch for a homeless person and listening to his/her story. Worshiping with another congregation in a different flavor.

A local pilgrimage might be Hiking in silence along a trail while pondering a passage of scripture and discussing it at a certain point along the way, processing it together, having time to journal on your own and hiking back out in silence. And processing the experience …

You also might consider a pilgrimage to a “Holy Place” near you…places where God has been worshiped for decades in and around your city/town. Christine mentioned a friend who researches the oldest church or place of worship in the places they travel to and they plan a visit as a part of their experience.

Fisk Chapel

Fisk Chapel

Or you might consider a Civil Rights Pilgrimage learning about the fight for justice in the South our even in your own community. I’ve been learning a lot about the rich history of North Nashville and the beginning of the Civil Rights movement at Fisk University.

You can do

Pilgrimage in your neighborhood

Pilgrimage in your city

Pilgrimage in your country

Pilgrimage out of the country

Pilgrimage from your computer…follow along with someone on the Camino de Santiago or another pilgrim route.

It just means you put on your pilgrim shoes to walk where God takes you and use your  pilgrim eyes to notice what God is doing around you! Using Pilgrim ears, taking time to listen to the stories, learn from the people you meet, praying for opportunities and being aware of the Gift when the Holy Spirit interrupts you!

Remember that Jesus was a pilgrim. He wandered around the holy land for three years.

There was a lot of wandering around in the Bible…Abraham, was on a journey to a land that God had promised him…

Moses journeyed around with a bunch of rebellious Israelites for 40years…on a way the way to the promise land.

We too are pilgrims on the way, on a journey with Jesus. We travel together to grow and

“if Jesus is present and actively forming you through your relationship with him, this will take you somewhere!” (sadly I cannot remember who said this!)

Take some time to consider the Practice of Pilgrimage. Where could you go? Who would you want to go with you on your journey?

You might even do a food pilgrimage in your town and discover new restaurants started by people who have immigrated to your area from other parts of the world.

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A  Blessing for your pilgrimage as you begin a new season with Jesus

by John O’Donohue in To Bless the Space Between Us

May you learn to be a good friend to yourself.
May you be able to journey to that place in your soul where
there is great love, warmth, feeling, and forgiveness.
May this change you.

May it transfigure that which is negative, distant, or cold in you.
May you be brought in to the real passion, kinship, and affinity of belonging.

May you treasure your friends.
May you be good to them
and may you be there for them;
may they bring you all the blessings, challenges, truth, and light
that you need for your journey.

May you never be isolated.
May you always be in the gentle nest of belonging with your soul friend ( anam ċara.)

And I will keep you posted on my own pilgrim dreams. Working on more posts about the latest pilgrimage and  hope to lead one to the UK next year the Lord willing!

You also might like to watch the movie  “The Way” about a father who goes on pilgrimage, walking the Camino de Santiago

©lillylewin and freerangeworship.com

* Editor’s Note: You can watch Lilly Lewin’s FB Live discussion on Christine Sine’s YouTube Channel, or click here

Blog Ads 400 x 400 Join Christine Sine for a FREE Webinar on Saturday, June 25th at 9:30 am PT as she discusses her brand-new book and invites you for some fun activities and discussion. If you sign up before June 24th at 9 pm PT, you will be automatically entered into a *giveaway* for Digging Deeper – for giveaway details, visit tinyurl.com/diggingdeepergiveaway or click here. For webinar details and to sign up, visit tinyurl.com/diggingdeeperwebinar or click here.

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