THOUGHT FOR THE DAY ON RADIO OBAN FM
10 minute Service for Sunday 1st August 2010
Murdoch MacKenzie
Good morning. On this first day of a new month let us touch the earth lightly as we listen to Psalm 24.
10 minute Service for Sunday 1st August 2010
Murdoch MacKenzie
Good morning. On this first day of a new month let us touch the earth lightly as we listen to Psalm 24.
The earth is the LORD's and the fulness thereof,
the world and those who dwell therein;
or he has founded it upon the seas,
and established it upon the rivers.
Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD?
And who shall stand in his holy place?
He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
who does not lift up his soul to what is false,
and does not swear deceitfully.
He will receive blessing from the LORD,
and vindication from the God of his salvation.
the world and those who dwell therein;
or he has founded it upon the seas,
and established it upon the rivers.
Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD?
And who shall stand in his holy place?
He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
who does not lift up his soul to what is false,
and does not swear deceitfully.
He will receive blessing from the LORD,
and vindication from the God of his salvation.
Two things in the news this week. David Cameron’s visit to India and Winston Churchill’s teeth being sold at auction. As is common these days I heard it said that David Cameron was on a trip to India. On July 17th the Today Programme spoke of ‘The Prime Minister’s trip to Washington to fight B.P.’s corner.’ The next day we were told that: ‘The row over Lockerbie has overshadowed this trip.’ Even the Pope is coming on a trip to the U.K. next month.
His predecessor John Paul II always knelt down and kissed the ground on arrival in another country. This was not as the well-known joke would have it that anyone travelling Alitalia was so relieved to arrive in one piece that they would kiss the soil in thanksgiving for their safe arrival. On the contrary Pope John Paul II recognized that the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein. The soil was sacred, the land was holy as were it’s people. He had not gone on a trip. He had gone on a pilgrimage.
When we travel we can go on tour as tourists, we can go to visit as visitors, we can go as holiday-makers to enjoy holy days, we can go on business to buy and sell, we can go by sea as voyagers, or we can go as pilgrims, as ‘Peregrinari’ , as wanderers over the face of the earth, acknowledging that the earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein.
Like the Peregrine falcoln, wanderers are wonderers, people who touch the earth lightly, who travel not to exploit but to bless and be blessed, who go not for a mere trip but on a pilgrimage.
Before I retired people asked me where I was going to live. I replied: ‘The holy land’. ‘O’ they said: ‘You mean Jerusalem?’. ‘No’ I replied: ‘I’m going to Scotland.’ ‘O,Iona?’ ‘No, Scotland.’ Not that Scotland is any holier than any other place but because the whole earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein. I would never dream of taking a trip to India. When I go to India I go on pilgrimage.
As it so happens I am on Iona this morning, together with other members of the Iona Community, for the Hallowing Service of 9 new members of the Community. Hopefully they will continue to touch the earth lightly as they journey further on their earthly pilgrimage.
And that brings us to Winston Churchill who near the end of his life asked that at his funeral the people would sing John Bunyan’s great hymn from Pilgrim’s Progress, each verse of which ends with the aspiration to be a pilgrim.
Let us pray: Loving God during this month of August when Argyll and Oban are full of people from far-away places, we pray that their holidays may be holy days, that tourists will become pilgrims, that new members of the Iona Community may be so hallowed that they may touch the earth lightly in their wandering and wondering. And that each of us sharing in this broadcast this morning may discover once again, that by God’s grace “there’s no discouragement shall make us once relent our first avowed intent to be a pilgrim.” Amen.
Now for Bunyan’s great hymn; ‘Who would true valour see, let him come hither…’
A Prayer from Sir Francis Drake
O Lord God, when thou givest to thy servants to endeavour any great matter, grant us also to know that it is not the beginning but the continuing of the same until it be thoroughly finished which yieldeth the true glory.
May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the friendship of the Holy Spirit be with each one of us and on all whom we meet on our pilgrimage, today, tomorrow and for evermore. Amen.
His predecessor John Paul II always knelt down and kissed the ground on arrival in another country. This was not as the well-known joke would have it that anyone travelling Alitalia was so relieved to arrive in one piece that they would kiss the soil in thanksgiving for their safe arrival. On the contrary Pope John Paul II recognized that the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein. The soil was sacred, the land was holy as were it’s people. He had not gone on a trip. He had gone on a pilgrimage.
When we travel we can go on tour as tourists, we can go to visit as visitors, we can go as holiday-makers to enjoy holy days, we can go on business to buy and sell, we can go by sea as voyagers, or we can go as pilgrims, as ‘Peregrinari’ , as wanderers over the face of the earth, acknowledging that the earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein.
Like the Peregrine falcoln, wanderers are wonderers, people who touch the earth lightly, who travel not to exploit but to bless and be blessed, who go not for a mere trip but on a pilgrimage.
Before I retired people asked me where I was going to live. I replied: ‘The holy land’. ‘O’ they said: ‘You mean Jerusalem?’. ‘No’ I replied: ‘I’m going to Scotland.’ ‘O,Iona?’ ‘No, Scotland.’ Not that Scotland is any holier than any other place but because the whole earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein. I would never dream of taking a trip to India. When I go to India I go on pilgrimage.
As it so happens I am on Iona this morning, together with other members of the Iona Community, for the Hallowing Service of 9 new members of the Community. Hopefully they will continue to touch the earth lightly as they journey further on their earthly pilgrimage.
And that brings us to Winston Churchill who near the end of his life asked that at his funeral the people would sing John Bunyan’s great hymn from Pilgrim’s Progress, each verse of which ends with the aspiration to be a pilgrim.
Let us pray: Loving God during this month of August when Argyll and Oban are full of people from far-away places, we pray that their holidays may be holy days, that tourists will become pilgrims, that new members of the Iona Community may be so hallowed that they may touch the earth lightly in their wandering and wondering. And that each of us sharing in this broadcast this morning may discover once again, that by God’s grace “there’s no discouragement shall make us once relent our first avowed intent to be a pilgrim.” Amen.
Now for Bunyan’s great hymn; ‘Who would true valour see, let him come hither…’
A Prayer from Sir Francis Drake
O Lord God, when thou givest to thy servants to endeavour any great matter, grant us also to know that it is not the beginning but the continuing of the same until it be thoroughly finished which yieldeth the true glory.
May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the friendship of the Holy Spirit be with each one of us and on all whom we meet on our pilgrimage, today, tomorrow and for evermore. Amen.
