The Rev. Dr. Kikanza Nuri-Robins - December 4, 2022
I Wonder as I Wander
What do our wonderings say about who we are and what is important to us? Are only looking for answers? Rev. Dr. Kikanza Nuri-Robins, preaching; Sue Bickford, Worship Associate
From Monthly: "Path of Wonder"
We’ll explore in our worship, small groups, and personal reflection this month’s theme, the Path of Wonder. ♦ Let me keep company always with those who say “Look!” and laugh in astonishment, and bow their heads… ~ Mary Oliver: Mysteries, Yes ♦ Forfeit your sense of awe, let your conceit diminish your ability to revere, and the universe becomes a marketplace for you. ~ Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel ♦ There must be always remaining in every [person’s] life some place for the singing of angels, some place for that which in itself is breathlessly beautiful and by an inherent prerogative, throwing all the rest of life into a new and creative relatedness, something that gathers up in itself all the freshets of experience from drab and commonplace areas of living and glows in one bright light of penetrating beauty and meaning—then passes. The commonplace is shot through with new glory; old burdens become lighter, deep and ancient wounds lose much of their old, old hurting. A crown is placed over our heads that for the rest of our lives we are trying to grow tall enough to wear. Despite all the crassness of life, despite all the hardness of life, despite all of the harsh discords of life, life is saved by the singing of angels. ~ Howard Thurman: The Inward Journey ♦ I think us here to wonder, myself. To wonder. To ask. And that in wondering bout the big things and asking bout the big things, you learn about the little ones, almost by accident. But you never know nothing more about the big things than you start out with. The more I wonder, the more I love. ~ Alice Walker: The Color Purple ♦ God does not die on the day we cease to believe in a personal deity, but we die on the day when our lives cease to be illumined by the steady radiance, renewed daily, of a wonder, the source of which is beyond all reason. ~ Dag Hammarskjold: Markings ♦ Let there be a season / when holiness is heard and / The splendor of living is revealed… / We are not alone. / In the universe there moves a Wild One / whose gestures alter earth’s axis / toward love… ~ Rebecca Parker: Winter Solstice