Tyndale Chapel Podcast

Welcome, everyone, welcome to Abide.

It's wonderful to have you join me today. And you don't just join me, but you join a little strong and mighty team that works together. And so, you join Sam, who is playing our beautiful music. You join Mya, who transcribes this podcast, so that you can look back and read the words. And you join Geoff, who puts it all together. And so, I'm so thankful to be a part of a team, to collaborate in prayer and worship. And I'm so thankful you're here now.

Finding a space to pull away for a little bit. In a commute, or in a walk, or as you close your door and sit in a chair. Maybe you have a candle lit, or a tea in hand.

I'm reminded of this lovely song that I heard in these last weeks of mine called ‘Run to the Father.’ And a few of the words in the song sound like this: “I run to the Father. I fall into grace. I'm done with the hiding. No reason to wait. My heart needs a surgeon, and my soul needs a friend. So, I'll run to the Father, again, and again, and again, and again.”

This time of prayer, these 30 minutes, are an opportunity for us to run to the Father again, and again, and again. Because, like this songwriter writes, our hearts need a surgeon, and our souls need friends.
And so, just begin to get settled into this space. Where the Father is here with us. Where the Spirit is at work. And Jesus sits to companion us.

We'll just do a gentle body scan to prepare our bodies and hearts to receive some of these words today. With me, just begin to soften through your face, the muscles of your forehead, the muscles of your eyes and cheeks. And just begin to release any tension that's been built up in the head, in the mind, in the face. Releasing and letting go. Moving your attention into your shoulders, recognizing if you've been carrying some heavy burdens, as of late. Maybe ones you carry day in and day out, or maybe ones that have just appeared. Take this time to release any tension in the shoulders. Softening and letting go. And then bringing your attention down the spine and into the spaces where your organs dwell. Your heart, your lungs, your stomach, and intestines: the liver, spleen, bladder. All these beautiful organs that, in harmony, and in their beautiful way with one another, serve you, without you even noticing. So, if you're carrying any gripping in your centre or weight in your chest, begin to soften and to let go. Then bringing your attention down into your hips, into your legs, knees, and down into your heels, and your feet, as they touch the ground. Recognizing how your legs take you from one place to another, sitting in one space, standing, and moving to the next. And if your legs are tired, and your feet are sore, begin to soften, and to let go through the legs and feet.

Be still and know that I am God. Be still and know that I am. Be still and know. Be still. Be.
There's this beautiful little passage tucked into John 14 that has been an anchoring passage and verse for myself and my husband, and our marriage, and our commitment to God. And I share it with you as we move deeper into our prayer.

John 14:23, “Jesus replied, anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.” “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.”
These Saints that we are studying have obeyed God's teaching so fully. Whenever I'm around these Saints, whether it's Augustine from Africa, Benedict from Italy, or today we'll be with Hildegard from Germany, I'm just in awe of their commitment, their perseverance, and their deep love of God. And how you sense their writings and their way of life, that they are at home with God. And God is at home with them. And so, this is our intention for this time. Is to learn from these friends. And how they put the teachings of God into practice, making obeying God the centre of their lives.
So, without further ado, we will be reading about Saint Hildegard, today, of Bingen. A Saint living in Germany in the time period of 1098 to 1179. And, per usual, I'll read from our little ‘Stories of the Saints’ by Kerry Wallace.

“When Hildegard was a little girl growing up in a small German town beside a river, she started to see things that seemed like dreams even when she was wide awake. She saw glowing figures walk around her, and she felt a flame in her heart that didn't burn but warmed her like the sun. And she didn't just see things in her visions. She heard and smelled things that weren't of this world, touched them, and tasted them. So, Hildegard's parents took her to live in a forest monastery with a woman named Jutta, who also had visions. In the monastery, Jutta taught Hildegard to read and write. Hildegard also learned to play instruments, including a ten-stringed zither. With the other women, she sang psalms and cared for the sick. And Hildegard began to do something else: write her own songs. When Jutta died, the women at the monastery voted for Hildegard to lead them. Hildegard wanted to live a simpler life, with more freedom from the monks, so she asked for permission to move out of the monastery to a simple building in the woods. But the abbot who ruled the monastery refused. Hildegard got so sick that she couldn't leave her bed or move her arms or legs. ‘God is unhappy that the abbot won't let us go to our new home,’ she told the other nuns, ‘That's why I can't move.’ ‘Nonsense,’ the abbot said, and charged into her room to prove that she was faking. But when he tried to help Hildegard up, she was as heavy as a giant stone. He couldn't budge her. So, he agreed to let Hildegard build a new home in the forest. Out in the woods, Hildegard and her nuns wore matching outfits made of white silk with gold headpieces and grew a big herb garden full of medicinal herbs. Hildegard was a scientist. She studied the plants they cultivated and wrote about natural history and medicine. In fact, she may have been the first person in Germany ever to write about these things. She wrote songs and hymns for the nuns to sing. She even invented her own language, ‘Lingua Ignata,’ and her own alphabet, which she called ‘Unknown Letters.’ All along, Hildegard kept seeing visions, but in the middle of her life, she began to hear a voice. ‘It's time to write your visions down,’ it said. Hildegard was afraid because she didn't know what people would think about her visions, or about her. But then she got so sick that she couldn't do anything. Eventually, because nothing else seemed to help, she started to write. She wrote the story of the whole world: From creation to Jesus dying on the cross and rising from the grave, to a great symphony in heaven at the end of history. She wrote plays where the virtues got in fights with the vices, and plays where the virtues all sang songs to the human soul, except for the only character who couldn't sing, the devil. As Hildegard wrote, her health got better. Her writing was read all over her world, and she went on four different speaking tours. She exchanged letters with the emperor and the pope, and she instructed an illustrator who produced beautiful pictures of her visions: Choirs of angels, the universe full of stars that all point to God, the devil tied up with strong chains, the adventures of a soul as it moves through life, and even the visions of flame Hildegard saw around her as she worked. ‘Women may be made from man,’ she said, ‘but no man can be made without a woman.’ When she finally died, all her sisters shared one last vision: In the sky above Hildegard, two white wide beams of light appeared in the shape of the cross. And this time, Hildegard wasn't the only one who saw it. Now, everybody could.”

Take a moment just to allow the story of Hildegard, and her life, and her works, to fill your imagination.
In this short little story, you get a sense of the greatness of this woman of God. Her being a musician. That is one of her most highlighted points of her that I find so striking. But there's so much more; as an author, a preacher, a counsellor, a scientist, a studier of life and creation. You get a sense that she's very deeply connected to the natural world, but also the communal world, and the worlds of God. And it's so integrated. As we talked about last time with Saint Benedict, how all of her life, and the parts of her life, are integrated to this creative symphony of offering herself to God.

And so, I'd love for us all to just think about ourselves in being creative beings. And how we too are creative. Whether that's through music. Whether that's through art. Writing. Even, maybe, the way you take a walk, how you creatively move in a different way, or take a different path. Maybe the ways in which you design a room. Or write a poem. The way you make a meal. Or listen and speak to a friend.
I want to read to you a little bit of Hildegard's writings. And I'm going to read from one of the Penguin classics, ‘Hildegard of Bingen: Selected Writings.’ You'll get to hear a bit of her creative way. This is one of her beautiful hymns or songs, ‘The Spiritus Sanctus.’ It goes like this:
“Holy Spirit, quickening life, moving all things. The root in all creation, who washes all things of impurity, removing sins and soothing wounds. Who is shining light and laudable life, wakening and reawakening all things.”

And these words would be put to song. And her music had this wonderful tonal quality of going from one note to a very high pitch, and then back down, to sort of emulate the emotion that's put off in the words, and in the images, and phrasing.

And so, I just ask us all now, where are we able to be creatives in our life? In our day-to-day? Maybe we've forgotten how to be creative? Or how to spend time thinking about God and thinking about the beauty of living in this world? And how we might be able to glorify God with an artistic way? So, I just give you a moment to sit with God, sit with Hildegard, and see what comes bubbling up. Maybe words, maybe silences, maybe a song, maybe a desire to study the trees or the stars. Just spend a moment now, just offering yourself to be a creative conduit of God in this world.

Wonderful.

You'll also notice from our little story that Hildegard lived with other women, where the structure of their day was following the Benedictine rule, which we spoke of last time. Where the day is broken up with work, eight hours, prayer, eight hours, and rest, eight hours. And there would be seven hours in the day where a bell would ring, and they would gather and sing the Psalms. So, in one week's time, they would sing all 150 Psalms. And they would sing liturgies. And Hildegard would put a lot of the Psalms and liturgies to music. And so, with this beautiful structure put into place for Hildegard, this rule of Benedict is kind of like a guidepost or a railing, something to hold on to when you're in the dark. So, these practices, these intentional times to stop and re-centre, were very much a part of Hildegard's life.

So, I want to give you a moment to think about something you're just grateful for in your connection to God. Or a practice that you are daily taking part in, to be like a railing you can hold on to in the dark. So, what is something, or a few things, that you appreciate about your relationship with God and how you daily connect with God?

And maybe as you and the Spirit interact with the hours of your day. Where you might want to pause, and stop, and re-centre. Let's ask God where a new discipline might enter in? Whether that be finding time to worship, to pray, to read.

Continuing in our book from the Penguin Classics, ‘Hildegard of Bingen’ and these selected writings, I want to read to you a piece from ‘The Action of the Will,’ which is one of her writings.

“The soul reveals her capabilities according to the capabilities of the body. So that in childhood, she brings forth simplicity. In youth, strength. And in the fullness of age, when all the veins of the human being are full, she brings forth her greatest strength: in wisdom. In the same way a tree in its first growth brings forth tender shoots, goes on then to bear fruit, and finally ripens that fruit to the fullness of utility.”
Hildegard talks about this concept of greenness or green vigour. It's the way she describes abiding with Christ, and the energy and the tender shoot that comes forward, the deepening of the root and the putting forth of the fruit. This is very much about the abiding work of connecting with God, hour, by hour, by hour. This green vigour.

And so, God infuse us with this greenness, with this vigour to connect. To grow in these virtues of simplicity, strength, and wisdom as we go about our day.

So far, we've been able to focus our attention on Hildegard's creativity: With music, with science, with study, with writing. And how, we too, can develop those qualities, engaging with God in the world. We then move to Hildegard's example of bringing structure to the hours of the day, to read Psalms, to sing hymns, and to stop what we're doing, and to re-centre. Abiding with green vigour, as it were.
And lastly, I'd like to just share about some of Hildegard's perceptions of herself. You got to hear a little bit in the story that she did not feel as though she was a very educated woman. It says in the selected writings that she was plagued with afflictions and doubts.
In one of the letters that she writes, Hildegard to Elizabeth, you can hear the fragility of her spirit in this letter.

“I, a mere female and a fragile vessel, speak these things not from me, but from the serene light. A human being is a vessel that God has built for Himself. And filled with His inspiration, so that His works are perfected in it.”

So, we see here that Hildegard has this humility. She's not always so sure of herself. She's asked to write words down, and to create songs, and to trust what God is doing in her fragile vessel.
And so, our question to ponder together is: Are there doubts or fears that hold you back in participating in society? And in participating in the body of Christ, to contribute to the whole? Are there doubts? Are there fears?

And if there are, just speak to God now about them. Knowing the presence of the Spirit here. Knowing the presence of Hildegard's writings and life. And she too, was not always so sure of herself. But she was sure of God who filled the vessel. So, speak to God if there's any way that you're being asked to step out? Encouraged to contribute to the people that you are interacting with? Are there words to share? Is there a song to sing? Is there a helping hand to offer?

Wonderful.

As we start to close this time of prayer, I just invite you to put your hands on your heart, if you're able. It said in our little story that Hildegard felt a flame in her heart that didn't burn but warmed her like the sun. Warmed her like the sun. And so, I just pray for this blessing of God's presence with us now; to warm you like the sun, to nourish you with His love. And I pray that as you're warmed and held in His loving way, that you will then be able to create, and courageously live and interact with the world. Offering yourself. Offering the virtues of God's love to those that you live with, you study with, you interact with. So, God, we just offer ourselves, these vessels, weakened and frail as they may be. We pray that you would flood us all with your warm love, light, courage, and strength, for this day and for every day that you give us on this earth. In Jesus' name, Amen.