The Time of Our Lives… CL

Every year my family has the tradition of watching A Christmas Carol (the movie version starring George C. Scott as Ebenezer Scrooge) around this holiday season. We have watched it so many times that our VHS copy fell apart and we had to get a DVD. So many times that I have most of the lines memorized. And yet, it never occurred to me that the central theme of the story is not about money… but about TIME.

I have recently read a very good book. I chose it in response to my desire to improve and sustain my meaningful work here among you, and to do so in a way that keeps me healthy and happy, but allows me to serve more fully in this ministry we share together. The book was entitled "Beyond Busyness: Time Wisdom for Ministry." It is decidedly Christian in theology, and clearly written for clergy, but its central messages are not unique to the ministry. Time is a gift to all of us. How do we honor time?

In A Christmas Carol, the ghosts who visit Scrooge embody the fullness of time… The Past, the Present, and the Future.  Scrooge's primary tactic of bullying Bob Cratchit is to be a stickler about time.

As Stephen Cherry, the author of "Beyond Busyness" notes, "Ebenezer Scrooge's number one problem was not that he was mean but that he did not have time. Anxious about the pennies, and believing Franklyn's half-truth, "time is money", as if gospel, he gave all his time to his work."

Our culture is set up to treat time like a unit of currency. We speak of time in the same terms we speak of money. We say "We spent time," or "Saved time," or "Wasted time." We might even "Invest time" in some worthy cause. It is true that time is limited. The finite nature of our time in life makes it even more precious. Tragic events such as the massacre in Newtown Connecticut last week remind us to value our moments with loved ones.

But our experience of time is also relative. Waiting for Christmas morning takes, for many children, what seems like weeks. A child grows into a teenager in, what seems to a parent, only days. Time is not a clear-cut thing, no matter what our clocks and schedules say. What we need is not to "Manage" time (another financial metaphor) but rather to honor it as the sacred all-pervading entity that it is. Stephen Cherry closes his discussion of Ebenezer Scrooge with this: "The lesson of A Christmas Carol is this: rather than being money, time is priceless."

As we close out the winter holidays and look toward a new year (a turning of the calendar, a recognition of the cyclical and yet ongoing nature of our perception of time), how might we honor time rather than manage it?  

Here are some suggestions that I hope to utilize, myself…

- Honor time by "filling" it but not "spending, wasting, or saving" it.

- Slow down your perception of time by stopping every so-often to notice and breathe. This mindfulness practice takes a moment but it extends the time you actually have available to your conscious mind.

- Notice your time-personality and work with it. Are you a morning, midday, or night person? Are you a natural procrastinator or do you like to plan ahead? Do you like to be busy or have more down time?

- Make a list that includes three things: "To Do", "Might Do," and "Don't Do." These priorities will help keep straight what is needed in your finite time, not what is simply urgent.

- Cultivate a sense of awe about time. As miraculous as the universe itself, the grandeur of time as a 4th dimension is beyond our mind's comprehension. And yet, the reality of time is magnificent. It is more than a wristwatch.

As we prepare in our minds and hearts to "begin again" with a new year, why not consider a new relationship with time? It is an incredible gift!

Making Sense Of It All (JC)

 
Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions
MEDITATION XVII.
NUNC LENTO SONITU DICUNT, MORIERIS.
Now this bell tolling softly for another, says to me, Thou must die. 


Meditation 17 of Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, written by the poet John Donne, has been quoted by UUs, scholars and Statesmen from across the globe.  It is the second to the last paragraph of the meditation that is most often used:

"No man [person] is an island,  entire of itself; every man [person] is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were;  any man's [person's] death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind [humankind], and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee." 

The subtitle of this poem says it all.  The writer is a man contemplating his mortality and  immanent death--the meaning of life.  But if you go deeper you discover that he is also realizing that he is a part of something much larger than himself--THE WHOLE.   

We are reminded in our First and Seventh Principles that we are individuals who have worth and dignity but we are also a part of something greater than ourselves--COMMUNITY.

Donne and our principles help us to see that we are not separate and isolated beings, rather we are communal creatures with some individual preferences.  You get it?  We are "a piece of the continent a part of the main."   That's the interdependent web existence.  But don't forget what Donne says next...  "any person's death diminishes me because I am involved in humankind."  I am "involved" meaning I am a participant in life's joys and sorrows and I, like you, know what it means to love and lose, succeed and fail; we are in this together.  James Marler said in his blog reflecting on John Donne's meditation:   

"It is not simply true that another man’s death diminishes me; but an injustice to another person is an injustice to me; physical harm to another is harm done to me...by extension, whatever responsibility is given to the one harmed is placed on my shoulders as well."


I feel diminished and partly responsible today. I am diminished and partly responsible for the lives lost in the tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut, perpetrated by another troubled young American.  A part of the collective human soul was murdered that day and I feel the pain, despair and aura of deep sadness hovering the American skies.  When I heard the news and listened to President Obama's response I wept as many of us did.  These types of situations are occurring far too often in recent years.  

I feel like I have not done enough to work against gun violence in America.  I like most Americans believe acts like these are anomalies--they are, statistically speaking.  However, if we understand the core of Donne's words we are all effected and affected by these kinds of tragic events.  We are stopped in our tracks and must pause, cry, mourn, and then I believe we must do something. I'm glad to hear that President Obama is doing something!

For now I am pausing for the holidays.  I don't have any nifty response.  I wish I did but I don't. I am meditating, praying and thinking about the families who lost loved ones. I'm thinking about my life, those I love and how thankful I am to have them in my life another day. I encourage you to do the same. 
  

Sometime in 2013 I'm going to be working with groups that recognize that something must be done to eliminate the use of assault weapons.  Also, together we've got to figure out how to properly treat mental illness of soldiers (past and present), youth, young adults and whomever needs treatment in this country.  We must get serious about these two issues. 

The debates over guns, violent video games, bad parenting and the like are already happening.  But, for me, it's time to stop and stare. I leave you with a prayer.  Page #86 in our gray hymnal "Blessed Spirit of My Life."  May these words give you the comfort you need over the next few days and weeks...

"Blessed Spirit of my life, give me strength through stress and strife; help me live with dignity; let me know serenity.  Fill me with a vision, clear my mind of fear and confusion.  When my thoughts flow restlessley, let peace find a home in me.

Spirit of great mystery, hear the still, small voice in me.  Help me live my wordless creed as I comfort those in need.  Fill me with compassion, be the source of my intuition.  Then, when life is done for me, let love be my legacy."

May it be so,

Amen.

Rev. John

The Advent of Apocalypse: On the Art of Memorizing Future History (DG)

You’ve heard a lot about Advent from my colleagues, and I would add to what they’ve already said by saying that Advent is about being “alert”, being ready for something big. (No surprises there right?)

 Being “alert” sounds, similar enough the other descriptions we’ve heard this month. We’ve heard the terms, “anticipation”, “expectation”, even “Hope”? Hope in the cute baby messiah, anticipating that his little crèche will soon be surrounded by curious farm animals and expecting wayward astrologers to bring gifts?

 It’s an expectation, or “advent” of “The first coming”, in other words. Whether or not we believe in the historicity of a first coming (to be clear: I do not) is beside the point. For me Christmas is a useful and potent allegory that should guide us away from empirical facts to the unnameable and mysterious principles that lay beyond it.

The thing that might surprise you, and really fascinates me, is the way that advent actually points us to the more interesting “Second Coming”. We commonly refer that event, predicted to happen at some future time, as the apocalypse!

The most lurid descriptions of the Second Coming and the cosmic cataclysm that must precede it are contained in the last book of the Christian New Testament, The Revelation to John, or the Book of Revelation. Some of you know that The Revelation to John is one of my favorite texts--ever. It has epic battle scenes, dragons and sea monsters, triumphant heroes, geo-political intrigues and divine vengeance.

 It’s easy to see why The Revelation to John has kind of been the go-to text for revolutionaries, abolitionists, Liberation Theologians, poets and William Butler Yeats for 2,000 years. 

The book is absolutely confusing, and absolutely riveting, moving backwards and forwards in time, offering what seems to be a “present” glimpse of the ultimate cosmic realignment towards justice and beloved community. I am offering a class on The Revelation to John in the months of December and January. We meet in the Emerson Room at Fahs House on alternate Thursdays. Check In the Know for Details. I hope you will join us!

 I wonder how we might celebrate the apocalyptic aspect of the Advent season? I might even go out on a limb and say how should we celebrate the apocalyptic aspect of the Advent season?

 Would we reenact the final battle between the so-called “Forces of Light and Forces of Dark”? (I bet some of our kids would like that) Perhaps we would sing the Battle Hymn of the Republic, all the verses, instead of Jingle Bells? Would we have a seven-headed beast rise up out of Hades in our Christmas pageant? Or perhaps it would be a Corporatized Octopus-type creature hooking us in its tentacles of consumer goods and services. Moreover, how would we depict the “New Heaven and the New Earth” that must rise out of the ashes of the old ones? All of these are important considerations. All of these make a new compelling narrative for the Advent season. (interestingly enough, there are some parallels to northern European “pagan” myths that would be apropos to this task)

I feel like a change is coming, maybe it will be a divine judgment of sorts for the wrongs of economic injustice and ecological abuses, or social inequality. Maybe the system will run out of steam and the Earth will cry out, “I am tired and I am not going to take any more.” Perhaps it will be a world turned upside down for a time.

 I am alert this time of year to how our world might be changed for the better. I am alert for how that change, if it is to be lasting, may not come as a little radiant bundle of joy, but rather as a bowl filled with wrath and poured out onto the world. In the end apocalypse means “to uncover” as well as “to reveal” but it is rightly associated with cataclysm and dislocation in the interim.

I am also alert to how each year; each day we are given a chance to start again and maybe avert the worse parts of the disaster that is supposed to await us in a kind of historic future. Advent is a chance for us to memorize that future history so that we might both anticipate it and hopefully avoid it. Furthermore, if we cannot avoid the future, perhaps we might find solace in better understanding how we will get to it.

 An apocalyptic advent reminds us that if we keep a certain course there will indeed be “hell” to pay, but that’s just one part of the story. While the future history may already be written we are still given the opportunity to write an alternate ending or at the very least, we can be alert and prepared. The “now”, "what was” and “what shall become”, three worlds, collide in the Advent of Apocalypse. 

When memorizing the past becomes old, I ask you: “how will you remember the future?”

See you in church!

More on Mammon

Following my sermon (on the Prosperity Gospel) and then the Congregational Meeting at which we discussed and approved the budget for FY2013, a church member asked me: “So how do you serve both?”  I was confused: “Not sure what you mean?  How do I serve what ‘both’?”  “How do you serve both God and mammon.”

     She had taken in all of the morning’s events and was coming back to the Christian scripture I had quoted in the sermon: “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. No one can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to one, and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and mammon.” (Matthew 6:24)  Mammon, I had explained, was a pejorative term early Christians used to describe excessive wealth, especially unjust gain and greed.  Mammon was personified as a false god.  Hence, Jesus was teaching, in what is commonly referred to as “The Sermon on the Mount,” you’ve got to choose between serving good (God) and evil (greed/Mammon).

     Continuing with my conversation: “I don’t think I serve both [God and mammon],” I said.  “Yes you do," she replied. "You’re a minister of the church and you’re the CEO.  You are serving God and mammon.  I'm just curious as to how do you do both?”
     She’s right.  I am a minister of the church and I fulfill a CEO-like role as the Senior Minister (operating under our version of policy governance).  For some - for her - there is an inherent conflict between those two roles; it’s like trying to serve God and mammon.  Honestly, before I had to do them both - at the same time - I would have said there was a conflict; I would have dismissed doing them both as not real ministry.  But I don’t see it that way any more.  Now I say: What better way to do ministry than to help give direction to our shared resources of material, time and spirit; I cannot think of a greater challenge than to bring the full passion and commitment of the members and friends to shaping the Beloved Community (of dignity, respect and justice for all); I am committed to a ministry with you which aligns our shared treasure with our collective heart.  It’s in this sense that the inspiration and experience of Sunday worship and the FY2013 budget are deeply connected for in each we name what we value and aspire to; each names hopes, yearnings, dreams, needs, and expectations.  These are the very things that all people seek in order to arrive at completeness and meaning.  I don’t believe there is anything mammon-like about these.  The inspiration, commitment and vision - the resources that we bring to our ministry - that help us shape the Beloved Community is where our heart is; this is a sacred and holy aspiration.  I don’t see any false gods there; Mammon doesn’t live here.

     “I don’t serve both,” I said in my conversation.  “As your Senior Minister, I believe my ministry and the congregation’s vision are one and the same.  Mammon, as I referred to it in my sermon, describes greed and unjust and undeserved wealth.  That doesn’t describe what UUCA is about.”  There was a pause.  “Hmmm,” she replied.  “I’ll have to think about that.”

     That’s all we can ask.  Be thoughtful, reflect.  In this season of Advent - of heightened expectation and anticipation - where is your “treasure” and where is your “heart”?  Are they in alignment?  Blessed be! if they are.  But if not, what will help to steer you away from “mammon”?
     See you soon and take care … and have a great December!
              Fred