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

The Three L's of Advent (CL)

Let me start with one of my favorite poems, "Winter," by Greta Crosby…

Let us not wish away the winter.

It is a season to itself, not simply the way to spring.

When trees rest, growing no leaves, gathering no light, they let in sky and trace themselves delicately against dawns and sunsets.

The clarity and brilliance of the winter sky delight.

The loom of fog softens edges, lulls the eyes and ears of the quiet, awakens by risk the unquiet. A low dark sky can snow, emblem of individuality, liberality, and aggregate power.

Snow invites to contemplation and to sport.

Winter is a table set with ice and starlight.

Winter dark tends to warm light: fire and candle, winter cold to hugs and huddles, winter wants to gifts and sharing, winter danger to visions, plans, and common endeavoring, and the zest of narrow escapes, winter tedium to merrymaking.

Let us therefore praise winter, rich in beauty, challenge, and pregnant negatives.

The winter is almost upon us, and certainly the days are getting shorter and the darkness creeping in longer and longer intervals. It is a time "rich in beauty, challenge, and pregnant negatives." The negative space of darkness, empty trees, and cold are ready to be filled by our light, life, and love.

December's worship theme is "Advent." This is a special time, a time of waiting, a time of anticipation, a time for growth… It is a time set aside to honor the darkness, to honor the negative space. It is a time to prepare for the coming of the light, or in Christian theology, to prepare for the birth of Jesus, who brought a message of love and life to the world.

So much of this season has been twisted into a month of the three S's: Shopping, Spending, & Stressing, when instead it should be a time for the three L's: Light, Life, and Love.

This year in honor of Advent and the holiday season, I will be posting an "Advent Calendar" of sorts each week in the narthex of the church, as well as through our online newsletter ("In the Know"). For each day in the coming week I will list an idea for how to practice the three L's.  I hope you will try along with me, and e-mail me with your feelings, joys, struggles, and ideas.

For next week…

Saturday, December 1- Have you made your holiday budget? Debt is no way to honor the season… Talk with your family about your financial resources and how you plan to spend this season (consider: travel, parties, gifts, postage, decorations, food, and clothes!)

Sunday, December 2- Now that you've made your holiday budget, consider giving a portion to UUCA's "Greater Good Project." Your giving should be a part of your budget, not in addition. The recipient this year, selected by the kids in R.E., is "Creating Communities" a local arts mentorship program for underserved youth. Together we can do good!!

Monday, December 3- Thankful for your life and health, consider giving blood at your local Red Cross. Or, check to be sure you are an organ donor!

Tuesday, December 4- Spend a few minutes today looking at the beauty of candlelight. See how fragile it is, and yet how strong its light. What does that mean for you?

Wednesday, December 5-  Call someone you love, and tell them how much they mean to you.

Thursday, December 6- Save some paper grocery bags or portions of last year's holiday cards to make this year's greetings in a environmentally-friendly way! Hand-written, drawn, or stamped greetings are especially meaningful.

Friday, December 7-  UUCA supports the Lighthouse Shelter year-round, and especially at the holidays. Talk to Carrie Kotcho for more information about how to help. CKotcho@verizon.net.

Saturday, December 8-  Hanukkah Begins at sunset tonight! Celebrate with potato latkes… shredded potatoes, with egg, flour, and salt fried in oil. Mmm!

Sunday, December 9- Join us for our annual holiday tradition at UUCA: Stone Soup! Bring a soup ingredient to church in the morning, and come back at 4pm to make decorations, homemade gifts, and celebrate a communal meal in honor of our diversity and unity. Bring a family-tradition dish to share, along with the recipe to go into our new "We Are Stone Soup" Cookbook.

The UU Five Pillars (JC)

This month's theme is "Authority".  Authority is all about submitting to someone or something.  Everyday all of us give power to people, places and things with the hope that these persons, places and things will keep our and the society's best interests in mind.

 

Like authority, religion is also about submission--submitting to something bigger than ourselves whether it's God, a religious book, a congregation, or spiritual leader.  

Islam is a religion that believes in submission.  In fact the word Islam means "submission to God".  There is no ambiguity in this faith tradition--God is the authority and submission to him is paramount.  

A part of their submission means they must honor the Five Pillars . The Five Pillars of Islam are the five "obligations" that every Muslim must fulfill in order to honor their God and faith tradition.     

 

The Five Pillars:

• Shahadah: (ah-sha-ha-dah) sincerely reciting the Muslim profession of faith—“There is no god but Allah (God), and Muhammad is the messenger of God.” (It's normally sung).

• Salah:(Sa-lay) performing ritual prayers in the proper way five times a day. Facing in the direction of Mecca, the holiest sight for Muslims. (No time for trouble if you do this 5x a day!!)
• Zakah: (Za-kay) “That which purifies”- paying a tax to benefit the poor and the needy. It is a form of income redistribution. Responsible Muslims give 2.5% of their wealth after debts each year.
• Sawm: (Sy-im) fasting (abstain from eating and drinking) during the month of Ramadan, ninth month of the Islamic Lunar calendar.
• Hajj: (Hoj) pilgrimage to Mecca (if one can afford it). A Muslim will make at least one trip in his lifetime to the holiest of holy places for Muslims—Mecca.

 By practicing the five pillars, Muslims believe they are "putting their faith in action."  It is true that “Faith without works is dead."

Like a good UU, I can break these tenets down to understand their sacredness even better.  What I get from the Five Pillars is this: Profess, pray, give sacrifice, commune. 

As UUs we have a Profession of Faith:

We believe in the worth and dignity of all people and in the interdependent web of existence--the first and seventh principles.  

Prayer:
We pray, meditate or think about our lives and the lives of others.  
We take time to be thankful and grateful our lives.  We think about 
those in need, those struggling, those suffering from injustices.  

Charity:           
Many UUs are generous with their time, talent and treasure.  We work tirelessly for the marginalized and oppressed.  We give a percentage of our wealth to causes we believe in.  We make a financial pledge to our church to support its vision and mission.  Most of us understand that "Your treasure is where your heart lies."

Fasting:           
We don’t talk about this much but perhaps as UUs we can go even deeper taking a daily, monthly or annual time to fast.  This can be seen as a personal time of reflection and self-sacrifice.  Breaking away from the norm to genuflect and reflect.  When you fast from the norms you give your body time to heal and get stronger.

Pilgrimage:     
The dictionary defines pilgrimage as "a journey or search of moral or spiritual significance. Typically, it is a journey to a shrine or other location of importance to a person's beliefs and faith, although sometimes it can be a metaphorical journey in to someone's own beliefs." 

We commune with nature.  We travel to sacred spaces, we come to places like church to be with those who share our values.  And for some we go annually to the UUA General Assembly (which will be in Lousiville, Kentucky in 2013).  

We are not so different from Muslims.  We submit to powers beyond our control.  We profess, pray, give, sacrifice, and commune as a part of our lives.  When you take away all the fancy stuff we're all just human beings striving to let our better angels prevail.  Profess, pray, give, sacrifice, commune (PPGSC).  The Five Pillars of Unitarian Universalism.

Light and love,

Rev. John

Broken Records, Scratched Cds and Other Things That Repeat

Broken Records, Scratched CDs, Houseflies and Other Things that Repeat.

By Daniel Gregoire

In my most recent sermon, Vanishing Vantage Points some readers will recall that I frequently  referred to the “repeating parallel lines” or the patterns in one’s life, those recurring significant events, that seem to happen over and over again and point us in some direction. I illustrated the point with the story of my grandmother, and the prominent role that religion has played in my life, my whole life.

One could say, and I did, that there was a preponderance of religion in my life’s story, seemingly pointing to the very vocational path that I am on today. In the narrative I presented those “repeating parallel lines” as having a deterministic, free-will subverting quality to them. In other words I could not help but be a minister even if I desperately wanted to be a housewife or a housefly (buzz…..).

But the repeating patterns are not necessarily the things that happen to us, arising from forces beyond our control. They are also the things we cause to happen, the actions we choose or avoid.

One of my dearest friends in Brockton, Marion O’Donnell once told me the story of a young Unitarian minister to illustrate the quality of repetition I want to explore.

There once was a minister invited to apply as a interview candidate to serve a prominent congregation, somewhere in Massachusetts. The minister met with members of the search committee and he really impressed them. The most impressive thing about this minister was his preaching and he delivered a rousing sermon to the committee on the day of the interview.

So, of course he was invited to deliver a sermon to the entire congregation at the committee’s recommendation one Sunday morning. The candidate minister delivered a rousing sermon to much applause that Sunday morning. It just so happen to be the same sermon he delivered to the search committee only weeks earlier. The committee members in attendance that Sunday morning thought that it was rather odd to preach the same sermon, but didn’t give the minister’s sermon choice much thought afterwards.

 Later the congregation voted to call that candidate to be their spiritual leader. And, at his installation service, the newly installed minister delivered to the august persons in attendance and the congregation the same sermon he preached to the search committee and his first Sunday at the church. On subsequent Sundays, it was the same sermon too. Finally, a member of the search committee asked, “hey, what’s gives?  You preached the same exact sermon every Sunday”. To this the minister replied, calmly “when you follow what the sermon says, I’ll do another one.”

I think life works this way, when you’ve learned the lesson, then, and only then can you move on to something else. Until that time, we will have to review, review, and review.

I often need to review the lesson of compassion, with twice daily prayer, reciting an English translation of the Buddhist prayer of the Four Immeasurable Minds (or thoughts).

It starts with “Through the working of great compassion in their hearts, may all being have happiness and causes of happiness…” I would recommend this prayer to you.

Now talk about repetition; reciting the Four Immeasurable Minds, twice day, every day, that must be a million times a year, right?! Sometimes I tell myself it is just too early to pray, or I am too tired, or I am running late for a meeting, or this chapter of Foucault just got understandable, or there is a movie to watch that’s really cool, or I’ve just repeated the same words a billion times already, and I get it, “compassion”, “happiness” are good and I like them.

So I might skip prayer in the morning, make it up later that night, if Colbert isn’t on, maybe? Just when I find myself busy congratulating myself for being awesome and above the need to review my daily lesson in compassion, I run into a brick wall.

It might take a day or two or three and then I remember. I’ll have an argument with someone and forget myself, forgetting compassion for self and others. I’ll be impatient with myself and others. I’ll cling to a thought long pass it useful life.  And then it hits me, my prayer practice has been out of whack. Might that have something to do with it? Maybe?

We have to be our own broken records, our own skipping CDs or our own housefly, coming around and again to same ideas and values that give sustenance to our souls. For me that sustenance comes from prayers of compassion. Your sustenance might come from a different source. I hope that whatever  gives you hope, whatever reminds you of life’s beauty, that calls you to a sense of interconnectedness, is a place that you revisit regularly, going there again and again until you get it.

Post-election News

As the post-convention months passed, my tolerance and attention for the news (reports on the election) grew shorter and shorter. I grew weary of election politics.  I sought relief and found it in watching Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report.”  Stephen Colbert’s satire on conservative journalism was just what I needed to keep my head up and get through to Election Day.  If good humor is created in the space between reality and absurdity, then Colbert is one of the best at it.  Of course, good humor also forces you to think about yourself, as in: “Could that joke/story/event be about me?”  Once upon a time, this was the role of the court jester (those who survived!) - to help royalty laugh at themselves without mentioning names.  Today’s comedians are a bit more straight-forward and blunt.

     Recently, Stephen Colbert reported on a meeting between famed evangelist Billy Graham and Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney.  Gov. Romney was seeking Graham’s endorsement, especially since the Mormon religion, according to Graham, is a cult.  After their conversation, Graham removed LDS from his list of four.  Read The Washington Post’s article on their meeting here. 

     Now that that is settled, what are the three remaining cults?  Jehovah's Witness, Scientology and .... you may have guessed it: Unitarian Universalism.  That’s right, Billy Graham has named us a cult!  Here’s how Colbert reported it: “Oh yes, the dangerous cult of Unitarians [whose] sacred texts are the Old Testament, the New Testament and ‘Free to Be You and Me.’”  Watch the report  (the piece on Romney and Graham begins about 3 minutes in).  Colbert, as you can see on the video clip, reports that Graham says “Cults do not adhere solely to the sixty-six books of the Bible as the inspired Word of God.”  Yep, that’s us.  Guilty as charged.

     Whether it’s Colbert on politics or religion (or politics and religion), his commentary seems to always be challenging authority (which is our Novemeber theme here at UUCA).  Like Colbert, if there’s one thing that UUs love to challenge, it’s authority!  It seems to be part of a UUs DNA to “Question Authority” as one popular bumper sticker declares.  There are good reasons for this questioning spirit: Our faith tradition has been marginalized for centuries; our leaders and ministers have been isolated, ostracized and martyred - of course we question authority, it’s a matter of survival; many of our members come from faith traditions where they felt abused or ignored and now they seek a place where they are “free to be you and me.” Yet, sometimes the challenge to authority can feel like backlash, even juvenile, often picky and prickily.  Which is all to say, that we must force ourselves to seek balance and moderation - something that the nation as a whole doesn’t have much interest in.

            Our “Principles” state it best: We affirm and promote ... the free and responsible search for truth and meaning; the right of conscience and the use of the democratic process ...”  Balancing personal, individual needs and desires with those of the community and congregation is a way to spiritual depth, theological meaning and congregational health.  Moving too far in either direction requires a return to a place of balance.  May we always seek that balance as we deepen our relationships with one another and share the gospel of Unitarian Universalism.  Take care and see you soon,

 

Fred