First Unitarian Church of Victoria

November 30, 2008 The Advents of our Lives
Reverend Jane Bramadat

Meditation

Immortal Autumn

I speak this poem now with grave and level voice

In praise of autumn, of the far-horn-winding fall.

I praise the flower-barren fields, the clouds, the tall

Unanswering branches where the wind makes sullen noise.

I praise the fall: it is the human season.

Now

No more the foreign sun does meddle at our earth,

Enforce the green and bring the fallow land to birth,

Nor winter yet weigh all with silence the pine bough,

But now in autumn with the black and outcast crows

Share we the spacious world: the whispering year is gone:

There is more room to live now: the once secret dawn

Comes late by daylight and the dark unguarded goes.

Between the mutinous brave burning of the leaves

And winter's covering of our hearts with his deep snow

We are alone: there are no evening birds: we know

The naked moon: the tame stars circle at our eaves.

It is the human season. On this sterile air

Do words outcarry breath: the sound goes on and on.

I hear a dead man's cry from autumn long since gone.

I cry to you beyond upon this bitter air.

Archibald MacLeish

Sermon

This time of year has always seemed to me to be a time of waiting. It's too cold to work in the garden but it's not cold enough to go skiing. It's a time of unexpected storms and pelting rain, of grey, wet, dark, or windy days. Even when there are sunny days, they end far too soon.... It is a time of almost holding one's breath until the season changes and can be considered reliable.

It is at this time of year that our Christian forebears celebrate the beginning of Advent. The word Advent comes from the Latin, adventus meaning 'the coming to' or ‘preparation for’ the arrival of something important. A similar word, ‘adventure’ is a 'thing about to happen.' During Advent Christians remember Christ's first coming to redeem them and remind themselves of his second coming (still in the future) when he will judge the world. Advent always begins on the Sunday nearest to St. Andrew's day which is the 30th of November (which is today..). It continues for the four Sundays preceding Christmas, so that one will be in the proper mood to welcome the anniversary of the birth of Jesus as a religious event.

For those of us who anchor our beliefs in the ancient pagan tradition or in the more-recently-appreciated earth wisdom, this is a time of awakening and letting go; it is also a moment of timelessness when youth and age, life and death are felt to be in balance. For those of Celtic background, this is the first month of the year.

From a different perspective, Acadians in eastern Canada believe that Advent is a time to predict the weather. If it is cold on Advent, it will be a mild winter; if the weather is still mild on Advent, the winter will be hard and long. Mind you, this may only work if you live in the Maritimes!

It is our Unitarian Universalist intention to make all who choose to walk with us, feel appreciated - their beliefs heard and affirmed. And it is so with those of a Christian Unitarian or Universalist perspective. While we do not celebrate the Christian holy days or metaphors exclusively, we still find rich and enduring meaning in the stories, songs and some of the rituals.

Even though Advent is, generally speaking, a funnel pouring directly into Christmas - it seems to me that from our Unitarian Universalist perspective and understanding, Advent is also about anticipating and preparing for all things that are to come. We will be better prepared for whatever comes our way...particularly if we keep ourselves in an anticipatory state most of the time.

Let us begin to practice now because it is, as Archibald MacLeish’s words remind us, the human season, the most human of seasons.

"with the black and outcast crows/Share we the spacious world:.../There is more room to live now: the once secret dawn/comes late by daylight and the dark unguarded goes./We are alone: there are no evening birds: ... /.... / It is the human season.."

So in this human season let us start practicing; and let us follow the pattern of Advent and think of four advents we are waiting to have happen. This will mean that we will be uncovering more of ourselves, just as the natural world is uncovered now.

Let the first Advent be some sort of journey. Where is somewhere you will be going in the next month? I prepared for and experienced a journey just last week. It took me to a different climate and culture. While there I had the completely unexpected opportunity to visit a Hindu Monastery. It was a place with a temple full of many statues of Hindu gods and goddesses; incense, bells and an abundance of flowers. The grounds were extensive and there were natural places of great beauty, huge trees woven together providing a lattice where one could meditate in private.

There was a young calf wandering around the grounds and it came over so we could pet it. We were required to show our respect by removing our footwear and leaving it outside the temple. After some time of exploring the temple we returned to where we had left our shoes.

I started to put on mine and realised something was wrong. I was missing a sock. One of the women devotees (nun) came up to me in a very respectful way, holding a plastic bag and told me that there had been a little problem. The calf had eaten one of my socks. She said that they hadn’t wanted my sock to hurt the calf, so they somehow got it out of the calf’s throat...and this is what she was returning to me. I took the mangled, hole-y saliva-soaked sock and bemusedly put on sockless running shoes. While doing so I was surrounded by hungry mosquitoes. The nun assured me that they weren’t the Monastery’s mosquitoes - that they had come in with visitors from different countries.

I decided there was a definitely subliminal message for me - this religion is not right for you but we give you some holiness to take with you and sharp reminders to speed you on your way! While the outcome of this journey was not anything like what I would have expected, I now had an unusual story to tell and had spent some pleasant time in a most beautiful place. In my book that is a good outcome to a journey.

What about your journey? Will it be a long one, or maybe you are going just around the corner? Will you be prepared for whatever happens? Will you be flexible enough to enjoy or appreciate unexpected events...and hopefully find the lessons that are there to be learned?

For a Second Advent let’s take a task you have ahead of you. Perhaps you have agreed to help at the Food Bank; perhaps you have agreed to cat-sit for a friend, perhaps you are preparing to welcome friends who have come to get out of the snow found in most other parts of Canada. How will you prepare yourself for this task? Is this a task that is going to stretch you? One of the few things that all mental health advocates agree on is that helping others is the best way to help yourself. The selfless gene in each of us - when it is applied - brings about an amazing number of good results: a more positive outlook on life, better circulation and blood pressure, even feeling a closer connection to the source of life. When helping others we seem to be pulled towards goodness, joy, compassion and love.

Mind you, it is certainly true that there are some tasks that are either boring or not fun - but that still need to be done. Things like taking out the garbage, removing a sliver from your own or someone else’s hand, speaking to a neighbour about an issue that is at least partly your responsibility. But like everything else, while you cannot always choose what will happen to you, you can choose your attitude to it. The most positive attitude would be to do what is required of you with as much purposefulness, cheerfulness and grace as possible.

For the third advent think about a gift you will be giving someone. Is it a gift to a close friend or an acquaintance? Just how do you pick out gifts for others? Are they ones that you hope the person will enjoy, or are they perhaps something you yourself like? Is this gift a way of stating what is important in your life or that represents your values? Is it valuable because of its cost or its meaningfulness to your friend? A gift is usually thought of as a voluntary act which does not require anything in return. ... Is that how you think of a gift - or in spite of yourself do you expect something back...even if it is just a smile or a ‘thank you?’ And speaking of a smile - can a gift be simply a smile or a word of support? Do you believe, as I do, that life is a gift and every day an opportunity to appreciate it? It seems to me that whenever I fail to remember this, something in my life happens to remind me of how fortunate I am. Yesterday it was the laughter of a friend that has been imprinted on my walls the reverberations of her merriment. I will remember it long after she has left...the walls won’t let me forget!

For your fourth advent imagine your present relationship with time. Imagine that you have been told that for a brief period time will stand still. This part of the year tends to be when conspicuous consumption is gaining speed and racing to the mountaintop. What better time to stop and think about our own use of time. Do we always use time to its best advantage? Do we make time for those who love us? Is it quality time or leftover bits and pieces we offer them? Do we steal time from those who need us? But do we have very good excuses at the ready? Do we squander time when we have no idea how much more time we have? Do we make sure that we take care of our own selves - do we consider ourselves precious enough to be granted time to rest, to grow, to heal, to be amazed?

I am sure that all of us can think of moments, hours, and days, even weeks that we have not used wisely. I am sure that all of us are attempting to keep the best balance in our allotted life journey that we can. I invite you to join me in continuing to do so, for as long as necessary.

There will always be advents, preparations, and anticipations in our lives. This is a good time of year, this human season of late Fall, to imagine how we can best be ready for whatever comes our way. Through our journeys, our tasks, our gifts, and our use of time may we find the world opening up in directions we had never before considered. May we use this next four weeks of darkness as the backdrop on which we can more clearly see illuminated diamond lights of heart insight and our minds sparking new paths of thought. May the four essential parts of advents, of anticipation - hope, peace, joy and love - weave through all that we do and say as we wait and then as we experience our lives, separately and in community.

Closing Words

We are continually on one journey or another - may we learn from them all;

We have endless tasks to complete - may we find a gracious way to carry them out;

We are able to gift others and ourselves with so much - may we remember all we can share;

We exist in time and place, here and now, both alone and together - may we celebrate our being and always our becoming the best we can be.

In the Spirit of Life’s heartbeat, may it ever be so - Blessed Be - Amen.

Website hosted by UUism Networks
Worship services every Sunday at 10:30
First Unitarian Church of Victoria 5575 West Saanich Road Victoria, B.C. V9E 2G1	Phone	(250) 744-2665
	Fax	(250) 744-2610
	Email	churchoffice@victoriaunitarian.ca
	Design	webmaster@victoriaunitarian.ca

Ministry