Advent Adventure 

A play on words reminds us that the season of Advent ends this Friday evening as the Twelve Days of Christmas begin. (aka the Twelve Days of Yule) 

Order of Service - Script 

for Sunday  

 

December 19, 2021 

NIUU, Jeanie Donaldson, Cindy Matthews, 

  Pastor Fred 

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Prelude: In the Bleak Midwinter, 

  arranged by Jeanie Donaldson 

After Prelude

Welcome and Opening Words: 

Prayer for the Holiday Season

By Aaron Payson

Oh Beloved,

Can it be that another year has passed? Wasn’t it just yesterday when we heard such familiar music, when these well-worn stories awakened us from our post-harvest slumber? Wasn’t it only weeks ago when we last reminisced about seasons past, when life seemed easier, when this season was so full of snowy wonder and glorious wants? Didn’t we converse then about how much there was still to do and how short the daylight hours had become? Wasn’t it we who sat together then and sipped warm cider, or was it hot chocolate, and laughed as we shared again the memories of youth that gleam once again from our eyes? Or was it coffee and ruminations about a world gone mad? And hadn’t we just made the promise that a year hence we’d be farther along than we were and far more accomplished in the doing; those perpetually illusive resolutions that prove us kin in effort and siblings in spirit?

Oh Beloved, can it be that we are here again?

How incredible! How miraculous! How excellent! So let us then give thanks for this heart-felt return! You who have been so much a part of each other’s lives, whose presence means fullness of joy and love, you who are such a gift! Hazzah! Let old stories be shared again with new insight and new adventures add spice to the routines of our existence. Let life’s milestones mark for us the forward path to possibilities yet imagined and our trials and tribulations give us deeper appreciation for blessings bestowed.

The world with its deep challenges is needful of this, of communities of memory and hope, of a people of courage, with love deep enough to speak truth to power, with humility rich enough to make us mindful of the privileges we have not earned and with a conscience broad enough to demand those rights that ought to be accorded all people. Let the light we kindle spark the awakening that is ours to embody. For the truth we seek is the life we lead and the love we share is essence of that peace for which we yearn.

Come into this circle of love and compassion,

Come into this community where we can dream and

Believe in those dreams—

Welcome to North Idaho Unitarian Universalists where we accept, we support, we transform:  Ourselves, Our Community. Our world.   

Amen and Blessed Be

Lighting the Chalice: 

Our Sacred Fire

By Elizabeth Harding

People have always known that fire was special. Long, long ago, before people made matches or candles or even made houses, people knew that fire was special. There was the great fire in the sky, the sun, which made the earth warm and made night into day. And there were the smaller fires that people made, fires that cooked their food, and kept them warm, and brought them light.

People honored the fires, because fire was special. Fire was more than human. Fire has power: it can create and it can destroy. It can bring light and it can burn. It can create and it can destroy. Fire can be wonderful, and fire can be terrible. We have to be careful with fire.

And so, people thought that fire was something sacred and holy. Some people even worshiped fire, and said that fire was a deity, like a goddess or a god. Other people said fire wasn’t actually the deity, but just meant that the deity was there.

No matter what they believed, people all over the world gave fire a special place in their religions. They had fires in their homes, of course, to cook food and keep warm, and they also had sacred fires in their temples. They set sacred lamps on their altars. They lit sacred bonfires outside on the hilltops and in the groves. They placed sacred torches near the graves of those who died.

We still do this today. In Washington, DC, near the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, burns an eternal flame that never goes out. In churches at Christmas time, many Christians light four candles on an Advent wreath. During the eight days of Hanukkah, Jews light the eight candles of the menorah. At Diwali, Hindus set small lamps all around the house.

And when Unitarian Universalists gather, we light a chalice. This is our sacred fire.

Hymn: For So the Children Come - 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K01mRuG0E9A 

Covenant: 

Love is the spirit of this church, and service its law

This is our great covenant:

To dwell together in peace,

To seek truth in love,

And to help one another. 

Meet and Greet / Check-in  / Joys and Concerns /  Sharing

Story: 

story of a prophet

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - Prophet 

While serving in the Soviet army in the closing days of World War II, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote a letter to a friend, in which he was critical of Josef Stalin and Stalin’s conduct of the war. The letter was discovered by Soviet intelligence authorities and Solzhenitsyn was sentenced to eight years in a work camp. When his term ended, Solzhenitsyn was sent to internal exile in rural Kazakhstan. While there he would experience a philosophical and religious transformation that informed the rest of his life’s work.

In 1956 Solzhenitsyn was released from exile and permitted to return to Moscow, where he taught high school and secretly began writing his novel One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, describing life in a Stalinist work camp. In 1960 Solzhenitsyn risked showing the manuscript to a Soviet editor. Because Khrushchev was attempting to purge the Soviet Union of Stalinism, he personally approved the book’s publication, and it became a smash hit. But Solzhenitsyn didn’t remain long in favor. Subsequent works were prohibited as being “anti-Soviet” and after Khrushchev was removed from power, Solzhenitsyn was deemed a “non-person” and the KGB raided his home and seized his manuscripts.

During this time, Solzhenitsyn was secretly writing his Gulag Archipelago, a three-volume examination of life in Soviet labor camps, hiding portions of the manuscript at the homes of various friends. In 1973, after the KGB had located and seized one of the three copies of the manuscript, Solzhenitsyn had a microfilmed copy smuggled out of the country and in December it was published in Paris.

The Soviet authorities felt somewhat constrained in what they could do to Solzhenitsyn, who had been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1970 and was an international celebrity. The Politburo considered sentencing him to life in prison, but instead deported him to West Germany. Solzhenitsyn made his way to the United States where he lived and worked for almost 20 years. While he praised and admired Western liberty and democratic values, Solzhenitsyn criticized the West for underappreciating, devaluing, and misusing them. He also criticized the West’s cultural weakness and its loss of religious and spiritual grounding. 

After the fall of the Soviet Union, Solzhenitsyn returned to Russia, where he was received as a hero. He died in August 2008, at age 89.

Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn was born on December 11, 1918, one hundred three years ago today.

“(T)he line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either -- but right through every human heart -- and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years…. If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being.” 

 

Meditation: 

https://artlevin.com/product/the-coming-of-the-messiah/ 

As we enter the painting, there is an arched door or window. Before us is something resembling a Torah scroll being unrolled. The unrolled writings form the pathway for the Messiah to enter the Holy City of Jerusalem. As he walks along the holy path, a crown that also resembles a censer is descending from Heaven. Bells around it are ringing to announce his arrival. A Star of David holds the chains on which it is held in its descent. Crown and censer represent the fact that the Messiah is and will be both King and Priest in Israel. As the path arrives to enter the holy city, it goes in through the Eastern (also known as Golden) Gate. It has been sealed shut since medieval times, but it will open for the Messiah. As soon as the Messiah enters the Holy City, he will begin to ascend the Temple Mount. 

Finally, looking in the distance there are at least two hills before us. On the left is one with two stone tablets representing the Law. On the right is one with a Menorah, representing God's loving care through history. Looking carefully, those two hills are also clouds. The Heavenly Jerusalem is descending to Earth to welcome the coming of the Messiah. 

A side note: The cacti near the entry and the Torah path are Sabra cacti, native to Israel. Jews born in Israel have been called Sabras since the 1930's. They are said to be tough and prickly on the outside, soft and sweet on the inside. The cacti represent the Eastern desert through which the Messiah will pass as he prepares to enter Jerusalem. 

You can see why I love this painting so much. It displays so much of the symbolism that Christians and Jews share in common. 

Musical Interlude: The First Noel, 

  arranged by Jeanie Donaldson

Sermon: 

The seasons of our lives begin, 

  and they come to an end. 

The coming season of Winter begins 

  just as the days start growing longer 

    and the nights start growing shorter 

      on Tuesday of this week, 

        the Winter Solstice, December 21. 

In other words, Winter begins 

  just as it begins to end, (as I've mentioned before.) 

There is something especially appropriate about 

  the season starting to end just as it begins,

  especially in relation to today's theme 

    of the Advent Adventure. 

Something similar has been said about human life: 

  As soon as we are born, we begin to die. 

That may not be the most optimistic statement, 

  but it's true as far as it goes. 

In any case, 

  the present liturgical season of Advent began 

    on November 28 this year, 

      and it will end this Friday, Christmas Eve, 

        as the Christmas season begins. 

Most holy days among Jews and Christians 

  (as well as those whose spirituality is earth based)  

    begin at Sunset on the day before, 

      giving a liturgical meaning to the song 

        from Fiddler on the Roof, 

          "Sunrise, Sunset". 

So a holy day begins just as the day before it ends. 

The season of Advent lasts four weeks. 

The traditional season of Yule lasts 12 days, 

  as does the Christian season of Christmas. 

Yule begins on the Solstice, December 21 

  and ends on New Year's Day, January 1, 

    while Christmas begins on Christmas Day 

      and ends on January 6, the Feast of the Epiphany.

As the seasons of our calendar and liturgical years 

  begin and end, they provide an opportunity 

    for us to reflect on beginnings and endings 

      in our own lives and our world. 

The world has ended many times. 

In one sense, 

  the world ends for each person 

    at our own death. 

It may well be, as may people believe (including me), 

  that our death is a transition from life to life, 

    for each of us the end of one world 

      and the beginning of another. 

Not everyone believes the same about life after life, 

  but the message is the same: 

The end of the world, at least this world, 

  comes for each of us when death comes. 

Our beloved Beth of blessed memory used to say 

  that she believed, "What happens to any of us 

    happens to all of us." 

This was a profound statement of faith, 

  and it reflects the Universalist aspect 

    of our UU tradition. 

In any case, it clearly helps focus our minds 

  to remember that our lives as we know them here 

    will come to an end. 

This is good news, it seems to me, 

  because living forever in this world as it is now 

    would not be a happy thought. 

Even so, this world is important to all of us, 

  and our stewardship of it is vital. 

There may be other inhabited worlds, 

  and almost all science fiction literature 

    depends on the idea 

      of intelligent life beyond our planet. 

On the other hand, 

  there is some statistical evidence 

    that we may be in fact the only intelligent life 

      in our entire universe. 

It's like the proverbial tree falling in the forest, 

  where the question is raised 

    whether it makes a sound 

      if no one is there to hear it. 

Similarly, if there were no one 

  to perceive it and study it, 

    would the universe really exist? 

If some of the theories are correct, 

  there may be many more universes 

    in the multiverse besides this one. 

They may have formed as bubbles 

  during the creative chaos 

    in the period immediately following 

      the great explosion we affectionately call 

        the Big Bang. 

Some of those other universes 

  may have developed intelligent life 

    and civilizations. 

I take certain comfort in that, 

  whether or not there will ever be 

    a way for any of us to know about them. 

In the meantime, 

  we may be watching the beginning of the end 

    of our world, or at least 

      the beginning of the end of our season here. 

There have been times of major change before, 

  even climate change, 

    and some of our most familiar myths 

      may have developed around them. 

As we move through our Advent Adventure, 

  it is well that we contemplate 

    the mythology that just may tell the story 

      of past experiences with climate change. 

There have been ice ages before, 

  some of them more obviously world changing 

    than others. 

The myth of Noah and the Great Flood 

  may well have originated with the end 

    of the most recent Ice Age about 10,000 B.P. 

During the preceding period of glaciation, 

  a large ice dam had enclosed the Black Sea. 

The ice dam probably looked a bit like the ice wall 

  in the Game of Thrones [in the books, anyway]. 

As the period of glaciation, the Ice Age, was ending, 

  the much higher and deeper Mediterranean Sea 

    began to seep in. 

Eventually the dam started to break, 

  and tremendous amounts of water began to flow 

    into the basin that would become the Black Sea. 

There were settlements and towns along the shores 

  that would soon be inundated. 

At its peak flow, 

  the waters came up and inland 

    at about a walking pace. 

That doesn't sound too impossible to cope with

  unless you stop to think about 

    having to walk steadily and continually 

      in order to escape the Great Flood. 

Truly it would have seemed 

  like the end of the world in water, brought about 

    by warming of the climate. 

The myth of the Great Flood may have had its roots 

  in the events I have just described. 

The rainbow was taken as a sign 

  that the world would never again end in water. 

Next time the end of the world would come in fire. 

The wildfires of recent years, 

  especially last Summer, 

    brought those prophecies to mind. 

Likewise, the record shattering storms, 

  especially fresh in our minds, 

    the tornados that struck so recently, 

      reminded many of us of the prophecies 

        of the end of the world, 

          prophecies of the Apocalypse. 

In reality, the word Apocalypse means revelation, 

  in the sense of unveiling, even more than disaster. 

The disasters of our times 

  are revealing something to us: 

Climate change is not a hoax. 

We are living with its consequences more and more. 

Yet in the midst of all of it, 

  there is good news. 

Without the good news, 

  there is little use for prophecy. 

To say the least, all the events of this year, 

  including even the pandemic, 

    are providing an opportunity for many people 

      to open our eyes 

        and recognize what is happening. 

We don't even need everyone to recognize it, 

  just a critical mass, just enough to change our ways. 

As matters stand, 

  prophets and prophecy will be vital 

    to call us back to our better selves, 

      to help us care about each other and our world. 

Prophets and prophecy stand near the heart 

  of this current and soon concluding 

    Season of Advent. 

Christmas itself arrives as something 

  often thought of as a fulfillment of prophecy. 

I'm still able to accept the idea 

  as long as we understand the concept of fulfillment 

    in a way that is consistent with a deeper truth. 

Fufillment is more than 

  seeing a previous prediction come true. 

It means filling the previous prediction - or message - 

  with new meaning. 

In other words, the ancient concept of the Messiah, 

  still part of all our lives today, 

    took on a whole new, universal meaning 

      with the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. 

One of my pastor friends in Houston would say 

  that Jesus is the Messiah 

    in the sense of a Koan: 

"There is no Messiah, 

    and I am He!" 

If we are honest about it, 

  this new meaning is the only way 

    we can truly and deeply understand 

      how Jesus can be the Messiah. 

After all, there are many prophecies 

  about the Messiah

    that have not (yet) been fulfilled. 

It's one reason for the expectation 

  by many Christians 

    that Jesus will return physically 

      to rule the world 

        with His capital at Jerusalem. 

Maybe they are correct. 

In any case, theirs is not the only way to understand 

  the relationship of Jesus 

    to the age old expectations of the Messiah, 

      and it is not the only way to understand 

        the relationship of Christians and Jews. 

I've told the story numerous times before, 

  but in our Advent Adventure 

    it seems necessary to tell it again. 

At the very least it provides 

  a new way of understanding 

    prophecies about the Messiah, the Christ in Greek: 

I heard a brilliant rabbi say, in terms of his own faith, 

  "I believe that God is in the business 

    of making covenants." 

"God was working through Moses on Mount Sinai 

  to make a covenant with Israel, 

    and He was working through Christ 

      on Mount Calvary 

        to make a covenant with all the world." 

Christians and Jews 

  are not so far apart in faith after all, 

    and we UU's are uniquely positioned 

      to help those with open hearts and minds 

        to see it. 

Amen 

Let it be

Blessed Be 

Congregational Response 

Offering Information: 

St. Vincent de Paul Society 

"TO PROVIDE DIRECTION AND SERVICES SUPPORTING INDIVIDUALS AND FAMILIES IN NORTH IDAHO NEEDING ASSISTANCE TO ENRICH, FORTIFY AND REBUILD THEIR LIVES WITH DIGNITY."

NIUU

P.O. Box 221

CDA ID 83816

 

Extinguishing the Chalice :

We extinguish our Chalice 

  on this Fourth and Final Sunday 

    of Advent, 2021. 

In this season of Holy Days,

throughout the year to come,

and always in our lives,

may we know we are loved;

may we share the love we have;

and may we be the love we wish to see.

 

Welcoming Guests and Announcements

 

Closing words: 

An ending, or merely prelude to more glorious beginnings?

By Michael A Schuler

We have reached the end of this time

For the gathering of memory

And for letting the imagination play with future possibilities.

We have enjoyed magic moments and edified each other.

Shall it be concluded, then?

Or will this adventure, now commenced, continue?—

Our separate paths converging, meeting, merging

In the unending quest for love more perfect,

The joyous struggle for meaning more sufficient and life more abundant.

Is this ending to be an ending,

Or merely prelude to new, more glorious beginnings?

I pose the question;

In your hearts lies the answer. 

If time permits, 

Hymn: 

Oh Holy Night for Unitarian Universalists: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ot-q9LWwhnI