28 Nov 2021 - Rev John Carter's Sunday Reflections

Welcome To The Yorkshire Unitarian Union

Unitarian Sunday Reflections

(Hull and Lincoln Unitarians)

28 November 2021

Theme

“Beginnings Part One”

Ist Sunday Advent / 1st Evening Hanukkah

PRELUDE

WORDS OF WELCOME

OPENING QUOTE

“In the silence of a midwinter dusk,

there is a sound so faint that for all you can tell

it may be only the sound of the silence itself.

You hold your breath to listen.

You are aware of the beating of your heart.

The extraordinary thing that is about to happen is matched only by the extraordinary moment just before it happens.

Advent is the name of that moment.”

~ Frederick Buechner

CHALICE LIGHTING/INVOCATION

words by John Carter

We light our chalice, this candle,

as a sign of our connectedness, our community, and of our journey on this spiritual quest called life….

We take a moment to reflect on our life and living of this week… as we reflect…. explore and ask of yourself….

What was good? Healthy?

What was not good? Unhealthy?

What moments, events, conversations, time alone

that allowed me to connect to another, to life,

to that which may be called Divine.

As we end these reflections, as we move to worship, may we continue to reflect on the things that make life whole and how we may grow ourselves into them.

May the Great Spirit of the Journey walk with us today.

Amen.

HYMN:

HFL 83 (CD ACH / TK 3)

“These Festive Days”

words by John Irving Daniel

Our festival is here again

to lift the darkening year,

and celebrate the Feast of Lights

‘mid glow of Christmas cheer.

For not alone was Jesus sought

by wise men, from afar:

the joy of other hallowed births

glows with the wondrous star.

And Hanukkah is freedom’s shrine

to all ‘neath tyranny;

the lamps are lit within our hearts,

for faith can make us free.

Joy to the world, these festive days;

nowhere may hope be dim;

and as the gladsome spirit glows,

sing carol, song and hymn!

INTRODUCTION:

Today is the beginning of the Christian liturgical year.

We are in the time of preparation, expectation, and wonder called advent. Equally we are mindful that this evening is the first night of Hanukkah. Both carry the ideals of light shining in our darkening hours. During this time together we begin to reflect on the theme of light, reflection, and how this season of Christmas can speak to us.

READING:

Luke 1:46-55

New Revised Standard Version

And Mary said,

“My soul magnifies our God,

and my spirit rejoices in God our creator,

for with Divine favour has this lowly servant been noticed.

Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;

for the Mighty One has done great things for me,

and holy is God’s name.

There is mercy for those who walk the divine way,

from generation to generation.

We have seen that Divine strength;

As God has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.

Bringing down the powerful from their thrones,

Lifting up the lowly;

For God has filled the hungry with good things,

and sent the rich away empty.

We the servant, Israel, have been helped

Through Divine mercy, remembering

the promise made to our ancestors,

to Abraham and Sarah and to their descendants forever.”

ADVENT CANDLE

There are many ways we can explore the season of Advent, one is though the recounting of the various stories within the bible, such as the patriarchs, the prophets and such, the way we will be following is through the virtues and values expressed during this season, Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love….

Today we light a candle of hope…

Know the plans that I have for you, declares our God, plans to prosper you and not to harm, plans to give you hope and a future.

Jeremiah 29:11

Light the candle…

HYMN:

HFL 83 (CD ACH / TK 3)

“These Festive Days”

words by John Irving Daniel

Our festival is here again

to lift the darkening year,

and celebrate the Feast of Lights

‘mid glow of Christmas cheer.

For not alone was Jesus sought

by wise men, from afar:

the joy of other hallowed births

glows with the wondrous star.

And Hanukkah is freedom’s shrine

to all ‘neath tyranny;

the lamps are lit within our hearts,

for faith can make us free.

Joy to the world, these festive days;

nowhere may hope be dim;

and as the gladsome spirit glows,

sing carol, song and hymn!

LIGHTING THE HANUKKAH CANDLE

This evening is the first evening of Hanukkah which commemorates the miracle of the temple light, one days worth of oil burning for eight, in lighting this candle we remember and we join our voices in the eternal hopeful cry for equity and for just relationships.

Light the candle.

READING:

An Invocation

by William Stafford,

from A Scripture of Leaves

Where the birds are singing, for an hour

they have been predicting dawn. This time

they are pretty sure it will come if

they keep on saying it enough.

And all the quiet people in their houses

are humming their hearts on the blind journey

that will end soon after someone raises

the hand always ready to turn off the stars.

Every song has the necessary mistakes

to keep it from wrecking the universe,

and our enemies help us by carefully

assessing the flaws that make us ourselves.

Sing, birds astir in the dark;

announce the world all over again.

Like you I pulse along, awake,

hopeful, ready to find my way.

The Spiraling Adventure of the Spiritual Life

by Joan Chittister,

from The Liturgical Year: The spiraling adventure of the spiritual life

Life is made up of the turning of the years. We watch our lives go by, a phase, a stage, a year at a time, and we mark the meaning of the year by the way we feel as we spend it. We talk about “the kind of year it’s been.” As if one year could possibly repeat another, as if all the parts of the year were cut from the same fabric, all its days derived from the same root or developed in the same ways. Instead, every year is a distinct growth point in life, the shedding of another shell of life. Each year brings something unique to us and calls for something different from us. Yet, however much we recognise their separate comings and goings, we too, often neglect to be prepared for their equally unique effects on our development.

More than that, so often we fail to realise that any given year can be many years in one —the year he got married, the year she graduated from university, the year the child died — each facet of it a separate and discrete reality in itself. No doubt about it: as life inches on, the truth of the spiritual uniqueness of every year becomes more and more apparent. There is no such thing as a universal year, a simple rendering of a common block of time. There are actually a good many ways, not only one, by which to define the years of our lives. So many, in fact, that is’s important that we take pains not to confuse one kind of year with another.

Every different kind of year demands different strengths of us, provides different kinds of gifts for us, enables different kinds of sensibilities in us. To confuse one kind of year with another, then, is to assume that they are all equally valuable or that we can possibly achieve all the things we need in life — material or spiritual — in any single one of them. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The years of our lives come in more flavours than any single year can possibly encompass.

Prologue: Sounding the seasons

by Malcolm Guite,

from Sounding the Seasons: 70 sonnets for the Christian Year

Tangled in time, we go by hints and guesses,

Turning the wheel of each returning year.

But in the midst of failures and successes

We sometimes glimpse the love that casts out fear.

Sometimes the heart remembers its own reasons

And beats a Sanctus as we sing our story,

Tracing the threads of grace, sounding the seasons

That lead at last through time to timeless glory.

From the first yearning for a Saviour’s birth

To the full joy of knowing sins forgiven,

We start our journey here on God’s good earth

To catch an echo of the choirs of heaven.

I send these out, returning what was lent,

Turning to praise each ‘moment’s monument’.

HYMN;

SYF 27 (CD SYF 3/TRACK 5)

“Dark of Winter, soft and still”

words by Shelley Jackson Denham

Dark of winter, soft and still, your quiet calm surrounds me.

Let my thoughts go where they will, ease my mind profoundly.

And then my soul will sing a song, a blessed song of love eternal.

Gentle darkness, soft and still, bring your quiet to me.

Darkness, soothe my weary eyes, that I may see more clearly.

When my heart with sorrow cries, comfort and caress me.

And then my soul may hear a voice, a still, small voice of love eternal.

darkness, when my fears arise, let your peace flow through me.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION

In the turning of the year what is important?

What days of the year do you think are important to remember during the churches year?

How do you relate to Advent? What themes do you think is important for this time of year?

How does the concepts of Hope and of Light speak or not to you?

How does the process of waiting for something wonderful effect you?

PRAYER:

This prayer is from another non-creedal Christian tradition, The Church of the Brethren, also known as Dunkard Brethren, German Baptist Brethren, or Schwarzenau Brethren.

An Advent Prayer, words by Don Shank, adapted by John Carter

Gracious God,

We are surrounded by the signs of Christmas:

Christmas trees, Christmas lights, Christmas gifts, Christmas music.

These things can add to our time of wonder and preparation,

or they can detract us from the One whose birth we remember this season.

Enable us, O God, to see not only the outward signs of Christmas, but also the inward signs you would send to each of us durning these days of wonder, of preparation, of Advent.

We pray this in the name of the one whose birth we celebrate.

Amen.

HYMN

SYF 165 (CD4 / TK18)

“The Spirit lives to set us free”

words anonymous

The Spirit lives to set us free,

walk, walk in the light.

It binds us all in unity,

walk, walk in the light.