First week of advent - Wednesday

Are we body or spirit? We are both, but which is more important? Which is the means and which is the end? Does the body exist to enable the spirit or does the spirit exist to enable the body?

There are times in life when we have to choose our focus. We have to decide which we will champion. Do we free the body or the spirit? Jesus chose the spirit and we still tell the story over 2,000 years later.

The myth is that God so loves the world that He incarnated the divine in His main child, Jesus. We have made Jesus into someone special almost ultra human, different from the rest of us. But Jesus tells us in A Course In Miracles that this mythic belief is not true. He is no different from the rest of us. We are all brothers. Jesus, though, became enlightened, and as an older more enlightened brother he tries to help us find the way to enlightenment as well. Jesus continually taught us that the spirit is free while the body is subject to physical constraints.

During advent we remember these lessons: that love and freedom are a free gift to our spirits if we could give up the idolatry of the body which is simply a means of communication.

UUs covenant together to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person. This affirmation and promotion comes to a crescendo at this time of the year. Let us be clear, though, that this is about our spirits not about our bodies. It is about fellowship of all of humanity as we join together in peace and joy in our mutual creation.

First week of advent - Tuesday

Mother Teresa said a couple of things which are relevant and appropriate during this advent season of preparation for the remembering of the divine.

"Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person."

Mother Teresa

"Each one of them is Jesus in disguise."

Mother Teresa

First week of Advent - Making room for the coming divine presence

The Roman Centurion said to Jesus, "Jesus, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed." Matthew 8:8

During this advent season can we develop a similar attitude of setting aside our personal drama and delusions and make room for the divine light being born into the world?

First Sunday Of Advent

Today is the first Sunday of Advent. We are getting ready for Christmas Day. How are you preparing? There is the decorating, the buying and wrapping of gifts, the planning for get togethers. It is a busy time of the year.

But the deeper question is how are you spiritually preparing? Are you finding quiet time to clear away the clutter that blocks your awareness to Love's presence in your life? Are you sitting still to listen, to tune into the frequency on the divine channel of Love, Peace, and Abiding Joy? Are you doing other things to help people listen with you to the Peace and Joy we once again intentionally and deliberately focus on and re-member?

As it says in the Desiderata:

You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.

And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy. 

Christmas is about appreciating the Kingdom

Father Richard Rohr reminds us that Jesus practiced radically realized eschatology, that is, the kingdom, paradise, heaven, is right here right now. Here's what Father Rohr writes:

"Jesus announced the presence of what he called 'the kingdom' or the 'reign'of God. He kept saying 'it is like' or 'it may be compared to' and he uses stories, parables, metaphors so that we could recognize what was obvious to him but not so obvious to us."

Rohr goes on to mention that we might think of "the kingdom" or the "reign of God" as the big picture. I would call it cosmic consciousness. It is like an awareness of the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part when we are able to "see" things in their true perspective.

At Christmas time we, as a culture, seem to be able to step back, get things in perspective and acknowledge that what is important in life is fellowship, peace, joy, and awesome contemplation of a world full of angels, grace, and love. The world, in short, is a place of enchantment and we have lost during the year our child like wonder. Jesus says that unless we recapture this childlike wonder we can't enter the kingdom. Indeed he is right.

Last year, I found a Christmas card that described the three stages of human life:

We believe in Santa.
We don't believe in Santa.
We are Santa.

I think the same model may be true of our spiritual development.

We believe in baby Jesus and God.
We don't believe in the divinity of Jesus and the existence of God as we did as a child.
We are part of God.

This Christmas how will I practice my awareness that I am part of God and share that awareness with others? The best ways I know is to extend my peace, compassion, and reverence for the inherent worth and dignity of every person.

The deeper meaning of Christmas is not that baby Jesus was born into the world, or that Santa comes on Christmas eve, but that we live in the kingdom created by the Spirit of Life if only we can step back and appreciate it and consciously continue the work of creating the universe.

At the Brockport Unitarian Universalist Fellowship we have gathered together a group of people who are intent on creating a better world not just at Christmas but all year along. We support each other in our growth and development and fall into love more and more with each meeting. BUUF is a special church that is committed to making the kingdom manifest in multitudinous ways. Please join us in spirit or in person as we continue our lives together.

Water communion in September, 2010