Love is all there is. Right?

There are a couple of things very unique about Unitarian Univeralism. The first is the idea that there is only one Love. The second is that that Love is universal and unconditional. UUs like most people don't really believe these two things, the founding ideas of their faith. Like everyone else, UUs like to argue that there are different kinds of Love, and that Unconditional Love is discriminating.

Can you forgive someone a little bit? Can you forgive someone for this but not that? Can you really forgive but not forget? Forgiveness which is compromised is not forgiveness at all for it hides deep resentment and fears.

With forgiveness it is all or nothing. This is a difficult teaching, too much for most people. Only the very spiritually mature can forgive wholeheartedly and mean it.

With forgiveness there is no half-assed way to do it genuinely. Either we move on in Love and peace or we are held back by fears and resentments.

Fears are the crux of the problem with forgiveness. We find it difficult to eliminate them because we are pre-occupied with bodies and not with souls. Our bodies can be hurt for sure, but never our souls without our acquiescence and permission.

Deep down we are invincible and there is nothing to fear. We are loved by the Force of the Universe unconditionally. When we realize this, nothing can ever hurt us again. Fears are eliminated by Love. In the last analysis, Love is all there is.

Third week of advent - Monday

The Christmas story is rich. There is more of the story not said than is told. An intriguing part of the story is when Joseph finds out that his fiancee is pregnant with someone else's child. At the time, under Jewish law, this was a capital offense. Joseph could have had Mary executed.

It seems that Joseph is a good guy. He didn't want Mary killed. Did he love her in spite of her infidelity? His plan, it tells us in Matthew's gospel, was just to quietly divorce her. This would make Mary an unwed mother in those days even more suspect and reviled than in our contemporary age.

Joseph, decides, the story tells us based on a dream, that he will stick with Mary and this bastard child. What factored into the decision other than the intervention of the Holy Spirit we are not told. For Joseph, it as a package deal. He was taking on a pregnant teenage wife and her child. What a guy!

Joseph has no idea what he is getting in to. He will have to make an arduous journey to another town to pay his taxes, and then this baby will be born in a barn and he will have to scramble to attend to the needs of his wife and this child, and then he will have to flee to a foreign land and stay there as a refugee for 2 years. It is quite a mess.

Isn't that just how life goes? One damn thing after another? Sometimes it seems like it never stops.

Joseph, though, is a real man. He rises to the occasion. He does what he feels called to do in spite of the difficulties.

The Christmas story focuses on the birth of Jesus and the supporting roles of Mary and Joseph are marginalized and downplayed. But where would Jesus be without the two of them? Jesus would be nowhere without Mary, and Mary would be dead were it not for Joseph. Perhaps Joseph is the true hero of the story even though he seems a bit player behind the scenes.

There always is a back story to the main stories we tell about our lives. In this Christmas story, the back story is about true love of a man and a woman who entered into what A Course In Miracles calls a "Holy Relationship" distinguished from a "special relationship."

At this time of advent, we can reflect not only on the birth of a divine light into the world, but also on a love story between that child's parents. It is a story of true love of shared purpose to discern and do God's will. Were Joseph and Mary happy? I am guessing they were and it makes me happy to think about what they must of had together and what they achieved. Considering their love story is a magnificent joy during this season. It fills us with tenderness, peace, and comfort.

In case you were wondering.......

Question of the day

It is written in A Course In Miracles that we learn what we teach. It also is written, "The question is not whether you will teach, for in that there is no choice." "Teaching is but a call to witnesses to attest to what you believe." "Any situation must be to you a chance to teach others what you are, and what they are to you."

So the question is, "What are you teaching?"

Do Unitarian Universalists look for truth and meaning in all the wrong places?

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. How successful they are in their search has yet to be determined. It may be that they are looking for truth and meaning in all the wrong places.

What is it that we seek from others? Love. He could love me, if only he would, and he won't because he is such a prick. She could love me, if only she would, and she won't because she is such a bitch. We accuse each other of perversity or holding out on us as if they had the power to make us happy.

Fact of the matter is that the other is not holding out on us because the other does not have the power to make himself or herself happy, let alone take responsibility for the happiness of another human being. This false belief in the power of the other to make us happy is the basis for all human misery and anguish. We have been looking for love in all the wrong places as the song tells.

The quest, to be successful, must take us within not without. We, each, are ultimately responsible for our own happiness. We can't put this responsibility on someone else. It is existentially unfair, inappropriate, misguided, and a huge mistake. Basically the belief that other people can make us happy is the chief of the ego's illusions. The ego tells us that the pearl of great price, that which we seek, is buried in another person's body. Sooner or later most of us usually with great sorrow and suffering, we come to recognize and acknowledge that this is not true. We have been on a wild goose chase, like a Boy Scout on a snipe hunt.

Clearing away these misguided illusions we come to realize that Love's presence has been within us all the time. We were too distracted to notice. We were too hell bent on getting it from somebody else rather than taking the responsibility ourselves.

The great turning of spiritual maturity is the realization that happiness, Love, is an inside job. It is at the bottom of a deep well which resides covered in slag, dirt, rocks, and vegetation. If we mine for it we will find the precious diamond that has been there forever and is our natural inheritance.

Third week of advent - Sunday

The Christmas story has become one of enchantment. It is the best of the genre of fairy tales. It is about a baby being born in a barn who was sent by God to save the world from its original sin. Alleluia. The angels rejoice and Kings bring gifts and shepherds adore.

What about the mother? She was a teen age mom. This was her first pregnancy and delivery. She was in midst of a journey when she goes into labor.

According to the story she agreed to all this when the angel Gabriel told her, an unmarried teenager, that she would become pregnant and give birth to a son. Did she freak out? Was she frightened? Was she worried about her family and what people would say? Could she try to abort the pregnancy and avoid a life long burden of motherhood? Who knows? We can only guess. Mary, though, says, "Thy will be done."

What?

She said, "Thy will be done."

"Really? What's up with that?"

Had she any idea what she was getting herself into?

The future trauma of seeing her only son killed by the Romans in a horrible execution would be something no parent could imagine let alone accept. Better, she may have thought, had Jesus not been born.

But then, Jesus could not have lived to bring the light of the divine to the world.

Mary, may have been happy, with how things turned out. Jesus, basically, told Pilate to go screw himself, and they killed His body but not His Spirit. Turns out they couldn't kill Him. The spirits of Jesus and Mary live on in the stories we tell about them. You got to admit they were really something and continue to be as they enrich our lives year after year.

The focus of the story is on the birth of the baby, Jesus. But none of this would have been possible without Mary. Mary is the conduit of the divine coming into the world once again. Without Mary, Jesus, would not have been born. Is Mary the best supporting actress in this drama or is she the star of the show? Depends on your focus and how you tell the story. While I like Jesus, there are times I like Mary better. Mother Mary, the Mother of our remembrance of the divine in the world. She knew what God was up to and she said, "Yes!" Wow!

In case you were wondering..............