What is divinity if it can come Only in silent shadows. In any balm or beauty of the earth, Things to be

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Dwight Powell
5 years ago
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1 What is divinity if it can come Only in silent shadows and in dreams? Shall she not find in comforts of the sun, In pungent fruit and bright, green wings, or else In any balm or beauty of the earth, Things to be cherished like the thought of heaven? Divinity must live within herself: Passions of rain, or moods in falling snow; Grievings in loneliness, or unsubdued Elations when the forest blooms; gusty Emotions on wet roads on autumn nights; All pleasures and all pains, remembering The bough of summer and the winter branch, These are the measures destined for her soul. Wallace Stevens (from "Sunday Morning")

2 Chalice Lighting-from Ben Okri, Nigerian Poet and Author We are greater than our despair The negative aspects of humanity Are not the most real and authentic; The most authentic thing about us Is our capacity to create, to overcome, To endure, to transform, to love, And to be greater than our suffering. We are best defined by the mystery That we are still here, and can still rise Upwards, still create better civilizations, That we can face our raw realities And that we will survive The greater despair That the greater future may bring.

3 In striving to recognize the primacy of Fire and Light, I feel kinship with my Zoroastrian brothers and sisters. In striving to obey the Ten Commandments, I feel kinship with my Jewish brothers and sisters. In striving to be kind to neighbor and the needy, I feel kinship with my Christian brothers and sisters. In striving to be compassionate to creatures great and small, I feel kinship with my Buddhist-Jaina brothers and sisters. In striving to surrender myself completely to God Almighty, I feel kinship with my Muslim brothers and sisters. In the recognition that wisdom flows from enlightened masters, I feel kinship with my Sikh brothers and sisters. In remembering that serving people should be the goal of religion, I feel kinship with my Baha'i brothers and sisters. In my respect and reverence for Nature that sustains us, I feel kinship with my Native American brothers and sisters. In feeling that these and more are all paths to the same Divinity, I feel kinship with my Hindu brothers and sisters. In my love and laughter, joy and pain, I feel kinship with all my fellow humans. In my need for nourishment and instinct to live on, I feel kinship with all beings on the planet. In my spiritual ecstasy with this wondrous world, I feel kinship with the Cosmic Whole. universal reflection - v. v. raman - cape of good hope

4 Good morning, and thank you so much for inviting me to share my thoughts and words with you today. As I was preparing for this, I heard the voice of Lewis Walker, a beloved member of our church and the greater Unitarian Universalist faith. We were participating in an Adult Religious Exploration session together here at and were asked to create a symbol using physical materials. Lewis, as we began, leaned over and muttered to me "I really don't like the hippy-dippy stuff". So, I offer apologies to Lewis' memory or to others who may find this opening a bit "new age-y", but I assure all of you that I do hippy dippy fairly well sometimes. I hope this is one that works for you. If you wish, I invite you to close your eyes and open all your senses to this exercise. See with your mind's eye, hear if you can, smell the invocations, sense a memory or desire. Open your full self, and imagine "YELLOW". Yellow, yellow. Do you see a burst of light, a submarine, a mellow stick of butter? Maybe you hear uplifting music surrounding you; perhaps your ears remember the squeal of brakes Page 1 of 9

5 that all school buses seem to possess. Perhaps you are color-blind and are merely frustrated by my assumption that "yellow" means something to you. Do you feel warmth, on your skin or in your heart? Is there a sad memory of a loved one with a jaundiced tint to her skin? Do you taste the sour lemon, smell a sweet ripe pineapple, hail a dirty taxi on the streets of New York? Are you surrounded by brown-eyed Susans in the light of day, and can you hear the sound of glory? Bring what you know back into our shared space; open your eyes and rest within your YELLOW. Now, one more flower child step, one last consideration. Take a moment and visualize how you might define "Yellow" to a person who has never seen. As with many words that are considered "religious", there are layers of meaning and understanding in "Divinity". There may be God, there may be Nature. We can search the internet for this word and discover recipes for candy and scads of performers who share their gifts via divine campiness. Page 2 of 9

6 I can easily be defined as a "word person" who loves the reality of mathematics and logic. As I ponder my life within the vast unknown elements of our world, I often analyze the roots and common usage of words that have become "clearly defined" to many and have become well known in common usages that I cannot reconcile. Some words, over the years, took pauses within my vocabulary until I could absorb more intuitively the EXACT meaning within my understanding of truth. Some words still await! Others, while I may express them not at all, invoke a thing so large that I find myself merely saying "this is wondrous". Today, I invite you to consider your own insights and discernments related to the feelings, smells, tastes, and understanding of divinity. If this is a word you have ceased to use or never expressed, I invite you to hear and consider some things that may contain a seed of knowledge that feels right to plant in your own garden. I cannot attempt to tell you what any concept means at the exact level of depth you possess in relation to it, in the exact manner you would express it as a word or song or painting. I am blessed by this congregation with the opportunity to describe my belief that -whatever divinity is - we absorb, expand and create the awareness of its manifestation in individual moments. If we choose awareness, welcome and love, we may discover that each and every moment affords us divine opportunity. Page 3 of 9

7 Ben Okri, whose words guided our creation of chalice light, speaks of true authenticity lying within our own beings. We hold the capacity to be greater than our suffering. He reminds us that we possess wonder-filled gifts of creation and transformation. We hold, below our fears and losses, enmeshed within our muddled pasts, the capacity to see, to know, to expand and create bursts of truth and knowledge. These bursts fill the spaces between with light, energy, divinity. I recently listened to the public radio show "The Thomas Jefferson Hour" and was struck by something the creator, Clay Jenkinson, said. He was asked, during a discussion of the racial/gender/religious tensions we see today, what creates bigotry. He responded "I do not know, I do not know" but went on to say that it may be that it is a basic human trait that separates "self" from "other" and focuses primarily on the differences. He reminded his listeners that these gaps exist between nations, races, genders, faiths, and that this separation of otherness can be found throughout history. This idea that bigotry is inherent in us may be true. Our biology and physiology, as animals, ensures that we have a strong fight or flight response when faced with potential danger. The immediate response to seeing something unfamiliar, perhaps Page 4 of 9

8 strange, perhaps frightening, is to either fight or run. We see this in society every day. There are many who will fight by knocking down their perceived opponent in any way they can, and many of us will turn away from the unknown through fear of discovering that the truth is somehow hateful or through disinterest in the "other". But as human beings, we also have the ability the gift to learn more about the stranger by listening and asking questions, in order to make a new thing less "different". If we listen deeply and allow ourselves to be vulnerable by sharing our own stories, we may just create energy that is filled with something much greater than any individual or group. Between people, there is always a space. That space can be filled with anger, fear, prejudice, darkness or just ignorance. Divinity cannot exist, cannot find a foothold, in the muddled murkiness of "other". Divinity is the space between beings that is filled with love, with light and with hope. Within the Unitarian Universalist sources that we affirm and promote, I often find myself struggling with the fourth source, which honors "Jewish and Christian teachings which call us to respond to God's love by loving our neighbors as ourselves". On the surface, it's easy-of course I want to love my neighbors as myself. But many times in my life, particularly as an adult, when someone says they are a Page 5 of 9

9 Christian, I feel myself responding negatively. Yes, there have been those who, after defining themselves in this way, have said things such as "I am so sad that you are going to hell" or "I am praying that you find your way to accepting Christ as your savior, as there is no other way to heaven". However, I struggle to ensure that my immediate responses do not include saying (to myself): "You are wrong, you are hypocritical, you are nuts". I must challenge myself not to feel that an individual is too dissimilar to offer me anything I wish to receive. This was really brought home to me through a friend a man who became a good friend only because he was so open to sharing his understanding of the universe while listening carefully to mine. Steve was a co-worker who was a really nice guy who wore his Christian faith proudly on his sleeve. My flight response allowed me to avoid talking to him on a personal level for a number of years. Then, a few years ago, Steve and I were placed in neighboring cubicles and I found myself talking to him more and more. My openness to his beliefs began with a discussion of his love of playing the organ in his church I tend to adore musicians and loved to listen to him talk about how he was given a gift by his congregation and returned to them a glorious gift of music each week. Once I had established a commonality and a recognition that Steve's faith was deeply connected to his love of music, I tentatively began letting him know who I Page 6 of 9

10 was. I was scared to say "I am an atheist" as I expected immediate rejection. I judged him by making assumptions of how he might judge me, without ever giving him a chance to speak or listen. Each time we talked about faith, I grew more comfortable with his Christianity. What got me hooked the most was the pure love with which he spoke of helping the needy and working toward justice, from a perspective of one who is guided by the New Testament. These words from Luke were a integral part of Steve's soul, and how can I disagree? Then Jesus also said to him who invited Him, When you give a dinner or a supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbors, lest they also invite you back, and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you Finding our common belief in helping others just for love of people, rather than for points in heaven or on earth, helped me recognize my bigotry and set me on a path to listening more carefully to someone who has an inherently different belief or background. The sharing Steve allowed, in spite of his disagreement with my faith practice, was a true expression of divinity here in the world. Don't get me wrong, I have a long way to go. I still tend to have prejudices Page 7 of 9

11 around religion and other things, and I struggle and strive to understand and eliminate them. But I see my friendship with Steve as an opportunity placed in my path to expand the goodness in the space between, and that divine experience continues to feed the chances for me to grow and expand by remembering how wrong I was and how taking steps forward is generally a much better path than running away or standing still when faced with fear of "otherness". What are your prejudices that stop you from moving forward to learn the truth of another? Do you state "I have none"? If you have done the incredibly hard work it would take to have no pre-judgment of a stranger, you are truly a blessed and rare individual. Think of the places where you assume something without ever asking the other for the truth does your assumption arise from behaviors they have exhibited in the past, or does it come from what they look like, what their education level is, how they dress, where they shop, who they support politically? I believe we all have prejudices, and I do concede that sometimes the only actual harm done is to our own selves. We cut ourselves off from so many gifts when we can't move forward into learning. But the true risk to the universe, when we choose to live within fear of "otherness" is that divinity is lost. Goodness is decreased and light is dimmed when we don't feed them from the brightness we have potential for within our souls. In this present time, there is much to fear and often there is a sense of Page 8 of 9

12 hopelessness. We cannot let our anxiety of the future stop us from moving forward, for only by taking action can we make it better. Some will march, some will work and many will merely love in such a way that others feel the goodness and positive energy in a way that changes them. Be a part of the divine truth through finding kinship with all your brothers and sisters. Take the time, when feeling fearful, to listen to your inner voice and to begin understanding why you are afraid. If your fear merely arises from lack of knowledge, ask the other for his or her story, share your own truths with comfort, and know that you have brightened the space between through your actions. Through your breath and your life, seek to love and truly become enmeshed within eternity. Let yourself be the nourishment needed within the Cosmic Whole. Page 9 of 9

What are WE waiting for? Rev. Gabi

What are WE waiting for? Rev. Gabi Advent means coming: We are waiting for light; we are waiting for Peace. Advent means coming: In ( Isaiah 2:4) we read that people always hoped for something to come.