Faith Saying Yes Today is the first Sunday of Advent. Unity is not that big on liturgy, or a prescribed set of sermon topics, but we do sort of like Advent. Advent is derived from the Latin word adventus which means a coming, or arrival. You won t find advent in the bible It appears it took Mary the ordinary nine months of gestation, not four weeks. Advent is a creation of the church. It was a late addition, first mentioned in about the fourth century and not really formally shaped as a church observance until about mid sixth century. If women had been in charge, maybe advent would be nine months long but men were in charge of the church so we get barely four weeks, depending on when Christmas falls during the week. Which brings up another sore spot in my view of advent. There are currently four traditional topics for Advent Sundays: Hope or Faith (we ll talk about that), Peace, Love and Joy. Joy is the final Sunday, and the celebration of Joy is over after Christmas Day. So this year, one day? Only every seven years when Christmas is on Saturday do we get Advent Sunday of Joy enjoyed for a full week. That does not seem fair to Joy! So is the first Sunday of Advent; Hope or Faith? Depends on who you ask. Most Christian banners use Hope as the first Sunday. And for many years, Unity used Hope. Then the language began to shift and the way they described hope sounded more like faith. A couple years ago Unity just started calling the first Sunday Faith. Maybe Hope is less grounded in spirituality. It is a desire for an outcome; something we want to happen. And some definitions inject expectancy into hope. Unity, I think, felt that hope was a weakened and secular word compared to faith. The traditional Christian definition of faith is in Hebrews, chapter 11, verse 1: Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. The first part of the definition seems to amp faith up over hope in the power of assurance and the second part adds an element that distinguishes faith from hope for me. Hope seems to require that you know what you want. When people are hopeless they cannot imagine a better life, a way out of the situation they find themselves in. In order to ignite hope they need a concrete vision or fact or image that moves them forward. Faith, on the other hand, is the conviction of things not seen. For me, this is not just a potential I can t see in the material world right now, it is a potential for good that I cannot even imagine right now. 1
A month or so ago, I went to a training on spiritual care in disasters. The trainer had written a book on this that was titled, Keep the book open. The title arose from a story about a chaplain who was comforting a man left with only a photo album. The album contained many cherished memories and the chaplain observed there were final pages still blank. She encouraged the man to keep the book open for new memories yet to be created. That is really a theme in the counseling to try to support individuals in finding the resources within themselves that have produced good in their lives and reassure them those inner resources are still there. There was a group of four chaplains at the training who worked together. They repeatedly raised an issue in the training: How do you remain authentic when there is no hope. There is not going to be a good outcome. I confess I was a bit puzzled around the idea these were spiritual counselors who seemed to count the material experience as the only reality. If life ends; if materiality is wiped away, there is nothing good in potentiality. Perhaps this is the crux of the contrast between hope and faith. Hope desires are concrete. The chaplains seemed focused on the idea of not offering false hope; not making promises in the material world that will not appear. And I understand that perspective. Often people speak about losing faith when expectations are not met; specific prayers appear to go unanswered; life does not feel easy. Someone prayed for a miracle and the person died. Someone prayed for justice and the person went to jail. I am not sure if their expectancy was focused on the Divine or on a person, situation or circumstance in the material world. I am not sure we can lose our faculty of spiritual faith but we can certainly stop exercising that faculty especially when we build up a file of human experiences in which our reliance was on the worldly channels, not the divine Source. It is not mine to judge the experience and practice of faith in others. I don t have any easy answers for difficult situations, tragedy and disappointment. What if we could live more comfortably in the tension of paradox? What if we could acknowledge our human experiences of grief, pain and suffering AND acknowledge that spiritual experiences take us beyond our humanity and beyond the human logic to new potentials. For me, faith is not about getting what I think I want. Faith is not a magic bubble that wards off unpleasant experiences. Faith is knowing I am one with the Divine energy of love. Faith is staying aware of divine guidance that is accessible at every moment of my day and responding to that guidance with confidence. 2
Faith is also remaining steadfast through my challenges and not allowing disappointment or the perception that I failed to deter my expectation that the potential for good remains. Which always brings us to the idea of good. For me, in Unity we use good in a way that means an absolute good, a divine seed that can grow an infinite number of different ways nurtured by my own belief and expectation, not the good of human judgment that has an opposite, which is bad. This brings us back to the conviction of things not seen. Faith is letting go of ego s conviction that it can picture the correct outcome and allowing how life actually does unfold to be the path for my highest and best. Life will unfold. I am not an absolutist like Fillmore and Butterworth seemed to be at times, declaring every aspect of my life is a direct product of a thought I held. Race consciousness produces disease in lives too young for conscious thought. I am not an absolutist believing everything in life is related to karma. There are theories of pre-incarnation soul agreements and I am not convinced one way or the other. I am open to focusing my attention on how I respond to what is rather than worrying so much about what caused what is. However, in our core value statement about creativity we say, With infinite possibilities available, we shape our world and our experience. Infinite possibilities are available in each moment, which really makes each day a time of possibilities from one view or a time of uncertainty from another view. Uncertainty and possibilities are two sides of the same coin. Ego mind and our human mind prefers the illusion of certainty, so long as that certain outcome meets our desires and hopes. We are less enthusiastic about certainty and more open to the uncertainty of possibilities when we dislike the way things are going. We want change when we want it and we hate change when we don t want it. Faith allows us to be at peace with however life unfolds, rising above the human tendency to judge good and bad; accepting some of life, rejecting other parts of it. Faith reminds us, whatever happens, I have access to all that I need. Right here, right now, I have access to the Universe flowing through me. That knowing is faith. Often we learn through story and Mary, in the Christmas story, presents lots of lessons in faith. We don t need to believe in a literal version of the story to find meaning in it. The literal story says a woman who is engaged but has not been with a man finds herself pregnant. An angel comes to her and tells her she carries a son conceived by the Holy Spirit and that all will be well. 3
She is blessed by God. Easy for Gabriel to say, he doesn t have to carry a child for nine months or explain to a fiancé, It s ok honey, it s God s child. None of us has Mary s exact challenge. We are all unique and the challenges that arise in our lives are uniquely our own. Our path in life is our own and as we claim in our core value: we shape our world and our experience. Jesus might add, according to our faith. Think about various times in your life when you have made choices or held expectations. Reflect for a moment what you were relying on in consciousness at the time. Were you looking to the Divine or to some earthly source to manifest the outcome? In the advent reflection for tomorrow, I wrote this: When I face uncertainty, I wonder if I have the resources I need to get through it. Then I pause and reaffirm my faith in the unfailing love and guidance of Spirit. Eric Butterworth says Faith simply tunes into and turns on the divine flow that has always been present. Faith is simply saying Yes Saying Yes is simple yet not always easy. Saying Yes to Spirit may mean going beyond our comfort zone and trusting we will be supported out there in new territory. It may mean we need to shift away from limiting thoughts that are saying No. In the reflection I go on to say: Faith is not a belief in a great cosmic rescue or supernatural power, but the quiet knowing that whatever I need, in any situation, is available. I am never alone; I am always in the embrace of the Divine. Faith gives me the confidence to keep putting one foot down, and then the other, as I follow my guidance and live the life I am meant to live. As the literal story of Mary unfolds, life does not become suddenly easy. Yet, an angel convinces Joseph to go ahead with the marriage. Heavy with the baby, Mary must travel to Bethlehem. With no room in the crowded city, she gives birth in a stable. Step by step she moves forward with faith. Step by step, day by day, we move forward. Even when it feels like slipping back. Breath of Heaven is a relatively new Christmas song, originally written by Chris Eaton with no references to Mary or the Nativity. Eaton was in Amy Grant s touring band and when Amy heard the chorus, she wanted to rewrite lyrics to make it Mary s song and put it on her Christmas album, released in 1992. Eaton reluctantly agreed just this once he said. The lyrics speak to me of faith in any challenge for anyone without regard to gender identity. I am waiting in a silent prayer. I am frightened by the load I bear. In a world as cold as stone, must I walk this path alone? Be with me now. 4
Breath of heaven, hold me together, be forever near me, breath of heaven. Breath of heaven, lighten my darkness, pour over me your holiness, for you are holy, breath of heaven. Is there anyone among us who has not been called by Spirit and hesitated? Anyone who has never wondered about the skills, the resources, the strength and stamina needed for the day ahead of them? Faith is the faculty within us that turns our attention towards the flow of divine energy already available and opens our consciousness to the strength and guidance of that flow. Faith reminds us we are not alone and that we have more than our humanity to draw upon in this human experience. Faith allows us to transform our perspective from uncertain times to times of possibilities. Faith, sometimes slowly and patiently, takes us to places we might not have gone by choice. Faith helps us make our way through unfamiliar territory, especially when life unfolds in unexpected or unplanned ways. We make our way, not alone, but in the embrace of love so complete it is a part of our every breath. Our way may still be slow and labored but we go on as the expression of Spirit in this world. Each one of us, a unique expression of Spirit. As we prepare for the new birth, the new awakening to the Christ of our being, and the arrival of that renewed consciousness of our divinity, let us declare that faith truly is the conviction of things not seen. Faith is the expectancy of my good flowing through my life, open to the possibilities as they are revealed. 5