Ringwood acknowledges difficulties in the glitter of Christmas - Blue Christmas service led by #Unitarians

The idea of the Blue Christmas service is to acknowledge the darkness, and let it be dark.  We do not pretend that we can suddenly, magically, make it light. So we just let it be dark.  And see if we can sit with that, for a while.

We started by acknowledging some of the reasons for Christmas not necessarily being a fun and jolly time.  It might bring painful memories.  It might force us into situations we wouldn’t have chosen for ourselves.  Events elsewhere in our lives, to do with health, work, or relationships, might mean we are struggling.  And it’s always worse if everyone around us seems to be having a wonderfully time.

So there was a space for people to recognise what is troubling them, and to begin to let it go, before we moved onto the Christmas story.

We heard the traditional story again, but stripped of all its glitz, and re-humanised.  We started with a stripped down version of John, Chapter 1, in a translation not from traditional Church authorities, but by an independent translator, Andy Gaus, in The Unvarnished Gospels.  The story continued via two poems: Bethlehem, by Frances Thompson, and The Journey of the Magi by T.S. Eliot.  The first tells the story of the birth of Jesus from the point of view of the innkeeper’s wife.  The second tells the story of the travels of the Wise Men, in a retrospective by one of them, many years later.

We considered what Christmas might signify to people for whom Jesus is not the traditional Messiah or Saviour worshipped by other Churches.  We heard it suggested, through some words by Rowan Williams, that "perhaps it’s not guidance about how to greet everything with spiritual joy and excitement that we need.  Perhaps it’s more like guidance on how to preserve our motivation when the going gets tough and all we feel like doing is lying down and sleeping."

There were thoughts on hope, and renewal, and the divine as appearing in the innocence of every child.  In particular, in the words of Rev Cliff Reed:

“I believe that we must seek the heart of Christmas - 

its joyous love, its star-lit mystery, its peaceful

pleasures.  Find these and we find its power.

I believe this power can redeem us - open the

heart’s doors to divine innocence.”

Echoing Frances Thompson, we remembered that, whether we are feeling strong and at peace at the moment or not, it is within our power to give a blessing, in our own fashion.  And so there were prayers, including Psalm 30, and prayer poems, that made space for us to do that, as we sat together.

The readings, poems and prayers were interspersed with Christmas music not heard quite so often, and certainly not in the supermarkets: Vigilate by Byrd; God With Us Proclamation by John Tavener; Coventry Carol (a traditional carol about the slaughter of the innocents); and we also sang a very Unitarian hymn: It Came Upon the Midnight Clear https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Came_Upon_the_Midnight_Clear.  And not a Christmas song, but a song of hope: we finished with a Paul McCartney track, One of These Days.

Waiting through events you hadn't planned and didn't want - truth in the material - Ringwood #Unitarians in December 2019

We gathered last on 8 December.  As part of our usual practice, we enjoyed one of the Chalice Meditations by David Kent - “Do What Most Kindles Love in You”

https://www.misterdavidkent.com/the-chalice-meditations

And we sang a couple of hymns from the green hymn book, one of which is very traditional this time of year: “Joy to the World”

We shared flame, bread and water together as we made the gathered circle of those present.  And as usual, we spent seven minutes in silent meditation.

When we gather, the practice together seems the most important bit to me, though other participants may not feel that as much as I do.  But even to me, when reporting afterwards, the wordy bits assume a greater weight, because they are so much more easily transmitted.  So for your interest, here is a report of the wordy bits of the gathering.

The theme brought together some thoughts about the period of waiting that many faiths are in, during this part of the year.

And the idea that God is come to earth, is in Earth, which is the absolute hallmark of Christianity, as well as being a known idea in Earth Spirit faiths.

How do people who are not traditional Christians tune in to the idea that materiality is a source of truth, when we have set aside the doctrines taught about Jesus being God the Son?

The first reading was from The Picts and the Martyrs by Arthur Ransome, and the second from Sailing the Worldly Winds by Vajragupta.  From that book there was an anecdote about a Zen Buddhist master caught in the sort of travel delay we have all become accustomed to, and how she did not let that daily nuisance define her, or even affect her practice in any way, whereas her student who was also caught up in it, was - like most of us would be - quite bothered by it.

The Picts and the Martyrs were waiting.  They were waiting for the adventures they had planned, and had wanted.  But the whole book is about the unwanted adventures that they had to pass through: about some worrying times, before they got to do the things they wanted to.  This is a book about waiting, and dealing with mess, and learning; all while you are waiting.

Similarly the Zen Buddhist student was waiting, and worrying.  And he, too, was learning while he waited - he was learning by watching his master.

This time of year is a time of waiting.  People are waiting for a variety of events and sensations. 

Waiting for the longest night, the turning of the year, the returning of the sun.  

Waiting for the commemoration of the unluxurious birth of perhaps the most important Jewish teacher of all time; and, by extension, the commemoration of the wonder of the births of all human babies. 

Waiting to gather together with family and friends.  

Waiting for the giving and receiving of gifts.  

Waiting for a sense that we are accepted and wanted, within the web of the universe.  

Waiting for a heartfelt recollection of a sense of purpose in our lives - what we should do, in order to feel worthwhile in ourselves.  

Waiting for merriment and the jollity of - for once - acceptable excess.

It seems to be a time of waiting for something material, something in the flesh.  Something that, like the Picts and Martyrs and the Buddhist student, we did really want, while in fact other stuff we don’t want is going on all around us.

It also seems to be about a different category of stuff: stuff that we don’t do all the time, throughout the year.  These aren’t just lights on our houses - these are CHRISTMAS lights.  These aren’t just parties - these are CHRISTMAS parties.

As such, these things that we do this time of year are set apart, considered special; or to use churchy jargon, they are sacred, hallowed.

Some people are uncomfortable with the word “sacred”, but it seems to me that it is humans, and not God, that decide whether things are sacred or not.  Things that are sacred to humans can be called sacraments.  That word, “sacrament”, has different meanings depending on the church, but sacraments are generally, in some way, visible symbols of the reality of God.

I find I’m in tune with Eastern Orthodox Christianity on this point.  According to Orthodox thinking, God touches humankind through material means such as water, wine, bread, oil, incense, candles, altars, icons, etc. “Etcetera” means AND THE REST, in other words, everything.

How God does this is a mystery. On a broad level, the sacraments, aka mysteries, are an affirmation of the goodness of created matter, and are an emphatic declaration of what that matter was originally created to be. The unsullied God-given goodness of all new born children, and the hope of their continued innocence, and the slaughter of an entire generation of innocents by the corrupted fear and greed of the oh-so-human King Herod, is seen by some Unitarians as the most relevant element of the Christmas story.

The mysteries are an affirmation of the goodness of created matter.

But then, if God touches humankind through all material means, then it is not just the CHRISTMAS things and CHRISTMAS events that affirm the goodness of created matter.  ALL things and ALL events carry the same message and the same weight.  So the adventures that the Picts and Martyrs had before the start of the holidays that they really wanted, were actually just as important as the holidays they were waiting for.  The simple sitting in the sunshine on a suitcase waiting for a bus was just as important as the bus arriving and getting to the airport (late).

So, while it is entirely right and appropriate to enjoy the traditional winter festivities, once they are over we could remember that actually they are no more important than the ordinary other things we do, and we could aim to keep the same inner enjoyment going all year long.  

The purpose we seek is to live better within our own skins, by being connected with others in constructive ways.  It’s not the winter festivities which we are waiting for that will do this for us.  To live better within our own skins, we need to not be looking forward all the time.  We need to see what we are learning in every situation, as we go along.  Dorothea by necessity learned how to cook.  The Buddhist student learned to worry less, and to not even wait.

We need to be content sitting in this and other dark times of the year.  We need to look at it differently.  We need to look at where we are, differently.

We might perhaps choose to look differently at the ordinary, daily activities we get involved with.  Perhaps we could choose to see “flowers”, where once we saw “weeds”; we might see “another chance to express connectedness with someone”, where once we saw “yet another phone call to be made”; and we might be more like the Buddhist teacher sitting on her suitcase: remember - where her student was agitated, impatient, irritated and worried, the teacher was not even waiting.  She was touching the truth of the universe in the materiality of the enjoyable sunshine.

Being a disciple of Yeshua, a teacher of 'oneness'

The thing about Unitarians is that we seldom stand completely in one camp.  Just as we rarely hold a vision in common about how the multiverse operates, we rarely confine ourselves to one community of faith.  Seeking guidance, help and inspiration from a wide range of human sources (experiential, emotional, artistic, historic, scientific, mystic; solo and collaborative) - and from environmental sources as we live as animals on this Earth - we also tend to wander freely between circles of influence in terms of faith teaching.

So it is a rare Unitarian who adopts a single, or even prime, teacher to guide their path.  A number of UK Unitarians are satisfied in labelling themselves Unitarian Christians, and in doing so are content to be seen as people for whom the Jewish rabbi Jesus (or Yeshua) is the prime reference.  But the practice and contemplation of Unitarian Christians is not exclusive to Yeshua - there is a wealth of guidance available under the generic “Christian” banner that has not directly come from the words or actions of Yeshua, but instead, has come in an indirect way, from the thoughts and actions of other followers of Yeshua who have gone before.

For myself, for instance, I have gained a lot from paying attention to the guidance of the Abbot Benedict, a Roman Catholic monk living in the sixth century, and the Rule for life in community which he crystallised for his monks; as well as from various contemporary commentators on Benedict.  But that feels a long way removed from the words I hear reported as coming directly from Yeshua, as written in the Bible.  I have learned from Christianity rather than directly from Yeshua; and so I do not really think of myself as a Unitarian Christian.

Now, because of my interest in Benedict, I belong to a Benedictine group, whose members alongside me are traditional Christians.  One of the books we are currently reading together is a book by Professor Rowan Williams, Being Disciples.  Unlike the rest of the group, in the reading of this book there is work for me to do, to translate terms, directed by the author at traditional Christians, into terms that seem to me to be universally applicable.  It is only by doing this that I can hold true to my Unitarian calling: I strongly feel that a teacher has been truly wise only if their teaching can be applied to all humankind, not to just a select grouping, or to a specific time.  ‘What is true everywhere, over all time’, worded also as ‘oneness of all humankind’, is crucial to me.

So I am now reading Williams’ Being Disciples with this question, this context in my mind:  Yeshua the teacher of ‘oneness’.  Because, if ‘oneness’ is the touchstone for a Unitarian, then a teacher will be helpful to the extent that they address the ‘oneness’ issue.

Williams suggests that being a disciple - a student of a teacher or guru - is not a set of ‘I can pick up-I can put down’ activities, but rather is a state of being; and that it requires staying in the company of the guru or teacher over long periods, even when nothing much seems to be happening.  It requires being attentive to the teacher, he says, and going with them even as they go to places you would not have chosen for yourself.  That bit is very important.

In Williams’ book we are reminded that Yeshua went to some places his contemporary followers found very uncomfortable; and that he received criticism for both his behaviour and for the company he kept.  From the ‘oneness’ standpoint, I see Yeshua deliberately taking action to challenge and break down the traditional divisions between people.  He taught, as well as showing by demonstration, that those granted power and authority over others should behave humbly and put the needs of others before their own needs: the famous foot washing (John, Chapter 13).  He broke taboos by eating and associating with people who were regarded as the dregs of Jewish society; and with despised collaborators with the Romans (e.g. tax collectors).  It is clear that Yeshua saw such exclusions as running counter to what is best in and best for humankind, and he demanded that those who followed him should set aside such barriers.  He emphasised an old teaching of non-exclusion in Judaism: that the very ingredient left on the side is the key element in the whole affair. (Psalm 118, quoted by Yeshua in Matthew, Chapter 21; Mark, Chapter 12; Luke, Chapter 20).

Yet - demonstrating to me his humanity - Yeshua was not himself perfectly consistent in living his message (and knew it: “Why do you call me good?  Only one is good, and that is God.” (Matthew, Chapter 19; Mark, Chapter 10; Luke, Chapter 18)).  He was challenged to reach out beyond his Jewish cultural habits: to a Roman soldier who sought healing for a member of his household (Matthew, Chapter 8), and to a Samarian woman at a well, whom at first Yeshua seemed reluctant to include (Matthew, Chapter 15).  Yeshua was stretched on both these occasions, but he passed the test of his own message - when the chips were down - by treating these others as he treated his own.

So Yeshua was looking for ‘oneness’ between all sorts of people.  And if we choose to use his teachings and example as our guide, we must work to break down barriers between people, and treat the last as first, even at the cost of placing ourselves in situations not designed for our own comfort.

~~~~~

But Yeshua’s teaching is not limited to ‘oneness’ of human society.  As a mystic, his teaching extends to relationships with God.

Prof Williams suggests that: “…The relationship of Jesus to the Father is not episodic.  Jesus does not receive an occasional bit of instruction from the Father; his relationship is sustained, eternal and unbroken.”

My own reading is that Yeshua is attentive to the divine reality in a continual way; an unending ‘oneness’ subsisting between him and what brought him into being and sustained him.  And then he extends that: he extends the ‘oneness’ between God and himself, to a ‘oneness’ starting with God and including himself then extending to his disciples: “I am the vine and you are the branches.” (John, Chapter 15).  “My Father, who gave them to me, is greater than all; and no one is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.  I and my Father are one.” (John Chapter 10).  “Truly, I say to you, he that receives whomsoever I send receives me; and he that receives me receives him that sent me.” (John Chapter 13). “No man knows who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him.” (Luke, Chapter 10).

It seems that Yeshua sees this experience of ‘oneness’ with truth and reality as both possible and essential, for anyone who wishes to follow the same path: “The Kingdom lies within you.” (Luke, Chapter 17). “Rejoice because your names are written in heaven.” (Luke, Chapter 10). 

And Yeshua uses the idea of God as Father, rather than Judge, to indicate the familial intimacy and connectedness that we should feel with God.  So Yeshua, the breaker of barriers between people, is encouraging his followers to see a continuum, not a separation, between their worldly being and the creative power, or will, that brings them into being.

And perhaps the most famous of all the teachings of Yeshua is this: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like unto it: thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”  (Deuteronomy, Chapter 6 and Leviticus Chapter 19, quoted together by Yeshua in Matthew, Chapter 22; Mark, Chapter 12; Luke, Chapter 10).

As Williams has it: “…so we in our discipleship [of Jesus] are summoned to gaze into the mystery of that infinite love and to seek to do that same eternal will: to ‘act’ that same action, on earth as it is in heaven, as the Lord’s Prayer puts it.”

~~~~~

So it seems to me that Yeshua is - among other things - a teacher of ‘oneness’: a ‘oneness’ stretching from the source of the multiverse, through the laws governing evolutionary environmental existence and human society (“heaven and earth”), through the compassion wisdom of the spiritual guides and the prosaic nature of ordinary life, to concrete expression in the most outcast, ignored and helpless of our kind and of animal kind.  Yeshua’s teaching infers a demand for an attentive recognition of the integrated web of relationship and interdependence, and this as part of an unending search for what is best in and best for humankind.

And again from Prof Williams, regarding what the actions and teachings of Yeshua can be used towards as we live today: “…what it’s all finally about is enabling you to do some very ordinary things a little bit better, in a way that is suffused by eternal love taking up residence in the heart…..what the disciple learns: how to be a place in the world where the act of God can come alive.”