On Sunday, Rev. Lola Wright concluded our December series, “Where The Realms Meet,” with her Christmas-day message, “Let Love Lead Us.”
Note: the myth of Santa is comically revealed, so please take heed when listening around young Santa believers.
Listen
Opening:
How do we make sense of a world that seems so conflicted? How do we rest in hope with evidence of such despair? How do we feast on the affirmative and fast from the negative without dismissing the struggles of humanity? Without dismissing our personal and collective challenges?
SLIDE: We are to know that passing events cannot hinder the onward march of the soul. The temporal imperfection of the human cannot dim the eternal integrity of the Divine. – Ernest Holmes
Love is the self-givingness of the Spirit; free from condemnation and free from fear; a cosmic force whose sweep is irresistible – SOM
Objectives:
Honor your rhythm
Dedicate yourself to miracles
Reclaim your identity – I AM presence
To see the divinity/the holy in all people, places and things
Keywords/Stories/Points:
To listen ever more deeply to the guiding presence of Love in you:
Gina
The most loving thing I could do for myself is…
The most loving thing I could do for _______ is…
Winter Solstice – shortest period of daylight, longest night of the year; reawakening of nature; reawakening of our spiritual nature
SLIDE: I wish I could show you when you are lonely or in darkness the astonishing light of your own being. – Hafez
Hanukkah (rededication) – celebration of miracle; revolution against assimilation and the suppression of the Jewish religion leading to a rededication of the Temple; only one day of oil remaining last 8 days – a miracle and enough time to prepare a fresh supply of oil
SLIDE: This is the meaning of existence: To reconcile liberty with service, the passing with the lasting, to weave the threads of temporality into the fabric of eternity. – Abraham Joshua Heschel
Christmas – rebirth of possibility; celebration of Christ Consciousness – the realization of God in form; celebrating the healing presence of Spirit; date selected in concert with Roman Winter Solstice
SLIDE: Jesus was a master of the existential encounter. He saw perfect spiritual virtue where the crowd saw an adulteress. He saw perfect health in the physically afflicted when he told the lame to walk, commanded withered limbs to be made whole, the blind to see. When others saw a lack of food, he saw an abundance of loaves and fishes. When Lazarus was lying seemingly lifeless before Jesus, he regenerated the life force of the living spirit in which he beheld his dear friend. – Spiritual Liberation by Rev. Dr. Michael Bernard Beckwith
Kwanzaa – reclamation of identity and culture; communitarian African philosophy
Unity
Self-Determination
Collective Work & Responsibility
Cooperative Economics
Purpose
Creativity
Faith
SLIDE: We cannot manifest love when we have a mental equivalent of hate in our hearts and minds. – Ernest Holmes
Summary:
When it is so tempting to be discouraged we must AFFIRM…
SLIDE: “The Season of Affirmation” by Howard Thurman
Christmas is the season of Affirmation.
I affirm my faith in the little graces of life: The urgency of growth, the strength of laughter, the vitality of friendship.
I affirm my confidence in the dignity of humanity: Their fortitude in despair, their strength in weakness, their love in hatred.
I affirm my joy in the experience of living: The fragrance of nostalgia, the scattered moments of delight, the exhilaration of danger.
I affirm my need of my fellows: The offerings of faiths, the gifts of variety, the quality of difference.
I affirm my hunger for God: The desire for fulfillment, the ache for understanding, the sense of peace.
Christmas is my season of affirmation.
Closing:
Meditation on the Miracle of Love
What is the nature of reality?
What’s going on?
What’s in the space?
