Unitarian Church in snow… (photo by Dave)
You may have noticed that the thermometer dipped briefly into negative numbers this week, a stark indicator of what’s to come. The town of Houlton is insulated in a thin layer of white and colored lights are everywhere! We are now entering the Second Week of Advent and Rev. Dale Holden is leading the Sunday Service. Dale is still recovering from a recent bout of winter illness, but she will be at the piano and behind the lectern with an Advent message for us on hope titled “Something’s Coming.” Her service was originally scheduled for the First Sunday of Advent with singers and special music lined up, but with additional illnesses and unexpected circumstances the service may look a little different than originally planned. Adaptability is part of our Advent journey this year, so please adjust with us as we continue along. We will also be decorating our tree during coffee hour as part of preparing the parlor for Christmas Eve.
We have church decorations for the tree, but If you’d like to bring in additional ornaments we will hang those as well. Fun for all ages! The UUHoulton Social Action Group also has a meeting after coffee hour. We are working on a gun control letter to our state representative in Augusta. The first draft is ready for discussion and review.YouTube Channel content for this week is the First Sunday of Advent service titled “Caravan; The Journey of Advent.” Rev. Dave introduces the theme and shares the Curious Story of Mellen-Thomas Benedict. You will find part of the service transcript included in today’s Support Page. The link for YouTube is listed below. Please join us for one of the services.
In Ministry,
Dave
First Sunday of Advent Service
Advent Wreath LightingWe light the first candle of Advent for the Journey the journey of discovery, hope and new things ahead of us…Opening Words A poem from the Persian mystic Rumi.
Come again, please come again,Whoever you are.Religious, infidel, heretic or pagan.
Even if you promised a hundred times And a hundred times you broke your promise,This door is not the door of hopelessness and frustration.This door is open for everybody.Come, come as you are. Caravan; The Journey of Advent
Leigh Griffith painting “Caravan”This morning we commence on our Advent journey; a four week venture between now and the night of Christmas Eve, and we do not know exactly how we are going to get there, or what we might experience along the way. That’s where the interesting parts and unpredictability enter in. The Wendell Berry quote in today’s bulletin says,
“It may be that when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work, and that when we noAA longer know which way to go, we have begun our real journey…”
I like the selection of Leigh’s painting as an image for our journey; Caravan.
(It captures the feel of a journey in the Middle Eastern desert, similar to the wise seekers in the biblical story of Jesus’ birth.)
A return to the Advent story is to immerse our selves in the desert world of the Middle East; its terrain, its mystery, the people, the politics. And this year, it’s hard to avoid the current news reel of events in the Middle East; the Israel-Hamas War, Gaza, Jerusalem, the West Bank. Like it or not, this is part of our caravan journey for Advent as 2023 winds down. This is nothing new for Jerusalem. Jerusalem is always in the middle of religion and politics, and it’s not always easy to sort out or make sense of – but it appears to always be a necessary part of the process.
Buckle up your camel.We are going to give this a try.I promise I will not get too political or too theological (I’m not sure which is worse)but I do believe it is necessary to say something as we move forward.
First, words of wisdom regarding the use of violence in times of war by Confucius:
“Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves — one for your enemy and one for yourself.”
I’d like to share the Curious Story of Mellen-Thomas Benedict.
One if the most intriguing NDE cases (or near-death-experiences) of the 20th century is that of Mellen-Thomas Benedict, an artist and musician who was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor in 1982. He was 32 at the time. He was in hospice care and instructed his nurse that if he were to die, to leave his body undisturbed for eight hours. He did, in fact die, and then, one hour and a half later he revived and returned with a most amazing story. Even though the nurse had been forewarned, she was shocked upon his return and reported that his body had already started to stiffen. Most NDEs may last for several minutes, but this is one the longest ever documented.
Benedict’s NDE begins in the same way that many others also report; one’s spirit body hovering over their deceased physical body and then seeing a bright light that they move towards. In this case, Benedict sees the bright light and starts to move towards it, but then stops and starts asking questions, directed towards the light about what’s going on. Apparently, most people in this situation do not stop to ask questions. To his surprise, the light takes him on a mind-bending trip. The light transforms itself into the most beautiful thing he had ever seen; a large, colorful, cosmic mandala containing every human soul on the planet. Benedict called it a “matrix of souls.”
Here is the account as recorded in Deepak Chopra’s 2006 book “Life After Death”
Gazing at the matrix of souls, Benedict became aware they were all connected; humanity formed one being; each of us is an aspect of this wholeness. He was seeing a Higher Self matrix which is a cosmic pattern of consciousness. Each person, he realized, has a higher self that serves as an oversoul and also as a conduit back to the source. He was drawn into the matrix, which he describes as ineffably beautiful. It radiated a healing, generative love that overwhelmed him. The light conveyed to him that the soul matrix formed a subtle energy level that girded the earth and bound people together. Benedict had spent a decade involved in nuclear disarmament and ecology, disturbing issues that had made him deeply pessimistic. Now he was confronted, he says, with the pure beauty of every human should and was dumbfounded.
He was particularly astonished that no soul contained evil, and the light informed him that souls cannot be inherently evil. Underlying all human action is the search for love, and when people are driven to evil actions, the root cause is lack of love. When he asked if this meant that humanity could be saved, there was a “trumpet blast” accompanied by spiraling light, and Benedict was told never to forget the answer: human beings were already saved, no matter how dire the current predicament looks.
Then he saw an “enormous stream of light, vast and full, deep in the heart of life.” When he asked what it was, the light told him it was the river of life and that he should drink from it to his heart’s content.
When he returned, Benedict said…”I just cannot say enough about how it changed my opinion of human beings in an instant. I was astonished to find that there was no evil in any soul. People may do terrible things out of ignorance and lack, but no soul is evil.” Mellen-Thomas Benedict fully recovered from his brain tumor in 1982 (to the complete surprise of his doctors) and lived an additional 35 years before passing in 2017.Regardless of what you may think of this incredible account and without getting into the metaphysics, I do think that Benedict’s image of a cosmic mandala including all humanity is a persuasive image to restore hope and optimism to our shared and ongoing experiment on the planet.
In the mandala, each person has a placement in the system, contributes a color to the design and belongs, in that sense, to the larger image. The dark and the bright, the large and the small all have a role to play in the moving, evolving cosmic ball. Ideally, your placement or contribution to the mandala is positive, healing and creative, but for a number of very good reasons, it may not always be so. Well-intended actions can sometimes go terribly wrong and innumerable complications can arise along the way that derail positive outcomes.
Life is the great teacher. If we are intent on learning from our shortcomingsand willing to adjust and expand into new and better ways of doing things our life will improve and along with it the lives of those around us.
A new level of awarenessa higher consciousnessa new perspective will manifest itself in us and in the world around us.
This is the basic message of Universalism;the message that everyone is includedeveryone at their core is divineand that we all still have some work to do to make it so.(We are all going at our own speed.)
At this point in my spiritual evolution my aim is to assist, be helpful and to contribute to a dialogue of peace, reconciliation and cooperation. I may fail at that, and come terribly short of such an ideal, but my best intention is to be as consistent as I possibly can.
I want to be a small, bright and shiny dot in the vast cosmic mandala of humanity and participate to the best of my capacity in this mad, wild ride to we know not where…
At the end of Benedict’s account he sees a stream of light that he identifies as the river of life. The voice says to drink from it and he does…
When I read this it reminded me of a story in the gospels when Jesus is talking to a woman at a well in Samaria. Since Samaritans and Jews did not associate at the time, it was a potentially awkward conversation, but Jesus clarifies saying, Drink this water which is the water of life, for the time has now come when worshippers of God must worship God in spirit and in truth.
In the past, geographic location and distinct religious truths were the primary consideration, but now they were not, they became secondary. What’s important now are spiritual truths and their inner meaning. This was a significant evolutionary shift as literal interpretation of religion transitioned to spiritual interpretation of religion. If you look at the chart in today’s bulletin you will see what is called a developmental stage theory approach to religion and moral-ethics.
- preconventional stage – egocentric
- conventional stage – ethnocentric
- postconventional stage – worldcentric
If you’re going to watch the news:
- Don’t pick sides
- Consistently take a humanitarian approach
- Don’t have expectations of specific results
- Trust the larger process
For the conclusion of the message check out the YouTube service on
THIS WEEK’S YOUTUBE SERVICE:
HERE IS THE SERVICE LINK FOR THIS WEEK’S YOUTUBE SERVICE
(Please note it won’t be active until 10AM on Sunday morning)
HERE IS THE ZOOM LINK FOR SUNDAY COFFEE HOUR:
Topic: UUHoulton coffee hour & check-in
Time: Dec 10, 2023 11:00 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada)Join Zoom Meetinghttps://us06web.zoom.us/j/86732617469?pwd=8xYZPtmkpOtgQaMLxsIenwLappwlMA.1
Meeting ID: 867 3261 7469
Passcode: 611194
Calendar of Events @UUHoulton
Dec 10 Sunday Service: Rev. Dale Holden (2nd Sunday of Advent)
Dec 10 UUHoulton Social Action Group meeting after coffee hour
Dec 12 Meditation Group 4PM (online)
Dec 16 LGBTQ+ Luncheon at noon
Dec 16 Houlton Coffeehouse Feature: Ira Dyer
Dec 17 Sunday Service: Joshua Atkinson (3rd Sunday of Advent)
Dec 21, Thursday, Winter Solstice Celebration Drumming 6:30PM Ceremony 7:00PM
Dec 24 (No Sunday Morning Service)
Dec 24 Christmas Eve Candlelight Service 4PM
Potluck in the fellowship hall following the service
Dec 31 Sunday Service: David Hutchinson
Virtual Offering Plate
If you would like to send in your pledge or donation simply drop an envelope in the mail. The address is listed below. You can also send your donation electronically with our new payment system on the church website. Simply go to uuhoulton.org and click “Donate” on the menu and it will explain how the system works. You can set up a regular monthly payment plan or donate in single transactions. Thank you for your generous support!
UU Church of Houlton61 Military Street
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