Advent

First Sunday of Advent

Overview: On the Christian Calendar, today is the first Sunday of advent. Advent is a time of anticipation or expectation – of preparation and reflection for something new, for the coming of love made flesh to dwell among us. In the Christian tradition, it is a time of spiritually preparing for the coming celebration of Jesus’ birth. Our Unitarian Universalist tradition teaches that love is made flesh and dwells among us every day, in every act of caring. By longstanding tradition, we set aside December 25 to particularly celebrate this fact. In preparation for that celebration, the Advent season invites us to reflect on the incarnations of love in our lives – and how we can participate in a new birth of compassion and kindness. For the first Sunday of Advent, the theme is Hope.

And as we light our chalice, we also light the first candle of advent, a purple candle signifying hope.

Reflection: We enter Advent – the season of preparation, of expectation, of reflection on the celebration which is to come. This first Sunday of Advent the theme is hope. Hope is the energy that allows us to make commitments, to engage in projects that bring love and justice into fuller flower. The voice of hope tells us that there is a place in this world for our intentions. There is no certainty – no guarantees. Our passions and efforts may never yield the results we pursue, but we and our pursuits belong, whatever they may yield. Hope is the assurance that trying matters, our intentions and efforts belong -- whether we accomplish our aim or not. As we reflect in these days about what Christmas means for us, what it could mean, we consider in what ways we see love becoming incarnate and in what ways we can lend our intentions to those incarnations. Where can our hopes combine with hopes of others to promote love, and build justice, for justice is what love looks like in public?

Second Sunday of Advent

Overview: On the Christian Calendar, today is the second Sunday of Advent -- a time of anticipation, expectation, reflection, and preparation for Christmas. Our Unitarian Universalist tradition teaches that love is made flesh and dwells among us every day, in every act of caring. By longstanding tradition, we set aside December 25 to particularly celebrate this fact. And in preparation for that celebration, the Advent season invites us to reflect on the incarnations of love in our lives – and how we can participate in a new birth of compassion and kindness. For the second Sunday of Advent, the theme is Peace.

And as we light our chalice, we also light the first and second candles of advent – the first purple candle signifying hope and the second purple candle signifying peace.

Reflection: The invitation of Advent is to reflect and spiritually prepare for the celebration which is to come. This second Sunday of Advent, with the second purple candle now lit, the theme is peace. Also, the first candle is re-lit. The first one is hope, the assurance that engagement in life matters – it makes a difference, whether or not it makes the difference we intended. Our energies are worth it – though perhaps in ways we cannot foresee. Now the second purple candle is peace. The peace at issue is conveyed in the Hebrew word, "Shalom," which implies wholeness, harmony with oneself and others and with the universe; healing of damaged relationships; and justice, fairness, and equity for all. We set our intention to what we can do to contribute to worldwide shalom, yet none of us can, by ourselves, make peace real. The path to peace calls for coordinating with others, revising our intention in light of their intentions and their needs. We cannot do it by ourselves, yet no one else can do for us what is our part to do.

Third Sunday of Advent

Overview: On the Christian Calendar, today is the third Sunday of advent: a time of anticipation, expectation, and reflection for something new, for the coming of love made flesh to dwell among us. For some of us, it is a time of spiritually preparing for the coming celebration of Jesus’ birth. Our Unitarian Universalist tradition teaches that love is made flesh and dwells among us every day, in every act of caring. December 25 is our day to particularly celebrate this fact. In preparation for that celebration, the Advent season invites us to reflect on the incarnations of love in our lives – and how we can participate in a new birth of compassion and kindness. For the third Sunday of Advent, the theme is Joy.

And as we light our chalice, we also light the first three candles of advent – the first purple one signifies hope. The second purple one signifies peace. And today’s candle, the pink one, signifies joy.

Reflection: The invitation of Advent is to reflect and spiritually prepare for the celebration which is to come. This third Sunday of Advent, with the pink candle now lit, the theme is joy. Also, the first two candles are re-lit. The first one is hope, the assurance that engagement in life matters – it makes a difference, whether or not it makes the difference we intended. Our energies are worth it – though perhaps in ways we cannot foresee. The second one is peace: the letting go of attachment to results, the assurance that all will be well, and all will be well, and all manner of thing will be well. Now out of that hope, and that peace, emerges joy. Not happiness, which is a passing mood, which comes and goes according to circumstances, but rather abiding joy. Joy is the fulfillment that comes from connecting with something beyond ourselves. Some of us conceive of it vertically – something higher, or something deeper. Or we might conceive it horizontally – not a higher power, but a broader power. Joy is the connecting with a wider reality than our narrow self-interests. It is the embrace of common cause with all beings. Happiness is mutually exclusive with sadness, but joy abides even in the midst of sadness. Indeed, a sharp awareness of the world’s pain, its griefs and losses, is essential to the complete connection and identification with the interdependent web of all existence – a connection and identification that is the ground of joy. We are one.

Fourth Sunday of Advent

Overview: On the Christian Calendar, today is the fourth and final Sunday of advent: a time of anticipation, expectation, and reflection for something new, for the coming of love made flesh to dwell among us. Our Unitarian Universalist tradition teaches that love is made flesh and dwells among us in every act of caring. By longstanding tradition, December 25 is our day to particularly celebrate this fact. And in preparation for that celebration, the Advent season invites us to reflect on the incarnations of love in our lives – and how we can participate in a new birth of compassion and kindness. For the fourth Sunday of Advent, the theme is love.

And as we light our chalice, we also light all four or our Advent Candles – the first purple one signifies hope. The second purple one signifies peace. The third candle, the pink one, signifies joy. And the final purple one signifies love.

Reflection: Dear Spirit of Love, We have lit your candle, the candle of love, on this fourth Sunday of advent. We know love is continuously becoming flesh and dwelling among us – in the birth of every beloved child, and in every act of caring and kindness -- yet this is the time of year that we, by convention, direct our attention to celebrate that fact: the fact that thou, love, art born, and born again and again, and that thou art what saves us. The advent season invites us to grow toward this celebration of love, to grow into that celebration over several weeks, preparing ourselves, deepening our appreciation of the message. We have lit again today, as we first did three weeks ago, the purple candle of hope: the assurance that it matters what we do. Even if it doesn’t matter in quite the ways that we intended, it matters that we did intend something, and we did act on that intent. This is hope. We have lit again today, as we first did two weeks ago, the purple candle of peace: the acceptance that comes to us when we let go of attachment to results. We offer up to the world what we are. We do what we can. We then leave it up to the world what to make of it. This is peace. We have lit again today, as we first did last week, the pink candle of joy: for out of hope and peace emerges joy, which comes from connecting with something beyond ourselves, whether something higher or something wider. Happiness is a passing mood, but joy may abide even in the midst of sadness. And now, as the culmination of advent, we have lit the purple candle of love. “And the greatest of these is love,” for love is the fruition of hope, peace, and joy – yet also the ground from which hope, peace, and joy grow, in an ever-widening virtuous cycle.