Prelude Roots and Wings by Elizabeth Harley
Opening Words Prayer for Advent by Vernon Marshall (adapted)
At Advent, O God, the Father of our spirits, the Mother of our souls,
We wait in anxious anticipation for the coming season, keen to experience the warmth of goodwill which is abundant at this time.
We wait to celebrate a birth, the birth of one who was truly human, compassionate, tolerant, caring.
May we learn what it means to be fully human, sharing the joys of innocent and childlike values of directness and honesty.
May we enjoy the thrill of giving, and the thrill of receiving.
We are glad the Christmas season gives us the spiritual gift of excitement. May we remember that fundamentally, life is good.
We are loved and cared for. May this be a season of hope.
Chalice Lighting (you may wish to light a candle in your own home at this point. I will be lighting my chalice for worship at 11.05 am on Sunday morning) words by William D. Hammond
As the chill hand of winter tightens its grip upon us,
and sets a death-watch over a tired, old year,
Let us kindle within our heart the gladdening flame of the yuletide season,
that we may fling against the blackness of the long, cold nights,
and against the depths of human misery and despair,
lives newborn in love, good will and mercy toward people everywhere.
[light four candles without explanation]
Opening Prayer
Spirit of Life and Love,
Be with us as we gather for worship,
each in our own place.
Help us to feel a sense of community,
even though we are physically apart.
Help us to care for each other,
in this not quite yet post-Covid world,
keeping in touch however we can,
and helping each other,
however we may.
May we remember that
caution is still needed,
that close contact is still unwise.
Help us to be grateful for the freedoms we have
and to respect the wishes of others.
May we hold in our hearts all those
Who are grieving, lost, alone,
Suffering in any way.
Amen
Story The Four Candles by Anon.
The Four Candles burned slowly.
Their ambience was so soft,
you could hear them speak …
The First Candle says: “I am Peace,
but these days, nobody wants to keep me lit.”
Then Peace’s flame slowly diminishes
and goes out completely. [put out first candle]
The Second Candle says: “I am Faith,
but these days, I am no longer indispensable.”
Then Faith’s flame slowly diminishes
and goes out completely. [put out second candle]
Sadly, the Third Candle speaks: “I am Love,
and I haven’t the strength to stay lit any longer.
People put me aside and don’t understand my importance.
They even forget to love those who are nearest to them.”
And waiting no longer, Love goes out completely. [put out third candle]
Suddenly, a child enters the room and sees
the three candles no longer burning.
The child begins to cry:
“Why are you not burning?
You are supposed to stay lit until the end.”
Then the Fourth Candle speaks gently to the little boy:
“Don’t be afraid, for I am Hope,
and while I still burn,
we can re-light the other candles.
With shining eyes, the child took the Candle of Hope
and lit the other three Candles. [light 3 candles using taper lit from 4th]
Never let the Flame of Hope go out of your life.
With Hope, no matter how bad things look and are
Peace, Faith, and Love can shine brightly in our lives.
Alternative Lord’s Prayer
Spirit of Life and Love, here and everywhere,
May we be aware of your presence in our lives.
May our world be blessed.
May our daily needs be met,
And may our shortcomings be forgiven,
As we forgive those of others.
Give us the strength to resist wrong-doing,
The inspiration and guidance to do right,
And the wisdom to know the difference.
We are your hands in the world; help us to grow.
May we have compassion for all living beings,
And receive whatever life brings,
With courage and trust.
Amen
Reading The Careless Candle by John Wood
A candle is a careless thing. See how it is always stretching up and reaching out. It gives its substance without murmur or complaint to the flame that is consuming it. It doesn’t even seem to care into what corner the flame flings its light, whether the corner is clean or dirty, pretty or ugly, far or near, high or low, deserving or forgotten, useful or neglected. Apparently too, it doesn’t care to whom it sends its warmth, whether to the outer chill, a lonely heart, a child’s delight, a bore or a lout.
A candle that tries to conserve its substance is poor company on a dark night. It was pleasant to look at in the daytime. It was slender, smoothly appealing. But any candle that does not give itself away is a disappointment in the deepening shadows of a long evening. Some friends are like that. Good fun in days of play; poor company in the hours of dusk and trouble.
A candle must give itself away. In the giving, in the spending, the spreading, the sending, it finds itself. There is a proverb: “The human spirit is the candle of God.” Let us learn to spend ourselves. May it be so.
Prayer by Charles Stephen
Spirit of Life and Love,
May the spirit of this coming season help us find our way through the noise and turmoil of the days ahead into the heart of Christmas itself, to its quieter joy and its peace.
May we learn that we cannot hear the songs until our own hearts learn to sing them.
May we, whose needs are so great, know how close we are to what we seek, and how often the things we want so desperately are ours already.
May we be strong enough for the joys and the pains of love;
And may we, with quiet persistence in our hearts, learn to enjoy the small happenings of our days and hours, and find in them the meaning that touches us most deeply, that moves us most profoundly.
May we find that life is good. Amen
Reading from The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
Then said a rich man, Speak to us of Giving.
And he answered:
You give but little when you give of your possessions.
It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.
For what are your possessions but things you keep and guard for fear you may need them tomorrow?
And tomorrow, what shall tomorrow bring to the over-prudent dog burying bones in the trackless sand as he follows the pilgrims to the holy city?
And what is fear of need but need itself?
Is not dread of thirst when your well is full, the thirst that is unquenchable?
There are those who give little of the much which they have – and they give it for recognition and their hidden desire makes their gifts unwholesome.
And there are those who have little and give it all. These are the believers in life and the bounty of life, and their coffer is never empty.
There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward.
And there are those who give with pain, and that pain is their baptism.
And there are those who give and know not pain in giving, nor do they seek joy, nor give with mindfulness of virtue;
They give as in yonder valley the myrtle breathes its fragrance into space.
Through the hands of such as these God speaks,
And from behind their eyes He smiles upon the earth.
Time of Stillness and Reflection words by Robert Edward Green (adapted)
May each of us carry into the world
throughout our own lives and deeds
the light of this online community –
a flame of the endless search for truth,
a flame of the endless quest for peace,
a flame of the endless love and faith in humanity,
a flame of hope for ourselves and the world.
Let the flame from this online community
light our hearts and our lives.
[silence]
Light of peace, Light of faith,
Light of love, Light of hope,
Light our path this day,
and in the weeks to come;
Light our way now and forever more. Amen
Musical Interlude A Welsh Wedding by Elizabeth Harley
Address Four Candles (Hope)
Today is the first Sunday in Advent – we have started that magical period of anticipation leading up to Christmas. The word Advent comes from the Latin ‘adventus’, which means “coming”. It not only refers to the imminent nativity, but also to the Second Coming. Christians believe that the season of Advent serves a dual reminder of the original waiting that was done by the Hebrews for the birth of their Messiah as well as the waiting that Christians today are doing for the second coming of Christ. In Christian churches, the theme of readings and teachings during Advent is often to prepare for this Second Coming while commemorating the First Coming of Christ at Christmas. With the view of directing the thoughts of Christians to the first coming of Jesus Christ as Saviour, and to his second coming as Judge, special lessons are prescribed for each of the four Sundays in Advent. It is a season of hope and expectation.
As you may know, Advent begins on the Sunday nearest to 30th November, and lasts until midnight on Christmas Eve. During the season of Advent, Christians all over the world prepare for the celebration of Jesus’s birth. On each of the four Sundays in Advent, a different candle in the traditional Advent Wreath is lit. The first is the candle of Hope, which symbolises God’s people – they see the candle as a symbol of hope shining in a dark place. The second is the candle of Peace, representing the Old Testament prophets. The third is the candle of Love, representing John the Baptist, and the fourth is the candle of Joy, representing Mary, the mother of Jesus. On Christmas Day, a fifth candle is lit to represent Jesus himself. The symbolism here is Jesus as the light of the world.
The poem from which the title of this service came, Four Candles, uses slightly different symbolism: the four candles stand for Peace, Faith, Love, and Hope. Which is why we have the four candles here. Because we could all use some peace, faith, love, and hope in our lives. But more of that later.
Although most Unitarians and Free Christians do not believe that Jesus was the Messiah, the unique Son of God, many reverence him and follow his teachings, as best they can. And quite a few Unitarian churches and chapels celebrate the first Sunday (and even subsequent Sundays) in Advent. Some have an advent wreath, such as I described above, and some choose to decorate the chapel Christmas tree on Advent Sunday. I can remember attending a joyful tree decorating service at the Old Chapel in Great Hucklow a few years ago, when I was up there for a weekend conference. A few of us from the Nightingale Centre were invited to contribute a reading or a prayer, and then add a decoration from the box to the tree. It was magical!
In our modern times, Advent is most generally celebrated through the opening of windows in a calendar. When my children were little, I bought a beautiful advent calendar from Red House Books, which consisted of 25 tiny little books, each of which told a specific part of the Christmas story. We used to read them every morning and participate in Advent that way. These days, of course, my no-longer-children aren’t at home any more, and I open my Fair Trade chocolate calendar by myself, to count down the days until they come home for the festival. This year, I’m really looking forward to being all together as a family again, if only for a few days.
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The part I really loved about that poem Four Candles was the last couple of stanzas:
“Then the Fourth Candle speaks gently to the little boy:
“Don’t be afraid, for I am Hope,
and while I still burn,
we can re-light the other candles.
With shining eyes, the child took the Candle of Hope
and lit the other three Candles.
Never let the Flame of Hope go out of your life.
With Hope, no matter how bad things look and are
Peace, Faith, and Love can shine brightly in our lives.”
“With Hope, no matter how bad things look and are, Peace, Faith, and Love can shine brightly in our lives.” Yes. I have recently been re-reading Brené Brown’s marvellous book, The Gifts of Imperfection, which has the somewhat cheesy sub-title Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are. But don’t be put off by that; it is actually a fascinating treatise on the practice of what Brené calls wholehearted living. And one of her ten guideposts for wholehearted living is “Cultivating a resilient spirit: letting go of numbing and powerlessness.” Which is where hope comes in.
If we go back to the legend of Pandora and her box, Hope was the only virtue left to humankind when she had let all the others escape. And my dictionary defines hope as “expectation and desire combined; feeling of trust”, which I guess is how most people think of it. Brené Brown, who is an accomplished sociological researcher, thought so too, and was shocked to find that “hope is not an emotion; it’s a way of thinking or a cognitive process.” In other words, it is a way of being that can be learned!
I’d like to share what she says about how hope happens; it is when: “We have the ability to set realistic goals (I know where I want to go). We are able to figure out how to achieve these goals, including the ability to stay flexible and develop alternative routes (I know how to get there, I’m persistent, and I can tolerate disappointment and try again). and We believe in ourselves (I can do this!).”
She also grounds the ability to be hopeful in a foundation of spirituality, which she defines as “the belief in connection, a power greater than self, and interconnections grounded in love and compassion.”
Let’s go back to that final stanza: “With Hope, no matter how bad things look and are, Peace, Faith, and Love can shine brightly in our lives.” If we have hope, we can cultivate that resilience of spirit to allow peace, faith, and love to shine in our lives and into the lives of others.
So where can we find hope? Brené explains that “We develop a hopeful mind-set when we understand that some worthy endeavours will be difficult and time-consuming and not enjoyable at all. [Or] the process of reaching a goal [may] be fun, fast, and easy, [which] doesn’t mean that it has less value than a difficult goal. If we want to cultivate hopefulness, we have to be willing to be flexible and demonstrate perseverance. Not every goal will look and feel the same. Tolerance for disappointment, determination, and a belief in self are the heart of hope.”
I would also argue that it is much easier to find hope, to be hopeful, and resilient, when we have a belief in something greater than ourselves. This might be a higher power, which some of us might name God or Spirit of Life and Love; or it might be a belief in the worth of working towards a lofty goal, such as world peace, an end to poverty, the spread of compassion – whatever.
It has been an eventful year, in our own lives, in the life of the congregation, and in the wider world. Some of us have faced bereavement and grief, others have faced life-threatening or less scary but still serious health issues, and all of us have lived through another twelve months with the threat of Covid hanging over us. At the beginning of this week, I asked the question on Facebook, in preparation for this service: “What stories from 2021 have given you hope?” One mentioned people of different faiths coming together to help each other and others, another mentioned good environmental initiatives, including the recent COP26 conference which, although it did not result in all the changes environmentalists hoped for, has been a step in the right direction. And, in spite of the continuing uncertainties about Covid, most of the MUA congregations are now open for worship again. That is having hope.
The season of Advent is all about hope. I will finish by repeating the prayer by Charles Stephen, as a wish for us all in the coming weeks and months:
“May the spirit of this season help us find our way through the noise and turmoil of the days ahead into the heart of Christmas itself, to its quieter joy and its peace.
May we learn that we cannot hear the songs until our own hearts learn to sing them.
May we, whose needs are so great, know how close we are to what we seek, and how often the things we want so desperately are ours already.
May we be strong enough for the joys and the pains of love;
and may we, with quiet persistence in our hearts, learn to enjoy the small happenings of our days and hours, and find in them the meaning that touches us most deeply, that moves us most profoundly.
May we find that life is good. Amen”
Closing Words by Anon.
Spirit of Life and Love,
Let this day begin the time for celebration.
Let us turn ourselves toward the season of the year,
when the trees are bare
and the grass is covered with snow,
and the sun begins to return once more
to warm our homes and our bodies and our hearts.
Let this day begin the holy celebration of Christmas.
Amen
Postlude Lady of Lewesdon Hill by Elizabeth Harley