Over the past week or so Hindus all around the world have been celebrating Divali the festival of light celebrating that there is always Light at the end of the tunnel.
From the Sanscrit!
“Look to this day
For it is the very life of life
In its brief course lie all the verities
And realities in your existence
The bliss of growth
The glory of action, the splendour of beauty
For yesterday it is but a dream
And tomorrow is only a vision
But today well lived makes yesterday a dream of happiness
And every tomorrow a vision of hope.
Look well, therefore, to this day”
Chalice lighting
The Lord said “Let there be Light”
And there was light,
The light of promise,
The light of hope
The light of wisdom,
The light of knowledge
The light of community
The light of friendship
The light of Love
The light of Freedom
The light of Tolerance
The light of Reason
The light of Truth!
Hymn
Green 280 Morning has Broken
Green to go. red to stop, amber to sit and wait
Do you feel as though we have been governed by the amber light for ever?
The government keep promising that shut down is only going to be for a limited time
And when the time comes around we get a short reprieve and then lockdown again.
It is like sitting at broken traffic lights stop go wait
Stop go wait
Its limbo time
do you think that could be where the name of the Limbo dance came from?
People bending over backwards to do the impossible
It certainly seems that that is what we are trying to do as we wait for somebody to come up with a vaccine.
Perhaps that’s what we all aught to do, Limbo dancing. It would pass the time and you don’t need a partner.
88 Let it be a dance we do
When a sailing ship is becalmed it is called
being in the doldrums
The Doldrums are an area of the sea where the East and West trade winds cannot decide which way they want to go and the sails just hang loose, dangling from the cross trees and mast
Sailors would try everything to get the ship moving again.
They would throw water on the sails to try to catch any slight breeze that arose . But throwing water at a virus by hand washing or blowing into a facemask doesn’t seem to have much effect does it? The virus still keeps growing.
In modern society we don’t have time for such luxury as sitting waiting for the wind to get up
We put ourselves under pressure
We have to be continually doing something
In my doctors surgery at Wheatley they used to have a sign saying God often says wait but he never says worry.
That’s pretty good advice for us during this time
When you stop worrying you do have time to sit back and enjoy what you have
I just wish I could do that!
But I was brought up to have the protestant work ethic
And find simply ‘being’ very difficult.
How about You ?
Have you seen the light?
Light is a very ‘busy’ word.
The word is used for so many different concepts isn’t it?
We talk about times of light as good times
and dark times as bad times
We talk about the light of understanding and the darkness of ignorance
WE talk about light heartedness and contrast it with heavy hearts.
WE contrast light with heavy
Light with darkness
Light with knowledge dark with stupidity
We lighten the mood and dampen the spirit
Light appears to be the one ‘go to’ word for good things whilst there are any number of words used to express bad things.
During this pandemic we are told to live in isolation
To live in darkness
And we pray that we see that light at the end of the tunnel
Have you been through a long tunnel?
As you enter the light behind you seems to fade quite quickly as you strain forward to see the light at the far end
The further you go in
the darker it gets until there is only a pinpoint of light behind you and you strain to see the light in front of you
If this is your first time You know the tunnel has an exit because you have been told there is
but you cannot see it and you rely upon your
Faith that your informant is telling the truth.
AS alone as you feel You have to believe that you are not completely isolated
You have to believe what somebody else. Has told you.
You are not alone
There is light at the end of the tunnel.
Eventually you think that you see a pin prick of light but then you doubt your own eyes
They have grown accustomed to the dark and start to play tricks on you
You Blink trying to get a clear view and the light appears to come and go. As your eyes clear so the pinprick becomes clearer and grows until you are sure you are approaching the light
In the dim distance A light at last
A light is evidence of a power source.
It is proof that we are not alone however alone and desperate we may feel
Awareness of that other is a great comforter
There are many sayings that are there that promise to comfort us in our hour of need
We have expressions such as
“We can see light at the end of the tunnel”
“Where there is life there is hope “ etc.
Evangelical Christians talk about seeing the light
Or saying thigs like “when I Lived in darkness. “
Main line churches have formulated liturgies that are recited regularly to assure and reassure their followers that there is light at the end of the tunnel.
If you repeat a message time and time again you reach a stage when it no longer matters whether it is true or not, You believe it.
The message becomes so imprinted on the human brain that it becomes second nature
It is no longer a belief it is an incontrovertible established fact.
A word of warning!
Knowing the difference between good and bad is not as simple as it sounds.
It is interesting that religious Cults and Communist groups who use similar methods of recitation but with different messages and then conservative evangelicals are also condemned for brain washing
It could be said that recitation of liturgy is a form of brain washing.
Who is to be trusted? what is fake news? and what is the truth?
As Unitarians we place ‘Reason’ at the top of our agenda
We need to be able to question the proof and reach our own conclusion.
Reason has the ability to enlighten in quite startling ways
Some people talk about having light bulb moments when
Understanding suddenly awakens
But we need to argue the case in a reasonable manner
What is the evidence for and the evidence against?
Is our understanding reasoned evidence.
Does the light exist or are we fooling ourselves.
Do we have to wait for absolute proof of everything before we commit or can we make a reasonable assumption?
Human beings have been given the ability to make reasonable arguments and base our decisions on reason.
Purple 129 Ours is a gift
A meditation
John Smith’s Gospel
Reason is pre-eminent
God is Reason
God has reason
There is reason for everything
Nothing exists without reason
There is reason in life and life in reason
Reason is the light of life for all humanity
The light of reason dispels the darkness of ignorance
The light of reason came through the grace of God
Reason was explained by God’s witness
He was a witness to the light
He was not the light, but a witness to the light that all may believe through hearing his evidence
This was the true light that comes into the world through his witnessing
The truth was in the world, but the world still did not know it.
The few that did understand reason were given authority to be called children of God.
Not through their blood nor the will of flesh or humanity but through reason, reason became flesh and lived among us
And we glorify ‘reason’ as coming direct from God
‘Reason’ is God’s gift to humankind.
Amen
Candles of joy and concern
Purple196 We sing the faith which gives us confidence
Conversation.
The main line churches are missing their weekly dose of liturgical brain washing but what is it that Unitarians miss ?
What are you missing during the lockdown?
Conversation? discussion ? companionship , being with like minded people?, What do you miss?
Physical contact?
‘Freedom’ from restriction?
How can we rectify these?
Purple 165 The Spirit lives to set us free
Green 280 Morning has Broken
Purple 129 Ours is a gift
196 We sing the faith which gives us confidence
88 Let it be a dance we do
165 The Spirit lives to set us free
