First Parish Unitarian UniversalistSelections from the Candlelight Service: Meditation and Homily
Christmas Eve 2003
First Parish Unitarian Universalist - Canton, MA
The Reverend Diane Teichert
Meditation
Let us join our hearts and minds together in the spirit of prayer and meditation.
We've just heard in the nativity narrative what the angels said the to the shepherds, "Be not afraid." This is just what they earlier said to Mary and to Joseph in bringing to them tidings of great joy, the news of their coming child, "Be not afraid."
Who would not pray for such angel voices right about now? "Be not afraid."
Most, if not all of us, are familiar with fear. We might be fearful of things in our own hearts, in our homes, in our towns, in our nation, in countries far from here, in the earth's condition, in the human condition.
What would it mean to be told by angels bending nearing the earth, "Be not afraid!"?
What would it mean to let go of fear and hold onto deeper, more enduring truths such as those taught by Jesus: to love our enemies, our neighbors as ourselves-not more than, not less than, but as ourselves? What would it mean to let go of fear in our hearts, our homes, our towns, our nation?
We recall the words of Jesus to the hypocrites of his day, "you neglect the weightier matters.justice and mercy and faith."
I invite you into a moment of silent reflection and prayer on the meanings for us of these words about being not-afraid, and about justice, mercy and faith. in our own personal lives.
And, I invite you into another moment of silent reflection on the meanings for us of these words about being not-afraid, and about justice, mercy and faith.in our collective lives as Americans, as world citizens.
In the letting go of fear, we find hope, the true message of Christmas. And so, again at Christmastime, we praise the signs of hope in our own hearts, in our homes, in our towns, nation, around the world. even as we know that it is our acts of mercy, our work for justice and our faith that keep hope alive.
Homily
The Star of Bethlehem
Why do we tell this story over and over again, in the old-fashioned language of the King James Version of the Bible? To be sure, there is a comfort in repetition, and in tradition. But, who believes in these miraculous events, anyway: virgin birth, a star in the sky, angels singing?
Maybe we humans have need for the awesome.
Maybe such unbelievable, awesome things are still told for good reason, to get our attention and hold our amazement long enough to allow the deeper meanings of the teachings of Jesus to enter our holiday-frenzied awareness and touch our hearts.
Maybe we humans have need for the awesome. But, what it takes to awe us has perhaps changed somewhat since the time of the shepherds watching their flocks by night.
Recently, I was filled with awe, at a sight I beheld on, of all places, my computer screen. Much like the wise men or Magi who saw the star in the east and traveled to find the king who was foretold, I was pointed to a website by a friend, who wrote, "go to this website and practice your awe-robics!" (http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/java/scienceopticsu/powersof10/)
I went, and there on my computer screen was the Milky Way at 10 million light years from the Earth. It was a somewhat fuzzy white dot the size of a pinhead against a dark background with other little dots scattered aimlessly around. In a moment, the view changed. It was the Milky Way at 1 million light years away, looking like a whirling star. The view changed, by another power of ten. Within the Milky Way, then, our galaxy could be seen, and then, the view changed again, and within our galaxy was our solar system. In succeeding images, it was as if I moved through space towards the Earth, though I sat at my desk at home.
Eventually a familiar beautiful blue, green and white disc filled the frame on my screen. Soon the Earth appeared closer. Then I could see the southeast United States. In successive orders of magnitude, still by powers of ten, I was at the top of a tall oak tree just outside the buildings of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, Florida. Then it was as if I was on one of the oak leaves on that tall oak tree, and then I'm into a microscopic world successively revealing the walls of a leaf cell, the cell nucleus, chromatin, DNA and finally, into the subatomic universe of electrons and protons-a single carbon atom and then, at the very end, quarks.
No more than the shepherds could understand why that star was so bright, could I understand all that I had seen on my computer screen in the space of a few minutes, from the star in the Milky Way to quarks. Grand!
I sat there for a while, humbled, totally awed. We can do all of this, and yet our world is also such a mess, with strife and warfare, vast differences between rich and poor, such murder and lying and cheating in high-and low-places? We can see so far and so close at hand, and yet our world is such a mess.
Now I'm told that young people today have been watching images such as awed me on my computer screen on videos in their science classes for years. Such images are commonplace to them. Just as a bright star no longer causes us to wonder, being close up and personal with a quark may not awe the generation after me.
You know, modern Biblical scholars and astronomers think they've figured out that there was a Star of Bethlehem. Some ancient historic records suggest that the modern calendar misplaced the year of Jesus' birth by some six to eight years. And, ancient scientific records show that a spectacular conjunction occurred May 22, 7 B.C. when Jupiter and Saturn drew within one degree of each other. A conjunction is when two planets, in their different orbits, orbiting at their different speeds, look from earth like they are close together, and therefore appear very bright, even though in reality they are millions of miles apart.
At that time, astronomers say Jupiter and Saturn both were very bright, and would have been a brilliant eye-catching pair. This was actually the first of three successive conjunctions between these planets that year. The second conjunction would have been visible in the evening sky October 5, and the third in the west after sunset, December 1. No further conjunctions of these planets would occur for another twenty years, and even then, they would not be as bright or as well placed in the sky. Moreover, a triple conjunction of the same pair of planets in one year is exceedingly rare, something ancient Magi (but not shepherds) would have understood. Another wouldn't occur again for centuries. To the learned of the time, such a rare celestial event would portend an equally significant human event. Like the birth of a King or savior.
Was there a star of Bethlehem? Was there a babe who would become the king of the Jews? Are there other universes? What do we not yet know about quarks? What will awe the generations to come?
As for me, I am awed by the shimmering sky, whenever I can get far enough from civilization's lights to see it, knowing that the starry patterns above are no different than those that wheeled over Bethlehem 20 centuries ago.
Perhaps we are not so different, either, from those who watched those stars back then. Perhaps there is something in our nature, our human nature, that still obliges us to allow ourselves to be moved by the world we see around us, the microscopic and what's light years away.
There is something about awe that both humbles us and inspires us. For, as the story goes, the babe of such humble birth lived a life that brought a weary world a grand message of peace and good will toward all.
Amen.