Prelude: Jim Pearce
Chiming of the Singing Bowl: Rev. Misha Sanders
Words of Welcome and Announcements: David Niedermeyer
Good morning! I am David Neidermeyer, a member of the youth group and a Worship Associate here at Northwest Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Sandy Springs, Georgia.
Northwest Unitarian Universalist Congregation seeks to create loving community, inspire joy and spiritual growth, and support courageous action. All are welcome, as together we journey towards justice and equity by learning, caring, and acting together.
We especially welcome any newcomers and visitors we have today. I hope you’ll join us after worship for coffee hour… from the comfort of your own homes. You can just stay right here when the service ends. There is no need to leave this zoom call, we will begin coffee hour as soon as the postlude is over.
If you haven’t already, now is a great time to grab whatever materials you’ll need to light your own chalice if you’d like that to be part of your worship experience today.
As always, kindly set your phones to worship mode; we won’t know, but I think you might enjoy the hour free from distractions. And feel free to check in on your social media of choice to let your friends and family know about this place of caring you’ve found today. Our congregation is an exciting place to be, and we love it when you share the good news.
And although we cannot be physically together to greet each other today with hugs, high-fives, smiles, and words of love, we are all together in spirit and each and every one of us is welcome.
Announcements
Please mark your calendar for our annual holiday pageant which will be held on December 20th. If you have signed up to participate, please don’t forget to submit your videos. Videos can be emailed to re@nwuuc.org.
Our Lego UU Sources class for students in grades 2-5 will meet today via Zoom after the service. The Zoom link will be posted in the chat.
You are invited to attend Peaches and Pride 2020. Peaches & Pride is a live virtual event for LBGTQ+ Georgians and Allies. Sponsored by the national UU the Vote team, UUA, Georgia UU congregations, and Georgia Equality. This rally will feature a live DJ spinning tunes, campaign updates, and actions from Georgia Equality, and surprise celebrity guests from television, drag, and other arts! The links for this event will be posted in the chat. This exciting event will be held on Sunday, December 13th at 7:00 p.m.
The theme for the second week of Advent is Peace, therefore, let us prepare for worship with Jim Pearce playing, “I’ve Got Peace Like A River”.
Music: “Peace Like A River” Jim Pearce
Call to Worship: Robert Niedermeyer
Our Call to worship today is by Laura Wallace.
As frozen earth holds the determined seed,
Determined Seed
this sacred space holds our weariness, our worry,
our laughter and our celebration.
Let us bring seed and soul into the light of thought,
the warmth of community,
and the hope of love.
Let us see together, hear together, love together.
Let us worship.”
And now, Emma Davis will light our chalice.
Lighting of the Chalice: Emma Davis
Chalice Lightings for Advent
By David Breeden
Our first Sunday of Advent reminded us to be patient. This second Sunday of Advent, we light the flame in hope that darkness will be dispelled.
In this holiday season,
May the darkness of winter
Be dispelled in this festival of lights,
And may the darkness of ignorance
Be dispelled in the strength
Of compassion, reason,
And sharing.
Story Wisdom: Adia Fields-Udofia
Reading: Chloe Morgen
Wait Like the World Is About to Turn
By Annie Gonzalez MillikenFor those who follow the Christian tradition, now is the season of advent, a time of waiting. And whether or not we are Christian I believe that Unitarian Universalists and progressives of any or no faith have something to learn from this season of advent.
Because we are waiting. Oh how we long for a day when no more unarmed black boys or men are shot by police. Oh how we long for a day when the police who do shoot unarmed black men and boys are held accountable for their actions. Oh how we long for a day when every single American would rise up and say “enough is enough; we must end this violence!” Oh how we wait.
Waiting can be discouraging. Can be demoralizing. Can bring despair, paralysis, denial, a turning off. Waiting can feel passive.
But I think, this advent season, we are called to wait differently. We are called to active hopeful waiting.
This advent season, wait like Mary.
Wait like a poor undocumented pregnant teenager in an occupied territory who knows she is sacred, who proudly proclaims that all generations will call her blessed.
If you too, know oppression in our current society, remember how very sacred you are. Remember that you are co-creating divinity itself with your life. Remember that so many ancient sacred texts confirm what you know: the oppressed matter deeply. #blacklivesmatter
Whoever you are, make your voice heard. Bear witness. Protest, preach, pray, gather, walk out, boycott. VOTE!
Wait like Joseph, too.
Wait like a man who stands by his pregnant fiancée when his society tells him she is wrong, unrespectable, immoral and when he himself is confused.
Think carefully about the judgments you make and hear. Learn to value justice and righteous anger more than respectability and peace. Push yourself to dialogue with those who do not understand. Find a way to stand with those who are bringing divinity into this world, even if they are not doing it exactly the way you’d like.
Yes, even wait like God.
Wait like a force so powerful it created the entire universe, so loving it was willing to become a fragile baby human, born into poverty and an occupying empire. Wait like a God who gets fleshy, gets vulnerable, gets into radical empathy with the oppressed by literally becoming one of them.
Listen to those who are suffering. Listen to those who are executed by the state the way Jesus would be as a young adult. Listen to those who experience violence, occupation, condemnation.
And so in this way, we wait. We wait for a new creation, a beloved community, a way of living into relationship that defies the systems that destroy lives in our country and our world. We wait in this time of advent.
For if we all wait this way, like Mary, like Joseph, like the God of their understanding, then indeed, the dawn will draw near. For the world is about to turn.
Our next musical selection will be performed by Monica Benjenauru. Monica began singing at the age of four and she has won several national signing competitions. She has performed as a soloist with several orchestras and she studied at The University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. To learn more about the amazing work Monica is doing you can subscribe to her YouTube Channel. The link will be posted in the chat. I hope that you will enjoy this moving piece entitled the Sound of Silence by Monica Benjenaru.
Interlude: “The Sound of Silence” performed by Monica Benjenaru
Joys and Sorrows: Chloe Morgen
A SORROW. We mourn with Tony Barbagallo the death of a good friend from Ski Patrol, Matt Adams. Matt passed away suddenly on November 28th. Matt leaves a teenage son.
A JOY. Maria Drinkard’s daughter, Jenny, arrived on Friday from Amsterdam. Jenny will be visiting with her mom for three weeks. It’s been a year since they’ve seen each other.
A SORROW. Mary Anne Ericson’s father, age 79, fell in October and cancer was discovered while he was in the hospital. Following an extensive hospital stay, he is now at home with the Ericson’s and their three children, Will, Max and Isabel. Mary Anne misses Northwest very much, but enjoys working from home and being with her children. She asks that we all keep her father and her family in our thoughts.
Birthdays:
Emma Davis 12/02
Sandy Davis 12/06
Anthony Kahn 12/04
Melanie North 12/04
Ellie Lockhart 12/05 Ellie turned 7 yesterday! In Fact, Ellie’s sister, Avery, let us know about her sister’s birthday in the CHAT BOX last Sunday – just so we wouldn’t forget. Happy Belated Birthday Ellie! Your sister’s got your back.
Evelyn Alford 12/08
Maria Drinkard 12/08
Happy Birthday to you all!
Prayer and Meditation: Chloe Morgen
By Cricket Hall
In this time of waiting, may we hold the world in our hearts.
In this time of waiting, may we hold each other’s hands.
In this time of waiting, may we be thoughtful and introspective.
In this time of waiting, may we delight in the darkness and all it teaches us.
In this time of waiting, may we rekindle the fires of hope, love, joy, and peace within ourselves and our communities.
In this time of waiting, may we become ready for the coming day.
Music Interlude: “Secrets of the Stars” by the Milk Carton Kids
Sermon: Rev. Misha Sanders
Good morning, everybody! I am the Reverend Misha Sanders, and I am honored and downright giddy about being your Senior Minister here at Northwest Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Sandy Springs Georgia, coming right into your living room, from my living room. Thank you for joining us today. We are honored by your presence, and I mean it.
Pema Chödrön, a Buddhist nun and the author of several books that have changed my life, said this about peace:
“If we want there to be peace in the world, we have to be brave enough to soften what is rigid in our hearts, to find the soft spot and stay with it. We have to have that kind of courage and take that kind of responsibility. That’s the true practice of peace.”
Peace. We are celebrating Advent which (spoiler alert) ends with the birth of Jesus, who is often called the Prince of Peace.
Now, personally, I think that description would amuse the real Jesus greatly, considering the way he got downright rebellious and caused some property damage when he discovered loan sharks and bankers preying on the poor right in the church, lying to them about the sacrifices that God required.
And I can relate to that Jesus this week, after some predators targeted many of you, beloveds, with yet another gift card scam. I’m not feeling very peaceful about that, and I am so deeply sorry for those of you who were targeted, especially if you gave out of the generosity of your heart and your trusting spirit. And I am thankful to those who alerted me that it was again happening in my name.
So, I might really need to take these deep breaths and think thoughts of peace and quiet more than you do this week, but I do hope you’ll get something out of this sermon I’m preaching to myself today, too.
This year, as usual, we’re lighting an Advent wreath for the four Sundays leading up to Christmas. While it is not necessarily a Unitarian Universalist tradition, our beloved UU faith has grown and expanded from Christian roots, as most of us know. Some UU’s identify as Christians, others don’t. We also have among us Jewish UUs, UU Buddhists, UU Humanists, UU Pagans, and Unitarian Universalists who don’t see a need for any hyphens or modifiers. Together, we grow and change as we share our insights and struggles in response to our spiritual practices.
Last week, we lit the first candle for hope. Today, we re-light the candle of hope.
[light hope candle]
And we add a candle for peace.
Spirit of peace, we are ready for a new era of justice and reconciliation, free from violence and coercion. We believe that peace is possible.
We give thanks for those who witness for a world made whole, with all her people one. We believe that peace is possible.
[light peace candle]
“Each of us needs to withdraw from the cares which will not withdraw from us.” Maya Angelou once said.
Some of you heard me tell this story last Christmas Eve last year, but it bears repeating, I hope you will agree.
There they were, ten preschoolers in suits and fancy dresses, each holding one letter of MERRY CHRISTMAS. I know that they must have started out the morning with at least fourteen kids, because their long-suffering choir director would not knowingly drag them onto the chancel to spell out ERRY CHIM SA in front of the whole caroling congregation.
I had gone to church that morning specifically to see Mel, my friend’s daughter. She had campaigned for—and won—the coveted role of the first M (for Mel), the one that starts out the whole production, and she was ecstatic about her stage debut.
ERRY CHIM SA, the letters proclaimed. If you looked carefully, you would see that Mel and her M were not actually missing. She was indeed up there at her rehearsed mark, far on stage left, lying prostrate on the floor, gold tulle dress flipped upside down over her face, both fists flung out ahead, the carefully glittered, crumpled M unceremoniously smooshed into the carpet under her body.
Later she clearly explained, “It was a little bit too much of everything. I just needed it to stop for a minute. Next time I will take calm breaths.” And I wondered if Mel had just solved the holidays once and for all.
There is so much anticipatory joy and more than a little gumption in having the grandiosity to show up for the party in gold tulle in the first place. And such self-possessed wisdom in lying down and pulling it over your face when everything is too much.
And it is too much, isn’t it? Sometimes the final days of the unexpected pregnancy find you in a strange place where they tell you there’s no room in the inn. In real life, sometimes grief looms largest in December. Sometimes there’s one too many dress-ups and the gold tulle makes your legs itch.
“I just needed it to stop for a minute. Next time I will take calm breaths.”
Oh, Spirit of Peace, PLEASE help us to remember that we are Your precious children and that You delight in us when we have the audacity to stop and take care of ourselves when it’s all just a bit too much.
Can we do something that is extra weird on Zoom right now? Can we just breathe and be with one another silently for one minute. If you are good at stillness, a minute might not seem long. If you are more like me, it might seem like a whole hour and you may get fidgety. It’s okay. I will be fidgety too. But let’s just be and breathe in peace and breathe out love for one minute before continuing.
[pause silently for one minute]
I love this line from the reading Chloe shared with us earlier:
“Yes, even wait like God.
Wait like a force so powerful it created the entire universe, so loving it was willing to become a fragile baby human, born into poverty and an occupying empire. Wait like a God who gets fleshy, gets vulnerable, gets into radical empathy with the oppressed by literally becoming one of them.”
Yesterday while I was trying to make thoughts into a sermon, I went down an internet Advent Rabbit Hole Which Ended up Up Having Very Little To Do With Advent, but here’s what I got to thinking about.
There’s a library of either 66 or 73 books (depending on whether or not you count the apocrypha) that we know as the Christian Bible.
It is a wildly divergent, highly-curated collection which is often contradictory. This makes perfect sense, being that each book was written as a stand-alone document by different authors, centuries apart, and the represented religions, languages, and book genres are not the same. They encompass (among other kinds of writing) history, poetry, law, prophecy, and *whew* some incredibly graphic love letters and erotica.
But one thing that shows up in almost all…not quite all, but almost all of the books in this particular library is stories of The Divine incarnating Themself into flesh-and-blood earthlings (yes, even in the erotica section). And not always human. They incarnate into several different species over the course of the collection of books.
Of course, in the most famous story, They incarnate as the human being we’ve come to know as Jesus of Nazareth, the Christmas birthday boy himself.
This got me thinking about incarnation and what are some really cool, underrated things about it. Incarnation is cool. Having a body, living in a body, is super cool. I mean, except when it’s not cool, but mostly it’s cool.
Did you ever watch the movie “My Stepmother Is an Alien”? In it, the main character is a non-earthling who incarnates as a human woman. The only thing I remember about that movie is that this newly-human being is DELIGHTED by the sensation of sneezing. She thinks it’s just magical! It causes her giggle fits every time. I still think of that movie often when I sneeze, decades later.
Here’s one of my enfleshed underrated pleasures, and I promise, I’m still on the topic of peace and quiet:
You know how when you get really still and present, sometimes you can randomly feel the pulsing of blood in your lower lip? THAT! When I notice my lip pulse, I make a habit of stopping EVERYTHING, breathing gently so as not to disturb the flow, and just focus on feeling the sensation until it fades. IT IS MAGICAL.
(It’s not happening right now. I’m trying, but it NEVER happens because I try to make it happen. Never works. I have to just lean into the magic when it happens at random.)
Can you think of an underrated embodied pleasure you can share in the G-rated, family-friendly chat box?
You can do that now, it won’t hurt my feelings if I notice you talking, it will feel just like being in the sanctuary and watching you whisper and giggle with your neighbor, you know who you are. Go ahead.
Listen, I don’t know much about preaching how to find peace and quiet during Advent 2020. One of the reasons is because although we are all in the same storm, we are not all in the same boat. Some of us are below deck in a yacht and barely know a storm is happening at all, some are in tiny rowboats being overwhelmed by waves, or clinging desperately to a life raft, and so many have been lost to the sea. So, I cannot tell you how to find your peace and quiet right now, from your location in this storm.
I just know that, like my friend Mel, I need to pull the frou frou gold tulle over my head sometimes when everything is too much.
And I know where my peace lies. Sometimes I need to be reminded to go there and get a refill. And you know where your peace lies. Don’t you? I think most of us do. Or maybe you’re not sure and it would be a good thing to sit in quiet stillness and ponder today or sometime this week.
Let’s do that silence together thing one more time, this time only for 30 seconds.
May this time of waiting inspire our courage. May we find the silence, the peace, the soft spot, in the pressures of this season, and stay with them as we discern our way forward. May we be filled with loving kindness, as Pema Chodron would surely remind us; may we be at ease, may we discover the true practice of peace within us, so that there might be peace in our homes, in our cities, in our state, in our nation, and in the world. May it be so.
Music: “When Our Heart is in a Holy Place”
Offering: Introduction by David Niedermeyer
The offering that we take each Sunday isn’t just a stale habit: it’s an opportunity to recommit to this place, and to this people. Our offering is an affirmation—a “yes.”
When we give, we say yes to something we value. With our gifts, freely given, may we say yes to the values of our faith. Our offering will now be given and gratefully received.
Dedication of the Offering:
“To the work of this congregation, which is weaving a tapestry of love and action,
we dedicate our offerings and the best of who we are.”
Benediction: Rev. Misha
Our benediction today is by By Bill Hamilton-Holway
If I were to wish you peace,
it would not be for long.
It would be peace
to rest, to reflect, to make ready
for the coming day,
that the full force of your creativity and love
might be released and shared.
I do wish you peace.
Postlude: Jim Pearce