By Tom Hook
December 1, 2024

Advent: What Does It Mean?

In Christianity, Advent refers to the period of four weeks leading up to Christmas. It begins on the Sunday closest to November 30 and ends on December 24. It is a time of anticipation and preparation for the celebration of the birth of Jesus on Christmas Day.

The word “Advent” is derived from the Latin word adventus, which means “coming” or “arrival,” which translates to the Greek word parousia. Parousia means: . . . present presence, a being present, a coming to a place; presence, coming or arrival.  Scholars believe that during the 4th and 5th centuries in Spain and Gaul, Advent was a season of preparation for the baptism of new Christians at the January feast of Epiphany. During this season of preparation, Christians would spend 40 days in penance, prayer, and fasting to prepare for this celebration; originally, there was little connection between Advent and Christmas.

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 November 17, 2024
Rev. Janet Onnie

The story of Nehemiah is my go-to story whenever I think about the challenges of building the world our Unitarian Universalists values dictate.  Values we share with those ancient Jews. Last week those values came under attack.  As did many other congregations, we at HUU participated in a grief vigil.  Last Sunday the Unitarian Universalist congregations nationwide reported overflowing sanctuaries with people expressing their fear, anger, shock, confusion, and despair:  all appropriate responses to the outcome of the national presidential election.

          The pundits have been working overtime analyzing what went wrong, many looking for someone or something to blame.  Although this is probably a useful exercise it’s more useful to strategize on ways to restore – repair – the damage.  To move to Plan B.  I have been doing a lot of reading this past week and found that some of the authors have offered ways in which to move forward.

          The most helpful advice I found is in a newsletter entitled “Waging Nonviolence”.  Author Daniel Hunter offers 10 Ways to Be Prepared and Grounded for the days ahead of us.   I have framed my remarks on this article.  Noting that the autocrat’s goals is to perpetuate our fear, isolation, exhaustion, or constant disorientation Hunter counsels that we must closely and continually monitor our inner states.

          First, we need to trust.  Trust our own eyes and our own inner voice.  Have you actually witnessed an influx of pet-eating immigrants?  If not, be wary of reports stating this as true.  We also need to be trustworthy — not just with information, but with emotions. Acknowledge what you know and admit the parts that are uncertain fears nagging at you. Then find others who you trust.  We have a ready-made community at HUU.  Further, we have the smaller covenant groups and affinity groups like the Red Tent Book group.  Use that trust to explore your own thinking and support each other to stay sharp and grounded.

The next thing to do is grieve.  We started that grieving process last week.  No matter what we try to do, there’s going to be a lot of loss. Name and allow feelings that come to the surface.  Name all the bad things we knew we’d lost and things we think we’d be likely to lose. Grief is a worthwhile use of our time because it leads to acceptance of loss. Ultimately, this helps us cope with the reality of what has happened to our country.  

Once we have accepted the reality of our situation we need to release that which we cannot change.  Theologian Reinhold Niebuhr what we know as the Serenity Prayer as he was watching the rise of Nazis in Germany: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.”

We don’t need to respond to chaos by thinking we need to change everything now.  Hunter suggests a journaling exercise that invites you to reflect on which issues you’ll spend energy on. It asks: what are issues you’ll focus on, issues you’d do a lot for, a little for, or — despite caring about it — do nothing at all for? Internalize the fact that we cannot stop everything.  Love, grant us to know the difference between what we can and cannot change.  At least in the short term.

Let’s focus on how to change what we CAN change.  We know the initial weeks of the Trump presidency will look chaotic no matter what.  While we may need to post outrage on social media, commiserate with friends, share awful news, make public statements, and/or attend marches – like the upcoming women’s march in DC — these actions have been shown to have limited long-term impact. There are other, more effective ways to engage.

 Hunter identifies four differentiated resistance pathways that begin to emerge in any response to facism.

One pathway is called “Protecting People.” These are folks surviving and protecting our own —  especially those directly targeted, such as trans people, folks choosing abortions and immigrants. This might mean organizing outside current systems for health care and mutual aid, or moving resources to communities that are getting targeted. I understand that HUU individuals support Climate Action Alliance of the Valley, Solar and sewing projects for Gemeinschaft House, Friendship homeless lunches, Democratic Party, LGBTQ and Pride organizations and events, Valley Interfaith Action and Council.  Collectively we contribute financial resources to DANA and hold fundraisers from Ukraine and Helene victims.  Are there groups in the local community under threat?  How can we identify them? 

Another pathway is “Defending Civic Institutions.”. Insider groups – think federal civil servants — will play a central role in the battle against fascism. These insiders will need external support.  Can we celebrate people getting fired for the right reasons?  Can we then offer them practical help with life’s next steps? I know I joke that I only use my full title — Reverend Onnie — when handcuffs are involved.  I’m now wondering if this is prophetic.

A third pathway is “Disrupt and Disobey.” This goes beyond protesting for better policies and into the territory of people intervening to stop bad policies or showing resistance. In effective disrupt-and-disobey- type actions the ultimate goal is paving a path for mass noncooperation: tax resistance, national strikes, work shut-downs and other nonviolent mass disobedience tactics.  Training is available on how to do that.  (Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan. Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict (New York, NY: Columbia University Press, August 2011). (Strategic Escalation in a Trump Era, Google docs)

Lastly, there’s a key fourth role: “Building Alternatives.” We have to have a vision. This is the slow growth work of building alternative ways that are more democratic.  Fortunately, Unitarian Universalists have that vision expressed in our values.  We center love as we work to build a world that is more just, equitable, transformational, pluralistic, interdependent and generous. 

Your path may not be clear right now. It may not even be represented here. That’s okay. There will be plenty of opportunities to decide how to respond as events unfold.

Moving on from these pathways, Hunter recommends that we do not obey in advance; that we do not self-censor.  The refusal of the Washington Post to endorse a candidate is a classic example of self-censorship.  Maybe they thought their non-action would keep them safe.  But if autocrats teach us any lesson it’s this: Political space that you don’t use, you lose.

That’s why it’s necessary to reorient our political map.  When your party is out of power, it’s easy to unify — but their coalition’s cracks will quickly emerge. We have to stay sharp for opportunities to cleave off support.  That means we need to turn away from our Unitarian Universalist tendency to preach to the choir or engage in ideological purity tests.   There is a lot of pain in high-ranking people of great power admitting a kind of defeat.  Compassion for powerlessness is in order.

Speaking of which, let’s talk about power.  It will be helpful to have a power analysis in our minds, specifically the tool that’s known as the upside-down triangle. This tool was built to explain how power moves even under dictatorships. The central tenet is that like an upside-down triangle, power can be unstable. It naturally topples over without anything supporting it. To prevent that, power relies on pillars of support to keep it upright. 

Removing one pillar of support can often gain major, life-saving concessions.  Remember the response to the 2019 government shutdown? Flight attendants threatened a national strike that would ground planes across the country and disrupt a key transportation network. Within hours of announcing they were “mobilizing immediately” for a strike, the president capitulated.

In these times power will need to emerge from folks no longer obeying the current unjust system. This tipping point of mass noncooperation will be messy. It means convincing a lot of people to take huge personal risks for a better option. I’m remembering the civil rights movement and the number of people who risked – and lost — their lives to change their circumstances. 

This naturally leads to the question of how to handle fear of reprisal; of political violence.  Handling fear isn’t about suppressing it — but it is about constantly redirecting it.  I understand there are at least 4 militias in Rockingham county.  The key component to political violence is to intimidate and tell a story that they are the true victims. Making political violence rebound requires refusing to be intimidated and resisting those threats so they can backfire.  Although I don’t see much risk of widespread militia activity HUU might want to look into training on this backfire technique. (see the HOPE-PV guide.)

Hunter’s tenth suggestion is to envision a positive future.  Go for a walk.  Consider the lifespans of trees and rocks, heading into spiritual reminders that nothing lasts forever.  Already there are signs of hope: many states and municipalities voted in favor of expanding health care, reproductive rights, voters’ rights, and economic ballot measures that will increase minimum wage and paid sick leave for workers.  In an Arkansas school district, banned books were returned to the library shelves.  Virginia is still a state with reasonable abortion access.  I subscribe to the Americans of Conscience weekly newsletter, which describes positive actions taken by state and local communities across the country.

Now MY suggestion to you; a plea, really.  Let’s all take a deep breath.  No one has DONE anything yet.  Yes, there’s been a lot of handwringing about what could go wrong.  There’s been … and probably will continue to be … scary nominations for high office.  But Nehemiah didn’t actually post armed guards on the wall until it was clear that the workers were in danger.  Neither should we.  Let’s not get ourselves whipped up into action before we know the specific threat.  While we are developing strategies to limit the damage of the incoming administration we need to offer a path back into right relations to those who saw a different solution WITHOUT SHAMING THEM.  Without shaming them.  There is a tremendous amount of ignorance around the consequences of the majorities’ choices.  Compassion for those suffering the consequences of their choices – including those of us who will also be impacted – is imperative. 

As Nehemiah repaired the city walls he also repaired the gates.  Remember the gates.  There’s a tension between the reality that walls function to keep people in and, at the same time, they keep people out.  We relieve that tension by the use of … gates.  Gates are the mechanism by which people can come into the safety of their community and go out to be engaged in the world.  Let us resolve to keep the HUU gates of compassion and love well-oiled as we the people turn our minds to work for a more perfect union.  May it be so.  Amen.

Rev. Janet Onnie
September 1, 2024

Last week Rev. Paul Britner described ministry, quoting Gordon McKeeman, as ‘the quality of a relationship between and among human beings that beckons forth hidden possibilities.’  Rev. Britner gave striking examples of individuals doing ministry.  I need only to look around at HUU and see equally striking examples of people doing ministry.  So why did you feel you needed a minister?  To address that question that I’ll need to reference our history.  Back to 1648 – more than 100 years before the American Revolutionary War.

In August 1648 a group of ministers from Massachusetts and Connecticut gathered in Cambridge, Massachusetts to craft a declaration of principles of church government and discipline, forming a constitution of the Congregational churches; the churches from which we evolved. The Cambridge Platform is the foundational document upon which our free faith rests.  It almost nothing to do with matters of doctrine and belief but is very specific about the ways in which groups of like-minded people – congregations – would be in communion – in association– with each other.   It defined matters of church officers, ministry, membership, and cooperation between churches. Another way to say it is the Cambridge Platform is a statement of behavioral expectations rather than beliefs.  The Cambridge Platform is a statement of behavioral expectations rather than beliefs.  Although changes in practice were being made as early as the second generation, the Cambridge Platform remains a defining document for the denominations, including Unitarian Universalism, that continue to practice congregational polity. Of the 65 congregations that voted to ratify the Platform in 1648, 21 of them are members of the Unitarian Universalist Association today. 

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by Rev. Kirk Ballin
August 18, 2024

The Dash
by Linda Ellis

I read of a man who stood to speak
at the funeral of a friend.
He referred to the dates on the tombstone
from the beginning…to the end.

He noted that first came the date of birth
And spoke the following date with tears,
But he said what mattered most of all
Was the dash between those years.

For that dash represents all the time
that they spent alive on earth.
And now only those who loved them
know what that little line is worth.

For it matters not, how much we own,
the cars…the house…the cash.
What matters is how we live and love
and how we spend our dash.

So, think about this long and hard.
Are there things you’d like to change?
For you never know how much time is left
that can still be rearranged.

If we could just slow down enough
to consider what’s true and real
and always try to understand
the way other people feel.

And be less quick to anger
and show appreciation more
and love the people in our lives
like we’ve never loved before.

If we treat each other with respect
and more often wear a smile,
remembering that this special dash
might only last a little while.

So when your eulogy is being read
With your life’s actions to rehash…
Would you be proud of the things they say
About how you spent YOUR dash?

“ONE OR TWO THINGS”
Mary Oliver (Devotions)

1
Don’t bother me.
I’ve just
been born

2
The butterfly’s loping flight
carries it through the country of the leaves
delicately, and well enough to get it
where it wants to go, wherever that is, stopping
here and there to fuzzle the damp throats
of flowers and the black mud; up
and down it swings, frenzied and aimless; and sometimes
for long delicious moments it is perfectly
lazy, riding motionless in the breeze on the soft stalk
of some ordinary flower

3
The god of dirt
came up to me many times and said
so many wise and delectable things, I lay
on the grass listening
to his dog voice,
crow voice,
frog voice, now,he said, and now,
and never once mentioned forever,

4
which has nevertheless always been,
like a sharp iron hoof,
at the center of my mind.

5
One or two things are all you need
to travel over the blue pond, over the deep
roughage of the trees and through the stiff
flowers of lightning – some deep
memory of pleasure, some cutting
knowledge of pain.

6
But to lift the hoof!
For that you need
an idea. 

7
For years and years I struggled
just to love my life. And then
the butterfly
rose, weightless, in the wind.
“Don’t love your life
too much,” it said,
and vanished
into the world.

OPINION

Invisible and Exposed — but adaptable, as only the old can be

“The superpower my…friends and I share is that we have learned to adapt to changing circumstances, like England’s peppered moths that, during the Industrial Age, darkened in tandem with the arrival of soot. My colleagues and I gladly adapted to bifocals, hearing aids, Depends, custom orthotics — whatever we needed to keep our standard of living as high as possible. (My husband and I thought of registering for wedding gifts at the local Jack’s Durable Medical Equipment and Pharmacy.) We’ve learned to adjust when things go wrong, rather than try to control things. How do we know things will go wrong? Because that is the nature of life”. Anne Lamott, WP June 4, 2024

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The initial title for this sermon was “Getting Old: We’re All Doing It!” … But in reflection, I felt the better title is “Aging: Everybody’s Doing It!”    The word “old” has too much presumption, stigma, categorization, deterioration, and unpoetic finality to it! So, although I appreciate the rest of Lamott’s comments, I take issue with her use of the word “old”.

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by Tom Hook
August 11, 2024

            Good morning and thank you for having me again.  This was a short notice situation as your scheduled speaker, Valerie Luna Serrels, had to cancel for this Sunday for personal reasons.  

            I suspect several of you are somewhat familiar with the Enneagram.  I first was exposed to it in 1990 during my Spiritual Direction studies.  Over the years I have become more and more intrigued with this personality typology and how it can (and does) help us to become more self-aware of our actions and hidden motivations.  It also helps to clarify the motivations and actions of those with who we are in relationship. I also covered it briefly in a talk here back in the summer of 2021.

What is the Enneagram?  The word pronounced “any-a-gram” comes from the Greek word enna meaning nine and gramma meaning points/signs/figures. 

            The Enneagram presents nine personality patterns arranged in a diagram as points arranged around a circle, numbered clockwise from 1 to 9.

            Briefly, the Enneagram says that there are nine ways of experiencing the world and reacting to it.

            These personality patterns (or points of energy) are labeled as:

1. The Reformer – perfectionist – the good person
2. The Helper – the loving person
3. The Motivator – performer – the effective person
4. The Individualist – the romantic – the original person
5. The Thinker – investigator – the wise person
6. The Loyalist – fearful – the loyal person
7. The Enthusiast – spontaneous – the joyful person
8. The Leader – the challenger – the powerful person
9. The Peacemaker – laid back, pleasant – the peaceful person

The Enneagram tells us that people with each of these nine personality types live with an unconscious motivation that causes them to respond to life in a way so consistent that it becomes the driving force shaping their lives.  This unconscious motivation gives each type a unique understanding of life, people, and the world.  And, each type has its own unique way of reacting to others, the world, and situations.

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July 7, 2024
By Bill Faw

Good morning! This is my 14th message for HUU since September, 2018.  Today we look at the interesting question: Is history flat (basically staying the same), circular (getting better, then worse, in cycles), inclining (getting better), or declining (getting worse)?

PARTS ONE AND TWO: HISTORY FLAT AND/OR CIRCULAR

For classic portrayals of both the ‘flat’ and ‘circular/cyclical’ views of history, let us turn to good old Ecclesiastes from the Hebrew Bible, from 2400 or so years ago.

I invite you to join me in dramatically reading outload, together, the grand poetic words on the back of our OOS, the top half, from Ecclesiastes Chapter 1, proclaiming that History is flat and unchanging. I’ll read the first verse and then you join in.

Ecclesiastes 1:1-10:

The words of the Teacher the son of David, king in Jerusalem. 

Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.

What do people gain from all the toil at which they toil under the sun?

A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever.

The sun rises and the sun goes down, and hurries to the place where it rises.

The wind blows to the south, and goes around to the north; round and round goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns.

All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they continue to flow….   

What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun.

Is there a thing of which it is said, “See, this is new”?  It has already been, in the ages before us. 

Hmm!    Nothing new under the sun, what has been done is what will be done.     History does not improve or get worse. It is flat as a pancake.    But this means there is no hope for improving things:

 “What do mortals get from all the toil and strain with which they toil under the sun? For all their days are full of pain and their work is a vexation; even at night their minds do not rest. This also is vanity.”       

And even the rare person with Ecclesiastes’ wealth and education has little hope: “I applied my mind to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is a chasing after wind.”

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June 30, 2024

Upwellings

© Linda Ankrah-Dove

As if in unchanging tidal currents solitude brings me
me quiet soothings in my peaceful home.
My body floats, my mind calms, spacious
with the lulling cycles of the once-steady seasons.

I think of our mammal cousins—whales
slow-swinging easy with the ceaseless ocean rhythms,
rising to breathe the essential air,
blowing rainbow spouts across the sloping waves.

But in these frenetic times, the climate calendar’s constant clangings
trigger me. And I feel just how our mammal cousins startle
when oil-rigs and mining drills roil their waters
and sonar blasts bruise their brains.

I have choice. In my peaceful home, I choose to stay away from clamor.
But the whales? The vast tankers of the world crowd them out,
contaminate their only home—China’s chicken, oil from the Gulf,
Thai shrimp, Brazilian steel, fashion jeans from Bangladesh.

Our own rigs and tankers ply polluting particulates and poisons
from port to port. The whales choke on metal caps,
starve on krill stuffed with microscopic specks of glass and plastic,
suffocate in a soupy mercurial and nitrogenic air.

It’s as if the oceans’ hidden hollows are hoarding for the apocalypse—
Plastic cups, plastic knives and forks, cigarettes, beer bottles,
baked-bean cans, burger wrappers, fishing nets, and, for the end of days,
aspirins, antacids, stool softeners and anesthetizing opioids.

For my peaceful home, for my spacious days, for the lulling of my mind
as if on gentle ocean waves—for all that grace—I am grateful.
But I so weep for our big, imperiled cousins and I so struggle how
to do to them no more harm in my living ways.

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