Chanukah: "Don't let the light go out", December 9, 2012

Call To Community

Come into this community and

feel the Maccabean spirit of freedom and determination—

Kindle that flame in your own heart for

Whatever seems impossible, improbable, daunting.

Come closer to that candle’s glow,

Find there your courage and your own sense

Of faith and dedication

In the company of all those gathered here.

Joys and Sorrows

The Hanukkah candles are lit

By the Servant candle—

that bends over to touch the others.

Yet the Shamus candle stands as tall or taller on the Menorah

Than the other eight.

In this faith community,

We serve one another

By leaning into the joys and sorrows

That fill up our neighbor’s hearts and

Punctuate the commonplace

World we occupy most of the time.

We share with one another

A fragment of our lives—

A snapshot lost in time.

Let us hear one another now

In our time of joys and sorrows.

Sharing of Joys and sorrows

Silence

The flame of love and kinship

Is lit within this ark of a temple.

Let the stories we’ve shared and

The hopes we’ve kindled

Abide in us all

As we carry the strength

Of this community into the next week.

Offering Words

A celebration; a commitment!

Finding the light in the darkness

And strength among the powerless;

We come to this time of year,

Perhaps not ready for the holiday season.

Wondering how to mourn the losses,

How to bind the broken

And how to set free the captive birds

Who could have/would have taken flight.

Pondering how to smell the

Pungent in the moist brown earth

And turning over all that is not ours to do.

We bring who we are and what we have

To the lamp of freedom;

We bring a little bit of our selves,

Imperfect, humbled,

Needy and naked

Here to this community

That can love us back to wholeness

And accept us for who we are,

Reflections of the One Great Love that binds us all.

And so we offer what we can out of what we have to this community

That nurtures our spirits and helps us find peace.

As you pass the offering plates from person to person, feel how solid they are and know that your gifts are as tangible.

Chanukah:  “Don’t let the light go out”

© Rev. Susan Karlson

December 9, 2012

Unitarian Church of Staten Island

          It was a normal day, just like any other.  People woke up, got out of bed, ate breakfast, kissed their loved ones and headed out the door.  There was a tension in the air though—something just didn’t feel right.  And then it happened—it was a powerful, relentless force that tore through people’s lives and changed them forever.

They lost everything!  No lights, no home; some died under the pummeling force.  In the days that followed, nothing looked familiar.  The usual course of their days and nights altered beyond recognition.  And yet somehow they refused to yield, to be taken down.  They were unbreakable.  Unstoppable. They became a force of nature.  And though they lost so much, in the way that miracles happen, things they needed to start again, showed up.  People met on the sidewalk, offering what little they had to others that lost more.  People came from far away and found a wedding ring, a treasured photograph, the minister that married them 30 years ago—fragments and memories of their former lives had not all washed out to sea. 

This could be any catastrophe but this one’s name was Sandy-she was the most powerful force this Island has reckoned with and though she moved on, “HER” story is incomplete.  His name was Antiochus the IV.   He wanted to extend his empire and  knew the only way to do that would be to force the people to be more uniform, less diverse and accepting of one another’s differences.  He used his mighty power and yet the story of Hanukkah tells us that he did not triumph over that small band of Maccabees.

Two super powers—one, ancient; the other, recent; one, human; the other, natural.  Two forces—the Maccabees living in the country, and all the neighborhoods, faith communities, community groups springing up everywhere, organizing, caring for one another.  You could say that these two forces were uncompromising, unstoppable, unbreakable, against all odds.

After the crisis came the miracles—the oil lasting for eight nights when it should only last one, and people kindling that indomitable spirit to support one another and work together even with all the mountains of claims and inadequate, unsafe and little or no available and affordable housing. 

The light did not go out—not then, not now.  We light candles and we light chalices because they speak to us in what evolutionary spiritual leaders like Michael Dowd call, “night language”, the language of metaphor and story.  They tell us what we need to remember when we are assaulted; when we would give up or sell out.  The stories strengthen us for the struggles we encounter when mighty forces assail us, whether those forces are external like Antiochus or Sandy or internal, the lurking enemy within. 

This year our church theme is the Chalice Year and we are reflecting on what the Chalice means to us as a symbol of Unitarian Universalism, of this church.  I have not told the story of The Chalice as a symbol in some time and it seems a good time to share it with you. This story really happened but perhaps it is also the stuff of legends—telling Unitarian Universalists and those who come through our doors what is paramount to us as a people like the miracle of “there was just enough oil for burning” is to the Jewish people.

During World War II, many people in Eastern Europe feared imprisonment or killing by the Nazi soldiers.  A Unitarian minister, Charles Joy, helped organize a Unitarian Service Committee. The Service Committee worked with agents and governments to connect people with the help they needed but people spoke many different languages and so Joy felt that they needed some symbol that would look official and let people know these people could be trusted.  He commissioned cartoonist Hans Deutsch to do just that.  Deutsch had himself escaped persecution in Paris France after he made cartoons depicting Hitler and the Nazis.

Deutsch chose an age old symbol from Czechoslovakia of a chalice with a flame.  The chalice as a symbol reminded people of offering drink to a thirsty soul while the flame showed the fire of commitment and helping.  As a symbol, the flaming chalice worked well and years later, became known and used all over the world. By the 1970’s, it was in use by congregations across the country.

But one of the most inspiring stories came from a woman from Czechoslovakia imprisoned in a camp during the war.  She said that the chalice of her homeland had a motto written under it: “pravda vietei”—“truth overcomes”.  Every morning, she drew a chalice in the sand with her finger and under it, she wrote those words in her native language.  They gave her strength and helped her to endure.  She imagined that someday “the world would know that every person is important and should be free.” 

The flaming chalice is not simply a lovely image of candles aglow; it has great depth and meaning.  It can remind people what Unitarian Universalism stands for—its principles, not some dried up rules we “must” obey but living acts of courage and compassion surrounded by a sense of wonder and awe at this universe we share.

Lighting the Menorah is a ritual—enacted very deliberately, placing each candle in from right to left and lighting them with the Shamus candle from left to right.  Lighting a Chalice is so simple by comparison but it is a cherished tradition in this church and in most Unitarian Universalist congregations.  Sometime last year, I lost track of the exact date, our Chalice had a literal meltdown.  It was made out of pewter  and it burned itself up.  Great holes punctuated the metal and thankfully, it did not burn the building or our beloved Steve who noticed its high flame and carried it outside. 

The Chalice as a symbol is only powerful if we talk about what

we see in that flame or reflect on why this church endures and should continue well into the future.  Can it become a living symbol for us like it was for the woman from what is now the Czech Republic?  I chose this Chalice necklace from hundreds twenty or thirty I saw at our annual meeting called General Assembly. I spoke to the artists who created it to honor an octogenarian whose helping hands inspired them.  It has two hands cupped and reaching out.  It resonates for me with the story of the Flaming Chalice and of the essence of Unitarian Universalism’s commitment to freedom, spiritual growth and service.

          Powerful winds blow in our lives. They shake our foundations; they chill us to the core.  Surge waters rise—they force us to summon up stamina we never thought we had.  It is the community spirit that brought us together and keeps us together despite nor’easters and hurricanes.  It is the “oil of gladness” that “dissolves all mourning”.  It is the spirit of generosity and ingenuity that summons us to acts of kindness, opening up homes to people who lost their homes or seeing how someone fares after surgery and asking that we struggle with the “devastations”, whether old or new.

          The task before us in this church is herculean—it is to find enough oil to keep the Chalice lit, to make sure our doors remain open wide in welcome for generations to come.  It is to keep our treasured traditions alive if they are still potent and inspire others to create new traditions, and bright visions.  And it is for all of us to make sure we don’t let the light go out—it has lasted for so many years.  Let it shine through our love and our tears.”