“Opening to Joy”

I think it’s appropriate we begin the month of December by honoring Bodhi Day: the historical Buddha’s enlightenment, birth, and death, all in one. According to the story of Siddhartha’s enlightenment, he looked up and saw the morning star, and in so doing was enlightened. Stars have always played an important role in human life. According to the Christian story, the wise know where to find Jesus by following a star. On clear cold nights, with few clouds in the sky, stars have the capacity to captivate us with their brightness. Stars can captivate us so thoroughly we can actually forget about ourselves for a moment: our problems, our pains, the things we wish were different. For an instant, if we’re fortunate, we get a reprieve from the reality we live in most of the time. The reality we live in most of the time is undoubtedly true: it has a solidity, a weight, it is tangible. But it is not the only reality. There is always more. This sense of something more is what this coming season is about in multiple traditions and cultures. A good word for this sense of something more is wonder. We, for an instant, allow ourselves the wonder of our lives, the wonder of a star, the wonder of life.

My favorite holiday film is “It’s a Wonderful Life,” with Jimmy Stewart. I’m sure most of you have some familiarity with it: it’s about a man who feels his choices have led him to a pointless and dreadful, stress filled life, and he has no sense of real accomplishment. An angel shows him the significance his life had on other people, a significance he was largely oblivious to. Most of us too are oblivious to the wonder of our lives. We can all too easily lose our sense of significance, tying our significance to a kind of accomplishment that feels out of reach.

One of the greatest gifts this church has given me is that I feel that I’m rediscovering wonder, the wonder of being alive in community. We are always part of a community, an integral part, though we may often feel separate or insignificant. Our church community has a way of helping a person rediscover their significance, not based on arrogance. Arrogance is fear disguised, a sense of only being significant in relation to what is insignificant. But significance is not limited to a single individual, or to rare occasions. Significance, like wonder, is available for anyone to apprehend, though it is rarely met. This holiday season, may we restore the natural dignity of our neighbor through acts of kindness. May we apprehend the wonder of justice tied to loving relationship. May we rediscover our own significance simply because we’re alive and we belong.

I’m looking forward to the holiday festivities at UUYO this month. The Winter Solstice will be an outside celebration on the patio on Dec. 21st – please read the Update for more details. I’m very much looking forward to a hybrid Christmas Eve Service at 5 pm with live music and friends both virtual and in person.

During this holiday season, please take special care of yourselves and those you come in contact with. We often have no awareness of the full burden anyone is carrying, and if we can help alleviate the weight (even slightly), let us do it. That is what our church community is for. UUYO is a place to share in the abundance of joy and to lighten each other’s burden. All we have to do is be open to it. Let us practice this kind of openness this month, to be open to joy based on relationship, camaraderie, and inherent significance.