COMING ROUND RIGHT FOR THE NEW YEAR

OCTOBER 9^th SERMON FOR EMERSON:

COMING ROUND ‘RIGHT FOR THE NEW YEAR

Who here has been to the St.Louis Arch? Who here has taken a ride in the capsule elevators to the top?... How well I remember! Tightly packed like sardines in a tiny capsule, making its way slowly up the leg of the arch to the top, making constant adjustments every few moments.... why? So that along the journey to the top observation deck, we won’t be sideways or face down as we traverse across the arc, but we’ll always be oriented upright.

Today I’m talking about circles and spirals and arcs and making tiny adjustments along the way so that we remain upright. Isn’t that quite a metaphor for our spiritual lives?

Autumn is a time of beginnings. New school years, oftentimes new homes and new settling ins, sometimes new jobs, a time for nature to shake itself up a bit and prepare for the serious settling in that colder weather requires. The air is crisper, vibrant colors peek at us where once was but a sea of green, and we begin dressing a bit more warmly as the wheel of the year turns and turns again.

The Jewish tradition has just celebrated the birthday of the world, the new year, which is called Rosh Hashanah. Rosh means “head” or “first”, and haShanah means “of the year.” Like every turning of the wheel of the year, we welcome this new year because not only have we made it one more year, we get to start a new year fresh and clean. We get a reset.

As a society, we celebrate our secular new year on January 1^st, and like we do then, Rosh Hashanah is greeted with much fanfare. Literally, fanfare. Blowing the ram’s horn, the shofar, is a clarion call to attend to the celebration.

And so today, along with fall and new school beginnings and the turning of the wheel, we say, “Welcome New Year! Greetings, new beginnings! Let’s have another good one! May it be filled with sweetness and health and all good things for all of us!”

That clarion call emitting from the ram’s horn is simultaneously a celebration, and the beginning of ten days of awe, a time of very serious reflection. It applies to all of us, Jewish or not. And for at least a year or a bit longer, we’ve even been considering this as a congregation, the assessment and reflection of asking ourselves, “What did we do right? Where did we miss the mark? What can we do better going forward?”

Like that elevator capsule chugging it’s way slowly up the leg of the St Louis Arch, we carefully consider what kinds of adjustments we need to make along the way so that we will remain oriented upright and not tilted sideways.

So for all of us, not just the Jewish community, fall is the opportunity to take this time, these days of awe, to readjust ourselves and make certain we aren’t too tilted and wonky. The Jewish tradition doesn’t have a corner on this market.

While it is important to do this reflective review from the perspective of being larger members of the world, and as a smaller community such as we here at Emerson, and even as small as in our families, in the final analysis, it all comes home as we look directly into that mirror where we see no one but our individual selves. We look, we pause and reflect, we make amends, we ask forgiveness from those whom we’ve harmed, and we begin, again, making those small adjustments we must make to be our best selves. Just like New Year’s resolutions on January 1^st, we review and resolve once again to be better in the year ahead.

These are High Holy Days, not just for the Jewish people, but for all of us. Days where we are called to return, to turn inward, just like nature is doing. There is excitement, because who doesn’t like a reset, a do over?

Yet trepidations arise as well, because we must face ourselves, the light and the shadows. And that’s not always fun and exciting, is it? Afterall, who can ever be completely prepared to face one’s deepest self, to find the courage to try one more time, to make that most magnificent thing, the project of becoming our best selves, and to saw and hammer and glue and adjust, to tweak and twiddle and tinker and twist, and to keep hoping, year after year, that this year, this will be the year we come ‘round right?! Who is ever fully prepared for that journey?

But what if this being unprepared is exactly what it is all about? What if our being “completely unprepared” is exactly what is required of us to fully enter into the “real”-ness of these days?

Let’s face it, no matter how much time we spend getting ourselves ready to meet these holy special cycles and days, whether it’s Thanksgiving or Christmas or New Years or a big birthday or anniversary, or Rosh Hashanah, when that day comes around, I don’t know about you, but every single time I still feel totally unrehearsed and unprepared. What if, therefore, showing up as we are, with all our messes and contradictions, unpolished and raw, without that Most Magnificant Thing of our Best Selves in good and working order, what if that utter unpolishedness was all that is asked of us? Perhaps fully embracing our unpreparedness, letting go of the well-adjusted façade we present the world the rest of the year, and inviting all aspects of our self to meet these days, what if that is the first spiritual teaching that these autumnal days offer us?

Like trees letting go of summer leaves, so we let go of the pretense that keeps us separate, that prevents us from truly knowing not only each other’s heart but our own heart as well. Embracing the messiness of life is the very prerequisite to our embarking again on this journey of inner reflection and healing that is the gift to us from autumn.

As we sang at the beginning of our service today, come, come exactly as you are! Come utterly unprepared! But come! Bring all aspects of your being to meet this moment, especially that part of yourself that is the most unprepared!

The turning of the year is a good reminder that in our own lives, so often we feel as if we are making no headway but just turning around in circles. As I’ve learned more of the history of Emerson in the past few months, especially Pat’s talk last month, and then Shari and Karyl’s program 3 weeks ago, I am struck by the similarity that how we started out several years ago is close to where we find ourselves now, again.

It’s easy to look at that from the surface, and to be discouraged, because it looks as if we’ve made no progress at all. We are at the same starting point where we were long ago. And perhaps, like the Hebrews in the desert wandering about aimlessly, arriving 40 years later at the same spot where they began, we too, have followed that circuitous route.

I would remind all of us that the circle is a symbol of wholeness and completion. Two circles joined together like an elongated number 8 on its side is the symbol of infinity. So our circlings, our turnings and returnings, our spiraling and spinning reflect what happens in nature. The seasons cycle, as do our holidays and holy days and special days of remembrances. The earth spins and creates gravity which keeps us grounded. And while spinning, the earth itself circles, along with the stars and planets, in this beautiful cosmic musical dance of creation. Nature itself reminds us that there is not one thing wrong with circling around and finding ourselves at the same point again, and starting over.

While on the surface it may look very similar to where we once were, what this season tells us is that while this year’s lists of improvements looks eerily the same as last year, as we prayed earlier in our Return prayer, we may be at the same point on the circle, but WE are different. WE have grown and changed just in the experience of having gone around the wheel one more time.

So we are NOT in the same exact place we were before, because this time, WE are the ones who have changed on the inside.

The circle is also a symbol of integrity. I am reminded this morning of a few stories from the Tanach (aka Old Testament to some)... many of the Tanach ​stories teach us a quid pro quo relationship with the Divine. You do this, and I'll do that to bless and reward you for doing so. Is this actually true? To answer that, let’s look at Job who was blameless and upright, and suffered terribly, losing everything; Joseph sold into slavery over jealous siblings and later falsely accused of rape and imprisoned for years; the Prophet Jeremiah beaten and placed in stocks for doing what a prophet is called to do--preaching. All good, upright people doing good, upright things, and yet, no quid pro quo here. Suffering. Pain. Loss.

But that was the middle of their stories. If we read on, we see a far different ending where things seem to not just resolve, but push each upright person into a higher dimension of living.

I would never say that suffering and pain and loss and hurricane Matthews are the harsh tricks and tests of a sadistic G!d. I have no such belief, and doubt many of you do either. So what are the lessons for us in these stories, then? What is beyond the quid pro quo relationship? What if there are no just desserts for being upright and good? What if, in the end, bad things DO happen to good people?

I believe the deeper message is that 

even though life and other humans may act like horses' patoots and punish the innocent and upright,

even though random events happen that make life terribly unfair or challenging,

even though we hold up our end of the bargain for being blameless and upright without the blessings and rewards we deserve,

even though we may suffer personal struggle for doing the right thing,

even though all these not so good things happen to good and upright people of integrity,

if we hold to continuing to be blameless and upright people, people of integrity, people who don't throw in the towel when the going gets tough or when it looks like we’ve made no forward progress and are at the same spot we were a year, or two, or twenty ago, or because life really isn't fair sometimes, we prove that we are upright and good people, people of integrity who persevere in terribly adverse situations, and that somehow, here or in the hereafter perhaps, things turn around to right. We are good and we do good, not for the rewards, but because it is simply the right thing to do.

It's not about the blessings and rewards; it's about being the Best Me that I can, THAT in itself is the reward, the blessing. We may not have fame or fortune. We may not have all the material rewards and comforts Job had at the end of his life. We may be terribly wounded in the process, like Yaakov, also called Yisrael, also known as Jacob, who wrestled with G!d and was left with a disabling limp for the rest of his life. The soldier carries outward and internal scars we may never see. The innocent child abuse survivor may carry terrible unspoken wounds within for the rest of their life. Despite the wounds and scars and personal costs, we do the right thing because doing the right thing and being our best selves is its own reward, because we are people of integrity. Like a circle, we are whole, integral.

Our personal and community challenges and struggles are not a test or refinement in the fire; it is simply life. Seeing it from that perspective, in my mind, totally shifts it, by seeing obstacles and struggles and sometimes failings not as a test, but as simply life being life.

What it calls me to is to rise to the challenge anyway. To not only overcome another obstacle, but to do so with courage and perseverance, knowing that this is the right thing, and also knowing that I can let it diminish me or I can let it strengthen me. We know a person of integrity because they choose to do what is upright AND to let it strengthen them internally regardless of what happens externally.

The circle appears in one more metaphor I must mention: the dance. And if anyone has taken ballet lessons or watched So You Think You Can Dance or Dancing With the Stars, you’ve heard the term plié, which literally means, “sinking down.” When you jump, you can’t jump without a plié, a going down into the floor before leaping upwards.

This speaks to the dance we must do between tikkun olam and tikkun hanefesh. Some of you may have heard the term tikkun olam. It is Hebrew for “repairing the world,” and it is exactly the work which inspires and fuels Unitarian Universalists. Tikkun olam is repairing the world and tikkun hanefesh is repairing the soul.

You see, we have to start with our own soul, that plié of sinking down, before we can take that jump into the service of repairing the world. We can’t ONLY work on tikkun hanefesh, our inner spiritual work, but we also cannot do that work of repairing the world without being fully grounded in our own inner being.

So this is the time of the year when we must ask ourselves, Where do I get that strength, that plié, to do the work of repairing the world? How do I do this soul work?

Some of the ways we can do this important soul work is through study and learning about spirituality, daily and weekly spiritual practices that are personally meaningful that nourish and strengthen our souls—maybe we derive from being in nature, maybe doing creative work, maybe reading certain books.

As well, we do our soul work, our tikkun hanefesh, when we confront our weaknesses by holding up a mirror and looking at ourselves honestly. If we don’t each have some way and some practice to regenerate our souls, we will run out of gas and the dance will end.

There is the work of tikkun olam, repair of the world, which is so critically important and one of our top values here at Emerson. But tikkun olam cannot be accomplished without also doing the work of tikkun hanefesh, repair of our souls. Neither stands alone; and as people of integrity we are called to do both.

Just as in our Time For All Ages Story, we know how we want our Best Selves to be and look. We want our Best Selves to be that Most Magnificent Thing, and so we keep trying, again and again, to get it just right. Often, we fall short.

So this new year of endings and beginnings and turnings and returnings, as the world spins on its axis one more time, calls us to look again at our bobbles and mistakes, and see it from another perspective just like the little girl in our story. Not only what did we miss, but what did we get right? And, how can we do more of that?

We take the time for self reflection and renewal in order to be able to go out and give service to a hurting and needy world, a world gone tilted and wonky. If we are not fed, we cannot feed others. If we do not take the time to make self adjustments along the way, we, too, will end up tilted and wonky, burnt out, with a soul hungering to be fed and nurtured.

Our challenge this week going forward is to purposefully attend to strengthening our pliés, to take some time to reflect, to look in that mirror and ask the hard questions. As we strengthen ourselves within, we are better equipped to deal with all that is required of us in our service to work for a better society and world. The work of tikkun hanefesh allows us to do the work of tikkun olam. The clarion call of the shofar reminds us that we must attend to this important work of repairing our souls.

Beyond our individual soul work, as a congregation, we must ask ourselves if we are being spiritually fed and nourished when we gather here. I know some of us feel that we are running out of gas spiritually. We are feeling parched and thirsty from a wearisome journey which has led us into the desert where it seems at times that we are wandering around in circles.

This new year has already begun. We cannot stop the turning of the year, the force of the hurricane of time. Like those now or soon to be part of the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew, we can find again our footing, our plié, and begin to rebuild and strengthen who we are at our core, who we’ve always been, and that is a group whose strongest point is being a caring community who gathers here to be nourished spiritually so that we can go back out there strengthened and whole, people of integrity, courage, and selfless in service.

And if we are not being strengthened in soulful ways right now as a community, if we are not being nourished and fed spiritually, we must find a way to do so for ourselves. If the answer is not outside of ourselves, then we must turn, and turn again, and look within.

Our opening song assured us that we are not a caravan of despair. We can strengthen ourselves. We can attend to our soul work individually and communally so that we can continue to do our work of repairing the world. We can find a way, and we must do this now, because a world gone tilted and wonky is counting on us. Our own Emerson community is counting on us. We are counting on each other.

So, my Emerson friends, as we face this season, this part of the cycle, and look at ourselves again and see where we need to make adjustments, as we turn again and do our best to come ‘round right, I would like to encourage you as we do in the Jewish tradition, with these words:

Chazak chazak v’nitchazeik, which is, “from strength to strength and may we be strengthened.” This means that when we offer support and strength, chazak, to each other at times of illness and challenge, when we support and give strength, chazak, to each other at times of joy and celebration, then, v’nitchazeik, we are able to strengthen ourselves and our community. The strength of our community is found in the connections that we have with each other, the support that we offer each other, and the ways in which our presence for each other helps us to strengthen ourselves. Chazak chazak v’nitchazeik. Let us go forth and find that strength we have among and within ourselves.

It is a new year, time to turn again, to come ‘round right. I wish each of us L’ Shanah tovah tikatevu, v’gamar hatimah tovah, which is to say, “May you be inscribed for a good year, and a good completion to your inscription.” Amein.

BENEDICTION

In these moments, perhaps we have received fragments of holiness, glimpses of eternity, brief moments of insight. Let us gather them up and be renewed by their grace.

May the Light of Life guide our footsteps, and hold us fast to being the best we can be.

May we go forth boldly in peace, love, and service to others, safely returning to be renewed and refreshed yet again. Amein.