Preparing Our Hearts

First Church Dedham

Rev. Rali Weaver

I think this is a very difficult time of year.

There is hardly ever time to get everything done. And even since I have become a minister the holidays seem to go by so fast they are often over before I realized they were here.

Just for example here at church we have extra services and added activities including next week’s pageant and last week’s holiday fair. Holiday planning and physical preparation takes up a good portion of everybody’s time.

There are children to organize there are services to plan – it takes volunteers, it takes greenery, candles orders of service and sermons.

I can’t even imagine how this has been for you from the Needham church -- not being able to be in your beloved sanctuary this holiday season, and having to physically carry with you each week all of your traditions.

Add to that caroling and parties and sending holiday greetings, present buying and trips to visit family.

Not to mention the effort it takes to be ready for the 10 degree or more drop in temperature and winter snow and ice. We need ice scrapers and shovels and signs to tell the snowplows were to go, we need mittens and hats and heat.

In truth my body wants to hibernate and so when winter is all over and I finally thaw out in the springtime I am always surprised how any of us were able to get through the holiday season and muddle through the cold.

With that in mind, on this second Sunday of Advent and sixth day of Chanukah and second to last Sunday before winter begins-- as we sit on the forming edge of all the frenzy that comes with bringing out the old and bringing in the new--

Poised for another holiday season to come and go—

I want to encourage us to slow down for a moment,

Take a step away from all the physical preparations

And take a breath,

and prepare our hearts for the season.

When you really think about it when done right the celebrations at this time of year act preparation for our souls, helping us to store up good cheer for the too little to come.

Just for example take the Winter Solstice Celebrations which take place on December 21-- the longest night and shortest day of the year. There are physical preparations of a yule log and a fire, but Midwinter is actually a preparation of hearts reminding participants that even after the darkest day the light will return.

Without meaning to over simplify things isn’t Chanukah a reminder of the miracle of light when it was thought there would be none. A reminder of people who survived when they thought they wouldn’t.

And Christmas, for all the wonder of the birth, isn’t the story much more meaningful realizing that the child was born in the worst of circumstances, against all odds – bringing hope in the midst of darkness?

Even if Christmas is only a secular commercial holiday- doesn’t the miracle become that Santa can get resources to your home in the worst kind of weather, down a skinny dirty chimney?

Or that a family can be together again despite the long separation of time and distance and sometimes even emotions

Or that the new year will come offering each of us a fresh start, a second chance and a time to begin a new.

What we celebrate at this time of year are not the physical things-- not the light, nor the oil nor the gift, nor the miracle—

What I hope we are giving our hearts at this time of year is the reminder that when things get tough-- when the weather grows cold and dark and lonely, when you think there is no hope—this time of year serves as a reminder that what good, what light, what possibility, what new growth that has happened against all odds before-- can and will come again.

As I say this, I must confess that sometimes I even find this hard to accept.

For instance when I ran out of oil this week, and my heat went out-- as I sat freezing in the parsonage with three sweaters, four pair of socks, a jacket, long underwear and a hot water bottle it was much easier to believe that I would never be warm again than that the repairman might arrive before nightfall.

Our brains can get accustomed to the way things are in the moment and make it difficult to see past to new possibilities.

I see this in my dog Sophia. If you haven’t met her yet-- Sophia is a golden retriever. It is in her nature to retrieve. If I take her out and throw the ball as often as I throw it in the same spot she can catch it every time.

But when I throw it in the same spot for a while and then throw it to a different location (usually by accident) she can’t find it.

Even if the ball is right in front of her face, even if I land the ball at her feet, if it is not where I have been throwing it before her brain has trouble locating it.

She’ll go round and round and round in circles sniffing and trying to find it, often going right past it because her brain cannot see the ball because it’s not where she expects it to be.

I know that in my years up in Maine there were plenty of times when the winters were so long cold and the snow had gotten so deep and the ice seemed so permanent that I found it difficult to imagine the ground was ever covered in anything but white.

I love the winter but the intense cold can create conditions that make miracles of abundance and warmth hard to accept.

This is why I believe our ancestors thought it was necessary to celebrate the light, the oil and the birth at this time of year. We celebrate to fill up our spiritual storehouses with the promise of light in the midst of the darkness and hope in the midst of despair.

I believe the reminder of Chanukah and the purpose of advent is to encourage us to time to let the possibility of new life in the midst of darkness to soak in to our preconditioned brains.

And I would argue that without this preparation it is difficult for our hearts and minds to accept the this promise and see an alternative truth to our experience.

Opening our souls and our hearts to possibilities and to miracles doesn’t happen over night. It takes time. It takes reminders from your minister. It takes conscious action on your part.

Through traditions such as Advent and Chanukah religions offer systematic preparations to assist us in realigning our spirits.

Take for example the Advent candles each have a different reflection, the first for hope, and the second for Peace the third for joy the fourth for love and the last for Jesus.

The blessing of the Menorah as it is lit offers an intentional spiritual practice praising God for the miracle of the oil lasting while offering a historical reminder that with God anything is possible.

In our more secular, more capitalistic culture my question is what are we preparing for?

In the poem by Mary Oliver titled Ice, that we read this morning her father’s ice grips are a perfect example to me of the type of preparation that may seem pointless on the outside but may have deep spiritual value.

I think of knitting socks for no one in particular and singing in the shower when no one can hear. I think of the monks that practice vespers even when no other person attends and the Buddhists who meditate for the soul of the world.

There are preparations for our souls that have nothing to do with how many cookies we bake or who gets a Christmas card this year.

My question to you today is what preparation does your soul need to be awakened this season?

Is it more tinsel, more holly?

Or is there something else your soul cries for to make the promise of abundance in the midst of dearth a reality.

I if we are to ever fulfill the real promise of this season – the one that offers Peace on Earth Goodwill to all –What can we do to prepare our hearts?

I ask these questions today as if I had an easy answer and I must confess I don’t-- but it is my hope that in asking them, we will each search for our own answer.

And so it is that I encourage you amidst the wrapping or the dancing or the dreidel game or the bah-humbugging --to spend some time searching your own heart and asking what preparation it needs to survive the long cold ahead.

Let these days of advent and of waiting offer us warmth unto our souls. And let us prepare the space for new life to come in.

May it be so.