Easter Greetings 2012

Easter 2012

The Universalist Parsonage

                                                                       Stoughton, Massachusetts

Dear friends,

Jesus may have died on that cross in ancient Palestine more than two thousand years ago; but he lives still in the hearts of all of those who seek to live out the eternal lessons of the life he lived. That lesson reverberates to the examples of all great souls; all men and women of goodwill and sacrificial spirit; all of those whom we have loved and held close, whose lives have blessed ours, but who are no longer with us. Even though they’re gone, their lessons live on in our hearts, as much as when they were alive.

            That is one of the great miracles of Easter: that the deeper meanings inherent in our human living transcend our physical existence on this planet.

            Another is the miracle of nature. “Lo, the earth awakes again,” we sing—and isn’t it wonderful? Isn’t it about time, too? Such a timeless miracle it is that this earth, which such a short time ago seemed locked in the grip of winter—which seemed all but dead—is now about to burgeon forth with the full refulgence of life. That we are there to witness that miracle each and every year—what a blessing that is! Who can but rejoice at this Easter miracle of springtime come again?

Then there is also the springtime of our souls, which abides as well. That springtime is hope—which perhaps we sense most clearly at Easter. This hope is not always an easy thing. Sometimes, it is a tough hope, a defiant hope, which spits in the face of these badlands which this world puts forth. “If one tries to break new ground, or to walk in a new path, one walks straight to Calvary,” Teilhard de Chardin reminds us. But then, he continues: “Those who spread their sails in the right way to the winds of the earth will find themselves borne by a current towards the open seas.”

Hope is not easy. It can be hard to keep up hope. But hope is that sacred wind which lifts us from the dreariness of the world as it is, toward the resurrection of our spirits and the new life that can be. Hope is the doorway toward the rising that lies in wait, the resurrection in our souls, which yearns to usher forth at Eastertime.

Elizabeth joins me in wishing you all a Happy Easter and the choicest blessings of this season of new life.

                                                                                         Faithfully yours,

  

Rev. Jeffrey B. Symynkywicz

A Prayer for Our Chuch (Membership Sunday, April 1, 2012)

Come, Spirit of Wholeness and Peace, and abide with us at this time and in this place.

May the souls of those departed and those who will come after us crowd with us into this meeting house this day, warming our gathering with the presence of their memory; inspiring our gathering with the radiance of their hope.

The past offers its gifts generously
with strong hands of bold and free-spirited souls
who dared to offer their world (and ours)
a liberating vision of hope and courage.
May we remember gratefully this day
those gifts of this free tradition,
ours for the borrowing in our time:

the gift of a faith that will not rest
until the circle of its community is as wide as the universe,
and human love grows as large as the very heart of God.

May this church ever be
a place of love and caring, for ourselves and the world around us.
May we this day rededicate ourselves to our highest ideals and most noble aspirations; to the call of a faith as expansive as the universe itself.

Amen.

jbs
4/2/2000          4/1/2012

Living in the symbols (Sunday, March 25, 2012)

Living in the symbols

To treat all things as symbols
and every act as ritual
is to see in every being another manifestation
of the divine.

This is how we can approach life
when we slow down enough
and let go of the need to prove ourselves worthy
by demonstrating how busy we are.

Not merely to stand back, withdraw from life,
or let it flow on past us;
nor simply to throw ourselves into the vortex
of the maddening swirl,
only to find ourselves consumed by it.

But consciously--
for it is in our consciousness that mind and universe meet--
consciously to live
as though all things were symbols
pointing out life's lessons to us;
as though every deliberate act was a ritual
connecting us to the cosmos;
as though every being, every creature, every natural element
was, indeed,
like each of us,
another manifestation of the holiness and godliness
of Life itself.

jbs
11/6/98          3/25/12

Both sides of the wall (Sunday, February 5, 2012)

Of course, this world is but illusion,
a thin veneer, really:
in all its beauty, majesty, and glory,
in all its pain and sorrow, toil and strife.
It is still but an outer shell, occasionally translucent,
over the deeper realm where the Spirit dwells
and all is Being, all is one.

But these little beings which we each are,
though we bear the breath of God within us,
need bodily lives to lead. We need to feel the living
that we do; see the colors that amaze us.
We need to know the tiny miracles of this world,
before we move deeper in our journey toward the Spirit.

Though it may seem a divided domain--
God on one side of the Wall and we on the other--
in fact, of course, all creation is one; we  know that:
the angels inside of us are but God writ small;
writ in a language these feeble eyes can read;
spoken in a language these failing ears can hear;
reflected in our smaller glory, our little games,
that gives us something to hold onto
when the chill of winter has gone on too long,
and we wait impatiently for the springtime of our souls.

jbs
1/8/01           2/3/02          2/6/12

Transforming Our Times (Sunday, January 22, 2012)

Transforming Our Times

Is it best of times, or worst?
Is it a blessing or a curse,
these lives we lead,
this time and place
in which we dwell?
Are our eyes hidden
from the face of God,
or do we stand closer than we know
to the light of divine grace?

We can transform and glorify
these times in which we live
only by listening for the inner voice
and following its ways.
We can be testaments to the energy
and spirit of these days
only by living them fully
in the light of our deepest power.

That means following the seasons of these times
and living where we are,
but always casting that deeper eye
which sees the abundance and growth
of the summertide within.
It means honoring our age
and knowing the road we’ve walked,
but it also means knowing
that new roads always await us,
and new seasons beckon.

When we cast these lives of ours
both in the light of history’s long page
and God’s great grace, we’ll know
how eternally young we truly are--
And how ancient, how wise,
to be able to share in this great drama,
this golden hour
in which we have been called to transform the earth.

jbs
7/1/02     9/17/02     11/03/02     1/22/12

Waiting for the change (Sunday, January 15, 2012)

Waiting for the change

Will the change come (when it comes),
inevitably, flowing like a river,
cascading over the face of the earth,
a raging torrent, battering down
the citadels of reaction?

Or will it be (if it is to be)
a gradual unfolding,  opening like a stream,
slowly, steadily, maybe imperceptibly
making its way homeward
until one morning we awake and we are there?

We live history every day,
but never know its course until it’s run.
But the remaking that our world needs
will at least require all hands to be on deck.

The gentle and the strong, defiant and resilient,
must all find a place to stand and act and hold the line
if this world is to be made new.

There can be no turning back,
unless we would trade our civic soul
for easy baubles and trappings
of an age that is dying;
or unless we would luxuriate
in the dank and brackish waters
of an age already dead.

Our eyes face forward for a reason:
to greet the coming season, and to try
to glimpse some flicker of the future
before it’s here; then we’ll know
if not the total truth of what’s to come,
at least where to stand,
when the glorious winds of change begin to howl.

jbs
11/9/02          1/19/03          1/15/12

A Christmas Eve Prayer (December 24, 2011)

There shines from that child’s face
the greatest miracle of all:
Life in all its glory,
all its story, all its history,
its mystery; divine grace
made human and come to dwell among us;
perfect splendor of dust and stars.

In every child’s face there lies an epic
of tragedy and joy, laughter and tears
flowing freely through all the years
the Hand of Life will bring.
In every child’s face there still abides
the sign and signal, emblem and symbol
of every betrayal, every sacrifice,
every friendship, every love,
every season a life has seen,
each song a life will sing.

In that Holy Child’s face we know
the pain that can never let us go.
In every human face we trace
the evidence of God.
In that face the light
of life shines through darkest night;
in that face the holy dark
descends, blessed mystery eternal,
with no beginning, with no end:
endless alleluia the universe will sing.

jbs
1/16/02     12/24/02     12/24/07     12/24/11