It is midweek as I write, still reflecting on Sunday
morning’s service of worship. It was the
first Sunday in Advent, the beginning of the ancient rituals of anticipating
the renewal and rebirth that comes with the celebration of the anniversary of
the birth of Jesus. The service was
abundant with the full range of human emotion and aspiration.

The Pietro Yon organ prelude set the tone with its steady bass beats,
like ever advancing footsteps under the clear high notes of “O Come, O Come
Emmanuel” - - evoking the image of an ever advancing movement toward justice
and peace.
The diverse congregation gathered. Children to be baptized; a brand new nonagenarian celebrating her 90th birthday;
the deacons and church school teachers a mix of skin colors; LGBTQ members
fully embraced; a terrified family whose mentally compromised son is among the
missing in New York City; an equally terrified and grieving woman whose husband
is showing signs of dementia; a young man who cares for a sister who has had a
debilitating stroke.
There was the chaos of young children wiggling, struggling
to be free of parental constraints, vocalizing lustily as the baptism
unfolded. All this playing out against
the ordered and measured background of an incredible solo offering of Handel’s “Comfort Ye, My People”, framing
perhaps a dozen children gathered with the pastor around the font for the
blessing of the baptismal water.

Three sets of parents, three children, three sets of
godparents, one of whom is a Jewish father faithfully bringing his own sons to
Jewish services each week in preparation for their
being called to the Torah, all vowing to resist the
forces of evil in the world, to work for justice against oppression and to
raise these young souls in the paths of righteousness - the congregation
promising to support them all.
The prayers of the people brought forth the joys and
concerns of the congregation to be offered to The Holy One, to be cared for and
ministered to by the community gathered.

An invitation was given to meet one another around an open
table for communion to renew and refresh the memory of the life and teachings
of Jesus, to renew together the commitment to life in community based on the
hope for a new age when “justice shall roll down like waters and righteousness
like an ever flowing stream.”
And then the “bookend” as the congregation hummed together
“O Come, O Come Emmanuel” and the pastor gave the benediction and sending
forth.

As people moved toward the coffee hour, small knots of human-kindness
gathered around the young man who has been caring for his sister,
offering loving support in the form of visits
and homemade soups; around the woman whose grief at her husband’s decline left
her without words, but welcoming the solid embrace of support around her.
The coffee hour simply continued the worship
in another room, under another guise, as individuals connected with each other,
as strangers were welcomed and fed, as calendars were produced and appointments
made to carry the caring, the feeding, the work of justice out into the world.
The service was a swirl of chaos and order, rejoicing and pain, sorrow and hope, all playing out in the midst
of an extravagant hospitality that welcomes every part of our humanness into the
sacred precincts of worship.

As I have continued to reflect on just what exactly happened
during that
brief couple of hours I have
come to see that it was a momentary peek into the reign of The Holy One, the
divine unity for which we yearn in our immense and often challenging diversity.
We call it by so many names - The Second
Coming, The Kingdom of God, the coming of the Messiah - - that time when every
tear shall be dried, every injustice set right, every broken heart healed.
At the beginning of the service, we lighted the first of the
four candles in the Advent wreath and claimed it as a symbol of hope. And then, for a brief space in time we
entered into the dynamic unfolding of “the kingdom” in our midst - - shared in
a glimpse of what it might look like if we each simply do what is required of
us - to “do justice, to love mercy and kindness, to walk humbly with our
God.”

The
sacred texts
affirm that the kingdom is within us and among us, moving inexorably, with slow
and steady footsteps toward fulfillment.
This is the hope of Advent.
There
is great power in lighting that one little candle.
Vicky Hanjian
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