HOLIDAY CANDLELIGHT AND TAIZÉ CHANT SERVICE
7:00 PM, Friday, December 23, 2011
The service begins with the sanctuary in silence and darkness, the dim lights that helped people find their seats, extinguished, the congregation waiting in silent expectation. The service takes place with ample silence between segments. Those present are encouraged to discuss, comment, or question afterwards, but this service includes no explanations. It is intended to be experiential rather than cerebral.
Kislev Meditation
by Ellen Dannin
The seed, planted in the dark,
waiting in the dark of the year,
the seed drawn to the light,
the seed planted in the dark earth
by our own hands,
to be drawn from the earth by the light,
which will return.
Do the planted and the planter
wait in despair in the dark
for the return of the season of light?
What if, we think, the light did not return,
if we waited in the dark
and, at last, despaired of light?
We could almost forget, in our winter’s darkness,
that light will come again.
We light the lights in the dark of the year
to recall
that all is in readiness,
that we wait only for the warmth of light,
that even in the absence of light,
the work of creation is made ready.
Lighting the Shabbat Candles
Traditional
Baruch ata Adonai Eloheinu Melech ha-Olam
Asher kideshanu b’mitzvotav
Vitzivanu l’hadlik ner shel Shabbat
Reflection on Shabbat and Cosmos
by Paul Kent Oakley
Honoring the Sabbath rest is not the first commandment written but is the first commandment illustrated in the Hebrew scriptures. After the creative force of the Big Bang established the evolving Cosmos and its laws, the banging stopped. The universal processes were self-sustaining. In the mythic language of Genesis, God rested. On the model of countless generations of Jews, we have ushered in this Shabbat with the lighting of candles and blessing. We carve out of time a temple, a utopian dream, where all can rest and rejuvenate. Where all are equal and all needs are met. Shabbat is a weekly reminder of larger, natural cycles, of hope growing in the dark as the Winter Solstice comes. When we plan and prepare for the rebirth of the natural order and the arrival of something new.
Lighting the Advent Wreath
by Timothy Murphy, adapted, additional words by Paul Kent Oakley
Source of Life, great well of diversity on this planet, inspire us. As we prepare ourselves during this season, we look in hope to the possibilities diversity offers us. May our growing together more fully reflect the beauty of creation.
Divine Wisdom, manifest in prophets and thinkers who have urged humanity forward and also manifest in one another, we seek greater understanding. May we seek the wellbeing of our sisters and brothers, infusing divine love in all our paths, that what is hidden may be revealed.
Matrix of Becoming, in joyous expectation we prepare ourselves for those moments where we encounter the perfectibility of humanity and the world we have created. May we be ready to joyfully proclaim this good news, a revelation bursts through the mundane. May we listen for the surprising places and voices where truths are revealed, that we may receive in joy.
Empowering Spirit, breathing through us the desire for a transforming peace. As we seek to be faithful partners with all life and this whole Cosmos, may we discern the signs of peace where it is most needed. Affirming our worth, may we have the courage to lovingly resist all oppression in our lives and our communities.
Hope. Peace. Joy. Love. These are promises and practices that have sustained us as we have waited for something new to emerge in this world, prepared for something old to be renewed.
Lighting the Yule Log
from “The Pagan Housewife,” adapted
From the darkness is born the light, from void, fulfillment emerges.
The darkest night of the year's at the threshold,
Open now the door, and honor the darkness.
Dark my surroundings, and cold be this night
But the labor of the blessed mother has reborn the sacred light,
The child divine, the most honored sun shall return with the sunrise.
Awaken, my lady, look upon your divine child,
Whose rebirth while you slumbered was subtle and silent.
The divine sun awaits your wakening, gentle and benevolent.
Hail the blessed sun, reborn to the mother,
For he retook his throne at the end of solstice night!
Lighting the Chanukiah
Traditional, variation preferred by Rabbi Randy Fleisher,
and The Society for Humanistic Judaism
Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu ruach ha-olam,
asher kid'shanu b'mitzvotav
v'tzivanu l'hadlik neir shel chanukah.
Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu ruach ha-olam,
she-asah nisim la-avoteinu,
bayamim haheim, baz'man hazeh.
Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu ruach ha-olam,
shehecheyanu, v'kiyemanu,
vehigi-anu laz'man hazeh.
Blessed is the light of the world.
Blessed is the light within humanity.
Blessed is the light of Chanukah.
Let My Voice be a Hammer, excerpt
by Rabbi Rachel G. Greengrass
Mattathias was just a man,
A man who saw that if he did not stand up, no one else would
Judith was just a woman,
Who saw that if she did nothing, her people would be destroyed.
Both refused to give up, both used what little they had, attacked by using cunning, guerrilla warfare.
And so it was that one woman was able to save her town,
and one family was able to save their people –
From loss of life –
From loss of spirit –
So let my voice be a hammer
Let it break down walls,
Build homes and community,
Strike out against injustice
Let it be a comforting tool for my sisters and brothers
and those who are weak
Let it smash indifference
Let it ring the eardrums of those who would silence us
Because I am Israel.
I struggle with the divine,
I will not be kept quiet
Let my voice be a hammer
Like Mattathias… and like Judith…
Lighting the Sanctuary Candles
La ténèbre n’est point ténèbre
(recording from the Taizé Community)
La ténèbre n’est point ténèbre devant toi
La nuit comme le jour est lumière.
Our darkness is never darkness in your sight;
the deepest night is clear as the daylight.
TAIZÉ CHANTS
Within Our Darkest Night
Within our darkest night, we kindle the fire that never dies away,
never dies away.
The Kingdom of God
The Kingdom of God is justice and peace and joy in the holy spirit.
Come, Hope, and open in me, the gates of your kingdom.
Bless the Lord
Bless the Lord, my soul, and bless God’s holy name.
Bless the Lord, my soul, who leads me into life.
LESSON
Choose Something Like A Star
by Robert Frost
O Star (the fairest one in sight),
We grant your loftiness the right
To some obscurity of cloud --
It will not do to say of night,
Since dark is what brings out your light.
Some mystery becomes the proud.
But to be wholly taciturn
In your reserve is not allowed.
Say something to us we can learn
By heart and when alone repeat.
Say something! And it says "I burn."
But say with what degree of heat.
Talk Fahrenheit, talk Centigrade.
Use language we can comprehend.
Tell us what elements you blend.
It gives us strangely little aid,
But does tell something in the end.
And steadfast as Keats' Eremite,
Not even stooping from its sphere,
It asks a little of us here.
It asks of us a certain height,
So when at times the mob is swayed
To carry praise or blame too far,
We may choose something like a star
To stay our minds on and be staid.
Passing the Flame
Silence
Placing the Candles in Community
TAIZÉ CHANTS
Ubi Caritas
Ubi caritas et amor, ubi caritas, Deus ibi est.
Where there is charity and love, God is to be found.
In Love Alone
In Love alone my soul can find rest and peace,
in Love my peace and joy.
Only in Love my soul can find its rest,
find its rest and peace.
Kindle in Us the Fire of Love
Spirit of Life, come to us. Kindle in us the fire of love.
Spirit of Life, come to us. Spirit of Life, come to us.
Words for the ending of Advent
by Paul Kent Oakley
The time of waiting has ended. Each day is longer than the day before. Light is returning. The formal time of introspection and self-evaluation is over, leaving each one prepared to act. The great metaphor of the Kingdom of God, that realm of justice and peace, calls to us – each one with a task to further the kingdom, to usher in a messianic age. In Advent it felt, at times, that what some would call salvation was private and personal, but the great myth of the Nativity teaches that heaven and nature and all humanity are implicated. We usher in justice and peace for all, or there is no salvation for any. Advent has ended.
Taizé reprise
The Kingdom of God
The Kingdom of God is justice and peace and joy in the holy spirit.
Come, Hope, and open in me, the gates of your kingdom.
Blessing
by Paul Kent Oakley, including words borrowed from Marcia Falk's "Blessing of the Children"
We dare to dream a utopian dream amidst a world of sometimes harsh realities that are mixed with beauty beyond imagining. We imagine a world without injustice and commit ourselves to doing our part to making that world reality. Something new can be born. Something new must be born. We are its midwives, its mother, and the baby. May we never forget our sacred role, and so, I charge you to be who you are, and may you be blessed in all that you are.
Candles remain burning, as the congregation, when each is ready, moves to the fellowship area where refreshments are set up. The party commences.
Readers:
Walter Lazenby
Donna Beaumont
Mike DeVilbiss
Paul Kent Oakley
Room Preparation and Candle Lighting:
Gail DeVilbiss
Mike DeVilbiss
Donna Beaumont
Paul Kent Oakley
