This First day Jeff and I went to Fresh Pond Meeting. I've been once before that, and I just love it. It's small and full of children and everybody seems to know everybody else without being clannish or cliquey. Every community has its quirks...I'm not starry-eyed on that account. But my soul was fed in worship there, and I know I'll be back.
A Friend gave ministry on the topic of "Sing and Rejoice". Often in worship my mind isn't passively quiet, but silently humming away at any of the dozens of hymns I internalized as a child. I was in the middle of a verse when he stood to speak. One that's been with me as the year turns is an advent hymn. Though as Quakers we believe that the Kingdom is among us, that Christ is here, there are still many powerfully moving themes that have to do with the themes of Waiting and Fullfilment, themes that have been resonating with me deeply.
People, look East. The time is near
Of the crowning of the year.
Make your house fair as you are able,
Trim the hearth and set the table.
People, look East and sing today:
Love, the guest, is on the way.
Furrows, be glad. Though earth is bare,
One more seed is planted there:
Give up your strength the seed to nourish,
That in course the flower may flourish.
People, look East and sing today:
Love, the rose, is on the way.
Birds, though you long have ceased to build,
Guard the nest that must be filled.
Even the hour when wings are frozen
God for fledging time has chosen.
People, look East and sing today:
Love, the bird, is on the way.
Stars, keep the watch. When night is dim
One more light the bowl shall brim,
Shining beyond the frosty weather,
Bright as sun and moon together.
People, look East and sing today:
Love, the star, is on the way.
Angels, announce with shouts of mirth
Christ who brings new life to earth.
Set every peak and valley humming
With the word, the Lord is coming.
People, look East and sing today:
Love, the Lord, is on the way.
There are a lot of things I love about the song. I'm not bothered by theological or historical inaccuracies (What? God wasn't born in a snowsorm?!) because the truth it holds is fresh, and the hope and cheerfulness and good will in every line is apparent. When was the last time you heard the word "Mirth" in a hymn?
Even the hour when wings are frozen
God for fledging time has chosen.
I've known that to be true in my own soul!
I'm digging the church calendar a little this year. A lot of things that I once recoiled from when I was asked to believe them literally I can now warm to and love as full and beautiful illustrations of the journey of the soul to God, and of God to the soul. I like seasons, and I like this cyclical story of change and growth, of laying down and renewal.
In other news...I'm moving in with the Quakers in January! Yep. I'll be a Friend's Center Resident at Cambridge. In return for scrubbing and mopping and swabbing the deck, I get a room right beside the meeting house, a short walk from work. It will mean that I can pay off my student loans for my one unsalvageable (in terms of getting a degree) year of college as I start up a new one. I won't have to worry about how many hours I am or am not getting at work, and I can afford to visit my family more often. It's a wonderful blessing. I'm really going to miss my posh Davis Square dwelling, but it's really worth it. Pray for me!
6 comments:
Amanda, The cycle of seasons is one thing among many which keeps me in the Catholic Church. While I do appreciate the Friend's sentiment that Christ is born in our hearts every day (and lives with us every day or moment), I would surely miss Christmas. There ARE problems. "Christmas holiday shopping season" for Walmart et. al. is not MY Christmas. My Christmas is that demonstated by St Francis in setting up the Nativity scene for the first time. I also love those hymns: "Lo A Rose E'er Blooming" and "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" among many others (this is a sign of maturity-as a child, I loved "Jingle Bells" the best and could not understand why we could not sing it in Sunday School--I was raised Protestant.) Ah well, I digress...I am happy for your new situation. It sounds a perfect solution for a serious student in the "world" and Friend. God be with you in all you do and give you peace.
Thanks, Anon!
I agree with you on Christmas. Historically, Friends didn't celebrat Christmas. A small group of Primitive Quakers published this statement in 1993:
As we hold that one day is no more holy than another, as all days are the gift of the most High, do we continue to maintain a firm Christian witness that our members do not join in any public fasts, feasts, so-called holy-days and religious festivals (such as times called "Christmas" and "Easter" by some); for though exterior observances of a similar kind were once authorised under the law, as shadows of things to come, yet they who come to Christ will we believe assuredly find that in him all shadows end.
I understand the sentiment, and agree with half of it. But for me, the idea that all days are equal doesn't mean that there is no Christmas, but that every day should be Christmas. I think that holidays like Thanksgiving or Christmas, if followed in a gentle, loving, non-materialistic way, celebrated for what they are--a reminder that God is in the world, are a good thing. It's good to be recalled to these things from time to time. The danger is it the rememberance is confined to a holiday...like the people that think of God on only Easter, think of the poor only on Thanksgiving, care for their family only at Christmas.
Though even then I have to say...better once a year than never!
As a Catholic who deeply and passionately loves Lent and the Easter cycle, this is one bit of Quakerism I simply cannot understand. How silly it seems to me to reject the cycle of seasons so natural to every living thing! The seasons help us to live our faith more deeply by bringing us into contact with one aspect of Christ's life and ministry at a time. The timing of Christmas is random - it doesn't matter what date was picked for it, just that it is celebrated. (Easter has a bit more rhyme and reason to it, as, like our forerunners the Jews, we time the feast to the season in a historical rememberence). Last year I was pregnant during the Advent season, and believe me, that led to some very fruitful meditation and prayer - as is natural and human and good.
Perhaps in a future post you could explain to those ignorant of your readers what you consider to be the central tenets of Quakerism? My brother in law is from a quaker family, and I've tried to have him explain it to me, but all I get is 'pacifism' and a lot of fuzziness - his community seems to have contained both vague deists and definate Christians, and variations on just about every other thing I've always thought of as 'Quaker', and I would love to know whta are the non-negotiable central tenets common to all Quakers - or are there any?
Thy post is really making me smile. I had just sent thee a note about humming for Mary Dyer... and here thee speaks about humming hyms... Thy joy is so welcome... frankly as the days grow shorter and a little darker, a joyful holiday is a real blessing. I hope thee has a recording of thy version of King W to play for thy friends... the one that we made has some wonderful laughter on it, great for the season.
All the very best and joy
lor
Quaker or no, our house is still going to celebrate Advent. John and I are both ex-Catholic. Lyndsay wasn't raised in any religion, and thus doesn't quite get why the two of us are so hung up on it, but she is Christian, and will be joining us, I imagine.
I bought our candles on Friday, which made me ridiculously happy, much happier than something material should have made me. I confessed all this to John later. Me: John, I was horribly frivolous today. I bought something purely for the joy of it. John: What was it? Me: Advent candles. John: Those aren't frivolous to me.
We're also getting a tree, and the whole nine yards. I might even be going to a service on Christmas. Scandal. Somehow I doubt I'll get read out of Meeting . . .
I understand the reason behind not wanting to make one day more sacred or special than the next. Also, I abhor the mindless, soulless consumerism that seems to accompany Christmas. Then again, I see nothing wrong with celebrating the turn of the seasons and the immanance of God and light coming forth out of the darkness.
And it brings me so much joy, and I could certainly use more joy in my life.
So yes. This Quaker girl is celebrating Advent full-on, with no regrets.
Kate, I don't think you'll find many Quakers willing to "reject the cycle of seasons so natural to every living thing".
Because the focus of Quakerism is in the Now, in the Present moment, of how to best make apparent the fullness of God that resides in every moment, and to be faithful to the call contained in that one moment, there has traditionally been a de-emphasis of things past and future.
A gorgeous thing about God is how He is fully present in each atom and second, and each atom and second holds a faithful image of Him, and yet, at the very same time, He is fully present in the whole. The rhythms and cycles of each creature and the world speak of the Truth about God as much as each moment contained within them, and so I think (and I think most Quakers would agree with me) that it is good and right to honour them.
The seasons of the world, and of the traditional church calendar offer full and fruitful subjects for meditation and for bringing us closer to an understanding of God...I completely agree.
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