For The Time Being

 

Poet W.H. Auden wrote For the Time Being: A Christmas Oratorio in 1941 and 42 in war-torn England.
For over fifty Christmases I have read this poem - sometimes to myself, sometimes with family, sometimes with congregations I have served.  Needless to say, it speaks to me in a profound way.  And I share it here with you that you might find some inspiration.
 
Well, so that is that. Now we must dismantle the tree,
Putting the decorations back into their cardboard boxes --
Some have got broken -- and carrying them up to the attic.

 
The holly and the mistletoe must be taken down and burnt,
And the children got ready for school. There are enough
Left-overs to do, warmed-up, for the rest of the week --
Not that we have much appetite, having drunk such a lot,
Stayed up so late, attempted -- quite unsuccessfully --
To love all of our relatives, and in general
Grossly overestimated our powers. Once again
As in previous years we have seen the actual Vision and failed
To do more than entertain it as an agreeable
Possibility, once again we have sent Him away,
Begging though to remain His disobedient servant,
The promising child who cannot keep His word for long.

The Christmas Feast is already a fading memory,
And already the mind begins to be vaguely aware
Of an unpleasant whiff of apprehension at the thought
Of Lent and Good Friday which cannot, after all, now
Be very far off. But, for the time being, here we all are,
Back in the moderate Aristotelian city
Of darning and the Eight-Fifteen, where Euclid's geometry
And Newton's mechanics would account for our experience,
And the kitchen table exists because I scrub it.
It seems to have shrunk during the holidays. The streets
Are much narrower than we remembered; we had forgotten
The office was as depressing as this. To those who have seen
The Child, however dimly, however incredulously,
The Time Being is, in a sense, the most trying time of all.
For the innocent children who whispered so excitedly
Outside the locked door where they knew the presents to be
Grew up when it opened. Now, recollecting that moment
We can repress the joy, but the guilt remains conscious;
Remembering the stable where for once in our lives
Everything became a You and nothing was an It.
And craving the sensation but ignoring the cause,
We look round for something, no matter what, to inhibit
Our self-reflection, and the obvious thing for that purpose
Would be some great suffering. So, once we have met the Son,
We are tempted ever after to pray to the Father;
"Lead us into temptation and evil for our sake."
They will come, all right, don't worry; probably in a form
That we do not expect, and certainly with a force
More dreadful than we can imagine. In the meantime
There are bills to be paid, machines to keep in repair,
Irregular verbs to learn, the Time Being to redeem
From insignificance. The happy morning is over,
The night of agony still to come; the time is noon:
When the Spirit must practice his scales of rejoicing
Without even a hostile audience, and the Soul endure
A silence that is neither for nor against her faith
That God's Will will be done, That, in spite of her prayers,
God will cheat no one, not even the world of its triumph.

IV
Chorus

He is the Way.
Follow Him through the Land of Unlikeness;
You will see rare beasts, and have unique adventures.

He is the Truth.
Seek Him in the Kingdom of Anxiety;
You will come to a great city that has expected your return for years.

He is the Life.
Love Him in the World of the Flesh;
And at your marriage all its occasions shall dance for joy.

-- W. H. Auden

Every Day Is the Best Day In the Year

 

Back when I served as pastor to a congregation, I sent out a message such as this to them.  I think it is a message we still need to hear at the end of this most disturbing year, and I invite you to read it.

It is good that we begin a new year every year about this time, don’t you think?

As strange as it might seem, the new year did not always begin on January 1!

To be sure, there almost always has been a celebration of the beginning of the new year, but it used to begin March 25.  Yep, going back to the ancient Babylonians, some 4000 years ago, and for long periods of time since then, folks celebrated the new year in conjunction with Spring – marking the end of winter and the beginning of new growth.

In fact, it wasn’t until 1752 that England decreed that January 1 would mark the beginning of the new year there and in the colonies.
But, still, the fact is that most people in the world do not mark the beginning of the new year on January 1.
Jews the world over mark the beginning of the new year in September or October.
Hindus in different parts of India celebrate the new year on various dates.
Muslims use a calendar that has 354 days in most years so their new year falls on different dates as well.
The Chinese New Year begins between January 21 and February 19.
The Thai New Year is celebrated in April 13 to April 15.
The Vietnamese New Year is the Têt Nguyen Dan and is celebrated on the same day as Chinese New Year.

But, we take time just after the darkest time of the year, just as the days get longer, as things change, as more and more light illumines our lives,
to remember where we’ve been,
to remember what we’ve done,
to remember what has happened,
perhaps to evaluate our experiences,
perhaps to celebrate the moments of epiphany,
perhaps to grieve at what has been lost,
and then to look ahead to the days to come.

It is in the looking ahead that our faith gets expressed.
One study has concluded that on average each American makes 1.8 New Year’s resolutions each year.
Well, I know some don’t make any resolutions, because they don’t need the guilt attached to failed expectations. 
But, resolutions can be powerful tools for behavior and attitudinal change. 
I have seen it work time and time again.
Resolutions can be powerful tools if you write them down.
Resolutions can be powerful tools if you display them prominently on the refrigerator door or the bedroom mirror.
Resolutions can be powerful tools if you refer to them daily,
if you say them out loud,
if you include them in your prayers.

New Year’s Day may be the most active-minded holiday, because it is the one where people evaluate their lives and plan and resolve to take some kind of action.

It is no accident that the ancient Romans named this month January – after Janus, the god of gates, doors, and beginnings. 
Janus is always depicted as having two faces, one looking forward and one looking backward. 
And, that’s what we do, isn’t it? 
We look back on the days past. 
And we look forward to the days to come.

As we look forward to the days to come, let us remember that the Psalmist reminds us that each of our days are God-given.  What we do with them is up to us. How we spend them is up to us.  How we get through them is up to us.

Frets and anxieties and regrets have a way of festering and infecting our lives with unhealthiness.  Let’s rid ourselves of them. Misplaced allegiances and unrecognized debts foster unhappiness, unpleasantness and, ultimately, an unfulfilled life.

Let us follow the clue left by Ralph Waldo Emerson:
Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.
Because, that’s what we believe, isn’t it?
That’s what we hear and say each Sunday in churches.

He or she is rich who owns the day,
and no one owns the day who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety.
Finish every day and be done with it.
Some blunders and absurdities
no doubt crept in.
Forget them as soon as you can;
tomorrow is a new day;
begin it well and serenely,
with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.
The new day is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on the yesterdays.
 

Yes! Yes! Yes!  With its hopes and invitations, the new day is too dear to waste a moment on the yesterdays. 

This is a call to each of us.

Why Is This Night Different from All the Other Nights?

 

It’s a good thing we begin a new year every year about this time, don’t you think?

If properly approached, the beginning of a new year can be beneficial to our psyche,
beneficial to our health, and beneficial to our soul.

However, as the years go by, Father Time becomes more of a caricature, and we pay less and less attention to the intention  of the season, don’t we?

Without the fol-de-rol of late night parties, New year’s Eve is of little importance to the on-going nature of our lives. 
We have no ceremony for this time of year, when a youngster may ask, “Why is this night, of all nights, important to us?” 

But, maybe we should. 
For this could be a teaching moment for all of us.

As I have noted before, most of us carry around way too much baggage.  We tend to tote pounds and pounds of grudges, animosity, resentment, and revenge, don’t we?
 
And, we know it’s unhealthy. 
Doctors tell us. 
Ministers tell us. 
Researchers tell us. 
Some friends tell us. 
Our blood pressure is affected. 
Our cholesterol is affected. 


Our heart rate is affected. 
Our mood is affected. 
Our relationships are affected. 
Our outlook is affected. 
Our immune system is affected. 
We become more prone to disease. 
We become more prone to mental disorder. 
We become more prone to grumpiness. 
And, our life is not what it could be. 
Our life is not what it should be. 
Our life is not what it is promised to be.

Dr. Bernie Siegel reminds us that there seems to be an innate desire in all humans to be reborn, to start again,
to make resolutions and changes we can live up to.

He notes that he sees evidence of this deep seeded desire
“every day in my role as a physician:
People learn they have a limited time to live, and they start their New Year behavior.
They move, change jobs, spend more time with those they love, stop worrying about what everyone else thinks of them, and start to celebrate their life. They are grateful for the time they have to enjoy life and they stop whining about what they wish had happened during the past year.”

So, he notes: we don’t need to wait for that one certain day of the year.

Dr. Siegel suggests that everyday can be the beginning of a new year.
When every evening is New Year’s Eve and every day you awaken is New Year’s Day, you are living life as it was intended.

For me, this is the message of the new year. 

As Paul reminds us in Colossians, it is time to put to death old attitudes and agendas.

Then, the new year has meaning.  
Then, the new life we are promised is closer to being fulfilled.

In this way, we nurture our soul. 
And, when our soul is tended, our health is better and our future is brighter.  
Then, and only then, can we truly welcome the new year and the days ahead. 
We know them to be the fulfillment of God’s time.

This is the day the Lord has made. 

When every evening is New Year’s Eve and every day you awaken is New Year’s Day, you are living life as it was intended

It's Still Christmas

 

So, this is the Third Day of Christmas. 
Christmastide  is the shortest season of the Church year – just 12 days from December 25 to January 6 – the day of Epiphany.
Once again, the church seems out of sync with the rest of the world.
While the prevailing culture around us - and yes, most of us, also - cleaned up the debris from exchanging gifts on “Christmas” day, the church says, “Hold on.”  
Christmas isn’t over on Christmas day. 
There are eleven more days of Christmas!
Eleven more days of Christmas?!!!

No one we know will be celebrating 12 Days of Christmas – much less anything called Epiphany. 
[I’ve never heard a store around here advertising Epiphany sales.] 

But, it is a fact that in many cultures and many countries in the world, Epiphany is a much larger celebration than Christmas day!

Christmas is at the very heart of our faith. 
The stories of our faith that have been passed down through the ages to us speak to the very essence what Christianity is – how we relate to the creator of the universe and how we relate to others around us.

In fact, we really do not know the actual day Jesus was born – apparently it was just not important to those early believers. 
Jesus never talked about it. 
The Disciples never sang happy birthday to Jesus.  
And no one ever shared pictures of the baby Jesus.  
It was not important to them. 

What was important was what they believed was his message and the authority he must have to be delivering the message so clearly and so forcefully.

And, so we need to know, that no matter how good hearing and singing and believing certain things makes us feel –
the real meaning of the season has nothing to do with gifts, or trinkets, or lights, or candles, or trees, or parties, or dinners, or children, or movies, or shopping, or cards, or Santa, or crosses for that matter.

Christmas is for adults.

The key to understanding Christmas is Emmanuel.
Emmanuel is this Hebrew word that means, “God Is With Us”.

It is significant that we recall and remember that at this time in history – during the heyday of the Roman Empire,
in this particular part of world – an out of the way, nondescript place of no significance to anybody –
the ultimate authority of the universe, the Creator of all that is,
broke through the barriers – the walls of the cosmic egg –
and came to live among, alongside, and with us mortal beings. 
God is no longer confined to the highest heavens, or to the other side of the wall,
or to behind the curtain of the holy of holies. 
No, this is about Emmanuel.

God is with us, we say. 
At Christmas we remember the message and we celebrate the exact point when it happened in history. 
But, the kicker is, the real message is, that it didn’t just happen once and that was it. 
God did not simply open the door and say here I am and then leave.
Emmanuel, we say. 
God is with us, we say.
That’s what we remember through the Christmas stories.
And, Emmanuel, we believe.
God is with us – still. 
Today. 
And tomorrow, and all of our tomorrows – 
Every second of every minute of every hour or every day. 

Emmanuel.

- Clyde E. Griffith