"THE BIRTH OF HOPE"

A Sermon by the Rev. Bruce Clear

Sunday, December 19, 2004

All Souls Unitarian Church

Indianapolis, Indiana

"Each night a child is born is a holy night." This is the lesson poetically taught by Sophia Fahs, the Unitarian Minister.

This morning I want to begin by recounting the story of three such holy nights when a child was born. The first story took place in India, five centuries before the birth of Jesus. The mother in this story is a local Queen named Maya, married to a King named Suddhodana. Queen Maya was a particularly gracious and kindly woman who fell asleep one day and had the most vivid of dreams. In her dream, she was carried away in her bed to the top of one of the Himalayan mountains, where a group of angel-like Queens bathed her, anointed her with perfumes and garlands, and carried her off to a large and luxurious mansion, where she was left in a bed in a particularly elegant room. Looking out the window, she noticed an elephant coming toward her, carrying a lotus flower in its trunk. The elephant entered the room, circled the bed, and when it touched the lotus to her side, Queen Maya, who never before had children, felt that something had entered her womb.

At the moment the elephant touched her with the lotus, the room was filled with heavenly light. But also, at that very moment, miracles abounded all over the world. Harps and other musical instruments began playing with no one touching them; trees began to blossom, and colorful lotus flowers appeared everywhere. Deaf people could suddenly hear and blind people could see; wild animals became tame and gentle.

When Queen Maya awoke from the dream, she knew something real had happened. She reported the story to the King, who immediately summoned 64 wise men to interpret its meaning. Upon hearing the story, the wise men knew precisely what had happened. They told the King that Queen Maya would have a baby, and that the baby was destined some day to become either the ruler of the entire world, or else the greatest spiritual leader of all people.

It was true that Queen Maya would have a baby, and as the time of the birth drew near, she decided to return to the home of her family for its delivery. While on the trip, she paused to take a walk through a grove of trees, and while leaning against a branch of a sal tree, she began to feel the signs of birth. The child emerged from her side and was caught in a blanket held by four angels who suddenly appeared, saying: "Rejoice, Oh Queen, a mighty son is born to you." The child was born wise enough to speak and strong enough to walk, and every place he stepped, a lotus flower appeared.

Thus is the legend of the birth of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, founder of one of the world's greatest religions. It is a religion that is being embraced even more today, in the twenty-first century, as ever before, and a religion whose beginning was symbolized by the legend of this birth. A new beginning.

The next story takes place in China, at about the same time as the birth of the Buddha. Shuh-liang Heih was an aristocrat, a military man and Governor of the Chinese Province of Tsow, who, at seventy years of age, desperately wanted a son before he died. His wife, Ching Tsai, was a very young woman from a peasant family, who also wanted a son. She would go to a sacred mountain to pray for a son, and as she climbed the mountain, the leaves of the trees and plants would stand straight up in honor of the importance of her mission, and as she descended the mountain, they would droop back down again.

As time went on, Ching Tsai became pregnant, and shortly before the birth, she had a dream in which a strange-looking animal approached her. It was a unicorn, with a horse's body and a single horn on its head. The unicorn was a sacred animal, known only by legend, for no one had ever seen a unicorn before. It held in its mouth a long piece of jade which it offered to Ching Tsai. She took the jade, and found on it writing which bore a prediction about the son she would soon have. "A son of the Great spirit is to be born," it said. "Someday he shall rule the entire land as a good and wise King."

Later, when the time came for the child to be born, two dragons appeared in the sky to ward off all evil influences during the birth. The Five Immortals – five old men who inhabited the five planets – appeared beside the dragons. They had come to celebrate the birth of this child. Music and singing could be heard, and the words declared that "This night a child is born. He shall be a great King who shall make good laws and shall help people to do the right."

After the child was born, the parents were admiring him when they noticed writing that appeared on the baby's chest. The writing was in a language they could not read, so the father summoned his wise advisors who eventually deciphered the meaning of the words. It said, "This night a child is born. He shall be a great King who shall make good laws and shall help people to do the right."

This is the legend of the birth of Confucius, the founder of that great Chinese religion. Another new beginning.

"Each night a child is born," Sophia Fahs tells us, "is a holy night."

At this time of year, the entire Western world focuses its attention on another legend of a great birth, the birth of the baby Jesus. The myths which surround the story of this birth are familiar to all of us. They are so familiar, in fact, that we can easily see the parallels between the familiar Christmas story and these other two stories, without even telling the Christmas story.

In all three stories, the mother of the child is approached by a mysterious messenger, who announces that her child will be a special person in the world. Mary is approached by the angel Gabriel, Queen Maya is approached by an elephant carrying a lotus flower, Ching Tsai is approached by a unicorn carrying a message on a jade tablet. In all three legends, the greatness of the new baby is confirmed by the presence and judgment of wise men.

In these legends, Queen Maya, like Mary, conceived her child supernaturally. In these legends Ching Tsai, like Mary, was a poor peasant woman rather than an heiress to nobility.

In all three legends, the birth itself is accompanied by miraculous events which announce to the world that something divinely special has happened. When Jesus was born, there was a bright star in the sky which guided admirers to the place of his birth. When the Buddha was born, people were healed, flowers bloomed, and wild animals were tamed. When Confucius was born, dragons and the Five Immortals appeared in the sky, as did angels in Bethlehem.

All three births were surrounded by mysterious music: the "heavenly hosts" in Bethlehem, the harps without musicians in India, and the singing from the skies in China.

Of course there are important differences in these three legends as well as similarities. But one more similarity is particularly impressive to me. In each legend, it is predicted that the child will grow up to become king. Jesus was to be King of the Jews, and according to Luke, the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary, telling her that her son,

"Will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David; And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his Kingdom there will be no end."

Queen Maya was told by the wise men that her son would probably become ruler of the world. For Ching Tsai, the message from the unicorn, and from the heavenly music, and from the writing on her child's chest were all the same. Her son would be "a great King who shall make good laws and shall help people to do the right."

These legends I have mentioned, of the birth of great teachers and leaders, are fundamentally stories of expectation, as are stories of any birth. If birth means anything symbolically, or in reality, it means the expectation, the anticipation, of a great beginning in life, of something better in life. In all three legends, the births were accompanied by rejoicing and celebration. There is hope, for this new life, this new child, will bring to the world a message which will enrich our lives and made the world a better place to live.

Our task, it seems to me, is to find ways to make these birth stories personal – personal in a sense that they are as much about us as they are about the great spiritual leaders of the world. The best that such leaders represent is to be found in us as well as in them. Their teachings, to the extent they enhance the moral and spiritual health of humanity, are teachings we can learn and honor and practice. Their births are celebrated for the very same reason all births are celebrated – even our own births as they were celebrated when we were born: that something new has begun that offers unlimited potential for bettering the world. What is celebrated is the beginning of new positive potential in the world.

In the reading from Vivian Pomeroy, he wrote,

"The Christmas spirit is the song of what Lincoln called, 'the angels of our better nature.' ...And somehow at Christmas time we all come home for a little while to what we most really are, which is what we shall be."

The task of Christmas is precisely that – to "come home to what we most really are...." That this task should be inspired by a birth story is only natural, for births provide for us the very model of beginning, of starting anew.

Of course these legends of the stories of the birth of Jesus, the Buddha, and Confucius all arose long after the events took place. The grand and elaborate tales of miracles were embellishments which emphasize the deeply profound hopes which were realized by these great teachers, and by those communities in which they were born.

The embellishments are unnecessary, and in fact, to some extent counter-productive. The hope of the Christmas story, for example, is far more profound if we understand that Jesus was human, rather than a god. That Jesus could be born, as we all are born, that he could have inspired people with such messages as loving our neighbor, of caring for the poor and needy, of doing unto others as we would have them do unto us; that the Sermon on the Mount could be delivered by a person like you or me, or like any one who was born as all babies are born: this is the source of our hope. And this is the hope that resides in us whenever we face the experience of a new birth...a new beginning:

Likewise, Buddha is understood to be very much a human, not a god. All people, it is felt in much of Buddhism, have within themselves a genuine "Buddha-nature." The task of life, and over many cycles of re-incarnated life, is to bring that Buddha-nature to the fore, not hidden under layers of selfishness and discontent. The point of each life, of each birth, is the beginning of a new attempt, a new opportunity, a new aspiration – for a life incarnates the best of human values, and blesses the world.

A. Powell Davies spoke of Christmas this way:

"At the darkest time of year, there thankfully comes to us the brightest festival. Let the gladness of its faith and joy of its promise be warm within us. Let us believe its hope: that sometime there shall be a world in which our inhumanity to one another is ended; a world of goodwill from which all cruelty is gone; a world in which the prophecies have found fulfillment, in which nations are at peace and hatred and strife are known no more. A world in which children's faces are bright like the face of the Christ-child, and all bitterness and harshness are banished, and love and gentleness have everywhere prevailed.”

"Each night a child is born is a holy night." This, I suggest, is the aspiration and spirit Christmas brings. The legend of the birth of Jesus, born into a humble family and surroundings, reminds us each year of the sense of anticipation all birth brings. Each new beginning, however embellished by tales of angels, miracles, or stars, can remind us of the miracle of renewed hope.

Each new beginning – each new birth – needs no embellishment to inspire, though embellishments, I suppose, are often inevitable. Somehow, whenever we turn an actual story into a myth or legend, we need to have more than is there.

The embellishment of the facts surrounding the legend of the birth of Jesus should not prevent us from appreciating the power of that legend. That Jesus' birth was accompanied by great miracles is a reminder of the miraculous sense which accompanies all experiences of birth and all feelings of the potentials of new beginnings. That universal experience needs no embellishment, though it can help highlight the lessons, I suppose. The legend of Jesus' birth is a reminder of the opportunity all births bring.

It would be difficult to invent a more appropriate legend to illustrate hope than we can find today in the Christmas story. It begins with a birth of a child. Make the circumstances humble – the birth takes place in a stable, to a common family in a remote, small and insignificant city. Mary and Joseph look at that new child with great hope for his future, but they also know that every parent feels the way they do. It turns out, of course, that this child grows up to transform the world and influence it more than any single person who ever lived. It turns out that this infant grows into the greatest teacher of dignity and integrity and virtue. Did Joseph and Mary know that when they looked fondly into the crib? Was their feeling of hope for the child any different from what any other parent feels? The point of this legend, it seems to me, is to highlight the universal potential in every birth, rather than to highlight a unique situation. This story, when attached to its universal meaning, speaks to us of the hope in every human birth, and in every human person.

Our Unitarian and Universalist traditions are grounded in a confidence in human nature, an affirmation of the worth and dignity of every person, and a hope in the potential goodness of the human soul. There could be no story which reflects more deeply our religious hope in human nature and human goodness than the story which is at the center of this season’s celebration.

Our tradition of hope is in celebrating the potential for good in every human life -- a hope intrinsic to the Christmas story. Universalist minister John Cummins spoke this way of the connection between this holiday and our need for hope:

"The days have grown short, and the dusk comes early in the afternoon! From time immemorial, people have kindled these days with fire and fed them with beauty, hope, and joy. (We need this) spirit of hope and expectancy, a readiness to believe the best of everything. Christmas is many things: it is carols and bells, it is a glowing hearth, kitchen smells, and frost upon the air. . . . But Christmas is nothing if it is not the rebirth of hope, and a new will to goodness in the human heart."

The legend of a birth of a great spiritual leader, whatever the culture or religion, is a universal legend of hope. The legend closest to our civilization is the Christmas story. We can be grateful for that legend as a yearly reminder of new beginnings. . . and therefore, of hope.