Sol's Warm Welcome

Live Oak, August 22, 1999
Rev. Chuck Freeman

No need to check section B-12 of the Statesperson, don’t bother turning on the T.V. weather report, go ahead and daydream when John Aieli gives the 8:13 a.m. forecast on Eklektikos. This is August in Austin, Texas.

You already know the tune. It’s the same old, same old; like one of those plodding Unitarian 18^th century minor key dirges: hot and dry today, with a high in the high 90’s to low 100’s, winds light and variable, south to southeast, tonight’s lows in the mid 70’s. Your extended five day forecast; dry and hot, with a high in the high 90’s to low 100’s, winds light and variable, south to southeast, with night time lows in the mid 70’s.

Ask a neighbor or associate how it is going right now and they are likely to respond with sighing desperation in one breath;"hot."

As they say in West Texas, it’s hotter than a six-shooter, hotter than a depot stove. Why it’s so hot you could fry a slab of bacon on Austin Kessler’s head. It is so hot you could burn a piece of tofu on Roger Session’s extended brow!

By far the phattest coping advise for surviving this month is offered by Maurine McClean of the Therapy Sisters (for you out of touch, non hip- hoppers, it is phat, not fat, meaning coolest, best, etc.) Can some of you hip-hop parents help me?

Maurine’s August beat the heat tip: "Soak your underwear, freeze it, put it on in the morning, and stay cool all the way to work."

This month on the calendar marks the beginning of school, and thus for most of us, the close of our assorted trips, vacations, & camps.

Your journey has transpired on a plane on a train and in the rain. You have stayed in a relative’s house and seen a mouse. Your possessions have been packed in a box, and you have made haste like a fox. You have sailed on a boat with your uncle, "the old goat."

From sea to shining sea you have traversed. Your family has dragged you here, there, anywhere, everywhere; from the mountains to the prairies to the oceans white with foam, and now we are reunited in Austin,Texas our home sweet home.

Not coincidentally, this is also the inauguration of our church year, and Live Oak, emboldened by Sol warmly welcomes you back into the community groove.

In the15^th century, Marsilio Ficino composed an astrological psychology, titled, "How Life Should Be Arranged According to the Heavens." In his manual for soulful health, Ficino saw the individual human as a microcosm of the planetary macrocosm.

Marsilio wrote, "We have an entire sky within us, our fiery strength and heavenly origin; Luna which symbolizes the continuous motion of soul and body, Mars speed and Saturn slowness, the Sun God, Jupiter law, Mercury reason, and Venus humanity." ( The Planets Within, p.3)

Sol evokes spirit itself. The World Soul flourishes everywhere, but especially through the sun which unfolds its common power of life.

This source of intimate fire is the heart spiritual power. As we are exposed to Sol’s celestial rays and the direct influence of the sun, "the spirit pours heavenly benefits into our body first and then into our soul… for everything is contained in the sun." (Planets, p.128)

Sol is the center of the planetary system, not as a geometric focal point, but as an ever present quality. Ficino saw the sun as this Hermetic text saw God; "the center of a circle whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere." (Planets, p.128)

Like the gold of alchemy, the sun permeates all things sacred. "Gold is like the sun; it is present in all metals just as Sol is in all planets and stars." (p.128)

Sol is consciousness itself, radiating a transforming spirit on whatever it shines.

Arabian philosophers considered the sun to be the fundamental "human" planet. Our solar qualities include beauty, the subtlety of our personalities, clarity of spirit, insight and imagination. A religious life bathed in sun cultivates the material world for its spiritual potential.

This solar psychology is engaged in concrete life. As we attend to ordinary, everyday affairs with a sense of animation, we actualize the sun spirit, whose center is everywhere within our most mundane experiences.

A union of body, soul, and spirit emerges. The feminine, mater, mother, matter is embraced but not to the neglect of spirit. In like manner, masculine spirit is sought without ignoring the physical.

Sun consciousness fertilizes any undertaking, allowing soul to sprout and germinate.

Over doing in the sun, to which we all can no doubt attest; will dry, burn, roast and toast the skin, our theology, a relationship, the mind, or one’s will power, with too much exposure.

If solar power maintains its natural rhythm, the refreshment of night will naturally follow, with relief from the heat of the day. Time to wind down, rest, contemplate, and be still are necessities for the balanced spiritual walk.

Water is another moderating element for heat exhaustion. If you are out in the August afternoon for long you best have a healthy supply of H2O or a cell phone with the nearest emergency room in its memory.

Water represents the unconscious and emotions, the comforting and nourishing opposites of the sun’s constant bearing down awareness, and strong rays of thought and action.

The earth and the person grow when the ingredients of sun and water are present, when intellect and feeling cohabitate. We come of age when doing and being walk together, and as sowing and siestas make the calendar.

During this season with Sol at his height, and our church year converging, let us call upon this energy as we come together once more. The spirit of the sun is about resolve, stepping forward, implementing plans, and taking initiative.

May we be hot to trot in receiving each other back into the fold, after the nighttime respite of vacations, and the water of scaled back church activity. Call someone you haven’t seen in awhile and make sure they haven’t drowned or overslept in relation to our communal spiritual life.

Heat up those check books and catch up on your pledge, before Treasurer Durbin goes down for the third time, or before yours truly has to preach in a few Church of Christ’s to pay the rent.

Burn rubber to fan the flames in some aspect of our congregational life; croak in the choir, count the cost in finance, multiply with membership, get righteous in religious education, help fill the CUUP’S to overflowing, wander the meandering spiritual path in worship, get green to the gills with the building crew, become more well rounded at circle suppers.

Covort with the coffeehouse, increase your pious word power in the Men’s Linguistic Society, or dance Sara’s circle in one of our women’s groups.

Like the high school coach yelled; "Do something even if it’s wrong."

Or, like the bumper sticker exhorts; "lead, follow, or get the hell out of the way."

Better yet, give heed to the original and revolutionary words of President Iacoletti; "Ask not what Live Oak can do for you, but ask what you can do for Live Oak!"

This is a challenging and fun time to be in this community. Our small church skin is peeling, and we are applying a homemade batch of sunscreen in the form of shoring up the foundations and structure of our congregation.

In six months or so we will be ready to tan into a mid- sized church, without that painful lobster red sunburn.

What we do with the legacy of our liberating faith, and the gift of this church is up to us. No God is going to punish us if we squander it; no Deity is going to give us ice cream and cookies if it blossoms. Beholding our faces in the mirror will tell determine our destiny.

"No one lights a lamp and hides it in a jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, they put it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light." (Luke 8:16)

" Little darling’s the smiles are returning to our faces. Here comes the sun, here comes the sun, and I say….. It’s all right." (From"Here Comes The Sun," The Beatles, adapted)