Burning Bowl

Rev. Meg Barnhouse
January 3, 2016
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

We begin the year by thinking about elements in our lives which are doing us a disservice. We write those things on paper and burn them together, scattering the ashes to the wind.

Reading:

Burning the Old Year
Naomi Shahib Nye

Letters swallow themselves in seconds.
Notes friends tied to the doorknob,
transparent scarlet paper,
sizzle like moth wings,
marry the air.

So much of any year is flammable,
lists of vegetables, partial poems.
Orange swirling flame of days,
so little is a stone.

Where there was something and suddenly isn’t,
an absence shouts, celebrates, leaves a space.
I begin again with the smallest numbers.

Quick dance, shuffle of losses and leaves,
only the things I didn’t do
crackle after the blazing dies.

Sermon

On the first Sunday of each new year we do a Burning Bowl together. On a piece of paper, we write (or just think) a word or two representing what we would like to jettison as the new year begins. Yes, it’s three days into the new year, but here is a secret. You can start again any time. In burning the representation of something we’d like to let go, we are speaking to that part of our brain that thinks in images and actions rather than in words.

What are the things you do that don’t work for you any more? Do you try to control things that can’t be controlled? Do you try to manage lives other than your own? Do you tell yourself you can’t make a difference? Do you look to someone for blessing who does not have it in them to bless you? Do you look to someone for approval who does not have it in them to approve? Do you seek to make someone happy who would prefer to be unhappy?

You need to fill the space left by what you let go with an intention. What quality would you like to invite in to your life to replace this? If you are letting go of controlling things that can’t be controlled, you might replace that with openness, or with the courage to tackle your own life instead of managing someone else’s. You might replace anger about someone just being who they are with the quality of compassion for the life they have to live, being who they are. The way to invite a quality into your life is not by willing it in, but by wondering it in. I got that piece of wisdom from one of my teachers whose name is Wendy Palmer. Just wonder “What would my life be like with more compassion?” What would this moment be like if I were more loving?” Wondering doesn’t wake up the inner mule that starts working against you as soon as you make a resolution. Wondering is the way to bring that intention into your life.

Text of this sermon is not yet available. Click the play button to listen.

Podcasts of this and other sermons are also available for free on iTunes. You can find them here.

Most sermons delivered at the First UU Church of Austin during the past 15 years are available online through this website. You will find links to them in the right sidebar menu labeled Sermons. The Indexes link leads to tables of all sermons for each year listed by date (newest to oldest) with topic and speaker. Click on the topic to go to a sermon.