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Rev. Meg Barnhouse
October 27, 2013
The Sources don’t really mention spookiness or magic, but we’ll talk about it in a way that’s appropriate for all ages in an inter-generational service about mystery.
Sermon
Mystery, Spookiness, Magic and Wonder
This is the time of the year when the nights are growing longer and the days are growing shorter. Most people are a little scared of the dark. You can’t see where you’re going as well. You can’t see what’s around you. When I was a little kid, I was pretty sure there was a bad guy living in my closet. My mother would push all the clothes aside, and say, “See, there’s no one there.” That just made me think he was really good at hiding. Many people think there is a monster under the bed, and they don’t want their feet or hands hanging over the edge. I wasn’t really scared of anything under my bed, but I was scared of spiders. My mother would tell me they were more scared of me, because I could squish them, but that didn’t help me, for some reason. This is the time of the year when the darkness grows, so it’s a natural time to talk about fear.
Everybody is scared sometimes. We have different ways of trying to deal with our fear. Some people try to be really good, following all the rules perfectly so nothing bad ever happens to them. That doesn’t always work, though. Some people try to make themselves scary so no one will mess with them at all. Let’s see a scary face. Good ones! Halloween is an ancient holy day where people act out their fears and their bravery.
We dress in scary ways, or we dress in powerful costumes like fairies or superheroes. These costumes make us feel like we might have the powers of the people whose outfits we wear.
The ancient people did not know what happened to people when we die. We don’t know either. What we do know is that all bodies are part of the earth. We are made out of the same materials as stars, earth, and sea water. Our dogs, cats, chickens, ferrets and birds are also part of the earth. So we know that we’ll become part of everything again, and that we’ll feed the grass, which feeds the cattle, which feed the people. We’ll feed the plants, which feed the people. So we become part of life again. Some religions teach that we are reborn again and again, and that we live many lives. Becoming part of the circle of life by going back to the earth? That’s one sure way to be reborn. That is what this chant is about.
Chant
Hoof and horn, hoof and horn
All that died shall be reborn
Corn and grain, corn and grain
All that falls shall rise again
Isis – Astarte – Diana – Hecate – Demeter – Kali – Inanna
The people in parts of Africa say there are different stages of being dead: one, when you stop breathing and another when people don’t remember you any more or tell stories about you.
As long as we remember people, they are part of us.
We are the old people
We are the new people
We are the same people
deeper than before
Chant
Earth my body,
water my blood
air my breath
and fire my spirit
In living we die – in dying we live. The fruit is first seed, yet seed comes from the fruit. In the mystery of life and death and rebirth.
Podcasts of this and other sermons are also available for free on iTunes. You can find them here.
http://itunes.apple.com/podcast/first-unitarian-universalist/id372427776
