Everything is Holy Now
One of the most amazing Gifts First Parish offers us, is the Gift of Everything being Holy.
Everything.
Each time we walk through these doors and into this Sanctuary, regardless of what path we took getting here, we are welcome.
We are holy.
Our journey is holy.
My journey?
Let’s see…
I was born, baptised, confirmed and raised Catholic until I was a teen.
That was Holy.
During my adolescence my family began studying with Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Yes — that was Holy, too.
Over the next many years and into my adulthood I was privileged to be enrolled in their Theocratic Ministry School.
Their curriculum was thorough.
During my time there I read the Bible cover to cover:
3 times –
Yes, every single verse …..in every single chapter.
Three times.
Amen.
I learned the art of teaching and of speaking, which is how I am able to stand here at this pulpit today.
I also learned the value of investigating.
Of seeking a higher truth.
It turned out that my higher truth was different than theirs and
so my path led next to an exploration of many religions, philosophies and cultures.
Today I have a reasonable grasp on those I studied, including a deep understanding and awareness of
Everything Being Holy.
Some things have always been easy to see as Holy:
My babies, my gardens – both needing love and tending to, but growing and strengthening all on their own.
Other things – Separations, Divorces (yikes, there have been two in two decades)
They did not seem, at first, so Holy.
Nor did financial crisis, facing homelessness,
or the loss of some of the people I love most in my life:
My Mother, My Father, My Brother,
All Grandparents,
My Godfather,
Two dear friends,
…My Lover.
They each died – most of them far younger than I felt they should –
– and that did not feel Holy.
Until it did feel Holy.
All of it.
Every Sadness
Every Fear
Every Challenge
Every Choice
Every Failure
Every Success
Every Joy
It is all – – Holy.
We are all part of this delicious cycle of Life.
Connected to each other, and to our planet, in ways that from a distance can seem quite daunting.
But when we get close
…Close to our own inner identity
…Close to each other
…Close enough to see the ebb and flow in the rhythms and cycles of the Earth
We see the magic in every single moment
We recognize the majesty in every experience.
Is it always pretty?
mmm mmm
No.
But it is always Holy
And there are so many ways we can find strength
So many options for connection with Source
For renewing our Faith in whatever it is we believe.
And we can call on that Faith.
In the sacred space we created today, we call her
“Goddess.”
We recognize the innate power in the Sacred Feminine and in the elements and directions of the Earth.
In your hymnal there is a responsive reading by STARHAWK, a Unitarian who resides in Northern California. STARHAWK has been at the forefront of bringing Sacred Feminine Spirituality to Unitarians and to the World.
Our Women’s Circle knows the reading as:
The Charge of the Goddess.
For the Archetype of the Goddess is one whom we can gain Strength from.
A Source we individually and as community can seek guidance and security
I invite you to join me in the responsive reading.
===
(READ #517):
*STARHAWK’s version Star Goddess
I Who am the beauty of the green earth and the white moon among the stars and the mysteries of the waters,
–I call upon your soul to arise and come unto me.
For I am the soul of nature that gives life to the universe.
–From Me all things proceed and unto Me they must return.
Let My worship be in the heart that rejoices, for behold, all acts of love and pleasure are My rituals.
–Let there be beauty and strength, power and compassion, honor and humility, mirth and reverence within you.
And you who seek to know Me, know that the seeking and yearning will avail you not, unless you know the Mystery:
–for if that which you seek, you find not within yourself, you will never find it without.
For behold, I have been with you from the beginning,
–and I am that which is attained at the end of desire.
= = =
(Twinkle’s Closing Words):
Discover the Divinity in each other.
Explore the Mysteries of the Universe
Explore the Mystery within yourself.
Remember you are Holy;
Everything is Holy Now.