Animal Blessing Sunday

October 4, 2009

Community Unitarian Church at White Plains

The Rev. Carol A. Huston preaching

 

 

 

 

Opening Words      from Meister Eckhart:

 

If I were alone in a desert and feeling afraid,

I would want a child to be with me,

For then my fear would disappear and I would be made strong.  .  .

But if I could not have child with me

I would like to have at least a living animal at my side to comfort me.  .  .

 

The life within the animal

Will give them strength to turn.  .  .

 

 

Blessing of the Animals:

 

The water collected from the whole community in the water ceremony two weeks before has been boiled down and purified (with Clorox).  Everyone who has a pet or a stuffed animal that they love is invited to come forward, dip their fingers into the water, rub their hands together, and then go and hug their pet or stuffy.  The blessing is the love that exists between human and animal.  As it was pointed out by Jim O’Brien, a former member who was visiting from Wisconsin, “it is actually the animal who is blessing us.”

 

12 dogs, 3 cats, 1 snake, and many stuffed animals were present for the blessing.

 

 

Meditation              Adapted from George Appelton:

O God, we thank thee

For all the creatures of the earth,

So perfect in their kind –

Great animals like the elephant and the rhinoceros,

Humorous animals like the camel and the donkey,

Friendly ones like the dog and the cat,

Working ones like the horse and the ox,

Timid ones like the squirrel and the rabbit,

Majestic ones like the lion and the tiger,

For birds, with their songs.

Give us such love for all creation,

That love may cost our fear,

And all creatures see in humanity their friend.

So be it and amen.

 

 

Reading               from The Alchemist by  Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho

This novel first came to my attention with Danny Neumann’s Credo statement at coming of age.  Ginger Marshall, another member of our High School Youth Group, did some research for me in compiling the resource list and she suggested this book.  Our teenagers are reading it – we should look at it, too.

 

A boy in Andalusa 1000 years ago has already set aside what his parents wanted him to do and taken to the road as a shepherd.  He meets a man who identifies himself as a king and begins to talk with the boy about finding his true calling in life, which in this book is called his “personal legend.”

 

The boy:  “Why are you telling me all this?”

 

The old man:  “Because you are trying to realize your Personal Legend.  And you are at the point where you’re about to give it all up.”

 

“And that’s when you always appear on the scene?”

 

“Not always in this way, but I always appear in one form or another.  Sometimes I appear in the form of a solution, or a good idea.  At other times, at a crucial moment, I make it easier for things to happen.  There are other things I do too, but most of the time people don’t realize I’ve done them.”

 

The old man related that, the week before, he had appeared before a miner in the form of a stone.  The miner had abandoned everything to go mining for emeralds.  For five years he had been working a certain river, and had examined hundreds of thousands of stones.  .  .  The miner was about to give it all up, right at the point when, if he were to examine just one more, he would find his emerald.  Since the miner had sacrificed everything to his Personal Legend, the old man decided to become involved.  He transformed himself into a stone that rolled up by the miner’s foot.  The miner, with all the anger and frustration of his five fruitless years, picked up the stone and threw it aside with such force that it broke another stone open, and there, embedded in the broken stone, was the most beautiful emerald in the world.

 

“People learn early in the lives, what is their reason for being.” said the old man, with a certain bitterness.  “Maybe that’s why they give up on it so early, too.  But that’s the way it is.”

 

 

 

Sermon

 

Is there anyone present here who feels a compulsion to herd sheep -- especially when you see a flock of them or any group of creatures – like your family?  Raise your hand or paw.  Does anyone here live with someone who might have this sheepherding compulsion?

 

A few minutes ago, I read a passage from The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.  The central character is a boy who, like some of you, has found an identity in herding sheep.  He actively chose that occupation, setting aside his family’s notion that he should become a priest.  But he did not become a shepherd because of a compulsion around sheep.  He became a shepherd because his real compulsion was for travel, and as a shepherd in those times, that was exactly what he would and could do.  Unlike the collies and sheep dogs we know and love, the sheep were means to an end for this boy.  His true vocation – which the book calls his “Personal Legend” was something larger.

 

Our theme for the month of October is vocation.  I have been consistently using the synonym “calling” whenever I say this because, to our ears, “vocation” can sound more like the third definition on your order of service:  “any trade, profession or occupation.”  As we develop the theme this month, I hope that we will all be working instead with the first and second definitions of vocation listed there:  a call, summons, or compulsion to perform a certain function, or enter a certain career, especially a religious one; the function or career toward which one believes himself to be called.  In line with those definitions I hope, over the next month, you will be asking yourself the question, “what is the call, summons, or compulsion that brings meaning to your life?”  And the corollary question:  “Are you actually following that call, summons or compulsion?”

 

“Compulsion”   A strong word.  I’m not sure I would have put it into this definition if I had been writing it myself.  It carries more emotion, shadow, hints of mental illness than I might have wanted.  Had I gone the route of “Dictionary.com” we would have had a different definition, with that generic definition about trade or profession listed first, followed by definition 2 – a “strong impulse or inclination to follow a particular activity or career.”  “Strong impulse or inclination” – softer and safer than “summons or compulsion.”  But somehow I was called to use the large hardcover Webster’s Unabridged that lives in my office, rather than the virtual one, and so I want to stay with this idea of compulsion, for today at least.

 

A vocation can be something with in us that wants to get out, that wants to tear through the societal norms, the objections of friends and relatives.  I hope that it is not something that wants to violate the rules of ethics and legality – the definition doesn’t carry that proviso, but in our consideration this month, I trust that we will see that has a part of true vocation or call, that it is a compulsion to do that which brings happiness to you and does not harm others.[1]

 

And I don’t think that a call to your meaningful mission has to feel like compulsion or summons.  The call might feel more like a good solution, an open door where you don’t expect it, a coming together of skills and interests that takes you in a direction that satisfies, not compels.  I will be telling you more about my own sense of vocation or call in the next two weeks.  Let it suffice now to say that for me a call doesn’t have to feel like compulsion.  

 

As this month goes by I am going to challenge you to do some thinking about this for yourself.  What is your call in life?  Everyone has one I think, but not everyone listens.  You again have a resource list for this theme in the Communitarian, on the CUC website, and in the order of service.  This is not a required reading list – it is simply an array of suggestions for you to focus your thinking.  A few other congregations are doing this, and for at least one of them, the resource list is more like a set of self-help books.  My own compulsion, let us say, is drawing me to list fiction and non-fiction narratives as these resources, but if it would work for you to see some of the self-help books on the list, please let me know.  I can work on that balance.

 

This month there will be several opportunities to be together for conversation around some of these resources.   Tonight Hollis and I will show the film Priest, a powerful film that was released in this country by Disney, as its first venture into films with adult themes, and there was some fuss, because the themes are very adult – homosexuality in a positive light, and domestic violence in a negative.  There is much to contemplate in the film.  Tomorrow night the Play Reading Group will read August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, which is about how one searches for his or her “song.”  Then there will be a discussion of the book The Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russell, on Sunday afternoon, October 18.  When sentient life is discovered on a planet near enough for technology to allow a visit from the earth, the mission is undertaken by the Jesuits, who truthfully feel the compulsion to undertake this mission of first contact with another civilization because they so badly botched first contact on this planet.  Science fiction, violence involved, but there are endless areas for discussion in this book.

 

And I want really to invite you to a different kind of book reading here next week. Sunday, October 11 at 7 p.m.  Jim O’Brien will read from and talk about his two wonderful memoirs:  Fifties and Sixties.  How he was called to the Catholic priesthood, and then called away from it, to find eventually a home in Unitarian Universalism.  Jim was singing with the choir during last service here led by Shannon Bernard, who was bravely facing terminal cancer.  The choir ended that service with “An Irish Blessing,”  “When we finished, Shannon came over and gave me her stole, which surprised me a very great deal. For me, it is a symbol of courage, a quality which Shannon had in spades.”  I think Jim would also agree that it was a reminder of the vocation that Jim has had all his life, even though the form of it changed.  And courage?  It takes courage to follow that calling, that summons, that compulsion.

 

Not everyone can truly follow a call.  Not everyone can truly become the Personal Legend of their dreams.  There have been a number of books in the popular culture in recent years that seemed to promise that if you wanted it enough, you would get it, and The Alchemist has aspects of this promise about it.  In our shared faith of Unitarian Universalism, we do not promise heaven if you practice virtue, and we don’t guarantee success if you want it enough.  We are called to be realistic and admit that nothing is certain.  But even if it won’t bring guaranteed success, there is power in understanding yourself enough to admit what is your personal compulsion, vocation, legend.  And in that admission, perhaps a way can be found, for the child, the youth, or adult to follow that calling.  Even for the adult in the latter stages of life, a way may be found to round out the story of the life you are writing with new notes from your legend or your call.

 

Perhaps you will have to keep your call or compulsion under control for a time.  Alexander McCall Smith is well known for a series of books about life in Botswana (“The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency” series), but he has also written several books about people in his native Scotland.  One character in the Scotland books is Cyril, a rather strange dog who drinks beer in the pub with his master Angus and occasionally seems to wink at people.  Cyril also has a compulsion to bite ankles, and McCall Smith takes us into the dog’s thinking one evening as he struggles to control this particular call.

 

There was something about Matthew’s ankles that was just absurdly tempting.  They were not fat ankles, they were average ankles.  .  .  It’s just that they were immensely attractive to a dog, and at that moment Cyril could think of nothing else that he would prefer to do than to bite them.

 

But he could not.  He knew the consequences of succumbing to the temptation.  There would be the most awful row and he would be beaten by his father, as he thought of Angus.  There would be raised voices and words that frightened him.  And worst of all there would be disgrace, and a feeling that the human world did not want him to be part of it.  There would be rejection and exclusion in the most unambiguous sense.

 

Suddenly Cyril stood up.  He turned away from Matthew’s ankles – put them beyond temptation – and began to howl.  He lifted his head in the air and howled, pouring into the sound all the sadness of his world, of the canine condition.  It was a howl of such regret and sorrow as to melt the heart, melt the heart.[2]

 

It might take courage to truly see the call that is in your heart.  You might have to turn away from it.  You might need to howl out your own sadness at the human condition.  But you might find a way.  Without giving away too much of the plot, I will say that 15 pages later, Cyril finds the ankle of the one character in the book who needs to feel a little pain, and we all applaud that expression of Cyril’s vocation.

 

What is the call, summons, or compulsion that brings meaning to your life?  And the corollary question:  Are you actually following that call, summons or compulsion?  I hope that you will think on those things during this month.

 

 

Theme Resource List: Vocation (Calling)

 

Bible

Exodus 3   Moses at the Burning Bush

 

Books

The Sparrow.  Science fiction novel by Mary Doria Russell.  When sentient life is discovered on a nearby planet, the Jesuits are the only institution on earth with the will and resources to undertake the journey. 

The Alchemist   Paulo Coelho writes about destiny, dreams and the individual "Personal Myth". Our mission on Earth, he says, is to find "God", meaning happiness, fulfillment, and the ultimate purpose of creation.

How Starbucks Saved My Life    Michael Gates Gill writes his memoir about how he lost his job and found his peace at Starbucks.

Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach.

 

Children’s Book

Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney, a children's book about one woman's determination to make the world a more beautiful place

 

Play

Joe Turner’s Come and Gone by August Wilson

 

Films

Priest    (1994 R)  Struggle between religious vocation and personal calling.

Billy Elliot   (2000 R)  A boy follows his yearning to be a dancer.  A good film for middle schoolers and older.

Big Night  (1996 R)  Trying to be true to your vision in a restaurant.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy (books or films, which are PG-13j)  Individuals are called away from their daily lives to take on a great mission.

Music Within  (2007)  A disabled Vietnam veteran’s efforts lead to the adoption of the Americans Disabilities Act.