Sermons

Preacher: Rev. Charles J. Stephens

Opening Words: An Irish Blessing

May the blessing of the rain be on you—
the soft sweet rain.
May it fall upon your spirit
so that all the little flowers may spring up,
and shed their sweetness on the air.
May the blessing of the great rains be on you,
may they beat upon your spirit
and wash it fair and clean,
and leave there many a shining pool
where the blue of heaven shines,
and sometimes a star.

Reading, from Mythic Ireland by Michael Dames

Every civilization tends to assume that it is ‘fact,’ and others are ‘fiction’, but in Ireland the myths of previous ages are inclined to hang on and on, till eventually (with or without permission), they become embedded in the consciousness of subsequent eras. It is as though each successive wave of Irish culture is half-mesmerized by the myths it has rejected, and in some form acts out the vanquished beliefs, so imparting to the country a compound psychic charge both subtle and strong. In this process of accumulation little is discarded and everything is modified.

Pre-Christian Celtic Spirituality

Rev. Charles J. Stephens

I have been part of the steering committee that put on the “Downeast Spiritual Life Conference” this weekend. I have been at the Maine Maritime Academy listening to and participating in the conference. The keynote speaker is John Philip Newell and his focus was the Rebirthing of the Divine. He is a Presbyterian minister connected with the island of Iona, Scotland.

Speaking from the perspective of Celtic Christian Spirituality his message is one of an inclusive spirituality that honors the insights of other faiths and a broader spirituality of compassion.

The Celtic lands of Ireland and Scotland have inspired many poets, writers, and spiritual leaders. I have long been fascinated by it Pre-Christian Celtic spiritual traditions. I am drawn toward an earth-based spirituality and had the privilege of visiting Ireland a few years back. Being in Ireland deepened my awareness of the significant impact that earth based spirituality in general and specifically pre Christian Celtic spirituality has had and continues to have on present-day, spiritual beliefs and practices. Ireland is a land filled with mythic stories and legends.

The word myth is a word that most of us use when we are discrediting some story, statement or claim. I have personally used it this way many times. When working on my sermon, I re-checked the word myth in my thesaurus. I was directed to a page where myth was lumped together with untruth, falsehood, lie and even telling a whopper.

In the book, “Mythic Ireland,” Michael Dames wrote, “…some obsolete Scottish usages of the word (myth) take us nearer the role played by myth in contemporary Ireland. They include, ‘To show, to mark, to notice, to measure,’ and ‘the marrow of a bone’.

Actually in Greek the word muthos means tale, story or anything delivered by word of mouth and comes from the Indo-European root, mudh. Interestingly, back between 4,500 and 2000 BCE waves of Indo-Europeans left the area of Southern Russia and moved in several different directions until they arrived as far away as India and Ireland.

Fascinating isn’t it, that the Irish and Sanskrit languages end up coming from the same original language group.

An expert on the Indo-European migrations and a well-respected archeologist, Marija Gimbutas grew up in Lithuania before she came to work at Harvard and then UCLA. She visited Ireland in 1989 and said, “In its legends and rituals, this country has preserved many elements (of the Indo-European culture) which in other parts of Europe vanished long ago. Much that stems from pre-Indo-European times…is still very much alive in Ireland. “ (quoted – p.11 Dames)

The Indo-European root mudh meant to think and reflect about something, which is often the effect that myths and stories have on us. Listening to a myth causes us to ponder the meaning behind the story. There is often an intimate partner-like relationship between humans and the natural world within the Celtic and pre-Celtic myths and legends. In Ireland, there has long been and still is today, an intoxication with the land. The rolling hills and mountains, forests and miles upon miles of stone fences enclosing pasture land. The land is an important part of the spirituality of the Celts. Driving down a very narrow Irish country lane I once had to stop abruptly. A farmer came up to me smiling saying that he was sorry that we got caught in an Irish rush hour. You see, on the road ahead of us was a farming family collecting their small herd of cows which had gotten out of the pasture.

Yes, May the blessing of the rain be on you—
the soft sweet rain.
May it fall upon your spirit
so that all the little flowers may spring up,
and shed their sweetness on the air.

In children’s stories and also in many Celtic myths animals are important to humans. They often speak to humans and take care of humans. The natural world in the Celtic tradition is understood to be sacred and filled with mysteries and deep meaning.

I could easily identify with the mythic Celtic worldview when in Ireland; I hiked up Knocknarea (Cnoc na Ri) mountain west of Sligo. I was trying to find the cairn of Queen Maeve. I walked along a steep path between old stone walls. Cattle were in some of the pastures and sheep in others. At a certain elevation the fences disappeared and I was walking among the sheep and it was easy to imagine them being able to talk with me and offer help if need be.

When I arrived at the top I saw Queen Maeve’s cairn (where she is thought to be buried), the mists were beginning to come in. I climbed to the top of this enormous cairn – 55 meters in diameter by 10 meters high. Archaeologists believe it dates back to 3000 BC. Irish Folklore says it was built for the grave of the mythical Iron Age Queen Maeve. I read that it is considered very bad luck to remove a stone from the cairn, but good luck to take one up the hill with you to deposit on it on the top. When I arrived on top of the cairn, the mists turned to heavy fog and the whole experience took on an even more mystical feel.

As Unitarian Universalists we draw our spiritual inspiration and wisdom from many sources, including the Spiritual teachings of earth-centered traditions which celebrate the sacred circle of life. A consistent message that John Philip Newell presented to us is the importance of living in harmony with nature and its rhythms and sensing that we are part of the divine.

It is important when reading Celtic stories and poetry or listening to beautiful Celtic music like we have this morning – we remember that each civilization tends to assume that it has the facts while other civilizations misunderstand fact for fiction. In Ireland, however, each age or stage of civilization seems to have embedded its myths into the consciousness of the future age, of course with some modifications.

I have long been fascinated by stone megaliths. One of the stones I wanted to see is called the Turoe Stone. I guide book we had, told us it was north of Loughrea “The town of the grey lake” which is located in County Galway. When I came into a small village (Bullaun), I was told to take a left turn. I did, but then I think I drove around in circles for over an hour. I knew that the Turoe Stone was located, in of all places, a Pet Farm. I just couldn’t find it. We finally arrived and I discovered that the Turoe stone was housed in a small hut for its protection. Unfortunately, it could only be viewed through two dirty windows on one side of the hut.

Never-the-less I got a glimpse of this fine example of a beautifully decorated granite phallic stone. It stands about 3 ft. high and dates from between the 1st and the 3rd centuries BCE.

I have been fascinated by stones since childhood. It may have started for me, by watching my father artistically construct massive stone fireplaces. Dad seemed to have an unspoken appreciation for the beauty of the individual rocks he was using as well as the fireplace as a whole. To me his work seemed to be come from an intimate relationship between him and the rocks.

Unfortunately, I didn’t inherit my father’s sense of structure nor his ability to build beautiful and massive fireplaces I do have a deep love for and appreciation for natural objects like stones. I have long collected stones or rocks. Here in Maine and especially on our property in Blue Hill there are an abundance of large and small boulders.

It is only natural that I have been drawn to Megalithic tombs or burial-places. Writing this sermon brought back memories of my sabbatical from here, back in 1987. I visited the massive megaliths of Stonehenge and Avebury, both in Wiltshire, England. Years later when I visited Ireland, I visited the large megaliths: the Passage Tombs of New Grange, and the court tombs, the portal tombs and the wedge tombs – all originating from the Neolithic time period.

Visiting stone megaliths gave me some insight into the religious, spiritual and human nature of our prehistoric ancestors. I am not ready to discard the wonders of modern sciences of archeology, anthropology and many other “ologies.” They continue as the basic sources informing my understanding of religious, spiritual and human nature.

And yet, many of my deepest spiritual connections are as a result of non-scientific – intuitive relationships with the natural world. I know that I am not alone in this realization. There are uncanny similarities between us today and the Celts of thousands of years ago.

“The oldest of the old follows behind us in our thinking, and yet it comes to meet us.” So wrote Martin Heidegger in a poem. Much has changed in my own lifetime and yet, the oldest of the old has seemed to follow behind – and it does come to meet us again. It boggles my mind that there are some very basic elements of humanity that have not seemed to change over the eons.

But first a story about finding Newgrange, like finding the stone of Turoe, I had difficulty. My tour book gave me general directions and it still it took us well over an hour to actually find the entrance once we had already found the nearest town. As I paid our entrance fee I said wearily, to the man taking our fee. “You are hard to find,” He responded with a smile, saying, “I’ve been here all day.” I went on to clarify, saying that we had really gotten confused trying to understand the guide book. To which he responded with another smile saying, “You are here now!” I couldn’t argue with the wisdom of what he said.

At Newgrange, the oldest of the old did come to greet me. A realization formed in me that those ancient people whom I considered to be quite primitive. Those people from way back in time –may have lived a very different life from the one we live. And of course many of the details of our lives aren’t comparable – but they were actually struggling with much of the very same drama of human existence that we struggle with today. The constants remain: the transitions of birth, unions, illness and death – all amidst the joys and physical hardships that are experienced at every age within the cycle of life.

Especially in our northern climates, we humans have long craved some participation in or possibly some limited control over the annual cycles of plenty and want, light and dark, warmth and cold. The ancient Celts attempted to use their knowledge of the natural world and their relationship with the earth in an effort to gain understanding and some limited control through spiritual or religious rituals.

Today, we too attempt to gain control of the cycles of plenty and want. We do it through the use of our technology, such the use of coal and other fossil fuels to heat our homes, provide us with electricity, preserve our food, and give us light and warmth. Our combustion engines propel us, our food and our other products around the world. Nuclear energy, coal and gas power our homes and factories. Yet these fuels upon which we depend for energy are destroying our earthly home upon which we depend for life.

And talk about control, there is great debate about creating more secure national borders with higher fences and ever larger and more powerful weapons to protect us from those who want some of what we have, be it food, fuel, lodging, land or citizenship.

The ancient Celtic wisdom reminds us that ultimately we share the earth with all sentient beings and with all other humans even those we see as potential enemies. There is only one mother earth and we all call it home.

For our well being and for greater profits, we have invented ever stronger poisons to kill weeds and insects in our attempt to produce more food. The food we eat is even being engineering in new genetic ways in efforts to increase production. And there are powerful people who don’t want us to know where those poisons end up or the answer to the haunting question, exactly what is in our food. As a society and as individuals we do many things in an effort to gain control over the annual cycles of plenty and want.

With each success, however, we later discover that we have also created powerfully destructive side-effects. Control is constantly just beyond our reach, even as the natural world of birth, mating, suffering and death continued to lie just beyond the control of the people who built Newgrange some 4,500 years ago. A fact which is fascination to me is that Newgrange was built about the same time the Egyptian Pyramids were built.

The ancient megalith builders were wise people. They had a very detailed understanding about the natural world. Comprehend, if you can, the fact that the passage tombs predate the Mycenaean (mi’ se ne”an) culture of ancient Greece. The Mycenaeans made famous by defeating Troy as told in Homer’s Iliad. Those who constructed the megaliths were ancient but not simple people. They understood enough astronomy, engineering and geometry to build a tomb which took as many as 30 years to build. They designed it so that on the winter solstice, the rising sun shined directly through a long passage into the chamber – the light does not come down the path used to walk into the chamber, but along a roof-box directly above the entrance. On the winter solstice the sun shines on the floor of the chamber four minutes late – after the sunrise. Not bad for those Neolithic builders who figured it all out with none of our scientific instruments. This is a mere four minutes late, but, scientific calculations show that 5,000 years ago when the tomb was built, first light entered exactly at sunrise. Yes, the solar alignment at Newgrange was very precise

When I entered this passage tomb, the guide reenacted the first light of the winter solstice (with an electric spot light). All the lights were turned off and we experienced what it was like when the sun on the cold winter solstice shined its life giving energy down and through a specially built stone pathway and suddenly touched the central chamber with its hope giving light.

We who live in this area are fortunate – in fact at one point the Maine coast and Ireland may have been connected. The rolling hills, forests, abundant stones and nearby mountains, the rivers, and streams and nearby ocean allow us all to reflect on the intimate partner-like relationship we can nurture with the natural world.

I challenge you to do that. Go out, if not today, then this week and be in touch with the natural world at your doorstep. Sense the spirit of life in the rising and setting of the sun. Sense the spirit of power in the coming and going of the mighty tides. Sense the spirit of creation in the beauty of a spider web, the bloom of a flower or the sound of a harp or other instrument of music. Sense the spirit of compassion in a parents nurturing love be it among humans or other sentient beings.

Embrace the spirit of love and life that surrounds you; embrace it as a friend and a source of hope and a rebirthing of spiritual energy.