My previous post on UU Easter started quite a dialogue including PeaceBang and Fausto. Patrick Murfin also had some thing to say on the subject.

I did not follow Fausto's suggestion to attend a high church service yesterday. I just didn't feel comfortable with it. Maybe another year. I did, however, attend the service at the UU church. I decided to because I am quite fond of my church's interim minister's style, and because she's an interim minister this was my only chance to witness her treatment of Easter. Happily the service did not disappoint. 

I have come to realize while listening to this and other great ministers, that writing a sermon is an art. Those skilled in the craft can pull various elements such as symbols, anecdotes, myths, historical and current events and weave them together to create a coherent piece.

This minister did just that. She spent several minutes talking about symbols that have been linked to the Easter narrative in the past as well as other symbols and myths concerning birth, death and rebirth. She also told of some humorous family traditions on Easter. She did not spend an extraordinary amount of time on any one subject, yet the keen observer would be able to note the numerous connections between them.

Another element of worship at this church that is cause for me to rejoice is every Sunday, and this Sunday expecially, is the quality of the music program. I've been to other congregations that had a small or nonexistent choir, and the contrast is stark.

All things considered it was a wonderful service. So, aside from the music, what made this service so different from other UU Easter services I've attended in the past? After considering it for a moment I came to the conclusion that the difference is that this one was stimulating to the mind and spirit.

In the previous entry I did not mean to imply that our Easter services should completely drop the discourse of "Wow, Things Are Growing Again," only that it had become so often reiterated as to lose its power of inspiration. Fausto described it better: "we UUs seem to have a particular gift for taking spiritual insights of timelessness and power and regurgitating them in ways that can be astonishingly ephemeral and glib."

But I now think even my initial claim was an over-reaction. Tradition and cycles are important and Easter (and Passover!) exemplifies this. The rebirth myth is inherently powerful, whether the subject is Tammuz, Adonis, Baldur, Mithras, Jesus or Mother Earth. UU's are of above average intelligence, so it is imperative that our ministers appeal to the intellect, but I fear that many do this at the expense of the spirit.

It is futile to talk about rebirth if you don't feel "born again," (if you'll excuse my appropriation of the term).

Confession: I really don't like Easter services. I honestly think it's a waste of a Sunday. Just about any other Sunday out of the year the theme of the service could be literally anything. There's no limit on what a UU sermon could be about! Yet on Eastern Sunday minister and worship committee feel obligated to rehash the same old spiel about how this time of year flowers are blossoming and animals are coming out of hibernation and life is beginning anew. This trope is particularly meaningless here in the South where actual Winter lasts for about three weeks. I guess I can understand why the beginning of Spring would be a joyous occasion in the North, but down here it just means we're only a few weeks away from the part of the year where you can't step outside without sweating. Not much to get excited about. I can appreciate these Christian and Wiccan myths, and why they appeal to people. I'm just tired of hearing about them.

It's ironic, really, that the language of rebirth keeps getting reused to the point where Easter-time serivces are in dire need of reinvigoration.