Renewal

Renewal
© Rev. Joseph M Cherry
Written for and delivered to
The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Stanislaus County
March 18th 2012.

In the next week, there will be four important holidays for four differing groups of religious people, and yet all four share some common inspirations.

Those folks who share an earth-centered spirituality will celebrate the Summer Solstice, which happens on the 21st. This is probably the celebration that we’re most familiar with.

But there are three others, celebrated primarily in the area known commonly as the Middle East.

For the Zoroastrians, the Baha’i and the Shi’i, this is the week of Naw-Ruz.

Zoroastrians are credited by many religious scholars as the originators of monotheism, the belief in one god, as opposed the to then, apparently universal practice of polytheism. The practitioners of this faith were the first, who left written evidence, who believed in the dichotomy of Good and Evil.

This ancient Persian/Iranian faith celebrates Naw-Ruz in relationship to the Spring Equinox.

The origins of Naw-Ruz are unknown but it obviously began as a pastoral fertility festival. Legend attributes its foundation to the mythical antediluvian king Jamshid. Naw-Ruz and Mihrajan, the corresponding festival of the autumnal equinox in September, are the two great annual festivals of Zoroastrianism. Originally a somber festival dedicated to the spirits of the dead was held for five days ten days before Naw-Ruz, followed by a further five days corresponding to the Bahá'í Ayyam-i-Ha. Later Naw-Ruz gradually became a secular holiday and as such it continued to be observed even after the triumph of Islam in Iran. Muslim kings in Iran, like their Zoroastrian predecessors, celebrated Naw-Ruz with great magnificence.

Though an ancient religion, Zoroastrians are still a practicing minority religion in modern-day Iran.

A less ancient faith, Baha’i, also has it’s origins in Persia/Iran, and also celebrates Naw-Ruz, but the expression of the Baha’i version is slightly different from that of it’s Zoroastrian beginning.

Celebrated at the same time of year, celebrating also a renewal of the year and relationship to the divine, one activity for Naw-Ruz is that during the night of Naw-Ruz each believer was to recite 361 times the verse `God beareth witness that there is no God but Him, the Ineffable, the Self-Subsistent'; and during the day, `God beareth witness that there is no God but Him, the Precious, the Beloved'.

Shi`i traditions attributed to the Imams endorsed the observance of Naw-Ruz, which was, it was said, the day of many events of great religious significance, among them God's first covenant with mankind, the first rising of the sun, the grounding of Noah's ark on Ararat, Gabriel's first appearance to Muhammad, the destruction of the idols in the Ka`bih by `Ali, Muhammad's appointment of `Ali as His successor, the appearance of the Qa'im, and the final triumph of the Qa'im over the Antichrist. Such traditions echoed similar accounts of Naw-Ruz found in Zoroastrian literature.



With all of these rituals of renewal, what shall we make of them?

Spring has arrived, right? At least by the calendar, and outside the trees are budding, and my little tomato plant is struggling through it’s toddler months so that it can produce fruit for my salads. The sun is warmer, we’ve had daylight savings time.

But what shall we do to mark this time?

The Baha’i have a ritual in which they take some of the new growth seedlings of sprouted lentils and toss them into a moving stream, so that along with the offering of new plant life, their trouble and sorrows from the past year may be taken away. Naw-Ruz after all, begins their new calendar year.


A calendar year in a church is full of life and living. There have been things to celebrate and things to mourn.

You are invited to come up to the front, take a stone, invisibly write something on it that you wish to let go of from the past year, and silently place it into this bowl. If you’re not able to come to the front comfortably, I will bring a stone to you, and place the stone into the bowl for you.

In this bowl are sorrows from our past year. They are probably not all of the sorrows, because some will have been forgotten, and not remembered until later today, or tomorrow.

Like our Baha’i, Zoastarian, Shi’i, and Earth-Centered friends, this week we mark the turning of our world, the turning of our lives and new beginnings.


What can a fresh start, a new beginning mean to us?

Life is continually offering us opportunities to set new things in motion…to reboot our process, to try again. Yes, on some level, each of these rituals of Spring are man-made and artificial, and yes they can be ignored, discounted and set aside.

What I find interesting about them though is that these rituals exist at all. Why create them? It would be easy to dismiss their creation as something from a time when humans were not as wise as we, but I think that’d be foolish.

Clearly, these rituals were created to answer a deep human need, or else they wouldn’t have lasted as long as they have.

How are you, in your own life, meeting your deeply human needs? Are you meeting them at all? Do you even address them?

Well, the good news is, this is just the week for a renewal! Millions of people are, just this week, reminding themselves to release the sorrow of the past and refocus on that which important to them. Why not allow yourself to join them in their intentional, mindful, caring attendance to their lives?

While you may not agree theologically with the statements: `God beareth witness that there is no God but Him, the Ineffable, the Self-Subsistent'; or, `God beareth witness that there is no God but Him, the Precious, the Beloved'; perhaps you can find some other phrase that speaks to the deepest recesses of your own soul, and set about repeating them.

For example, try highlighting the gratitude you have in your life. Perhaps during the day you could say “I am grateful for these, my favorite pair of shoes” during a quiet moment. Treat it like a mantra…say it ten times to yourself.

In the evening, find another thing to be mindful about “Thank you, Spirit of Life and Love, for the opportunity to have heard the peals of laughter from children in my neighborhood,” or “Today was a difficult day for me, but it is over and tomorrow a new day begins.”

We are not the captains of our own ships. There are things beyond our control, and there is grace, and good fortune as well. We owe it to ourselves to choose a fresh new day as many days as we can.

May we remember that even as a renewal is not a magical cure to heal the past, to disperse current troubles and woes, it is a mindful, intentional and spiritual act that we can do to help us live lives with deep satisfaction.