Sermons

February 19 2006

The Land that Had No Soul

Reverend Dr Cheri DiNovo

Once upon a time, far, far away and long, long ago, the wisest and most powerful Queen and King ruled over the richest and most beautiful country. In this country everyone lived in a mini palace, a smaller more heat efficient version of the great palace of the Queen and King. Everyone’s palace had a swimming pool, a chariot that could fly through the air and all the most amazing computer games. People in this Kingdom rarely got sick and when they did, they went to healers who ran them through Razzle Dazzle machines that made them instantly better. Everyone lived to 150 years old and then went to sleep. The Queen and King looked around at the country they had created and were absolutely delighted. When they were delighted they did a little dance called the Sproing. Upon completion of their country they Sproinged all over the place.

Unfortunately very soon after the country was finished, they noticed something was problematic. The Sproinging stopped. They noticed that all the people who were once very happy weren’t so happy. They were crashing their chariots in the air just because they could. Even though they all had swimming pools they were sneaking into each other’s swimming pools at night because they thought their neighbour’s swimming pools were better than theirs. They were breaking into each other’s houses because they thought that next door had better computer games, newer, faster, higher definition computer games. Since they knew that the Razzle Dazzle machines could cure anything, they started making themselves sick on purpose just to see how far they could push the Razzle Dazzle machines and the Razzle Dazzle machines started sputtering and coughing themselves, they were so overworked. Rather than wait until the old people were 150, because they wanted their games and swimming pools, the younger people started rounding them up much earlier and herded them into one of the palaces so that they could have the palaces the old people left behind. Finally all the country’s people started looking with hungry eyes at the Great Palace itself, thinking they’d like to have that too. Not only were the Queen and King not Sproinging, but they were starting to get very, very worried.

They called in the Child. Now the Child was a little girl who was known for being very wise. She had springy black hair and was the best Sproinger in all the land. They thought she might help. She did. "Your Majesties" she said, "Your land has no soul" "Your people don’t understand that God, that is love, gave them a soul, that is their own mini version of God, that is love, and that their life has a purpose. The purpose of their life is to activate their souls and love the source of love, that is God, that is love,and love each other, which are each other." ‘How does one do that?" the Queen and King asked. "One has faith," answered the little girl. "How does one get faith?" the Queen and King asked. " One learns to speak a language of faith," said the little girl. "How does one learn to speak a language of faith?" asked the Queen and King. ‘One practices." said the little girl and Sproinged off.

The Queen and King Googled "faith" and discovered that there were lots of different faiths, different languages about God and they took many, many years to learn how to speak and required attending many different kinds of places. "This is way too confusing!" They decided. So they picked one and decreed that the entire country henceforth was going to practice to speak about God, that is love, and they were going to have to speak the faith of Fred. They picked "Fred" because they had never heard of any wars being fought by Fredists, people being hurt by being Fredists and Fredism involved the least amount of meetings. To be a Fredist one just had to chant "Fred" over and over 143 times every morning and evening, Fred being their name for God, that is love. So every morning and every evening everyone in the country chanted "Fred" and they grew calmer. The calmness was very, very good. They no longer swam in each other’s pools, stole each other’s games, crashed each other’s chariots, or herded their old folk quite so fast out of their homes. Most importantly they no longer looked at the Great Palace with greedy eyes. The Queen and King were Sproinging again. Except….

Pretty soon, some of the people claimed to be Fredist experts. They claimed they could chant "Fred" better than the others and that the way they made their "F’’s sound was closer to what Fred, meaning God, that is love, would want. They claimed that if you chanted Fred while standing with your legs two feet apart and facing North, you were chanting correctly whereas if you didn’t, you weren’t. And there were other problems too. Some people claimed, illegally, that "Fred" wasn’t the name for God that is love, after all. That God, that is love, had a different name, and that it wasn’t enough just to chant, you had to change your entire life and how you treated your neighbours and your old folk. Others claimed that it wasn’t just how you treated everyone that counted, and it wasn’t chanting either, it was something else, it was trusting in Fred, that is God, that is love, that was important. Then everyone started fighting about what Fred was and what God, that is love, was and what love was and the country was in turmoil. The Queen and King not only stopped Sproinging they called the Child again.

"What now?" she said, her lovely black curls bouncing. She was a little irritated that they had interrupted her delight in Sproinging. The Queen and King explained their dilemma particularly the part about the people looking with greedy eyes at the Great Palace. The little girl looked sad but wise." "There are many languages about God, that is love." she said. And she added, "I’ve never even heard of ‘Fredism’"
The Queen and King were learning from their mistakes. They traveled outside their country to the great libraries of the world. They discovered that there were something called Holy Scriptures that could teach people how to speak the language of God, that is love, in different ways and that many people from many lands had so many things to teach about God, that is love, and so being the wise ones that they were, they invited all of them back to their country and something miraculous began to take place. But first, they decreed that not only Fredism but any other language about God, that is love, was legal, not only legal, but beautiful. That each language had it’s own chants, it’s own ways to stand, it’s own ideas about love and God, that is love, and what to do and that everyone should learn a little about all of them but that it was even more important to learn a lot about one of them because it was in the practice of one of them that one began to develop a "soul". It was more important than Razzle Dazzle machines and swimming pools and computer games, and even Sproinging. At least once a week to do nothing than give thanks to God, that is love, for the Razzle Dazzle machines and swimming pools and computer games and palaces and Sproinging and each other.

If you were to see that wonderful country today you would see an amazing place where everyone has a swimming pool, a chariot that can fly, all the computer games they’ll ever really need, free access to the Razzle Dazzle machine, a Sproinging Queen and King in a happy Great Palace and also, where everyone is loving each other. Which is ultimately how you know the land has a soul. There are Buddhists and Hindus and Sikhs and Muslims and Jews and Christians and Wiccans and so many others, even a few Fredists left. If you looked really, really closely, you would also see a pretty little girl with bouncy black curls who, every so often, stops her own Sproinging, just to watch and smile.