Speaking of Spirit

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA This past week, I had the pleasure of filling the pulpit at the Congregational Church in Sunderland.  This is the sermon I gave, which my daughters had asked me to publish. Blessings! We Are All Just Stars...  (c) 2020 Rev. Linda M. Rhinehart Neas Nikita Gill wrote in the poem 93 Percent Stardust, “ We have calcium in our bones, iron in our veins,/ carbon in our souls, and nitrogen in our brains./ 93 percent stardust, with souls made of flames, / we are all just stars that have people names. ”  When I read these words, it struck a chord. I immediately remembered that Carl Sagan said we humans were "made of star stuff," I have loved the image - the idea that something so foreign, so spectacular, so utterly mysterious as a star could be part of who we are.  Since Sagan's commentary, scientists have proven that we are, indeed, made of star dust. The same bits of elements that have hurtled...

Photo:  (c) 2018 Rev. Linda M. Rhinehart Neas We have calcium in our bones, iron in our veins,  carbon in our souls, and nitrogen in our brains.  93 percent stardust, with souls made of flames,  we are all just stars that have people names.  ~ Nikita Gill, (from 93 Percent Stardust) ~ When I read Nikita Gill's quote , it struck a chord. Ever since Carl Sagan first mentioned that we humans were "made of star stuff," I have loved the image - the idea that something so foreign, so spectacular, so utterly mysterious as a star could be part of who we are. Since Sagan's commentary, scientists have proven that we are, indeed, made of star dust. The same bits of elements that have hurtled through space since the Big Bang, have contributed to creating all that exists, including us. "With souls made of flames..."  This line recalled images of mystics, the Holy Spirit and the Sacred Heart.  After all, flame has long been used to p...

Night Sky (c) 2018 Rev. Linda M. Rhinehart Neas I wonder, have you spent time looking at the night sky and wondering, "Where are we?" "Who are we?" One of the geniuses of our lifetime, Carl Sagan, asked the same question. He wrote, " For as long as there been humans we have searched for our place in the cosmos. Where are we? Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a hum-drum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people. " Sagan's words deserve our consideration. We are very tiny as compared to the great cosmos. Each day, scientists make new discoveries and bring new awareness to the fact that we are but a tiny, infinitesimal speck of the vast universe.  In his book, Cosmos , Sagan wrote, " The size and age of the Cosmos are beyond ordinary human understanding...In the last few millennia, we have made the most astonishing and unexp...