my first sermon--yay--I didn't stink!
I gave my first sermon on Sunday (at Northwest Unitarian Universalist in Southfield, MI), and yay-I didn’t stink! I will post the finished version after profofreading and fixing, though as I’ve been off LJ fir three weeks while writing it I should at least say how it went :=)
Many friends weren’t the only ones asking why I was giving a sermon, I was too (as in asking myself “what the bloody hell am I doing giving sa sermon?” thru most of the writing-thanks for putting up with me, Rain).
I’ve decided I’ve a lot to say about stuff like gender, identity inclusion/exclusion and what people consider “acceptable” or “too weird/out there” and that people need to hear this stuff, even and especially the less happy or easy to understand or deal with.
And lately I’ve come to the realization that I just may actually be a shaman. As my friend Vanessa said, “you speak with the dead, you go into altered states and you’re trying to heal society.”
I haven’t blogged in about three weeks because I’ve spent most of July trying to write the sermon, on the subject of “freak Pride.” Part of the problem was I’ve never written a sermon before (have only ever written one speech even). Part of it was that I had trouble even articulating any of the ideas. I wasn’t even sure how to explain the experience of feeling like a freak and what it means to reclaim that. As I say in the intro, most people see “Freak” as just meaning someone who’s weird, when it’s not just that. I ended up calling my favourite other hermaphrodite shaman (still getting more used to the thought that I just may be one too) and Raven (Kaldera) gave me a good definition, “a freak is someone who has a socially unacceptable difference that cannot be hidden, either because it simply cannot be hidden or because to hide that difference would be a betrayal of their mose basic self.” Ibce U got that down, Thursday afternoon that was, I was able to write a beginning, as had a middle and an end.
I finished writing the sermon itself on Friday morning, after an all0night writing session (as in up til 7am), and planned on printing it the next morning, complicated because my mouse exploded (and for some reason half my friends thought I’d said “my mouth exploded”), and I may have gotten a slight case of something yicky sunburn related despite using sunblock, though I’m fine now :=).
`Sunday morning I grabbed everything I’d need (like the CDs I’d picked to play songs from and such)m abd looked at the printed version, and realized that I felt too nervous and sick to read it, so I scribbled notes on a pad in the car on the way there. Considering the slight thunder/hail storm that morning, attendence was pretty decent, esoecuakkt since summer services are usually less attended. I had about as many people there as Rain did for her sermon two weeks ago, except this time my friends Amy and Jaelyn were there :=)
Rain kept pointing out “I’ve never seen a visiting {whatevcr word she used for guest minister types} in a t-shirt” (or dealie-bopper antennae with spiders on top) and I must say that for the new person visiting having me up there must have been…”interesting.” As I know diddly about the whole order of service (as in what stuff is done when and such) I kept having Rain help me (hey she’s the future Unitarian minister around my house), and she ended up reading the childrens’ story…the poem version of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” by Robert L. May. I’m glad she cut out the bit where Santa “chose the appropriate toys for little girls and boys”---ick, I too would think “say what!?”
It was fun to have the UU hymns about diversity and welcoming playing side by side with Le Chic’s “Freak Out,” Whodini’s “The Freaks Come Out At Night” and our acquaintance Namoli (meant to sound like “anomaly”) Brennet’s song “We Belong.”
I managed to do an at least better-than-I’d-feared delivery of the sermon, though I left out some points, amd while I was able to speak on most of my points, I had trouble connecting ahnd making transitions. Let’s say that me on paper/e;ectronic is often more articulate than me speaking. And of course I hadn’t thought to include any of the transitional points in my notes.
Still, everyone seems to have liked it a lot. Everyone who came up to me said the usual things I hear about my courage in sharing my stories. I showed one couple my feet and pointed out where the sixth toe’s supposed to be on each. And I’ve been asked if and when I’d want to do something more on the issues I rbought up. So I must’ve done something right :=)
Next time I do a sermon I’m going to write it first then volunteer, but I think I might be up for doing another one…though not for a while :=) Meanwhile I’ve got some more essays to write.
Many friends weren’t the only ones asking why I was giving a sermon, I was too (as in asking myself “what the bloody hell am I doing giving sa sermon?” thru most of the writing-thanks for putting up with me, Rain).
I’ve decided I’ve a lot to say about stuff like gender, identity inclusion/exclusion and what people consider “acceptable” or “too weird/out there” and that people need to hear this stuff, even and especially the less happy or easy to understand or deal with.
And lately I’ve come to the realization that I just may actually be a shaman. As my friend Vanessa said, “you speak with the dead, you go into altered states and you’re trying to heal society.”
I haven’t blogged in about three weeks because I’ve spent most of July trying to write the sermon, on the subject of “freak Pride.” Part of the problem was I’ve never written a sermon before (have only ever written one speech even). Part of it was that I had trouble even articulating any of the ideas. I wasn’t even sure how to explain the experience of feeling like a freak and what it means to reclaim that. As I say in the intro, most people see “Freak” as just meaning someone who’s weird, when it’s not just that. I ended up calling my favourite other hermaphrodite shaman (still getting more used to the thought that I just may be one too) and Raven (Kaldera) gave me a good definition, “a freak is someone who has a socially unacceptable difference that cannot be hidden, either because it simply cannot be hidden or because to hide that difference would be a betrayal of their mose basic self.” Ibce U got that down, Thursday afternoon that was, I was able to write a beginning, as had a middle and an end.
I finished writing the sermon itself on Friday morning, after an all0night writing session (as in up til 7am), and planned on printing it the next morning, complicated because my mouse exploded (and for some reason half my friends thought I’d said “my mouth exploded”), and I may have gotten a slight case of something yicky sunburn related despite using sunblock, though I’m fine now :=).
`Sunday morning I grabbed everything I’d need (like the CDs I’d picked to play songs from and such)m abd looked at the printed version, and realized that I felt too nervous and sick to read it, so I scribbled notes on a pad in the car on the way there. Considering the slight thunder/hail storm that morning, attendence was pretty decent, esoecuakkt since summer services are usually less attended. I had about as many people there as Rain did for her sermon two weeks ago, except this time my friends Amy and Jaelyn were there :=)
Rain kept pointing out “I’ve never seen a visiting {whatevcr word she used for guest minister types} in a t-shirt” (or dealie-bopper antennae with spiders on top) and I must say that for the new person visiting having me up there must have been…”interesting.” As I know diddly about the whole order of service (as in what stuff is done when and such) I kept having Rain help me (hey she’s the future Unitarian minister around my house), and she ended up reading the childrens’ story…the poem version of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” by Robert L. May. I’m glad she cut out the bit where Santa “chose the appropriate toys for little girls and boys”---ick, I too would think “say what!?”
It was fun to have the UU hymns about diversity and welcoming playing side by side with Le Chic’s “Freak Out,” Whodini’s “The Freaks Come Out At Night” and our acquaintance Namoli (meant to sound like “anomaly”) Brennet’s song “We Belong.”
I managed to do an at least better-than-I’d-feared delivery of the sermon, though I left out some points, amd while I was able to speak on most of my points, I had trouble connecting ahnd making transitions. Let’s say that me on paper/e;ectronic is often more articulate than me speaking. And of course I hadn’t thought to include any of the transitional points in my notes.
Still, everyone seems to have liked it a lot. Everyone who came up to me said the usual things I hear about my courage in sharing my stories. I showed one couple my feet and pointed out where the sixth toe’s supposed to be on each. And I’ve been asked if and when I’d want to do something more on the issues I rbought up. So I must’ve done something right :=)
Next time I do a sermon I’m going to write it first then volunteer, but I think I might be up for doing another one…though not for a while :=) Meanwhile I’ve got some more essays to write.