Slightly Silly Samhaim
The Rev. Matthew Johnson-Doyle
Sunday, October 31, 2010


Readings Late October by Maya Angelou
From Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling

Message: Slightly Silly Samhaim

Note: The sermon is an oral event. This manuscript may not reflect the exact spoken words. If you want to hear what was actually said, you can listen to sermon visit our website at www.uurockford.org. © Matthew Johnson-Doyle, 2010.

Do you know where the Jack ‘O Lantern comes from?
Well, there are a lot of stories.
Let me tell you one of them, this version recorded by Nancy Foster.

[Tell – A Halloween Story ]

Well, who knows.
What we do know is that many of the traditions of Halloween
are derived from the ancient Celtic traditions around Samhaim,
the half-turning between the Autumnal Equinox and the Winter Solstice.

It’s a harvest time – for those hardy winter vegetables
those squashes and such things that will help us get through
the wintry days ahead.

And on this night the veil between the worlds –
the world of the living and the world of the dead,
that veil lifts, and the dead come to visit.

Now, when you hear that, the dead come to visit,
well, you could be afraid.
Afraid that they might take you back to the other world,
or that some harm might come to you or your family.
You could be afraid.

But the ancient tradition is not one of fear,
but is, instead, one of welcome.
The spirits are honored, and welcomed warmly –
with candies and treats.
A festival is held, with costumes and drink and feasting.

Instead of fear, welcome.
Instead of terror, whimsy.
Instead of tears, laughter and dancing.

You don’t have to be afraid.
You can rejoice in memory and in community.

Samhaim, Halloween, the Day of the Dead,
these are all slightly silly holidays.

Oh, they have their serious parts –
the telling of stories, the honoring of ancestors,
the prayers for the spirits of the dead.

But they also have their silly parts, their foolish festival parts –
costumes and sugar, dancing and merry-making.

So I want to invite you today –
in the face of your fears, whatever they are:
be slightly silly.

when you tremble, be silly.
when you feel cautious, be silly.
when you dread, be silly.
when you doubt, be silly.
listen to the winds, they sing, be silly.

Let me talk about why,
why it’s good to be silly in the face of fears.

First, it’s always better to confront a Boggart with a friend,
Festival, silliness, laughter – these things make and come from community.
From togetherness.

It’s always better to confront a Boggart with a friend.

I read an editorial the other day, in the Wall Street Journal of all places,
it was written by a woman who writes for a blog called “free range kids.”
Isn’t that great? Free range kids.

And she cited a study done – someone who had looked at all the stories,
all the evidence, all the papers – over decades –
and found that there was not a single case –
not one, ever –
not a single case of a child being poisoned in their Halloween candy
by a stranger.

None.
There was one time when a dad poisoned a kid to try to collect insurance money.
But a stranger –
never happened.

When I was a kid, my parents worried about this.
I was supposed to check all the wrappers of all the candy,
to make sure that there were no holes in the packaging –
and if there was even a little tear, we were supposed to throw it away,
don’t eat it.
We weren’t supposed to eat candied apples
because they might have razor blades in them.

Isn’t that the most ridiculous thing?
Their fears – or the fears of others – got the better of them.


But they had no reason to fear –
it just doesn’t happen. Never has.
We need not fear our neighbors.

The same article talked about the more recent movement
against visiting houses at all – because someone might abduct a child.
But this has never happened on Halloween either.

Indeed, a study by a professor at the University of South Carolina
indicated, in her words, that Halloween is the safest day of the year.

The article I read then said this:

“Why is it so safe? Because despite our mounting fears and apoplectic media, it is still the day that many of us, of all ages, go outside. We knock on doors. We meet each other. And all that giving and taking and trick-or-treating is building the very thing that keeps us safe: community.”
(Lenore Skenazy, in the Wall Street Journal, Oct. 27th, 2010).

It is better to confront a boggart with a friend.
The reason for festivals, for parties, for churches and clubs and all the rest is that we might be together, might make community,
and because we are not alone, we need not be afraid.

I find it so easy to slip into fears when I’m alone –
to think of all that might go wrong,
of all that could fall apart and be lost.

But when I am with others – with my friends, with my family,
and we are laughing together, working together,
talking together, playing together,
those fears stay at bay.

Even if – and this is important –
even if we are talking about what we’re afraid of –
when I am with another, when I can speak the fear out-loud,
be heard, but then keep talking,
well, then the fears don’t seem so overwhelming,
they stay contained.

It is better to confront a boggart with a friend.

It’s good to be silly, because it is silliness, it is whimsy,
it is fun and festival, it is music and common action,
that makes community, and it is community that makes us safe.

When the villagers were alone, they were defenseless
against the tricks of the hobgoblin;
but when they came together, they had an idea,
and when they came together, they could act together,
and troublemakers learned to mind their manners.

So I invite you to be silly with others,
to say yes to the invitation,
because it is in playing together that we conquer our fears
and make our lives better.

Community is a good reason to be silly in the face of our fears.

* * *

Hold us in your steady mercy, lady of the turning year.
Perspective, that’s the other good reason for silliness.
Perspective, or call it maybe timeliness, or beginning again.

We begin to stop in order simply to begin again.

Life is in motion.

The earth travels round the sun, speeding at 67,000 miles an hour in orbit,
spinning about a 1000 miles an hour round and round on its axis,
and so we get these amazing seasons,
the summer’s warmth, the blazing colors of fall, the peace of winter
and the birth of spring –
and life is in motion, and laughter follows –
Lady of the Season’s Laughter, teach our spirits not to fear,
teach our spirits not to fear.

Life is in motion,
through the days and through the seasons and through the years of our life.

This too shall pass, in other words.
Life is in motion,
and when we celebrate, with whimsy and joy,
the turning of the year, it serves as a reminder,
that this too shall pass and that life goes on,
and that change is possible,
and that if you feel down today,
if you feel hopeless today,
if you feel fearful today,
life is in motion,
and nothing is forever,
and after fall, winter, and after winter, spring,
and as long as you can laugh,
it can’t be that bad –
teach our spirits not to fear, Lady of the Season’s Laughter.

Perspective, we’re talking about.
Silliness, humor, whimsy is all about getting perspective,
looking at life from another angle,
seeing things differently.

The dead come to visit, but not to haunt us,
they come because they’d like some candy.
That’s slightly silly,
and it is this kind of twist that allows us to imagine –
to imagine that instead of our fears,
maybe it will be our hopes that come to pass,
or, even more likely, it will be something we didn’t expect at all.

One of the things I love about that story about the Jack O’Lantern,
is that the faces on the pumpkins –
they are smiling.
You could imagine the villagers choosing to make angry, ominous faces –
but instead, they make them smile –
the pumpkins faces are not out to get the hobgoblin,
they are just having fun and happen to see him.

What makes the boggart change shape,
and eventually get surprised and confused and unable to scare us?
Laughter. Perspective. Maybe instead of the professor who frightens us,
it will be that person wearing a silly hat.
And that’s not so scary, is it?

It’s just a matter of getting another view.
Laughter, silliness –
wearing a costume and pretending to be someone else,
this is a way of turning the world around,
of turning it upside down,
which, who knows,
might be right side up.

So, friends, do something silly this season.
As Wendell Berry says,
everyday, do something that won’t compute.
Keep them on their toes,
keep yourself flexible.

Do something silly, and do it with others,
that community might happen.
Do something silly, and do it at the right time,
so that you remember that this too shall pass,
that we can see things differently.

Cast the spell –
ridiculous!
cast the spell, confuse your fears, stand with your friends.

We long, we reach, we hope for the good life.
The good life –
the life that is beautiful, and just, and full of experiences of wonder.
The good life, the life of meaning and purpose,
the life where we feel like we count for something,
that we matter.
We long for the good life for ourselves and for our families.
It is what brings us to church –
that our life might be richer, better, more important.

And, sometimes, we feel, well, a kind of magic.
It feels magical, spell cast,
when we connect with another on a deep level,
when we are moved to laughter, to tears, to joy.
We feel the spark of magic when we clasp hands,
when we see, like a jack ‘o lantern, a big old smile.

And one of the things that is magic about this –
about being with others and about seeing the world anew,
one of the things that is magical about this
is that our fear slips back, steps back,
and our best life, the life we hope for,
lies before us
a wide path
ready for our journey.

So, today and every day, cast the spell,
be silly and be connected and be creative
and be not afraid,
for life is good, and neighbors are good,
and the world turns round,
ready, again, to begin anew.