"The Everything Seed"

This sermon was given after reading the children’s story The Everything Seed by Carole Martignacco & Joy Troyer

            When I first read the story of The Everything Seed to my son Jeffrey, I was amazed at his reaction to it. When I got to the part that said “And this is the secret of that tiny seed: you and I were there in the very beginning." He said "Wow, no way." and he asked me if this story was in "real life." Often I have to tell him that the stories we read are not real. There is no real Batman or Spiderman, but I happily this time, I was able to answer yes, this story is real. I knew I was experiencing a pivotal moment in my then four-year old’s religious life.

            Psychologist Abraham Maslow defines a religious experience as an experience that creates a feeling of happiness, well-being, interconnection, awe and wonder. I saw that my son was awed and amazed by this story. He felt a connection to something larger than himself and he had this beautiful smile of happiness on his face. He had a religions experience when he learned that he was there when the universe was created billions of year ago. The smile on his face while we were reading the book showed me just how spectacular and religious this story is.

            I was raised Catholic so I grew up with many ideas about why we are here, what happens to us when we die, and what the morals are that I should live by. As I grew farther away from that faith, I found myself without answers to those religious questions.

            Then I became a Unitarian Universalist and all that changed. In our first year at a UU church I heard Rev. Michael Dowd, a Christian minister, speak about The Great Story. Later in seminary I took a class about theology and science and it all came together for me. I had finally found my cosmology, or, my understanding of how things are. How the universe came to be, how humans came to be, and what happens when we die. I think it is in the details, in the science of The Epic of Evolution, where we can find the most religious meaning.

            The story of The Everything Seed is a simplified version of the story of the Universe. Many call this The Epic of Evolution, or The Great Story. Most of us know the basic theory of evolution but I think we often don't see the theory as a whole, as a full story.

            Like many of us I learned about evolution in school. I learned about evolution as a series of science subjects. One year I learned that first there was the Big Bang and then planets formed and we studied the solar system. A few years later I learned about the single celled organisms that evolved into water creatures and some of those evolved into dinosaurs.  Another year I learned about the first mammals, and how apes evolved into humans. And, then, that was it. The end.  

            Looking back, I find two things missing in those lessons about evolution. One was the fact that the emphasis of the theory of evolution stopped with humans, as if we are the ultimate end of the process. I was also missing the fact that everything on the Earth and in the Universe is all created of the same thing. I saw the story of the Universe as compartmentalized.

            As a result, I thought evolution was pretty neat, but being raised Catholic, I thought the two Genesis creation stories in the Bible of God creating everything had more meaning, because they had more magic, awe, and wonder to them. I did not see the Epic of Evolution as special.

            But it is special, and beautiful. Since I am not a scientist, I will give you a condensed version of The Universe Story that I have put together from professor of biology, Ursula Goodenough. I have also put together some photos for us this morning in order to truly see the beauty of this story.

            “In the beginning, everything that is now the universe, including all of its space, was concentrated in one thing, the size of a pinhead, which was unimaginably hot and dense. That is the Everything Seed. That seed let everything loose in the event called the Big Bang. During the first three minutes of this expansion, all sorts of high-energy physics took place and all the subatomic particles in the universe were created. After 15 billion years of subatomic particles fusing and changing the present observable universe was created. One of the most important parts of the creation of the universe are stars. Stars start out as gaseous clouds that burn for billions of years until the hydrogen begins to run out and the star begins to contract again. Some stars become supernovas. But eventually all stars die. Dying stars release atoms into space that change into something else. Kind of like being recycled, and that process will never stop. In fact, those dying stars created the planets, animals, and humans. Without the death of stars, there would be no planets and no life.”

            What this all means is that everything that ever was, is, or ever will be is nature. And that is part of the definition of the theology of religious naturalism. Religious naturalism says that everything there ever was, is, or ever will be is nature. Therefore, nature is the main point of religious concern.

            After I really started to learn about the Epic of Evolution and religious naturalism, things made much more sense to me. In particular, the knowledge that we are all made of stardust, and that we will all return to being stardust caught my attention.

            My image of evolution was no longer compartmentalized into big bang, dinosaurs, humans. It was now one full story that I was present in at every moment. A story I will always be a part of even when I die. A story that will continue with or without humans.

            The realization that we are made of stardust reminded me of a scene from Disney's movie, the Lion King. The warthog Pumba, the meerkat Timon and the lion Simba are all sitting staring at the stars and Timon asks Pumba and Simba if they have ever wondered what stars are made of. Pumba says that stars are balls of gas burning billions of miles away and Simba says he was told the stars are our ancestors.  Both Pumba and Simba are right. Stars are burning balls of gas and they are our ancestors.

            In this way, the Epic of Evolution helps us grapple with the religious question, What happens to us when we die? The Great Story tells us that we turn into something else.

            It also tells us death is something which is needed for the Universe to keep going. Without the death of stars, there would be no planets and no life. Death is essential to life and it is just as important as life. That does not mean we will no longer be afraid of death, as some of us are, and it does not mean death will not make us sad. It does give us a different perspective on death though.

            In our American culture, death is often seen as an awful thing that we attempt to avoid at all costs, but knowing that death is essential to life and death is sacred, can make us more understanding of death. We may be able to honor death and see that it means much more than the end of something.

            This story also allowed me to believe in heaven in a new way. While I do not believe in heaven or hell in the Christina tradition I was raised in, I now see heaven in the universe.

            I like to know that I will last beyond my time here because I hope I can always contribute to the Universe in some way and I want to have a connection to those I leave behind. The Great story tells me there is an afterlife. Actually, I was here before I was born as a human on the earth and I will exist after I die. I will become soil, grass, seep into the water. We came from the stars and one day we will be stars again. For me, that is what heaven is.

            The other question of religious concern the Great story addresses is what are the ethical beliefs we should follow?

            I am inspired by Ursula Goodenough from our reading today where she says The Great Story could be the unifying story. She says it can be a universal story because the story happens to be true. This could be the story that brings us together instead of separating us. It could create a sort of universal ethic.

            In his book, Thank God for Evolution, Rev. Dowd tells a story about a doctor who described the human's destruction of the earth like a cancer. He says "A cancer cell is a normal cell that, for one reason or another, loses its genetic memory. Cut off from the wisdom of millions of years of developmental guidance, it stops cooperating with the rest of the body. It experiences itself as separate from the body, overpopulates, and proceeds to consume the very organism that supports it." I found that comparison rather shocking, but true.

            What interested me most was that the doctor said cancer cells lose their genetic memory, forget that they are actually part of the whole body. To me it feels like that is the way we live our lives, in many areas. When we destroy the earth, did we forget that everything which made the earth made us also? Therefore when we destroy the earth, we are also destroying part of ourselves. When we oppress another person, did we forget that we are all made from the same stardust? We are hurting our own family members. Understanding the Great Story of the Universe can give us back our genetic memory and help give us ethical guidelines.

            A few days after I read The Everything Seed to our son, he came home from school one day and said "Mommy, do you know that we are made of the same stuff as dinosaurs?" He happened to be learning about dinosaurs in school and I was glad to hear that his teachers had taught him the actual story of the Universe. But then he said, "and I already knew that Mommy, everything came from the Everything Seed so we are like dinosaurs." He was so proud of the fact that he was made from the same thing dinosaurs are made of, which of course means that he is part dinosaur.

            By learning the story of the Universe, Jeffrey is gaining his genetic memory. This helps him look at animals and treat them with respect, because he knows he is part of them. He will care for the earth because he is made of the earth, he will not hurt other people because in a way we are all siblings.

            The Great Story can also be a catalyst for humans to see other humans as more alike than we are unalike. If The Epic of Evolution becomes the universal story, we will no longer be able to categorize people as us and them. Often the reason people hurt others is because they have lot their genetic memory. They forget that we are all part of each other and instead they see other people as different than themselves. All they see is those people in another country, or those people who live in a different part of town. But the Great Story can end that way of thinking. It tells us we are all the same even if we don't all look, act and believe alike. It is possible if the Epic of Evolution becomes our unifying story then the world will have an ethical imperative to end hatred, racism, and oppression. A tall order, I know, but a hopeful possibility.

            Knowing this amazing story, our universal and common past and present, can change the way we look at so many things. As I told Jeffrey years ago, this is a true story. It is just as amazing as hearing about Spiderman, but this is our story and we actually have the power to let this story make a difference in our lives.

            May we see ourselves and our ancestors in the tiny seed, in the growing trees, in the dying flowers, in each others faces, and in the stars above us. May the light of our stardust bring more beauty and justice into the world.

            Amen and Blessed Be.