Sermon explores meaning of Groundhog Day

Rev. Mark Hayes introduces his sermon of 3 February 2008 with a passage from Thomas Moore’s Original Self: Living with Paradox and Originality, before exploring religious associations with Groundhog Day. Hayes says,

"In the same book from which I took this morning’s reading, Thomas Moore writes at one point, "The essence of religion is to see the sublime and the awesome in the lowliest of things." In yet another place in the same book, he states that "Beneath the favorite tale of the moment a deeper story always lies waiting to be discovered."

And so this morning we take up the challenge of finding a deeper story beneath one favorite tale of the moment: Groundhog Day. How much lowlier can we go than this little critter that digs around in the dirt and spends a fair part of the year in a burrow underground? We take up the religious challenge of identifying some sublime or awesome aspect of this simple celebration of this humble, lowly creature. But before we explore the origins and history of the celebration of Groundhog Day and seek for its deeper religious implications, I must point out that February 2 already has some explicit religious connections."

Keep this 5-page .pdf file in mind for Tuesday 2 February 2009.