Why the Sun Rises by Itself
Rev. Samuel A. Trumbore October 19, 1997

There was once a good and faithful priestess who each day before the sun rose conducted an elaborate ritual to greet the sun and thank it for rising. Her people believed that only if this ritual was conducted correctly would the sun continue to rise, the rains come and the order of the universe preserved. The priestess played a very important social role and she did it perfectly every morning to the delight of her people, just as all the other priestesses before her had done for as long as anyone could remember.

Well, as fate would have it, one morning she awoke with the feeling that something was terribly wrong with the 24th verse of the 10th song she sang each morning. She consulted with the elders, who then consulted the oldest sacred texts and to their amazement they realized that the priestess had inadvertently switched around several of the words. She was horrified at making the mistake so she fervently prayed for forgiveness and changed the words back to the original form in her morning ritual.

But this time, the sun didn't rise.

The priestess immediately blamed herself and took out a dagger ready to thrust it into her breast to sacrifice herself for her people and the preservation of the universe. But before she was able to draw any blood, she saw a glint of light from the blade. In the disturbance of her sleep, she had lost her sense of timing and had finished the ritual too early. As the first light broke over the horizon, it dawned on her that the order of the words really didn't matter and the sun would come up anyway because of its love of all creation and its eagerness to shine upon us.

This is why we no longer must ritually invite the sun to rise but those who continue to express gratitude for life each morning invite an inner illumination to dawn which will dispel the darkness of divine ignorance and teach us about Love.

Copyright (c)1997 by Rev. Samuel A. Trumbore. All rights reserved.