On a rainy Saturday afternoon, Rebecca and her husband, Daryl, scrambled back and forth across a slippery lawn trying to catch the latest bedraggled orphan from animal rescue.
It was a bird. Not some lovable nuthatch or beautiful meadowlark, but a baby raven; a noisy, obnoxious pest. He was a scrawny, awkward-looking thing, Rebecca immediately named him Soot.
Soot wasn't injured, but hadn't been long out of the nest, and needed feeding every two hours. The sooner this loud, homely beast was back in the wild, the better. She'd take care of his basic needs, but that was it. She did not intend to let him get attached to her.
. . . Follow link http://www.guideposts.com/story/orphaned-bird?page=0,0
Rebecca experienced the intelligence and free flow of creativity that Soot offered.
Raven
o Often a messenger
o Collectors of bright objects
o Symbol of knowledge
o Emblem of divine providence
o Crafty and strategic
• beauty, power, and intelligence have inspired legends and myths throughout time.
o Celts: Raven symbolizes protection, initiation and healing. It brings in deep healing and signifies the death of one thing to bring in the birth of another.
One of those legends is of
• Elijah the Tishbite who was a prophet in the Northern Kingdom of Israel.
• King Ahab married Jezebel who worshiped Baal, a false god.
• Elijah told Ahab that there would be no rain, not even dew until he, Elijah, spoke the word.
I Kings 17: 3-7 3 Go from here and turn eastward, and hide yourself by the Wadi Cherith, [a Wadi is a stream that flows during wet seasons] which is east of the Jordan. 4 You shall drink from the wadi, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there. 5So he went and did according to the word of the LORD; he went and lived by the Wadi Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. 6The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening; and he drank from the wadi. 7But after a while the wadi dried up, because there was no rain in the land.
So let’s look at this story Metaphysically
• Elijah the Tishbite
The I AM (name for God in humankind) activite in one’s higher thoughts
• East or eastward means within
• Wadi Cherith is the subjective life current in individual consciousness
• Jordan is a stream of thought constantly flowing through the subconscious
• Ravens are natural forces moving with the freedom of birds
• Bread is universal substance
Taken together
The I AM is told by the messenger of God to go within. Go through the thoughts constantly flowing through the subconscious. Go deeper within to drink from the life current in the individual consciousness that is fed universal substance by freely moving natural forces.
OR To be present to the I AM of your being, go within past the thoughts that constantly flow through your mind. Go deeper to the individual superconscious mind that receives universal substance from the free flowing natural forces. That is the free flowing activity of Spirit.
In today’s language:
To access our God-Spirit, turn our attention inward
Quiet the thoughts that constantly flow through the mind
Go even more deeply within and
Open to the free flow of Spirit in mind and heart
Elijah was told to go apart and turn his attention inward, deeply within to access that flow of Spirit.
• Whenever we are in conflict as Elijah was with Ahab, we can go apart a while. We can take a time out to gather our wits and calm our emotions.
• If we end up in the wilderness, then we can turn more deeply within, east of the Jordan.
• Notice also, that the ravens did not question or resist the message from God. They obeyed, and flew freely to do what was theirs to do.
• Even though the ravens themselves are natural forces, they offered kindness and fed the I Am of Elijah
• The story is told about two wild ravens helping a captive one escape. The two dug a hole outside the cage while the captive one dug from inside. The three of them cooperated to free the one.
o So for us, when we are feeling caged, by circumstances, by a job, by the reactions of a loved one, by whatever, we can ask for help.
• It has been said that the beginning of wisdom is kindness. Notice that the ravens offered kindness to Elijah.
o Jesus said to agree with your enemy quickly. In those human situations where another is aggressively challenging you, we have the option to agree with that person. If a person tells me I’m dishonest – well have I ever been? Is there anyone who has NEVER been less than honest in his or her life? Probably not. So it is available to agree with that person, at least in part.
Ravens are playful – certainly SOOT’s playfulness showed. Can you imagine using your computer and having a raven following and pecking at your cursor? Today’s LCD monitors, it probably wouldn’t survive.
Ravens are problem solvers. They have learned to use tools – crack nuts using stones or other hard objects.
Some Native Americans believe when Raven appears there will be a positive change in consciousness.
For us today, what do we want Raven to represent?
Whatever is most important to you,
Whatever is at the forefront of your mind,
Will eventually be reflected
in every decision you made,
AND in all your choices,
actions,
and behaviors.
This is a psychological reality.
What if the issue is to be right. What if that is the most important to us today?
What would we give to be right?
• Are there times we are so certain that we risk life and limb? Or reputation? Or happiness?
• What if you could be right 90% of the time?
Paul Buchheit writes: How to be right 90% of the time, and why I'd rather be wrong.
It's easy -- every time you hear about a new idea or business,
• just say that it won't work.
• Say that it's a bad idea,
• the wrong thing,
• a hobby and not a business,
• hopelessly naive, not innovative enough,
• too different, that it's been tried before, that it won't appeal to regular people,
• or any of hundreds of other criticisms
Are these people wrong? Only about 10% of the time.
• most new things don't work. That's why it's easy to be right 90% of the time (though the naysayers are likely to misidentify the cause of failure).
• What if instead of dismissing everything new or daring, we
o acknowledge that the future is uncertain
o pursue some of these new ideas despite the risk?
o History has shown that no one can reliably pick the winners,
o what if we were clever enough to pick the right ones 20% of the time? That would mean that were are still wrong 80% of the time.
Is it better to be right 90% of the time, or wrong 80% of the time?
We can be right, like the 90% or those who hear of a new idea or business and say it’s a bad idea, it won’t work, it’s been tried before and failed. But is it worth it?
Paul Buchheit is the computer programmer and entrepreneur who was the creator and lead developer of Gmail.
Buchheit certainly has made the most of his creativity and entrepreneurial abilities.
• Much like the Raven, SOOT.
What if there is a noisy, obnoxious raven around nagging at us to open to the wisdom and free flow of Spirit that is deep within us?
Know what is driving you!
• You can’t solve a problem with the same mind that created it.
• If it is the need to be right, then make a different choice.
• Choose a value to take the place of being right. Something like “tolerance” or “happiness” and write that word in the center of a piece of paper. Sit quietly and meditate on the word. That is, relax your body,
o Close your eyes
o Hold that word in your mind
o When associations arise, write them down
o Go back to your word
o Repeat the process until your mind is at peace with the word you have chosen.
Our inner guide knows if we are being punishing, being right, or if we are being kind and loving.
Are we feeding others and ourselves intolerance?
OR are we feeding kindness, love, and inspiration? Are we seeking the wisdom of God-Spirit?
Always remember this:
"Do not believe in anything
simply because you have heard it.
Do not believe in traditions because
they have been handed down for many generations.
Do not believe in anything
because it is spoken and rumored by many.
Do not believe in anything simply
because it is written in your religious books.
Do not believe in anything
merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.
But after prayer, observation and analysis,
when you find that anything agrees with reason,
and is conducive to the good and benefit of all,
then accept it and live up to it."
Paraphrased from http://thegospels.org/metaDictionary/index.htm
Be fed by ravens; be fed by Spirit.
God loves you, and so do I.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Monday, July 13, 2009
Angels & Demons
The Illuminati, like a serpent from the forgotten depths of history, had risen and wrapped themselves around an ancient foe. No demands. No negotiation. Just retribution. Demonically simple. Squeezing. A revenge 400 years in the making. It seemed that after centuries of persecution, science had bitten back" (Brown, Angels & Demons, 164).
"Langdon’s head was pounding louder now . . . tiny voices played tug of war."
“Faith does not protect you. Medicine and airbags . . . those are things that protect you. God does not protect you. Intelligence protects you. Enlightenment. Put your faith in something with tangible results. How long has it been since someone walked on water? Modern miracles belong to science . . . computers, vaccines, space stations . . . even the divine miracle of creation. Matter from nothing . . . in a lab. Who needs God? No! Science is God” (174).
• These quotes represents the crux of the novel, Angels & Demons.
• A battle between science and religion;
o between the seen and the unseen;
o between faith and terrorism
Dan Brown has written a brilliant novel.
• Ultimate evil of science which can, according to the book, reproduce the moment of creation with antimatter.
• Terrorists controlling the clock; claiming to be a secret society out for revenge against the church’s abuse of scientists and free thinkers
• Staid tradition of the selection of a pope, the papal conclave
• Documents shrouded in mystery by the limited access granted them
• Set against the backdrop of the art and architecture of Rome and Vatican City.
Although this is more dramatic and graphic than we are likely to experience, doesn’t Langdon’s internal struggle resonate with us?
• When we hear of a disaster, is there a part of us that wonders where God is in the universe today?
• When science hands us cures for diseases, does it increase our faith in science?
• When technology puts a device in our hands the size of a credit card, and it will store and reproduce an entire library of music with equal or greater sound quality than the original, do we tend to deify technology?
Perhaps. Yet with all this, we have the option to use these devices for enhancing life or enslaving us. Consider today’s scriptures.
Angels
Mt 18:10 (NRSV) Take care that you do not despise one of these little ones; for, I tell you, in heaven their angels continually see the face of my Father in heaven.
MBD [Metaphysical Bible Dictionary published by Unity School of Christianity], 52, Angel; messengers of God.
Meta. . . . These angels of our childlike spiritual thoughts, “these little ones,” are the thoughts that understand spiritual principles. The office of the angels is to guard and guide and direct the natural forces of mind and body, which have in them the future of the whole man [person].
In the literal, Jesus was talking about children, but this was a parable about the kingdom. In
• 1st verse of this chapter, Jesus said
“ . . . unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
These childlike spiritual thoughts are the ones that cause us to question the limits of science, and perhaps take science for granted and knows there is more. When we would ask “can we?” these spiritual thoughts ask “should we?” They invite us to make conscious decisions. They remind us that there is something greater than ourselves, greater than science, greater than religion.
• Job 32:8 There is a spirit in man, that breath of the Almighty that brings understanding.
• That’s the very argument that Langdon is having in his own mind in Angels & Demons.
Demons
Mk 1:32-34 32That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. 33 And the whole city was gathered around the door. 34 And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.
MBD, 170,
Demons, or evil spirits, are conditions of mind, or states of consciousness, that have been developed because the creative power of man has been used in unwise or an ignorant way.
• If in thought or in word you are using your creative power in an ignorant way, you are bringing forth an ego or a personality of like character.
• The mind builds states of consciousness that become established in brain and body.
• Both good and evil are found in the unregenerated man, but in the new birth evil and all its works must be cast out.
• The work of every overcoming is to cast out of himself the demons of sin [missing the mark] and evil [state of consciousness that looks to worldly pride and power as worthy of one’s effort], through the power and dominion of his indwelling Christ . . .
• “would not permit the demons to speak” means that Jesus did not admit for a moment that demons have any power . . . He concentrated the dissolving power of Spirit upon them and their hold was broken.
Unlike the frantic hunt through crypts, catacombs, deserted cathedrals, and even the Illuminati lair,
• Our angels are often common-place. Perhaps it’s the man who shows up who will mow the grass just after the lawn mower breaks.
• Maybe it’s the one who held the high watch for us when we couldn’t hold it for ourselves.
• Maybe it’s the inner voice that nudges you to turn right when you were on a direct course to your destination. Maybe you heard later there was a horrific accident in which you would have been involved if you hadn’t taken that right turn.
And what about our demons?
• They are not likely to be carved in stone as some of the ones in the book were.
• They are not likely to be assasins
• They ARE likely to be our own self-talk. That niggling voice in the mind that says
o You’re nuts if you think you can pull that one off
o What makes you think God even exists, much less within you?
o You can’t possibly do that!
o You’re not smart enough
o You’re not good enough
o You don’t have enough money
o You’re NOT or you DON’T
We all have angels; we all have demons! It’s what we do about them that matters.
By John Wren-Lewis, Sydney, Australia
December, 1994 (edited from www.guideposts.com)
• "Never take candy from a stranger." My mother's admonition flashed through my mind when a man on the bus to Phuket, Thailand, dug two toffees from his pocket and offered them, smiling.
PLEASE FOLLOW LINK FOR COMPLETE STORY
• But now, after more than a decade traveling and working all over the world, I'd long since discounted her warning.
o John awoke in a hospital bed, an IV drip and an oxygen cylinder beside me.
o "Thank goodness I trusted my taste buds, or we'd probably both be dead," Ann said later as a nurse served supper.
o "The police think the young man was part of a gang who drugs tourists on buses and trains to rob them.
• At an age when most people retire, I have been given a whole new life, John said. “For me the great discovery has been that Jesus was speaking the simple truth when he said the Kingdom of God is right here, in and amongst us, all the time. Angels are any forces that God uses to wake us to the kingdom's presence. For me, closeness to death was just that—mediated by a would-be thief on a bus in Thailand.”
John was thrust into a journey of personal transformation. As a former mathematical physicist, he had little patience for anything beyond measurable human experience. Thrust upon this road by a would-be poisoner, he came to see this one as an instrument of his awakening.
John came to know that measurable human experience was not all there was to him.
• He came to know that he was more than the sum of his organs and tissues? Would a mass of organs and tissues be able to ask, “Am I my body?”
• We are not our bodies, we are not our jobs, we are not our children or our parents.
• We are something more than that. We are powerful, creative beings, sometimes barely conscious of ourselves, and often unconscious of our power.
• If there are angels in our midst, we drew them there. What we focus on, we draw to ourselves.
• What we believe, we create. If there are demons in the world, it is because humankind has used its incredible creative power to bring them into being. If they are in our own minds and hearts, we created them and placed them there.
• We believe there is only one Presence and one Power. That Presence has give to us enormous creative capacity, and we have the freedom to use it for growth and giving life, or for destruction.
• When we continually think, “I am well, I have plenty, I am at peace with all humankind,” then health, success, and happiness come to us.
• When we are loving and kind; if we treat men and women honestly, justly, charitably, and make our demonstration of good a practical, living reality, we will soon find ourselves in the Kingdom.
• In consciousness, humankind has strayed from the principle of good. We have adopted the idea of competition, of aggression, of I’ll get mine before you get it. We have created the demons of competition and perpetuated and expanded the reality of those demons to the point where we endanger the very existence of our planet.
• We must find our way back to that principle of good.
In Angels & Demons, there is a struggle between men of faith and men of science. Sometimes science gets it wrong, as with the complete adherence to the notion of survival of the fittest. Yes the strong survive, but there are those models of collaboration and cooperation.
• Nevertheless, science does many things well, and many scientists are also people of faith. Some would have us believe that science is evil. Some would have us believe that science is god. Science, however, is a way of looking at the world, and without it we would likely be dealing with plagues and epidemics removing a much greater portion of the population. We might still not know that hand-washing is essential. We might still think disease is caused by evil spirits.
• Even if science sometimes gets it wrong, without science, we would get many more things wrong than we do.
One man of science may surprise you.
In July 2009, Francis Collins was nominated by President Barack Obama as the new Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
-----
Three years ago, I had the opportunity to gaze upon one of the most powerful and beautiful mysteries of nature: the human genome.
For nearly a decade I had led a team of researchers racing to decipher the biochemical instruction manual for making human beings. All living creatures, from humans to the lowliest amoeba, are literally brought into existence by the genes that make up their DNA. It is a brilliant, ingenious system.
But, as a believer, I am convinced it is also a sign of God's meticulous delight in creation. The genes, sequences of DNA that spew out instructions for making the building blocks of bodies, can be combined in myriad ways to produce everything from a rose to a chimpanzee to a short person with blond hair to a tall person with black hair...to you.
Many people question whether science, especially genetic science, is opposed to faith. I consider that a false premise.
When I got the call in 1993 asking me to lead the Human Genome Project, I saw an opportunity not to challenge God, but to glorify him.
http://www.guideposts.com/story/francis-collins-nih-human-genome
When we have demons in our lives, we know how to transform them – we change our minds. When we have angels in our lives – we give thanks!
God loves you, and so do I!
Rev Martha
490+
John Colligan, of New York, was in a hurry to return to his basement office when his attention was grabbed by a letter lying on the kitchen table. It was from the Colorado District Attorney.
His 21-year old son, Johnny, had moved to Colorado 6 months earlier, and 9 weeks after moving there was shot to death.
Please follow the link at the end of the following paragraph for the complete story.
The courts would decide the sentence. That was their responsibility. Mine was to offer the forgiveness I had finally allowed God to place in me. A great weight lifted. It was time to get on with life. (http://www.guideposts.com/print/11517, May 1994)
Out of all life’s challenging issues,
• forgiveness is one that lingers in society’s shadow.
• misunderstood and seldom given any value, this issue seems more unpopular than ever.
• Forgiveness for many is like an old book layered with dust and rarely explored.
• Sure, people know it exists, but they believe that its importance is outdated to say the least.
• In a world where
o personal vengeance is heroic and
o utter hatred is showcased on TV talk shows,
• to forgive seems a bit weak.
o Whether in the locker room or the ladies room,
o stories of payback and revenge have been deemed much more entertaining then those of forgiveness and reconciliation.
o From the media to our homes, getting even or “settling the score” are what people use to resolve their inner conflict. http://www.inspiredchristian.org/cyber/07/080107jr.html
Forgiveness does NOT mean that there are no consequences!
• As John said, the sentence was up to the courts, that was their business.
• Revenge is the business of the universe. The offender is punished by their offense, here and now. Despite appearances, they receive the consequences. Can we make the distinction in our minds between forgiveness and actions that have consequences?
• When we attempt to humiliate or embarrass someone who has offended us, by our behavior, or indeed by our thoughts we are actively bringing the past into the present and giving it life.
Forgiveness does not mean that you are going to deliberately put yourself in a position to be abused and trod upon again.
• Forgiveness does not mean that you and your offender will be best friends.
• When I forgive someone, it means that I will not allow their actions to affect me in any negative way.
• I will not permit my mind body or spirit to be robbed of "good "by the "bad "behavior of someone else.
• It is not what happens to me that counts so much as what happens in me.
Psalms 130: 3-4 3 If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, LORD, who could stand? 4 But there is forgiveness with you,
John 8:6-8 6 . . . Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. 7When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground. 9 When they heard it, they went away, one by one.
• If God should mark iniquities, mistakes, who could stand?
• If anyone has never made a mistake, let that one throw a stone
This leaves condemnation in the hands of God. In the case of the young woman who shot Johnny, consequences were in the hands of the court.
In our everyday world
• We all live with a sense of separation, aloneness, alienation and guilt.
• Psychology places the need to belong one step above the need to survive.
• This sense of separation and aloneness may be the force behind the drive to discover or make meaning in life.
• Every religious tradition recognizes this and has some way of addressing it.
Ours is a balancing act of being connected enough to belong and independent enough to think for ourselves. If we go too far either way, we risk reducing the meaning of life and perhaps to making it meaningless.
If in being connected, I give people the power to offend me in any way, I have given them too much power over my life.
It is essential that I maintain enough autonomy to live my choices, not those subtly or forcefully imposed by those to whom I am connected.
• Freedom to live life to the fullest is a God-given right for all of us.
• Freedom of that magnitude can only be realized when we learn to forgive the offenders and offenses that come our way.
Lynne Twist, author of The Soul of Money, is a global activist and fundraiser. She tells of her experience in Senegal, a small coastal country on the farthest western tip of the African continent. 18 people of the Hunger Project led by Swift were there to meet with people of a village that lay several hours into the desert. The Hunger Project is about empowering people to end their own hunger, and this meeting was about their need to find a new source of water. These were a proud people who knew nothing but life in the Sahel Desert. They also knew they could not continue without some change in the water situation.
The people were Muslim, and as they sat in a circle, the men did all the talking. The women sat in a second circle where they could see and hear, but not speak. The barrenness of the land made a solution seem impossible, but the attitude, sense of resiliency, and the dignity of these people argued differently (72).
Swift asked to meet with the women. She had felt their power, and even though it was a strange request in this Muslim culture, it was allowed. The women quickly conveyed that they had visions of an underground lake beneath the area. They felt it; they knew it was there. They needed the help of the project workers to get permission from the men to dig a well deep enough to reach the water. The men had not permitted this as they did not believe the water was there. Also they did not want women doing this kind of work. In their tradition, only certain kinds of labor were allowed for the women. All these women needed was permission from the men to pursue their clear instinct. That was the help they needed from an outside source. Swift said, “It was baking hot. There were thousands of flies. I had silt in my mouth and lungs. It was about as uncomfortable a place as you can imagine being in, and yet I remember that I did not feel any thirst or discomfort – only the presence of possibility amidst these bold and beautiful women.
After many conversations with both the women and the men, it was agreed with the mullahs and the chief to start work with the women because the women had the vision. Over the next year the women dug both with hand tools and the simple equipment brought by the Hunger Project. As they dug they sang, drummed, and cared for each other’s children as they worked, never doubting that the water was there. And it was! In the years since, the men and women have built a pumping station and water tower for storage. Seventeen villages now have water, and the women’s leadership groups are the center of action. There is irrigation, chicken farming, literacy classes and batiking businesses. People are flourishing, contributing members of their country. The tribe is proud that it was their own people, their own work, and the land they lived on that proved to be the key to their own prosperity.
These Senegalese people came together in community with dignity and freedom. Surely there were offenses given among them; perhaps feelings related to the women having the vision and the culture that did not allow them to act on that vision. Yet they had the freedom of thought to seek outside help. They had the freedom of dignity to seek their own solution and to put it into practice. They did not need rescuing. They were getting on with life.
FORGIVENESS--A process of giving up the false for the true; erasing . . . error from the mind and body. It is closely related to repentance, which is a turning from belief in error to belief in God and righteousness.
Forgiveness is only established through renewing the mind and body with thoughts and words of Truth (RW 78).
Forgiveness really means the giving up of something. When you forgive yourself, you cease doing the things that you should not do.
It is through forgiveness that true spiritual healing is accomplished. Forgiveness removes the errors of the mind, and bodily harmony results in consonance [agreement] with divine law (Fillmore, RW 79).
Today’s lesson title comes from Matt. 18:22, when Jesus told Peter that he must forgive 70 times 7. I used different scripture hoping to move into the subject with fewer preconceived notions on your part. 70 X 7 is 490. The plus is the added value of richness in life that forgiveness brings.
In talking about forgiveness we often think of:
• Weakness
• Approving of the wrong
• Allowing the wrong to continue without consequences.
The Aramaic transation of 70 X 7 stretches more to read “up to 70X77 = 5390. In reality, Jesus used a hyperbole, purposely overstating the idea. What Jesus really meant was that it goes on and on and on until, like water, it has worn away the stones of bitterness and the perception of injury. It goes on and on to infinity.
So, I ask you to consider
• How would your life be different if you could forgive that person who hurt you, even if he or she never asked for forgiveness?
• Who would you be without the story about having been wronged?
• What will your life be if you continue to wait for an apology or some form of justice?
• As impossible as it may seem, when we turn within and quiet our minds from that endless chatter, from retelling the story endlessly, from telling ourselves what ought to happen, when we quiet our minds, we can hear that gentle voice telling us how we can do what looks impossible.
• Can you think of a person who changed his life and now has an effective ministry of healing?
o If not, consider looking up Charles Colson. //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Colson
o Colson was known as the White House "hatchet man," a man feared by even the most powerful politicos during his four years of service to President Nixon.
o He was thought of as one of the “Watergate 7” although he pleased guilty of obstruction of justice in the Daniel Ellsberg Case
o When news of Colson's conversion to Christianity leaked to the press in 1973, the Boston Globe reported, "If Mr. Colson can repent of his sins, there just has to be hope for everybody."
o In 1974 Colson entered prison.
o In 1976, Colson founded Prison Fellowship, which has become the world's largest outreach to prisoners, ex-prisoners, crime victims, and their families.
o Colson has built a movement working with more than 40,000 prison ministry volunteers, with ministries in more than 100 countries. And that is just the beginning.
o He has since written more than 30 books,
established Justice Fellowship (a faith-based criminal justice reform group),
introduced Angel Tree (a program that provides Christmas gifts to ½ million children of inmates annually on behalf of their incarcerated parent)
established Prison Fellowship International which now includes national chapters in 113 countries
And the list goes on.
Who would we be without our story of being wronged?
Who would we be if we gave up waiting for justice, and embraced forgiveness and reconciliation?
Forgive and move on with living.
Forgiving someone doesn’t mean s/he is right. It means you are free.
God loves you, and so do I
Martha
His 21-year old son, Johnny, had moved to Colorado 6 months earlier, and 9 weeks after moving there was shot to death.
Please follow the link at the end of the following paragraph for the complete story.
The courts would decide the sentence. That was their responsibility. Mine was to offer the forgiveness I had finally allowed God to place in me. A great weight lifted. It was time to get on with life. (http://www.guideposts.com/print/11517, May 1994)
Out of all life’s challenging issues,
• forgiveness is one that lingers in society’s shadow.
• misunderstood and seldom given any value, this issue seems more unpopular than ever.
• Forgiveness for many is like an old book layered with dust and rarely explored.
• Sure, people know it exists, but they believe that its importance is outdated to say the least.
• In a world where
o personal vengeance is heroic and
o utter hatred is showcased on TV talk shows,
• to forgive seems a bit weak.
o Whether in the locker room or the ladies room,
o stories of payback and revenge have been deemed much more entertaining then those of forgiveness and reconciliation.
o From the media to our homes, getting even or “settling the score” are what people use to resolve their inner conflict. http://www.inspiredchristian.org/cyber/07/080107jr.html
Forgiveness does NOT mean that there are no consequences!
• As John said, the sentence was up to the courts, that was their business.
• Revenge is the business of the universe. The offender is punished by their offense, here and now. Despite appearances, they receive the consequences. Can we make the distinction in our minds between forgiveness and actions that have consequences?
• When we attempt to humiliate or embarrass someone who has offended us, by our behavior, or indeed by our thoughts we are actively bringing the past into the present and giving it life.
Forgiveness does not mean that you are going to deliberately put yourself in a position to be abused and trod upon again.
• Forgiveness does not mean that you and your offender will be best friends.
• When I forgive someone, it means that I will not allow their actions to affect me in any negative way.
• I will not permit my mind body or spirit to be robbed of "good "by the "bad "behavior of someone else.
• It is not what happens to me that counts so much as what happens in me.
Psalms 130: 3-4 3 If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, LORD, who could stand? 4 But there is forgiveness with you,
John 8:6-8 6 . . . Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. 7When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground. 9 When they heard it, they went away, one by one.
• If God should mark iniquities, mistakes, who could stand?
• If anyone has never made a mistake, let that one throw a stone
This leaves condemnation in the hands of God. In the case of the young woman who shot Johnny, consequences were in the hands of the court.
In our everyday world
• We all live with a sense of separation, aloneness, alienation and guilt.
• Psychology places the need to belong one step above the need to survive.
• This sense of separation and aloneness may be the force behind the drive to discover or make meaning in life.
• Every religious tradition recognizes this and has some way of addressing it.
Ours is a balancing act of being connected enough to belong and independent enough to think for ourselves. If we go too far either way, we risk reducing the meaning of life and perhaps to making it meaningless.
If in being connected, I give people the power to offend me in any way, I have given them too much power over my life.
It is essential that I maintain enough autonomy to live my choices, not those subtly or forcefully imposed by those to whom I am connected.
• Freedom to live life to the fullest is a God-given right for all of us.
• Freedom of that magnitude can only be realized when we learn to forgive the offenders and offenses that come our way.
Lynne Twist, author of The Soul of Money, is a global activist and fundraiser. She tells of her experience in Senegal, a small coastal country on the farthest western tip of the African continent. 18 people of the Hunger Project led by Swift were there to meet with people of a village that lay several hours into the desert. The Hunger Project is about empowering people to end their own hunger, and this meeting was about their need to find a new source of water. These were a proud people who knew nothing but life in the Sahel Desert. They also knew they could not continue without some change in the water situation.
The people were Muslim, and as they sat in a circle, the men did all the talking. The women sat in a second circle where they could see and hear, but not speak. The barrenness of the land made a solution seem impossible, but the attitude, sense of resiliency, and the dignity of these people argued differently (72).
Swift asked to meet with the women. She had felt their power, and even though it was a strange request in this Muslim culture, it was allowed. The women quickly conveyed that they had visions of an underground lake beneath the area. They felt it; they knew it was there. They needed the help of the project workers to get permission from the men to dig a well deep enough to reach the water. The men had not permitted this as they did not believe the water was there. Also they did not want women doing this kind of work. In their tradition, only certain kinds of labor were allowed for the women. All these women needed was permission from the men to pursue their clear instinct. That was the help they needed from an outside source. Swift said, “It was baking hot. There were thousands of flies. I had silt in my mouth and lungs. It was about as uncomfortable a place as you can imagine being in, and yet I remember that I did not feel any thirst or discomfort – only the presence of possibility amidst these bold and beautiful women.
After many conversations with both the women and the men, it was agreed with the mullahs and the chief to start work with the women because the women had the vision. Over the next year the women dug both with hand tools and the simple equipment brought by the Hunger Project. As they dug they sang, drummed, and cared for each other’s children as they worked, never doubting that the water was there. And it was! In the years since, the men and women have built a pumping station and water tower for storage. Seventeen villages now have water, and the women’s leadership groups are the center of action. There is irrigation, chicken farming, literacy classes and batiking businesses. People are flourishing, contributing members of their country. The tribe is proud that it was their own people, their own work, and the land they lived on that proved to be the key to their own prosperity.
These Senegalese people came together in community with dignity and freedom. Surely there were offenses given among them; perhaps feelings related to the women having the vision and the culture that did not allow them to act on that vision. Yet they had the freedom of thought to seek outside help. They had the freedom of dignity to seek their own solution and to put it into practice. They did not need rescuing. They were getting on with life.
FORGIVENESS--A process of giving up the false for the true; erasing . . . error from the mind and body. It is closely related to repentance, which is a turning from belief in error to belief in God and righteousness.
Forgiveness is only established through renewing the mind and body with thoughts and words of Truth (RW 78).
Forgiveness really means the giving up of something. When you forgive yourself, you cease doing the things that you should not do.
It is through forgiveness that true spiritual healing is accomplished. Forgiveness removes the errors of the mind, and bodily harmony results in consonance [agreement] with divine law (Fillmore, RW 79).
Today’s lesson title comes from Matt. 18:22, when Jesus told Peter that he must forgive 70 times 7. I used different scripture hoping to move into the subject with fewer preconceived notions on your part. 70 X 7 is 490. The plus is the added value of richness in life that forgiveness brings.
In talking about forgiveness we often think of:
• Weakness
• Approving of the wrong
• Allowing the wrong to continue without consequences.
The Aramaic transation of 70 X 7 stretches more to read “up to 70X77 = 5390. In reality, Jesus used a hyperbole, purposely overstating the idea. What Jesus really meant was that it goes on and on and on until, like water, it has worn away the stones of bitterness and the perception of injury. It goes on and on to infinity.
So, I ask you to consider
• How would your life be different if you could forgive that person who hurt you, even if he or she never asked for forgiveness?
• Who would you be without the story about having been wronged?
• What will your life be if you continue to wait for an apology or some form of justice?
• As impossible as it may seem, when we turn within and quiet our minds from that endless chatter, from retelling the story endlessly, from telling ourselves what ought to happen, when we quiet our minds, we can hear that gentle voice telling us how we can do what looks impossible.
• Can you think of a person who changed his life and now has an effective ministry of healing?
o If not, consider looking up Charles Colson. //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Colson
o Colson was known as the White House "hatchet man," a man feared by even the most powerful politicos during his four years of service to President Nixon.
o He was thought of as one of the “Watergate 7” although he pleased guilty of obstruction of justice in the Daniel Ellsberg Case
o When news of Colson's conversion to Christianity leaked to the press in 1973, the Boston Globe reported, "If Mr. Colson can repent of his sins, there just has to be hope for everybody."
o In 1974 Colson entered prison.
o In 1976, Colson founded Prison Fellowship, which has become the world's largest outreach to prisoners, ex-prisoners, crime victims, and their families.
o Colson has built a movement working with more than 40,000 prison ministry volunteers, with ministries in more than 100 countries. And that is just the beginning.
o He has since written more than 30 books,
established Justice Fellowship (a faith-based criminal justice reform group),
introduced Angel Tree (a program that provides Christmas gifts to ½ million children of inmates annually on behalf of their incarcerated parent)
established Prison Fellowship International which now includes national chapters in 113 countries
And the list goes on.
Who would we be without our story of being wronged?
Who would we be if we gave up waiting for justice, and embraced forgiveness and reconciliation?
Forgive and move on with living.
Forgiving someone doesn’t mean s/he is right. It means you are free.
God loves you, and so do I
Martha
Monday, June 15, 2009
Prices of Love
The Graduate
From juvenile delinquent to Rhodes Scholar. How a bad boy went good. [Excerpted from http://www.guideposts.com/story/juvenile-delinquent-becomes-Rhodes-scholar?page=0%2C1]
By Aaron Polhamus, Oxford, England
Every year 32 American college seniors pass through a grueling application process to win a coveted Rhodes scholarship.
• two years of all-expense paid study at Oxford University in England.
• join a century’s worth of distinguished statesmen, scientists, artists, writers and teachers—men and women who went on to become some of the most successful people in their generation.
• perhaps the highest honor an American college student can receive.
As Aaron filled out the Rhodes application, he half wondered if he was crazy. His record wasn’t great.
Aaron wrote, I got routinely suspended from school, starting in sixth grade. I was expelled outright from my junior high. I’d spent the better part of my early teens hanging out on the streets.
I’d achieved a perfect grade average in the ninth grade—perfect Fs that is—in every class. And I’d topped that year off by getting arrested for vandalism.
I gravitated to a group of guys like me. We’d act out, get suspended—which was more like a reward than a punishment. We’d spend all day wandering the streets, scoring beer, smoking cigarettes and pot.
• That fall I enrolled in Options High School, an alternative education program for at-risk youth.
• Arriving my first day, I saw five squat portable buildings slick with Northwest rain.
• Students milled around, a patchwork of mohawks, body piercings, gang colors. A lot of them looked like users.
• My first class was science. The teacher, Robert LaRiviere, bounded in wearing jeans, a T-shirt and wire-rimmed glasses. He was totally bald. His eyes were a merry blue.
• The dozen students before him were a motley bunch. But he acted like we were the most mature scholars he had ever taught
He smiled and cracked a few jokes, then immediately drew us into an intense discussion. “If there’s one thing I want you to learn in this class,” he said, “it’s how to use your brains. You’re smart kids. The world is a fascinating place. Open yourselves up to it.” The class ended and I realized that I hadn’t once thought about mouthing off.
The world is a fascinating place. Mr. LaRiviere sure was right about that. Was he right about me being a smart kid?
What else had I been closing myself off to?
Usually, whenever the youth group prayed, I zoned out. One morning I looked out at the rain coming down and tried an awkward prayer of my own: God, if you really exist, help me figure out who I am.
The following fall, a counselor at Options, noticing some high test scores,
• invited me to try physics and honors English classes at Bellingham High School.
• By eleventh grade I was attending Bellingham High part-time while simultaneously completing an associate’s degree at a community college.
• After graduation I enrolled at Western Washington University.
• One evening, coming home from class, I found Dad sitting by himself. Being away at college had given me space to reflect on my relationship with my parents.
Dad and I small-talked for a minute, then he looked at me seriously. “Aaron,” he said, “there’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you. Your transformation these past couple years—well, it seems like a miracle to me. But I know it’s not just God. It’s your hard work too. And I want you to know that I’m really proud of you.”
• After two years at Western Washington, I transferred to Stanford University in California.
• It was there that I heard about the Rhodes scholarship. A passage from the application caught my eye: “Proven intellectual and academic achievement is the first quality required of applicants,
• will also be required to show integrity of character and interest in and respect for their fellow beings.” Integrity. Interest. Respect. Did that include improbable comebacks?
A few months later I sat before an interview panel of former Rhodes scholars. “We’re fascinated by your background,” they said. “But we’re wondering, do you ever feel like you’re fooling everyone and you’re still that kid from Options?”
I took a deep breath and told them the truth. “Actually, ever since I left Options, I’ve felt like I had to prove myself. But just being here taking questions from you is a huge affirmation. I can honestly say I know who I am. And I’ll know it no matter what happens with this scholarship.”
I guess that was the right answer. This fall I’m studying applied statistics at Worcester College, Oxford.
What prices did Aaron pay for his transformation?
What about the alternative?
•Hang out, drop out, zone out, get high
•No responsibility
•Get material needs met at the expense of society;
Instead he
•Questioned himself; was this all he wanted out of life?
•He dug deeply into himself – why did he like Mr. LaRiviere? What had he missed, what had he tuned out from the world?
•He went through the pain of self inquiry
•He looked at the self-serving, self-absorbed, love of the lesser self and transformed it into its appropriate expression as un-selfish, life-giving love of self.
•The price Aaron paid for his misinterpretation of love was rejection, boredom, destruction of others and himself
•With the transformation he paid the price, at first, of the pain of self inquiry, and then the prices began to look more like rewards. High scores led to high school graduation, and an associates degree simultaneously. Then on to university, to Stanford, and to Oxford.
Ruth 1:15-16
15So she said, “See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” 16But Ruth said, “Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; Where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God.
Naomi is the first speaker urging her daughter-in-law to return to her people. Naomi and her husband, Elimelech, moved from Bethlehem in Judah to Moab with their two sons. Elimelech died leaving Naomi with her two sons. These two married Moabite women, one of whom was Ruth. The two sons also died, leaving only the women. Naomi decided to return to Judah. In the scripture Naomi is telling Ruth to return to her own country, Moab.
Ruth’s expression of love and devotion to Naomi is a favorite Biblical story. It is an expression of love in the highest form.
•Love that gives, that frees, the expression of the One spirit
•When we love most truly, we are most unselfish (Wilson, Master Class, 116)
•This form of love includes, . . it fulfills human love, and draws it into fuller expression.
•It wins because it seeks not its own
Mat 22:36"Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?"
Mat 22:37And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.
This is the great and first commandment.
And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Jesus exemplified this form of love repeatedly.
•Rich young ruler (seeking spiritual redemption, Mk 10:17)
*Woman at the well (Samaritan, outcast)
•Woman in the streets who had an issue of blood (Mt 9:20-22)
•His disciples
•Even the ear of the Roman soldier who came to arrest him (Luke 22:49)
•Each person seemed to Jesus have the potential to become whole (Spong, Jesus for the Non-Religious, 280)
It would be easy to say we aren’t Jesus. That’s true, AND he said we would do greater things.
Jhn 14:12 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I go to the Father.
Charles Fillmore, cofounder of Unity, said
of Jn 14:12, that we have not received at all times because we have not demonstrated the power of His name. (MJ 132) When we reach out into the great invisible spiritual substance all about us and think of ourselves as its expression, confidently expecting it to manifest itself through us, it will do so (MJ 132).
We say that God is everywhere present – that means that we walk in God, we breathe God, God breathes us. There is no place that God is not! And God is expressed through us as the Christ consciousness.
(RW, 124) love--The pure essence of Being that binds together the whole human family. Of all the attributes of God, love is undoubtedly the most beautiful. In Divine Mind, love is the power that joins and binds in divine harmony
Earnest Wilson said,
He who was so loving taught us the secret of love; love that is gentle but strong, kind but wise; deep but unselfish (Master Class Lessons, 105].
So IF we love in that way; in such a way that lives as if everyone can become whole, what prices are we likely to pay???
GIVE UP - Love of the lesser self
oUnsure of itself -> acts erratically
oFearful of its life and in panic may act without regard for others
oTries to attain by violence what it should get by intelligence
oMost conscious of outer world values and acts from that viewpoint
oSeeks pleasure and content and tries to hold and possess that which has proven pleasurable
Often resists change and growth: parents cling to their children and discourage development, maturity, and independence
•Children resort to childish ploys to gain favor and attention
•It bids us to grieve when we feel the PHYSICAL separation or loss.
The price is to give up this way of being in the world.
To demonstrate the Highest Self, we must be
Inwardly and spiritually so assured of that good that we are not overcome by outward appearances of loss or disadvantage. We must love ourselves so much that we shall be loving and unselfish toward others and unwilling to insure our own good at their expense. We must transform foolish pride into pride of such dignity that it will not stoop to anything mean or common or unworthy of the kind of person we spiritually sense ourselves to be. We must love ourselves too much to betray the higher self to the lower (Wilson, 113)
Let’s join together in an affirmation from Earnest Wilson
Christ in me rules my emotions.
I love as I would be loved, unselfish, impersonally, in the spirit of Christ.
Today we have a young man who has just completed a program of spiritual development which we call a Life Passage.
John's life was difficult before he met Laurie Jill Wood. He entered the foster care system when he was about 6, and wound up in a group home when he was almost 8. They had just about given up on finding him a home. Laurie Jill was volunteering at that group home, and John joined her as a foster child. She was told she would not be able to adopt him because he needed a father. Finally, when John was almost 10, she was allowed to adopt John.
At this point in his life, he asked to work a program of spiritual development. John’s program has involved developing his awareness of God through the body, mind, and spirit, and to demonstrate those in the community.
In ways John was a lot like our young man Aaron that we met at the beginning of today’s lesson. He was having a difficult time and through the loving support of caring adults, and his hard work, he has transformed his life experience. John will now show you some of what he learned, focusing on the 12 Powers. [Slide show created and narrated by John Wood.]
From juvenile delinquent to Rhodes Scholar. How a bad boy went good. [Excerpted from http://www.guideposts.com/story/juvenile-delinquent-becomes-Rhodes-scholar?page=0%2C1]
By Aaron Polhamus, Oxford, England
Every year 32 American college seniors pass through a grueling application process to win a coveted Rhodes scholarship.
• two years of all-expense paid study at Oxford University in England.
• join a century’s worth of distinguished statesmen, scientists, artists, writers and teachers—men and women who went on to become some of the most successful people in their generation.
• perhaps the highest honor an American college student can receive.
As Aaron filled out the Rhodes application, he half wondered if he was crazy. His record wasn’t great.
Aaron wrote, I got routinely suspended from school, starting in sixth grade. I was expelled outright from my junior high. I’d spent the better part of my early teens hanging out on the streets.
I’d achieved a perfect grade average in the ninth grade—perfect Fs that is—in every class. And I’d topped that year off by getting arrested for vandalism.
I gravitated to a group of guys like me. We’d act out, get suspended—which was more like a reward than a punishment. We’d spend all day wandering the streets, scoring beer, smoking cigarettes and pot.
• That fall I enrolled in Options High School, an alternative education program for at-risk youth.
• Arriving my first day, I saw five squat portable buildings slick with Northwest rain.
• Students milled around, a patchwork of mohawks, body piercings, gang colors. A lot of them looked like users.
• My first class was science. The teacher, Robert LaRiviere, bounded in wearing jeans, a T-shirt and wire-rimmed glasses. He was totally bald. His eyes were a merry blue.
• The dozen students before him were a motley bunch. But he acted like we were the most mature scholars he had ever taught
He smiled and cracked a few jokes, then immediately drew us into an intense discussion. “If there’s one thing I want you to learn in this class,” he said, “it’s how to use your brains. You’re smart kids. The world is a fascinating place. Open yourselves up to it.” The class ended and I realized that I hadn’t once thought about mouthing off.
The world is a fascinating place. Mr. LaRiviere sure was right about that. Was he right about me being a smart kid?
What else had I been closing myself off to?
Usually, whenever the youth group prayed, I zoned out. One morning I looked out at the rain coming down and tried an awkward prayer of my own: God, if you really exist, help me figure out who I am.
The following fall, a counselor at Options, noticing some high test scores,
• invited me to try physics and honors English classes at Bellingham High School.
• By eleventh grade I was attending Bellingham High part-time while simultaneously completing an associate’s degree at a community college.
• After graduation I enrolled at Western Washington University.
• One evening, coming home from class, I found Dad sitting by himself. Being away at college had given me space to reflect on my relationship with my parents.
Dad and I small-talked for a minute, then he looked at me seriously. “Aaron,” he said, “there’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you. Your transformation these past couple years—well, it seems like a miracle to me. But I know it’s not just God. It’s your hard work too. And I want you to know that I’m really proud of you.”
• After two years at Western Washington, I transferred to Stanford University in California.
• It was there that I heard about the Rhodes scholarship. A passage from the application caught my eye: “Proven intellectual and academic achievement is the first quality required of applicants,
• will also be required to show integrity of character and interest in and respect for their fellow beings.” Integrity. Interest. Respect. Did that include improbable comebacks?
A few months later I sat before an interview panel of former Rhodes scholars. “We’re fascinated by your background,” they said. “But we’re wondering, do you ever feel like you’re fooling everyone and you’re still that kid from Options?”
I took a deep breath and told them the truth. “Actually, ever since I left Options, I’ve felt like I had to prove myself. But just being here taking questions from you is a huge affirmation. I can honestly say I know who I am. And I’ll know it no matter what happens with this scholarship.”
I guess that was the right answer. This fall I’m studying applied statistics at Worcester College, Oxford.
What prices did Aaron pay for his transformation?
What about the alternative?
•Hang out, drop out, zone out, get high
•No responsibility
•Get material needs met at the expense of society;
Instead he
•Questioned himself; was this all he wanted out of life?
•He dug deeply into himself – why did he like Mr. LaRiviere? What had he missed, what had he tuned out from the world?
•He went through the pain of self inquiry
•He looked at the self-serving, self-absorbed, love of the lesser self and transformed it into its appropriate expression as un-selfish, life-giving love of self.
•The price Aaron paid for his misinterpretation of love was rejection, boredom, destruction of others and himself
•With the transformation he paid the price, at first, of the pain of self inquiry, and then the prices began to look more like rewards. High scores led to high school graduation, and an associates degree simultaneously. Then on to university, to Stanford, and to Oxford.
Ruth 1:15-16
15So she said, “See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” 16But Ruth said, “Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; Where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God.
Naomi is the first speaker urging her daughter-in-law to return to her people. Naomi and her husband, Elimelech, moved from Bethlehem in Judah to Moab with their two sons. Elimelech died leaving Naomi with her two sons. These two married Moabite women, one of whom was Ruth. The two sons also died, leaving only the women. Naomi decided to return to Judah. In the scripture Naomi is telling Ruth to return to her own country, Moab.
Ruth’s expression of love and devotion to Naomi is a favorite Biblical story. It is an expression of love in the highest form.
•Love that gives, that frees, the expression of the One spirit
•When we love most truly, we are most unselfish (Wilson, Master Class, 116)
•This form of love includes, . . it fulfills human love, and draws it into fuller expression.
•It wins because it seeks not its own
Mat 22:36"Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?"
Mat 22:37And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.
This is the great and first commandment.
And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Jesus exemplified this form of love repeatedly.
•Rich young ruler (seeking spiritual redemption, Mk 10:17)
*Woman at the well (Samaritan, outcast)
•Woman in the streets who had an issue of blood (Mt 9:20-22)
•His disciples
•Even the ear of the Roman soldier who came to arrest him (Luke 22:49)
•Each person seemed to Jesus have the potential to become whole (Spong, Jesus for the Non-Religious, 280)
It would be easy to say we aren’t Jesus. That’s true, AND he said we would do greater things.
Jhn 14:12 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I go to the Father.
Charles Fillmore, cofounder of Unity, said
of Jn 14:12, that we have not received at all times because we have not demonstrated the power of His name. (MJ 132) When we reach out into the great invisible spiritual substance all about us and think of ourselves as its expression, confidently expecting it to manifest itself through us, it will do so (MJ 132).
We say that God is everywhere present – that means that we walk in God, we breathe God, God breathes us. There is no place that God is not! And God is expressed through us as the Christ consciousness.
(RW, 124) love--The pure essence of Being that binds together the whole human family. Of all the attributes of God, love is undoubtedly the most beautiful. In Divine Mind, love is the power that joins and binds in divine harmony
Earnest Wilson said,
He who was so loving taught us the secret of love; love that is gentle but strong, kind but wise; deep but unselfish (Master Class Lessons, 105].
So IF we love in that way; in such a way that lives as if everyone can become whole, what prices are we likely to pay???
GIVE UP - Love of the lesser self
oUnsure of itself -> acts erratically
oFearful of its life and in panic may act without regard for others
oTries to attain by violence what it should get by intelligence
oMost conscious of outer world values and acts from that viewpoint
oSeeks pleasure and content and tries to hold and possess that which has proven pleasurable
Often resists change and growth: parents cling to their children and discourage development, maturity, and independence
•Children resort to childish ploys to gain favor and attention
•It bids us to grieve when we feel the PHYSICAL separation or loss.
The price is to give up this way of being in the world.
To demonstrate the Highest Self, we must be
Inwardly and spiritually so assured of that good that we are not overcome by outward appearances of loss or disadvantage. We must love ourselves so much that we shall be loving and unselfish toward others and unwilling to insure our own good at their expense. We must transform foolish pride into pride of such dignity that it will not stoop to anything mean or common or unworthy of the kind of person we spiritually sense ourselves to be. We must love ourselves too much to betray the higher self to the lower (Wilson, 113)
Let’s join together in an affirmation from Earnest Wilson
Christ in me rules my emotions.
I love as I would be loved, unselfish, impersonally, in the spirit of Christ.
Today we have a young man who has just completed a program of spiritual development which we call a Life Passage.
John's life was difficult before he met Laurie Jill Wood. He entered the foster care system when he was about 6, and wound up in a group home when he was almost 8. They had just about given up on finding him a home. Laurie Jill was volunteering at that group home, and John joined her as a foster child. She was told she would not be able to adopt him because he needed a father. Finally, when John was almost 10, she was allowed to adopt John.
At this point in his life, he asked to work a program of spiritual development. John’s program has involved developing his awareness of God through the body, mind, and spirit, and to demonstrate those in the community.
In ways John was a lot like our young man Aaron that we met at the beginning of today’s lesson. He was having a difficult time and through the loving support of caring adults, and his hard work, he has transformed his life experience. John will now show you some of what he learned, focusing on the 12 Powers. [Slide show created and narrated by John Wood.]
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Wind & FIre, 05/31/09
Grandma story; "Hawaiian good luck sign"[source unavailable, content not posted]
Acts 2:1-4 When the day of Pentecost had come,
• they were all together in one place. 2And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
• This is the Biblical reference to “Pentacost”, and today in traditional churches is THAT DAY.
• For some, it is a day that should be equal in celebration to Christmas and Easter.
http://www.godweb.org/pentacostdate.htm (website of Charles P. Henderson, Presbyterian Minister, & Ex. Dir of Cross Currents) states
Pentecost, the season of the Holy Spirit, is otherwise known as the "birthday of the church." In theory, Pentecost should be recognized, along with Christmas and Easter, as one of the three most important holidays of the Christian Church.
SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE
• Without a doubt, something happened. What – we do not know.
• We know that people were deeply moved.
• We know that there had been anticipation of power “from on high.”
Luke 24: 49And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.’
Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you
• It may appear that this is the 1st occasion of the appearance of the Holy Spirit. But not so.
Isa 63:11-12 Where is he who put in the midst of them his holy Spirit who caused his glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses, who divided the waters before them
Reference in Matt 1:18 to the conception of Jesus, before they came together she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit.
• Now if Pentacost is the birth of the church, then it is something to celebrate.
• If this is the quickening that happened to the disciples of Jesus, it is perhaps a greater event.
o That would make it the fire in their hearts that sent them forth to teach these principles
o It would be the wind of inspiration and the breath that gave them words to speak
The church in the traditional sense is an institution. The message that Jesus taught is alive and as vibrant for us today as it was 2000 years ago. A church can be an alive, vibrant community through which God can be known.
Charles Fillmore, co-founder of Unity, said of the gospels,
“When these are studies with unbiased mind, it is perceived that Jesus delegated no ecclesiastical power to anybody . . . Jesus appointed one teacher: ‘the Comforter, even the Holy Spirit’ (Gaither, 192).
In the Revealing Word, Fillmore defined Holy Spirit as
The activity of God in a universal sense. The moving force in the universe taken as a whole. The Spirit is the infinite "breath" of God, the life essence of Being. . . . Holy Spirit is the love of Jehovah taking care of the human family. The Holy Spirit is in the world today with great power and wisdom, ready to be poured upon all who look to it for guidance. Its mission is to bring all men into communion with God; to guide men in order that they will not mistake the way into the light (RW, 98)
• The visual presented in Acts 2 is dramatic. Do you think it is possible to be that excited about these teachings today? Do you? So what will it take? Do I need a sound and light show up here to get attention and draw people in? Do I need to be a master entertainer to generate passion for the connection with God?
• That is what this is all about – the connection with God. That was the spiritual experience of those in the account in Acts 2. The Holy Spirit is God in action!
o Fillmore said, “The Holy Spirit is sympathetic, comforting, loving, forgiving, and instantly healing. (G, 204)
o Further, Fillmore said, “The majority of people think that great spiritual faith is necessary to get marvelous results. But Jesus taught differently . . . the mustard is among the smallest of seeds, and the comparison would indicate what a tiny bit of real faith is necessary to cause motion in material things (G,248).
o When Paul and Silas were in a Roman jail, they prayed and sang until their bonds fell off, and the cell doors flew open (Acts 16:25, 26).
o Fillmore contends that on the day of Pentacost the followers of Jesus prayed and sang until the ethers were so accelerated that tongues of fire flashed from the bodies of the worshipers, and they were miraculously quickened in mental ability (G, 248).
There are untold millions of stories about prayer, and how it has changed lives. One I found particularly inspiring is told by a grandmother, Mary Frank.
http://www.guideposts.com/story/angel-heals-boys-burns; [view on website]
"Just 23 days after the accident, he is back in school full time, catching up on his missed days," Mary says. "No more flashbacks or nightmares of the fire. He had very little pain. His eyes are fine. His nose, lips and ears are fine....it looks now just like a bad sunburn. The doctors say there will be minimal to no scarring! And he is laughing again and being the character Isaac has always been.
• Prayer liberates the pent up energies of mind and body.
• When we sing spiritual songs, we pray to music. The energy is increased as we immerse ourselves in the sound and the spirit of the words and music.
So how did we go from a mighty wind and tongues of fire to the establishment of the church?
• In the following verses of the 2nd chapter of Acts the disciples, and especially Peter, preached to the crowds, there were conversion experiences, and the chapter closes with the words, “And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.”
• Taken literally, this sounds like the beginning of a church. And there is always more than one perspective. Like the grandmother at the beginning who saw all those rude behaviors as expressions of love.
• Perhaps, however, there is another way to look at it. John Shelby Spong, an Episcopal Bishop now retired, and a respected scholar of Jewish traditions along with the Bible,
• Spong talks about the Jewish tradition of midrash.
o Method of interpreting sacred scripture
o Method for the continued expansion of the sacred scriptures.
o It can be the interpretation of a story by relating it to another story or event in sacred history.
o The Jewish way of saying that everything to be venerated (held up as holy) in the present must somehow be connected with a sacred moment in the past. (Spong,8)
o “Our great failing was that we did not know anything about midrash, so we literalized narratives that were not intended to be literalized” (282).
While some scholars contend that to understand midrash we must study it, the point remains that it is not a literal reading. When we literalize the scriptures, at times we pull the life right out of them. As we seek the spirit of the Bible, the literal details seem to fade in importance. We could easily read this account as if it were a story from today and gather inspiration.
It was an amazing day when we had all come together. We were singing and praying, and the heavens opened and a powerful wind came up and blew through the place. People were so inspired they fairly shone with the light of God. They began talking to each other and to people they didn’t even know.
Then, there’s the metaphysical interpretation, but that’s for another lesson! In your bulletin you have an insert. Let’s pray these thoughts together. [Prayer is from Emmet Fox, copyright information unknown.]
Sources:
Gaither, James, The Essential Charles Fillmore. Unity Village, Unity Books, 1999.
Spong, John Shelby, Resurrection: Myth or Reality? San Francisco, Harper Collins. 1995.
Acts 2:1-4 When the day of Pentecost had come,
• they were all together in one place. 2And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
• This is the Biblical reference to “Pentacost”, and today in traditional churches is THAT DAY.
• For some, it is a day that should be equal in celebration to Christmas and Easter.
http://www.godweb.org/pentacostdate.htm (website of Charles P. Henderson, Presbyterian Minister, & Ex. Dir of Cross Currents) states
Pentecost, the season of the Holy Spirit, is otherwise known as the "birthday of the church." In theory, Pentecost should be recognized, along with Christmas and Easter, as one of the three most important holidays of the Christian Church.
SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE
• Without a doubt, something happened. What – we do not know.
• We know that people were deeply moved.
• We know that there had been anticipation of power “from on high.”
Luke 24: 49And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.’
Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you
• It may appear that this is the 1st occasion of the appearance of the Holy Spirit. But not so.
Isa 63:11-12 Where is he who put in the midst of them his holy Spirit who caused his glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses, who divided the waters before them
Reference in Matt 1:18 to the conception of Jesus, before they came together she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit.
• Now if Pentacost is the birth of the church, then it is something to celebrate.
• If this is the quickening that happened to the disciples of Jesus, it is perhaps a greater event.
o That would make it the fire in their hearts that sent them forth to teach these principles
o It would be the wind of inspiration and the breath that gave them words to speak
The church in the traditional sense is an institution. The message that Jesus taught is alive and as vibrant for us today as it was 2000 years ago. A church can be an alive, vibrant community through which God can be known.
Charles Fillmore, co-founder of Unity, said of the gospels,
“When these are studies with unbiased mind, it is perceived that Jesus delegated no ecclesiastical power to anybody . . . Jesus appointed one teacher: ‘the Comforter, even the Holy Spirit’ (Gaither, 192).
In the Revealing Word, Fillmore defined Holy Spirit as
The activity of God in a universal sense. The moving force in the universe taken as a whole. The Spirit is the infinite "breath" of God, the life essence of Being. . . . Holy Spirit is the love of Jehovah taking care of the human family. The Holy Spirit is in the world today with great power and wisdom, ready to be poured upon all who look to it for guidance. Its mission is to bring all men into communion with God; to guide men in order that they will not mistake the way into the light (RW, 98)
• The visual presented in Acts 2 is dramatic. Do you think it is possible to be that excited about these teachings today? Do you? So what will it take? Do I need a sound and light show up here to get attention and draw people in? Do I need to be a master entertainer to generate passion for the connection with God?
• That is what this is all about – the connection with God. That was the spiritual experience of those in the account in Acts 2. The Holy Spirit is God in action!
o Fillmore said, “The Holy Spirit is sympathetic, comforting, loving, forgiving, and instantly healing. (G, 204)
o Further, Fillmore said, “The majority of people think that great spiritual faith is necessary to get marvelous results. But Jesus taught differently . . . the mustard is among the smallest of seeds, and the comparison would indicate what a tiny bit of real faith is necessary to cause motion in material things (G,248).
o When Paul and Silas were in a Roman jail, they prayed and sang until their bonds fell off, and the cell doors flew open (Acts 16:25, 26).
o Fillmore contends that on the day of Pentacost the followers of Jesus prayed and sang until the ethers were so accelerated that tongues of fire flashed from the bodies of the worshipers, and they were miraculously quickened in mental ability (G, 248).
There are untold millions of stories about prayer, and how it has changed lives. One I found particularly inspiring is told by a grandmother, Mary Frank.
http://www.guideposts.com/story/angel-heals-boys-burns; [view on website]
"Just 23 days after the accident, he is back in school full time, catching up on his missed days," Mary says. "No more flashbacks or nightmares of the fire. He had very little pain. His eyes are fine. His nose, lips and ears are fine....it looks now just like a bad sunburn. The doctors say there will be minimal to no scarring! And he is laughing again and being the character Isaac has always been.
• Prayer liberates the pent up energies of mind and body.
• When we sing spiritual songs, we pray to music. The energy is increased as we immerse ourselves in the sound and the spirit of the words and music.
So how did we go from a mighty wind and tongues of fire to the establishment of the church?
• In the following verses of the 2nd chapter of Acts the disciples, and especially Peter, preached to the crowds, there were conversion experiences, and the chapter closes with the words, “And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.”
• Taken literally, this sounds like the beginning of a church. And there is always more than one perspective. Like the grandmother at the beginning who saw all those rude behaviors as expressions of love.
• Perhaps, however, there is another way to look at it. John Shelby Spong, an Episcopal Bishop now retired, and a respected scholar of Jewish traditions along with the Bible,
• Spong talks about the Jewish tradition of midrash.
o Method of interpreting sacred scripture
o Method for the continued expansion of the sacred scriptures.
o It can be the interpretation of a story by relating it to another story or event in sacred history.
o The Jewish way of saying that everything to be venerated (held up as holy) in the present must somehow be connected with a sacred moment in the past. (Spong,8)
o “Our great failing was that we did not know anything about midrash, so we literalized narratives that were not intended to be literalized” (282).
While some scholars contend that to understand midrash we must study it, the point remains that it is not a literal reading. When we literalize the scriptures, at times we pull the life right out of them. As we seek the spirit of the Bible, the literal details seem to fade in importance. We could easily read this account as if it were a story from today and gather inspiration.
It was an amazing day when we had all come together. We were singing and praying, and the heavens opened and a powerful wind came up and blew through the place. People were so inspired they fairly shone with the light of God. They began talking to each other and to people they didn’t even know.
Then, there’s the metaphysical interpretation, but that’s for another lesson! In your bulletin you have an insert. Let’s pray these thoughts together. [Prayer is from Emmet Fox, copyright information unknown.]
Sources:
Gaither, James, The Essential Charles Fillmore. Unity Village, Unity Books, 1999.
Spong, John Shelby, Resurrection: Myth or Reality? San Francisco, Harper Collins. 1995.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Sunday, 5/17/09, What About Ascension?
The I Can't Funeral
By: Copyright@ Phillip B. Childs
Donna's fourth grade classroom looked like many others I had seen in the past.
(Story of the class burying "I Can't.")
On those rare occasions when a student forgot and said, "I Can't", Donna simply pointed to the RIP sign. The student then remembered that "I Can't" was dead and chose to rephrase the statement.
Jesus was an “I Can” kind of guy – don’t you think?
• He taught the multitudes
• When there wasn’t enough to eat, he fed them with miracles of supply
• When people were sick, he performed miracles of healing
• When people didn’t know how to live, he told them how as in the Sermon on the Mount, Matt. 5-7
o Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today. Mt 6:34
o Do not judge so that you may not be judged Mt 7:1
o Ask and it will be give you. Mt 7:7
• He performed miracles of nature like calming the seas.
• He told them stories to illustrate his point.
In a traditional church calendar, Thursday, May 21, would be the celebration of Jesus’ ascension into heaven.
• Acts 1: 8-9 NRSV But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.”
As most of you know, Unity is not a traditional church. Ascension is part of traditional Christian story:
o God sent his son, Jesus
o Jesus lived, preached, taught
o Jesus died on the cross
o Burried & rose on 3rd day
o Ascended into heaven to the Father
So how does this fit?
• God who is all powerful, all knowing, and everywhere sends his son to live a short life, teach and preach, and he does this knowing it is a suicide mission!
While I might poke a little fun at this, Unity and I leave it totally open for you to believe this if it serves you. It is not, however, what we teach.
No manuscripts of the New Testament.
• Most people couldn’t write, and
• those who wrote recorded from the oral tradition.
• They were story tellers. As many as 35 to 40 years passed after Jesus’ death before anything was written down. And some of it took up to 100 years to be written.
3-Tiered Universe: The ascension story reflects the view of the universe of the time. Hell below, a flat earth in the middle, and heaven above. So Jesus rode a cloud right up into heaven to be with God.
SOMETHING HAPPENED!
• There was something so inspiring about the man Jesus that it was passed down for generations, then written.
• Something happened after the death of Jesus that was startling and had enormous power. Profound!
o Turned denying Peter into a witnessing Peter
o Turned disciples who fled for their lives into heroes willing to die for Jesus’ teachings.
o It was so intense that it created a new holy day – 1st day of week
• Something profound happened!
o The words that were written can only point to the truth of what happened.
o It was an experience that is beyond description.
o Yet so compelling the witnesses could not stop telling the story.
What difference does that make to us today?
• Between then and now humankind has developed
o Air travel
o Space travel
o Telescopes and radioscopes that show us a universe vast beyond belief in which our small round planet is virtually insignificant
• How do we bring together the notion of the story of Jesus and his ascension with the facts of modern science?
• Fillmore said,
Every time we rise to the realization of eternal indwelling life, making union with the Father-Mind, the resurrection of Jesus takes place within us. All thoughts of limitation and inevitable obedience to material law are left in the tomb of materiality. (KTL, 197)
o Fillmore’s solution when faced with the 19th century scientific discoveries was to accept science and search for the inner, spiritual meaning of the Bible.
o F. based interpretation on
MPH theory that reality is ultimately spiritual or mental.
Concluded that Gen 1 is a metaphorical account of the creative process
In the metaphysical mindset, ascension--The ascending or progressive unfoldment of man from the animal to the spiritual. It is measured by three degrees or states of consciousness: first, the animal; second, the mental or psychical; and third, the spiritual. Jesus first manifested Himself as the man on the physical plane, from which He was resurrected to the mental or psychical; from thence He ascended to the spiritual. (RW 16)
For Fillmore, Jesus demonstrated the evolution through 3 stages of soul development
• 1st physical existence
• 2nd through resurrection he demonstrated the mental or psychic plane of existence
• 3rd & finally with the ascension he achieved the spiritual plane
Obviously we are on the physical plane. We may experience some mental and psychic evolution, but are still here physically.
For us:
• We have the option to evolve
• We can change our experience by learning to see it rightly
• We can embrace that creative process that Fillmore talked about
• We can try it out for ourselves.
• If it doesn’t work, then take what is useful and leave the rest.
• The short version of the creative process is that “thoughts held in mind produce after their kind.” What we hold in our minds and embellish with emotion creates our world.
The world has caught up with Fillmore. There are many who know this who never heard of Unity.
‘If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. Don't complain.’ — Maya Angelou
Nothing we can do can change the past, but everything we do changes the future.’
‘If you can neither accept it or change it, try to laugh at it.’ --Ashleigh Brilliant
If we create our world with our thoughts, to change our world, change our thoughts! Change our expectations!
But this is hard work. We run into that thing we talked about last time – race consciousness.
This is akin to Jung’s archetype of the shadow.
It is, by its name, dark, shadowy, unknown and potentially troubling. It embodies chaos and wildness of character. The shadow thus tends not to obey rules, and in doing so may discover new lands or plunge things into chaos and battle. It has a sense of the exotic and can be disturbingly fascinating. In myth, it appears as the wild man, spider-people, mysterious fighters and dark enemies.
We may see the shadow in others and, if we dare, know it in ourselves. Mostly, however, we deny it in ourselves and project it onto others. http://changingminds.org/explanations/identity/jung_archetypes.htm
For Fillmore, according to Jim Gaither, former instructor of Metaphysics at Unity School, his interpretation of the Bible allowed him to accept scientific truths without rejecting the truths of the Bible. He took the concept of evolution and interpreted the Bible as an allegory of human consciousness evolving from a “fallen” state to a divine state. He took the concept of law and applied it to the Bible as an allegory for spiritual and mental laws. The concept of the Bible as allegory for human consciousness anticipated the theory of Carl Jung that human mythology symbolized primordial archetypes in the collective unconscious. (19)
So how does this show up in our world, beyond what some famous people have said?
You Get What You Expect
Parents of a high school freshman, we will call him John, asked Robert Brooks to serve as a consultant for his school program.
(Story of 2 teachers' differing views and the affect on the student.)
Brooks understood why John was a discipline problem with the first teacher but not with the second teacher. He was following what he believed to be their expectations for him.
If we wish children (or adults for that matter) to change their behavior, we must have the insight and courage to change our behavior first.
We all possess different mindsets or assumptions about ourselves as well as others. These assumptions, which we may not even think about or be aware of, play a significant role in determining our expectations and our behavior. Even seemingly hidden assumptions have a way of being expressed to others. Not surpisingly, people begin to behave in accord with the expectations we have of them and when they do, we are apt to interpret this as a sign that our expectations are accurate. What we fail to appreciate is the extent to which our expectations subtly or not-so-subtly shape the behavior of others. http://www.drrobertbrooks.com/writings/articles/0210.html
If we want to change the world, we have to learn to see it differently, to interact with it differently.
If we want our world to be a happy place, then focus on the beauty and the fun in our own lives.
We, as a people, are looking for those who can prove in actual works the presence of the indwelling Spirit. So let’s prove it to ourselves.
We can take charge of our thoughts. First, pay attention to them.
• When you find yourself thinking the same thoughts or small collection of thoughts repeatedly, especially if they are affecting your mood or outlook, sit back and watch them. Just play observer. You are likely to find:
o Your thoughts run in a loop (when we are anxious or preoccupied, the same thought seems to appear with monotonous regularity)
o You can observe your thoughts, therefore your thoughts are not who you are!
o Thoughts drive emotions; as you think, so you feel. Even though it feels like your anxiety is driving your thoughts, it’s really the other way around
• As you observe your thoughts, allow yourself to experience the freedom of knowing that:
o Our thoughts are not inevitable
o Our thoughts are self-made
o Thoughts affect mood – not the other way around (Dowrick, Choosing Happiness, 175)
As Goethe said, “Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them become what they were capable of being.”
And in a similar way, treat yourself as if you were what you ought to be, and you help yourself become what you are capable of being.
Thoughts of ourselves as expressions of God, perfect, loving, and whole help us to become that.
God loves you and so do I.
By: Copyright@ Phillip B. Childs
Donna's fourth grade classroom looked like many others I had seen in the past.
(Story of the class burying "I Can't.")
On those rare occasions when a student forgot and said, "I Can't", Donna simply pointed to the RIP sign. The student then remembered that "I Can't" was dead and chose to rephrase the statement.
Jesus was an “I Can” kind of guy – don’t you think?
• He taught the multitudes
• When there wasn’t enough to eat, he fed them with miracles of supply
• When people were sick, he performed miracles of healing
• When people didn’t know how to live, he told them how as in the Sermon on the Mount, Matt. 5-7
o Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today. Mt 6:34
o Do not judge so that you may not be judged Mt 7:1
o Ask and it will be give you. Mt 7:7
• He performed miracles of nature like calming the seas.
• He told them stories to illustrate his point.
In a traditional church calendar, Thursday, May 21, would be the celebration of Jesus’ ascension into heaven.
• Acts 1: 8-9 NRSV But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.”
As most of you know, Unity is not a traditional church. Ascension is part of traditional Christian story:
o God sent his son, Jesus
o Jesus lived, preached, taught
o Jesus died on the cross
o Burried & rose on 3rd day
o Ascended into heaven to the Father
So how does this fit?
• God who is all powerful, all knowing, and everywhere sends his son to live a short life, teach and preach, and he does this knowing it is a suicide mission!
While I might poke a little fun at this, Unity and I leave it totally open for you to believe this if it serves you. It is not, however, what we teach.
No manuscripts of the New Testament.
• Most people couldn’t write, and
• those who wrote recorded from the oral tradition.
• They were story tellers. As many as 35 to 40 years passed after Jesus’ death before anything was written down. And some of it took up to 100 years to be written.
3-Tiered Universe: The ascension story reflects the view of the universe of the time. Hell below, a flat earth in the middle, and heaven above. So Jesus rode a cloud right up into heaven to be with God.
SOMETHING HAPPENED!
• There was something so inspiring about the man Jesus that it was passed down for generations, then written.
• Something happened after the death of Jesus that was startling and had enormous power. Profound!
o Turned denying Peter into a witnessing Peter
o Turned disciples who fled for their lives into heroes willing to die for Jesus’ teachings.
o It was so intense that it created a new holy day – 1st day of week
• Something profound happened!
o The words that were written can only point to the truth of what happened.
o It was an experience that is beyond description.
o Yet so compelling the witnesses could not stop telling the story.
What difference does that make to us today?
• Between then and now humankind has developed
o Air travel
o Space travel
o Telescopes and radioscopes that show us a universe vast beyond belief in which our small round planet is virtually insignificant
• How do we bring together the notion of the story of Jesus and his ascension with the facts of modern science?
• Fillmore said,
Every time we rise to the realization of eternal indwelling life, making union with the Father-Mind, the resurrection of Jesus takes place within us. All thoughts of limitation and inevitable obedience to material law are left in the tomb of materiality. (KTL, 197)
o Fillmore’s solution when faced with the 19th century scientific discoveries was to accept science and search for the inner, spiritual meaning of the Bible.
o F. based interpretation on
MPH theory that reality is ultimately spiritual or mental.
Concluded that Gen 1 is a metaphorical account of the creative process
In the metaphysical mindset, ascension--The ascending or progressive unfoldment of man from the animal to the spiritual. It is measured by three degrees or states of consciousness: first, the animal; second, the mental or psychical; and third, the spiritual. Jesus first manifested Himself as the man on the physical plane, from which He was resurrected to the mental or psychical; from thence He ascended to the spiritual. (RW 16)
For Fillmore, Jesus demonstrated the evolution through 3 stages of soul development
• 1st physical existence
• 2nd through resurrection he demonstrated the mental or psychic plane of existence
• 3rd & finally with the ascension he achieved the spiritual plane
Obviously we are on the physical plane. We may experience some mental and psychic evolution, but are still here physically.
For us:
• We have the option to evolve
• We can change our experience by learning to see it rightly
• We can embrace that creative process that Fillmore talked about
• We can try it out for ourselves.
• If it doesn’t work, then take what is useful and leave the rest.
• The short version of the creative process is that “thoughts held in mind produce after their kind.” What we hold in our minds and embellish with emotion creates our world.
The world has caught up with Fillmore. There are many who know this who never heard of Unity.
‘If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. Don't complain.’ — Maya Angelou
Nothing we can do can change the past, but everything we do changes the future.’
‘If you can neither accept it or change it, try to laugh at it.’ --Ashleigh Brilliant
If we create our world with our thoughts, to change our world, change our thoughts! Change our expectations!
But this is hard work. We run into that thing we talked about last time – race consciousness.
This is akin to Jung’s archetype of the shadow.
It is, by its name, dark, shadowy, unknown and potentially troubling. It embodies chaos and wildness of character. The shadow thus tends not to obey rules, and in doing so may discover new lands or plunge things into chaos and battle. It has a sense of the exotic and can be disturbingly fascinating. In myth, it appears as the wild man, spider-people, mysterious fighters and dark enemies.
We may see the shadow in others and, if we dare, know it in ourselves. Mostly, however, we deny it in ourselves and project it onto others. http://changingminds.org/explanations/identity/jung_archetypes.htm
For Fillmore, according to Jim Gaither, former instructor of Metaphysics at Unity School, his interpretation of the Bible allowed him to accept scientific truths without rejecting the truths of the Bible. He took the concept of evolution and interpreted the Bible as an allegory of human consciousness evolving from a “fallen” state to a divine state. He took the concept of law and applied it to the Bible as an allegory for spiritual and mental laws. The concept of the Bible as allegory for human consciousness anticipated the theory of Carl Jung that human mythology symbolized primordial archetypes in the collective unconscious. (19)
So how does this show up in our world, beyond what some famous people have said?
You Get What You Expect
Parents of a high school freshman, we will call him John, asked Robert Brooks to serve as a consultant for his school program.
(Story of 2 teachers' differing views and the affect on the student.)
Brooks understood why John was a discipline problem with the first teacher but not with the second teacher. He was following what he believed to be their expectations for him.
If we wish children (or adults for that matter) to change their behavior, we must have the insight and courage to change our behavior first.
We all possess different mindsets or assumptions about ourselves as well as others. These assumptions, which we may not even think about or be aware of, play a significant role in determining our expectations and our behavior. Even seemingly hidden assumptions have a way of being expressed to others. Not surpisingly, people begin to behave in accord with the expectations we have of them and when they do, we are apt to interpret this as a sign that our expectations are accurate. What we fail to appreciate is the extent to which our expectations subtly or not-so-subtly shape the behavior of others. http://www.drrobertbrooks.com/writings/articles/0210.html
If we want to change the world, we have to learn to see it differently, to interact with it differently.
If we want our world to be a happy place, then focus on the beauty and the fun in our own lives.
We, as a people, are looking for those who can prove in actual works the presence of the indwelling Spirit. So let’s prove it to ourselves.
We can take charge of our thoughts. First, pay attention to them.
• When you find yourself thinking the same thoughts or small collection of thoughts repeatedly, especially if they are affecting your mood or outlook, sit back and watch them. Just play observer. You are likely to find:
o Your thoughts run in a loop (when we are anxious or preoccupied, the same thought seems to appear with monotonous regularity)
o You can observe your thoughts, therefore your thoughts are not who you are!
o Thoughts drive emotions; as you think, so you feel. Even though it feels like your anxiety is driving your thoughts, it’s really the other way around
• As you observe your thoughts, allow yourself to experience the freedom of knowing that:
o Our thoughts are not inevitable
o Our thoughts are self-made
o Thoughts affect mood – not the other way around (Dowrick, Choosing Happiness, 175)
As Goethe said, “Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them become what they were capable of being.”
And in a similar way, treat yourself as if you were what you ought to be, and you help yourself become what you are capable of being.
Thoughts of ourselves as expressions of God, perfect, loving, and whole help us to become that.
God loves you and so do I.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Checking In
With the promise of Spring in the air and almost on the calendar, St. Louis is starting to look glorious. As we look at all the new life around us, it is harder to listen to the news of the recession and bail outs and bonuses for executives of a failing giant company.
Maybe that's for the best. Since we manifest what we focus on, it is a good thing to focus on the beauty of Spring, the glorious chatter of the squirrels and birds outside the window. With a roof over our heads and our bills paid, we have much for which to be grateful!
Love,
Rev M
Maybe that's for the best. Since we manifest what we focus on, it is a good thing to focus on the beauty of Spring, the glorious chatter of the squirrels and birds outside the window. With a roof over our heads and our bills paid, we have much for which to be grateful!
Love,
Rev M
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