Good
Morning! I wish you each a happy
and joyous Easter. Easter is
really a story that is deeply insightful for metaphysicians.
It reveals the deep nature of God’s true and lasting Love for the
creations that come of God’s being. God
loves us. Period.
Everything is ours for the asking because of this Love.
If there is any reason for our experience and for our existence, that
underlying state is Love.
Today
we light these candles, reading
and speaking these words in honor of the traditional story of the Resurrection
of Jesus of Nazareth and to honor Christ Consciousness within ourselves.
We do so both in the present and in remembrance of those who have
celebrated all that is sacred in the many spiritual traditions that have come
and gone.
We
will not concern ourselves overly with whether or not what is written about
the events recorded in the Bible are absolutely true, instead, we choose to
appreciate the metaphysical meaning of this Biblical story and the sacred
example that Jesus Christ was for all people who have lived since that time.
No matter what their faith, no one is untouched by the life of Jesus of
Nazareth and the example of Love and Life he left for those who choose to
follow him.
We
affirm once again today that the same power that was in Christ Jesus is also
within each of us here. The
inconsistencies of the Bible with regard to the resurrection of Jesus matter
little when we take from the story its metaphysical lesson, which is, indeed,
timeless.
There
is also a rich treasure of parables and teaching tales that have preceded us
in the Pagan and Wiccan traditions.
At the Spring Solstice bonfires would be lit and it was felt that such
light would ignite or awaken the living Spirit in the Earth and abundant life
would burst through the surface of the earth, repossessing the planet as if
aroused from a slumber. This
time of year reminds us that the earth is in love with itself.
The proof of this is in the self-givingness of Nature to itself, just
as Emerson pointed out in his essays. God
is reflected gorgeously and vibrantly in every aspect of the natural world and
there is nothing that is outside of nature.
We can come to know God better through our experience and observation
of Nature and her power and beauty. Just
as we know that God made us out of God’s self, we know that the earth gives
to itself out of the same Love.
Let
us learn from them some part of the wisdom of the ages so that we will not
forget to carry whatever part of it within our hearts that we can contain, and
in our beings strive to remember Truth in whatever way it is revealed to us.
Easter
Sunday is a day for rejoicing. It was on Easter Sunday that the friends of
Jesus learned that Jesus was alive again. They went to the cave where Jesus
had been buried. They found that the huge rock, which blocked the entrance to
the cave, and they saw that it had been rolled away. The cave was empty. They
knew that Jesus was alive again! Jesus promised new life to everyone who
believed in Him. Metaphysically,
we can look at this as an opportunity to notice the huge rocks we lay on our
own path. What outmoded ideas can
we move away, off of our path so that we can live again?
Often we think that these ideas are “just the way that life is,” as
if we are powerless to do anything about these things. And yet, a simple change of heart, the merest willingness for
change, can lead to a change in our thinking, and magically, miraculously,
roll the stone away from the situations or circumstances where we feel trapped
in our lives. Truly, we cannot
even begin to understand the eternal nature of our souls when we are busy
allowing ourselves to feel trapped in our lives.
One
way that we know this is going on in our lives is that we can notice a lack of
affinity for someone whom we regularly interact with, even if it is that
someone who cuts us off in traffic. You
know the one who won’t let you make it off at your exit in heavy traffic, or
keeps you pinned in a lane you
would rather not be driving in?
We
are still trapped in the “tomb of our unconsciousness” when there is
anyone at all that we cannot find a way within ourselves to extend love to
that person also. How hard can it
be to love another? Well we all
have families that answer that question for us, and somehow, when we find a
way to extend love, even when there are many very good reasons to draw away
from them, God knows they “do stuff” to us, we know that there is a state
of being within our very selves that makes it all worthwhile.
It is in allowing ourselves to love them anyway, that we learn to love
ourselves anyway. The experience
of Love is not for sissies. Love
is a mature creation. When we are loving and loveable, we are being creative,
we are relying on the power of our own word to create an acceptance of the
being of another where we do not try to change them in anyway in order for our
ability to Love them. We can and
we do Love without limitation. Love
is the power that rolled the stone away from the tomb; and it is the very
power that is strong enough to change anything for any one of us.
The expression of Love is an expression of our connection with God.
When
we consciously connect with God, we touch joy, even in the midst of
challenging experiences, because the Creative Force is joyful. Inside all of
us is a center of God's wisdom, power, grace, and love - and God's joy.
Ever notice how much easier your work is when you are joyful!
Often
we declare such changes of thought and of heart to be miracles, setting them
aside as some kind of exception, but I say to you that these are not
exceptions but the ordinary miraculous conditions of a life lived in
principle. God is available to us
at all times and there is nothing that is too great a burden to be lifted from
our paths, no stone too large to be turned away through the power of Love.
In
Luke’s Gospel, a lawyer asks Jesus: “How can I inherit eternal life?”
This is definitely a spot where I could tell a good lawyer joke, but
not today. Jesus replied to the lawyer that he must love God and love his
neighbor. All lawyers begin in conversation by mutually defining the terms
that are being used. Even in the
Bible! So, of course, the lawyer
then had to ask for a definition of “neighbor.” Jesus responded with the
parable of The Good Samaritan.
Any
of you go to Sunday School as children? You
probably remember that the Samaritans were not considered nice people, they
were not acceptable, as a matter of fact, they were despised.
I also remember thinking that it was as if they were Canadians, they
looked like Americans, but they weren’t, and you had to be nice to them,
like regular people. In fact, I
was raised to be nice to people who were not viewed as my equal. It was a way of proving that I was a “lady.”
I imagine this attitude was similar to the attitude that the Jews at
that time had about the Samaritans. It wasn’t just that they were from a
neighboring region, the Samaritans’ religion was unacceptable to the Jews.
This was because their religion was syncretistic, which means it combined
different forms of belief and practice. So
I suppose you could say that we are more like the Samaritans of that time than
we are like Christians!
Jesus’
point was that it was not the cleric or the devout scribe who were good
neighbors, though we can include them as neighbors too.
Jesus said the neighbor was the Samaritan.
The Samaritan, who was on a par with today’s spiritual outcasts or
little known groups such as our own in New Thought. With the widespread adoption of Eastern faiths and the
blending of religious practices, you could say there are Samaritans everywhere
these days. And so, the Samaritan
was the neighbor! This
realization calls to mind one of those Ashleigh Brilliant homilies, “We have
met the enemy, and the enemy is us!”
However,
the context of Jesus’ story was the inheritance of eternal life.
By extension, it will be the despised Samaritan, not the religiously
pious person, who "gets it" in the end! Jesus added a "new commandment" that was also
in the context of "eternal life" and his parable. Jesus said
"The Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment" and Jesus
passed it on in a context free of religion and dogma and creeds. "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I
have loved you, that ye also love one another." And Jesus added "And
I know that his commandment is life everlasting."
Divine
Science co-founder Nona Brooks wrote in her book, Mysteries,
"The Resurrection consciousness is the consciousness that raises the body
from a belief in mortality to a certainty of Life Eternal. It is the
consciousness of Universal Love." She added that this "Resurrection
will be brought about by our own thought process." The Resurrection
occurs within us, when we choose to arise in our consciousness, and
intentionally choose the resurrection of our own souls!
Just as it was a completely intentional act on Jesus part, he struggled
with his future in the garden, he lived through the betrayal and the faint
praise and he proceeded to the resurrection of his soul through his faith in
the Love of God for all creation. Extend
this Love to your self today and to all the Samaritans in your life and in
this way, you shall once again find New Life.
God is in you at all times. This
is truly the nature of Love. Bask
in it with me this glorious and beautiful Easter Sunday.
There is a power for good in the universe, greater than we are, and we
can use it!
Thank
you for being here today.
Emerson
Center for
