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| A sermon shared by Rev. Anne Evans at the Temple 12-16-01 On September 11, a new world and a new world consciousness were born. Our national psyche was shaken to its core. It took a catastrophe of the magnitude of four hijacked airliners crashing into our financial center, our military center and into our countryside, with a combined astronomical loss of human life, to wake us up and to accomplish this birth. I call these events a birth - those of you who have been present at a birth know what it entails - it is "messy", bloody, there is pain, and life and death hang in the balance. There are also acts performed by humans present at that birth that portray the finest in human behavior. Therefore, September 11th, to me, typifies birth. The destruction (messiness), the blood, the pain of injuries and the pain of those who lost loved ones. Life and death hung in the balance for large numbers of people, and hundreds of human beings portrayed the finest in human behavior. It is sad to me that we as human beings have chosen pain as the catalyst to effect change. We have to be in pain, it seems, before we will change. A new millennium of conscious evolution has been born. To paraphrase the scriptures - when I was a child I thought as a child, I spoke as a child, I acted as a child. But now that I am an adult I have put aside all childish things. It will not be easy, moving through this "birth" into a new way of living. We each, individually, must give up old paradigms of thought, of action, of beliefs. We must strive to consciously and continually live as a compassionate member of this human family. In this new millennium, this new life, the peoples of the world must make a strong concentrated effort to come together as one race - the human race - and one family - the human family. I want to distinguish Religion from Spirituality. Religions are man-made and they seek to define, explain the Creator and our relationship to this all-encompassing Power. In attempting, through our separate human religions, to label and describe the Creator, we create a God in our own Image. Deepak Chopra describes seven human responses or viewpoints of God and these views form the unshakable basis of our human religions. Each one is valid and each one projects a different view of reality with a matching God. · If you see yourself in fear, barely holding on with survival at stake, ours is a God of fight or flight - one who protects you like a father or mother. – · If you see yourself as capable of power and accomplishment, yours is a God of reactive response - one who makes laws and rules over society. – · If you see yourself as centered and calm, yours is a God of the restful awareness response - one who brings inner peace. · If you see yourself as growing and evolving, yours is a God of the intuitive response - one who encourages human beings to reach their full potential. – · If you see yourself as someone who makes personal dreams come true, yours is a God of the creative response- one who inspires us to explore and discover. – · If you see yourself as capable of working miracles, yours is a God of the visionary response - one who creates miracles. · If you see yourself as one with God, yours is a God of the sacred response - one who brings us back into unity. No one has actually seen God, although millions have been able to experience God. Does it really matter how we experience God? Is it not more important that we acknowledge that each view, each experience of God is valid and is a step on the evolutionary trek to know God? Can we not look for what is common and basic in all religions and with reverence for all teachings unite as one people with the source of all Life, our Creator? What we must bring to this new millennium, to this new birth of consciousness, to this new world is a broader image of God, our Creator and a broader interpretation of our relationship to this Creator and consequently each other. Emotions reflect intentions. Changing what is negative or undesirable upgrades our intentions and thus what we create. Without an awareness of our emotions we are not able to experience Reverence. Reverence is not an emotion; it is a state of being. Reverence is being aware of the divinity within and not looking for validation from without. When we choose to reject fear and doubt and when we affirm what we know to he true- that by aligning ourselves with this great Universal Cosmic Power (whatever we choose to call it) we are able to create dynamic positive circumstances, all things then become possible! By stabilizing this world birth of a new consciousness, by holding the vision of what is possible for the human race, then, and only then, will "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth even as it is in heaven." -Luke 11:2 |
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