Prayer of Opening
We awaken to you, Loving God.
In you we live and move and have our being.
You are our very breath.
You are that which beats our hearts,
and animates our actions.
We open to know you more fully,
as our beloved companion,
as the essence of our being,
as the breath we breathe,
as creator and all creation –
all that ever was, is and will be.
In you we live and move and have our being.
As your offspring, we open to living out your promise
that you have not abandoned us.
You live. You abide with us, through us, and as us.
In you we live and move and have our being.
Amen.
HYMN: VU 382 - Breathe on Me, Breath of God
Breathe on me, breath of God, fill me with life anew,
that I may love what thou dost love, and do what thou wouldst do.
Breathe on me, breath of God, until my heart is pure,
until my will is one with thine, to do and to endure.
Breathe on me, breath of God, till I am wholly thine,
until this earthly part of me glows with thy fire divine.
Introduction of the Prism of Perspectives
We have all somehow found our way to this Evolutionary church where we are constantly invited to question and update our idea of God. Some of you have been here long before Bruce arrived as a strong catalyst for this, but I believe that it was already in the culture of innovation and vision that was established by Colonel Fallis long ago, and by all those whom have been here over the nearly 90 years of its existence.
Today I hope to share some ways you might continue to explore your own relationship with the Divine. This will not be a traditional sermon, followed by a hymn or anthem. Neil and I have co-created a soul-ful experience intertwining message and music, to allow you to drop into your hearts and feel your souls. If you find you experience confusion or resistance to this change, allow yourself to surrender this resistance, and open up to not just “hearing about” - but actually “feeling” – the experience of Spirit descending upon your heart.
I chose these two Bible readings because they have brought comfort and inspiration for me when I have felt the sense of aloneness or abandonment that comes when I feel separate from God.
From John:
I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you.
...because I live, you also will live.
...I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.
And from Acts:
For 'In him we live and move and have our being'
I invite you to look at these as if they are a prism, reflecting and refracting light in many directions, to be seen from a few perspectives. I will explore these from three possible perspectives:
We will sense and feel the vastness of God as the Ground of Our Being, of the Alpha and the Omega, the Allness and Suchness of all Life, in which we move and breathe and have our being.
We will sense and feel the fear of abandonment of the disciples, that they would be separated from Jesus, and thus God. We will feel into this from our own perspective – the feelings we have that keep us separate from God. From this, we will tune into ways to truly cultivate the experience of Soul Friend with the Divine Beloved, our constant companion, living out Jesus’ promise.
And we will delve into the rich realm of the mystics, feeling that Spirit is seeded in our souls, ever-waiting upon us to invite its expression IN us - and THROUGH us and AS us.
My hope for you is that you can know each of these experiences, to open up to a full body experience – not just be present with your ears and brain – but also with your heart, your body and your soul, and might be inspired to a broader and deeper experience of the Divine.
Take a moment now, as one might do in Centering Prayer of the Christian Mystics, and consent to the Presence of the Spirit to descend upon your mind, your heart, your body, your soul so that you might be fully open to the Highest Most, and Innermost Spirit of the Living God.
If you are comfortable, say to yourself,
“I consent to the Presence.” (breathing in)
“I consent to the Presence” (exhale).
Open your ears, your heart, your mind, your soul.... (pause)
Consent to the Presence. Experience the Presence. Express the Presence.
In God I Move and Breathe and Have My Being
From our reading today from Acts:
“From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth,
and he allotted the times of their existence
and the boundaries of the places where they would live,
so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him—
though indeed he is not far from each one of us.
For 'In him we live and move and have our being'”
The author of Acts also reminds us that the Lord of heaven and earth does not live in shrines made by human hands of gold or silver or stone. God is the Allness, the ground of all being, the circle and the circumference, all that ever was, is and will be. God is the cosmos. In time - and time-lessness; in space - and space-lessness.
How do we wrap our minds and hearts around this? We might find the words to say it, or nod when we hear Bruce say it, but what if we really believed it, Knew it? -- that God is the Source and Substance of ALL - always present, in all situations.
From this perspective we experience God as the great Web of Life, the Great Perfection of everything that’s arising. Spirit is indeed the supreme radiant perfection of all manifestation. That in which we move and breathe and have our being.
Awe & Wonder
From our reading from one of the new faith statements of the United Church of Canada, A Song of Faith , we heard these words:
God is Holy Mystery, beyond complete knowledge, above perfect description.
God is creative and self-giving,
generously moving in all the near and distant corners of the universe.
Nothing exists that does not find its source in God.
Finding ourselves in a world of beauty and mystery,
of living things, diverse and interdependent,
of complex patterns of growth and evolution,
of subatomic particles and cosmic swirls,
we sing of God the Creator, the Maker and Source of all that is…
As we fill ourselves with Awe and Wonder of the vastness of God, we remember that we live in the Heart of God. Spirit is the very essence of our being. We move and breathe and have our being in God. Spirit is not in some far away place, only responding to our beseeching to come for a visit. Spirit lives in us. As us. We live in its Love.
God’s very Love created us. It created the whole universe, and continues to create anew, and anew, in each moment. We cannot be alone because we are one with God. We are in God and God in Us.
Consent to the Presence. Open your heart and mind to Knowing – that God’s grace is your very life-breath. That we cannot be alone –
in God, we move and breathe and have our being.
As you sing this first hymn, allow yourself to bring into your mind’s eye all creation. Imagine as you sing, God saying, “Be Still and know that I am in you and you in Me. I am the all-creator, all created, in all the near and distant corners of the universe. Nothing exists that does not find its source in Me.”
Simply rest in God. Surrender to the heart of God in which you move and breathe and have your being.
Hymn: MV 77 - Be Still and Know
Be still and know that I am God
We Have Not Been Left Abandoned
For some of us, or even at some times in all of our lives, the notion of opening up the awe of wonder of the vastness of the Divine, of God, is too intangible. The subjective Reality of God feels too impersonal, disconnected from us. We continue to experience God as something Out There, far away, maybe even in all creation, but somehow inaccessible, unavailable for us.
We might resonate with the cosmic terms used for God in this church, and even get a glimpse of the Great Perfection in our meditations and prayers. We may even have had a felt-experience of God In, Through and As all creation in the forests of BC or walking along our beautiful beaches, or taking in a gorgeous sunset, or looking up at a bright starry night.
And yet, traditional metaphors and archetypes for God are well entrenched in our consciousness - individually and culturally. We may yearn for a personal expression, an individualized expression of this Divine Presence in our lives, yet one that is updated from our childhood Sunday-School-inspired “friendship” with Jesus.
Feeling Separate
And there are times we may feel separate from God. We wonder, “Where is God? – in the disasters of the world, in the pain of our lives. We seek signs that God is with us, that God has not abandoned us. We feel alone. Like the disciples when Jesus explained that he would be leaving them, we fear that we have been left abandoned, alone, to make our way through this thing we call life.
Yearning, we may pray, calling upon this Presence, to see but a glimpse of hope that we are not alone, just as the disciples did as they tried to sort through Jesus’ words that he was going to be leaving them soon.
Feel into this yearning… Remember any times when you felt abandoned by God, wondering why the Almighty Presence had gone out of your life, out of the world. Times when the contemplation of the Cosmic Being did not bring comfort to your heart and soul. (pause)
When we feel abandoned, alone. separate from God, is it that God has left?
Or have we ceased to consent to the awareness of the ever-existing Presence of the Divine?
Jesus said, “I will not abandon you. I will send the Spirit to live with you. Live in you.”
Anam Cara (pronounced Ahnam Car-Ah) – Soul Friend
In the Celtic tradition, according to John Donahue, Catholic Priest, philosopher, poet and teacher, it is believed that the soul radiates all about the physical body.
When you connect with another person and become completely open and trusting with that individual, your two souls begin to flow together. Should such a deep bond be formed, it is said you have found your “Anam Cara” (pronounced Ahnam Car-Ah), or soul friend.
Your “Anam Cara” always accepts you as you truly are, holding you in beauty and light. The Celts believed that forming an “Anam Cara” friendship helps you to awaken your awareness of your own divine nature and experience the joys of others.
The “Anam Cara” was originally someone to whom you confessed, revealing the hidden intimacies of your life. With the “Anam Cara”, you could share your innermost self, your mind and your heart. This friendship was an act of recognition and belonging.
You were joined in an ancient and eternal way with the “friend of your soul”. This awakened and fostered a deep and special companionship. This bond is indissoluble: broken by no chances, no interval of time or space can sever or destroy, and even death itself cannot part.
This is what I believe Jesus was offering his disciples as he departed the physical world. No death could separate them. They had a bond that transcended time, space, life, death. The essence that was within Jesus, is what is the Holy Spirit.
So, as Jesus, the man, left the earth, he sent his soul, his Spirit, to remain WITH us, and IN us, as our Holy friend, divine counselor, Soul Friend. Someone or something to whom we tell our deepest secrets, allow us to touch and see and feel and hear our soul’s yearnings; that part of the divine that we truly Trust, with whom we share our delights and our sorrows.
What does this mean in our world today? We yearn for a sense of belonging, comfort, and yet the idea of cultivating a “personal” relationship with Jesus, with the Christ, with Spirit, goes against the modernist, and even post-modernist rugged individualism, or materialism, that only believes in and connects with that which can be physically touched, materially experienced.
Yet, we have a promise - a promise of something much greater. Seeded in our being, abiding with us always, abiding IN us always - an Anam Cara, to journey through life with. To surrender to, relate with, to be loved by and to love.
How do we drop our defensiveness and truly cultivate a love affair with the Divine? How do we allow our hearts to open, our souls to expand, to feel his or its presence with us always. How do we drop our old stories of being abandoned or betrayed when things get tough.
Opening to Sophia
I had a period of my life when I was entrenched in an aversion to an “outer-God,” a God outside myself. I had a great awe and wonder of the All-ness of God, in through and as all creation, illuminating the Cosmos from the beginning of time and beyond, but when it came to relating WITH God, a Being separate from me, my post-modern individualism felt constricted. Only when I had was knocked to my knees through life’s experiences did I re-open to the beauty and the bounty of love and peace that comes when I opened to an Anam Cara relationship with the Divine.
For me it was the embodiment of the Spirit in Sophia, Divine Wisdom. For others, it might be re-opening to the embodiment of the Spirit as Jesus, the Christed One. For many Catholics, it is Mother Mary. Whomever represents the divine comforter, the divine companion who brings love, comfort and wisdom to your soul, open to it!
This Divine is knocking on the door of your heart. It awaits, patiently, for you to open the door. There is no forcing the lock. There is no busting down the door. Spirit awaits your invitation.
And as John Donahue has written,
This is a deep and special companionship.
When you love this way, and open up to BE loved this way,
you open your life to an Other. All your barriers are down.
Your protective distances collapse.
You give absolute permission to come into
the deepest temple of your being.
You have arrived at that most sacred place: HOME.
A deep sense of peace abounds. We breathe in and let go. We open to the experience of the Divine with us, loving us. Breathing us. Being us. Through holy communion of the soul, we simply let go. And let God.
Let us sing together, a reminder that when we yearn, when we call, our Soul Friend, is already present – with and within us. Always.
Hymn: MV 96 - And When You Call For Me
And when you call for me, I have already answered
And you call for me, I am already there.
Spirit IN Us, AS Us
Now we venture into a territory walked by the mystics, and more progressive individuals and churches.
As the reading in John reminds us:
...because the Christ lives, we live.
...The Christ is in and of the Father, and we are in the Christ,
and the Christ is within us
Thomas Keating, Catholic Priest and spiritual teacher has been a great advocate and teacher of Contemplative or Centering Prayer. Through centering prayer, one can open the mind and heart and one’s whole being to God, the Ultimate Mystery, beyond thought, words, emotions. We open to the awareness to God is within us.
Closer than our breathing, closer than our thinking, closer than our choosing. Centering Prayer is a form of interior purification, leading, if we consent, to divine union. Through centering prayer, we consent to God’s Presence and action within.
This is a tricky one also in today’s culture. Mystics have for millennia had the experiences of this – the descent of the Holy Spirit, communion / union with the Divine. Yet in today’s world we are called to ask – what part of us is In-Union? Is it our Spirit-Self remembering its divinity, or is it our ego?
Whether you fully embrace the I AM presence within you or are completely repulsed by the idea – “NO, Not me! I’m not that grand!” – both perspectives are the ego speaking.
Through the portal of awe and wonder of the vastness of God, and through the cultivation of a Soul Friend relationship with the Christ, the Spirit, we open to consent to the Presence, with humility, to be the vessel through which Spirit expresses. It is a true act of humility to consent to, acknowledge and surrender the human/ego will to the divine will that ‘moves and breathes and has its being in you.’
St. Francis does this beautifully in his prayer: Make me a channel for thy peace….
Do you believe what Jesus said?
I will send the Spirit. You will know him because he will be WITH You, IN you.
The only way we will know that the Holy Spirit is WITH us, is to Know the Holy Spirit that is WITHIN us, and allow it to express AS us.
Allow yourself to be Christed. Not our ego or our personality, but the part that has been in companionship with the divine Beloved. As the human gives way to the Divine, in all people, they become the Christ. In Jesus, there was such a surrendering of his isolated will, that a greater incarnation of the Divine actually took place.
Recognizing the Spirit Within, our own divinity, the Universe that is ever-evolving through us, is an act of faith. Faith that the Spirit HAS truly descended upon our Hearts, and we have opened the door to the temple of our being.
We open to allow ourselves to be vessels for Spirit. To allow the Holy Spirit to express as us - as our thoughts, our feelings, our actions. We allow our hands to be used to do God’s work; our voice to sing God’s song; our lips to speak God’s words. We become and express God’s Love in all that we are, and all that we do.
Spirit All Around Me. With Me, In Me. As Me.
Breathe in – God’s Love; Breathe Out – My Love
Breathe in – God Is; Breathe Out – I am
Breathe in – God’s Hands; Breathe Out – My Hands
Breathe in – God’s Voice; Breathe Out – My Voice
Breathe in – God’s Love; Breathe Out – My Love
Breathe in – Christ Lives; Breathe Out – I Live
I am the individualized expression of the Great One, the Holy One.
Spirit Within Me. Spirit Through Me. Spirit As Me. And So it is.
Let us sing together, experiencing the Spirit within – the Christ that lives in and through us, as the well-spring of life everlasting. Because the resurrected Christ lives, we live.
Hymn: MV 102 - Jesus, Your Spirit In Us
Jesus, your Spirit in us is a well-spring of life everlasting.
Questions to contemplate:
Which perspective of God resonates most deeply for you:
God as Ground of all Being, Cosmic Creator, Holy Mystery, Divine Perfection
God as Soul Friend, Beloved Other, Anam Cara
God as the I Am Presence within – expressing AS me
Which perspective is the hardest to access, or creates confusion or even repulsion/ constriction?
In times of trouble, which is the God that you go to, or that comes to you?
What might you do to cultivate more fully your experience of the Divine from one of these perspectives?
