Dear Church Family,
I wrote recently that I purchased a new car. It has a lot of bells and whistles that I have never experienced before. One is seat warmers. Not such a big deal in temperate So. California, but I do like putting them on in the morning when I'm driving the dog to Santee Lakes. The other extra is the camera and screen for going in reverse. I love this as it tells me when I'm close to an edge I might bump into. The screen is on the console of the car so when I'm backing out of a parking space I'm not looking in the rear view mirror - I'm below the dash board. I remember not to long before purchasing the car making an observation that people were backing out of parking spaces without using their mirrors or looking back. I made a judgement that they were reckless drivers. It didn't dawn on me they might have cameras and screens on their console that would assist them visually. I saw what I wanted to see. And I deemed them reckless.
Fast forward to my talk this past Sunday on the spiritual ability of Understanding. This ability (power) is one that comes from the Christ within us. It is the Understanding that comes from our Infinite Identity. Not from our finite identity. Our human understanding of life comes from our finite identity; it's full of personality, facts, ego, and projections. We are very attached to aspects of finite identity: appetites, comfort, opinions, Super Bowl bets.
However, we are here to grow in awareness of our Infinite Identity. This identity is steeped in Truth - unwavering, eternal Truth. We are growing in awareness of God's love - this is Truth. I asked us on Sunday to apply the fruits (compassion) from the spiritual power of Understanding to our Nation as the impeachment trials continues. This is a time to reach out with compassionate hearts everyone who experiences stress, anxiety, anger, rage, confusion, sadness. We are here to bring the spiritual power of Understanding.
Similar to the reverse camera on my car that allows me to back out without using the mirror - there are people who have different opinions, different ways of viewing politics from us. They are using the lens that best suits their lives and values. While it may appear that our views are polar opposites, we probably have much more in common values than meets the eye. For example, people in general want safety, comfort, and freedom for their families. People want to experience health, happiness and prosperity. Moreover, in the spiritual realm, there is no separation between us and God - as each of us is connected to our Source we connected in spirit. Even if our thoughts and opinions separate us.
I believe it is the connection of spirit that we share is where we can reach out with compassion to anyone experiencing fear (pain, anger, anxiety, stress, outrage, etc.) during this experience.
I quoted my mother's famous advice: "if it's not important a hundred years from now - it's not important." I followed that with my observation from working with hospice patients. "If it's not important during your last day of life - it's not important." When people are dying their primary concern are the relationships in their life. Many things about the finite life that were once important are no longer.
A congregant shared with me afterwards that politics and the impeachment will always be important to them. I respect their perspective. However, I've learned over time we often put a lot of energy into something that appears very important in the finite world - it has little (or no) consequence in the infinite world. We are spiritual beings in a human experience - we can utilize our power of spiritual understand to compassionately serve others who are in distress.
Now I want to be very clear about this. The world in which we live is vital and important to our human experience. The relationships we create with our world, our fellow human and with other species deserves our care and attention. The systems of governance, justice, and personal freedoms are essential to us. Our attachment to outcomes on how these relationships and systems reflects our attachment to the finite world. Each of us has a different view of how to proceed (or back up) in life. Some of us are using mirrors, some are using the camera and screen, still some are turning around to make sure they are clear to go and some us are using a combination. No matter how you and your neighbor are seeing the world - remember to extend compassion. This is how we change the world.
Many blessings,
Pastor Robert