Consumerist church - "A little something for everybody"

My Kind of Church Music - Sam Cooke, A Change Gonna Come. "Out Of The Blues" Rev. Dr. Marlin Lavanhar

Check out this service at All Souls Church in Tulsa OK on Sunday, 02/25/18. Sermon, "Out Of The Blues," preached by Rev. Dr. Marlin Lavanhar.

 

Rev. Dr. Lavanhar says that the blues give us "words that make us want to cry and singing them in a way that makes you want to dance."

Forgiveness means pursuing a better way

Unitarian Universalists, in their living tradition, have missed the boat, because they have failed to understand and teach the importance of forgiveness.

Perhaps, because of their root in Universalism which believed in God's unconditional love, the idea of forgiveness does not fit with their theology.

The Universalists didn't understand that it's not God's forgiveness we humans seek, for a God of unconditional love knows nothing of forgiveness, but it is our own human forgiveness that is necessary, first for ourselves for our stupidity and ignorance, and then for one another because there is plenty of human stupidity and ignorance to go around.

Can you forgive " a little bit?" Are there degrees of forgiveness? Some people say, "Forgive but don't forget" and this means forgiveness is not complete. It is not freely given. We say we forgive but we hold on to some resentment, some sense of grievance, some little fear that we can be hurt and attacked again.

True forgiveness is a complete letting go and a shift, a re-routing, from the path of the ego to the path of the spirit. On the path of the spirit there is no attack, no resentment, no grievance, no guilt, no fear. On the path of the spirit is only peace and bliss.

On the path of the ego shit happens. Even more, mega shit happens. And like Jesus, as He was being crucified on the cross, we think, "Forgive them for they know not what they do." And with this awareness comes what M. Scott Peck, the author of Road Less Traveled, calls a "therapeutic depression."

When Buddha achieved enlightenment, so the story goes, he was able to leave the earth plane for nirvana, but he decided to say on the earth plane a while longer so he could help other human beings reach enlightenment as well. Because of his decision, the Buddha was nicknamed, "The compassionate Buddha."

When we forgive we want to help others leave the path of the ego and embark on the path of the spirit with us. It is this awareness that there is a better way that Jesus and his apostles called "the good news."

During this Lenten season, as all through the year, we are prompted to remember which path we tread. The most important step we take in shifting from the path of the ego to the path of the spirit is forgiveness because we become aware that we ourselves, along with our brothers and sisters, have been treading the wrong path and in this journey we have created hell when we could, with a shift in awareness and a better decision, walk the right path of peace and bliss.

Forgiveness is the first step on the road less taken and it can make all the difference.

Do you need forgiveness?

Charles Williams said, "Many promising reconciliations have broken down because, while both parties came prepared to forgive, neither party came to be forgiven."

Without forgiveness we have nothing

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth..." This acceptance is based on forgiveness. Forgiveness comes before acceptance. Without forgiveness, acceptance is not possible and illusory.

Forgiveness is the giving up of the path of the ego for the path of the spirit.

Forgiveness is turning from idols to Love.

Forgiveness brings gratitude and gratitude brings peace, what some might call contentment. We are happy at last at what is.

Based on the ego's law of scarcity we always want more. We are constantly grasping and clinging and thereby create our own hell.

We need to give it up. We need to forgetaboutit and be grateful for today, Today is a gift, given for free.

Friend to me, "How are you doin?"

Me to friend, "Happy to be here."

Friend to me, "And I'm happy and better now that you're here."

Would you rather be right or be happy?

Unitarian Universalism's fourth principle out of seven is to covenant together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. This seems all well and good for progressively minded people but where does one search?

In A Course In Miracles, in the chapter on New Beginnings, there is a section entitled, "The truth behind illusions." It is written, "The truth could never be attacked. And this you knew when you made idols. They were made that this might be forgotten. You attack but false ideas, and never truthful ones. All idols are the false ideas you made to fill the gap you think arose between yourself and what is true. And you attack them for the things you think they represent. What lies beyond them cannot be attacked." T-30.IV.1:4-10

To be vulgar and blunt. We, humans, just make shit up. And then we want to argue about it. And this arguing, brothers and sisters, is what keeps us from the truth.

This arguing, in my experience, is 95% of what Unitarian Universalism is about and consequently UUs miss the truth and their numbers dwindle because of the dissatisfaction that seekers experience with the UU nonsense.

Unitarian Universalism, as a living tradition, should it survive, will need to get better at discerning Truth from baloney. This means they must eschew the desire to place idols before Truth. This means we need to stop arguing over bull shit and focus on the path of the spirit which involves a response to the question, "What would Love have me do?" In the answer to that question, we would find the Truth.

A Course In Miracles asks us, "Would you rather be right or be happy?"

Second week of lent - Give up you narcissistic preoccupations and listen

How are you doing with your Lenten resolutions? How's it going with your desire to leave the path of the ego and journey on the path of the spirit?

Jesus left the path of the ego for 40 days in the desert to spend more time communing with the Divine. I hope you are doing better than I am. I start my days with the Divine and end my days with the Divine but in the middle I forget. Sometimes I remember, especially when I have to make a decision about something hard like what to say to a person in anguish.

Actually, leaning in to be there for a person in anguish is easier for me than to just pay attention to someone who wants my attention for some matter than is important to them, but means very little or nothing to me.

At such times, I hear Jesus whisper in my ear, "What would Love have you do?" and with this prompt I pay attention to my brother or sister even when it takes effort.

Lent is about giving something up. Lent is about eschewing the path of the ego so we can continue our journey on the path of the spirit. So, in such moments, when other people want my attention, I give up my own preoccupations and concerns and desires and just listen.

Listening takes discipline. It takes self control. It often is not an easy thing to do. To give another person or a group of people your undivided attention is a precious gift.

Jesus said, where two or more our gathered in my name, there I will be.

I have recently learned that my body is NOT the temple of the Holy Spirit, but my relationships with others. The Holy Spirit is in the relationships which I enter into with others, not within the boundaries of my physical body. With this new found awareness, I understand better what Jesus was saying about His being there when two or more are gathered in His name.

So this Lent I am learning how to give up my narcissism and to deeply listen to others no matter how trivial their concerns seem to me to be. This practice while difficult has given me an increased sense of peace and well being.