Finding Your Destiny - sermon Oct 26, 2014

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“Finding Your Destiny”

Rev. Alison Longstaff, Oct 26, 2014

Bath Church of the New Jerusalem

Joshua 24: 1-2a, 14-18; Rev 21: 1-4; HH 402

There’s a gravestone somewhere near London England that reads, “Here lies Jeremy Brown, born a man and died a grocer.”

Now, this is humorous, but it is also a commentary on how one can become so identified with one’s job that one loses the self that one was created to be.

You see, every one of us hungers to live a life of purpose and meaning. But misfortune, setbacks, cynicism, or even societal expectations and pressures can silence that hunger, but it never truly goes away. We long to feel special; we long to feel that there is a reason that we were born. The book stores are full of self-help guides on how to discover our purpose in life—books with titles like: “Finding Your Own North Star,” “Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose,” “Manifest Your Destiny,” “Just Who Will You Be?” and “Excavating Your Authentic Self,”—and they sell well for a reason.

We are complex beings. We live in the space between responsibility and possibility, between duty and dreams, pulled ever and always between the two. It can be a precarious place to live in this tug of war, faced with daily choices between creative playful risk and the heavy harness of obligation. We cannot simply abandon our spouse or children or work responsibilities to indulge some impractical dream—“I will move to Hollywood and become a famous actress!” (No matter how much appeal that might have some days). Yet it is a terrible shame when we allow ourselves to succumb to the “shoulds” and judgments in our culture, letting our creativity wither and our dreams die.

There is a balance we must strike in life between time in the harness of duty and out of it, yet many of us in adult life let go completely of our ability to play and dream, and it is then that we risk “dying a grocer.”

Let me read to you from Irish poet and priest, John O’Donahue:

“For millions of years, before you arrived here, the dream of your individuality was carefully prepared. You were sent to a shape of destiny in which you would be able to express the special gift you bring to the world.

If you can awaken this sense of destiny, you come into rhythm with your life. You fall out of rhythm when you renege on your potential and talent, when you settle for mediocre as a refuge from the call. When you lose rhythm, your life becomes wearyingly deliberate or anonymously automatic. Rhythm is the secret key to balance and belonging." (Anam Cara, p 84)

O’Donahue speaks a very Swedenborgian truth here: that we all were indeed created with a special purpose in mind—that God made you and me with an eye to eternity and an intention for a unique job in heaven that will fulfill us beyond our wildest dreams. We can begin to awake to that purpose here and now, but the key lies in being willing to be open to finding a sacred rhythm to our life, and being willing to dig deep into our courage and love. Developing this awareness can require some introspection, often in the form of meditation or journaling—undertakings many of us avoid like the dentist. I personally believe in the transformative power of daily journal writing with all my heart, and yet have an amazing ability to postpone it, neglect it, and forget it all together.

You see, the journey of opening up our inner selves is work. It is not easy. But it is immeasurably worth it. Still, building time and space in our lives for our own spiritual development is like trying to convince a budget-challenged school board to keep a full arts and music program. For some reason, spiritual work is always the first to get dropped and forgotten in our busy lives.

And we do lead busy lives. All the time-saving devices we have invented have simply given us permission to cram more activity into our days. We are frightened to miss any opportunity, and even with all the things and activities we have already packed into our ridiculously privileged North American lives, we have a hard time saying no to anything. One of the hardest, hardest things for us to do today in our culture is to slow down. It is as if the speed itself holds the key to our salvation, and taking any time to simply be, can bring up enormous anxiety for souls accustomed to living in top gear.

Listen to this ancient bit of wisdom: Once there was a man exploring Africa. He was in a desperate hurry on a trip through the jungle. He had three or four native Africans helping him carry his equipment. He urged them forward at great speed for about three days. At the end of the third day, the Africans sat down and would not move. He insisted that they get up, telling them of the pressure he was under to reach his destination before a certain date. But they refused to move. He could not understand this. He tried all sorts of persuasions, yet they still refused to move. Finally, he got one of them to admit the reason. This native said, "We have moved too quickly to reach here; now we need to wait to give our spirits a chance to catch up with us."

Many of us chuckle at this quaint-seeming wisdom.  And yet I bet each one of us has experienced the consequences of not “letting our spirits catch up” in one way or another. We can become so disconnected from the rhythm of the spiritual process, that we can no longer sense when we need to stop and care for our souls. And so we get sick, or in some other way are forced to slow down, no matter how outwardly inconvenient. We know that slowing down and looking inward through yoga, or meditation, regular journaling, or perhaps attending a church that feeds our inner life will do us good, but do we let ourselves do it?  Accomplishing one more task can be so compelling….

Believe it or not, our Scripture passage from Joshua today was speaking to a similar dynamic in the spiritual journey. In fact, the more I study the Bible through a Swedenborgian lens, the more I am amazed to see that it is full of the psychology of the human spiritual journey.

The Bible says the same thing, over and over again in all sorts of ways: that this life is a journey with a divine purpose; that there will be challenges, struggles, and tremendous blessings; and that, though we seem to lose Eden, we are destined at the end of the journey for a place even better—the Holy City.

So what did I find in the scripture from Joshua? Well, let’s take a look.

Joshua assembles all the people before God at Shechem. Shechem, says Swedenborg, symbolizes ancient wisdom. He calls it our “first real inner light.” Gathering at Shechem then, is describing a time when we remember or re-collect our early, innocent trust in God. The children of Israel have come a long way by this point. They have travelled through the wilderness and entered Canaan. They have fought many battles, and are now settled in the land with a system of cities and laws, divided into tribes by region. Joshua is coming to the end of his life, and is preparing the people for life without him.

So he brings them before the Lord in a place that reminds them of all the Lord has done for them so far. He reminds them of their history—of what life was like before they began their journey following the Lord. When he says, “beyond the river and in Egypt” this is a metaphor for the time before we begin our spiritual work. Egypt means head-knowledge; it means living an external or relatively shallow life. It also symbolizes times when we think our thinking will be our salvation. Egypt is “beyond the River” because we have not yet started the true spiritual journey. God may be in our head, but is not yet in our heart. Having God in our head can be a foundation for a spiritual life, but it becomes slavery until and unless we allow God to move into our hearts.

Keeping God in our heads is the idolatry that Joshua is warning against. Keeping God in our heads can be sacrificing ourselves on the altar of duty; it can mean hiding behind our careers and our family obligations to avoid the work of excavating our souls. Are we living a role because it is safe? Are we following someone else’s formula for what being a good grown-up looks like, while slowly dying inside? That is idol worship. That is not following a living God. That is the slavery of Egypt. But God offers us the chance to come out of Egypt, from the land of slavery, any time we are ready.

To do so, we need to be willing to make some changes. It can be scary to leave Egypt. In Egypt we have structure, we know our place. Leaving Egypt requires a plunge into the wilderness, where every day we must trust God to take care of us.

We leave Egypt every time we choose to live in our hearts and not just our heads. When Joshua dies, the Children of Israel are facing a whole new journey—life without their fearless, triumphant leader. It is time for them to grow up a little more and step into a greater level of spiritual maturity. That is why Joshua calls them to assemble at Shechem. He is preparing them. “Remember,” he says, “the God that brought you out of Egypt?” He reminds them of all that God has done for them so far, leading them every step of the way. Then he says “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve.”

Why is this story important? Haven’t they already chosen to follow God again and again? This story is here, because a big part of the spiritual journey requires a constant recommitment to the work. Our human nature, which loves safety and security, will face a repeated impulse to run back to known territory, even if “known territory” involves “slavery.”

We all long to live passionately and follow God’s call and find our inner purpose, don’t we? And yet we all long to be safe and stable and secure; and often those two things look mutually exclusive, like duty and dreams.

But stepping into the self that we were made to be, or choosing to “serve the Lord,” will become the deepest security we could ever know, if we are willing to make the journey. It is a different kind of security that trades the external trappings of security for deep spiritual peace. When we choose to pursue and excavate the self that God created us to be, we are choosing to live on a spiritual foundation, not a material one. And choosing that is choosing life.

The spiritual journey is not for the faint of heart. Yet is also invites far greater magic and joy than you will ever know in Egypt.

Who here has seen the Harry Potter movies or read the books? Well, there comes a moment of crisis in one story-line where Harry has a life-or-death task. To be sure he succeeds, he drinks a magic potion that brings incredible good fortune to the one who drinks it. After he swallows it he marches off in the opposite direction from where everyone—viewers, readers, and characters in the story itself—thinks he should go. But he throws off the protesting hands of his friends and follows the deep inner knowing of what he needs to do, following a path that makes no sense, but which ultimately brings him to exactly what he needed to save the day.

All I can say is, that when one steps into the flow of God’s providence, and truly listens to the inner promptings of one’s heart, life begins to feel and act like this. You will drink in God’s promise of abundant life, and find yourself sometimes making choices that make no sense and do not fit anything your head thinks. Yet somehow, the actions taken under this gut-level guidance can bring answers to prayers that were unanswerable. I will attest to this without reservation.

Raise your hand if you have had experiences like this.  One of my best friends bought a house under such circumstances.  It made no sense in so many ways, and yet something in her gut told her—and so many odd signs pointed to—that move being exactly what her family needed to take the next step in their lives. Many years later that move has proved to be a great blessing.  Living in that house has made many things in their life easier and has supported them through some very tough circumstances in ways they could never have anticipated.

She reports that it was terrifying to trust that gut feeling, and yet something told her she had to trust it.  And it brought good outcomes in ways she never could have envisioned.  I believe that this is a manifestation of a spiritual law or dynamic: when we follow that deep inner knowing from God and trust it, no matter how crazy the choice may look on paper, we do indeed find increasing magic and good outcomes in our lives.

First we must align ourselves with God, then we must undertake some spiritual discipline that invites our spiritual growth, and then we open ourselves up to the still small voice. When we can do these things, we will keep a balance between the health of our souls and the responsibilities of our outer life.

And that is when magic happens.  When you can do these things, the person you were created to be will begin to emerge bringing increased joy and happiness and fulfillment.

I will close with this quote from John O’Donahue:

“If someone else could fulfill your destiny, they would be in your place, and you would not be here. It is in the depths of your life that you will discover the invisible necessity that has brought you here. When you begin to decipher this, your gift and giftedness come alive. Your heart quickens and the urgency of living rekindles your creativity.” (Anam Cara, p 84)

Amen.

The Readings

Joshua 24: 1-2a, 14-18 Then Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem. He summoned the elders, leaders, judges and officials of Israel, and they presented themselves before God. Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: “Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

Then the people answered, “Far be it from us to forsake the Lord to serve other gods! It was the Lord our God himself who brought us and our parents up out of Egypt, from that land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled. And the Lord drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land. We too will serve the Lord, because he is our God.”

Revelation 21:1-4 Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea.  Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.  And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with humanity, and God will live among them, and they shall be God’s people. God will be within and among them and be their God.  And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”

Heaven and Hell 402. All the delights of heaven are brought together and are present in one’s purpose or form of service, because service, springing from one’s created purpose, is the natural result (good outcome) of the very love and goodwill in which angels dwell. Everyone feels delight according to his or her purpose and according to his or her dedication to that purpose.