Cain and Abel and the Stages of Spirituality

So, I’m a student of the Psychology of Religion.

Scholars have done studies on the developmental stages of faith—meaning there ARE stages of faith from less mature to more mature. Early stages rely on an external authority. They are very rules-based and about doing things “right” according to the authority and the rules. There is usually an innocence or naïveté because folks don’t know better, they can’t be more progressive yet, and they absolutely want to be “saved".

The hardest shift is between level 3 and level 4 spirituality (according to James Fowler) when a person shifts from an external authority to an internal authority, and from a head-based religion to a heart-based religion. (Richard Rohr simplifies it as early life—stages 1, 2, 3—and later life—stages 4 and up.) The people around them who are still in a rules- and authority-based religion are particularly threatened by their shift and do not understand it. I liken it to learning to swim. People who have not learned to swim cling to the side of the pool and call out in fear at their loved ones who are starting to let go and swim in the water.

(Does this information help in understanding the ways people do religion that can be so different?)

If you are raised by people who are in stage 4 or higher level of spiritual development, you still have to go through your own stages, but everything about the way they live encourages you to move into a thoughtful, heart-based approach to life. But if you are raised by people who are “clinging to the side of the pool” in an authoritative “you will only be safe if you stick with us” religion, it is much much harder to take the next developmental step into heart-wisdom, because most of the people around you are screaming that you are going to “die”. They don't want you to notice all the people that you’re finding who are living from their hearts and yet are not "dead".

This theory has helped me a lot in understanding why people do religion the way they do. Levels five and higher in spiritual development don’t even look like “religion”, because they are so respectful of the individual spiritual journey. They tend to be empowering, not controlling.

How is this connected to Cain and Abel? (Genesis 4)

My childhood tradition's teachings say that Cain represents “the need to be right” and Abel represents “being loving from deep wisdom.” They are brothers because they are ways of doing religion. Cain is born first (early spirituality) and Abel second (later life spirituality). Cain resents and does not understand why God favors Abel (the more mature and genuine spirituality). Cain is threatened by Abel and wants God's favor too, not understanding the shifts he still has to make in his motivations and perspective. And threatened, Cain “kills” Abel thinking that that is the way to win God's attention and favor (someone clearly isn't reading the manual). Cain-energy in life will always kill Abel-energy. Judgy, controlling, need-to-be-perfect-and-right ways of doing religion (or politics) will always attack and criticize and invalidate loving, inclusive, service-focused ways of doing religion (and politics). It’s just the way people are. There's a foundational shift that needs to happen from "I've got mine, screw you" to "We are all in this together; if you are suffering, we are all suffering".

We all have a tendency to be drawn into the need to be right and "win" arguments. We value a sense of cognitive security and don't like perspectives that threaten our foundational narrative of how life (God, "salvation") works. Arguing with someone about how they are wrong is rarely effective because they are so emotionally invested in "staying alive" (maintaining the reality they have known and trusted until this point).

If you don't know how to swim, moving into deep water means death.

Questioning religious dogma is moving into deep water. It is essential that we learn to swim so as to be much freer and to realize how life-giving swimming can be. But everything in Cain-level development screams "death!" unless you are surrounded by loving swimmers encouraging you to try swimming.

The same way you can't teach a child to read until they have reached reading readiness, you can't force a lower level spiritual seeker to be ready to think for themselves until they are ready AND feel safe enough to try. Some birds are pushed from the nest, some fly with sufficient encouragement, but some have parents telling them that flying equals death.

So just love everybody to bits.

Try not to judge because people are (possibly stuck) where they are for good reason.

Learn to draw firm boundaries with those who want to push their beliefs on you (spiritual violation) even as you stop trying to push your beliefs onto others (still a spiritual violation, no matter how "right" you are).

This is my distillation of theology and psychology. It is not to be used as a club to force others to agree. Just a balm and guide for those who need a helpful perspective.

For more scholarship on the stages of faith you might start here:

https://www.institute4learning.com/2020/06/12/the-stages-of-faith-according-to-james-w-fowler/

For counseling and empowerment on your spiritual journey, you may contact me here:

https://pastoralison.com/

I do talk therapy as well as weddings.

Freedom Manifesto

The following is the result of an assignment for my yoga certification. Publishing it was encouraged, so here it is:

Alison Moore’s Freedom Manifesto

My desire for my life going forward is curiosity, compassion and a belief in transformation through creativity and play. I desire this to be my underlying resting state.

FREEDOM comes when I feel that I have choices and agency---when I feel I can change things that don’t work, and improve conditions that are not optimal. In the yogic principle of the union of opposites, the balancing attitude that I desire to cultivate is the simple acceptance of “what is.” These two attitudes may seem opposite (acceptance of what is vs desire for change), and yet I believe a healthy, balanced union of these two will bring me the greatest joy and serenity going forward.

“Acceptance of what is” shows up in compassionate non-judgment of what my body is able to do each day. Whether I experience a “good” practice full of obvious progress and feelings of strength and sweetness, or I navigate a “bad” practice because my energy is low and my asanas appear regressed, I wish to be peacefully present to what is. I wish to carry into each practice the knowledge that every single practice matters, and that the way I treat myself in a practice is the measure of the success of the practice, not how far I could extend or contract in a given asana.

Now, when I see something about myself that I want to change, I desire to notice it with curiosity and serenity. I want to say, “Huh. Interesting!” I want to have the willingness to approach the area that needs work with compassion and optimism and a sense of possibility. Previously I approached it with shame and the fear of what everyone else “must” think of me. My impulse was to hide the shortcoming or failure as quickly as possible. I do not wish to operate from fear of judgment or shame or a desire to hide anymore.

I want to continue to develop PERSPECTIVE or a “long view” which will keep me serene in the face of new challenges. Each challenge in the past has been surmounted, no matter how insurmountable each seemed at the time. When I remember this, I can face new challenges with more curiosity and creativity, and less fearful projections of “certain failure” and dire outcomes. “I got through those things and I can get through this.”

In relationships, I desire to be as authentic and “whole” as possible in each moment. This means I desire to own every piece of my life, and to tell the truth about my experiences with compassion and honesty. “The truth” is never harsh or unkind. It is neutral. The harsh or unkind comes when I attach blame or judgment or shame.  A whole lot of my work to this point has been in becoming free of extensive inner self-abuse and fearful thinking.  As these decrease, new space for honesty, clarity and compassion opens up.

As a speaker and teacher, I desire to lead from my vulnerability. I believe that this makes a space for truthful vulnerability in others. I wish to create SAFE spaces, which invite radical honesty and compassion and self-ownership in students and clients. My dream is that I will invite to these qualities and teach about these qualities and model these qualities as naturally as breathing. The goal of this shared vulnerability and mutual respect is REST.

To rest from hiding. To rest from pretending. To rest from struggling. To be FREE.

What would Brene Brown do?

When I show up with compassion and authenticity and a long perspective, life becomes lighter and easier. I am more patient and laugh more easily.

Authenticity is my freedom.  May I remain open to continuing the work gently and steadily that I might ever move into greater and greater authenticity.

January 13, 2018

Between You and Heaven - approximately what I preached today....

For whatever reason, the sermon simply wouldn't gel this week.  I kept tossing out what I had and trying another angle, only to feel dissatisfied with what was showing up on the page.  I felt strangely non-anxious.  I was revising my notes right up until 9:45, then just brought what I had and trusted the spirit.  It went quite well.  Here is approximately what I said.

“Between You and Heaven”

Rev. Alison Longstaff, June 7, 2015

Bath Church of the New Jerusalem

Zephaniah 3: 14-17; Matthew 16:24-29; DP 320

If we were to believe, as is the truth, that all goodness and truth come from the Lord, and all evil and falsity come from hell, we would not take credit for any goodness, nor condemn ourselves for any evil. 

Emanuel Swedenborg, The Divine Providence, portions of #320

“It is very hard to be truly intimate when we are in some way feeling flawed or deficient.”

Tara Brach

The thing that stands between you and heaven is your own self-judgment.

Let me say that again.

The thing that stands between you and heaven is your own self-judgment.

Heaven involves true authenticity which leads to true intimacy.  All self-loathing is a block to intimacy.

We tend to assume that someone is prideful and stuck on themselves and “thinks they are better than us.” Or we might assume someone hates themselves, and is too hard on themselves, and has no self-esteem.  But these are two faces of the same disease.  Anyone who seems to be narcissistic or superior or full of pride and snobbery is covering themselves with a thick defense mechanism to protect themselves from feeling their terror of being worthless.  

There is a belief and fear deep inside every one of us that somehow we are utterly unlovable.  John Bradshaw calls this “toxic shame.”  Regular shame includes regret over a word or deed or thought we may have experienced.  Toxic shame is the deep core belief that that somehow, something about our very selves is unlovable or is innately too evil to ever deserve love and belonging.

We are born into this imbalance.  We will tend to rush from one extreme to the other, finding difficulty holding a middle ground that enables us to be present with our faults without shame while being comfortable with our gifts without attaching superiority to them.  

Often those who are attracted to churches who have "The Truth" and who set themselves as "being right" over against everyone else's wrongness are those who need to attach themselves to something “perfect” because another part of them feels so utterly worthless.

I remember counseling a woman who belonged to such a church, and who was married to a controlling man, and who had seen enough traumas to be far less functional that she actually was.

She spent a lot of her time blaming her husband for her unhappiness, and asserting that if he would only change, she could be happy.  I listened and reflected and nudged her towards seeing the way she was contributing to the dynamic.  There was a moment when she hung in the space of realization that she had some responsibility….  And from that point she plunged into utter self-loathing.  

She had no space or inner middle ground between being a martyr or being utterly worthless.  It was as if her emotional muscles around her worth were either completely contracted or completely lax, with no ability to hold an even, moderate tension.  Imagine asking someone to walk who can only clench every muscle in their legs or completely relax every muscle, and nothing else.  I realized then how much work was ahead for her to develop the ability to stand in a space where she was neither pure victim nor deserving of annihilation. 

This moment with this woman was one of deep learning for me.  I was looking at what a lifetime of abuse can do to a soul, and also what black and white thinking can do to a soul.  In her mind, either she was all good or all evil.  And the minute she considered that she might be in error in some small way, every aspect of her self-worth collapsed and she believed she was worthy only of the lowest hell.

Until she was supported in building up a place to see herself as neither all good nor all evil, she would be unable to do self-reflection.  She would be unable to observe herself with curiosity and compassion. How could she stand to recognize where she was in error, and then commit to changing her part in any problem, when her inner sense of terror and self-loathing would launch her into raging inner cruelty the minute she recognized a fault?

Underneath her veneer of her own virtue and martyrdom, was a terrified, abused little girl who was sure she was utterly worthless.

There is a law in the universe that is the mirror of the Golden Rule, and it is this: "We give out to others what we tend to give to ourselves."  Anyone who is a verbally critical person and who puts on a show of being perfect themselves, is living with an equally harsh inner dialogue.  The need for their veneer of perfection is precisely because of that relentless, running, inner abuse.

When we are too harsh with ourselves we get judgmental, we martyr ourselves, we feel both inferior and superior at the same time—both from fear.  The superiority and snobbery is a defense mechanism for a terrified ego.  Self-loathing is also a defense mechanism for a terrified ego.

This law does not show up in obvious ways.  You must learn to look for it, and only the eyes of compassion can help you find it.

Many of us live with this harsh inner critic.  A deeply unkind running inner dialogue is much more common than many realize.  Finding compassion for ourselves and others takes work; it takes spiritual work.  You can’t just choose it and expect to be good at it any more than you can choose to be an athlete and instantly be one just by virtue of the choice.  But the intention to become an athlete is a great place to start.

We learn to love ourselves by learning to be kinder to others.  We learn to be more compassionate with others when we work on being more compassionate with ourselves.

e.e cummings said, “We do not believe in ourselves until someone reveals that deep inside us something is valuable, worth listening to, worthy of our trust, sacred to our touch. Once we believe in ourselves we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight or any experience that reveals the human spirit.”

Paul Boynton said, "Self-responsibility, self-respect and self-esteem go hand in hand. Work on any of these and you automatically see growth in all three."

We are all equally flawed and equally adorable.  It is the self-loathing that blocks us from heaven, not the flaws themselves, or babies wouldn’t be so utterly loving and lovable.  

We must all become like little children to enter heaven.

The thing that stands between you and heaven is your own self-judgment.

Let me say that again.

The thing that stands between you and heaven is your own self-judgment.

Heaven is true authenticity which leads to true intimacy.  And true intimacy is heaven.

Amen.

The Readings

Zephaniah 3: 14-17

Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout aloud, O Israel!

Be glad and rejoice with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem!
For the Lord will remove his hand of judgment and will disperse the armies of your enemy.

And the Lord himself, the King of Israel, will live among you!

At last your troubles will be over, and you will never again fear disaster.
On that day the announcement to Jerusalem will be, “Cheer up, Zion! Don’t be afraid!

For the Lord your God is living among you.  He is a mighty savior.
He will take delight in you with gladness.  With his love, he will calm all your fears.

He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.”

Matt 16:24-28

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.  For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?  For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.  Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

Divine Providence 320 portions

If we were to believe, as is the truth, that all goodness and truth come from the Lord, and all evil and falsity come from hell, we would not take credit for any goodness, nor condemn ourselves for any evil. 

Once we make these two acknowledgments, we can simply notice the evils within ourselves and, to the extent that we block them from becoming behaviors and we turn away from them because we see they do harm (are sinful), we throw them back into the place of fear and ignorance (hell) from which they came.  

Heaven and Hell - a sermon, March 22, 2015

“Heaven and Hell”

Rev. Alison Longstaff, March 22, 2015

Bath Church of the New Jerusalem

Morning Has Broken; God Is Love, Let Heaven Adore Him; Lord, Look Down From Heaven

Psalm 139:1-12, Luke 17: 20-21; HS 8153

After I began this sermon, I quickly realized I had material for many, many sermons.  There are so many possible points of exploration when it comes to talking about heaven and hell; I could not possibly discuss them all in one short (or even long-ish) sermon.  I found myself sectioning off paragraph after paragraph and setting them aside for other sermons so as to keep this one from being too long.  Stay tuned for “Heaven and Hell, Part(s) Two,” (and “Three,” and “Four….”).

This morning we are going to explore the following three questions relating to heaven and hell:

1. What are heaven and hell like? (Harps, wings, and clouds vs. a lake of fire?)
2. Where, or rather, when are they? (Happening right now, or coming sometime in the future?)
3. Who is responsible regarding where we end up?

First out of the gate, I must mention that Emanuel Swedenborg wrote an entire book on Heaven and Hell.  Heaven and Hell is far and away one of his easier books to read.  He wrote in Latin in the 1700s, and even in translation, he is one of the least “sound-bite accessible” authors I know.  A class on how to use Twitter could have transformed his accessibility to today’s audience!  Nevertheless it is a fascinating read, and will certainly change how you explore this topic.

1. Meanwhile, today we ask, what are heaven and hell like?

We've probably all seen the Philadelphia Cream Cheese commercial with the winged angel (eating cream cheese) on the clouds. She’s perky and cute, and just lacks a harp and blond hair to capture the perfect stereotype of an angel in heaven. 

Hmm.  Heaven will be sitting on a cloud, playing a harp?  Really?  I ask you, do you think a brilliantly wise, loving, and all powerful God would make our eternal existence break down to that?  (Can I at least keep my cell phone?)

We have also all probably seen images of the burning fires of hell, especially in jokes.  In one joke there are several Canadians revelling in all the glorious heat (after all their ice and snow and cold. “Mainers” could easily be substituted for “Canadians” in that part of the joke).  The devil keeps turning the heat up, frustrated because the Canadians aren’t suffering enough. Everyone else is moaning and wailing all the louder. But the Canadians just unzip their parkas and grin, enjoying it even more.  Finally, the devil decides to turn the heat right off and turn up the freezer instead, thinking that making it really cold is the way to make the Canadians suffer. There are icicles hanging from the icicles and frost even on the devil’s eyelashes when he comes to see how badly the Canadians are suffering. Instead he finds them jumping up and down with joy.  “Bring on the beer!” they shout. He stares at them in bewilderment. “Hell has frozen over!  That means the Maple Leafs must have won the Stanley Cup!” 

(You might have to be Canadian to truly appreciate that joke.)

In any case, we see the stereotypes.  Heaven is all clouds and wings and smiles; hell is endless suffering, usually in a lake of burning fire.

If you believe what Swedenborg says, heaven will be a lot like earth, except without corruption, greed, stress, or lack, and with a lot of amazing beauty and magic that we cannot imagine now.  Our days will be filled with learning and doing useful activities that we love with people that we love. 

There will be art, music, plays, and time to travel for rest and recreation, because we will still have rhythms of work and play there.  But the point will be providing service to all others from our gifts and talents, doing what we are best at and truly enjoy.  We will LOVE it, and love each other, and truly understand that the God of love created us exactly to participate in this wide reality of joyful, enriching human service and interrelationship.  And our capacity for joy and wisdom and service will simply grow each day forever.

Hell, Swedenborg tells us, is the eternal suffering that comes from wanting to steal from or harm others, of constantly wanting to have more than others, and of wanting to look down on others and control everyone else.  It is the hell of not being allowed to achieve any of those things, at least not for very long, because they involve harming others.  Those in hell are kept far away from those in heaven, instead being grouped with others just like themselves.  When we are in hell we spend our days scheming how to cheat and steal from the others (who are just like us), plotting how to control them and look down on them and harm them.  Sometimes we are allowed to succeed, and in those moments we feel a certain triumph or joy.  But because it is hell, and we are stuck with people just like us, sooner or later the shoe is on the other foot, and we are the ones being trampled and hurt, robbed and dominated.  And we never seem to realize what a dead-end we are in, which is why it is seen as eternal misery.

Swedenborg says that the joy of heaven and the suffering of hell come from our own patterns of seeing, believing, and behaving, even now, not just down the road.  The harps and wings or lake of fire are metaphoric images chosen by our collective imaginations to illustrate what these spiritual realities feel like.  We know what a heated argument feels like.  We already know what it is to burn with anger and resentment and frustration.  And if you have ever had that feeling of being trapped in a hell from which you thought you would never escape, you know just how eternal hell can feel.  Despair convinces us that our suffering will never end. (Rather like some Maine winters….)  

On the other hand, haven't we all experienced “cloud nine”? Have you ever felt like you were flying through your day with ease, or soaring on the wings of good fortune?  Have you ever felt so happy you just wanted to sing?  All these metaphors exist because they describe how heaven feels.  We aren’t supposed to believe in a literal lake of fire any more than we are to believe we will be up in the physical clouds after we die.  We imagine angels to have “wings” because they can get through and over anything—because they seem so much smarter and “loftier” than we are—not because they actually have wings. They don't need them. 

Anyway, heaven and hell are states of being, and we have been travelling in and out and through them our whole lives, whether we realized it or not. 

2.         We have already begun exploring where, or when is heaven or hell. Since Emanuel Swedenborg teaches (as do many others) that we are spiritual beings in physical bodies, it follows that heaven and hell are spiritual too, not physical places. They aren’t located somewhere in the sky or under the earth; they are states of mind or states of being.  They are inside us and with us all the time, not “out there”.  We carry the potential to “be” in either one in each moment.

Swedenborg said, “Heaven is not ‘up there’ but where the Good of Love is; and the Good of Love lives inside each person, wherever that person might be.” (Heavenly Secrets 8153)  So perhaps when Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is within you,” this is what he meant.

On earth we experience both—times that feel hellish and times that feel heavenly—all through life, and these experiences help us to choose who we want to be.  Do we want to stay stuck in old, broken, unconscious patterns of thought and behaviour, or do we want to do the work that moves us into better, kinder, more conscious patterns (heaven)?  We sometimes “choose” heaven and sometimes “choose” hell alternately throughout our lives so that we have enough experience to determine where we really want to stay. 

Sadly, we have probably all experienced or watched someone we love choose the (pretend heaven but) actual hell of addiction.  Some people need to choose that hell again and again to become ready and able to get out of that hell and stay out.  Addictions are a perfect example of how hell can masquerade as heaven. Addictions cause increasing torment for the addict and often try to suck everyone with whom the addict is in relationship into the suffering as well.  It takes an especially strong kind of angel to stay in relationship with an active addict without getting sucked into their hell along with them.  God always provides a way out, but it can be agonizing to watch that someone we love struggle to escape—the sick thinking and the lies can so thoroughly trap the one we love—and to wait for them to choose differently can feel like an eternity of suffering.

In any case, if we believe Swedenborg, no one is ever “sent” anywhere we don’t want to be; (not forever).  You and I may “send” ourselves (or be dragged into by others) some pretty dark places; but ultimately we always have the choice to ask for Divine help and get out of even the darkest hell.  And the minute we choose for heaven, our wish will always be granted, if not immediately, then as soon as is possible while making sure we can handle the transition.  Some extractions can be as complicated and lengthy as the most elaborate extreme mountain rescue—but you can bet that the angels on the job LOVE what they do, and they do it with focus, compassion, and God’s guidance.

3.         And so finally, who is responsible for whether we “end up” in heaven or hell? 

The answer is: We are each individually responsible for where we end up.

Now, while we are each individually responsible for where we end up, we are only partially responsible for many of the times we visit heaven or hell along the way.  Other people can “put us through hell,” the same way others can draw us into greater peace and happiness while we walk this earth.  But ultimately, we choose who and how we want to be.

Into every single one of our relationships and life experiences we bring our own selves, with our own patterns of listening, interpreting, reacting, and responding.  We bring with us a great deal of the heaven or hell we find in these relationships because of our own patterns and habits of response. We are often far more responsible for the problems in which we might find ourselves than we might realize.

Just the same way that there are many dynamics in our culture, our families, and our society that can be unhealthy, you and I can have internal perspectives and habits that are unhealthy that we can’t even see.  All of these things will remain invisible to you and me until we realize them and learn different perspectives.  Just watch a few episodes of Madmen for a great metaphor of this process at work.  The characters in that show innocently and blindly chain smoke, litter, drink while pregnant, suffer profound sexism, and many other things that would shock us today.  We see those things differently now because of our growing and changing awareness of how they have been harmful.  In this same way you and I can begin to see in finer detail the way some of the personal dynamics and patterns of behaviour that we learned as “normal” in our childhood are actually contributing to the problems in our relationships today. And then we can begin to change them. 

If only “choosing to be in heaven right now” was as easy as it sounds.  More often it is about as easy as, well, if I were to choose to go complete a 5k run this afternoon, at my current level of training and conditioning.

I could “choose” it all I wanted, but I would be dreaming.  I’m not remotely prepared for such an ambitious goal.  If I even tried, I can guarantee it would not put me in heaven, (and would possibly be a fast track to a personal hell).  I simply couldn’t do it.  ("Hashtag: Epic Fail,” as they say these days.)

No, I would need to start with a commitment now, and then train and prepare for several months to be able to make that “choice” a reality many months from now.  “Choosing” would mean more than simply flipping a mental switch. It would include “practice” and training to develop a whole new set of strengths and abilities.  It would take time.

The spiritual journey is a lot like that.  It takes commitment and focus too.  It takes discipline and intention. The practice isn’t always comfortable.  But it is often deeply satisfying, and it is tremendously worthwhile especially if you value a greater ease in managing your own inner happiness, and especially if you value enhanced well-being in all your relationships.  If you value those things enough, you will persist in the spiritual disciplines necessary to run that spiritual race, and you will keep returning to the practice because of the ongoing rewards, no matter how many times you temporarily step off the path.  

Day by day, starting right now, you and I can choose to leave behind our not-so-heavenly reactions and feelings. Taking baby steps and sometimes falling down, we can repeatedly and persistently invite heaven to live within us. It already dwells within the Goodness of Love within us from God.  May we be open to tapping into that and letting it work in and through us with increasing strength right now, each day.

Jesus Himself took this very human journey on Himself in solidarity with us and to give us strength.  He allowed Himself to be betrayed and “put through hell” indeed when He let Himself be crucified.  What better example could He have given us, to show us that we can survive the hells we travel through on earth and survive even death itself, because the point is something better and more lasting and far more meaningful beyond? 

My question for you is, what do you think?  What do you feel? What system of looking it these questions sits the most comfortably in your body?  I invite you to use your rationality, your experience, your intelligence, and your intuition as you find your way through these very big questions for yourself.  And I especially ask you to consider, what belief system makes you a kinder wiser, more compassionate, open, and giving person? Because that is the path to heaven.

Amen

The Readings

Psalm 139: 1-12

You have searched me, Lord, and you know me.

You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.

You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.

Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely.

You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.

Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?

If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea,

even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.

If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,”

even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day,

for darkness is as light to you.

Luke 17: 20-21

Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.”

Secrets of Heaven 8153

Heaven is not “up there” but where the Good of Love is, and the Good of Love is found inside each person, wherever that person might be.