Clutter Clearing as a Spiritual Practice - Part 2

Releasing

A spiritual practice is an activity undertaken on a regular basis for the purpose of inducing spiritual insights and encouraging spiritual growth.

So ... clutter clearing ... as a spiritual practice?

It can be.

Think about it:

Clutter clearing invites us to release things.

I have seen three things that block us from releasing things back into the universe: 

1. A sense of responsibility for the item.

2. The fear that one might need or use the item in the future. And
3. obligation or sentimental attachment to the item.

1) A sense of responsibility

Some clients have trouble releasing items because they want to know what will happen once they are out of their keeping. There is a sense of responsibility to see that the items "get into a good home" or are otherwise properly cared for. (This is admirable, but too often is harming the client's ability to get free.)  

The spiritual practice asked of these clients is TRUST. Can we trust that the universe (God/Providence) will get the item to its proper place? Can we let go of feeling responsible for the item's future (without any shame or self-doubt?)  Can we let go of worry about the item, setting it and ourselves free, and trusting that all will be well? 

2) The fear that one might need the item in the future.
Some clients have trouble releasing items because they are uncertain whether they might need the item in the future. There is an unwillingness to let go of even long-unused items in case they want it later.

The spiritual practice asked of these clients is also TRUST. Can we trust that the universe will provide what we need when we need it? In this abundant culture, with flea markets and Amazon and community swaps and Freecycling, can we believe that we could probably find just the thing we need in the future, should the need arise? 

"Then Jesus asked them, 'When I sent you out without a purse, bag or sandals, did you lack for anything?'  'Nothing,' they answered.  Luke 22:35

3) obligation or sentimental attachment to the item.
There is nothing wrong with having a sentimental attachment to our possessions. It isn't so good if the attachment begins to dominate what is best for us. Sometimes we have items we do not enjoy but feel unable to release due to their origins.  Perhaps something was a gift from a loved one or belonged to an ancestor, and letting it go feels uncomfortable, even though we don't actually want it.

The spiritual practice in relation to sentiment and obligation is "saucha."  Saucha is a word from Sanskrit which means a purity of focus or clarity of vision. Saucha pulls us back to our core self. When we are grounded in our core, we can discern most clearly what serves us spiritually.   Items of sentiment and obligation can be the most sticky and difficult to release. Yet in our deepest core, we know that we don't need to remain attached to anything physical for our wellbeing.

Rarely do we have to endure the loss of all our most treasured possessions.  Only those in massive fires or earthquakes, or refugees from war and famine, may suffer the loss everything they own.  However, it is a healthy practice to be willing to release everything that burdens us or stands in the way of our best life.

When it comes to items we hold due to obligation we must ask ourselves, "Would I want someone I love to carry around something they no longer need or use simply because they fear to hurt my feelings?" If our answer is "No," we must trust our friends and loved ones to be as wise. Let it go! (I don't want anyone to feel obliged to hold on to some unneeded item just to protect my fragile ego. God willing, my ego is far more resilient than that.)

The preceding are just a few examples of how clutter clearing invites us to do spiritual work. Try it, and you may find that the regular examining and releasing of physical items can help you feel clearer and lighter in non-physical ways too.

To be continued.

For the other entries in this series, see below.

Clutter Clearing as a Spiritual Practice - Part 1

Clutter Clearing as a Spiritual Practice - Part 3

Fear Not - sermon for June 14

Today we welcomed new members, celebrated communion, celebrated "New Church" day, and celebrated the end of the Sunday School year with a pageant.  It took a few minutes extra, but we managed it!

This comes to you with blessings and love.

“Fear Not”

Rev. Alison Longstaff, June 14, 2015

Bath Church of the New Jerusalem

Psalm 27:1-5; Revelation 1:12-19; Apocalypse Explained 431:6

Apocalypse Explained 431:6

“The New Jerusalem” does not mean a new earthly city called “Jerusalem,” nor does its “wall and gates” mean a physical wall and gates, nor do “the twelve tribes and apostles” mean the actual original twelve tribes and apostles. Something completely different is meant by each one of these things. “The New Jerusalem” means a new spirituality with a new understanding; “angels,” “tribes,” and “apostles” mean all the ways humanity will increase in benevolence and mutual understanding, and live from principles that are both deeply wise and deeply compassionate.

Today we will be welcoming two new people into this congregation—two terrific people who are choosing to walk beside us and with us here at Bath Church of the New Jerusalem. Robin and Rick are honoring us by making this commitment.

One reason so many people no longer attend any church is because they have been hurt or disappointed by a religious community in the past. To choose to try again when one has been hurt in the past takes courage, and I stand in honor of anyone who makes such a choice.

Robin and Rick, I cannot promise you that you will never feel hurt or disappointed at some point as you walk with us here. I can only pray that we as a community can walk with courage and compassion through the hurts together, so that we may keep healing and growing as a spiritual family.

To quote (the fictional) Father Timothy Cavanaugh (from At Home in Mitford by Jan Karon), “My friend, if you keep your eyes on Christians, you will be disappointed every day of your life. Your hope is to keep your eyes on Christ.”

We sometimes mistakenly expect perfection from each other just because we are a church. At such times I implore us all to remember that we are a community bounded by our need for God in our lives, not because in any way we have already arrived at some kind of special status.

It takes courage to break into a long-standing tradition such as this congregation represents.  And it takes courage on the part of those who have been running things for many years to step aside and allow new energies in, because new energies mean change.  So I commend all of us for not allowing fear to run the show.

           

Today we are also celebrating “June 19^th” or “The New Church’s birthday.”  We typically have a pageant featuring some story from the Book of Revelation, because Swedenborgians see the book of Revelation as a metaphor about the spiritual temptations that we go through on the way to heaven. A whole lot of people find the Book of Revelation scary. So today, I am going to talk about fear. I am especially going to talk about fear in relation to religion and God.

Looking in the Hebrew and Greek Bibles, one important thing to notice is that every time an angel of the Lord shows up with a message for someone, the very, very first thing he or she says is . . .

“Fear Not.”

The first thing said is: “Fear Not.” Sometimes it is worded “Do Not be Afraid,” but the message is the same. “Fear Not.” The angel brings these opening words of comfort to Hagar, to Isaac, to Rachel, to Jacob, to the People of Israel, to Moses, to Joshua, to Gideon, to Daniel, to Joseph, to Mary, to Zacharias, to the women at the tomb, and last but not least, to John on the isle of Patmos. As well as these 14 direct words of comfort, the followers of the Lord frequently say it to each other; Moses, Joshua, and the prophets say it to the children of Israel; and Jesus speaks these words of reassurance to the disciples and to the man whose daughter was dying.

In the Word, the first thing said is pivotal. It sets the tone. It shapes the entire rest of the message. Maybe we should pay attention to this, “Fear not.”

Why would “Fear not” be the first thing God would communicate to us? After all, won’t we all become lazy, selfish lumps if we’re not afraid? If we get too relaxed about our salvation, isn’t it possible we might miss the boat? Didn’t God also say in Psalm 111, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”? ( vs.10).

Well, yes and no.

You see, the fear of the Lord, spoken of in the Psalms is not the anxious, grovelling uneasiness we often think of when we hear the word, “fear.” The “fear” in the Psalms isn’t fear at all in that sense of the word. The “fear of the Lord” spoken of in Psalm 111 is a deep respect and reverence for the Lord born of deep love. And that sort of “fear” we do indeed want.

When the Word says, “Fear not,” it is calling us to release any grovelling, cowering, “please don’t hit me!” kind of fear. The Lord is not the angry, judgmental God we “fear” He is. He doesn’t want us to be cowering and grovelling and afraid of the Divine. He says, “Fear Not!” And, coming from the Lord, these words say a thousand more things too.

God speaks to us the words, “Fear Not,” but knows that we will often still feel afraid anyway, or at least mildly uneasy. We can’t change our feelings on demand simply by force of will. We might change feelings over time by changing our perspective, but mostly, feelings just are. Therefore, maybe these words from the Lord are not a command, “Thou shalt not fear! (and if you do, I will judge you)” but a reminder. God is reminding us that, though we may still experience fear, we do well to remember that the omnipotent, omniscient, benevolent God of the whole universe has things well in hand, all the way down to the hairs of our head.

It is a reminder to hold before our eyes: “Fear Not,” because God is in charge!

“Fear Not” can also be a promise. When God says, “Fear Not,” He is giving us a promise that some day, if we persevere along the path of spiritual growth, we will stop being afraid. Eventually, when we reach the spiritual state described as the Holy City, we will never truly fear anything again. We will know all is well, and feel only immense love.

So then the words “Fear Not” are a reminder and a promise. And there’s more.

           

The dragon and the harlot of Babylon in Revelation symbolize two unhealthy ways of doing religion. We all tend toward one or the other by nature, and these show what they can do to our lives if we let them get out of hand. These two unhealthy ways are the “Ideas Alone” approach (dragon) and the “sheer self-determination, I’ll just try hard enough” approach (works).  It is no coincidence that the tower of Babel (Babylon) is a story about humans trying to climb up to heaven by their own power.

These two unbalanced approaches are actually two sides of the same coin found within each of us. Where you find one, the other is not far away. They don’t actually compete with each other, they mirror and balance each other in a dysfunctional sort of way. In fact, in Rev. 19, the harlot of Babylon is seen riding the dragon. But the answer is not to find a middle ground between them, we need a shift to a higher order of unity in ourselves. We don’t want a dragon and whore married inside us (arrogance and control)—we want a bridegroom and bride (wisdom and love.)

A recent poll discerned whether people in any given congregation believed salvation was due more to our personal effort (works-based) or due to believing the right stuff regardless of effort (belief-based). What they discovered was that in any given congregation, no matter what denomination, the people tended to fall along a 50/50 or 60/40 split in their view of salvation. This study did not ask people directly what they thought they believed about salvation.  Instead it asked people to judge and assign responsibility or merit given certain hypothetical scenarios—a much more accurate way to measure what they actually believed. 

It looks as though all of us have a tendency to lean one way or the other in our approach to religion no matter what our denomination may teach.  We worry a lot and can’t do enough and feel a lot of guilt OR we live in our heads and rationalize everything and hold an aloofness from the feeling and doing side (response-ability) of life. (They sound a bit like Virginia Satir's coping mechanisms.)

This also reminds me that just because Swedenborg said the “new church” will have a perfect balance (represented by the Holy City), people who like to call themselves “New Church” (lots of Swedenborgians identify this way) are mistaken to think they automatically have that internal marriage by virtue of joining the external club. Every one of us on this planet has the same path to walk, and the Lord doesn’t play favorites. No one is a Navy Seal by virtue of calling themselves “a Navy Seal.” And no one is “New Church” just because they might call themselves “New Church.” You have to let yourself be changed.  You have to wake up and “do the work” which involves learning and humility and honesty.  It involves letting God work in your spirit while letting go—which often feels like hard work and sometimes feels too easy.

Now, having said that we all lean toward one spiritual imbalance or another, should it worry us that we tend subconsciously to lean more towards “ideas will get me there” or towards “sheer determination will get me there”? Not at all. In fact, the process described in Revelation through all the scary imagery is the process of how this imbalance gets corrected for us (and how apocalyptic this process can sometimes look and feel). The things that die or are cast down in the story aren’t you and me or anyone we love, they are broken and dysfunctional parts of us. Those things will be cast down as we are ready to be lifted up.

The Lord can and does and always will do everything He can to help you and me and every one of us rise up from our divided internal state into the heavenly marriage. He knows how we are made! He formed each one of us in the womb. He doesn’t expect perfection today or even any time soon. He doesn’t judge us for being tiny, imperfect, stumbling newbies at this whole regeneration thing. In fact, in His eyes, we are precious beyond compare. And He knows just how to lead each one of us. We need to be open to Him.

The Book of Revelation is written the way it is, not as a warning, but as a reassuring description of what the final stages of personal regeneration can look like. Yes, this process can look and feel like the stars are falling and everything we rely on and trust in are in flaming ruins. But God says, “Fear Not.” Perhaps this is why the birth process for our race looks so messy, dramatic, and well, frightening to the uninitiated. If you ask a new father, he might talk of blood and screaming, and the woman in labor might talk of pain and even sometimes wanting to die. But if you ask a midwife, she will tell you that the birth of a child is the most beautiful thing on the whole earth.

So, which one is telling the truth about the birth of a new human being?

The Book of Revelation describes the last final push—the moment of transition from a previous, incomplete spiritual state to a whole new, triumphant reality. And just about anyone associated with the human birth process will tell you that the phase called “transition” is the hardest and most apparently “out of control” or “chaotic” phase there is. The Last Judgement in the Word is describing a final transition in our spiritual rebirth.

And any spiritual midwife worth his or her salt will tell you, “Fear Not,” no matter how melodramatic the process feels to us. The spiritual soul in labor might not feel so sure at that moment, but that’s okay. All of it, ALL OF IT, is okay. This is simply what the process looks like for us messy beings—cataclysmic, earth-shattering, and beautiful beyond our wildest dreams.

So, “Fear Not.”

After all, we were born to become angels, so what have we to fear? And if you think about it, fear is the actual opposite of love. It isn’t hatred, it is fear that closes us off from loving others. “Hate” is simply one face of fear—fear of pain, fear of lost love, fear of all things that have hurt us in the past. So “Fear Not” is another way of saying “remember love.”

“Fear not,” says God. “Trust me.” “Choose love,” says God. “I’ve got you.” “Fear Not.”

“Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.” (Luke 12:6-7)  Amen

Revised from a sermon originally preached November 4^th, 2007 Pretty Prairie Kansas

Readings:

Psalm 27: 1-5

The Lord is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid?
When the wicked came against me To eat up my flesh, My enemies and foes,
They stumbled and fell.
Though an army may encamp against me, My heart shall not fear;
Though war may rise against me, I will be confident.

One thing I have desired of the Lord,
That will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord All the days of my life,
To behold the beauty of the Lord, And to inquire in His temple.
For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion;
In the secret place of His tabernacle He shall hide me;
He shall set me high upon a rock.

Revelation 1:12-18

Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters; He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen.

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.