Radical Revolutionary Freedom

It is our deepest natural impulse to be free so it should not alarm our deepest sensibilities to see perpetual struggles to attain it. The impulse to self determination and liberation are at the heart of the protests we now witness in the Mideast.  The violence, which garners attention on the world stage, is only an externalized response to this deeper impulse, and can divert an appreciation of the innate and ubiquitous desire for self mastery and personal choice that underlies it. We all want to be free. Free from the oppression and tyranny of external powers that would wield unjust power over our lives and deny us the fruits of freedom - life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  Because we enjoy peace in our land, it is easy to forget that radical revolutionary behavior was central to our nation's genesis.  Because we live in relative freedom today we may have forgotten the reality of the bitter bloody battle; the extraordinary costs paid to wrest liberty from an autocratic King that once ruled unjustly over Americans choices and lives. The intrepid men who drafted the Declaration of Independence stepped boldly across the line of personal safety and put it all on the line to achieve the inalienable right of freedom. So what we see in Egypt and surrounding nations is the outpicturing in their people of the same core value that once rallied Americans to battle oppression and gain freedom. Unfortunately, achieving true freedom is more complex. In truth, freedom is not won through successful wars, deposed dictators, or even governments by the people. True freedom is an inner condition; a state of mind that can overthrow the power of external conditions to affect one's peace. Like the King of England, our ego mind often reigns supreme over our thoughts and affairs and we have suffered the tyranny of a long train of (its) abuses and usurpations.  We have placed the crown of authority upon our senses that they might have the last word on reality.  In return, we receive a meager appraisal of life's possibilities.  We are taxed by levies of fear and doubt.    Yet the truth is that we have assented to these oppressive practices, even while railing against them.   True freedom is self-evident when we come to know our true spiritual nature.  Created in the image and likeness of the Great Perfection, we have always had the inalienable right to self-determination. Free will empowers us to cast the deciding vote on every issue. We are at liberty to find peace and plenitude in the very ground of our being. When we realize the source and course of true freedom, we may be driven to our knees as much as to the streets. We will realize that non-resistance is the most effective approach to inner freedom as protest is to the external kind. Having gained what many people in the world are still fighting to achieve, our revolution is inner evolution.  It may cost us our lives, as we have known them, to cross the line of entrenched beliefs and illusory expectations. Beyond forms, conditions, preferences is peace without condition. To be willing to sacrifice all these treasured but false ideals is to make way for the true and lasting freedom that lies undisturbed within our very Being.

One Power

"...All shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well." - St. Julian of Norwich

Every Sunday we conclude our service with a collective prayer which ends with the words, "all is well."

How is it that we can justify such an over arching statement of well being as a community affirmation? Are we ignorant, or in strict denial, of the human suffering in our midst?

Neither is true.  We are not immune from the travails of the human life.  Among us are many who have suffered loss, small and great.  Some have lost small fortunes, others face life-threatening illness, and some of us grieve the death of loved ones.

How then, given our losses, can we express such a collective appraisal of well being?  The answer is not in the circumstances of our lives, but in the context in which they arise.

We believe in a greater reality beyond form that holds us in its loving embrace.  We hold to knowing that despite the powerful winds that tear across the landscape of our human lives, there remains an underlying Presence and Power within us that ensures our well-being.  Beyond appearances of limitation and loss, our true essence remains undisturbed, and imperturbable through it all.

We do not deny appearances but neither should we let them blind us to a deeper reality. Our faith urges us on to see reality as it truly is;, and inspires us to awaken to God's irrefutable presence in the midst of our challenges now rather than waiting for preferential existence in an afterlife.  We can do this with feet planted solidly on the ground of the present moment, standing shoulder to shoulder with fellow human beings, sharing human vulnerability and spiritual strength.  Girded by inexorable truths and fellow believers, we can muster the resolve to look courageously into the face of our human dramas and affirm together:

"There is only one Presence and one Power in the universe and in my life, God the good, omnipotent."

Love's Thorny Virtue

"What if the mightiest word is love?" asked Yale professor, Elizabeth Alexander in her Inaugural poem. We diminish the true power of love when we expect to find it only in the tender, sentimental and happy moments in life. The "mighty" quality of love that inspires and sustains us is the love that emerges undefeated out of adversity. A rose and a thorn share the same stem. According to our preferences, we welcome the gift of the rose with its beauty and fragrance. Conversely we avoid, even shun the thorn. Human preferences can blind our wiser sensibilities to what is equally contradictory and true.  The rose grows beautifully, necessarily, and unflinchingly surrounded and supported by a thorny stem. This koan from nature opens our eyes to paradox and opens our hearts to embrace opposing energies that sustain the fullness of life. Examples that bear witness to the dichotomy and fierceness in love abound. Anybody within earshot of a maternity ward knows that sounds of childbirth are not always sweet and tender. Love made visible demands endurance, patience, commitment, and a desire to bring something beautiful into the world. Sentimental love, romantic notion, are flimsy representations of love; mere tastes of a much deeper force. Not that I'm against romance and sentimentality. I admit enjoyment of romantic films and I give cards and flowers to my beloved. However, after years of tempering love in the refining fire of life, I know that love's depth and truth is not captured nor conveyed with momentary expressions of the heart. Love is the clarified perception that sees goodness in a person behind their misdeeds. Love is a bone-tired parent who works two jobs to feed their kids or maintains a constant vigil of care. Love never fails to see beauty, no matter the appearance, nor fails to be grateful no matter the measure of good. Love is the unimaginable ability to forgive the unforgiveable; the power to heal the nastiest wounds. The key to harnessing the mighty power of love, is to look for love where you least expect to find it. We need not shun the thorn that is our pain. If we close our heart to guard it from the thorn, we close the very vessel capable of delivering the Big Love we need most. The rose blossoms amidst thorns, the lily blooms out of mud, and the mightiest love flows from an open heart.