Minister's Highlights
Unity of Monroe
Perfect Vision: Seeing Through a Spiritual Lens
Home
February 6, 2020
A minister went to visit a family in their home and while he was welcomed into their home they graciously offered him some coffee and goodies before they sat down for a nice chat. While the husband and wife were in the kitchen preparing the coffee and some treats, their 6 year old daughter came into the room offering the minister a bowl of peanuts. Well, he took advantage of the hospitality and then asked the little girl if he could have some more. She said, of course, help yourself. The minister quipped, “I’m eating so many of your peanuts, I hope it’s okay.” The little girl answered, “Oh, you can eat them all if you want! I don’t like peanuts... so I just sucked off the chocolate on them.” Here’s wishing you no pre-licked chocolate covered peanuts. Being the first Sunday of the month, I’m continuing our once-a-month series Perfect Vision: Seeing Through a Spiritual Lens. This month the theme is on Home and I welcome you home here to Unity of Monroe.
Of course tomorrow being Labor Day, and the unofficial end of summer, we enter into the fall season with opportunities to continue our journey to a Sense of Place where we know we are in our right place at the right time. These past 3 months of Summer we’ve been able to have our in-person service again and experience a kind of Welcome Home. We can also say Welcome Home to ourselves because life is about finding our way to the home of who we are. When you think of Home, on the one hand it is something embedded in so many of our traditions from a place to hang our hat, to a place we can call our own castle. We’re told, “Home is where the heart is” and in America’s pastime, baseball, the object of the game is to be safe at home. Lassie taught us about coming home and Dorothy found her true home was not somewhere over the rainbow but was closer than she thought. Maybe you’ve even travelled back to the first home you can remember where you were raised as a young child. Was there a warm feeling for it or was it a place of dread or pain? I felt a bit of sadness when I discovered that my first home and the whole neighborhood I played in was completely gone, taken out by road improvement. Then to kick me further the hospital I was born in was torn down. I tried not to take it personally.
Home for many of us can be a recurring dream and hopefully not a recurring nightmare. We might have this recurring feeling when we come back to our physical home. There’s a comfort there, a sense of space and hopefully a place of peace and serenity. Like when you return from a trip or when you’ve been out for some time. But how do we feel when we take that most difficult journey to our inner home.
It would be great that every time we quiet ourselves and take time to process things going on in our heart and mind that we felt comfortable and at peace but that’s not always the case.This is why the Journey to Home is a practice and the more we do so the more we establish it as the very foundation of our life. It is also about enjoying the ride along the way otherwise we miss key things and moving moments. The inner Journey to Home is also like when we do take a trip somewhere and all along the drive we miss key points and interactions because all we can focus on is the end experience.
It’s like putting in the foundation of a home we’re building so that we have something to build upon because without the foundation, it falls apart. We can link this metaphysically to the parable in words attributed to Jesus that wraps up the Sermon on the Mount. What those who had gathered heard was a great story about two houses being built. “The rain fell, the torrents raged, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because its foundation was on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them is like a foolish man who built his house on sands.The rain fell, the torrents raged, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its collapse!” (Mt 7:25-27) So Home on the one hand is our physical dwelling but it is also a state of consciousness where we dwell in our divinity. This idea of home or a dwelling is symbolically and allegorically interpreted as a state of consciousness. When you think about it that makes sense in that a house surrounds us and can provide shelter, warmth and peace of mind. The home of our consciousness within us does the very same thing only not as some sort of outer framework but an inner dimension and understanding of our Oneness in God.
If we see a home as our consciousness then when the foundation is built on a solid foundation it can weather anything. Here Jesus is referring to the difference between just an outer perspective on life, that of only superficial ideals and a focus on just our physical nature, contrasted with a rock solid base, the very foundation of our spiritual identity. This is not some sort of outward devotion we must observe but an inner one with the foundation of living being the rock of our own Christ. Eric Butterworth in the classic book Discover the Power Within You wrote, “When you begin to catch the concept of your innate divinity, you have the means of building a life that is impervious to change and challenge.” This is a classic example of the power that Jesus knew was in him and invited all since to uncover and discover. Uncover because it already exists as an aspect of our divine inheritance. The great poet, and friend to Unity, Maya Angelou wrote, “We may act sophisticated and worldly but I believe we feel safest when we go inside ourselves and find home, a place where we belong and maybe the only place we really do.” We may long for home and it’s safety but the greatest longing within the soul is to come home to our God-self. I’ve talked about this over the years that I believe we are always trying to reconnect to God in one fashion or another. Some of us will find the way pleasant and perhaps a direct journey in this life experience while others may take a more circuitous route. I believe even the person held in abeyance, a state of temporary disuse, by the circumstances of addiction is seeking to find Home. Sometimes it takes awhile for us to discover our own innate power like not using a power source for a long time and then hoping it starts right back up.
We all yearn to know that awareness of God even those who claim there is no God have made The Journey to Home to find that what had previously been presented to them was not home but an illusion. The old godly images were anything but welcoming and supportive.
I mean who wouldn’t be turned away from Home with a God that is presented as if you don’t follow my rules you’ll be cast out. The O.T. in particular is rife with such stories beginning with the mythos of Adam and Eve being thrown out of their first home. Don’t those stories all sound like some angry dad confronting his teen son or daughter saying, You either play by the rules of my house or else it’s out the door with you. No wonder so many people get turned away from all this and yet there is still a longing for Home often to be found in other ways of discovery in service to humanity or other ways of creative expression.
Turning within to our spiritual center, coming Home to the place that we were conceived as, brings an integration and wholeness. It lifts us out of what we might call fragmented thinking, as in I am separate from you, that place I call “twoness” (my word) and into a conscious Oneness with all life. This happens when we come Home to that place of rest, support, care and love. That place that’s just right where you are. Whatever divine discontent we may feel right now with every change and transition that is happening out here is really an invitation to get into what Jesus said is “righteous” thinking. That doesn’t mean a holier than thou thought process but the “right-use” of our thinking. Righteous means “right manner or condition” and the right manner is to know that Truth is not something we learn or accumulate in memory, but that which we unfold within. We can all become more conscious of what we have going for us in the depths of us, the divine of us.
The divine of us is always calling us Home to Live Large as Love, not merely going through the motions and emotions of loving but truly Loving because it is our very nature our raison d’etre, our reason for being. Despite what is now taking place in life, life really is a sacred, beautiful and awesome journey with a holy destination - but the destination is not to find a new place to dwell out there somewhere. The destination is finding home within yourself, in as many every moments, in every day that we can. Then you are living a great journey, and a great destination.
The beliefs in Unity are that you and I are always at Home when we know our Oneness with the One and when we return Home to our spiritual center. As we turn within in thought, prayer and moments of meditation, we are turning within to our spiritual center and there find our Sense of Place that integrates and makes us whole. It takes us from fragmented thinking to conscious Oneness while we align our whole being with Spirit as the true source of our good. This month, let us come home to our spiritual center and home here at Unity with a new Sunday class beginning next week and this Wednesday and Thursday Unity World Day of Prayer. Find your Sense of Place as you Live Large as Love for your search is already mapped. It is written on your heart.
Unity of Monroe • 272 Britton Lane • P.O. Box 138 • Monroe, Ohio • 45050
513-539-5103
E-Mail • unitymonroeohio@earthlink.net
WebSite • unityofmonroe.org
Perfect Vision: Seeing Through a Spiritual Lens
Home
February 6, 2020
A minister went to visit a family in their home and while he was welcomed into their home they graciously offered him some coffee and goodies before they sat down for a nice chat. While the husband and wife were in the kitchen preparing the coffee and some treats, their 6 year old daughter came into the room offering the minister a bowl of peanuts. Well, he took advantage of the hospitality and then asked the little girl if he could have some more. She said, of course, help yourself. The minister quipped, “I’m eating so many of your peanuts, I hope it’s okay.” The little girl answered, “Oh, you can eat them all if you want! I don’t like peanuts... so I just sucked off the chocolate on them.” Here’s wishing you no pre-licked chocolate covered peanuts. Being the first Sunday of the month, I’m continuing our once-a-month series Perfect Vision: Seeing Through a Spiritual Lens. This month the theme is on Home and I welcome you home here to Unity of Monroe.
Of course tomorrow being Labor Day, and the unofficial end of summer, we enter into the fall season with opportunities to continue our journey to a Sense of Place where we know we are in our right place at the right time. These past 3 months of Summer we’ve been able to have our in-person service again and experience a kind of Welcome Home. We can also say Welcome Home to ourselves because life is about finding our way to the home of who we are. When you think of Home, on the one hand it is something embedded in so many of our traditions from a place to hang our hat, to a place we can call our own castle. We’re told, “Home is where the heart is” and in America’s pastime, baseball, the object of the game is to be safe at home. Lassie taught us about coming home and Dorothy found her true home was not somewhere over the rainbow but was closer than she thought. Maybe you’ve even travelled back to the first home you can remember where you were raised as a young child. Was there a warm feeling for it or was it a place of dread or pain? I felt a bit of sadness when I discovered that my first home and the whole neighborhood I played in was completely gone, taken out by road improvement. Then to kick me further the hospital I was born in was torn down. I tried not to take it personally.
Home for many of us can be a recurring dream and hopefully not a recurring nightmare. We might have this recurring feeling when we come back to our physical home. There’s a comfort there, a sense of space and hopefully a place of peace and serenity. Like when you return from a trip or when you’ve been out for some time. But how do we feel when we take that most difficult journey to our inner home.
It would be great that every time we quiet ourselves and take time to process things going on in our heart and mind that we felt comfortable and at peace but that’s not always the case.This is why the Journey to Home is a practice and the more we do so the more we establish it as the very foundation of our life. It is also about enjoying the ride along the way otherwise we miss key things and moving moments. The inner Journey to Home is also like when we do take a trip somewhere and all along the drive we miss key points and interactions because all we can focus on is the end experience.
It’s like putting in the foundation of a home we’re building so that we have something to build upon because without the foundation, it falls apart. We can link this metaphysically to the parable in words attributed to Jesus that wraps up the Sermon on the Mount. What those who had gathered heard was a great story about two houses being built. “The rain fell, the torrents raged, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because its foundation was on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them is like a foolish man who built his house on sands.The rain fell, the torrents raged, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its collapse!” (Mt 7:25-27) So Home on the one hand is our physical dwelling but it is also a state of consciousness where we dwell in our divinity. This idea of home or a dwelling is symbolically and allegorically interpreted as a state of consciousness. When you think about it that makes sense in that a house surrounds us and can provide shelter, warmth and peace of mind. The home of our consciousness within us does the very same thing only not as some sort of outer framework but an inner dimension and understanding of our Oneness in God.
If we see a home as our consciousness then when the foundation is built on a solid foundation it can weather anything. Here Jesus is referring to the difference between just an outer perspective on life, that of only superficial ideals and a focus on just our physical nature, contrasted with a rock solid base, the very foundation of our spiritual identity. This is not some sort of outward devotion we must observe but an inner one with the foundation of living being the rock of our own Christ. Eric Butterworth in the classic book Discover the Power Within You wrote, “When you begin to catch the concept of your innate divinity, you have the means of building a life that is impervious to change and challenge.” This is a classic example of the power that Jesus knew was in him and invited all since to uncover and discover. Uncover because it already exists as an aspect of our divine inheritance. The great poet, and friend to Unity, Maya Angelou wrote, “We may act sophisticated and worldly but I believe we feel safest when we go inside ourselves and find home, a place where we belong and maybe the only place we really do.” We may long for home and it’s safety but the greatest longing within the soul is to come home to our God-self. I’ve talked about this over the years that I believe we are always trying to reconnect to God in one fashion or another. Some of us will find the way pleasant and perhaps a direct journey in this life experience while others may take a more circuitous route. I believe even the person held in abeyance, a state of temporary disuse, by the circumstances of addiction is seeking to find Home. Sometimes it takes awhile for us to discover our own innate power like not using a power source for a long time and then hoping it starts right back up.
We all yearn to know that awareness of God even those who claim there is no God have made The Journey to Home to find that what had previously been presented to them was not home but an illusion. The old godly images were anything but welcoming and supportive.
I mean who wouldn’t be turned away from Home with a God that is presented as if you don’t follow my rules you’ll be cast out. The O.T. in particular is rife with such stories beginning with the mythos of Adam and Eve being thrown out of their first home. Don’t those stories all sound like some angry dad confronting his teen son or daughter saying, You either play by the rules of my house or else it’s out the door with you. No wonder so many people get turned away from all this and yet there is still a longing for Home often to be found in other ways of discovery in service to humanity or other ways of creative expression.
Turning within to our spiritual center, coming Home to the place that we were conceived as, brings an integration and wholeness. It lifts us out of what we might call fragmented thinking, as in I am separate from you, that place I call “twoness” (my word) and into a conscious Oneness with all life. This happens when we come Home to that place of rest, support, care and love. That place that’s just right where you are. Whatever divine discontent we may feel right now with every change and transition that is happening out here is really an invitation to get into what Jesus said is “righteous” thinking. That doesn’t mean a holier than thou thought process but the “right-use” of our thinking. Righteous means “right manner or condition” and the right manner is to know that Truth is not something we learn or accumulate in memory, but that which we unfold within. We can all become more conscious of what we have going for us in the depths of us, the divine of us.
The divine of us is always calling us Home to Live Large as Love, not merely going through the motions and emotions of loving but truly Loving because it is our very nature our raison d’etre, our reason for being. Despite what is now taking place in life, life really is a sacred, beautiful and awesome journey with a holy destination - but the destination is not to find a new place to dwell out there somewhere. The destination is finding home within yourself, in as many every moments, in every day that we can. Then you are living a great journey, and a great destination.
The beliefs in Unity are that you and I are always at Home when we know our Oneness with the One and when we return Home to our spiritual center. As we turn within in thought, prayer and moments of meditation, we are turning within to our spiritual center and there find our Sense of Place that integrates and makes us whole. It takes us from fragmented thinking to conscious Oneness while we align our whole being with Spirit as the true source of our good. This month, let us come home to our spiritual center and home here at Unity with a new Sunday class beginning next week and this Wednesday and Thursday Unity World Day of Prayer. Find your Sense of Place as you Live Large as Love for your search is already mapped. It is written on your heart.
Unity of Monroe • 272 Britton Lane • P.O. Box 138 • Monroe, Ohio • 45050
513-539-5103
E-Mail • unitymonroeohio@earthlink.net
WebSite • unityofmonroe.org