|
"Freedom In My Role"
4/20/08
Harry Morgan Moses
Today’s lesson is entitled Freedom in my Role and
what we want to look at as we look at the idea of freedom, have you
noticed that there is always something to do? Even when there is
sometimes not something to do our mind makes up the idea that there
is something to do, have you noticed? So what were looking to find
out is what is the spiritual journey of discovering the freedom of
being alive in the presence of God wherever I am. Whatever I’m doing
or whatever I’m not doing. What is it to really be free in what is
mine to do and each of us noticed because we are incarnate meaning
we are spirit made flesh because we are incarnate each of us notices
that there is in fact something that is mine to do For those of you
who have been married you know there is often something that is ours
to do. In fact I have a whole list and it is called the honey to do
list and its ok and I have adjusted. I have been married for twenty
five years and my wife for the first twenty three of those years did
not work and was a mom. My twenty three years old son is a precious
angle and our beautiful daughter is a precious angle who is teaching
school in Korea. So all those years that she did not work and now
all of a sudden she works and now she has started a new career a few
years ago and is doing very well in that career and is very
necessary for our family to deal with the fact that I owe a lot of
years of my life to the Universities that we are paying for and
that’s all ok. Part of that process is in those years I have become
the shopper in the household and so for twenty five years I did not
go to a market and now for the last three years I am becoming a good
shopper and sometimes I will just finish with the list and then up
on the refrig a whole new list for us to get and part of me says
“well I just did that”. Have you noticed that I just did that and it
comes again or I just sat down to pay the bills and I just did that
and here it comes again or I just went to work and I have to go to
work again? There is always that which is ours to do because we are
both God that which is the peace the pose the balance the stillness
of God but were also the activity of God. And we are both God and
God in action all of the time and ours is to figure out how is it
that I become free in whatever it is that’s mind to do? To really
notice that it is ok if I have a to do list and its ok for me to be
free in that whatever it is mine to do. Whatever is my work it is ok
to be free in that.
So as we look at today which is Passover was in the dialogue between
Moses and Pharaoh, in the dialogue between Moses and Pharaoh Moses
kept telling the Pharaoh he was being sent by God to free his
people. That the Pharaoh was obligated because the God of the
Pharaoh and the God of Moses was the same God. And the Pharaoh was
obligated to cooperate with Moses and the Pharaoh kept saying no.
Now you and I have a Pharaoh consciousness there is a part of us
that wants to cooperate with God and another part of us says for all
the reasons of my holding on, of my keeping my kingdom for all the
reasons that I can’t because of my “stuff”. My kingdom the reason I
can’t listen to you inner guidance, the reason I can’t listen to
your voice, the reason I can’t follow you is because I have to
protect my kingdom or Queen-dom as the case may be. And it is out of
that fear that we no longer are able to move and yet the law of God
says you will do, you must do, you have to do what it is that I am
because I am that which thou art and thou art that which I am. I
love this line and I shared it with you out of the Bible where Jesus
is talking in John 17:20 and I like to look at this line and could
you ever imagine a master teacher getting frustrated with his
students? So have you noticed that sometimes even yourself as you’re
studying the principals and you really begin to know what I am is
divine and what I am is whole, complete and perfect. My God we have
the science of our days that tells us that literally that what you
are is hard wired to the bliss of God. And yet when we go off into
our identify and our personality and our stuff we feel a long way
from the bliss of God, have you noticed that? So Jesus is trying to
explain because they keep trying to make Jesus the great Jewish
prophet, as I remind us all of the time there is no historic
question as to whether or not Jesus was Jewish. Jesus was Jewish and
Jesus brought forth the fulfillment of a Jewish law. The fulfillment
of a Jewish understanding, the fulfillment of an Abraham would be a
better way to say it, the fulfillment of an Abraham reality that
there is only one God.
And so in the Passover Moses kept telling the Pharaoh to cooperate
and the Pharaoh did not want to cooperate and so the Pharaoh
continued to have the law work against him. The whole story of the
Old Testament is about the announcement of the law of God. It came
forth as the Ten Commandments but if you look deeply at the Ten
Commandments there is really only one that were required to follow
thou shall have no Gods before me. One God one life, one truth. So
when we separate ourselves and say well I can’t do what my high self
tells me to do. Pharaoh can’t do what Moses tells him to do, when we
separate ourselves and say I can only do what Jesus tell me to do
and this is where I was going with Jesus in John where he is talking
to his disciples and he says why don’t you heal the blind, why don’t
you cause the deaf to hear, why don’t you go out and do this good
work and they said oh master we need you, your the one who does the
good work and Jesus says again, no I am telling you I am here that
all may be made one. Like the father art in me and I in thee that
they may be one in us. I in them, they in me that they may be in the
perfect one. He said you don’t understand see I am in the father,
your in the father, were in the father, I am in the father were all
in the one and no matter how many times he says were all in the one
they kept saying yes but we need you to do it. I came that all may
be one, like the father art in me, I in thee that they be one in us,
I in them and they in me and that they may all be in the perfect
one. So Jesus never separated himself we separated Jesus. So there
is a part of your nature that is the fulfillment of the Christ, the
Atman the Buddha the high self that part of you that is already in
perfect poise, that is already guiding you and willing to take away
your strange your stresses, your pressures willing to allow you to
be free in the now even with your to do list. You can be free in the
now but you say oh I can’t be free in the now because I have all
these responsibilities and with all the responsibilities goes all of
the to do list, how can I be free in the now?
Well according to that idea if you have to finish you’re to do list
before you get free, you will be waiting a very long time. Because
have you not noticed what Roseanne told us, there is always
something if it isn’t one thing its another. So here Passover what
happened was Moses says you had better listen and Pharaoh says no no
these are my slaves. Moses says you had better listen and Pharaoh
say no and he say ok God says he is going to take every first born
male child which was just a patriarchal way of saying the most
important thing in your life, I’m going to take away the most
important thing if you don’t listen. Then he told the Israelites,
all the Israelites mark your doorway because the angle of death is
coming through and wipe everybody out except the people who choose
God. Going to wipe everybody out except the people who choose God,
that’s what Passover is all about. You see it wasn’t so much that
they had a birthright, they had to choose back. See an Israelite is
the one who seeks God first, the one who seeks God first and you put
God first, there is the first commandment of Moses. Put God first
and everything else follows and that’s our lesson in the Passover
experience. Have you and I decided that we will be saved, we will be
saved not from our to do list but we will be saved from the law of
God as soon as we choose to put God first because as soon as we put
God first were in cooperation with the law. As soon as you put God
first you’re in cooperation with the law. Now I will say it in the
way our good friend Ernest Holmes said it. He says you are one with
the creative spirit of the universe. There is a universal divine
spirit which will inspire, guide direct and companion you. There is
a universal divine spirit which will inspire guide direct and
companion you but there is also a universal law of cause and effect
which see to it that every act, every thought, every motive must be
accounted for. You see that is the Old Testament and the New
Testament reversed. You see the new Testament is not the denial of
the law of Moses, its not the denial of the presence of the law,
Jesus even said I came to fulfill the law, not to deny the law. Now
Ernest Holmes is flipping it around all these two thousand years
later he says there is a universal presence, there is the presence
of love which will inspire guide and companion you and there is also
this law, this law that must that says every thought every feeling,
every emotion must be accounted for. And here is the part that no
new thought people like to deal with and that is suffering? Do you
notice that whether you like to deal with suffering or not you still
have it? Have you noticed because it is only according to your
consciousness that you can free yourself from the suffering. Only as
you begin to companion with the divine, only as you begin to let the
spirit lead you into the paths of that which is your authentic
action, only then will you be in harmony with the law. Because as
soon as you become in harmony with the law he says there is this
spirit which will inspire guide, direct and companion you. Everybody
want the spirit that will inspire guide direct and companion you,
you want God the most high, the beloved god the personal God that
loves you beyond measure, beyond your wildest idea of love,
everybody want that? Say yes, now isn’t that really the reason you
got up to come here this morning. Isn’t the real reason you came
here this morning can I do something, can I consciously take an
action that will free me from my suffering. Until you companion
until you do that there is also this law of cause and effect which
sees to it that every act, every thought, every motive must be
accounted for until finally through suffering you will learn to
distinguish right from wrong, you will live in conscious union and
conscious communion with the divine spirit. When finally you have
had enough suffering, when finally the school of two by four has
knocked you across the head enough you’ll start to companion with
the divine. You see what caused the Passover experience was the
Israelites chose God first. They said God first and because of that
they were passed over and only life existed in the households that
said God first. No spirit of death in a household that claims God
first only life. You see the truth is that this law and Ernest
Holmes reminds us of this he says this law by conscious thinking we
give direction to it. Let me repeat that this law by conscious
thinking. You know the difference between conscious and subconscious
yes? This law by conscious thinking we give directed to it but the
law responds either consciously or unconsciously and will advance
along the line that our conscious or our subconscious has given it.
So you see every act must be accounted for, every thought, every
feeling must be accounted for but if you don’t know that you will
continue to do the wrong thing and you will continue to get the
wrong thing back. Because every thought must be accounted for and
when you change your mind and do the right thing you will get the
right thing back.
If everybody knew that for every act of hate they create more hate,
for every act of anger you create more anger. Because the law is
always responding to what your giving it now. What are you giving it
now, what are you giving it now and you notice when you start to get
afraid how did everyone do with the tax man this week? I had to deal
with taxes and I knew they were coming and I did the math and I knew
it was coming then I had to cut the check on Tuesday and my wife on
Tuesday morning she asked me how are you this morning and I said a
little fearful and she said oh change your mind. I had to remember
for every act there is accountability right so it is not so easy to
just say to change your mind. You see one has to purpose oneself to
live in accord with the divine.
When I speak to nine o’clock services or where I travel and do nine
o’clock services and I say good morning to the nine o’clock group
because if you notice the nine o’clock group is not quite awake yet
and the people don’t get too excited and so I can be fervent and
they go God he was certainly fervent this morning because the nine
o’clock group wants to come in and get God and get out. But you and
I know and we are beginning to understand and beginning to purpose
ourselves more directly you and I know that its not about going in
to get God and get out, its going into to get God and take god with
you in an ever more deep way, to ever more deeply involved into my
relationship with the divine. Until the spontaneous first reaction
of my life is to be present, to be present in God. St. Angelica’s of
Lola 1491 to 1556 he said the glory of God is a human being fully
alive. The glory of God is a human being fully alive which would
mean a human being fully present in their own to do list. Whatever
is mine to do it’s mine to do and this idea was stimulated in my
mind by remembering a couple of people through history that I had
read about and leaned into a little and there was a wonderful monk
named Brother Lawrence who lived in the 1700’s from 1614 to 1691 he
became a monk and he wrote a book called practicing the presence but
what happened to Brother Lawrence he began to practice the presence,
he began to practice walking and being with God. He says he learned
the greatest secret of living in the kingdom of God here on earth
communing with the Lord throughout his daily tasks. He mastered the
art of living in the presence of God throughout the day as he
exclaimed I am doing what I do for all eternity I am blessing god,
praising god adoring and loving God with all my heart. If all I can
do as a humble cook is making things for God then I turn the cake
that is frying in the pan for the love of God. So what happened to
Brother Lawrence as he began to practice this presence is more and
more light began to come upon him? And his brothers in the monastery
began to see that more and more light was coming upon this soul and
they said he the humble cook they said you should be doing something
other than scrambling eggs in the morning. They said as a matter of
fact why don’t you become the father superior and he said no, I have
freedom in my role. You see you can be as much God turning a pancake
as you can giving a speech to the UN. It’s all not in what you’re
doing but how you’re doing. It is not in what is your to do list but
how are you with your to do list. Have you discovered that you can
develop the freedom in your own role?
There was another monk who became an interesting gentleman who lived
from 1950 to 1968 only fifty three years and his name was Thomas
Murton and he became a very powerful spiritual writer in this last
century and Thomas Murton was so enumerated with spirit that when he
traveled to Asia and wanted to learn more about the world religions
he learned more about Buddhism, more about Zen Buddhism and he
actually became while he was a catholic priest, he became a Zen monk
and he was bridging the two worlds of those beings while in the
midst of being because it was his to do. You see his to do list was
to bridge religions and the same thing happened to him and they said
brother you have become exalted, you have come to a higher level and
we want to move you and he said no I want to continue to serve right
here in Bangkok this idea of one religion, East and West belonging
to all people. He was free in his role even though in the outer
world they wanted to exalt him he knew his role; he was free in his
role. You and I have the opportunity to become the brother
Lawrence’s, the Thomas Murton’s the Florence Nightingales in our own
lives to find the freedom of what we are doing in our own role.
Not the freedom please god dissolve my to do list and give me a big
list of servants so I don’t have a to do list because you know what
happens when you have a big list of servants on your to do list you
have a big payroll and now your new to do list is to do the payroll
for your list of servants. See the to do list never goes away, its
not the to do list that goes away it’s who I am in the to do list
that changes. It is who I am as a spiritual being as my heart begins
to work, the eyes have not seen nor the ears heard nor has been
given unto the heart of man the glory of those that love god. There
is something still waiting in the human condition which is for us to
burst into the glory of that which the love of God already brings
us, I find the love of God in the pancake and they want to make me
the Father Superior. But If I can love what I’m doing for God in
this moment I will already be. I will already be a light unto the
world in whatever is your light.
So you and I are at a place where were wanting to get to shift,
shift from this idea and I will use Charles Filmore’s quote he says
first intellectual understanding comes first in the souls
development, then a deeper understanding of the principal follows
and you see there is this law that you must be accountable to this
law. You must be accountable to the presence of the divine and if
you are not the law will guide you, you see thy rod and they staff
they comfort me right? What is the staff the staff is what leads us
up the hill, what is the rod and that is what we get whacked with?
But if you notice that sometimes out of the means of our own
fulfillment of prayer that we get whacked because we have become
something we don’t mean to be. I don’t wish this on you but no
sooner do you go to flip somebody off that just flipped you off you
smash into the car in front of you because you were so busy being
angry at the other person. And boom just like that the law says see
what you give immediately comes back to you right? That’s the rod
bringing you back to yourself and you go God what did I do, oh I got
enraged, somebody got mad at me for no reason and I got mad at them
back or even if there was a reason they got mad at me because I put
my brakes on at the wrong time and I got mad at them back and then I
didn’t put my brakes on, boom and the rod says do you see where it
all started? Did you choose God first, did you mark on the doorway
that you are an Israelite, did you choose God first so that that
anger came and they had that jester at me and I go God I hate that
jester, I don’t like that I’m going to return with compassion to
their passion. I can begin to be the one who flips things around and
we say well what are we looking at in our life you see first
intellectual understanding and you have all got that. I know you got
the intellectual understanding because your here and something
within you knows there are ideas that I can embrace, relationship
with the divine that I can embrace that will make my life easier. In
deed the more you step into that relationship the less you push the
more things happens, the less you worry about things and try to
force them the easier it gets, how does that sound? But you see were
going to have to step into our divinity, we could make the choice to
live our life from joy and watch how everything comes to you but if
your going to make the choice to live your life from joy your going
to have to pay attention to your pancake. Paying attention to how
I’m being with that pancake because if I want to live my life in
joy, if I can’t bring joy to that pancake now and by the pancake I
mean whatever it is you’re to do list. My burden is easy and my yoke
is light the master said, my burden is easy and my yoke is light.
You know what a yoke is a yoke is the two ox right? We put the yoke
on the two oxen and now I can use the force of that big beast to
carry my load. If I take the yoke off one of the oxen wants to go
this way and you pull that leather thing and the other one could
care less because the other one is going this way and you can’t use
that force, but you have to put the yoke on, put the yoke on and my
burden is easy. And what is the yoke, the yoke is yoga means to yoke
means we bring the discipline to whatever it is that we need to do.
So for example in my life as I have already mentioned to you I got
these college loans that I have to deal with and I’m not comparing
lists, it’s not about who has what on their lists but I have
financial yoga that I need to do because I need to figure out how to
make everything work and pay these college loans and so my intention
said to me, Moses came to Moses and he said this is what you have to
do, he repeated the words of the master he said my burden is easy,
my yoke is light, so every week I put my attention on my finances
and the spreadsheets and all the stuff and even when it feels like I
can’t do anything about it, you know that feeling, Oh my God what am
I going to do with all these problems that I can’t do anything
about, oh my God, that feeling Ok no there is always an answer;
things are going to get easier if I will put the yoke on. You
promised my beloved for every saint, sage, master and mystic belong
to the same school, the I AM ascended is the same one whether its
Buddhist, Jesus, Saint Germaine or any other ascended master. Every
ascended master has said the same truth from every tradition. Look
at Rumi, your looking at all kinds of traditions saying exactly the
same truth, its all there for everyone so we begin to put the yoga
on, we begin to say alright spirits life is all there is and then
these fear thoughts come up and we go back and we say no, no,
spirits life is all there is. Oh I have all these things to do,
spirits life is all there is and what is the first thing on my list.
And we begin to live from spirits life is all there is and see what
will happen is we need you and I and I am quoting now from Andrew
Cohen the publisher of enlightened magazine we have to push to the
edge he says, we have to push to the edge together and that is when
something starts to explode at the level of consciousness itself. A
whole different energy starts working in and through each individual
and the collective which up lifts everyone present when our simple
engagement together is to go deeper and deeper into the higher
territory of truth. You see your being willing to yoke yourself in
your relationship with the divine, not to come in get God and get
out but to come in and get God and take the consciousness of the I
AM that is God. I AM that I AM and to take it out into every area of
my life and that’s our opportunity. The eye has not see nor the ear
heard nor has entered into the heart of man the things that have
compared to those that love God, It hasn’t even entered in the
consciousness of humanity, it has entered into the consciousness of
the saints, sages the mystics the prophets, the poets the way
showers the illumined ones everyone say I am that and its entering
into me now. And therefore whatever it is that my role is, whatever
my job is today I am already free and it is I that is bringing the
freedom to the role, not the role that is going to give me freedom.
I am the power, I am the way, I am the light and I am the one that
will bring freedom to whatever it is that is mine to do today and I
have the authority to invite God first and the Passover becomes not
a conceptual idea in the history of humanity but the Passover
becomes my experience in God that the world of turmoil passes me by
as I am living in the freedom of my role, whatever that is.
My friends this is the freedom that is your birthright it is yours
to carry with you in this moment now and to carry with you through
out all that is this week because the victory in this community is
in your good and your good is my good and I invite you to think on
these things and together let us explore the possibilities.
Namaste..................
|
