3/4/12 Rev. David McArthur

The second tool in this journey into oneness with the divine is one we all use. It’s a connector. It’s the tool of prayer. If there were no connection, prayer would be really stupid—we’d be talking to ourselves. There was a two month old baby being kept alive by extreme measures, who had known only pain in its short life. Surgery was necessary, but did not go well. In fact, the surgeon announced the baby would not live beyond the operation. So a nurse closed herself in a closet and prayed that the child would know a pain free life with its parents. After removing the life-sustaining devices, the surgeon said the baby would die. There was no way it could live. But its vital signs became strong and it did live. The doctor called it a miracle.

Healing is the experience of greater wholeness. So who is healed? A man asking for prayer?  His friends who prayed? The doctor and nurse who witnessed a miracle? We experience a connection we cannot explain any other way. If it touches one, it touches all. It changes the very fabric of consciousness itself. In prayer we’re able to take a hold of something that completely defies what we know of the world. But With God all things are possible.

When you pray you take a hold of that, otherwise you wouldn’t pray. It is a level where we know and understand each other. We understand we’re one. Whenever we reach for that presence and power and reach for the knowledge that with God, all things are possible, we invite hope. Whenever we reach for it, it is easier for anyone else in the world to touch it—a possibility of connection that wasn’t there before. When one of us heals, we all heal. You can’t explain it, but you know it’s true. Every prayer you say lifts everyone here. For that we thank you!

Sermon, March 4, 2012 – Oneness Through Prayer [ 22:14 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

2/26/12 Rev. David McArthur

You’re late and there’s only one check-out line at the store. The customer at the checker holds up the line. Full of judgment, you feel far from free, and wonder, “What am I doing here?”

Emilie Cady likened the Israelites’ slavery in Egypt to a state of selfish animal consciousness, where we see no value in others (or ourselves). Through the intervention of an outside God, we are freed to wander through the desert of separation. We feel we have some value because the outside God values us. “My God (Grandpa with a sword) gives me value.” Then Jesus showed us the state of consciousness in which the “Father and I are one”—but so is everyone else!

We have gone through that the past 200 years. In a war with ourselves we rejected the slavery consciousness. But because our sense of value was still so low we remained in a state of consciousness of separation, or Segregation. Feeling, “I have to be better than others to have value”, we still did not see the value in ourselves.

The African American church took us out of that state. The 100 years from Emancipation to the end of Segregation was where we journeyed through the consciousness of separation toward the Oneness. But still we held onto Discrimination, still standing in the judgmental line, finding differences which we might need to protect against. But the heart is a higher intelligence which tells us we are all children of God, we are one. So we are done with Discrimination. Now we are working it out, from Segregation to Discrimination to acceptance of homosexuals to accepting those of the Muslim faith.

How do we get there? Through love—the choice of compassion that the Master taught. Caring for others is caring for “me”. Patience for another is patience for “me”. So we give up that God “out there”. It is within. Emilie Cady said that all goodness that springs up is the God in us, and nothing anyone can do can take away that freedom!

It’s so simple—just standing in line feeling compassion. We already have everything—all that we need. So the only thing that we can get from standing in line is the love we need, the love that we are!

Sermon, February 26, 2012 – Journey to Oneness [ 22:08 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

2/19/12 Rev. David McArthur

God is good all the time! And yet we worry.

Lucy appreciated her good life, but she always became anxious and worried for her husband’s safety every day before he got home from work. A friend suggested she spend that time in self-compassion, which she did. Gradually, the worry and anxiety was released. Later she found out that her grandfather once had an accident on his way home and after that her grandmother always worried about his returning home. Her mother learned that habit and passed it to her daughter. 3 generations of worry!

What does the worry do for us? Well, when we’re worrying, we’re not loving. It takes us out of the experience of knowing that God is there loving us all the time. Worry affirms “the goodness of God is not here”. It stops us from seeing the goodness of God in all and everyone.

Love is experiencing the presence of God with which we are one. That form of compassion heals us from believing there is something else. Hold yourself in that compassion. Let it move through you. You’d feel that for a friend. Let it happen for you– that self-compassion. Let yourself be aware of the presence of God and let God be responsible for that other being! The peace will come.

Stress and worry do come from love. But first feel self-compassion. Second let God be responsible for them just as God has been for you. Healing and learning has been brought forth in you, and God will bring that forth in the other being. For those you love that you worry for, say, “I place you in God’s care, knowing the very highest is coming forth.” It has to be because God is good all the time! God is good all the time! And all the time God is good! God is caring for them just as She is doing for you!

Sermon, February 19, 2012 – Enjoy Worry With Compassion [ 22:35 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download