Grow Up, Into Childhood
by Rev. Cory Coberforward
Readings
Revelation 19:11-17
I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.” He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written:
King of Kings and Lord of Lords
And I saw an angel standing in the sun, who cried in a loud voice to all the birds flying in midair, “Come, gather together for the great supper of God.”
Psalm 11:26-28, 30-31 (responsive reading for live service)
The poor will eat and be satisfied;
those who seek the Lord will praise him—
may your hearts live forever!
All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord,
and all the families of the nations will bow down before him,
for dominion belongs to the Lord
and he rules over the nations.
Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord.
They will proclaim his righteousness,
declaring to a people yet unborn: He has done it!
Read the written message below with music videos
Often, we lose the thread of childhood bliss, as though the pressures of adulthood were more important than remaining in contact with the peace and childlike play and joy we had as a kid. But who could blame us for thinking this way, when it is often as a child that we are encouraged to iron out our natural, playful self – that is if it even survives the early traumas in our life – to better meet the demands of society? Funny thing though, the childlike state of awareness itself can never be ironed out or killed, just seemingly layered over with “personality,” “responsibility,” as well as other limited, defensive constructs that keep us circling in anxiety, fear, and appropriated id-entity. We are called to reawaken to our childlike state of being, of life, love, joy, and presence, by turning to something very simple and important, but beyond words or works, that we intuitively know the moment we’re born: “I am,” not “I am this and that, name, thought, and form.”
The ancient sage known as Jesus Christ taught that we must become like children in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. Which is interesting, as it’s one of the only lines of clear criteria he offered to find heaven (besides saying “turn to it, it’s near!”), and yet it is often ignored by Christendom in favour of more modern ideas like “faith in Jesus Christ alone saves.” When Jesus spoke about finding heaven through him, he was speaking of just that idea (as all his teachings were connected): saying turn around, back toward the light of childlikeness that is your very root and light of awareness. As he says, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12b) This teaching shares in the footsteps of the Buddha, Krishna, and the words of many enlightened beings across the span of history – as each one knew and perceived that they were one with all things, including the light of life and what we often call God.
In our reading today from Revelation 19, we see the return of the child born by the “woman clothed in the sun” that we spoke about in our message from last week. But we return to him seemingly all grown up, as he is now called “Faithful and True,” and leading the armies of God. However, the only marker we have of his maturity are those very terms used to describe him. What’s interesting is that, unlike our assumption, Christ equates becoming faithful, true, and loving to childlike attributes – and so, perhaps this description of God is doing the same: highlighting the qualities that make Divinity divine and yet, like a wise child. Eternal and yet ever knew. Blazing with fire from its eyes, and yet, like a lamb that was slain.
To truly come of age and reach our birthright (like this depiction of the child in Revelation), we have to return to childlikeness but with a true wisdom and a deep profound love. This childlike nature cannot be crafted, although it may seem to unfold outward through us, but must be awakened to as the very source of our lives – it is the kind and caring leader of the armies of the Lord, defending life from darkness, the dragon, and its beasts with the light and heat of its seeing and, as is described in Revelation 19, the sword coming from its mouth (or, in other words, truth!). As we explored last week, the concocted self-image and ego that keeps us from turning to this light of awareness in its purity within is the very “enemy” that Revelation seems to be depicting, but like the dragon and his fiends, it is illusory and can be vanquished if we allow this leader to start to reign within us.
The trick is realizing and coming to understand that there is no journey towards this nature within us, God is closer than we can imagine. As it says, the Lord is the light of the world but the darkness understood it not, and the very light of our awareness is often taken for granted instead of being turned to and appreciated as the very ground of being for all beings! This point is largely lost on us, but there are core threads of many traditions that say this very thing alluded to throughout the Christian New Testament although not often taken at face value, too simple and profound to be truly understood, like a child.
Because all too often we boil even childhood down to concepts, defining childhood by what thoughts are often in a child’s head. But the beauty of children is often the undefinable light that shines from their love, their perspective, their play, and their very being. We look at the words of God and do the same thing, but on the flipside, saying that it is too heady, too complex to understand, allowing volumes of theology that often only complicate it. Reading even Paul’s letters in the New Testament we’d be forgiven if we forgot how open and simple Christ’s message was: turn to the light of the world, love others as yourself, ease the hold you have on your attachments and hurtful desires and our turning to the light within will do the rest.
Our earth faces desperate issues, climate change, disease, war, and, in a way, we must do all we can to return earth back to a more childlike state – with renewed and refreshed streams, forests, and minds. In order to do this, we have to start looking at all these things as inextricably linked, as one. We must listen to the wisdom of the peoples still deeply rooted in indigenous culture and community, who teach, like Christ, that all are one: nature, humanity, and the Spirit. The enemies in Revelation are only called that because they behave as such, seeking to destroy, deeply entrenched in divisive thinking due to their deep identification with their sense of separate self, their ego and yearning to dominate as that ego. This “adult-like” thinking must be dispelled to find our true ripening, our return to knowing and expressing what we all are fundamentally: children of God.
The beauty of our situation is that all of these crises apply pressure on us to turn inward or face the anxiety and suffering of our disempowered minds, as well as more material destruction. Due to our identification with the ups and down of our false id-entity and its fears and habits, we’ve crafted a world that reflects our disfunction and yet, it is that very disfunction that encourages us to awaken to the Prince of Peace, the Light of the World within. Thankfully, God is always with us no matter our disfunction, as without the light of our mental world nothing could be perceived. We have but to realize that that very perception is closer to us than our constructed “adult” self, and unlike that false self it is stable and never-changing, open and welcoming, something that has been warming and hugging our hearts since before our very birth.
You are peace and beingness,
Rev. Cory