Find the Heavenliness Within
by Rev. Cory Bradford-Watts
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Readings
Matthew 21:1-13
As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.” This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:
“Say to Daughter Zion,
‘See, your king comes to you,
gentle and riding on a donkey,
and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’”
The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted,
“Hosanna to the Son of David!”
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?” The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”
Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’”
Revelation 21:1-7,9-12a
Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children.
One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates.
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Our two readings this week have some fascinating parallels, one (from Matthew 21) describes Christ approaching and coming into the city of Jerusalem, and the other (from Revelation 21) describes the New Jerusalem descending from heaven. Both celebrate Divinity’s growing presence with us and the healing and love that God(dess) continues to bring, particularly when we receive and celebrate God as the openly compassionate healer that God is – no matter our tradition.
In both stories, you might say that God and heavenliness are travelling to be closer to the people celebrating him, that they’re travelling to be closer to us perhaps. And yet – often it feels as though we do all the journeying, all the work, to receive Divinity’s light, warmth, and peace within and around us! Does it feel that way for you? Do you feel like you struggle to find Divinity, the peace of wisdom and compassion, in your life and in this world?
We can get caught up in the ideal state we have for ourselves (whatever that may be), either due to earthly or spiritual ambition. But we may find that the destination is much closer than we can imagine – that’s why it’s easy to miss.
We’re told that any journeying to God(dess) or God’s journeying toward us is just a metaphor since there’s no true distance between us and that Holy One that transcends any religion. But I think both are helpful parables as they describe how we often feel and other truths of the process toward wholeness and peace. Indeed, it seems to us that we have to work at finding peace within, even though it’s already there at the root of our consciousness. And it also feels like we must often wait for God to act, for that descending holy city to get mysteriously closer before a new stage of compassionate awareness and flow reaches us (or perhaps we’re not sure what will come!). However, we’re told that sometimes the most effective way of journeying to God is to journey within into a state of sabbath or rest (whatever we may be doing). This means resting in the peaceful, spacious consciousness that we use to observe our mind’s chatter and all the things that we perceive through it, letting go of identifying with our lusts, attachments, perceptions of our bodies, or random thoughts. Interestingly, our favorite mystic, Emanuel Swedenborg, believed that the Palm Sunday image of the Lord riding on a donkey represented our natural mind subordinating itself to our spiritual awareness, similarly to this.
Indeed, it’s a modern-day psychotherapy tool and an ancient spiritual one to realize that our true consciousness isn’t our minds, but what observes our minds (which is also where all earthly phenomena are perceived). As we realize this, we may also notice that we have little control over what enters our minds – which is why it’s a struggle to change our habits, especially when we chase our thoughts around like a dog with a stick! And this is one reason why we find spiritual growth to be a struggle, as well. The good news is that as we realize our seat of consciousness sits above our mind and is peacefully aware no matter the circumstances, we can encourage our mind to turn back toward it, quieting the incessant thought-stream. Doing this we start to treat our mind more like the helpful tool that it is meant to be – allowing more and more of the peace, insight, and compassion of Divinity to shine through.
In our story many of the people on the road to Jerusalem and within it help prepare the way of the Lord due to word of his redemption of Lazarus and other healings being shared. Lying down palm branches they celebrate him, exclaiming “Hosanna!” – meaning “savior,” “helper,” “rescue is here.” These socially and perhaps spiritually oppressed people, suffering under the yoke of Rome and greed, celebrate the healing and the liberation that Christ brings and represents. Although word might have spread due to his physical miracles, I think the “greater miracles” that Christ said that we would do through him stem from his healing messages of compassionate love for all, including our enemies, and his emphasis on oneness with all beings in the Lord. Also, that we should model these things in our behavior and social structures in order to start to enter the heaven that he says is within us.
Many might have hoped that the promised savior would bring almost immediate physical, socio-economic liberation, and yet, as we know, the liberation that God brings starts within – in our consciousness. Although often twisted and made more selective in this day and age, Jesus’ open, peaceful, and love-centered message helps us start to truly heal and begin to reject the money changers, the selfishness, worry, and greed in our temple, and become like children again in our innocence, clear but dreamlike awareness, and play. Indeed, it’s said that within the descending New Jerusalem there are no temples or churches – to emphasize that when we start to truly know we are in God we take church everywhere.
I think it should also be emphasized that despite the appearance of a journey, and despite the struggle that we sometimes have, finding Divinity and peace within our spirit is more of a process of realizing the keys were always in our hand than it is a search for the keys around the house. I think the metaphors in our readings today are somewhat apt in this light, because to realize we already have the keys, that our consciousness is rooted in peace and compassionate awareness (without all the distracted thinking that we have when we identify with our mind’s delusional searching and rambling), we have but to notice and turn towards it. That is, noticing, centering on, and applauding the healing, peace-filled, glorious awareness within like Christ appearing on a donkey or a city descending from heaven or the sun shining through the clouds.
Peace and heavenliness to you,
Cory