by Rev. Cory Coberforward

Readings

Mark 2:23-28 (Good News Translation)

Jesus was walking through some wheat fields on a Sabbath. As his disciples walked along with him, they began to pick the heads of wheat. So the Pharisees said to Jesus, “Look, it is against our Law for your disciples to do that on the Sabbath!”

Jesus answered, “Have you never read what David did that time when he needed something to eat? He and his men were hungry, so he went into the house of God and ate the bread offered to God. This happened when Abiathar was the High Priest. According to our Law only the priests may eat this bread—but David ate it and even gave it to his men.”

And Jesus concluded, “The Sabbath was made for the good of human beings; they were not made for the Sabbath. So the Son of [Humanity] is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

Luke 17:20-24 (Good News Translation)

Some Pharisees asked Jesus when the Kingdom of God would come. His answer was, “The Kingdom of God does not come in such a way as to be seen. No one will say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!’; because the Kingdom of God is within you.”

Then he said to the disciples, “The time will come when you will wish you could see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it. There will be those who will say to you, ‘Look, over there!’ or, ‘Look, over here!’ But don't go out looking for it. As the lightning flashes across the sky and lights it up from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day.

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Read the written message below with music videos:

We all have so many preconceived notions about what religion or spirituality is, that at times our heads get in the way of us realizing the core of these teachings – which ultimately aren’t meant for heady pondering, but for a felt realization in our hearts as we open ourselves to the inexpressible light of peace, love, and wisdom already at the root of our consciousness. God, known by many names, seems to repeatedly focus on the importance of us centering on the open, loving heart at the core of our being, as well as on our letting go of the ruminating attachments that keep us distracted from that. God(dess) also warns us not to take these peaceful teachings and, in turn, use them to badger or dominate ourselves or others – saying as Christ, “The Sabbath was made for the good of human beings; they were not made for the Sabbath.”

Some of us tend to forget that Christ promises that “the Kingdom of God is within you / in your midst.” We tend to think we have to craft heaven within or around us when it’s promised that it’s already there. I think that this misunderstanding is quite understandable given how heinous things can get in our lives, and it’s also definitely a habitual kind of thinking that we’re taught by the best of our society again and again – “We must work harder to create heaven!”

Even in our meditative or prayerful times we can fall into this kind of thinking. We repeatedly note that “we’re not quite there yet,” because our minds still race or it still feels this way or that way. But the Prince(ss) of Peace shining the light of consciousness within doesn’t need to be worked toward, even if it often feels that way. No matter our state, we can turn toward God and centre on God’s peace, noting that we are not our minds but are, in greater truth, the peaceful ones who watch our minds. In this way we can find that the Sabbath is made for us, that it’s already within, instead of striving to force the Sabbath, to force peace, onto our being.

This watcher within can’t be perceived in the typical way that we are used to watching things. It is unlike our typical sense of self as most of that sense includes ideas we’ve formulated about ourselves and the world, other things that fall below us as the watcher. And yet, it is just this watcher or perceiver that is said to be the part of us that is aware of our fundamental unity with God and all things, and that’s also naturally compassionate and profoundly wise. Since it isn’t perceivable in the typical sense, it is the sense of being itself, the felt “I am,” in unity with the Great “I AM,” as Jehovah of the Jewish scriptures calls himself.   

This sense of being can be turned to in any given moment, see if you can find it for yourself – the one who perceives within.

It is in this experience of turning to the perceiver within where we find the peace of awareness and that we’re holding whatever we observe outwardly (in the mind) much lighter. This sense at the root of our living has no record of judgment and pain, it is unchanging throughout the stream of time, and yet it is the substance underlying the changeful habits of our mind and this universe. Its breadth and flexibility allow our minds and perceptions to turn this way and that, and it is the screen that allows all the manifestations of creation to unfold into our consciousness. When we start to realize that centering on our ruminating minds doesn’t seem to bring a sense of the heaven that is within us, we can then feel called to turn to this place, towards what is more truly us, to find refuge and the peace, presence, compassion, and wisdom of God in the midst of any moment. As we do this more and more, we find that our awareness of it deepens and all the attributes within it seem to expand.  

A stumbling block to noticing this beingness within is our habitual desire to control things. We tend to have ideas about what perfection entails, and we beat against anything that doesn’t align – even little things, like a bit of uncomfortableness or restlessness in our body, or how other people present themselves. Even as we start to turn to the peaceful space of awareness, we can get distracted by thoughts and feelings about the past, present, or future, due to this desire to control as well, either by falling into them or by trying to force them to disappear. When we narrow our field of awareness into these things, we are constricted, judgmental, fearful, and often quite uncomfortable. That’s why, in the moments of deep connectedness or beauty, we feel we find some escape – a sense of freedom that our scriptures say we can stoke, if only we continue to turn within to our higher, broader self and to God. What’s funny about this turning to the light of God within, is that it actually makes us more present to the present moment and the needs of the day, instead of caught up in whatever whims our minds present.

Like a small flame in our midst or a mustard seed, as Jesus says, a little (or a lot) of our attention can go a long way in encouraging their growth. And like these things, with a little help, our connectedness to the peace and light of God(dess) can bloom large with a power of its own. To truly understand this, we must start to live it, as a cognitive understanding alone misses the point entirely. This inner peace and wisdom can be experienced for ourselves, as invited by the words of Christ and the core ideas of our wisest sages, from new age to Buddhist. We are each called back home into the light of the I AM. May we come to centre on this “I am-ness” within, on the heavenliness of the breadth of heaven at our core, its peace and clarity. May we learn the lesson of time and material nature: that all material and timebound things pass. And come to know the part of us that never passes nor changes, that is beyond typical perception as our state of Being.  

Peace and presence to you,

Rev. Cory

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