Lent – Your Season for Spiritual Growth and Progressive Unfoldment | Rev. John Riley

Well, today, Wednesday, was Ash Wednesday and that is the beginning of Lent. 

I want to talk a little bit about Lent because Lent is this idea that has really evolved out of an idea of fasting, fasting for, as a way to purify, as a way to get yourself grounded again for spiritual renewal. 

The Evolution of Lent

Fasting was around for a long time. It wasn’t called Lent until the first council of Nicea in 325 CE so 325 years plus or minus into the movement. And it became more of a religious component that is focused on, of course, the idea is forty days leading into Easter. And those forty days are days of release and let go and it’s based on the parable of Jesus going into the desert for forty days and encountering drama, encountering his sense consciousness, encountering ego, encountering his fears and moving beyond his fears and emerging and coming into his ministry. 

I think if you are familiar with Lent, if it’s something you grew up with — we are all familiar — it’s a time where we fast or shift our food diets or it’s a time for giving something up. In fact, the Tuesday before we call Fat Tuesday. Anybody been to New Orleans on Fat Tuesday? It’s the day that we party. It’s the day to really get it out of your system because we are going to be suffering for the next forty days. That has been the focus. It’s been on the fasting component, on the suffering component. I think every religion has a fasting component. Every major religion does. The idea in every major religion is the same. We are letting go of something to make room for spiritual renewal. 

But I think the challenge is that we are so focused on the suffering, what we have to give up, that we are not focused so much on the spiritual renewal. Anybody experience that in your lifetime? A few hands have gone up. A few nods. We are so focused on, it’s kind of focused on Jesus’ suffering. What they don’t talk about is, this is a part where Jesus was not necessarily all about suffering, but it was about becoming. It was about arising in consciousness and we forget that. 

A Time of Spiritual Renewal

So, in Unity what we really want to focus on is not so much the physical act of fasting. You are welcome to do that if you’d like in whatever manner works for you, but rather a fasting in consciousness so that we can make room for our spiritual renewal, for our spiritual renewal. So, it’s an idea, this concept of releasing and renewing. It’s letting go of those things that we are holding onto that are keeping us stuck, letting go of the patterns of ego, letting go to the patterns of our unconscious behavior patterns, the patterns of our indulgence. It’s not so much the indulgence that’s the problem, but it’s the pattern, the habitual patterns that we have created in our life, the pattern of being angry at somebody, the pattern of being judgmental, the pattern of, “Give me something else” — I’m losing it here — complaining, the pattern of complaining. Thank you, Lisa. What else?

What other patterns do we have? You just had a great role model here. It’s okay, it’s safe. I won’t say your name. It’s okay. Road rage, anger, gossip. Oh, my goodness. What would I do without the pattern of gossip? There’s whole industries created out of the pattern of gossip. I mean, look on the TV. It’s all about gossip. So, what if we gave up just a little bit, some of that, some of your road rage, some of your complaining to make room in your consciousness for something better? That is what releasing and renewing, that is the spiritual model that Lent is all about. 

So, in Unity we are looking at it from one day having something that you can release and let go of and being focused on releasing the idea of judgment, being focused on releasing the idea of complaining and gossip for one day. And then the next day, filling that space up with something that you are new in your mind with. 

A Time for Progressive Unfoldment

Charles Fillmore, one of the co-founders of the Unity movement back in the early 1900’s, said in his book, Keep A True Lent, “Lent is a season of spiritual growth, a time for progressive unfoldment.” Progressive unfoldment. I think so often we get so caught up in the, “I’ve got to go from A to Z in the blink of an eye” but the reality is our unfoldment is the journey that we are on and there is no end to it. We can just continue to unfold. So, don’t judge yourself about where you are at in your unfoldment. Just keep moving forward. Just keep moving forward. 

So, “Lent is a conscious season of spiritual growth and progressive unfoldment when we can blend and merge our mind with divine mind. The way is open for the Christ consciousness, that higher consciousness within you”, however you want to call it, that spark of divinity or that part in you that is pure and untouched that each of us has, that Jho talked about, the I AM principle that each of us is that divine essence, a unique expression of that which is the allness of life, a unique expression of the allness of wisdom, a unique and beautiful expression. You called me beautiful. Thanks, Jho. You are all a unique and beautiful expression of that divine energy, of that divine life, whatever you want to call it. That’s who you truly are. In Unity we like to call that the Christ consciousness, “and the way opens up for that identity to express more fully to glorify us and to lift us into a higher, purer, more spiritual state”, to glorify us. 

Now, that is a very religious word. Anybody know what it means? What was it? Celebrate. Perfect. I love that. To celebrate you, to express more fully your unique potential, to live more fully your beautiful expression of God, to celebrate who you are, to glorify you as that I AM consciousness, to bring that out into the world so that your life starts to reflect that consciousness, so that you start to attract yourself towards people who are celebrating, to situations, to your health, to your abundance in life. Life starts to shift for you because your lens of your consciousness starts to shift, and you start to experience more of it. 

Releasing and Renewing

So, this year we are going to be focusing on releasing and renewing and if you would like to join me every day between Monday and Saturday, there is a new video, something that you can release one day. The next day renew your consciousness. Let go of something that is holding you back so that you can make space for the good, for something new. Because if you are in a consciousness of judgment, of judging for example, if you are judging some other person based on their appearances, based on their actions. Actions are, appearances no, nobody judges anybody based on their appearances but their actions. “Oh boy, I am judging everybody based on their actions.” That is something that we kind of slip into. But if you are judging someone else, how can you have this space in your mind to see the divine in them, to hold some compassion for them, to have a sense of understanding of what maybe they are going through? How can you if you are so stuck in this idea of judging them? 

Releasing the Habit of Judging Others

So, we have to let go, little by little, a progressive letting go. It’s not one and done. It’s like “Okay, here I am so let’s look at that idea of releasing judgment”. The affirmation that we had last week for that was, “I release my habit of judging others”. I am going to repeat that and then invite you all to affirm it with me. Are you ready? 

I release my habit of judging others. 

Together: 

I release my habit of judging others. 

And so it is. 

So, when you look at the idea of judgment, judgment is one of our spiritual faculties. It is one of our twelve spiritual powers that Fillmore talks about and it’s not a bad thing in and of itself. We call it judgment when we don’t like it. We call it judgment when someone doesn’t agree with me. We call it wisdom when we do like it. “You are so wise because you are agreeing with me.” I’m sure that is what it is. It’s the same thing. The only difference is, we are adding our layer of ego to it, our layer of self, of judgmental attitudes towards it. 

So, our judgmental attitude is when we see somebody, we hear the gossip, and we start to tell the stories. Something happens, they say something, and we start to tell the stories and we get so wrapped up in that story that’s where our judgmental attitude comes into play. It’s not the data. It’s not the facts of what happened. That is no big deal. But “Boy, my story about what happened is rich and juicy. It’s just amazing. I could write some movies about it. In fact, I’m sure there have been movies written about it.” But it’s that judgment. Those stories about our past that usually come up from our past wounds perhaps or comes up for how we were grown up, how we were raised or the society, group that we were raised in. 

All of those layers upon layers of judgements that we have for other people, it’s time to make a conscious choice to start dismantling them, dismantling the ones that are, that create suffering in me, dismantling the ones that create suffering in other people. It’s time to start letting go of those and really identifying and looking at where do we have judgment. Some of the judgment, of course, is under the surface, unconscious. Our unconscious bias might be there. It’s an opportunity for us to just this week start to look at where am I judging someone else. 

I have a great example. This last week — I’m not going to tell you about it because I don’t want to get too deep into my problems but there was a situation where I was judging, and I knew it. I was in my story. The thing about the story and our judgmental attitudes is, it imprisons us. I want you to hear this. It creates a prison for us in our consciousness. We are imprisoned in our own mind and it’s not what they did out there to me that imprisons me. It’s my story about it. I’m imprisoning that inner splendor, that divine consciousness, that Christ consciousness. It’s in a cage and it’s not going anywhere because I’m too busy judging and then gossiping and complaining. You see the cycle. Now, it’s okay because we all do it. So, don’t get down on yourself for doing it. Just recognize, “Oh there I am. I’m imprisoned in my story”. 

That was my pattern this week and I was able to use that. “Okay, I’m imprisoned in my story” and that shifted enough in me to say, “What, how else can I look at this? Can I look at it from a sense of compassion? Can I look at it from a sense of understanding?” because all of our judgments are really a mirror for how we are judging ourselves. All of the judgments that we are having out there are a mirror for how we are judging ourselves. So, it gives us the opportunity to turn within to say, “Okay, how am I judging myself here? How can I shift my own understanding of it? How can I shift my consciousness now so I can let go of that and make some space within me so that I can renew my mind, renew myself, create something new for me, in my own consciousness?”, releasing judgments of others and also releasing the judgements that others have about you. 

Releasing the Judgment of Others

So, we have all been judged and how many times are we taking that on as our own coat? How often are we putting that on as our cloak? “This is who I am now”. What if we released those judgments about what other people were saying without getting upset at them? Just saying “Okay, that’s not who I am” and just anchoring ourselves again in who we are, releasing that inner splendor, allowing that energy to just be. I know maybe I made a mistake this last week. Well, I own up to my own mistakes. In owning up, I can release my own inner splendor. In owning up, I can let go of that inner judgment. 

So, our affirmation, again, I will read it one more time and then we can affirm it again. 

I release my habit of judging others. 

Together:

I release my habit of judging others. 

Renewal

In Romans, chapter 12, verse 2 – what’s his name? Paul. Thank you. Paul, you know, whatshisname. Paul. The apostle Paul wrote to the Romans, “Do not be conformed by the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind”. Do not be conformed by the pattern of this world. You see, we are all in our patterns. So, when you can identify those patterns, you start to shift out and release them and let them go. That makes way for the transformation. For the renewal. That makes way for us to really start to live into our higher purpose. 

So our renewal statement:

I renew my commitment to see the divine in all beings. 

I renew my commitment to see the divine in all beings. 

Together: 

I renew my commitment to see the divine in all beings. 

Now, everyone take a deep breath because I know there is that idea of all beings. I can give you a list. We all have them of people that are just aren’t gonna, that “I’m not going to see it”. So, let’s shift away from that roadblock because most of the world isn’t like that. Most of the — however many billions of people or trillions of people on the planet — they don’t make your list. So, can you for a moment, start to shift for someone and to commit to shift. Remember the affirmation is “I commit to shift”. So, it’s even one step back to actually doing it. What if you just made a commitment? I make a commitment to look at things a little bit differently. I make a commitment to try and see the divine in all, even when I can’t see it. I make a commitment, and this goes hand in hand with judgment because if I can let go of my judging somebody for what they are doing, I can see, I have a little bit of understanding then. I have a little bit of compassion for them then just by dropping that judgment just a little bit, shifting the story. It’s not about what they’re doing. It’s about, “Well, I wonder what’s happening in their lives to make them feel that way. I wonder what happened in their past to have this kind of attitude. How can I hold them in my heart with love, with compassion, with kindness, even if I am not seeing them or talking to them one by one?” 

Practice on somebody who it’s easy. Look at someone who you love, someone who is really special to you, and start to see the divine in that person. Practice seeing the divine. Practice seeing the good in somebody, shifting from our judgments about them to practice seeing the joy that we have in them which, by the way, is another judgment. 

So, we are shifting away from our judgmental attitudes which creates stories and shifting into a gear of honoring somebody, seeing the good in somebody, of holding that good for somebody in prayer, of holding that consciousness and sending them that energy and allowing that to be our state of being. 

So, can you imagine how it would feel to you if you stopped getting so angry and complaining and judging and gossiping for a little bit, and then came at it from a perspective of compassion and love? See if you can feel that shift within you. That will create a shift and that creates the renewing of your mind. That is what that statement is really all about, I believe. It’s shifting out of our judgmental attitudes because your business, while you are here, is to be that lens of love, is to simply see that energy of love in all people, and to express it, and to be that energy. As Unity says, God is everywhere present. God is in all things. God is the allness of life, love and wisdom. God is in you like the ocean is in the wave and enlightenment, as Thich Nhat Khan might say, enlightenment is the wave recognizing, “Hey, I’m the ocean. I’m an individualized expression of the ocean”. 

So, if I am coming from that perspective that God is everywhere present and in all people, then we are here to love God with all of our heart, with all of our mind, with all of our being, to express that love to the whole planet, as Jho was saying. It’s a beautiful world out there if we choose to look at it from that perspective. 

A Conscious and Deliberate Focus

So, it’s a conscious and deliberate focus to look for the divine and as you do that, know your oneness with the allness of life. Have a state of knowing, knowing your oneness and feeling that energy of Spirit move in, through and as you, renewing your mind and knowing that divine conscious within you, knowing that true self within you is now expressing itself more fully. 

Now, I know this is change. How many of us love change? There is like three of us. I’m one of them. I’m cuckoo. I don’t know, but I love change. The thing is, growth is change. Releasing that which does not serve you so that you can live into more fully that which does, is change. We are sitting here at a time when, I don’t want to use the “c word”, COVID, but how often, how many times have we been using, have you been using COVID as an excuse, as an excuse for gossiping, complaining or whatever? I think everybody, not everybody, but I hear people saying “I want things to be back to normal”. I think normal is the wrong term because I think everything evolves and grows. And we evolve and grow, and our consciousness does, and we are moving upward in that progressive spiral towards knowing our oneness with each other. And if that is true then we need to continue that practice. 

Maybe you are saying, “Well I’m good. I’m happy just the way I am”. Well, let’s look at the world because the world is nothing but an outpicturing of our consciousness. Each individual consciousness, if we are all one, then we all make up this global consciousness, this collective consciousness, however you want to put it. We make that up. The world is telling us something very different. It’s not time for complacency. It’s not time for sitting around. Look left and right and there are so many reasons for us to start to live the practice of raising our consciousness so that we can raise the consciousness of the whole. That’s how it works. We all have responsibility for it and, yeah, you will feel more uplifted. You will be released of your own inner bondage, those chains that you have surrounded yourself with by letting go, by releasing and then renewing our mind.