Your Spiritual Resurrection | Rev. John Riley

Good morning.  Welcome to Unity Palo Alto.  

What a joy it is to see you all here this morning on this very special day, of course, Easter Sunday, commemorating that resurrection experience that Jesus had and that experience that we can have every day when we accept that idea, the ideas that are being taught.  

We began this journey six weeks ago.  This is the seventh week, and we began a seven-series experience of preparing for this moment, preparing for our rising in consciousness, preparing for stepping into that which is our true nature, as Casey was talking about, that Christ consciousness.  And you may call it something different.  You may call it the spark of divinity, your higher consciousness, your higher living, your better self, whatever you want to call it, but it’s that part in you that is pure and untouched and of Spirit.  

Stepping In

So, we began our journey by first stepping within, stepping in and seeking first that Kingdom of God within you, seeking first that experience of God, that being present and one with that infinite power, and then stepping out as we move out into the world and do the things that we ought to do, do the things that, you know, move towards our goals, do our work, in our daily expression, experiencing our relationships and being present to one another. 

Best Foot Forward

When things get rough, right, then we’ve learned how to put our best foot forward and move from the experience of our higher self, move from the experience of how can I bring a greater sense of harmony into this situation, a greater sense of peace, a greater sense of compassion and understanding? 

Rest in Spirit

Then as we moved along, we remembered that along the way we have to step back in and rest in Spirit, that the Sabbath was made for man not the man made for Sabbath, that Sabbath is that experience of again resting in Spirit without any worries, without any expectations, just being in the presence, the presence and the power. 

Rejoice 

Then rejoicing, rejoicing for our good, rejoicing for our journey, rejoicing for this experience of God that we have in our lives because God is everywhere present.  As Unity teaches, God is in you like the ocean is in the wave.  As the Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh would say, enlightenment is the wave realizing it’s the ocean, it’s realizing that that power and presence is you, is in you. You can tap into it at any moment in time. 

And today, we rise.  Today we really sink into that experience of that Christ consciousness, that resurrection experience.  

Release and Renew

Now, along the way we’ve also had another practice — forty days and forty nights in the wilderness, our Lenten practice.  In Unity we do it a little bit differently in that each day we alternate.   One day we’re releasing something and then we’re renewing something.  So, through the process we’ve got to release our doubt, confusion and indecision. Anybody ever have doubt, confusion and indecision in their lives?  A little.  Some of us.  Yeah, every once in a while, it pops up and when we release it, we rely on that divine power of wisdom, that intuition, that Spirit speaking, that still, small voice.  

We have the opportunity to release our discontent and criticism.  That’s a two-way street.  Releasing the, our criticizing others and releasing the criticism that comes to us and just say, “You know what?  We renew ourselves in the gratitude, gratitude in all things, for all things that are present, for all of the good in our lives.”  

We released our anger and blame.  Everyone take a deep breath.  This is that hard one — releasing our anger and blame and renewing patience and compassion and so along this way we are constantly making space for the good.  You have to make space in your thoughts, in your minds and your attitudes and your actions for something else to come in.  That’s the spiritual preparation that leads us into the Christmas — I did it.  There it is again.  After Easter there is just Christmas in a minister’s mind so I’m already thinking about what Christmas is going to be like — the Easter experience, that resurrection experience.  

The Easter story is, I think, a beautiful one.  Of course, Jesus was a master teacher. He was continually teaching. He used metaphor.  He used acts of manifestation, acts of demonstration.  He used direct teaching.  My favorite is, “Oh, you of little faith.  Ye of little faith.”  I think that’s his way of saying, “Oh, you spiritual knuckleheads.”  But sometimes, he was always teaching.  He was always demonstrating and showing a way in which you can live and experience.  Jesus taught to everyone. He taught to the people who were disliked, the scribes and the Pharisees. He taught to the Romans.  He taught to the Jews and he taught to the Gentiles alike.  He spoke to women, who were considered property.  He spoke to children, who were considered property.  He taught to the lepers and reached out to the lepers and reached out to those, the lowest of the low, which were the Samaritans at the time.  He spoke to everyone because that divine essence that’s within you is within all people.  It is readily available for you when you open yourself up to it, when you release all of the frustrations and all the things that are blocking your experience of this good and just open yourself up to that divine flow. 

The God Experience

Now, the story as taught in the New Testament, the Easter story, is told in all four canonical gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  It’s taught in different ways because they were all for different audiences and so you might hear a little bit different story in one or the other. The one I like to really look at the most, the one I like to look at is the one by the Apostle Paul because Paul was the first writing, was about twenty years after Jesus’s crucifixion.  So, twenty years later, Paul’s letter to the Corinthians — was it the Corinthians?  Yes, it was the Corinthians — was the first letter in which he started to describe this experience and here’s what he said.  “I became a servant according to God’s commission.  That was given to me for you.”  

So, think about this because Paul is an Apostle who has changed his whole life, changed his whole life from going from persecuting him and trying to track him down to really understanding the teachings and living the teachings everyday.  So, here’s somebody just like us who is going along in life and all of a sudden, we have this aha moment. Our job here is to teach that God experience, to express this in our lives.  

“To make the word of God fully known, the mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages and generations but has now been revealed to his saints.  To them God has chosen to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches and the glories of this mystery, which is the Christ in you, the hope of glory”.

The Christ in you, the hope of glory and his whole teaching was, “Look, this is what Jesus was here to talk about.  This is what he demonstrated.”  Even Jesus said all of these things that I have done, you will do and even greater things you will do when you tune into Spirit. It is very straightforward. Tune in.  Take time for meditation and prayer.  

As he says, go into your inner sanctuary and close the door to the outer world of the senses, the outer world of the ego, the outer world of our riches and turn within to that inner sanctuary where there is God.  And in that stillness, in that silence, that’s when we connect with the allness of life, love and wisdom.  That’s when we connect with Spirit, source, whatever words you want to use for it, the universe, divine mind, is-ness.  It’s in that silence when we let go of all of our outer worries and concerns and we turn within.  

Jesus taught that the Kingdom of God is here and now.  It is in this presence.  It’s with us when we come together in harmony.  When two or more are gathered and they are gathered together in harmony, the presence of God is there.  The experience of Spirit is there.  

God is Spirit

“God is Spirit” was another lesson. God is everywhere present, always available, always around us. I love that phrase “the allness”, because it’s the allness. It’s all God and it’s all good when we come from that experience. Everything else that Jesus taught was bringing us back to knowing your divine nature, bringing you back to knowing that even though we’re going to make mistakes, that there is a way back, even though we’re going to fall and sometimes fall hard.  It doesn’t matter how hard you fall or how many times you fall, it’s how you rise.  

That was the great lesson that God is everywhere present and that kingdom and that glory and can express and experience through you every moment of the day if you just open to it, if you just allow it to be.  

Charles Fillmore defined — that’s the co-founder of the Unity movement back in the 1920’s — defined the Easter experience as “the awakening and raising to spiritual consciousness of the I AM” — another wonderful word for that divine nature – “the I AM in you, the I AM in you which has been dead in trespasses and sin and buried in the tomb of materiality”.  

What is Sin?

So, all of that experience that we have, all of those struggles and stress and suffering that we’ve created for our lives, that’s what we mean by the error thinking, the sin, simply the error thinking, simply missing the mark.  That’s all that sin is.  It comes from an archery term.  It’s missing the mark and it’s so easy to bring yourself back to this present moment and that I AM in you when we remember to release all of our shame, our blame, our guilt, release all of the frustrations and anger and stress that we have from all of those spiritual knuckleheads out there – no-one in here, sorry — those spiritual knuckleheads out there, releasing all of that anger and allowing that divine energy, the healing, harmonizing energy of love to fill you up.  Love for Spirit, love for the beauty of the world, love for the expression of these beautiful flowers that you’re holding, love for your loved ones, your friends, your family, love beyond that, an ineffable level and experience of the divine that happens when we practice consistently.  

Metaphysically, the symbol of the cross is the crossing out of our stress, the crossing out of our error thinking. It’s the releasing process.  Out of that comes the rise in consciousness, the resurrection from that tomb that we’ve created for ourselves, from that tomb of error thinking, from that tomb of blaming and shaming other people or ourselves, of letting it go and realigning ourselves with that divine essence in life.  

The Past

Now, I’m going to ask Casey and Nancy, if you could get the palette of flowers.  When you came in — there is one right over here, Casey, the one on the end there — the goal was to have you all have two flowers each.  I know it’s different. If you don’t have two flowers each or one flower and you would like to participate, raise your hands and Casey will come with some flowers and give you a couple more.  I think there’s some in the middle here and Nancy will be back with a palette of flowers, I think, from the back.  Oh yeah, Kathy, if you could help that would be fantastic.  There’s some over here as well.  Thank you, Nancy.  There’s Nancy’s coming from the back.  So, raise your hands and the flowers will come.  Two flowers each.  Always changing it up.  Got to keep you on your toes.  Flowers, flowers, flowers for everyone. Yep, right here on the side there.  Casey, right behind you.  

Now, just take a moment to look at the flowers.  If you’re at home maybe you have some flowers in the house or outside or in the garden, maybe if you can picture a flower.  But just look at the two that you have and see the beauty innate in each flower.  From a simple carnation to a beautiful — I don’t know what those other flowers are but y’all know.  The daisies and there’s some that even, like this one has a little brown leaf on it.  Just notice the imperfections in the beauty.  So, take a note, take a moment to notice the flowers.  Then you can bring those flowers all the way up here.  That would be great.  Thank you so much Lisa and Nancy and Casey and Gabby and Ann and Kent and whoever else was handing out flowers. 

So, in a moment we’re going to have a very spiritual experience with these, I hope.  These two flowers represent you.  Take a moment to pick one.  Just pick one and look at that flower.  This flower represents your past, all of the beauty, all of the good, all of the joy that has occurred in your life.  

Now, in your past there have been struggles.  In your past you may have fallen.  You may have had error thoughts.  And you’ll notice that the flower isn’t perfect but unless you release those experiences of the tomb and bless your past, you can’t fully rise. So, this first flower represents your past and you blessing your past. 

Would you — I bless my past.  Would you affirm that with me? Together: 

I bless my past.

This is a very important component because so many of us want to forget our past or least some things that we’ve done. Yet we’re still holding on to them.  Until we’re ready to release them and forgive ourselves and forgive others and to be in a space where that eternal energy of love can manifest, we’re stuck.  So, allow that first flower to represent your past and the blessing, the blessing of your past.  

The Future

The second flower represents your future.  Take a look at that second flower and see the beauty in your future.  See there may be some flaws, there may be something that’s not quite right with it but still there’s beauty in the imperfection, is there not.  As you look into your future, if you focus on the idea of blessings, of blessing your future, of blessing yourself, of blessing other people instead of focusing on the brown leaf, instead of focusing on maybe it’s a little crooked, but focus on the good.  Align yourself with that divine energy that’s within you.  So, this second flower represents your future.

I bless my future.  Would you affirm that with me?  Together:

I bless my future. 

I bless my past.  Together: 

I bless my past 

And I bless my future.  Together:

I bless my past and I bless my future.  

You guys got it.  Allow that blessing to well up within you now because in this present moment God is.  In this present moment is where you connect with source, is where you connect with one another.  We bless our past and we bless our future, and we live in this present moment, breath by breath.  

With that idea of a blessings that we’ve given to ourselves, let us bless ourselves in this present moment.  I bless myself right now.  Together:  

I bless myself right now. 

As you breathe into that idea, allow that blessing to be upon you and to bless everyone in the room.

I’d like to move to our affirmation — if my spiritual clicker will work.  Can you press page?  There it goes. — the affirmation that we say is on the screen and I’m going to read it once and then invite us to affirm it together. As you affirm it, allow that energy to fill you up, that blessing for your good in this present moment,  to fill you up right now.

I leave behind limiting thoughts and beliefs.  The great I AM of my being rises anew through my awakening union with Spirit. Together:

I leave behind limiting thoughts and beliefs. The great I AM of my being rises anew through my awakening union with Spirit.  

And so it is.

As we each day, make the choice to release, to let go, we have the opportunity to rise everyday.  That was the great final demonstration that Jesus performed on his last three days, was to rise from that crucifixion experience to the resurrection experience.  

Symbolically we can do that everyday and we must do that every day.  We must do that everyday so that we are living our true potential.  We’re living, we’re experiencing life together in this divine essence.  Our relationships are better, our work becomes better because you stop seeing it through the lens of what’s wrong and you start seeing it through the lens of the blessing of this present moment.