Easter Sunday Service: The Resurrection of Humanity with Josh Reeves

[00:00:00] This is Joshua's and you're listening to the Mile Hi Church Podcast. Hey, have you ever noticed when you let something go? It works out. That's part of the spiritual practice of the power of surrender written by Ku Klachsen and coming to Mile Hi Church to speak on April 26th in person or online. Learn more at MileHi Church.org. Martin Luther Keen Jr said of the cross that it is the most powerful of spiritual

[00:00:30] symbols. Yet it symbolizes two things. The first that humanity could produce one like Jesus. Someone who embodied total love. Someone who practiced an unconditional inclusivity. Someone who demonstrated the highest of faith in God.

[00:00:59] The cross symbolizes the great possibility of humankind. Yet it also symbolizes the great weakness of humankind. That we could take that man and murder him.

[00:01:15] The great comedian Bill Hicks said every once in a while, someone comes into our world to tell us this isn't real. There's a greater reality going on that you can choose love over fear and that human beings can live in harmony together.

[00:01:36] Socrates, Jesus, Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. John Lennon and what do we do? We kill those people. It speaks to that part of humanity that clenches to what was, that is afraid of what is or of letting go, that's attached to greed,

[00:02:04] that's attached to defining others as other. Easter symbolizes the overcoming of ignorance by interknowing. It symbolizes the power of life over death, the power of humanity over inhumanity.

[00:02:25] And as much as Easter is about revealing the truth of Jesus, it's just as much about revealing the truth of humanity. To recognize that for all our errors as a human race, all of our mistakes, all of our mistreatment of one another, all of our lack of care of the earth, that we're still redeemable,

[00:02:51] that there still is a light and a power in us that can overcome. And I don't know about you, but I feel in our world, in our country, in our everyday lives that we're at another crosspoint. We're at a crosspoint where we can choose to live from above or to go below to those carnal old scared leanings.

[00:03:20] That we have a choice to be governed by spiritual intelligence or artificial intelligence. That we can choose to care for the world like it is our body, or to dismiss it and cease listening to it.

[00:03:37] That we can continue to practice this politics of other that we know only leads to discrimination and hatred and disdain, or we can embrace that civility that honors the highest and best in every human being and live it with greater clarity.

[00:03:54] We can practice the way of those who murdered Jesus, or we can practice that way that Jesus exemplified and revealed to us.

[00:04:03] We can embody a total love. Jesus said it is not enough just to love the people that like you, but love those you don't like too.

[00:04:16] Perhaps even love those who persecute you. Jesus practiced an unconditional inclusivity. When his disciples became hard-hearted, he'd say, even the tax collectors and the prostitutes will enter the kingdom of heaven before you.

[00:04:35] Stiff words. Jesus practiced an absolute unshakable faith in God. He said that as you believe in this divine power, as you believe it will be done unto you and God will be revealed in your life.

[00:04:57] In the gospel of Matthew, he says, do not let yourself be called rabbi. For there is no one who is your teacher and you are all brothers.

[00:05:07] And do not call someone on earth, Father, for there is no one who is your heavenly Father. Neither let yourself be called instructors because your instructor is the anointed.

[00:05:18] And the greatest among you shall be your servant. And whoever will exalt himself will be humbled and whoever will humble himself will be exalted.

[00:05:27] I don't think he's saying there, don't love your dad. But know the true source of your life. Always and at all times.

[00:05:38] To live a creative and dynamic life, allow it to be imbued, inspired, brought forth by your relationship with a power greater than you are.

[00:05:51] A resurrection of humanity. Here at Mile High Church we're fond of saying it's different here. You want to say that with me? It's different here.

[00:06:02] And that's true about how we approach Jesus as well. For some of us in the sanctuary or watching online, Jesus is the Son of God.

[00:06:12] For some of us he sounds like a really nice guy. Ernest Holmes or founder believed that the Christ is an eternal principle.

[00:06:23] A primordial reality that existed before time began and will always exist. It represents the highest anointed consciousness that can be.

[00:06:33] And Jesus was an individual who embodied and became that Christ on earth.

[00:06:40] If we were to survey Mile Highers and ask, are we a Christian church or not? Probably be 60-40. 60% would say yes, 40% would say no. We're a big tent.

[00:06:50] And it's all good and it's different here. And yet what I would like to say is although we don't accord with all of the religions about Jesus and everything that they teach,

[00:07:03] we do seek to be the best we can to follow the religion of Jesus, of what he taught, that total love, that belonging and inclusivity, that creative faith that can help us co-create with the divine power and incredible life.

[00:07:22] Everything we teach, everything we do is based upon those teachings of Jesus. And when asked to define the signs of mind and spirit in the simplest forms I often just say it's Christianity without the hell.

[00:07:37] That's who we are. That's what we believe. We're a Christianity without the hell. And just think about that. Think about how Christianity may have become different if there was no invention of hell.

[00:07:51] We would see Jesus as a savior, not in the sense to save us from hell and damnation, but to save us from ourselves.

[00:08:01] To save us from our own self-rejection to realize and embrace the idea that we're children of God.

[00:08:08] We would talk about heaven, not as just a hopeful thing in the afterlife but something that is truly real and genuine and actual in this life, that through our spiritual practices we can cultivate and embody experiencing our eternal lives, not at a later time but right here right now in this very moment.

[00:08:28] And we wouldn't teach that you have to be aligned with a particular faith about Jesus to experience the truth of who Jesus is and was.

[00:08:41] That it can be true and can take place universally for people of all faiths because there is no hell to be afraid of.

[00:08:50] Martin Luther King Jr. said of Gandhi, a Hindu, he was the second best Christian exegesis who ever left.

[00:09:02] Our faith is in the tradition of Thomas Jefferson who wrote what was called the Jefferson Bible. He took a little scuffle and he cut out the wisdom that worked for him and we can see it in the Smithsonian and watching in DC today.

[00:09:18] We're in the tradition of Leo Tolstoy who loved the teachings of Jesus so much that he rewrote the scriptures to focus on those mystical teachings.

[00:09:27] We're in the tradition of Ralph Waldo Emerson who said that Jesus is not the great exception but the great example and we're in the tradition of Ernest Holmes who said, Jesus discerned spiritual truths.

[00:09:40] Why or how we do not know nor does it make any difference. The world has not produced another like him and until it does he must receive a unique place in the history of human character.

[00:09:54] The life of Jesus, the teachings of Jesus give us that ability to resurrect ourselves and all humanity.

[00:10:04] We're at a cross moment. It's a time to think about not only how we want to live in this life but the life we're passing on to our children.

[00:10:14] My child, many of our kids are in the youth church today. Not only what is the world we want to pass onto them but what's the worldview?

[00:10:21] I don't know about you but I don't want to pass on hell but wholeness.

[00:10:24] I don't want to pass on the idea that we come into this earth but that we grew out of it because we have something in us that the world needs to make it thrive.

[00:10:34] I don't want to pass on blame and judgment and victimhood, I want to pass on self-reliance and responsibility and inclusivity.

[00:10:43] I want my children to be as grounded and connected with a sacred like a Christian monk.

[00:10:49] I want them to love and care for their earth like our indigenous brothers and sisters do.

[00:10:56] I want them to recognize and embrace feminine spirituality as much as the masculine.

[00:11:01] I want them to love freedom and self-reliance like Jefferson and Emerson and I want them to strive for justice and equality like Thurgood Marshall and Martin Luther King Jr.

[00:11:11] I want them to embrace the wholeness of who they are as children of God and to live it out loud and emphatically. How about you?

[00:11:19] Yes.

[00:11:26] We teach that there's one mind that we all make individual use of.

[00:11:32] And to me, it follows that there is one heart, the heart of humanity, and it's in each and every one of us.

[00:11:39] The resurrection of humanity won't take place collectively but through our individual practice.

[00:11:47] The next time you do an act of kindness or kindness is done unto you or you see one just say within yourself humanity, you're making a comeback.

[00:11:56] The next time you choose forgiveness over feeling betrayed, the next time you get back to love from hurt or from fear or from judgment, just say,

[00:12:10] the resurrection of humanity is taking place in me now.

[00:12:15] It's up to each and every one of us to hold a higher consciousness and a higher level of responsibility for this divine teaching of Jesus that we've been given to live it in a greater way.

[00:12:27] We can't just wait and hope for an abstract concept of God to do it itself.

[00:12:33] But we must allow that divine presence, that divine teaching to work through us for us and even at times asus.

[00:12:42] Carl Reiner, great comedian, producer, director, father of Rob.

[00:12:50] He was once asked, when was the angriest you've ever been?

[00:12:54] And he tells the story of producing a show and the lead actor he wants in it just happens to be a born again evangelical Christian.

[00:13:02] And he has these commitments to his church and to his faith that only allows him to be there on Mondays and Tuesdays.

[00:13:09] And the shooting schedule has already been set to go all through the week.

[00:13:13] And so Reiner says, I'll do what I can do.

[00:13:15] And he figures out how to move Mondays to certain places and shoot episodes one, two, three, and four on Monday.

[00:13:22] And then he'll be there on Tuesday.

[00:13:24] And we'll have these different actors over here.

[00:13:25] And there gets the lighting change, the production schedule, etc., etc.

[00:13:28] And then he calls the man to let him know everything's going to work out and the man responds, I knew the Lord would find a way.

[00:13:37] We can't wait for the divine to do it itself but we must be an expression of what it is.

[00:13:44] Mother Teresa said, I am just a pencil in his hand.

[00:13:48] As much as our faith is based in the teachings of Jesus, there is so much for us to gather from the story of Jesus as well.

[00:13:58] Because I believe that Jesus' story and so many ways is the human story.

[00:14:04] His story and so many ways is your story.

[00:14:08] It tells us how to care and bring forth the best of humanity.

[00:14:13] And so a few things to share about how to resurrect humanity in your own heart and bring it more infatically into your life.

[00:14:22] The first, be born from above.

[00:14:27] Be reborn from above.

[00:14:29] Jesus has asked how to enter the kingdom of heaven and he says, be reborn from above or be reborn of the Spirit.

[00:14:37] Have a spiritual birth.

[00:14:40] And perhaps the most beautiful scene of the Holy Bible.

[00:14:44] Jesus meets John and he is baptized in the water, symbolizing pure spirit.

[00:14:51] And when Jesus arises from the water, he sees a new reality and there's a dove that ascends to represent this.

[00:14:58] And the voice of God is booming in the heart and who knows where else?

[00:15:03] And it says, this is my beloved son.

[00:15:07] In whom I am well pleased.

[00:15:11] The Catholic priest Henry now tells us that this booming voice, this spiritual transformation isn't unique to Jesus but when each and every one of us is reborn from above, we can hear that voice saying to us.

[00:15:26] You are my beloved.

[00:15:30] You are my beloved.

[00:15:33] In whom I am well pleased.

[00:15:36] To be reborn in the Spirit is to reveal to ourselves the universe of God that has always been there and waiting for us if we could just get past our petty self rejection.

[00:15:47] There's never a divine presence that rejects us. We only reject ourselves from it. Always right there.

[00:15:53] As we experience that spiritual rebirth, we hold ourselves to that responsibility of speaking to our above self and not our lower self.

[00:16:07] This means speaking to the above and other people as well. How might that change our lives?

[00:16:14] How might that change some of our politics? How might that change some of our world conditions if we spoke to the best in people?

[00:16:24] This is what made Abraham Lincoln such a beloved leader not just that he led the country through civil war but that he built that team of rivals in his cabinet.

[00:16:33] That he never sought to refer to his opponents as enemies but friends.

[00:16:39] How can we resurrect our humanity by holding people up instead of needing to push them down to lift ourselves up?

[00:16:49] Martin Luther King Jr. shared with his congregation once being in jail during the civil rights movement and getting to talk with some police officers there.

[00:16:58] He said they got to talking to me and I got to talking to them because we liked talking to each other.

[00:17:03] The officers began to make their point that segregation was right and that interracial marriage was wrong. We got to talking back and forth respectful.

[00:17:13] Then I asked them how much money do you guys make? They told me and I said, fellas, you ought to be marching with us.

[00:17:20] In our social discourse, on our social media and our conversations with loved ones, what does it mean to speak to the highest and best in people?

[00:17:35] It can build a trust that can get a greater result for you and me. So be reborn from above.

[00:17:44] Next example of the story of Jesus for all of us, go into the desert.

[00:17:51] Which means make sure you get some alone time.

[00:17:56] In this wild, noisy, non-stop world, we need our alone time.

[00:18:02] I'm really big on my alone time and my wife and I both love our alone time and it took us a few years in our marriage to figure it out.

[00:18:09] Sometimes we would get grumpy with one another and one time I'm sitting on the couch and I look over her shoulder and she's googling how to live with monk.

[00:18:19] It's not easy to do but we need that alone time.

[00:18:23] Often when we're stressed, when the noise is loud as that's when we put that call for solitude aside.

[00:18:31] We miss it and no wonder living in this world anxiety is the natural byproduct.

[00:18:39] It's overwhelmed is the natural byproduct of this busy world.

[00:18:45] It's a beautiful world, it's a beautiful life but take that time to go into the desert.

[00:18:52] Isolation is when we cut ourselves off from the world. Solitude is when we realize we're never alone that there's a divine presence always available to us.

[00:19:02] This does after his baptism, he goes into the desert and for me he's not tempted by the devil.

[00:19:10] What he's doing is letting go of that consciousness of greed, that consciousness that seeks power over other people, that consciousness of others that puts people down.

[00:19:22] And he reconnects with that divine source.

[00:19:25] You may not be able to afford 40 days and 49 but you can take that little bit of time here or there to be in that solitude and remember your place in God.

[00:19:38] Henry now and who I mentioned, he once got to sit down with Mother Teresa to have a consultation and Henry was someone who had a lot of struggles in his life.

[00:19:49] A lot of abandonment issues, lots of hurts. So he was very looking forward to talk to the great who would become St. Teresa of Calcutta and he shared with her for about 10 minutes all his aches and pains and hurts and dramas and she only said one sentence back to him.

[00:20:05] She said, take an hour a day for your Lord and try to do no harm and you'll be fine.

[00:20:14] I don't think that she was lacking empathy. I think she was speaking to the above in Henry and I'm speaking to the above of all of us to take that responsibility to get that time alone, that time with the sacred where we reconnect with the creative in us and all around us and live it more infatically.

[00:20:38] I've been using the affirmation this year as I meet my own needs, others needs are met. Sounds simple but it's grand for me.

[00:20:48] It doesn't mean I'm not going to pick my daughter up from school. It just means that I'm going to take that commitment to get that hour even if it's 10 minutes here or 20 minutes there to care for my soul and you can do that too.

[00:21:01] Lastly, remember that crucifixion leads to resurrection.

[00:21:09] As terrible as those experiences of crucifixion are, of betrayal, of hurt, of devastation, of loss.

[00:21:20] You are never defined by that which crucifies you. You are only defined by that which brings you back to life.

[00:21:28] You are never defined by that which crucifies you but by that which resurrects you.

[00:21:35] One of my favorite examples of this in this past 12 months or so is the amazing Simone Biles.

[00:21:43] Already decorated as the greatest gymnast of all time, I think the proper term is badass. That's who Simone Biles is.

[00:21:52] 26 years old, four years ago she's competing in the upcoming summer Olympics but she was preparing to compete at the Tokyo Olympics.

[00:22:04] It was that time that the Larry Naser trial was going on. Larry Naser, a doctor who abused many girls including Simone and not only did she already have to overcome this, it's now all over the news.

[00:22:19] She shared, I was not going to let him take something. I've worked for since I was six years old.

[00:22:25] I wasn't going to let him take that joy away from me so I pushed past that for as long as my mind and my body would let me.

[00:22:33] She struggled preparing for those games and she developed what gymnast calls the twisties.

[00:22:39] Where when you're up in the air, you can no longer locate where you are. I have a little bit of twisties every day I think in my experience but her body and her life were in danger.

[00:22:52] So she did the courageous thing and backed out of the games.

[00:22:58] She was criticized by the media. She felt extra pressure being a black woman to be successful and to try and put her best effort forward

[00:23:06] but she removed herself. She went into that desert and felt great pain there.

[00:23:13] She shared, I have been doing gymnastics for 18 years. I woke up and lost it. How am I supposed to go on with my day?

[00:23:21] And she adds sometimes it's like, I'm perfectly okay with it. That's how it works. That's how it panned out.

[00:23:28] And then other times I'll just start bawling at the house.

[00:23:33] I don't know all that Biles did to resurrect her consciousness but last year she competed in the nationals and she won.

[00:23:43] Then she competed in the worlds and she won. And not only did she win, she performed something that had never been performed in competition before.

[00:23:53] Something called the Yurchenko double pike vault. How about that?

[00:23:58] We wish her luck represented the United States in the summer.

[00:24:03] And I would ask you, what is your Yurchenko double pike vault?

[00:24:10] It may not be an athletics but it can be being a healing presence in your family.

[00:24:16] It could be being a presence of kindness in the world. It could be having the courage to bring tough love to someone you see putting someone down instead of lifting them up.

[00:24:25] It could be in treating yourself with a new found dignity and kindness.

[00:24:30] We're never defined by what crucifies us but when we remember ourselves in a reborn of the spirit, when we go to that desert,

[00:24:39] we become defined by that which brings us back to life.

[00:24:43] That animating principle that reminds us this morning that yes humanity is making a comeback.

[00:24:49] That yes there is a resurrection of humanity that happens in you and in me and it can make a huge difference.

[00:24:57] As Jesus told us, all things are possible for those who have faith.

[00:25:04] All things are possible for you if you have faith.

[00:25:10] So taking that into prayer this morning.

[00:25:12] I bless every being in this sanctuary, every person who's participating in this service in some way.

[00:25:23] As we remember and remind ourselves of that one heart, that heart of all humanity that whispers to us,

[00:25:34] that longs for us the cries to us.

[00:25:38] Being a part of humanity is in its own way across the bear.

[00:25:46] For we are called to take responsibility for the best and sometimes the worst of ourselves.

[00:25:53] And yet as we remember this divine truth, this way that Jesus showed us,

[00:25:59] we welcome ourselves in to a total love.

[00:26:05] We know that we too are included at the table of divine masters and divine loved ones.

[00:26:14] We know that we represent the faith, the arms and the hands of divine presence.

[00:26:22] And through remembering this divine presence and all that we do, it's promises to be done unto us.

[00:26:29] May it show up as a renewed kindness, a renewed humanity, a renewed self-love and love for others.

[00:26:37] As we embrace it in this life, in this day, in the days to come and for the rest of our lives.

[00:26:45] We embrace this one heart and allow it to speak and to sing to us now.

[00:26:53] Thanks for listening to the Mile High Church Podcast.

[00:26:57] This podcast is made possible by the generous contributions from listeners like you.

[00:27:02] To make a donation, please visit MileHighChurch.org.