Legacy of Love Part 3: Living a Legacy in Community with Josh Reeves

[00:00:00] The following talk was given at Mile Hi Church in Lakewood, Colorado. Please visit our website at MileHiChurch.org Thank you Jennifer Bernat, thank you Mile Hi Band.

[00:00:12] We are family and during take one of our service this morning I just wanted to remind you if you didn't hear it that you're loved. I love you and when I say that I don't just mean it from myself personally but from the Mile Hi community to you.

[00:00:31] You are loved, you matter, you make a difference and our love is with you and thank you for the love that you contribute to us. And it's the love of that community that I get to share with us today.

[00:00:45] I'm so grateful to Dr. Michelle for allowing me into her incredible series on Living a Legacy of Love and I got the title today of Living a Legacy in Community.

[00:00:57] And I'd like to begin this morning by telling a story about one of the great Zen Masters, Ben K.

[00:01:06] And Ben K in the 17th century would hold meditation retreats and people from Japan from all over would come and there was a student there early on who got caught stealing.

[00:01:19] And they told Bung K this and he didn't do anything about it and about a week or so later, another incident happened with this young man. And so all of the students are very angry about this and they made a big petition to say to Ben K.

[00:01:35] This guy goes or we all go and so Ben K gathers everyone together and he shares with them. Thank you for sharing this petition with me. Surely you know what is right and what is not right. And surely this young man does not know right from wrong.

[00:01:54] And so with that I invite all of you students because you are so wise and know the difference between right and wrong to leave. But because this young man does not know right from wrong, I will stay here with him until he understands.

[00:02:10] And with that, all of the students began to weep, including the young man who had stolen, who vowed in that moment to never steal again.

[00:02:20] And I love this simple story and how it speaks to the power of community because I don't know about you, but I've been all the aspects of that story. I've been the culprit kind of afraid unsettling about stepping into community.

[00:02:35] I've been like the rest of the students judgmental in trying to hold to the policies and the rules of the community.

[00:02:44] And at my best at times I've been like the teacher who honors the rules and the guidelines, but realizes that community first and foremost is about compassion and love. I first came into spiritual community at a team program within this teaching in ancient beach California.

[00:03:05] And I would say at first I was just like that culprit. I wasn't stealing things, but I would perhaps say things about myself that weren't true or I would admit things about myself that I should share because of fear of being a part of that community.

[00:03:22] Mary and Alan Feldman, these two beautiful beings who led that team group made it so safe. So about being ourselves that eventually I had to let that fear go and become a part of that community.

[00:03:35] Mary happened to work for the church and so she decided that she would have it where I made coffee and set up the chairs for their basics beyond limits type class. And I would get to take the class on a scholarship.

[00:03:47] And some of the adults weren't all that thrilled that there was a 14 year old taking the adult basics class with them, but eventually I learned so much about community because these folks and individuals. They saw the truth of who I was.

[00:04:01] They saw who I was before I could see it myself. And I would say that vision that was built up for me by so many people who were like the teacher in that consciousness helped lead me to where I am today.

[00:04:14] And I know my friend Mary, who's like a mom to me is watching today. I want to say thank you Mary for your love and your support of me.

[00:04:22] And I'm so grateful for community because without it I wouldn't be here in the way that I've been impacted and the way that I've been able to have an impact on other people.

[00:04:36] I think there's been some conversations just all out there about church not being so relevant anymore about community perhaps not being so important in this day and era.

[00:04:51] And if anything it might be the church's fault that it's that way, I think the church perhaps just speaking generally has come into that point where for too long it was like the students in the story I told you.

[00:05:03] It was too much about itself and its own good and not about the good of the people and the good of individuals out there. Yet for me church is vital, spiritual community is so important to a successful life.

[00:05:19] And I just want to share some reasons why community is vital to my well-being and perhaps you're well-being as well. First it helps me remember there's something bigger than I am.

[00:05:31] I'm too often in my life, I think that I'm the greatest power, the greatest directive being in my life and spiritual community helps me to remember that there is a power greater than I am. Spiritual community helps me to have an experience of what's sacred.

[00:05:49] And I would say the community itself when we're all together, be it physically in this room or even online right now, can be a sacrament within itself a way we experience divinity together. Spiritual community helps me to pay attention to my life, to listen to it.

[00:06:09] Listen to your life, what's it saying to you right now? And lastly, spiritual community helps me to make sure that the center of my life isn't my to do list in terms of work or home but that it's about my heart's list.

[00:06:26] Do you know what's on your hearts list? I know it's on mine to try and live with a more open heart every day, to strive to be willing to be more transparent, open, vulnerable and intimate with others.

[00:06:44] To seek like all of our incredible US soldiers have to live for a cause greater than myself. To realize that love is the most creative power that there is and to use it with intentionality and clarity in every aspect of my life.

[00:07:03] I don't know about you but for me, the greatest place to practice what's on my heart's list is in community. And I think something this coronavirus has taught us all is that to be isolated is not to be human. To be isolated is not to be human.

[00:07:25] To be human is to commune or community with others. That our true humanity, the heart of who we are comes forth, it can be inspired in isolation, it can be inspired in solitude but it really takes shape in community. When we are alone, we discover our individuality.

[00:07:51] But when we are together, we discover that we are one. We are one. And both of those understandings are so important to living a whole life. To be the unique expression of life that we are, to be the liberated and free individual that each of us is.

[00:08:11] And yet to recognize that we are a part of all humanity, a part of all being. That's why community is so vital to living a thriving, spiritual and pragmatic life. I love how Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. put it.

[00:08:31] He said, we are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.

[00:08:43] And because of the blessing of technology today, I want to let Dr. King himself continue that quote here given in a sermon he gave in 1968.

[00:09:41] When it appears something, if everyone is in a wild and we bought a clothing product or a food product or a cosmetic product. If we were able to learn not just the ingredients and not just where it was made but something about who made it. Their story.

[00:10:27] We are tied in that bond of mutuality and yet when we avoid togetherness and stay in isolation, we forget that we are one. You know, a lot of people talk about our teaching like it's smorgish board spirituality.

[00:10:42] That we just stretch and reach and take wisdom from wherever we want it. That it's anything each of us wants it to be. But I'm going to share with you today that for me, it can be more black and white than that.

[00:10:55] That in many ways it's either or. It's the recognition that either we are all one or not. Either God is or God isn't. Either there is a power greater than I am that I can use to co-create my life with or there isn't.

[00:11:17] Either there are seeds of meaning and purpose and every circumstance in situation, born intuitively in every relationship that we have or there's not. It's either or.

[00:11:32] And at the same time, I don't think of this in just terms of being an existential question that we want to ponder and discuss.

[00:11:39] Deep down and one of the most important metaphysical teachings that we have, the secret to making this stuff work is to realize it's not just either or it's a choice.

[00:11:51] I cannot be so naive as to just think God's going to unveil herself to me and show me the truth. I can't be so naive just to think that this power for good is going to work for me without my conscious participation with it.

[00:12:05] I can't just speak lip service to the idea that we're all one, I have to live it and get into community to know that it's there. Our founder Ernest Holmes put it this way says life is not pleased by our being unhappy.

[00:12:20] God is not honored by our being sad. Spirit is not stimulated by our entry. The divine is not conditioned by our sense of limitation. God is was and remains perfect. God is ready, able and willing to do anything for us.

[00:12:40] But the Spirit cannot give us what we refuse to accept. Sometimes I will criticize my fundamentalist Christian friends for this concept of salvation. When they say that in order to experience salvation, you have to take the teachings and the life of Christ into your own heart.

[00:13:03] And when you do that, you get the promise of eternal life. And if you don't do that, then it's damnation that it's hell for you. And the part that I really disagree with is that latter part.

[00:13:17] See what I do agree with is that each of us has a choice to make, and that when you and I accept the spiritual truths into our heart, there's an immense transformation that can happen. We've discovered the secret of life itself and we can live from it.

[00:13:35] However, when we don't choose that, it doesn't mean that there's some fire pit in the afterlife waiting for us. It means when we do accept and choose those things into our heart, we experience our eternal lives now.

[00:13:48] And that hell just means the state of missing out on that truth. Hell is missing out on that truth of who we are. There are all sorts of truths in this world. And paracal truths, philosophical truths.

[00:14:08] But I value first and foremost what I'll call today those damn true truths. What are your damn true truths that we're all one? That there's something sacred in this life that our relationships, our vehicles to sacred connection and knowing the truth of who we are.

[00:14:35] That love is the most important and creative building block that there is in the universe and in our own lives. What are your damn true truths? And are you living from those? Because when we tear ourselves away from being one with everyone, we hide those truths.

[00:14:55] We cover them up and it's community that calls us to bring them back together. My friend and our incredible minister here, Barry Ebert, gave a dynamic talk last year that he just called why go to church and his reasons were connection, consciousness and community.

[00:15:15] And it got me to think, you know, why do people not go to church? Why do people disengage from spiritual community? Well, one reason I think is we say they're all different from me. I want to go where people are the same. They're too old there.

[00:15:32] They're too young. They're too conservative there. They're too liberal. They're too white. They're too woo woo. Whatever it may be and my point would be, it's good that we're all different. It's fantastic that we're all different.

[00:15:47] I can tell you some of the strangest people I've met in spiritual community. And some of the most triumphant, powerful people I know I've met in spiritual community. And it's particularly great when they're the same. The idea isn't to be all like-minded, but to be like-hearted.

[00:16:08] To realize when we enter spiritual community all the senses of identity move away so that we can be our God's selves. The spiritual beings that we are. Another reason people don't go to church is they're going to ask me for stuff.

[00:16:23] They're going to ask me for my time. They're going to ask me for money. They're going to ask me for talent and you're absolutely right. We are going to ask you for stuff.

[00:16:33] But what we realize spiritually is when I'm able to give those gifts to my community, it's not just from the community. It's for me. Yes, you may miss something great that's going to be on TV if you come to church.

[00:16:45] Yes, it's important you get to talk to your practice and to do all the things on your to-do list. And yet there's something about that sacred connection that we built. And it's the job of the church. It's job of the community.

[00:16:57] If you ever ask you for more, then you're comfortable of giving in terms of your finances, your time and talent. And to appreciate just what it is that you give and know at my little church we are so grateful for what you give.

[00:17:12] Lastly, people don't go to church because they're worried what other people are going to think about them. Outside of the community, what's my evangelical act going to say about me going to my little church?

[00:17:24] And then within the community are people going to think I'm good enough or valuable enough. See all this right here, should show us that community allows us to be vulnerable and transparent in a way that nothing else quite does.

[00:17:42] To realize that each of us has a legacy to leave, not just in our individual relationships and life, but in the communities that we are a part of.

[00:17:52] Just a few things that I mentioned in my talk and closing today to remember, not only in relationship with our own individual lives and what we're going through right now but in community. The first again, what's on your heart's list? Who are you here to be?

[00:18:13] What do you hear to practice? What do you hear to really learn and get better at? Yes, how can you do that in your personal life? But more so, how can you do that in community?

[00:18:23] Whether it's my little high church, your civic life, greater extended family, whatever it may be. Next, remember that when we're alone, we can discover and cultivate our individuality. But it's in community that we discover and cultivate the truth in the principle that we are one.

[00:18:47] In this lifetime right now, where for some of us, the only prism there is is media. The teaches us to see in dividedness, in separateness and one side against another side. So many of us are longing right now for that remembrance that we are one.

[00:19:05] And if our societies are to heal themselves, we have to take that consciousness of oneness. No government leader is going to do it for you. No legislature can legislate it.

[00:19:18] It's our human birthright to bring forth the awareness of oneness to uplift ourselves and everyone else around us to create and make visible that garment of destiny that binds us all. And lastly, what are your damn true truths?

[00:19:36] What are those truths for you that you won't sacrifice for anybody? That perhaps you evolve and open your mind and learn more and more from, but our deal breaker truths for you that you will never change or separate.

[00:19:52] That we are one that we're here to live in love, that there is a sacred presence available to each and every individual on this planet. That through embracing the possibility of humanity within us, we find all the seeds that we need to grow new life.

[00:20:13] New spirit, a new psychology, a new way of living together. Live from those damn true truths, my friends, and you can't go wrong. So moving into a firm and a prayer today invite you to join me wherever you are.

[00:20:28] And I just take a moment on, or all of our incredible prayer practitioners. Wherever they are holding and uplifting us all in consciousness, I'm so grateful for them lifting me up right now as well.

[00:20:40] And first we bring to heart today, all of those souls, all of those human beings who gave their life for a greater purpose for the prayer that is the United States of America. A prayer we are always striving to achieve, of equality, of liberty, of oneness for all.

[00:21:10] And we join in our hearts with all of those who've lost a family member who served in military service. And for all those names we learn about of people who've lost their life due to COVID-19, we know that COVID-19 is not the end of their life,

[00:21:28] but that their spirits, their stories, their souls continue to teach us to nurture us. We honor the grieving families and those that love them, with a deep peace and a deep grace and a knowing that they did not die in vain.

[00:21:44] And may we pray for our own life and those we love today, knowing an infinite oneness, an infinite grace, an infinite possibility, planted in primordial soil, but being given birth to and growing in your life and my life today right here and right now.

[00:22:03] Right here and right now there is new life for health, for wholeness, for divinity, for one and for all. We embrace this prayer we embody it, we say yes to it, and we live it with love. And so it is. Thank you for listening to the Mylhychearch podcast.

[00:22:28] This podcast is made possible by the generous contributions from listeners like you. If you'd like to make a donation please visit us at mylhychearch.org. Have a fabulous day.