In Sunday’s message, I mentioned that part of the root of the word ‘re-lig-ion’ is related to our word ‘lig-a-ment’... and that like a ligament, which serves as a connector between parts of the body, good religion is about reconnecting us - reconnecting us with our true selves, with others, and with God. And actually, getting more fully connected with our own true selves naturally leads to becoming more connected with others and more connected with God, because all of us are created in God’s image. While that image is reflected in each of us uniquely and differently, we all carry the image of the Divine in us - no exceptions. And if that is the case, then when I get closer to the image of the Divine within me, I become naturally more aware of the image of the Divine in others.
The implication here is that the divide between the human and the Divine is not nearly what many of us have thought or have been taught. One reason that we do our Sacred in the Secular series each summer, where we look and listen for the Sacred in secular music and movies, is because that sacred/secular divide is largely false. It’s a mistake to think so dualistically. As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 3:16, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?”
In That We May Be One, Thomas Keating writes that for the past several centuries, Christianity in the West has taken the unfortunate route of focusing more on doctrine (arguing over right and wrong belief) and less on the spiritual journey, and has largely resulted in us tending to characterize our spirituality as happening outside of God, because we generally view ourselves as separate from God. But he says that early parts of the Christian tradition recognize us as being in God, and God being in us: “God is not just with us, not just beside us, not just under us, not just over us, but within us, at the deepest level, and, in our inmost being, a step beyond the true Self... The movement is towards unity consciousness and experiencing the divine as our ultimate Self… Just by living and growing in consciousness, we are becoming, growing in God’s Self, in God’s presence, in God-consciousness. The ultimate consciousness is total Oneness in which God is all in all.”
To become more our true selves is to reunite with Who We Really Are, and Who God Really Is, and Who We All Are together. Becoming Soul-Centered is about a divine reunion.
Daily prayer: Simply reflect upon Acts 17:28, where Paul quotes a Greek poet regarding God - “In him we live and move and have our being… for we too are his offspring.”