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Sunday Message for March 27, 2016

BECOMING THE LIVING MIRACLE

A man went on a vacation to the Middle East with his family including his mother-in-law, and while they were visiting Jerusalem, his mother-in-law died. With the death certificate in hand, he went to the American Consulate to make arrangements to send her body back to the States for proper burial.

The agent told him that to send a body back to the States for burial is very, very expensive, costing as much as $5,000. And the agent also said that in most cases the relatives decide to bury the body in Jerusalem, since this would only cost $150.

The man thought for just a brief moment and then said, "I don't care how much it costs to send the body back to the States; that's what I want to do."

The agent, after hearing this, said, "That's very touching. You must have loved your mother-in-law very much considering the difference in price."

"No, it's not that at all," said the man. "You see, I know of a case many years ago of a person that was buried here in Jerusalem, and on the third day he arose from the dead! Frankly, I just can't take that chance."

That's one of my favorite Easter stories and I can't help but tell it every couple of years! Despite its silliness, it lays the groundwork for our work today. This day when we look at the miracles that occur when we make a Sacred Connection, or, said another way, the miracles that occur when we Connect with the Sacred.

Jesus was a LIVING MIRACLE. He transcended the limits of the physical realm all the time, and Easter simply represents his "grand finale!"

But the Easter message lays pretty flat unless we realize that it is a message for us. Do not think it was just about Jesus -- he demonstrated what was possible for you and me.

If you live in close connection with the Sacred, as he did, you will . . .

*Transform the tomb stone of limitation into the stepping stone to miracles!

Unity minister and author Eric Butterworth once said:

"The open tomb of Easter morning says to you, 'You can become what you innately are, and this innateness of you far transcends anything you have ever conceived of in your wildest flights of fancy.' There is within you a person of stature, of genius, of mastery, struggling to be released. And if you get into the Spirit of Easter and let it happen to you, you can believe that every stone of limitation will be rolled away from your tomb."a

We can become a Living Miracle if we get into the Spirit of Easter -- but often we don't, instead we entomb ourselves. Listen to these deeply moving words by John Post, a man in a court-appointed recovery program who some years ago discovered a New Thought church. It's entitled "Rocks in the Road."

Here I am - stumbling when I should be standing.
Crawling when I should be running - crying, when I should be laughing.

The road ahead, wide, open and smooth - The goals, so clear and tempting
The journey so easy, if I just allow it to be.

EXCEPT . . .

The rocks I throw in my own road - Holding me back, slowing me down
Making difficult the things that should be so easy.

The mural that is the rest of my life - Still just a blank white wall
With ghostly outlines traced in places - A hint of what lies ahead
Waiting for the color and texture - That comes with the living of it.

A blank slate - A white wall
Except for the rocks - Thrown there by myself.

Hanta Yo
Clear the way - Quit creating my own hurdles
Quit holding myself back.

SEE the picture - LIVE the colors - FEEL the texture - BE ALIVE AGAIN.

The man inside wants out. Kindness and warmth live here.
Music and laughter live here.
The mural - hidden, but still real
Waiting to be revealed.

Hiding behind the rocks
The rocks I place in my road.b

This morning, I ask each one of you -- What would it take to remove those rocks -- to roll away the tombstone, make the true, lasting Sacred Connection and BE THE LIVING MIRACLE?

YOU ARE GOD. GET IT. LIVE IT.

I struggled thinking about Easter this year. What can I say that's different? Unusual? Something that you haven't heard me say 100 times already? Every message I've ever given could be summed up like this . . .

YOU ARE GOD. GET IT AND GO LIVE IT!

I did take some comfort knowing that my colleagues have been preaching the same message for over 2,000 years, and I've only been at it for 20! So, despite my trepidation, here we go!

2,000 years ago the Master Teacher Jesus told us that we were sons and daughters of the Most High.

2,000 years ago, his resurrection symbolized the power of spiritual understanding over human limitations.

2,000 years ago he said these things and more you can do as well.

In modern times, there was a mystic in India named Sai Baba. It seems he possessed the ability to manifest things of solid form out of the formless and in his presence, people were healed. Sounds like the work of Jesus, doesn't it?

A western reporter once interviewed him and asked if he were God. Do you know what his answer was?

It was, "Yes. I am." Everyone in attendance was stunned. Then he continued . . . "And so are you - the only difference between you and me is that I know it - and you doubt it."

And that's the difference between Jesus and us. He knew it and we doubt it. He had an ongoing, unending, continual Sacred Connection. And so can you.

* You are a piece of God - a Divine Creation -- a Being of Light - that showed up here at exactly the time you were supposed to - why do you doubt it?

* You are the beloved - a miracle - a part of the eternal perfection - why do you doubt it?

* We often say that we are a drop of water in the mighty ocean, but I much prefer Rumi's version which is:

" 'You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop." Why do you doubt it?

* You are the creator of your own universe because the Creative Power of the Universe is as close as your breath -- as near as your hands and feet -- why do you doubt it?

Jesus knew these things! Sai Baba knew these things. Why do we doubt them so??

By understanding what Easter symbolizes, each of us can release our own doubts, our own sense of personal inadequacy and move joyously into a new dimension of miracles.

BEING, NOT JUST BECOMING, BUT BEING THE LIVING MIRACLE is today's message. Today, I ask each and every one of you to identify more with yourself as spiritual; a being, a divine offspring, claiming your birthright, more than you ever have before! What if we focused our awareness on this more often than we focused our awareness on our limited personal sense of self? What if we embodied these ideas:

1. I am an Infinite Being. I am a spiritual being having a body experience. Even as my body ages, my spirit is eternal. I am whole spiritually.

2. I am one with all of life, connected to Universal Intelligence and all of life. I am never alone.

3. I am a co-creator. My thoughts and beliefs create my reality. I take responsibility for my life and I learn how to live more consciously.

4. I live in abundance. As a part of the Infinite Life I am abundant. I know how to demonstrate abundance through living by the principles of abundance.

5. I am Love.

I have a job for you -- it's an important one if you want to embrace these ideas this morning. My guess is that each and every one of us have something in our past -- either distant or more recent --- that we are letting hold us back from being the Miracle that we are and from living from a state of miracles -- something that we are allowing to entomb us. A childhood wound, a relationship wound, a wound in the name of God.

Could you today, roll that stone of limitation away, get that rock out of your path by -- from this moment forward -- refusing to ever speak of it again. To never again use it as an excuse for not fully expressing life? "Oh, no!" you might proclaim. If I can't share how wounded I am and all those horrible things that other people have done to me, what would I talk about?? If I can't blame and use this as an excuse for not being who I am, what will I do? If I'm not my past, who am I?

YOU ARE GOD. GET IT AND GO OUT AND LIVE IT!

It is your Sacred Connection that defines who you are - not your past!

Jesus had an awakened belief system that was established in ONENESS, UNITY and LOVE. Jesus demonstrated the ultimate miracle -- he overcame death. He could do this because he didn't believe in death as an ultimate reality, and whether or not the resurrection story is a literal fact or not - is not what matters. What matters is the idea that Jesus overcame death, by believing more in life, by believing himself to be as one with God. It's time to awaken our belief system . . .

A young Nun who worked for a local home health care agency was out making her rounds when she ran out of gas. As luck would have it there was a gas station just one block away. She walked to the station to borrow a can with enough gas to start the car and drive to the station for a fill up.

The attendant regretfully told her that the only gas can he owned had just been loaned out, but if she would care to wait he was sure it would be back shortly. Since the nun was on the way to see a patient she decided not to wait and walked back to her car.

After looking through her car for something to carry to the station to fill with gas, she spotted a bedpan she was taking to the patient. Always resourceful, she carried it to the station, filled it with gasoline, and carried it back to her car. As she was pouring the gas into the tank of her car two men watched her from across the street.

One of them turned to the other and said: "I know that it is said that Jesus turned water into wine, but if that car starts, I'll become a believer for the rest of my life!"

Will you become a believer for the rest of your life in the power that occurs when you live from your Sacred Connection as Jesus did? A "miracle" is in the changing of consciousness from the thought of impossibility to the attitude of faith that all things are possible.

Do you need to see a miracle before you will believe that you are a Living Miracle? Let's not! Let's do as Wayne Dyer suggesteed: "When you believe it, you will see it." Well, believe this:

You are God -- Just Get it and Go Out and Live It!



aEric Butterworth
bJohn Post



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