Download What You Believe Is What You Receive.

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What you believe is what you receive.
Psalm 23 as an “I believe” text
October 16, 2011
Rebecca Dolch
Today I start a sermon series called
“What is the Spiritual path and why do we want to be on it?”
I’ll start out by giving my current perspective about the spiritual path.
I’d love to hear yours.
1st. the spiritual path is an approach to life in which we assume that there is a Divine
presence/power greater than we are, leading us towards our highest good.
2nd assumption is that this Divine presence which is beyond each of us, is also paradoxically,
within each of us; it is our life force.
The Buddhists call it the Buddha nature. In Christianity, we call it the inner Christ, the Holy
Spirit. Others call it the true self, the higher self, the authentic self. One of the great spiritual
sayings is “You are a hidden treasure, longing to be found.” One of the parables we studied in
our last sermon series was about finding the hidden treasure, that inner spirit which is waiting
to be recognized and invited into the driver’s seat of our life.
3rd assumption about the spiritual path is that as we become more aware and attuned to the
divine flow, the higher power, the inner spirit, we are freed from the dominance of our ego.
The human ego is an important part of us, but our ego is always hungry. It wants to control,
compare, it wants to be on top, it wants its own way.
If you read 1st Corinthians 13, read at so many weddings, you will hear about the ego. It says
Love is NOT and then goes to describe what ego centricity looks like: jealous, boastful, arrogant,
rude, insists on its own way, rejoices when somebody else does something wrong.
Ego gets wounded when we make mistakes or aren’t the best. Ego doesn’t like to be second to
anyone. Ego has to be right, doesn’t like change that it is not in control of and doesn’t like
anyone telling it what to do.
The ego likes things to be complicated and stirred up. Ego serves us well in many ways. If you
have no ego strength, you can’t get along in this world.
The problem occurs when the ego is “driving the bus” in our lives. Ego-driven, we can become
rigid, overly dramatic, driven, arrogant, anxious, self-centered—always wanting attention; and
we can alienate people.
Summary:
The Spiritual path embraces a higher power that is in us and beyond us, that wants to transform
us from self-centered people to love-centered peace-centered people.
Doesn’t mean that we sit around staring at the stars, thinking holy thoughts all the time with no
activity.
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There is lots of activity, but that activity doesn’t comes a restless, driving ego place, but from a
place which St. Paul called the fruit of the spirit. On the spiritual path, St. Paul says, the activity
of our life comes from “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23
gentleness and self-discipline. Against such things there is no law.” Galatians 5:22
Let’s think about it for a moment.
If you indeed have the inner Christ, the Buddha nature, the True self in you,
What do you think it wants?
What does it want to do for you?
What does it want to do as you?
What is keeping all that from happening?
These are core, basic questions that have to do with the spiritual path.
I’ll talk about a lot more elements of the spiritual path over the next 5 weeks.
I think that one reason people come to church is that you have been awakened to want the
spiritual path. Not everybody realizes that they want the spiritual path. a deeper connection,
an experience, an intimacy with this divine nature.
Not everybody believes in God, in the Divine, invisible, immortal, unconditionally loving,
omnipresent, all the things that describe the divine ideal.
I certainly don’t believe in a God that a lot of people describe. I don’t believe in a God that is
punishing, that limits salvation to a tiny number of people who think a certain way,
I don’t believe in a God who is just a bigger better, human being with a longer beard, or a God
who wants us to do more things and drive ourselves to prove that we are good.
When people say: I don’t believe in God, we need to ask: describe God. Chances are we don’t
believe in that God either.
The spiritual path is about deciding who God is for you. Religions are great at giving us symbols,
archetypes, stories, vocabulary, rituals, structure and leadership on the spiritual path. But we
are the ones who have to develop awareness and an intimate relationship with the divine. As
the call to worship said: “We are on the earth to make God real.” (Hazrat Inayat Khan)
There is another basic spiritual principle that I want to lift up.
Goes like this. What you put your attention on is what will come to you.
For example: I know a couple who wanted their child to learn Spanish, so about 80% of the time
the Mom spoke Spanish to her daughter from day one. The child, now 4, speaks English all of
the time but she understands Spanish and has a huge Spanish vocabulary. This child’s
grandfather is trying to teach her to play golf. So this 4 year old is learning Spanish and golf.
Why? Because parents and grandparents have their attention on these things
What you put your attention on is what will manifest in your life. Barb is an architect who
concentrates on designing schools and guess what? School buildings manifest. Janet guides
Cornell students in the complicated process of preparing their portfolios to get into medical
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school. And guess what? Those applications get done and sent in. What you put your attention
on is what will manifest in your life.
A belief is one way in which we focus our attention. The Latin word CREDO means “I believe,”
and it is the basis for the word CREED or belief statement.
One of the very cool things we can do on the spiritual path is to think about and write down
and ponder our credo statements. What do I believe?
For the most part, what you believe about God is how you are going to be open to God’s place
in your life. What you believe about God is directly related to what you will receive from that
relationship.
One thing I have noticed about the Bible is that is it full of “I believe” types of statements,
implied and stated. Today, I want to share with you an exercise with the 23 rd Psalm. I went
through it line by line, and extracted an “I believe” statement from each phrase. If you were to
do this with the exact Psalm, you would come up with lots more, I’m sure.
The spiritual path is a way of exploring how God seems to work. How a higher power is
available to us. The spiritual path is about inviting an invisible mystery to be our closest friend.
Let’s turn to the Psalm.
It is from the Old Testament, the Hebrew scripture, written before the time of Christ. It
describes God using the metaphor of a good shepherd—a metaphor that Jesus uses to describe
himself in John 10 .
I invite you to note anything that you resonate with, and allow yourself to think about what
YOU believe. Worship and sermons aren’t about you sitting there watching me believe
something. It is about formulating your own awareness, your own ideals, allowing your heart to
open up even wider.
PSALM 23 CREDO (“I believe”)
1. COMMUNITY
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
I believe in the miracle of Christian community (the flock), led by the spirit of Christ.
A shepherd implies a flock—which I will call “spiritual community.” I believe that spiritual
community provides an environment for transformation and for subtle growth and unfolding.
I’ve seen people come into a church for so many reasons. People may be just searching for
something, or looking for ways to connect and grow with liked-minded folk. Sometimes we
come in lonely or lost, uptight or grieving, self-absorbed, or white-knuckling it through all kinds
of recovery.
I’ve seen people come into a spiritual community and over time, as they aligned themselves
with the energy and the vision of the community, I’ve seen them blossom, and become more
resilient with the changes and challenges of life.
When we walk through these doors, we are no longer just people, we become part of the body
of Christ, which is a churchy way of saying: we become part of the energy of higher love.
I don’t know how God does it, but I see people, soften, strengthen, accept, belong, open their
hearts, heal, find their purpose, focus, joy, peace and find dear friends.And when people come
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here from a really healed placed, you bring an uplifting energy to everybody in the room
whether or not you know them.
What do you believe about Christian community? There is a lot of bad-mouthing of churches,
usually because of what I call “the doctrine of limited love.” But spiritual community is not a
doctrine, it is a living experience.
2. RESTORATION He makes me lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul.
I believe that God always leads us towards wholeness and restoration.
My brother died of cancer at 46 years old. The week he died he said: Sis, I know that I am
dying, but I’ve been healed, and I want you to be happy with me about that. I knew the issues
and challenges he had struggled with in his life, and he was saying that he had come to peace
and acceptance and liberation. I really believe that God can do this in us, at any stage of our life
and death.
3. GUIDANCE/SERVICE He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake.
I believe that Christ is always available to guide me.
I believe that Christ empowers us to serve in the right paths.
If you stick around Forest Home Chapel, you will hear a lot about divine guidance and how to
access it. I believe that we came to this earth for a purpose, doesn’t matter if it is huge or very
subltle—and that God is within our minds and hearts and spirit, leading us to the fulfillment of
that purpose. What do you believe about guidance?
4. RELEASE FROM FEAR
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil;
I believe that daily reliance on God can release me from fear and can protect me.
Clearly one of the things that holds us back from being our true selves is fear—fear of rejection,
failure, fear of our own power, fear of being harmed. Fear of not having enough or being
enough. I don’t think we can just wave a magic wand and do away with fear, but calling on the
power and presence of God as we are aware of our fear in the moment can shift it, transform it.
What is your belief?
5. PRESENCE/COMFORT
For you are with me; your rod and your staff they comfort me.
I believe that the constant presence of God and deep appreciation of it is the true comfort
and peace in my life.
What do you believe about comfort?
6. PROTECTION You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
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I believe that God can use adversity for our greater good.
Obviously, God doesn’t keep bad things from happening to us. Obviously we all die one way or
another, and part of the human condition is suffering. But what do you believe about God
preparing a table for you, a feast, even in the presence of danger and disaster?
7. HEALING/VOCATION You anoint my head with oil—
I believe that God heals. I believe that God has a purpose for my life.
In the Biblical days, anointing the head was for the purpose of either healing someone or
infusing them with Divine power. You anointed the head of a king for example or a prophet.
I believe that we are all anointed time and time again –we are given tasks and attitudes and
roles to play in this life that make a difference for good. The more we tune in to that the more
interesting our life becomes. What do you believe about God’s purpose in your life?
8. ABUNDANCE
my cup overflows.
I believe that God provides all things—beyond our wildest dreams.
Some people are extremely rich and have stuff beyond our wildest dreams, which can be very
fun, I love to watch it on tv. But I think that abundance and an overflowing cup has to do with
the quality of our life—our serenity, our happiness, ability to rise up when we have fallen down.
We have so much more to give than we think we do, and God provides it.
What do you believe about abundance, the overflowing cup?
9. FORGIVENESS/FRUITS
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
I believe that the unconditional love of Christ forgives us, can transform all things, and can
deliver us from all bondage. I believe that following the path of Christ produces amazing
results.
What has been your experience of following the spiritual path? Your stories, your experiences
are what become the powerful connecting point for you and for people with whom you share
them.
10. CONSCIOUS AWARENESS And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
I believe that I can experience the continual, timeless presence of God, by tuning in to the
Divine in this moment and in all circumstances.
What do you believe about “forever”?
There are so many questions—that is a huge part of the spiritual path. We are called to Live the
Questions, many of which have no set answer, but living them leads to insight and right action.
Now I invite you to share a moment with one other person. Simply tell the other person one
thing you believe about God, or one thing that resonates with you about what has been said.