10/30/11 Rev. David McArthur
Our God-thought, what we as humankind have perceived as the Divine, has unfolded over time. Worship of nature – the sun, a volcano, a river, or animals – touched the human capacity to ask the divine to respond to us. Then when humankind had become more confident in itself, the gods were beautiful human figures greater than life – magnificent beings out there controlling our lives. Once Constantine spread the new God thought – there is only one God – Jesus had become the sacrifice to get to God. The Roman and Orthodox Churches took over with the fall of the empire, and taught with pictures. For a thousand years it was taught that God was up there in Heaven and it was dark and dirty down here. With the Renaissance, the God pictures took on images of people down here where we live. The Divine began to touch us as people.
All through this time, in every time and in every culture, there were mystics which taught that it is all one, all God. The view of mystics like Charles and Mildred Fillmore no longer was that the Church was an institution which helped people reach the Divine, but that it’s all God – everything to the center of the universe is all God. There is a tale which says God was asked how to make this information available, and He decided, “I’ll hide it in the heart, where everyone can find it if they are sincere and look deep enough.”
All the way back, even the ones who worshiped God as animals were just asking to know the presence of God in their lives, to find connection and comfort. What did it matter as long as their intention and purpose would expand in their lives. The form does not matter – whether a statue of Apollo, Jesus, or Krishna, rites of a priest or words of Moses – what matters is what’s in the heart. What makes the difference is God is love in your heart. That’s where the love and sincerity are. There is nothing out there to give it to you. The connection is in your heart. Let your understanding unfold from your heart. It is beautiful. Feel the love – not the building, painting, or statues – but the love poured into the form – the form doesn’t matter. The bottom line is the love. It is what matters; it is what’s growing. What we are building now is a spirituality that does not know division, but unity. It starts in your heart. Ciao!