Midweek Faith Lift
Sacred Human
Todd Davis, Guest Speaker
June 26, 2019
Good morning!! Welcome! I am so glad each and every one of you are here today! Thank you for coming. It is fantastic to see your beautiful faces & spirits. How’s it goin, eh? I know, I have to ask that every time I talk!
Today, I have been commissioned to share from the book Discover the Power Within You by Eric Butterworth. This week is Chapter 5, entitled “From Miserable Sinners to Masters.”
I need to say that we never were miserable sinners and we are in evolution to develop our “Inner Master”
I am surprised at the number of religious leaders who still preach that we are all terrible sinners and we are not worthy of God’s love. I do not wish to speak disparagingly of other denominations regarding this. The belief is that we have the stain of original sin because of the story about Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden. Eve ate from the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil”. I don’t think it’s worth the time to elaborate on the details of the story. Most importantly, this story, found in Genesis, is metaphysical and not literal.
My stepmom became a fundamentalist Christian and took us to an Assembly of God church when I was 7 and I went to Sunday school. In Sunday school I was told I was a sinner. I asked what a sinner was and the Sunday school teacher said, that is someone who does bad things. I asked her, “What did I do wrong?” And the teacher replied, “We are all terrible sinners.” I asked why, and she said that it went back to the story of Adam and Eve. I looked puzzled and told her I don’t have any relatives named Adam and Eve. The teacher laughed and said they were the first people on earth. I asked when did they sin? And she said, “About 6000 years ago.” And I said, “Wait, it’s not my fault, I didn’t do anything wrong! That was 6000 years ago!”
I thought that I was a bad, sinful person and not very smart, so I acted this belief out by under-earning, especially in my 20’s and early 30’s. In fact, I was so poor, that I couldn’t even afford to pay attention.
Believing in this non-truth can lead to shame, fear, and low self-esteem.
In contrast, Jesus stated, “Ye, therefore shall be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt. 5:48) Would He have made such a statement if He had the slightest question of humankind’s potential?
The concept of Original Sin did not come from Jesus. It was deliberately created by theologians in early Christianity to offset the influence of more liberal theologians. Hmmm, sounds familiar,
doesn’t it? They wanted to control the beliefs of the masses through fear. It is easier for leaders to control through fear than to inspire through faith!
Many of us were taught that Humankind is bad because of this. I personally believe that this is an outright lie. I do believe that as we humans, as a species, tend to be barbaric and violent, HOWEVER, there is that spark of the Divine within each and every one of us, calling us up higher and higher. We are on this earth to evolve in spirit, compassion, empathy, charity, forgiveness, clarity and Truth.
Sin, so to speak is not something we are. It something we do. Sin is about missing the mark. When you shoot a bow and arrow, you have an intended target. When you actually shoot the arrow, gravity pulls it downward. You have literally missed the mark! The angle from which your intended target vs. where it actually lands from where you are standing is the sine, the angle. Sin came from sine, missing the mark.
The good news is, “Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. (John 8:32)
Religion about Jesus vs. the dynamic teachings of Jesus.
There are several adjectives that do not resonate with my values. They may sound good on the surface, but let’s dig a little deeper.
Conformity – to how your family, church or society defines you?
Obedience – to the literal translation of the Bible?
Loyalty – To whom or what?
Tradition – Are all traditions functional and joy-filled?
Respect for authority – Sometimes yes, sometimes not.
Hierarchy – Strict adherence to a power structure?
Here is what Eric Butterworth has to say about this business of sinfulness on page 46 of Discover the Power Within You:
Jesus did not ignore nor deny man’s weakness and his outright sinfulness. But neither did He insist that man was bound to weakness nor that he was an incurable sinner. He implied very strongly that sin is simply the frustration of the divine potential in man and that what we call evil is simply the concealment of the good.
So, let’s talk about how man is created in the image and likeness of God. Here is what Butterworth has to say about that from page 44 of Discover the Power Within You:
We need to get this idea into our consciousness—that man, made in the image and likeness of God is no mere figure of speech. It is a practical fact, a dynamic Truth. When the people sought to stone Jesus for saying that God was His Father (John 10:34), He replied by quoting Psalm 82: “I have said ye are gods; and all of you are children of the
most High.” And He added, “The scripture cannot be broken” (AV). He was saying in effect, “I am only saying of myself what my own law says of you. I don’t set myself forth as an exception, but as an example of what the nature of man really is.”
Now let’s cover some adjectives that describe our sacredness.
Authenticity – Being true to who we really are, God’s creation
Creativity – Honoring our God given gifts
Honesty – Telling the truth
Transparency – you have nothing to hide
Humor – (Elaborate)
Curiosity – Trying new things
Adventure – Taking healthy risks
Initiative – The believe and action that you can honor your calling
Intuition – Listening inward
As a child I had moved from town to town to town and felt like I never fit in. I felt like an outsider and I felt scared. I moved to Ottumwa and it felt different. My 6th grade teacher had us read something where I got the word scared and sacred mixed up. I read it scared, and the teacher corrected me and said, no it’s sacred. Fast forward to Halloween time and the weather got very cold, so I needed to wear my winter coat. The coat was blue and stiff, so when I took it off, it looked like a phantom because it had no head. I sat it up by itself and called it “the phanthom.”
Around Halloween, I set this “phanthom” in my locker after recess. My classmates knew I did this and started sticking notes in my locker from the “phanthom” which became its name. These notes were funny and told me to be “sackred” and told me to do funny things. They were Halloween spooky! I told everbody in my class that I was very “ sackred” not scared because I liked to mispronounce my words. So “sackred” meant scared to me.
The notes and jokes and phanthom flew for several days after that. I kept telling everbody that I was “sackred” of the phanthom and everyone else responded that they were “sackred,” too. The beauty of this story is that without realizing it I was telling everyone I was sacred. And all of my classmates were also telling everyone that they were sacred too. That year as a new 6th grade student in Ottumwa, Iowa, I literally went from being scared to sacred.
And the truth is, I am sacred, and so are you, each and every one of you! God bless you!
Blessings on the Path with deep gratitude for my dear sacred husband, Todd
Rev. Deb