Midweek Faith Lift
June 19, 2024
"The Energy of Freedom
Todd Davis, Guest Speaker
Good morning, my friends, and welcome to Unity Church of Ames! How it goin, eh?
My name is Todd Davis, and I am Rev Deb’s husband. Deb is currently visiting her sister in St. Louis and will be attending the 2024 Unity Peoples Convention at Unity Village. Thank you all very much for joining me and it is an honor to be in front of you this morning. It is fantastic to “see” your beautiful faces & spirits. Both here and online!
Happy Juneteenth! This day is also known as Emancipation Day, Jubilee Day, Freedom Day, and Black Independence Day. June 19th, 1865 was the day that slaves were finally freed in the state of Texas and the 13th Amendment was ratified in December of 1865, outlawing all forms of slavery. Needless to say, I am overjoyed that we as the United States of America now celebrate this amazing day as a federal holiday!
Happy Father’s Day! Happy Father’s Day to all dads, fathers, stepdads, foster fathers and older brothers who took care or are currently taking care of younger siblings, as well as grandfathers who are raising children. So, Happy Father’s Day to all of you!
I also would like to wish ALL OF YOU a Happy Pride Month! LGBTQ++. Pride Month traces its roots back to the 1969 Stonewall riots, which started on June 28, 1969. The first Pride marches started the following year, on June 28, 1970, to commemorate the multiday riots, and these one-day celebrations eventually evolved into a full month of LGBTQ pride. I am honored and comforted that we spend an entire month celebrating our LGBTQ Community!
I had some challenges in selecting a topic. When Deb encounters this, she goes with, “Ask Rev. Deb.” So, I had thought about, “Ask Non-Rev. Todd, but decided against it. I chose the topic of The Energy of Freedom because there has never been a time in my life where our very freedoms have been more threatened than they are today.
I would like to start with a poem by Maya Angelou.
“Joy is a freedom. It helps a person to find their own liberation. The person who is joyous takes responsibility for the time they take up and the space that she/he/they occupy. You share it! Some of you have it…..you share it! That is what joy is. When you continue to give it away, you will still have so much more of it.”
Many other spiritual traditions embrace freedom. Spirituality is the pathway to true freedom AND True Freedom is the pathway to spirituality.
How do we become freer within ourselves? First, question all your beliefs. Your inner beliefs and your outer beliefs. Are they limiting or self-depreciating? Unity talks at great lengths about limiting beliefs, negative self-talk and seeing yourself as small and insignificant. We learn these beliefs from our families, our parents, our places of worship, possibly our friends and now, social media, the corporate media and corporations themselves as many of them seek to disempower us and invade our privacy & autonomy, and they try to make decisions for us. Speaking, of which, I want to ding the corporate media, not so much for what they cover, but what they do not cover, but should. The biggest issue of all, though, I believe, is our own past experiences in life.
Other activities that increase our true inner and outer freedom is to become acutely aware of what is going on in the world around us. Notice the true nature of TV commercials, especially repeat ads. Notice how people talk. Notice that now, many cannot tolerate silence. They must have music playing or a TV on at all times. Notice how items are laid out in stores. Start to feel the subtle energy of those around us. I’m not talking about hypervigilance. I am talking about observing without judgement. Become more aware. Please slow down to allow this to happen.
It goes without saying to meditate, journal, listen to inspiring music or meditation music and reading inspiring books. Notice the pattern of dreams that you have at night. Spend real time in nature and quiet.
OK, I invite you to please get out your Bibles and turn with me to the book of John, chapter 8, verses 31-34. (pause)………What? I don’t hear any pages turning!”
OK, it reads: 31 Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” (Let me read that again) 33 They answered him, “We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, ‘You will be made free’?” 34 Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. (Sin meaning not embracing your Christ consciousness)
This means that you are free within, because of your Christ consciousness and your awareness of it and nobody can take that away from you. Another way of saying this is that Truth equals true Freedom!!
I would also like to read from 2 Corinthians 3 17-18
17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.
My story about this is that my face has been veiled most of my life. It has only been in the last 10-15 years or so that the veil is slowing coming off. Of course, this is a process and it is not like a on-off light-switch. The veil has gotten thinner over time and continues to do so. Especially in my 20’s and 30’s, I thought that being myself was not OK. I carefully watched others to see how I “should” be and act. Needless to say, I was miserable most of the time during those two decades of my life. Up through that time, I thought I was reactive, scatter-brained, dumb, poor & energetically unattractive.
I slowly shifted and started to recognize my intelligence, my creativity, my humor, my self-discipline, and my attractive energy and potentially magnetic personality. Over time, I started to and continue to wake up to my Christ Consciousness. Now, I feel safe in being real.
Now, I would like to shift from the freedom within our own spirits to freedom in our society, culture and our country. Martin Luther King said that nobody is free unless we are all free. Spirituality and spiritual growth cannot happen in a climate of fear, either within us or in our larger society. To thrive, we must have the freedom to think for ourselves! It is not the job of the church, government, cults, corporations or social media to do this for us.
True freedom cannot come at the expense of any one group, or multiple groups. (Undocumented refugees, Notice I didn’t say Aliens. It’s not like the landed in a UFO. Also, the LGBTQ community, Trans people of color, liberals, women, scientists, poets and universities). Laws and policies based on grievance, retribution & punishment are toxic to civility and there is no positive outcome for anybody. There is no true vision with this type of consciousness. Instead, we need to embrace a collective consciousness of freedom.
I saw and posted on Facebook the following quote, “If you think you love freedom but you don’t care if it applies to everyone, then what you actually love is “privilege.” – Author unknown.
The sole purpose of socially restrictive laws is to punish and suppress. This is the ONLY reason that these laws are legislated. How about that! We have laws that persecute our own citizens. Is this really the type of government that we want? Religious and governmental intrusion into personal issues such as sexuality, gender identity, dress, roles, reproductive rights, and food intake is dangerous, especially when government and religion is mixed. Our Founding Fathers did not have an authoritarian theocracy in mind.
True freedom is the freedom to question. Loyalty, conformity and obedience to an idea or person demands that we do not question. It discourages self-reflection and reflection over the direction of our country. How can we grow if we do not question? Our duty is to question our laws, policies, government, our own choices and beliefs. The goal is for the common person to be empowered by government, not limited by it. What a concept, eh?
These are the ways that our government, especially many state governments are trying to suppress & limit our freedoms. Limiting voting rights, allowing corporate mergers resulting in monopolies, book bans, even in community libraries, rewriting history for social studies curriculum, even promoting the idea of slavery. Cutting state budgets for public educations, persecuting & punishing women who seek reproductive health services out of state, enacting laws allowing discrimination to the LGBTQ community, lifting environmental standards, denying climate change to the point of criminalizing talking about it. Allowing the concentration of power in media companies. Even persecuting political opponents with threats of prison time.
So, Is empathy, compassion, positive affirmations and charity enough? Heavens no! We need courage and action from the collective whole. Complacency is out of the question, and we must not take anything for granted. Freedom is not free.
I have a short vocabulary lesson for today. The root word, liber, lib, or libre means “free” in Latin. Not Pig Latin, but just Latin. Think about these words. Liberation, liberty, libertarian, liberal, and yes, library. So, as a social liberal, I take it as a compliment to be called a Liberal, because, yes, I embrace freedom for everyone.
I would like to read from the Book of Isaiah.
Isaiah 61-1
“The spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners.” I see the metaphysical interpretation of Isaiah 61-1 is that Spirit wants us to not be oppressed, but to be free & liberated, both within ourselves an in our society.
Galatians Chapter 5 verses 13&14 regarding the nature of Chistian Freedom.
13 For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence,[c] but through love become enslaved to one another. 14 For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15
When I think of self-indulgence, I think of addiction to power & control, arrogance, lies, deception, greed and oppressing those who disagree with you. Loving your neighbor as yourself means that you help lift them up to their highest good, being kind, compassionate, giving, listening with respect and of course, loving.
I would like to read a passage from Author Carolyn Myss. "Empowerment demands that we become strong enough to seek truth rather than run away from it. We prevent truth from entering our psyche through acts of deceit, such as denying how we feel or creating excuses for our disempowering actions. We also seduce or deceive others to protect ourselves from learning too much about ourselves too soon." Caroline Myss
I would like to close today with several quote that I find to be inspiring.
"For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others." - Nelson Mandela, in his book, Long Walk to Freedom
Freedom is never given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. - Martin Luther King Jr.
Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. – Martin Luther King Jr.
“You only are free when you realize you belong no place. You belong every place. No place at all. The price is high. The reward is great.” – Maya Angelou