Turn to the God in Your Heart & Find Yourself
by Rev. Cory Coberforward
Readings
Matthew 7:21-27
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
Micah 7:1a, 2-3, 4b, 7-8 (responsive reading for live service)
What misery is mine! The faithful have been swept from the land;
not one upright person remains.
Everyone lies in wait to shed blood;
they hunt each other with nets.
Both hands are skilled in doing evil;
the ruler demands gifts, the judge accepts bribes,
the powerful dictate what they desire—they all conspire together.
The day God visits you has come,
the day your watchmen sound the alarm.
Now is the time of your confusion.
But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord,
I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.
Do not gloat over me, my enemy!
Though I have fallen, I will rise.
Though I sit in darkness,
the Lord will be my light.
Read the written message below with music videos
Sages throughout cultures and religions often share wisdom that points to the heart of what it means to be spiritual and find our true selves, things that many of us followers of theirs find hard to stomach. There are a couple of places in the Bible where Jesus warns his followers that just saying God’s name is not enough, and that word service or even service to “God,” “Jesus,” or “the Lord” is not a qualifying act for heaven at all. In fact, as our reading from Matthew illustrates, Jesus told these followers that not even prophesying, driving out demons, and performing miracles in God’s name are enough for the Lord not to cast us away. I don’t know about you, but for most of us, I think it’s been a while since we’ve driven out anyone’s demons! So, what chance do we have? Well, as Christ’s words often attest to, finding the heaven within and uncovering our intrinsic relationship with God is less about outward trappings of belief and religiosity, and more about turning away from our emphasis on outward manifestation and turning within to our very core. You see, it is our choice to step away from hell and enter heaven. This means quieting our minds and opening ourselves to God’s Will, God’s Compassion, and God’s Truth – whatever we may call it.
Christ was only speaking to the reality of our predicament when he repeatedly told us that saying “Lord, Lord,” to him or to anyone isn’t enough to escape the hell of our own making. What’s funny is that instead of turning deeper within, past the divisions and attachments as the sages encourage, we often instead turn further without! We allow our controlling, judgmental nature to lead our way, thinking that if we pull up our sleeves then things can finally get done. But there have been many well-meaning people in the world, religious or not, striving to fix things but not making much headway. Making things worse as often as they make things better. Our spiritual teachers tell us that the only way to truly make a difference in our world and in our lives is to start by making a difference in the way we see the world and life. This makes a true difference because heaven is a state of perception, and it has the tendency to spread! It isn’t a perfect world that makes heaven, it is heaven that perceives and crafts a perfect world.
I’ve spent much of this journey as a Swedenborgian minister regularly preaching about economics, social issues, and the woes of the world, often trying my best to point to better practices and methods. But at the end of the day, pointing to my indigenous roots does little compared to just expressing them, noticing the similarities in the teachings that speak to me. We all are indigenous to the ground of being, the light of consciousness and God, and sometimes putting this as directly as possible is the call. Sometimes you must strike at the root of the problem instead of spending all of your time on the branches.
However, there are times when the opposite is true, when it is appropriate to talk about the issues and address them as we can. But although this can feel quite good, quite productive even if it only serves to better inform us, if we do nothing about the heart of the issue, we are only doing lip service to justice, to love, and to wisdom. We underestimate the power of allowing life to flow through us, mainly because we are so used to trying to manipulate life.
I believe that this was Christ’s point when he essentially said, “I don’t care what you do, what you believe, what you say; if you aren’t in tune with your natural self who is one with God and God’s will, you will still experience and promote hell in your life.” This is because no matter how sophisticated or “right” our thinking is, no matter our trappings, no matter how good or far our deeds, if we don’t abide in the love and consciousness at our core we are living in a disjointed state.
Unlike what we might have been told, the talking and imaginative parts of our mind are not us – they're just overinvested in. There is a part of us that sees this part of us working, worrying, arguing, judging, and is unperturbed, already one with the Prince of Peace. Even our sense of “I am” rises in this space: notice it for yourself – it’s not mystical. Follow your sense of self and see that even that is just an idea, a belief: find what sees this sense of self. It is the part of us that notices change but in itself, there is no change. Weird, then, that when we come to truly see this, the greatest changes imaginable come to our mind, and we come to see what the scriptures mean by joy untold and fathomless love.
Often, we have to admit that we don’t know God’s will or how to do God’s will before we can uncover the aspect of us that does. It takes a type of surrender, of letting go, of slowing down, and quieting our minds. We put so much stock in words, but words are elusive, misinterpreted, and changeful in their meaning, and they are not at the root of what it means to be, they only point to things that are. Sometimes we must actively let go of the weight we place on the words in our head to notice the openness of our being, and yes, this means releasing the arrogance behind our thinking. This goes for imagination as well. Only noticing what our mind dredges up (and what we care about) is the definition of “living in our head,” and it misses what needs no dredging, what’s always there. It misses God and the peace of God’s light.
Jesus went out of his way to point out that thinking, praying, and acting in God’s name isn’t what allows us to uncover the heaven “in our midst.” Instead, he says that we must become attuned to God’s will. What does that mean? As with other sages, throughout his teachings, Christ takes many tacts to drive home one core message. The core teaching is beyond words, which is why it is called the Word. The truths of life rest upon it, which is why it is called Truth. The love that we find in life comes from it, which is why we call it Love. And yet, often we take little time to turn toward it. Like the air we consume, it is easy to take it for granted. We don’t notice that it is always here, it is what is, it allows for everything else in our heads, the ground of being. Beyond the words, the deeds, the ideas, it just is. It is you.
Peace is with you,
Cory