Home 
God for A Day
WELCOME TO TODAY'S WORSHIP SERVICE
Sept. 28, 2008
Open your Bible
Light a candle
OPENING SONG
He's Got the Whole World in his Hands"
Tanya Tucker
READINGS
He's Got the Whole World in his Hands"
Tanya Tucker
READINGS
From the Bible
Isaiah 35
5 I am the LORD, and there is no other;
apart from me there is no God.
I will strengthen you,
though you have not acknowledged me,
6 so that from the rising of the sun
to the place of its setting
men may know there is none besides me.
I am the LORD, and there is no other.
7 I form the light and create darkness,
I bring prosperity and create disaster;
I, the LORD, do all these things.
8 "You heavens above, rain down righteousness;
let the clouds shower it down.
Let the earth open wide,
let salvation spring up,
let righteousness grow with it;
I, the LORD, have created it.
9 "Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker,
to him who is but a potsherd among the potsherds on the ground.
Does the clay say to the potter,
'What are you making?'
Does your work say,
'He has no hands'?
10 Woe to him who says to his father,
'What have you begotten?'
or to his mother,
'What have you brought to birth?'
11 "This is what the LORD says—
the Holy One of Israel, and its Maker:
Concerning things to come,
do you question me about my children,
or give me orders about the work of my hands?
12 It is I who made the earth
and created mankind upon it.
My own hands stretched out the heavens;
I marshaled their starry hosts.
From Swedenborg
Nothing evil or false can possibly exist that is not our own and the product of our "autonomy." Human selfhood is wickedness itself, and consequently a human being is nothing but evil and falsity." Secrets of Heaven, 152, NCE.
Have you ever thought, “if only I could be God for a day; I’d sure create a better world.”
Today, you have a chance to explore this wish!
Pretend you are “God” - the Divine Oneness – at the dawn of creation. You are all that exists, and you want to create a world of physical matter and human beings. Then you will take on a body and go live in the physical world for awhile.
What kind of world will you create? You want it to be restful, relaxing, and fun with no one having “bumps in the road”, right? Or do you? Do you want a world where no one ever has to work? No one ever gets hurt? Or sick? Or hungry?
Perhaps your first thought as God Creator is “Oh, yeah. I want a world like that.” So, you create a beautiful Garden of Eden and two human people to live in it. All of their needs are met, and it is a perfect world.
But then you are shocked to realize that you THOUGHT you gave them EVERYTHING. But now they want knowledge. They want to explore beyond the garden. They want to “be.” They want freedom.
You cry out, “Oh, no – I made it perfect here! If you leave the garden to explore the world, I can no longer protect you and keep you safe.”
You are shocked that your humans want freedom over the “perfection” in the garden. Being God, you have a rapid learning curve, however, and you get an invaluable insight here: “Hey, why did I create a world at all if I didn’t want anyone to explore it? Why create humans to be little ‘gods’ without the freedom to discover who they are?
Ah, yes. The whole point is lost if you don’t give them freedom.
Reluctantly, you stand aside as they stretch their muscles to explore the whole world and all that they are.
You get sad and worried. You see your humans making choices to lie and cheat to get more of world’s abundance. You see them greedy and hurting others to get more for themselves.
What to do!! Oh, the responsibility in being God! You can’t stand to see humans being brutal to each other. Ignoring each other in times of sickness and disaster. But then, you realize, that even though they get hurt a lot – they are growing from the freedom! You are like a parent thinking, “I want to protect my children from EVER touching a hot stove or stepping on slippery pavement.” If you don’t give your toddler the freedom to experience the hurt in the world, how will your toddler ever survive? If you don’t let the humans explore all the dimensions of their world – good and evil – how will they ever be fully human? How will they grow and learn?
You are a God who is stuck. You love your humans, and want to give them what they want and need most: freedom to make their own decisions. Only by using that freedom will they grow with both their physical and spiritual selves. But there is a consequence to the freedom: free will often leads to decisions without God – or evil decisions. Some people shut out your Divine Love and live in a selfish way to gain power over others for their own advancement.
You’ve got a world filled with evil.
But, then, actually, are “good” and “evil” completely opposite? Can “good” even exist if there is no “evil”? You realize people need to learn from the Divinity you gave them as well as the complex humanity you gave them. They have “good and evil” within. You realize the path to growth is not to eliminate evil. It is for them to find the evil AND good in themselves and the world, and learn to put them together so that all is one.
They keep trying to make things into dualisms. Right and Wrong –as though grey did not exist. “night” and “day” as though there were no dawn.
But you keep watching, and you see that as your creations grow and learn, they start putting the opposities back together. Some have moments of awareness that “all is one.” Some realize that there is human and Divine in everyone. Both are important; but only through the journey of freedom can they learn to live with both together.
Every now and then someone has a moment of clarity. Watching a sunset or listening to music, suddenly all is one. One has risen beyond “duality”, belong “us” and “them” to a universal “we.”
Recognizing the oneness has always been the goal. But as God, you know that that point can only be reached through the road of freedom.
Can you think of any other way to create a world, if you were God for a day?
Isaiah 35
5 I am the LORD, and there is no other;
apart from me there is no God.
I will strengthen you,
though you have not acknowledged me,
6 so that from the rising of the sun
to the place of its setting
men may know there is none besides me.
I am the LORD, and there is no other.
7 I form the light and create darkness,
I bring prosperity and create disaster;
I, the LORD, do all these things.
8 "You heavens above, rain down righteousness;
let the clouds shower it down.
Let the earth open wide,
let salvation spring up,
let righteousness grow with it;
I, the LORD, have created it.
9 "Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker,
to him who is but a potsherd among the potsherds on the ground.
Does the clay say to the potter,
'What are you making?'
Does your work say,
'He has no hands'?
10 Woe to him who says to his father,
'What have you begotten?'
or to his mother,
'What have you brought to birth?'
11 "This is what the LORD says—
the Holy One of Israel, and its Maker:
Concerning things to come,
do you question me about my children,
or give me orders about the work of my hands?
12 It is I who made the earth
and created mankind upon it.
My own hands stretched out the heavens;
I marshaled their starry hosts.
From Swedenborg
Nothing evil or false can possibly exist that is not our own and the product of our "autonomy." Human selfhood is wickedness itself, and consequently a human being is nothing but evil and falsity." Secrets of Heaven, 152, NCE.
MESSAGE:
GOD FOR A DAY
GOD FOR A DAY
Have you ever thought, “if only I could be God for a day; I’d sure create a better world.”
Today, you have a chance to explore this wish!
Pretend you are “God” - the Divine Oneness – at the dawn of creation. You are all that exists, and you want to create a world of physical matter and human beings. Then you will take on a body and go live in the physical world for awhile.
What kind of world will you create? You want it to be restful, relaxing, and fun with no one having “bumps in the road”, right? Or do you? Do you want a world where no one ever has to work? No one ever gets hurt? Or sick? Or hungry?
Perhaps your first thought as God Creator is “Oh, yeah. I want a world like that.” So, you create a beautiful Garden of Eden and two human people to live in it. All of their needs are met, and it is a perfect world.
But then you are shocked to realize that you THOUGHT you gave them EVERYTHING. But now they want knowledge. They want to explore beyond the garden. They want to “be.” They want freedom.
You cry out, “Oh, no – I made it perfect here! If you leave the garden to explore the world, I can no longer protect you and keep you safe.”
You are shocked that your humans want freedom over the “perfection” in the garden. Being God, you have a rapid learning curve, however, and you get an invaluable insight here: “Hey, why did I create a world at all if I didn’t want anyone to explore it? Why create humans to be little ‘gods’ without the freedom to discover who they are?
Ah, yes. The whole point is lost if you don’t give them freedom.
Reluctantly, you stand aside as they stretch their muscles to explore the whole world and all that they are.
You get sad and worried. You see your humans making choices to lie and cheat to get more of world’s abundance. You see them greedy and hurting others to get more for themselves.
What to do!! Oh, the responsibility in being God! You can’t stand to see humans being brutal to each other. Ignoring each other in times of sickness and disaster. But then, you realize, that even though they get hurt a lot – they are growing from the freedom! You are like a parent thinking, “I want to protect my children from EVER touching a hot stove or stepping on slippery pavement.” If you don’t give your toddler the freedom to experience the hurt in the world, how will your toddler ever survive? If you don’t let the humans explore all the dimensions of their world – good and evil – how will they ever be fully human? How will they grow and learn?
You are a God who is stuck. You love your humans, and want to give them what they want and need most: freedom to make their own decisions. Only by using that freedom will they grow with both their physical and spiritual selves. But there is a consequence to the freedom: free will often leads to decisions without God – or evil decisions. Some people shut out your Divine Love and live in a selfish way to gain power over others for their own advancement.
You’ve got a world filled with evil.
But, then, actually, are “good” and “evil” completely opposite? Can “good” even exist if there is no “evil”? You realize people need to learn from the Divinity you gave them as well as the complex humanity you gave them. They have “good and evil” within. You realize the path to growth is not to eliminate evil. It is for them to find the evil AND good in themselves and the world, and learn to put them together so that all is one.
They keep trying to make things into dualisms. Right and Wrong –as though grey did not exist. “night” and “day” as though there were no dawn.
But you keep watching, and you see that as your creations grow and learn, they start putting the opposities back together. Some have moments of awareness that “all is one.” Some realize that there is human and Divine in everyone. Both are important; but only through the journey of freedom can they learn to live with both together.
Every now and then someone has a moment of clarity. Watching a sunset or listening to music, suddenly all is one. One has risen beyond “duality”, belong “us” and “them” to a universal “we.”
Recognizing the oneness has always been the goal. But as God, you know that that point can only be reached through the road of freedom.
Can you think of any other way to create a world, if you were God for a day?
CLOSING SONG
Rhythm of Life
Combined choir performance
Rhythm of Life
Combined choir performance
PRAYER
Dear God, thank you for creating a world where we can choose every moment whether to be close to you; or to close our hearts to you. Help us to stay open to your Divine Love and Wisdom. And give us the courage to be both Divine and human in the world, as we strive to make our world our better place. Help us to remember that our Jewish brothers and sisters will be honoring Rosh Hashanah from Sept. 30 to Oct. 1st. Many among us will honor St. Francis Day on Saturday by blessing all the creatures of the world. Help us remember to honor our pets; as well as all the animals in Your world. Help us to experience the oneness that encompasses all of humanity; regardless of belief; and all of created existence.
Optional Meditation
Embrace the Moment - world yoga meditation music and slides
Embrace the Moment - world yoga meditation music and slides
Now extinguish your candle [s] 
And close the Bible. 
Blessings on your every moment of life; may each be lived in you inmost heaven of inner joy.
Blessings on your every moment of life; may each be lived in you inmost heaven of inner joy.
