Unity Church of Castro Valley
Sunday Message for March 2, 2008
Oneness
This week we are going to talk about Oneness. In metaphysics we often refer to oneness, or embodying oneness, or our oneness with God. But what are we really talking about?
The central theme of the Bahá'í Faith is that humanity is one single race and that the day has come for its unification in one global society. They believe that God has set in motion forces that are breaking down traditional barriers of race, class, creed, and nation - and that will, in time, give birth to a universal civilization.
Besides scriptural and existential evidence, Christian history abounds with individuals who looked within and discovered the radiance of God's Holy Spirit. People like George Fox, founder of the Society of Friends (Quakers), believed that each of us has an "inner light" which guides us. Mystics like Meister Eckhart taught what they knew from spiritual searching and prayer, that God and humanity are essentially one and that progress depends on our willingness to receive what we already have.
Sin, to the ancient Hebrew, was any attempt to negate that orderly flow by stepping outside of the Law. Law-less-ness, in its many forms, was sin. The greatest sin for the ancient Hebrew was idolatry, worship of something other than Yahweh. If God is One, any attempt to move beyond Oneness to worship god in the plural was a threat to the whole system of divine Law and Order. There could be no other gods beside Yahweh, because on His steadfast love/justice/merciful kindness rested the hope of fallible humans for reconciliation with their neighbors and with the orderly flow of life itself.
And of course there was Jesus. He was continually in the consciousness of Being, the very substance and life of God. He had conscious realization of His actual oneness with Spirit. His body became a (Luke 11:34) "body of light", spiritual substance, the very essence of Being. Jesus said, (John 14:9) "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father."
SPIRITUAL GROWTH VS THE WORLD
The highest goal for Mysticism is union with God. But there are those who will tell us that when we get involved with the problems of this world we blunt our drive toward Oneness with God. They think that our spirituality might suffer from confrontations with a world that does not yet understand Christian Truth teachings. In the past mystics have gone to live in a cave to search for God without the distractions of the world
It has always been a challenge for the spiritual person to live in the world without becoming "worldly." The Bible scriptures warn us about becoming involved in popular causes and fashions. Some New Testament authors us "the world" as a term of derision which is contrasted to the Kingdom of God.
But even in John's Gospel - which rails against "the world" at every opportunity - we see the central mission of Jesus in these words from chapter 3 verse 16: (John 3:16) "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son."
Jesus taught His message of healing love to help "the world" or to help all people. In fact Jesus tells his disciples to get involved by feeding the hungry, blessing the children, and healing those with health challenges. So Jesus taught his disciples to be involved in the world as He himself was.
The parables of Jesus are filled with good deeds and people who took action in the real world: the Good Samaritan, the Father of the Prodigal Son, the Good Shepherd. His teaching was reinforced by a life of compassion and involvement with others: cleansing lepers, healing paralytics, giving sight to the blind, feeding the multitudes, and many other instances of help or compassion. Jesus was our example of how to be involved with the world and still demonstrate our oneness with God.
In fact, the only people Jesus speaks badly of are the religious leaders who have become so nit-picky about points of the Law that they forgot why the Law was given in the first place. It was given to help man commune with God and their neighbor.
Jesus says in (Matthew 25:41-45) "You that are accursed, depart from me for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.' Then they also will answer, "Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?' Then he will answer them, "Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.'"
Failure to help people in need is the same as turning your back on the Christ. It will lock us into a pattern of no-growth until we learn this lesson. It says in: (1 John 4:20) "Those who say, "I love God," and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen." For if we truly understand Oneness we know that we are not our brother's keeper - but instead we ARE our brother. We are all one within God. If we truly realized this, we could not hurt another person - for it would be like hurting ourselves.
H EMILIE CADY
In Lessons in Truth Emilie Cady writes, "The hunger of everyone for satisfaction is only the cry of the homesick child for its Father-Mother God." The Spirit within us wants to come forth in our consciousness as more and more perfection, until we become fully conscious of our oneness with All-perfection. As spiritual beings we will never be satisfied with anything less.
We have studied metaphysics and intellectually we know that our own God-being never changes. But we need to realize our oneness with God at all times. In order to do this we need to deny the reality of anything that seems contrary to this.
When we affirm that God's mind is working within us it makes us want only the good. Jesus said in (John 14:10) "Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works." So if it is God who does the work, how can we ever fail? Whatever we fully commit to God to do, and affirm that it is done, we shall accomplish. Our success, through God, is assured.
Emilie Cady has four great affirmations for our success. They are:
First: God is life, love, intelligence, substance, omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence.
Second: I am a child or manifestation of God, and every moment His life, love, wisdom, and power flow into and through me. I am one with God, and am governed by His law.
Third: I am Spirit, perfect, holy, and harmonious. Nothing can hurt me or make me sick or afraid, for Spirit is God, and God cannot be sick or hurt or afraid. I manifest my real self through this body now.
Fourth: God works with me to will and to do whatsoever He wishes me to do, and He cannot fail.
These affirmations can do wonders for you when you have challenges in your life. The moment you affirm your oneness with God the Father, there is instantly set into motion all the power of omnipotent love to rush to your rescue. Knowing this you can affirm "It is done; I have the desires of my heart."
But there is a method to using affirmations. You can affirm to yourself over and over again that you are well and wise and happy. And for a time you can feel well and wise and happy. But this is simply a form of self-hypnotism. Many people have done this and then wondered why it all went away.
You will not have spiritual understanding until you are conscious of your oneness with God at the very depths of your being. You need to know that all wisdom and health and joy is within your own being. You already have all that you need within you.
Everything Jesus taught was for the purpose of leading us into this consciousness of our oneness with God and all things. He started with the external man, because people live mostly in external things. Jesus taught them to love their enemies and to do good to others. These were the first external steps for them to take that would lead them to the higher levels of realization. And then Jesus said (John 16:12) "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now." He knew that they could only understand so much at a time and that he would have to give them Truth in small doses.
Jesus told them about the Comforter that should be in them that would teach them all things and reveal the deep things of God to them. In other words, He told them how they can find a kingdom of heaven within themselves, the kingdom of love, power, and life. He told them of the Holy Spirit and their oneness with God.
So after all our seeking for the light and Truth, we have to learn to wait on God for this inner revelation of Truth and our oneness with Him.
The light we want is not some thing that God has to give; it is God Himself. God does not give us life or love as a thing. God IS life and light and love. More of Himself in our consciousness, then, is what we all want, no matter what other name we may give it.
In proportion as people understand and have faith in Jesus as their actual Savior from error thinking, and in proportion as they are set free from jealousy, prejudice, and all selfishness, they experience wholeness of mind and body as the result. The ultimate result of this knowledge and of daily practice in overcoming (even as Jesus Himself overcame) will be a new race that will demonstrate eternal life--the lifting up of the whole man--spirit, soul, and body--into the Christ consciousness of oneness with the Father. This is indeed true glorification. By means of the reconciliation, glorification, and at-one-ment that Jesus re-established between God and man we can regain our original estate as sons of God here on earth.
SCRIPTURE: John 3:16; Matthew 25:41-45; 1 John 4:20; John 14:10; John 16:12; Luke 11:34; John 14:9
REFERENCE: Glimpses of Truth; Lessons in Truth by H Emilie Cady; Mysteries of John by Charles Fillmore
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Last updated
March 3, 2008
