GREAT Morning Beloved!

The Second Sunday of Advent -Peace

Welcome again to our Season of Hope.

Last week we placed an insert in the Bulletin with some questions to guide you through your week. I’m hoping you took it home and looked at each question or statement for each day and pondered it through the day, maybe even discussed it with your partner or maybe some friends.

Each week we will have an insert for you to make the Season even more significant for you and yours.

And as we go through each week, I am hoping you can take the time and energy to make this Season of Hope and Peace and Love and Joy even more special for you.

So, lets light the candles for Hope and for Peace.

This week our theme is Peace. We talk so often about peace. Peace was my prayer for many, many years. And often it is my mantra as I attempt to meditate.

And peace is probably something different to each of us. For me it is all about inner peace, that feeling that all is well, that I am right where I am supposed to be and doing what I am supposed to be doing. It is a connection within myself that I can go to, to calm myself in need, to look to for guidance and to feel love that I may not be feeling at the time. Though with two loving dogs, it is hard to not feel love ALL the time.

How about you? What does peace feel like to you?

The pictures we see of how the imagined birth of Jesus seem so peaceful, do they not? It must have taken an extremely strong faith to be in such a peaceful state, considering the circumstances.

Can you think of a time when you had that much faith that you could peacefully look at a situation and know that all is well?

For me, in these later years, I can find peace knowing that all is well, that the God, the Divine Energy of my belief, is in charge and that in the end, all will be well. My growth opportunities have come in financial ways, I now need a new garage door as someone hit it, seriously, and it needs replaced. It will be expensive, but I just know somehow, I will manage.

Can you relate to that feeling that God will provide?

The root of the Hebrew word for peace, shalom, means ‘whole, complete, sound’ and it points to peace within oneself as well as peace with all life.

Nehru stated, “Peace is not a relationship of nations; it is a condition of mind brought about by serenity of soul. Peace is not merely the absence of war. It is also a state of mind. Lasting peace can come only to peaceful people.”

Do you recall the quote from Eric Butterworth when we were studying his book, “Spiritual Economics”?
“Things may happen around you, and things may happen to you, but the only things that matter happen in you.”

And that is where the peace beyond all understanding comes from.

It’s been said that what is inside must come out. Isn’t that what many of us have been telling ourselves and probably anyone who would listen, that it explains what has been happening to the social interactions of our country and even the world?

Individually, we must look for peace within ourselves before we can expect to see a change outside.
Jesus said, “My peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.” (John 14:27) Do you think he left us with his peace, so maybe we would do something with it?

WE, US…. not leaving it to someone else. We each need to be responsible for the peace we want in our lives and in the world.

We have talked about personal responsibility often. It is part of out five Principles…once we know these ‘truths’ we must do something with it. We must make the Truths a part of our lives.

Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me…these are not just words to a song we sing often. They are telling us to be the Truth we say we know and believe must be put into motion.

We believe Peace begins with one person and spreads and is returned in kind. When we are connected to our wholeness, we become peace on earth.

And how do we become peace on earth?

First-
We forgive….70 times 7 if necessary. We all know that forgiveness is key to our spiritual growth.
There is a story that tells of two friends who were walking through the desert. During some point of the journey they had an argument, and one friend slapped the other one in the face.

The one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything, wrote in the sand:
Today my friend slapped me in the face.

They kept on walking until they found an oasis, where they decided to take a dip in the cool pond. The one who had been slapped got stuck in the mire and started drowning, but the friend saved him.

After he recovered from the near drowning, he wrote on a stone:
Today my friend saved my life.

The friend who had slapped and saved his friend asked him:
After I hurt you, you wrote in the sand and now, you write on a stone, why?

The other friend replied:
When someone hurts us, we should write it down in sand where winds of forgiveness can erase it away. But, when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it.

Second-
We practice Peaceful thoughts, words and actions. Every time I am reminded of this, I can hear Rev. Dr. Paul Hasselback, my metaphysics instructor saying: “WATCH YOUR WORDS!”

Here’s an example:

Oliver Wendell Holmes was once the shortest person present at a meeting. A colleague walked up and said, “I should think you’d feel rather small among us big fellows, eh Holmes.”
Holmes said, “Well yes, I rather feel like a dime among a lot of pennies.”

Third-
We Practice the presence of God.

The Native American axiom tells us:
God sleeps in the rocks . . .
awakens in the plants . . .
walks around in the animals . . .
but knows itself in humankind.

God is everywhere. Spirit is everywhere. That Divine Energy is everywhere.

Without peace, these holidays would be devoid of spiritual meaning. It would all delve into the commercialism that we see on the Black Friday’s every day, where we humans are more concerned about pushing ourselves past the next person to make sure we get that one toy, that one electric device, that all important TV than what our heart is trying to tell us about the real reason for this season of hope and peace and love and joy.

Until world peace is based on the divine law of love and this law incorporated into the pact of peace as well as into the minds of those who sign the pact, there will be no permanent peace.

And that is where we can make a difference; by doing the work, forgiving those who we have hurt and forgiving ourselves for the mistakes we believe we have made.

Then we must watch our thoughts so the words we use are words are of integrity, that they do no harm and only help to heal and share love.

And finally, we must experience the Presence of the Divine Spirit that inhabits all and share that wonderful connection that we all desire and yearn for. God is in the yearning. Every cell in our bodies yearns for that peace, that love.

These three actions can help us all find peace…from within to share without.

“When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.” – Jimi Hendrix.