Our life purpose transcends the darkness,
even in the midst of chaos and violence…
We are not in the middle of a war, and the world is not falling apart, but it might feel that way, for the dissension and grief blossoming all over the planet from the pandemic and racism together are yielding immense chaos and intense feelings of separation. We turn to our faith for help, but is that enough? Can it be? If so, how?
I was raised first in the Salvation Army, then in a version of the Anglican church, then as a Congregationalist, and for good measure, by the age of twelve, as a member of the Unitarian-Universalist church. The services were all different, the sermons, too, but one thing they all had in common — what they preached — was the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
In the Salvation Army I recall the street corner bands, the absolute selflessness of my grandparents who, as officers in the army, stood on those street corners and worked on behalf of the poor. In the Anglican faith I encountered incense and the dazzling gold of the cross and goblet and processions and liturgical music and silence, and to this day it brings an uncommon peace of heart, though I don’t know why. In the Congregational church I encountered the Christian rituals of the seasons and family gatherings of people who knew each other and cared, and it brought me a great happiness. In the Unitarian-Universalist church, I encountered in depth the study of the New Testament, and the works of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Thoreau and William Wordsworth, writers whose faith was Divine in foundation. All these things, these experiences, held Divine intention given out to me. I was blessed by them.
Alas, translating the Golden Rule and Divine Presence into our existence here on earth is not easy. It is tested constantly. Its efficacy out in the world is not a given, for if it were there would be a greater peace visible everywhere. Instead, we witness what appears to be a world driven by the violence humans perpetrate on one another at all levels — for millennia before us and now. So I have kept searching, not for a prophet, but for a greater understanding of our human purpose and how to allow spirit to emerge in everyday life. Given what is happening now, I know such understanding is crucial for our survival.
Recently, I became familiar with the sermons of Reverend Michael Bernard Beckwith, and his take on what is happening is, I think, transforming. We are dynamic, luminous beings, he says. Everything that seems to be a great darkness now is actually part of a process of birthing a new way of life, one that has its source in THE Source of All That Is. This is arising out of the darkness we are facing now, a darkness that serves as a vital window into the reality of inequality and racism and its insidious corruption against humanity. Out of this is coming a new earth, one filled with the light of kindness and compassion and love greater than any felt before on a global level. As Dr. Beckwith says, nothing that happens in apparent darkness stays there. The good always arises out of it.
In truth, we have all been stilled into place from the pandemic, and this has given us time to really SEE what is happening now and what has happened in our history.
But the world is not falling apart.
For the first time, we are in a place where we can choose to participate in life as co-creators of that NEW EARTH, of that place of loving kindness at the heart of our being. We know too much now to be bound by ignorance of what is actually going on. In just one year, the world has been transformed and we can never return to our former indifference or passivity or hate. Those things are crumbling now. A dying paradigm.
We can still choose to say no to such transformations. But we can no longer be blind to them nor claim ignorance of the reasons for our choice.
One thing is absolute, though, and unchanging. We are free to let go of the darkness now. We are not bound by it. Knowing this is joy.
(Image courtesy of Gerd Altmann from Pixabay)
