GCA Readings 01.11.20

Matthew Kapitel 7, 24-27.

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. 25 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. 26 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. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.�

Dear Congregation, 1.This story surely has a deeper meaning. It is about listening and then doing, practicing what Jesus is teaching about. And what Jesus is talking here is about finding the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of God. And the Kingdom is within you as he teaches.

2.Who is the man? It is you. And what about the house?

The house is you as well. When floods and rain come?

Those are some forms of adversity, either personal or collective.

Jesus teaches here that when we do not go deep enough, when we follow our feelings, our perceptions, everything will devastate you. Fear will consume you.

Why fear? Fear is usually based on thought forms, we

are projecting into the future. Rarely is fear based on the present moment, but often fear is based on our speculations about the future.

Often, if we stopped, stayed right here in the present moment, there is nothing to fear‌ Fear starts with thoughts that form that then create those emotions of fear.

3.What does it mean to dig deep and to find the foundation? According to Eckart Tolle, this foundation, the rock is meditation as the experience of digging deep. For a moment you are becoming aware that you are breathing, you become aware of yourself in the here and now (you as you are in the present moment, and not you as you conceptualize, not your personal history and not you in a future moment).

In meditation you experience yourself as an energy of conscious presence. You thinking actually does not help, but becomes an obstacle. In digging deep, in meditating you go deeper than thinking. You are becoming awake and present with little mind activity.

You are becoming inseparable from the present moment, you go to a deeper presence of consciousness. When we go deep like this through the practice of meditation, we are finding an unshakeable foundation.

Eckhart Tolle goes so far to assert: Adversity actually becomes a wonderful opportunity. It forces us to go deeper. It forces us to awaken.

Why is that such a positive thing? Life becomes almost unbearable when we are only living on the surface of our conceptual minds. Jesus describes this fear of living based on our conceptual thinking mind as a house built on sand. A house that collapses, gets devastated easily and lives in a state of extreme anxiety and suffering. And all of that even though nothing bad has happened yet.

So the challenge that Jesus put forth is: do we continue to live on the surface, do we build our house on sand, or do we find the foundation within ourselves?

This foundation frees us from our fear. It is true, when things are going well, it is unlikely that we humans are going deeper. When we live in our “comfort zone� nobody awakens to go to deeper ground than living on the surface.

However when we are being faced with huge forms of adversity, with Calamities like our mortality, great loss, war, civil war, financial collapse, the invasion of our country or presently the pandemic, where millions of people suffer at the same time.

All of those are actually invitations to go deeper.

Because if you don’t, you suffer more and unnecessarily.

Currently millions of people are in a state of anxiety. Use this as an opportunity to awaken. Come to the realization that you are much deeper than you had known before. Realize that you cannot stand the anxiety and the suffering anymore.

The most vital thing in adversity is the state of consciousness with which you meet the situation. Pay more attention to that than to the newscast, because your state of consciousness is something you can do something about.

Many of us have been forced to practice a private retreat at their homes. Use this precious time, because it is part of the awakening of humanity.

Something that looks very negative, that looks like an obstacle to humanity from a conventional point of view, is actually an opportunity to awaken to a deeper level of consciousness as Tolle says.

Suffering often means to not awaken when we are being thrown out of our comfort zone. To not find the rock on which to stand. Suffering means being extremely fearful.

In our story the man had already dug deep before the storm came. In real life, often then wind, the floods and so on are beating against our house and adversity is forcing us to go deeper. And so: it is not too late to start digging now!

Many of us today are in a process of awakening. What is happening now? Tolle sees this current time as a

wonderful opportunity to go deeper in our awakening (as he calls it).

As we learn to ground ourselves not in our heads and our thinking, but in the depth of the present moment, then when we become fearful, we realize: there is nothing to fear right now. Fear is becoming big because we focus on an imaginary future moment. When we stay in the here and now, when we are fully present we realize: That which my thoughts are afraid, this is NOT happening right now. I have lost the present moment because of my fearful thoughts of what might happen. I have lost myself in my thinking mind. And my emotions then begin to reflect my mind activity.

Whenever I get lost in the quick sand of my thinking mind, I can come back into the present moment.

I start breathing.

I start getting in touch with the inner life field in my body. I feel it very concretely in my body.

I am using my sensory perceptions. I suddenly become aware of a presence in me that is inseparable of who I am.

And you needed adversity to find this deeper spiritual presence within you. Jesus calls this awakening to a deeper spiritual presence within you the “Kingdom of God within” or “the presence of the Holy Spirit” or even the experience of “resting in God”.

Eckhart Tolle calls this time a time of great opportunity.

Use it! Don’t waste it! He says: “When the ego weeps what it has lost, the spirit rejoices for what it has found.”

So what currently looks on the surface like only loss and suffering has an essential function.

The invitation of Jesus and of Eckart Tolle as he understand Jesus for us today is: “Be here, be present, don’t lost yourself in the mind, in fear, but find your deeper ground. Be rooted in this rock that is your deeper identity and essence of who you are.”

Dear friends, when we ground ourselves deeper than on the surface, then no election outcome will swipe us away. When we breathe deeply and hold onto our grounding in God’s creative presence, then the storm of our anxious minds will not be able to blow us away.

When we embrace and accept the present, no matter what comes, based on this deeper awareness of being grounded, then our fear of tomorrow subsides.

When we practice what Jesus taught us, then no matter where the wind blows and what obstacles might lie ahead, God’s grace is sufficient in the here and now.

And as we embrace the imperfect present time as if we had chosen it, our suffering calms, our fear subsides and our life becomes more deeply grounded than ever before.

Amen

In this week of the unkown, In these times of unrest When the winds blow at our lives and we feel challenged may we practice seeking refuge within on the rock, in the depth of our being.

May God’s presence fill our anxious hearts With calm and steadiness.

May we welcome the storm Knowing that in each present moment We are surrounded silently by gracious powers And we have not built our lives on the sand of anxiety But on the steady presence of God in our lives Who calms our soul by leading us to still waters And by putting our feet high above the floods on the rock of all ages.

Amen

In dieser Woche des unbekannten Ausgangs, In diesen Zeiten der Unruhe wenn der Wind auf unser Leben weht

und wir fühlen uns herausgefordert so können wir üben, Zuflucht zu finden auf dem Felsen, in der Tiefe unseres Seins.

Möge Gottes Gegenwart unsere ängstlichen Herzen Mit Ruhe und Standhaftigkeit erfuellen.

Mögen wir den Sturm begrüßen wissend, dass wir in jedem gegenwärtigen Moment still und leise von liebevollen Kräften umgeben sind.

Wir haben unser Leben nicht auf den Sand der Angst gebaut Sondern auf die beständige Gegenwart Gottes in unserem Leben.

Der Geist Gottes beruhigt unsere Seele, er fuehrt uns zu stillen Wassern und stellt unsere Füße hoch oben auf den Felsen hoch ueber alle tosenden Wasser unseres Lebens.

Amen