Message from the Minister December 2020

The Birth of a New Consciousness

 

 

Christmas season is here once again, and once again it is time to welcome the birth of Christ Consciousness in us. It is not a new idea that the divine nature lives in each and every individual; but it is a revolutionary idea that the consciousness of Christ can become the dominate mind in our world.

As early as the thirteenth century Meister Eckhart wrote, “Every creature, every man, woman and child has a soul and it is the destiny of all to see as God sees, to know as God knows, to feel as God feels, to be as God is.”

What better way to celebrate the birth of Jesus than to allow the mind he used to be our mind as well. “Let that mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 2:5) What better way to honor your Spirit than to actually live in the consciousness of Spirit, rather than acting from the illusion of separation.

Even if we are one in truth, if we are acting as if we are separate, that will be our truth and our reality. We can know intellectually the real truth of our being and the true nature of reality; but if we do not practice living from that truth, we can go right back to attack and defense as our default reaction to the world and to our brothers and sisters as well.

A Course in Miracles has a wonderful reminder in the workbook, “I am affected only by my thoughts.” The birth of a new consciousness would therefore necessarily come from thoughts aligned with the Truth and focused on the Reality of our eternal, loving nature. This nature is the ground of our being and the essence of humanity, despite all other claims opposing this fact. We are born in love and meant to bring more love into the world. We are predisposed toward cooperation and not competition. We are destined to discover our oneness and dependence upon one another and cannot continue to destroy one another and still hope to survive as a species.

If our thoughts create the world we see and the emotional response to the world as well, a rebirth of the Christ consciousness is just what the doctor ordered. I remember a friend of mine who had a mysterious illness, a pain around his heart that would not go away. He went from doctor to doctor seeking a remedy. He underwent several medical tests and was prescribed countless pills; but the dull and constant pain seemed to never go away, until one day he saw an old friend who had become a small-town doctor in the rural community where my friend grew up. He asked his doctor friend if he could prescribe something for his condition. After examining him he said, “There is only one thing that can cure your illness, and that is love. Love is the best medicine. Go out and love and let yourself be loved.” What if it doesn’t work,” my friend asked? The doctor looked him in the eye and said, “then increase the dose.”

This Christmas season may we increase the dose of love in us and in all the world and give birth to a new and magnificent level of Christ Consciousness, growing in us, flowing through us and demonstrated as us. This is the greatest gift we can give to the world and to ourselves.

Merry Christmas one and all,

Rev. Tony