Freedom: Your Divine Destiny

When I was 22 years old in 2003,

I entered my ministerial studies in Los Angeles,

California at the Agape International Center for Truth led by the great Dr.

Michael Beckwith,

Who many of us know here.

He taught one of my first classes.

It was a homiletics class or how to speak,

How to give sermons.

I'll always remember it because he gave everyone of us in the class two gifts.

These two gifts got me started on a spiritual journey that I am so incredibly grateful for.

The first gift was an audio cassette,

Yes,

We still had those in 2003,

Of a sermon given by Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr.

In 1968,

Just a few months before he was murdered called the Drum Major Instinct.

It was so important to me because it introduced me not just to Dr.

King,

The civil rights leader or the author of the letter from Birmingham jail,

But as one of the sharpest,

Most brilliant spiritual minds of the last 100 years.

I invite you to look up the talk on YouTube,

Not right now,

Please enjoy the service.

But it's an incredible message,

And it sent me on my way of exploring Dr.

King in newfound ways.

The other gift was a book,

The autobiography of Howard Thurman called With Head and Heart.

Dr.

Thurman had been a great spiritual influence on Dr.

King,

Especially in terms of non-violence.

He had been the chaplain at many universities,

Including Boston University,

And he was the co-founder of the Church for All Peoples in the 1940s in San Francisco.

It was an integrated and interfaith church.

How cool is that?

His most accessible writings,

Thurman,

Are often page long meditations that he wrote for his congregations to give on Sunday morning.

I'm just going to share one with you today.

There are qualities that seem to be hidden deep within the very texture of the human spirit,

That can only be layered bare,

That they may grow and be fruitful by the most terrific flailings of desperate adversity.

There are not only such qualities as endurance,

But also such qualities as tenderness,

Gentleness,

And boundless affection.

It seems that these qualities emerge in their fullest glory only when there is nothing more that adversity can do.

There is a strange halo surrounding great tribulation,

Which shines in a transcendent glory.

My message today is freedom,

Your divine destiny.

Dr.

Thurman's words so equate with Ernest Holmes' teaching of freedom.

It's something that I find fairly unique about this teaching,

Is our belief in freedom as a spiritual quality and the right of every human being.

No matter their faith tradition,

No matter their gender,

No matter their ethnicity or what country gave birth to them,

We believe that this life exists for us to realize,

Embody,

And practice freedom.

Our founder,

Dr.

Ernest Holmes,

Said that you never have to surrender freedom,

Only that which is opposed to it.

That's a lifelong human journey.

He also says in our Declaration of Principles,

We believe that the ultimate goal of life is to be complete emancipation from all discord of every nature,

And that this goal is sure to be attained by all.

Pretty idealistic,

Right?

It may take some of us lifetimes to get there,

But what a powerful belief.

Not in final judgment,

Not in some go to heaven and some go to hell,

But that each of us by divine birthright of being children of God,

Must by that very birth,

Realize our freedom.

As I'll share,

It's something that we have to do individually,

But also universally as well.

So how do we learn about freedom?

How do we come to understand it so we can embody it more in our own lives?

Reading Howard Thurman helped me to realize that the best way to learn about freedom isn't by studying the so-called ruling class,

The so-called free,

But the oppressed.

Those who have experienced the most discrimination and have had their freedom kept from them the most by studying these folks,

These individuals,

We can learn the tools and the keys to realizing freedom within us,

To spiritual freedom,

And to freedom in society.

Dr.

Thurman tells a story of being a teenager growing up in the segregated South,

And he was hired by a neighbor,

A white family who had a five-year-old beautiful little girl there,

And he would go and rake leaves.

This little girl liked to play with Howard,

And so when he would rake up a big pile of leaves,

She would come and just mess it all up.

It was funny the first few times,

But after a while,

Thurman realized he wasn't going to get anything done.

So he told her,

If you do that again,

I'm going to tell your father.

At that moment,

This little girl pulled out a pin from her hair and she stuck Howard in the hand with it.

Ow,

Why did you do that?

And there was a look of shock on this young girl's face.

Howard,

You didn't feel that.

You can't feel.

And reading that story,

I remember it just blew up in my mind.

It was like reading a bad science fiction novel where you start off in God's beautiful earth and realize there's something terrible behind the scenes going on.

And reading that story,

For me,

It made me not only feel bad for Thurman,

But for this beautiful little girl,

That she could be brought up in a mindset that would see some of her fellow human beings as not human,

As unable to feel.

And I believe that for Thurman,

This experience was what I like to call a soul-offending experience.

The soul-offending experience is the experience where your humanity is so challenged that it awakens your soul.

Where your dignity is so put into question by the world or the ways of the world that there's part of you that says,

No,

There is a greater truth within me that can rise above whatever is taking place to me.

It's one of the most powerful spiritual realizations that we can have,

Because when our soul is so offended that it awakes,

We therefore dedicate our lives to realizing the possibilities in our heart we know should be so in our lives.

This is Mahatma Gandhi being thrown off of a train in South Africa.

This is Rosa Parks refusing to get off of a bus in Montgomery,

Alabama.

This is all of us.

This is each and every one of us.

Perhaps you've had a soul-offending experience where your dignity has been put into question,

Where your humanity was pressed down so that someone could lift their sense of righteousness up,

Where our soul says no.

And we do the work of realizing spiritual freedom,

Even when it may not exist around us,

We realize that there is something within us,

One of the greatest spiritual truths we can ever understand.

There is a spiritual truth within us that is greater than anything that might be happening around us.

I think Albert Camus said it best.

In the midst of hate,

I found there was within me an invincible love.

In the midst of tears,

I found there was within me an invincible smile.

In the midst of chaos,

I found there was within me an invincible calm.

I realized through it all that in the midst of winter,

I found there was within me an invincible summer.

And that makes me happy,

For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me,

Within me there's something stronger,

Something better pushing right back.

Whatever that obstacle may be facing you in your life today,

Whatever that challenge,

Whatever that sense of dignity,

Recognize and honor that there is that part within you greater than whatever that is pushing right back.

February is Black History Month,

And so it was my intention to weave some black history into our message today on freedom.

And those two gifts that Dr.

Michael gave to me really sent me on my journey of understanding not only spirituality from a new depth,

But learning about black history.

And the joy of that for me is learning that it's American history.

You know,

There are voices today,

And I understand them,

That would define our nation as the result of white hate,

Of white supremacy.

And I understand that.

We have to listen to that.

We have to see our history as a whole,

The good and the bad.

But the great gift that studying black history gave me is that our country is not defined by white hate,

But by black courage.

Our country is not defined so much by supremacy,

But by suffrage.

It's not so much defined by those who would press down other classes to lift themselves up,

But by those who would give their lives in service of their country.

And yes,

You have to take everything as a whole to understand your history,

To understand your life.

It's so important to not be naive.

That's not my intention in sharing what I'm saying.

But it's so powerful when we learn from those among us who have been mistreated most by our society,

How they most realize that spiritual truth within them and brought it to life.

The most influential book Howard Thurman had on me,

And I'll share that,

I'm a big believer that when you fall in love,

Especially with a spiritual teacher that inspires you,

Read everything they wrote.

Why not?

And he wrote a book called Deep River.

And it was about Negro spirituals that he had studied.

And it was so awakening for me because it helped me to realize that even though there were countless groups of people brought here into enslavement from Africa,

That they still contributed to this country a spiritual depth and wisdom and heart that may never be surpassed.

What a weird dichotomy that is.

And so I've learned not only that the enslaved people of our country,

Because they weren't allowed mostly to learn how to read or write,

Used this gift of song that became gospel and rhythm and blues and country music and rock and roll.

This group of folks took a Christianity that was mainly used to enforce rules in the community and made it about love,

Made it about understanding,

So reformed Christianity.

And for me,

Here's that dichotomy again,

As much if not more so than any other people in our country realized that prayer within them of liberty and justice,

Even though we're still working on that today.

Such examples of knowing what freedom is and should be for all people.

There are many folk tales shared during enslavement.

And it's unfortunate,

To be honest,

Because many of them were lost or many of them were taken down by white folks and sometimes not always trusted.

But one of my favorite folk tales that comes from African Americans during the time of slavery is this spiritual idea that all God's children have wings.

All God's children have wings.

And so you'd hear these folk tales.

And they sound simple on the surface,

But they have great spiritual depth.

One goes like this.

And part of the mythology was that it was believed that back in Africa,

The people there used to have wings,

But somewhere along the way forgot they had them.

So keep that in mind as we read.

And they all remembered what they had forgotten and recalled the power that had once been theirs.

Then they all stood up together,

And they all leaped up into the air with a great shout,

And in a moment were gone,

Flying like a flock of crows over the field,

Over the fence,

And over the top of the wood.

The men were clapping their hands,

And the women went singing.

The master,

The overseer,

The driver looked after them as they flew beyond the wood,

Beyond the river,

Miles on miles,

Until they passed beyond the last rim of the world and disappeared in the sky like a handful of leaves.

They were never seen again.

What does that mean for all of us?

To remember that ability to transcend whatever challenge,

Whatever suffering may be before us by remembering those spiritual wings within us and learning to fly,

Even if things don't work out our way.

Howard Thurman got to go to India and meet Gandhi.

He was a part of a black Christian delegation that got to go there,

And they were excited to welcome this delegation because India,

In its own way,

Had its caste system going as well.

And so Thurman got to meet Gandhi,

And there was at one point where an Indian gentleman pulled him aside and asked him a sensitive,

But I think important and valid question.

He said,

I'm most interested in how black Americans chose to take on the religion of the people who oppressed them.

Why was that?

And Thurman had a good technical answer for him.

The truth was that many of the African-Americans took on Christianity,

But it wasn't the same Christianity as their masters.

Early black Americans were able to see in the story of the Jews,

An enslaved people,

Who through their songs and through faith in God overcame their challenges.

They were able to see in Jesus an unconditionally loving figure who was,

In his own way,

Able to grow wings and fly above the suffering that was his fate to experience.

And so they emphasized different things in this powerful way.

And what he didn't share with the man,

Which was a guiding story for Thurman's life,

Is his grandmother had been enslaved.

And she would share that from time to time,

There would be a preacher that would be allowed to speak to the enslaved that lived there.

And they would give a very proper talk because they'd be being watched.

But every once in a while,

A pastor would pull a group of people together and say,

Here's the truth.

You are a child of God,

And God loves you just as you are.

And that's what converted her.

She would say she always refused to read the letters of Paul because that's what was used to try and keep her in her place.

But these other books inspired her in an incredible way.

And that's another key for all of us of claiming our divine destiny of freedom is to know that God loves us,

To know that there is an unconditionally loving presence always available to us if we can accept it,

If we can embody it.

And when we do accept it and embody it,

The empowerment that that gives us to stand in our truth,

Even transforming those limited truths that we've been asked to stick to,

Is incredible.

I can help in first hearing that story of being reminded of the spiritual transformation story over 100 years later of Maya Angelou,

Who,

Living a very rough life,

Found herself in a group with her mentor Frederick Wilkerson in a room full of white people.

And they were reading a New Thought book called Lessons and Truths by Emily Cady.

And one of the chapters ended with the words,

God loves me.

And Mr.

Wilkerson asked Maya to read it again.

She did,

God loves me.

Read it again.

God loves me.

And if you read her memoirs,

You'll understand why she felt this way.

But she thought that she might be being made fun of in this group of white folk that were around her.

It made her uncomfortable.

But eventually,

She kept saying it.

And in that moment,

In that repetition,

Began to embody it and believe it is true.

She shares,

I suddenly began to cry at the gravity and grandeur of it all.

I knew that if God loved me,

Then I could do wonderful things.

I could try great things,

Learn anything,

Achieve anything.

For what could stand against me since one person with God constitutes the majority?

What does it mean for you to know that there is an infant presence of love that's always there?

What does it mean for you to know that God loves you?

What does it mean to know that you are one with that majority that would never desacralize that most holy truth of who you are?

And for many of us,

We need to ask ourselves that question because we haven't fully accepted that love into our heart.

We haven't fully embraced that love into our life to know what does it mean to live in relationship with something infinite.

What does it mean to live in alignment with unconditional love?

Find out what it means.

Find out what it means for you.

Angelou goes on.

She says,

That knowledge humbles me today.

It melts my bones,

Closes my ears,

And makes my teeth rock loosely in my gums.

And it also liberates me.

I'm a big bird winging over high mountains,

Down into serene valleys.

I am ripples of waves on silver seas.

I'm a spring leaf trembling in anticipation of full growth.

Three points to complete today on embracing and embodying your divine destiny of freedom in the face of anything that seeks to beseech you.

First,

Turn apathy into hope.

Turn apathy into hope.

My mother used to say,

And I totally agree with her,

That the greatest sin in life is apathy.

And some would define apathy as not caring.

I would define it as all of the defense mechanisms we build up in life against caring.

Dr.

King,

In the height of the civil rights movement,

Used to say that there were only two things that he was fighting against,

Never against people,

By the way.

The first was hate,

Those that would seek to discriminate against others.

And the other was apathy,

The acceptance of good people to wrongs that were taking place and being done.

And so I say to you,

If there is a wrong taking place towards you or another person in your life,

Move from that place of apathy to the hope and the trust that things can be better.

In that abusive relationship,

It's time to say no more.

In that toxic work environment,

It's time to say no more.

And what we need to move through that is that hope,

That faith,

That confidence in that inner world that can transcend any difficulty and will take care of us,

Will bring the brightest dawn out of the seeming darkest midnight.

Second,

Transform shame into dignity.

All of the great people who have experienced great oppression help us to learn to turn shame into dignity.

Maybe it's part of the human condition.

And I would be willing to wager that there's not a person watching this service today who has not experienced oppression or discrimination in some way.

We could have a big argument about whose suffering is worse here or there.

But that doesn't help.

We all have probably had an experience of feeling dehumanized and dejected.

And this thing,

This human condition is that tendency for us to somehow,

Even though logically we know it's not the case to blame ourselves,

To hold shame for what we experienced.

And we can be so offended.

We can know that it was unacceptable and carry grief.

But part of the healing process and moving back to freedom,

Our divine destiny is transforming any shame into greater dignity,

Loving ourselves as we were when it happened and loving ourselves now,

Calling ourselves back from any past experience that may be haunting us,

That may cause us to feel like our spirit has been kidnapped by the past,

That calls it forth so that we can live whole,

Knowing I am beautiful.

I am worthy.

I am a child of God.

Will you say that with me?

I am beautiful.

I am worthy.

I am a child of God.

Lastly,

Turn history into legacy.

Turn your history into legacy.

We all have a story,

And we all have a story about what that story means.

That's where legacy comes in.

History can never tell the whole story,

Because legacy is the fruit of history.

And our legacy as present beings with the gift of life today is to make even the saddest story,

Even the greatest challenge,

To bring forth healing and love and helping others and greater unity for all of us about.

It's not always easy to do,

But it's up to us.

And that's one of the sad facts about freedom is when we look back in history and look back at our lives and see people that never got to realize it the way they should have,

People that were born enslaved and died enslaved,

Parents or grandparents who sacrificed immensely so that we could go to school or have more than they did,

Mothers and grandmothers who could never have positions in work that we could have today,

People who gave their lives in service to our country so that we could live in greater freedom.

It's up to us to remember their history,

But to realize it in our own legacy.

And this is where we truly find out that freedom isn't just individual.

It's universal.

It's up to all of us.

And I just wanted to close with an example of that from Thurman,

One of my favorite readings.

And it's a little long,

Which is a ministerial sin,

But just bear with me.

And taking this powerful experience he had of returning to Africa,

The place where his ancestors had been from,

A place where he was taught when he was young was an ugly or a bad place,

Getting to return to where his roots were founded.

He saw the shores of Africa,

And he wrote the following in his journal.

From my cabin window,

I look out on the full moon and the ghost of my forefathers rise and fall with the undulating waves.

Across these same waters,

How many years ago they came.

What were the Inuit mutterings locked tight within the circle of their hearts?

In the deep,

Heavy darkness of the foul,

Smelling whole of the ship,

Where they could not see the sky nor hear the night noises or feel the warm compassion of the tribe,

They held their breath against the agony.

How does the human spirit accommodate itself to desolation?

How did they?

What tools of the spirit were in their hands which to cut a path through the wilderness of their despair?

If only death had come,

Being ushered into life by a terrible paroxysm of pain,

All the assurance of the way of the tribe would have carried the spirit home on the wings of the precious ceremony and holy ritual.

But this,

Nothing anywhere in all the myths and all the stories and all the ancient memory of the race had given hints of this torturous convulsion.

There were no gods to hear,

No magic spell of which doctor to summon.

Even one's companion in change muttered his quivering misery in a tongue unknown and a sound unfamiliar.

Oh,

My fathers,

What was it like to be stripped of all supports of life,

Save the beating of the heart and the ebb and flow of fetid air in the lungs?

In a strange moment when you suddenly caught your breath,

Did some imitation from the future give to your spirit a wink of promise?

In the darkness,

Did you hear the silent feet of your children beating a melody of freedom to words which you would never know in a land which your bones would be warmed again in the depths of the cold earth in which you would sleep unknown,

Unrealized,

And alone?

So with a closing prayer today,

I invite us to become aware of not only our individual history,

But the history of this human race,

Its great achievements and its great failures,

And that divine opportunity available for each of us right here and right now to not only be the individual beautiful,

Precious beings that we are,

But to also be a microcosm of that macrocosm of the human race,

To never forget the sins of our past,

Yet to step boldly into the future knowing and understanding them so we do not repeat them towards others or towards ourselves.

This is a beautiful,

Sacred world that we live in.

How blessed am I to know this truth.

How blessed is each of us who chooses to embody and embrace this truth today,

To embrace our divine freedom,

Our divine destiny,

And bring along with it that sacred responsibility to care for one another,

To help uplift those who feel broken,

To help know and hold a higher truth so that all of us may live in a freedom that perhaps is even more than we can imagine today,

Living in wholeness,

Living in love,

Living in forgiveness,

Living in learning,

Living in understanding.

May anything that is blocking our way fade away in the midst of that divine light.

And may we move forward step by step in healing,

In clarity,

And in that unconditioned joy born in our souls.

Let it awaken in us today.

And so it is.

Amen.