Ogden Nash once said, “A family is a unity composed not only of children but of men, women, an occasional animal, and the common cold.”  This morning we are reflecting on the power of being an active part of a spiritual community.

When my children were small, like many other families we were devoted watchers family shows, like Little House on the Prairie. Every show, seemed to produce some kind of strong emotional experience.  Even now, when I hear the theme song from little house, tears fill my eyes.  I can still see little Laura Engels running down that hill, through the tall grass to meet her Father.  While watching these shows, the emotions ranged from pure ecstasy to warm sentimentality to absolute terror:  Like the time Laura was lost and spent the night outdoors and we watched the mountain lion, circling the tree she had climbed for safety. There were many other encounters with wild animals, fire, flood, drought, blizzard, and illness including blindness when Laura Ingels older sister went blind. Children fell into wells and rivers and were lost and adults experienced every possible emotional crisis. It seemed every character had to face some kind of challenge to his or her integrity–from cheating in school to lying to parents, and making hard choices like choosing whether or not to sell out your principles to the local rich guy for money for the family. It was all there. Holidays, birthdays, death, birth, spiritual and personal crisis, forgiveness, trust.  Regardless of the hugeness of the trauma, the writers always managed to bring each show to a satisfactory level of resolution each week. We realized of course, that this was TV and the carefully constructed scripts didn’t always correspond with real life. But the very important factor of family consistently ran beneath whatever the story of the week was and although each member of the family had his or her own unique challenges, the influence and power of family was always a part of the experience. The bottom line was that the family connection that was more powerful than any threat and with the power of family behind you, you can not only survive something bad, you can rise higher within yourself and grow stronger through the experience. Not everyone here had an experience with a biological or extended family that generates good feelings and for some people, the mere mention of the word family is painful. However, rather than discard the use of the word and the idea, we can choose to promote healing inside ourselves for our experience of family. You see, in this church, we are family in the purest sense of the word.  With that in mind, I want to talk to now about three important ways we are all related.

First;  We are related by Principle.  By Principle, I mean that we are all expressions of the same God or Divine Energy. Jesus taught this relationship when he said, “Our Father.” Just as the Ingalls family was connected to their larger community of Walnut Grove, we are connected with all life in the universe, just like a wheel has one hub but many spokes extending from it. We acknowledge this relationship in many of our Unity affirmations like the one we speak at the beginning of every service. “There is only one presence and power in the universe and in my life, God the good omnipotent.” Another familiar Unity affirmation that acknowledges our relationship of Oneness with God and thus with each other is: “I am a spiritual being, living in a spiritual universe, governed by spiritual law.” Unity’s co-founder, Charles Fillmore often used the affirmation, “I behold the Christ in you.”

Second: We are all related by nature.  By this I mean that we are all sharing the mutual experience at this moment in time of being human.  “We are all spiritual beings, having a human experience.”  Listen to these words by Myrtle Fillmore from pg. 13 of her book “How To Let God Help You,” “In the past we’ve been led to believe that we are the children of physical parents and that we must get our impressions and education in the way that they direct.  Because of this, we’ve failed to wake up and find out that we’re really God’s children and that we’ve inherited from God a perfect mind which is capable of unfolding the wonderful Christ qualities, as Jesus Christ unfolded His God given mind and potential.” The meaning behind this idea is vital to understand.  This means that if one of us has experienced healing, then the potential for wholeness exists for all of us.  If one of us has triumphed over a challenge, then success is a possibility for all of us. Even as we are often identified and distinguished from one from another by our unique personality traits, we are simultaneously unified through our humanness. Jesus put it this way:  “If I be lifted up, so shall you too be lifted up.”  In Charles Fillmore’s book, The Atom Smashing Power of Mind, he tells us, “What Jesus did we all can do, and it is fair to say that His is the normal standard for every individual, and that every other expression of life is abnormal.  It’s the result of insufficient Christ elements.  We need not look for another in whom to witness the Christ, as John the Baptist did, but we must look for Christ in ourselves, precisely as Jesus the man found the Christ in Himself.”

Third:  We are related by choice.  By this I mean that our participation in spirituality and in the life of this church family is a personal response and choice and not a requirement. We choose to explore our spiritual nature and we choose our own individual spiritual path. There are some who walk with others for a time and then move on looking for greener pastures or because they don’t want the intimacy of relationship. They are like seeds blown from place to place by the wind. Lowell Fillmore the oldest of the three Fillmore sons once said, “To increase your love you have to take the love vitamin.  Do you know what the love vitamin is?  It is vitamin B-1. Be One with each other, be one with God. We discover true oneness when we learn to work with others who have heard a similar call and are of like mind.  By choice, we can create and share a place that is safe and nourishing to all levels of our being. In human life, we often see fear pulling people, families, workers, and countries apart because they don’t understand that we are all related. At Unity of Vancouver, we choose to use the experience of human living as a way to draw us together rather than apart. I know that for myself, I need the power of not only my physical family but also my spiritual family and the benefit I receive from the daily living of spiritual priniciples with likeminded people in holy relationships, to combat the incredible negative force and pessimism of race consciousness. Many people today see going to church and being a member of a church as a weakness. I see it as a strength. I don’t think any of us are weak willed or religious freaks. But those are the kinds of things people say about us when they don’t understand the Unity Way of Life and the benefits of a spiritualized life and a life of service through a spiritual community dedicated to the highest and best of all. Every one in this church family has a role to play.  Some of us like the Board of Trustees and Team Leaders are officially involved in leadership and making concrete plans for church programs. Some are involved by offering suggestions and support to the plan makers.  Some of us are very visible while others operate behind the scenes. In this spiritual family, every person, regardless of age is important, participates in a unique way and contributes to the stability of the entire family. Participation in this family is what results in the overcoming of our challenges, personally and collectively.

PLEASE TURN TO THE HANDOUT

Writer Ring Lardner said, “The family you come from isn’t as important as the family you’re going to have.”  Where are you in helping to create that family?

I invite you ask yourself some questions this morning as you think about our Unity Family.

1. Do I take full advantage of the opportunity offered to me by my spiritual family?

2. Do I maximized the opportunity to receive blessing and nourishment?

3. Do I fully utilized the opportunity to stretch, to grow and to serve?

4. Am I a contributing and giving member of this spiritual family or am I a taker draining the energies and giving nothing in return? Some people feel that they  must get all their needs met before they feel worthy or have anything worthwhile to offer in return.

5. Do I think I can do it alone and that I don’t need anyone or anything? Am I one of those who still doesn’t get what the Unity Way of Life is all about?”

For our church to continue we must all find ways to actively participate in and support this spiritual family.

1. Write down 3 ways you can receive the unique blessing and nourishment this church family so freely offers to everyone who enters our doors.

2. Write down 3 ways you can embrace the opportunity to reach out and help us to grow. For our church to continue we must all find ways to actively participate in and support this spiritual  family. 

Please join me in reading the poem by James Dillet Freeman called: “I Held Out My Heart”

I was lonely and alone, for I had no one to love or be loved by.
Then I met someone whom I wanted to be loved by and I held my heart to him,
but he turned my heart away.
Then I met someone who needed to be loved by me,
but when I held out my heart to him, he embraced my heart. 
Then I saw that even though I could not be certain that I would be loved,
I could be certain that I would be loving. 
After that I was never lonely or alone again.

I want to close Ephesians 3:14-19 “For this reason I bow my knees before the father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of his glory he may grant that you be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and the Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love.”  

Let’s speak our closing prayer together:  Each step I take is a step toward a greater sense of family, every step a step toward unconditional love, peace and unity.  Amen.



1. We are related by Principle. We are all expressions of the same God or Divine Energy.

2. We are all related by nature. We are sharing the mutual experience of being human.

3. We are related by choice. We are choosing to participate in spirituality and in the life of this church family.

Ring Lardner said, “The family you come from isn’t as important as the family you are going to have.”  Where are you in helping to create that family?



QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF AS YOU THINK ABOUT YOUR UNITY FAMILY.


1. Do I take full advantage of the opportunity offered to me by my spiritual family?


2. Do I maximized the opportunity to receive blessing and nourishment?



3. Do I fully utilized the opportunity to stretch, to grow and to serve?


4. Am I a contributing and giving member of this spiritual family or am I a taker draining the energies and giving nothing in return? Some people feel that they must get all their needs met before they feel worthy or have anything worthwhile to offer in return.


5. Do I think I can do it alone and that I don’t need anyone or anything?  Am I one of those who still doesn’t get what the Unity Way of Life is all about?”





Write down 3 ways you can receive the unique blessing and nourishment this church family so freely offers to everyone who enters our doors.

1.


2.


3.


Write down 3 ways you can embrace the opportunity to reach out and help us to grow.

1.


2.



3.

I HELD OUT MY HEART
By James Dillet Freeman

I was lonely and alone,
for I had no one to love or be loved by.
Then I met someone whom I wanted to be loved by
and I held my heart to him, but he turned my heart away.
Then I met someone who needed to be loved by me,
but when I held out my heart to him,
he embraced my heart. 
Then I saw that even though
I could not be certain that I would be loved,
I could be certain that I would be loving. 
After that I was never lonely or alone again.