Entering The Kingdom: Waking Up To The Divine Within

This talk by Josh Reeves asks, What were Jesus’s teachings about experiencing the kingdom of heaven, and what did he mean by that? Is the kingdom of heaven a place or a consciousness? Do we enter it through joining the right church or our inner work? Does it cost money to get in or does it require the willingness to give everything away?

Please note: This track was recorded live and may contain background noises.

Transcript

My message this morning is entering the kingdom.

And the first thing that I want you to know is that I'm not talking about a place where you go when you die.

I'm talking about a consciousness that you rise in when you truly live.

That entering the kingdom is not entering a place,

It's practicing a path,

A way.

And you know,

Jesus didn't call his teaching Christianity.

Christianity was the name given to Jesus's teaching that the church founded around him later on.

Scholars believe that Jesus called his teaching the way.

And it's fascinating to me because so many other spiritual teachers also referred to their teaching as the way.

Lao Tzu in ancient China called his teaching the Tao,

Which translates as the way or the path.

And he shared,

Embracing Tao,

You become embraced.

Supple,

Breathing gently,

You become reborn.

Clearing your vision,

You become clear.

Nurturing your beloved,

You become impartial.

Opening your heart,

You become accepted.

Accepting the world,

You embrace Tao.

Bearing and nurturing,

Creating but not owning.

Giving without demanding.

Controlling without authority.

This is love.

When you move from self-rejection to self-acceptance,

This is the way.

When you move from blame to responsibility,

This is the way.

When you move from a consciousness of poverty to a consciousness of generosity,

This is the way.

Yes,

The Mandalorians also spoke of the way.

Lao Tzu tells us that we become one with the way or we enter the kingdom through trust,

Through learning to trust the nature of life and the nature within our own being.

Now,

All of these great spiritual teachers who teach the way at some level tell us that we have to loose ourselves from the materialism and the so-called common sense of the world,

That this is what traps us,

That we have to set ourselves free from it to discover that there's another way that isn't full of misery and struggle and death but whispers to us of the primordial,

Of eternality,

Of a greater way of being in the world.

Okay,

I don't like how I look in this outfit but I accept myself as I am.

Okay,

This person is being a toxic presence in my life but I am responsible for my joy and my happiness and I claim it right here and right now.

I know I'm broke but I have so much to give,

So much to give,

This is the way.

The Buddha also didn't call his teaching Buddhism.

He often referred to it as the way and he shared wakefulness is the way of life.

The fool sleeps as if he were already dead but the master is awake and he lives forever.

He watches,

He is clear.

How happy he is for he sees that wakefulness is life.

How happy he is following the path of the awakened.

With great perseverance he meditates,

Seeking freedom and happiness.

For Lao Tzu,

We become one with the way through trust.

The Buddha teaches us we become one with the way through being awakened,

From waking up,

From the misery and the suffering that can be when our consciousness only exists in the material world in that common sense.

Wake up,

The Buddha means awakened one,

Which doesn't mean spiritual superhero.

It just means wake up,

Be awake.

There's more than just what we see.

There's something within us that is so powerful it conquers even death.

That there is a wisdom and a light and a love that when we allow ourselves to be awake to it,

It awakens in us and it shows up in our lives in dynamic ways.

It's not about winning and losing.

It's not about one-upmanship.

It's not about struggle.

It's about love.

It's about being awake.

It's about playing the game.

Someone who I have a lot of respect for is a man named Red Klotz.

And Red Klotz was a player,

A coach,

And longtime general manager of the Washington Generals basketball team,

The losingest sports franchise of all time because they were only invented to lose on purpose to the Harlem Globe Trotters.

I think their record was three and 7,

000.

The wins were all by accident.

And Klotz shared that when they did win,

It was to the crowd like they had shot Santa Claus.

Everyone was so upset.

But he loved his life.

He loved playing the game.

It was never about winning or losing.

His children,

John and Jody,

Remembering him,

Said,

And Red,

He's had so many nicknames over the years.

You know,

The losingest coach,

The lovable loser,

And things like that.

But I never once ever heard him say,

Oh,

Woe is me.

And he accepted the fact that he wasn't the star.

He realized his place,

And I don't think enough of us do.

They would knock him down,

But he'd get back up,

And he just loved being a part of that.

He believed that laughter and bringing joy to people was important.

He didn't like losing games,

But he knew that there was a greater purpose to what they did every night.

And that was how he won.

For him,

That was winning.

What does it mean for you to win each day?

What does it mean to win each day?

For me,

It means that I go to bed at night knowing that I recognized and I lived the blessing of this life.

That I did not take for granted the people that I love,

And that I sought to bring forth the best of my character in all that I did.

The rest is all the human crap.

It doesn't matter in the end.

And when we learn to live in trust,

Like Lousa taught us,

When we learn to be as awake as we can,

To wake ourselves up whenever we need to,

We learn to live that grand life.

Jesus teaches us that the way to live at one with the way is to be reborn of the spirit.

Is to be reborn of the spirit.

Because this material world calls us to forget.

This is why I call myself not a born again Christian,

But a born again,

Again,

And again,

And again,

And again,

And again Christian.

Seeking to follow those teachings of Jesus that are so incredibly profound.

And Jesus teaches us that the kingdom of heaven,

This fruit of the way,

Is not a place,

It's a path.

It's a way of being.

It's something that we cannot earn through any material action.

It is something we earn by right of consciousness.

By right of consciousness.

He shares in the Gospel of Luke,

And when he was asked by the Pharisees,

When is the kingdom of God coming?

He answered them and said,

The kingdom does not come as something one observes,

Nor will a person say,

Look,

Here it is,

Or there it is.

For look,

The kingdom of God is within you.

To know that the light and grace of God is with you at all times,

How do you live differently?

To know that eternity is not a later state,

But something present in the here and now that we can ascertain,

And embody,

And reflect upon,

And express.

How do you live your life differently?

How do you live differently when you know that the kingdom of the infinite resides in the very depth of your being and the marrow of your bones?

Sometimes we just have to wake back up to it.

Sometimes we have to rebuild that trust.

Sometimes we have to be born again,

And again,

And again,

Because that world,

It causes us to fall back to sleep.

It causes us to forget.

Jesus shares a story about an owner of a vineyard who hires laborers to come and work in it,

Some early in the morning and then throughout the whole day.

And the vineyard is a metaphor for the kingdom of heaven,

Because you can work there,

And you can play there.

You can pick the grapes,

And you can drink the wine.

You can drink of the great,

Grand fruits.

And at the end of the day,

Everyone is lined up,

The people who started working last first,

Because that's how the kingdom of heaven operates.

The last always comes first,

Because we always dedicate ourselves to being servants to one another.

And they are all paid,

Symbolizing a return to the material world,

And the people at the back of the line get so angry,

Because they had been working so much longer.

And the owner of the vineyard says,

Did I not pay you what I said I would pay you?

Can I not pay people what I want?

We see this clashing of what happens when we shut ourselves out of the kingdom,

When we need to make someone else wrong,

When we wanna win,

When it's just all about adding to our material good.

God doesn't shut us out of the kingdom of heaven.

And we shut ourselves out of the kingdom of heaven.

We do not,

God does not reject us.

We reject ourselves from that consciousness that the kingdom of heaven offers us in all things.

Our founder,

Ernest Holmes,

Shared,

It is the father's good pleasure to give me the kingdom of heaven,

Or harmony and abundance.

Today,

He opens to me the blessings of his infinite and eternal treasure,

Inviting me to dip deeply into it.

As I believe in my heart,

So it is done unto me in all things.

As I ask,

So do I receive a full measure unto my faith,

Pressed down and running over.

It is a challenging thing to receive the kingdom.

It is a challenging thing to receive the love of spirit,

The love of God.

The reason why is that the kingdom cannot give itself in parcel,

In particle.

It can only give all of itself.

There's no such thing as,

I'm just gonna receive a little bit of God's love today.

You gotta take the whole enchilada.

That's what Holmes is saying.

All the good of the kingdom,

It's right there.

All the love in the universe,

It is right there.

It is an open door,

But you have to walk through it.

The challenging thing is loving ourselves enough.

Can I love myself enough to receive the love of spirit?

Which is what for Jesus meant spiritual rebirth.

Can I receive the love of God?

Am I open to receiving the whole blessing of the kingdom?

And when we learn to love ourselves enough,

Doesn't mean we don't mess up,

Doesn't mean we don't hold ourselves accountable.

It means I am love worthy.

I am life worthy.

I am worthy of the love of God.

And when we receive that,

It's transformational because we begin to see and hear and feel a world that we did not know was there before.

A greater,

More in-depth reality that speaks to us the language of the heart and of the spirit,

That lets us know there is not a thing I need do to be worthy of this presence other than to open myself up to its grace.

Entering the kingdom is loving ourselves enough to allow the love of God to become a real breathing,

Acting part of our consciousness and our lives.

Entering the kingdom is that ability to affirm and acknowledge God's perfect life is within me.

Within me is God's perfect life.

Will you affirm that with me?

God's perfect life is within me.

Within me is God's perfect life.

Does this mean life is perfect?

Hell no.

As you've heard me say before,

It can be a whole,

Complete,

Perfect mess.

But that's where the magic comes in.

Because even though life is messy and filled with challenges and dangers,

God's perfect life is within me,

No matter what,

Indestructible.

And this perfect life manifests itself for me as guidance,

As truth,

As love,

As the one thing I can hold on to when the whole of my life may feel like it's falling apart.

I watch the news,

I know many of you do too,

And we watch the news for information,

But I also watch the news to see where we're at in human consciousness.

You remember in Men in Black where they used to read the tabloids to find out where to find the aliens?

It's kind of like that.

It's looking at these news stories to say what they can tell us about where we're at in the evolution of human consciousness.

And the story that really struck me this year,

Perhaps more so than any other,

Is the story of a little penguin.

A penguin that's meant to be in Antarctica and finds himself 2,

000 miles off path,

Washed ashore on a hot Australian beach.

Look at that penguin.

So far from home,

No other penguins around.

In the heat when he longs for the cold.

I don't know about you,

But I sure do resonate with that penguin.

Do you resonate with that penguin?

I'm just a little penguin trying to find his way back to the cold.

When we acknowledge the difficulties of our lives,

It can actually allow us to open up to that understanding that even in danger and in difficulty,

God's perfect life is within me.

Martin Luther King Jr.

,

At the height of the Montgomery bus boycott that began when Rosa Parks refused to go to the back of the bus.

He was 26 years old,

I believe,

And he had to speak to the group every Monday night.

And the idea that segregation would be ended in Montgomery,

Alabama was,

At that time,

A far off pipe dream.

And so King knew at times that their mission might fail,

That all of these people who were choosing to walk every day instead of ride that bus might be forced to get back on those buses and go to the area in the bus where they knew in their hearts they did not belong in the back.

And on a particular Monday evening,

He wasn't feeling it and he spoke to the crowd and he did everything he superficially needed to get through it.

And there was a wise woman who was over there by the name of Sister Pollard.

And she called King over and she said,

What's wrong with you?

Why are you speaking like that?

Are you okay?

I'm all right,

Sister Pollard.

I'm all right.

Is it something the whites are doing to you?

Is it something that we are doing to you?

And she said to him,

Remember,

Even if we are not with you,

Remember,

Martin,

God is with you.

God is with you.

And King shared over and over through his incredible life journey that those words,

Not just the words,

But who they came from and the way she said them,

That all he needed to remember in his life was that God was with him.

And think of the extraordinary,

Courageous things he was able to do.

That same God that was with Martin Luther King Jr.

Is here in this audience today.

It's here in each and every one of you.

When we accept it,

We enter into the kingdom of heaven.

God's perfect life is within me.

Within me is God's perfect life.

Thank God.

Entering the kingdom is remembering the treasure that is within each and every one of us.

Jesus tells a brief but profound parable of a man who discovers a treasure buried in a field,

Goes out and sells everything he owns and buys that field.

It's a powerful metaphor for the kingdom of heaven because this isn't the kind of treasure you dig up.

This isn't the kind of treasure that gets you material goods.

This is the kind of treasure that we always want within us.

The great treasure is knowing the kingdom of heaven is within you.

The great treasure is knowing the love of God is within you.

The great treasure is living from the richness of that knowing and seeing the blessing of that knowing show up in the richness of your life.

Buddha also told a tale of a great treasure.

He shares,

A man buries a treasure in a deep pit,

Thinking it will be useful in time of need or if the king is displeased with me or if I am robbed or fall into debt or if food is scarce or bad luck befalls me.

But all this treasure may not profit the owner at all for he may forget where he has hidden it or goblins may steal it or his enemies or even his kinsmen may take it when he is careless.

But by charity,

Goodness,

Restraint and self-control,

Men and women alike store up a well-hidden treasure,

A treasure which cannot be given to others and which robbers cannot steal.

A wise person should do good.

That is the treasure which will not leave alone.

What a powerful message.

When we live from that treasure within us,

When we do good deeds,

When we are true to the truth of who we are,

When we treat others with dignity and respect,

That is the great treasure and that is the richness of life.

Lastly,

Jesus tells us that to enter the kingdom of heaven,

We must be like a child.

Now,

The disciples in Christian mythology become great men,

But in the gospels,

To say that they're hooking boobs is an understatement.

They lack faith.

They don't understand a thing Jesus is saying.

They're just following him around and they're asking questions like,

Who is the superior person in the kingdom of heaven?

And they want special access because they're friends with Jesus.

They wanna be exalted because they know him.

And Jesus is eternally kind of frustrated with this and this is how he responds to them.

He actually grabs a small child and says,

This kid is way wiser than any of you are.

He says,

Amen,

I tell you,

Unless you turn back and become as children,

You most certainly may not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

They therefore who will make themselves as a child,

This one is the superior person in the kingdom of heaven.

It's important to recognize that there's a big difference between being childlike and being childish.

It's a big difference between being childlike and childish.

To be childlike is to be filled with wonder.

It is to bask in the mystery of life and to never stop asking questions about it.

It is to seek fun and play and the joy of life in every day because no other day matters but this one right here and right now.

Childish is a very confusing word because as I'm sure it's true for most of you,

It applies much more to adults that we know than to any children.

To be childish is to be immature.

To be childish is to need to come first.

To be childish is to always cry when you don't get your way.

To be childish is to judge others and to see yourself as more important than anyone else.

In the same way that we sometimes can become childlike or childish,

We might say that there's a difference between a childlike spirituality and a childish spirituality.

It's the childish spirituality that says,

My way or you know what way.

It's the childish spirituality that fears opening up our minds to discovering what other great spiritual teachers and ideas there are in the universe.

It's the childish spirituality that says,

You have to go and follow my way that I have to win and be most important.

It's the childish spirituality that says,

Not God's universe but my version of the universe is the one that I live and everyone else should live there too.

What arrogance,

How sad,

How foolish.

A childlike spirituality embraces the wonder in all of life.

It's not so concerned with the answers but in living fully in the mystery with joy and openness.

Delighting in the questions and knowing an answer just means an opportunity to ask a new question.

It means embracing the mystery and living fully for this here now moment.

Recognizing the kingdom of heaven is not a promise of a future state.

It is a path and right of consciousness that is available to each and every one of us right here and right now.

The door of heaven is open if we will walk through it by walking through our own inner knowing and depth.

How do we follow the way?

We learn to build trust.

Trust in ourselves and in the nature of this beautiful world and of the universe.

We learn to trust that it knows what it's doing and if we can align with it,

We may not know what we're doing but something in us does,

Our inner nature.

To live at one with the way is to be awake and to remind yourself every time you fall asleep,

Wake up,

Wake up.

There is more to this life than I see in this moment.

There is more to this life than I am telling myself is here.

I embrace it,

I am alive.

We live one with the way when we allow ourself to be reborn of the spirit which is when we realize that yes,

I too am worthy of God's love,

That I too am worthy of the love of spirit and when we let it in,

It can transform our lives and relationships in incredible ways.

We enter the kingdom by accepting God's love,

By recognizing God's perfect life is within us,

By being aware that the greatest treasure there is is being aware of this treasure within us and living from it and by embracing a childlike spirituality that allows us to live with this mystery and experience its beautiful grace in all things and in all places,

Especially in this incredible and amazing right here and right now.

So moving into prayer this morning,

Invite any of our beautiful prayer practitioners to stand in prayer today.

They are available for prayer after service.

And just affirming and knowing that the great gift of life is always giving of itself and what is prayer but the receiving of that gift.

What is that gift for each of our hearts that we are called to receive today?

We don't have to give it a name,

We know how it feels.

It is the light of a spiritual grace.

It is the healing power of a profound love.

It is the reassurance that we don't have to know what is happening or what direction we are going but that God is with us right here and right now.

It is the gift of life itself.

It is the miracle that you are a part of this life.

Yes,

I am a part of the miracle of life.

It's time I started acting like it.

It's time to receive this miracle,

To embody it and to realize that the devil miracle that realizes when we do this good for ourselves and makes us a blessing for others as well.

If we have not received this gift,

Maybe at least commit to keep our heart and our mind open.

Let the divine speak to us through this day and in the days ahead of its truth,

Of its grace,

Of its purpose,

Knowing that each of us bring it forth in our own unique and glorious ways.

We allow this to be,

We allow it to become and so it is,

Amen.