The First Agreement November 23, 2008

“Be Impeccable with Your Word”

1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Word was with God in the beginning.

Through God all things were made; without God nothing was made.
In God was life, and that life was the light of creation.
The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has never understood it. (John 1)

2. Aboriginal creation
When the earth was new-born, it was plain and without any features or life. Waking time and sleeping time were the same. There were hollows on the surface of the Earth which would become waterholes. Around the waterholes were the ingredients of life.

Underneath the crust of the earth were the stars and sky, the sun and moon, all the forms of life, all sleeping. The tiniest details of life were present yet dormant: the head feathers of a cockatoo, the thump of a kangaroo's tail, the gleam of an insect's wing.

A time came when time itself split apart, and sleeping time separated from waking time. This moment was called the Dreamtime. At this moment everything started to burst into life.

The sun rose through the surface of the Earth and shone warm rays onto the hollows which became waterholes. Under each waterhole lay an Ancestor, an ancient man or woman who had been asleep through the ages. The sun filled the bodies of each Ancestor with light and life, and the Ancestors began to give birth to children. Their children were all the living things of the world, from the tiniest grub wriggling on a eucalyptus leaf to the broad-winged eagle soaring in the blue sky.

Rising from the waterholes, the Ancestors stood up with mud falling from their bodies. As the mud slipped away, the sun opened their eyelids and they saw the creatures they had made from their own bodies. Each Ancestor gazed at his creation in pride and wonderment. Each Ancestor sang out with joy: "I am!". One Ancestor sang "I am kangaroo!" Another sang "I am Cockatoo!" The next sang "I am Honey-Ant!" and the next sang "I am Lizard!"

As they sang, naming their own creations, they began to walk. Their footsteps and their music became one, calling all living things into being and weaving them into life with song. The ancestors sang their way all around the world. They sang the rivers to the valleys and the sand into dunes, the trees into leaf and the mountains to rise above the plain. As they walked they left a trail of music.

Then they were exhausted. They had shown all living things how to live, and they returned into the Earth itself to sleep. And, in honour of their Ancestors, the Aborigines still go Walkabout, retracing the steps and singing the songs that tell the story of life.

Native American
Earthmaker began to think about what should be done; in the end Earthmaker began to cry, tears flowing and falling to where they became bright objects, seas formed from tears.

Earthmaker thought, 'Anything I wish will happen just as I wish it'.

Earthmaker wished for light - it happened. Earthmaker wished for earth; earth was formed.

Speaking for the first time, Earthmaker said 'I shall make a being like myself' , took some earth and made it into a being.

Earthmaker spoke to the creature, but it gave no answer. Earthmaker looked closely, saw it had no mind and made a mind for it. But still it did not answer.

Earthmaker gave it a tongue and spoke to it, but still it did not answer.

Earthmaker saw it had no soul, so made it a soul, and talked to it ... and it very nearly said something, but failed to make itself understood.

So Earthmaker breathed into its mouth and spoke to it ... and it answered.

3. Who are we? Agreements we make in our lifetime, how that comes about. Challenging ourselves to change.

Being in a congregation is more than just showing up on Sunday morning and hearing what we want to hear, feeling at home and comfortable. Being in a congregation, if it is going to be a spiritually nurturing congregation, means we have to be with each other in honesty and respect. Being in a congregation means challenging ourselves to change, to adapt, to be more than we are. But the beginning of that is looking at those little agreements we make with ourselves - our behaviours, fears, concerns, relationships to others around us.

4. In the science fiction stories by Frank Herbert, about a desert planet known as Dune, a young nobleman named Leto Atreides becomes the world’s first super being. Leto learns in the course of his developing power, that he is able to kill with a word. He uses knowledge of word and power to train his followers.

5. Words are a double-edged sword, aren’t they? They can be used to hurt or heal, gossip, speculate, even tear others - or ourselves - down.

Look at example of Jesus - how he used words, to construct - not deconstruct......that doesn’t mean he didn’t call things clearly - but it was never with the intent of putting down or getting revenge, or bending everyone to his will. Jesus only planted seed - and allowed it to grow, or not.

Hebrews 4:12 tells us that “the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”

So there are two things in this chapter, I think - how we use our word against ourselves, first of all - because that is where everything starts. How do we take ourselves down, or build ourselves up, with our words against ourselves.

Ruiz says that for years in our lives we receive the gossip from the words of others, but also the way we use words with ourselves. We are constantly in dialogue with ourselves - we are too fat, ugly, getting old, stupid, never going to be good enough - and on and on. We need to understand what the word IS and what the word DOES. Once you begin to be impeccable with your word, you see the changes which can happen.- changes first in the way you deal with yourself, and changes with how you deal with others.

How many times have you gossiped about someone, or made assumptions about someone and circulated rumours - out of your own anxiety and fear? How many times have you hooked other people’s attention and spread poison about someone in order to make your opinion right? But your opinion is nothing more than your point of view, in the midst of many points of view. Your opinion is not necessarily true, because it comes from your assumptions, beliefs, fears, and ego. Yet within the community we create poison against others just so we can justify our opinion.

One of the tasks for Glen Ayr in this coming year is to begin to examine who we are, and what God is calling us to be. Not what we want to be - but engaging in a process of discernment to find out what God wants us to be.

For us to survive on the spiritual path, there are many challenges to face, and there is much to learn. We have to discover how to deal with obstacles and difficulties; how to process doubts and see through wrong views; how to inspire ourselves when we least feel like it; how to understand ourselves and our moods; how really to work with and integrate the teachings and practices; how to evoke compassion and enact it in life; and how to transform our emotions.

On the spiritual path, all of us need the support and the good foundation that come from really knowing the teachings, and this cannot be stressed strongly enough. For the more we study and practice, the more we embody discernment, clarity, and insight.

It seems to me that this is what Jesus was teaching as well.

From this one agreement you can attain the realm of heaven.



Questions:
Did this sermon raise any questions for you?
What do you really mean when you say you love God?
How do you love yourself?
What are the stories you tell yourself, which may hold you back?
How can you change this?