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| Sample Sunday Message |
The Scales of Justice
For as long as I can remember…I have been confused about
the whole business of justice. Even at a young age...I was openly
against capital punishment...believing that an eye for an eye
could not have ever been how we were meant to live. Being a
child...though...was told that people needed to be punished so
that justice would be served…in other words…when you did
something bad…you needed to pay for it…end of subject!
In the housing project where we grew up…you would see
kids smacking other kids…and the next thing you know the Mom
would come flying out the door…with what I guess was her sense
of justice…a smack upside the offending kid’s head. If I had
known the word hypocritical…that’s probably what I would have
called it…because even in my young mind…smacking a kid…for
hitting another kid…just didn’t make sense…because I already
believed that two wrongs could never make a right.
The dictionary gives this definition for justice………fairness
or reasonableness…especially in the way people are treated or
decisions are made…. Fairness…reasonableness…in the
case of the kids hitting each other…Mom’s sense of
reasonableness was a lot different than mine. And so when it
comes to justice…who should get to decide the punishment?
I am sad to say that in my point of view…it is the stronger
…the more dominant…the more influential…who tip the scales of
justice to their side. In the case of children…it is the parents…in
the case of what we would call criminals…it is the penal system.
Justice is always doled out by those…who hold the power.
But some might say…that the bad need to be punished.
Those who kill…need to be killed…those who commit a crime
need to be incarcerated…and violent children need to be taught
a lesson…….. But with my 12 year old mind…I would have to
ask…how’s that been working out for us?……………..
Capital punishment has not been a deterrent to murder…jail
sentences have not stopped assault…burglary…or rape…and
kids on the playground are still beating the daylights out of each
other. Such is the way of justice in the world of bodies and
form……….
I present today…another way of looking at the scales of
justice…a way in which the scales are completely balanced…a
place where no one has the power…and no one lives in fear. It
may be a concept that you have heard before…perhaps you
cherish it yourself…or maybe this will be the first time that anyone
has ever presented this thought to you.
Whatever you feel…it is as it is meant to be for you. I will
never tell you that you must think the way I think. I merely ask you
to listen…contemplate…and then what works for you…
keep…and what doesn’t…let go. I speak of the concept of
justice through the spiritual text…A Course in Miracles.
The Course defines justice as the divine correction for the
injustice we see in this illusory world……. It tells that injustice is
the basis for all the judgments of the world…and that justice
corrects the interpretations to which injustice gives rise…and
cancels them out.
In other words…it is not the acts that a body commits that is
unjust…but rather it is our perception of those people and
situations that is unjustified. All our perceptions of our
brothers…and of ourselves as a matter of fact…all fears of the
future and all concerns of the past…stem from lens of these
eyes. Here…sins are perceived…judged…and justified by
careful selectivity… ultimately shattering the oneness that the
Course calls…the Sons of God.
Justice does live in the hearts of all people…but it is not the
type of justice that we seek in a human world with a human body.
Justice can be a time and space where all else fades away…
except our compassionate loving heart…which is of God.
God sits not in heaven…on his throne judging who is just…
and who is not. God sits in the hearts of each sons…quietly
reminding us that justice is of Him. And the justice that He
serves to each of us…is not with lightning bolts and thunder…but
rather in the gentleness of peace.
Listen the words which were given to me in the quiet of my
meditation this week…
Peace…equals justice…for if there is not peace…then
justice has not been served. Be not blinded by the sights and
sounds of the world around you. Be not drawn into the fearful
place that is human justice.
In truth…human justice cannot exist…for justice is of Spirit
and Spirit alone. Be not tempted to jump to the lofty place of
judgment…thinking that the God within you allows this judgment.
Human justice is of the ego…and what is of the ego…is not of
God………………………………..
Know this…God is justice! And justice is peace….and only
in peace…will justice be served. An eye for an eye leaves no
one in peace……. It only leaves us blinded….. In the anger and
fear and retaliation…the justice of God…which is our truth…is
quietly…and sometimes… not so quietly…replaced by the
justice of the human condition.
What can it be but arrogance to think that a mistake made
here…in our self-made illusion…cannot be undone by Heaven’s
justice? And what could this mean…except that in our own
minds…these sins…remain forever uncorrectable… deserving
of punishment rather than true justice?
Are we willing to be released from all the effects of injustice?
If we answer yes…then it means that we are ready to forego all
the values of this world in favor of the peace of Heaven………..
Not one judgment would we choose to retain……… It would
mean that we would acknowledge that the truth of Heaven has
more value than our world of illusion……….. And so I ask
again…Are you willing to be released from all the effects of
injustice?
The miracle of justice can undo all errors…because every
problem is nothing more than an error in thinking. The Holy
Spirit…who is the communication device between the Father
and his creations…will undo all our errors in thinking…if we only
ask. The Holy Spirit does not use perception when handing out
justice… He uses the knowledge that is of God Himself. He
does not evaluate our errors or injustices…as great or small…or
more or less. He sees them merely as mistakes from which the
Son of God is needlessly suffering. He does not pause to judge
whether the hurt is large or little. And so He takes the thorns and
the nails away……. He but makes one judgment…and in His
judgment we are restored to the wholeness with which we were
created.
And we can be certain any answer to a problem the Holy
Spirit solves will always be one in which no one loses. An
answer which demands even the slightest loss to anyone has not
solved the problem…but has added to it and made it
greater…harder to solve…and more unfair.
But how do we move beyond the bodily thoughts of fear…
sin…and injustice? There is only one answer to this and any
other question that our ego would ask us….
We ask the Holy Spirit to help us see with the eyes of our
own innocence! Innocence………for what God has created
was…is…and always will be…innocence…no matter what the
body has done. When we can let go of the perception that these
(point to eyes) eyes give us…the sight of innocence makes
punishment impossible…and justice sure.
If we see our brothers as deserving of punishment…by this
thought…we bind ourselves to them in the concept of sin and
harm…and loss. For what we give out to another…is what we
believe that we deserve for ourselves.
When we believe that another is in need of punishment…
what we are allowing the ego to tell us is…it’s the other guy’s
fault…it’s not us…we’re fine………. As long as we can see that
what our brother has done is worse than our own errors…then in
a weird… whacked out way…we’re okay! But in this seemingly
sound way of protecting ourselves…we shatter the Oneness like
a crystal glass hitting a tile floor…for in knowing that we have
condemned a brother…somewhere hidden within us…we know
also that we have condemned ourselves. And in that one
judgment so have we lost our peace…for peace cannot live
where judgment abides.
But when we can step back from the horrors of all the errors
made in our world…when we can summon the courage to call
upon the Holy Spirit for His take on things…then the gift to us is
true justice. It restores to our awareness the wholeness of all
those fragments we perceive as broken off and separate. In the
twinkling of an eye…all injustice can be erased…for it did not
exist. We can wipe the slate clean with the eraser of true
understanding and true love…leaving us nothing but…true peace.
Forgiveness… is this world’s equivalent of Heaven’s justice.
It translates this world of errors into a simple world…where
justice can be reflected from beyond the gate of Heaven. And
what has been forgiven must join…for nothing stands between
them separate and apart.
The holy place on which we stand is but the space where our
human justice has left. And here we see the face of Christ…
arising in its place. The holiest of altars is set where once sin
was believed to be. It is here that the peace of God’s justice will
rise into our own knowledge. It is here that we will feel the
boundless … limitless love that is our innate spirit.
Forgiveness brings no little miracles to lay before the gate of
Heaven. Here the Son of God Himself comes to receive each
gift that brings him nearer to his home. No one is lost…and none
is cherished more than any other. Each reminds him of his
Father’s love as surely as the rest. None is more special in the
Father’s eyes. It is only our tiny thoughts of human justice and
injustice that stands between us and our brother still…it is all that
is standing between us and a world of peace.
To touch on next week’s topic…Forgiveness will thus
become the means by which we learn that there is nothing to
forgive…for forgiveness always rests upon the one who offers
it…until he sees himself as needing it no more.
Peace…equals justice…for if there is not peace…then
justice has not been served. Be not blinded by the sights and
sounds of the world around you. Be not drawn into the fearful
place that is human justice.
Call upon the Holy Spirit…forgive…and then stand back and
watch the peace rise within your heart. It is then that justice has
been served!
Sample Sunday Message
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