Guest Preacher - Robert O’Brien – January 20, 2018

Intro – This is the second time I have had the opportunity to stand behind a Presbyterian Church pulpit.

The first occurred in 1958 at Westover, Mass. when I was in the U.S. Airforce.

On the base we had a Christian group that met each Friday night. Local churches were invited to spend an event with us for familiarization and fellowship.

At one event, the collage group from a local Presbyterian church met with us. A cute young lady caught my eye who subsequently asked me to attend church with her.

She had told the Pastor that I had recently accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior. He in turn asked if I would share my experience from the pulpit.
I showed up at the Sunday indicated, stepped into the pulpit and found that the edge of the pulpit at my eye-brow. Could not see over.

Asking myself, “now what”, when I felt a nudge on my leg from the Pastor, looked down to find a plastic milk carton. Stood up on it and the pulpit came to chest height. Good to see Knox Presbyterian is mindful and has made preparations for short speakers.

What does it mean when a person says, “I accept Jesus Christ as my Savior and Lord? The bible clearly points out each step for us. First, it is realizing what God has to offer through his Son, i.e., saving (rescuing) me from the humanistic negative values and pitfalls that leads me into personal & emotional bankruptcy. Thus enabling me to fellowship directly with God.

Secondly, Once feeling the security of what I experienced in what Christ can offer, I am then advised by Scripture to make God the Lord of my life, i.e., offer up my life to His guidance.
(Rom. 12:1-2) I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

So, the step stones after the event of accepting Christ as our Savior and Lord in making Him our Lord is starting the process of “transforming and renewing our mind”.

The process in my thinking. (Matt. 22:37) Jesus said to them “You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, and with all of your soul and with all of your mind. And you shall love your neighbour as you love yourself”

All of your heart, = total commitment (synonymous with Christ’s commitment on the cross.)

All of your soul, = total self Ephesians 4:2-3 (Love) With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

All of your mind, = We love God with our minds by focusing on Him (A type of therapy treatment a psychotherapist calls “Mindfulness”, i.e., being intentionally mindful in my thinking, i.e. reflecting on my inner nature. (Process called “renew your mind” (Rom. 12) revert from humanistic thinking to Godly thinking.

Most authors interpret the Greek word Agape in (Matt 22) as “loving God, others and self unconditionally”.

I submit that the word “unconditional” says absolutely nothing to the minds of the 20th century individual. It is an ambivalent term that many in modern thinking interprets as a self-serving or selfish perspective.

Let’s look at another more distinctive interpretation of the word love from the Hebrew in the Old Testament, the foretelling or prophecy of the coming of Christ in the New Testament.
The word “love” which is thrown about so freely in English, (I love my dog, I love my car, I love God) has a specific meaning in Hebrew.

Love in Hebrew is “Aha”, “to give” and “va” “to love”. Thus in Hebrew the Old Testament informs us “to give love”.

Looking at Matthew 5:17, the Lord Jesus says. “Do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill the law”

Eph. 5:14, Tells us “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself”

My sense of Spirituality and Psychotherapy is the process of inner awakening and becoming (Mindfully) conscious of my inner self.

It means the rising of my consciousness beyond my ordinary existence, and awakening to the truth of who I am as a unique creation of God.

It means going beyond the mind, the ego and realizing who I really am as a unique creation of God and connecting with the God of my creation.

It is the exciting discovery of my unique self. A creation that has never before existed and shall not again.
Imagen, each of us is one of a kind with no earthly format to follow except to seek out our individual authentic self. To discover what God has intended for us as his uniquely created individual. We can only experience that discovery by attending to God, the architect of our existence and and listening to our inner unique self.
Returning to “love God, love neighbor, and love self”. I see scripture as informing me that I need to get “my act” together first if I am ever going to serve God and neighbor…..

Reviewing Matt 22:37, I submit that a clearer understanding of “Agape” (love) Matt 22:37, and merging it with the Hebrew “Ahava” might read;

“Fulfill the needs of the lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your mind and with all of your spirit, and fulfill the needs of your neighbor as you fulfill the needs of self.”

In the on-going process of making God “my lord”, I need to “transform my mind”, i.e., renew my thinking, my perspectives, and my commitments –

I need to mindfully focus on getting and maintaining my unique inner self and life up to the specifications outlined on the Architect’s (God’s) drawing board, if I am to grow and flourish as a lover of Christ and becoming a loving, compassionate human being.

Looking at 2 Cor 5:37

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come”
1 Corinthians 13:1-13

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am but a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful”

How does what I have been describing pan out for a psychotherapist helping his client to motivate the development of a healthy, authentic and Spiritually healthy body, mind, heart and soul?

To begin with, the therapist assists the client to become aware of and clean out the unhealthiest parts of him/herself – i.e., the parts that blame, criticize, judge, resent, envy, hate others, hate themselves and in other words, hate the Universe.

How can I tell when my mind is generating unhealthy thinking generated by unhealthy feelings?

Most clues are often negative, shame full, guilty feelings I described along with feeling unworthy and unlovable.

When a therapist hears a negative narrative from a client, he is reminded of “the negative loop”, i.e., a vicious intrapsychic cycle of negative thoughts – indicates that the client is trapped into thinking and feeling negative.

They consider themselves as unworthy. Unworthy of God’s love, unworthy of the love of others and most importantly not worthy of loving themselves.

As I ponder on Matt 22, it often means that my client is in a “negative loop”, i.e., denigrating themselves related to some trauma of the past or present.

A solution to fulfilling Matt. 22 can be found in two words “self-compassion”. The degree to which I am self-compassionate will determine the degree of being able to be compassionate with self, my neighbor and God.

Recent research into psychophysiological studies, i.e., the interplay of mind, body and feelings reveals that my not being self-compassionate and fulfillment of my needs can lead to all kinds of physical maladies.

In their recent research published in the book “Hidden From View”, 2018 Medical Dr’s, Abbass and Schiubiner describe “Psychophysiological dysfunctions as
“medically unexplained symptoms”. Here is an excerpt of their research.

Read excerpt (p. 4) – Patients likely require therapy that first builds capacities to recognize feelings and understand the links between feelings and symptoms.

While engaged as the Teaching Chaplain in Owen Sound Hospital, I began visiting with an 80 yr. old woman who had a life time history of Psychiatric admissions to the psychiatric ward two or three times a year.

Just starting an initial chat with this patient tested my emotional mantel. It took about five visits before this lady started responding in a comprehensive manner. She kept talking about some horrible experience she had at the age of 12.

It turns out that she had been raped in her family’s barn. Back then that event was not even discussed with parents. Classically, it becomes so shameful that the victim blames herself and buries the incident often time for all of their life. Certainly true of this patient.

Our discussions lead to forgiving herself for accepting responsibility which was clearly not her fault. We then prayed for cleansing and forgiveness for treating a child of God (herself) in such a manner.

One could observe the tension washing away from her face. In the remaining 8 years I served as Chaplain, that patient was never admitted again.

She had learned to be self-compassionate. Fulfilling her needs with forgiveness and self-compassion through the Spirit of God.

So where does all this lead us? I would submit that becoming “mindfully focused” on our inner needs, will enable us to become compassionate to the degree that our Lord revealed to us on the Cross. The compassion of Matt. 22, Agape. ”fulfill the needs of the Lord your God, fulfill the needs of your neighbor as you fulfill the needs of yourself.

How can we possibly love God or our neighbor as compassionately as our Lord if we have not developed the capacity to love ourselves?
If a person comes to my house hungry asking for a can of soup and my cupboard is empty? What do I have to give?

Pause================

What do you need to fulfil your uniqueness and self-compassion for self, others and God?

Let us pray together!

Our heavenly Father, give us the wisdom and the mindfulness we need to “transform our minds” so that each of us may start the journey of fulfilling your need for us to become the unique individual you created us to be.

Enable us to be as compassionate and mind full as our Lord Jesus Christ who you intentionally created to fulfill our need to be saved from ourselves, join with you in Spirit and start on the journey to become the uniquely created individual you planned for us to be. In Christ’s name – amen.