Click HERE to view Rev. Stacy Macris Ros’ guided meditation during the service.
This church is my spiritual home and has been for a long time. And so, it’s always a pleasure to be able to speak to you, pray with you. Whatever the occasion — whatever’s going on — I’m glad to be here for each one of you.
So: identity theft. Ever had a problem with identity theft? Not something that we want to think about. I think probably in this day and age we’re a lot more careful about the things that have to do with our identity than we’ve ever been before, because there are so many scam artists out there; so many people that would love to tap into what we have; to rob us of what we have. So, identity theft is a pretty serious thing.
There’s other ways of losing your identity. We don’t really think about other ways, I don’t think, too much. But one of them is the self-talk that we have. We forget who we are. Do you know who you are? If I were to ask you, “Who are you?”, what would you say? You may talk about your name, your family, your children, your job … all those kinds of things. And that’s where your identity comes from so many — my identity! — so many times.
I was very proud to be a registered nurse and do a lot of hospice work. And so, sure; I let people know that. That was my identity! And then I took on this new role. [Congregants laugh]That’s where I met Kim O’Connor. She was a year ahead of me at Unity School. And yeah, a new identity.
You know, my husband was with me at the time at school and he says, “Sandra” — that is my given name, by the way – “Sandra, you’re the only one that thinks you don’t belong here.” Because I was so scared! I thought people were surely going to find out that I didn’t belong here. And I’m very grateful that I stuck it out … because I know who I am. You know, I belong here.
Teilhard de Chardin … I’ll probably… I don’t know. I’ll try to say his name without messing that up too badly. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. I heard it in school, and then I I never said it again until now. Anyways, he said, “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.” And we forget that. We forget that!
You know, we label ourselves a certain way. We’re like someone with amnesia who’s trying to remember who we are. And it doesn’t come easily. Sometimes the outer voices are so strong that it’s hard to remember who we are.
And guess what? Spirit hasn’t moved. We may think we’re all alone and God’s forgotten us, but the truth is, God is always right here, right now — one Power, one Presence: God — in our lives. The first Unity principle.
And the next one is I AM. I AM God. I AM God! I AM Spirit. I AM a beloved child of God. That’s who we are!
Now, we’re not the only ones that have problems with identity theft. I’m sure you probably think it was all in this day and age, right? Well, it’s kind of my job, I think, to let you know more about the Bible than a lot of people talk about. Yes, I know Paul and Jesus and Peter and all of them. But one of my favorite things to do is to bring you Scripture that you probably haven’t heard a lot. So, I’m going to tell you about this family that got together – well, actually, the mother and son got together — and they decided that they were going to rob the older son of his identity.
Now, you may have heard of Abraham. And he and his wife had a son named Isaac. I’m just freshening up the details here a little bit. And then Isaac had two sons, Esau …
Oh gosh. [Laughs] You don’t know? You’ve got to help me! All right. I’ve got to look. Sorry! Esau. I’ll know it as soon as I look at it. Jacob. Right? Yeah. Jacob.
Anyway, so Isaac’s getting ready to die. You know, they’ve been around for a long time. And those days they lived hundreds of years. And he’s about at the 299th or whatever … I’m not sure about that. You can fact check me later. But you know, Isaac’s getting ready to die. And Rebecca — the mother of the two boys — wants to make sure that her favorite son gets the blessing.
Now in those days, the older son — the older child. I’m sorry, it is all about the men in this. [Congregants laugh] But she wanted to make sure her favored son got the blessing.
So, Esau was a hunter. And he went out, and he was going to get the best piece of meat. He was going for venison, and he was going to get his father the best food that there ever was as he’s dying. He wanted to make sure, because he knew that he was going to get the blessing. So, he was out hunting.
And Rebecca’s like, “Come on, Jacob, we’re going to figure this out.” She says, “You’re going to go in and you’re going to take this savory meal into your dad, and he will think — you will tell him — that you are Esau.”
And he’s like, “If he finds that out, I’m going to be out of here.”
And she says, “Don’t worry.”
And he says, “But I’m not a hairy guy like he is.” [Congregants laugh]
She says, “Don’t worry. We’ll fix it.”
So, she dresses him up in one of Esau’s outfits. I was going to say dresses, but robes … whatever you want to call those things they wore in those days. She makes him wear one of Esau’s outfits. And then they take some skins, you know, that had hair — you know, had fur — and places them on his hands and on his arms so that, if Isaac decides he wants to love on his son, that he’ll think that that’s Esau.
So, she prepares the food. He’s all ready. And he takes the bowl in with this food. And you could just [Inhales deeply and sighs] you know, meat and bread! And they weren’t vegetarian, sorry. But she takes his food into him. I mean, he does. Sorry, I’m getting my …
Anyway, he takes the food into Isaac. And Isaac says, “Who are you?”
And he says, “Well, I’m Esau.” Hmm; voice is a little bit different. “Oh, you’re Esau?” He’s like, “Oh, yeah, you’re the hairy one. You’ve got to be him, right?”
And so, what happens is that Isaac gives his blessing — that he normally would have given to Esau — he gives it to Jacob, the second son.
And off Jacob goes, and here comes Esau. He’s fixed this meat. He’s fixed this flavorful meal for his dad,. And he comes in and offers it to him.
And Isaac says, “Well, who are you? What’s this?” He says, “I’m Esau! I’m your oldest son!”
He says, “Well, who is the other guy that I already gave the blessing to?”
So see; things happened in Scripture — or at least it’s a good story — that helps us to know and to be able to look at and think about our own lives. Are there areas — are there areas – where we’ve gone for the blessing that should have been somebody else in the family’s? Or has somebody else taken our blessing?
And what do we do with that? What do we do with that, when we find that our identity has been taken away from us?
I said I was a nurse. I used to work up on in Winslow. You know … standing on the corner? All that. Everybody knows the song. I didn’t learn it until after I moved away from there.
But I used to work for the Indian Health Service when I was up there. And I worked in a clinic, but we also had urgent care where they would bring in people that had problems that needed to be seen right away.
Well, this girl comes in; they’ve got her on a gurney, and she was restrained. She had overdosed on alcohol or drugs, I don’t remember. But she’s on this gurney, and she looks up at me and she says, “You white woman!”
I know! It’s true! I am a white woman, but the way she said it, it had nothing to do with being a compliment, believe me.
So, see, other people can try to rob us of our identity. And the truth is: it takes time. It takes time to remember who we are. It takes time to get quiet and to listen … to listen. And that’s what meditation is about: taking time just to get quiet, to remove ourselves from the distractions of life.
I know it’s hard. You’ve got to turn off the TV. You’ve got to just find a quiet place where you can just sit. I happen to do a meditation most days that is journaling. I play music that affects the way that your brainwaves are working. And I journal.
And mine is a gratitude journal. I write three pages of what I’m grateful for, including this congregation and my co-workers. But taking time just to be still, close your eyes, and feel the presence of God. Feel and smell the beautiful flowers that we have now in the springtime. All the creation that we’ve been given helps us to remember who we are: beautiful children of God. That we can re-remember.
Because sometimes, it’s just hard. Sometimes in those ups and downs of life we forget who we are. Or at least I do! Maybe you don’t, but I do!
Yeah, to remember who we are.
A Unity author that I really like … In fact, I found her book on one of my first trips back to Unity when I was doing education classes so that I would begin to get ready to go to ministerial school. We had all these requisites we need to take. One of the books that I found — that I thought — it was old. Actually, if you look at it, I guess that it is!
But anyway, I found this book called What Are You? What Are You? It was written the year that my mother was born, so it’s not published yesterday by any means – 1929. And in there — her name is Imelda Shanklin — she was asking people questions: “What are you? What are you?”
Of course, they would answer. “Well, I’m an electrician.” “I’m a doctor.” Whatever. But she’d say, “What are you?”
Few answered that: “I am a spiritual being. I am a spiritual being. That I am loved by God. I know who I am. I’m a child of God. That I have all the wisdom that I need. That I am led, guided and directed by the Spirit of God.”
And I want you to know: the more that you do that meditation I was talking about, the more often you will hear that guidance.
When I volunteered … You know, I kind of threw Richard out today because he was running a fever. I said, “You need to take care of yourself!”, you know.
And afterwards, I’m like, “Did I just volunteer to do a talk I haven’t prepared for?” Oh well; so, you got me.
But he had given the title for “Divine Identity.” And as I started walking around, inspiration kept coming to me about what I could do. The first were the verses from Genesis that I talked about: Isaac and Esau and Jacob. And then I remembered, What Are You? by Imelda Shanklin. I invite you to go up to the library. We have about four copies of the book. And, yes; it doesn’t say anything about “she” in there, so you’ve got to get over that part. It’s about … It’s “he” …
[Reads from book]:
“Spiritually, what are you? You are a soul that has forgotten its divine identity; a soul now struggling to remember — in the mists of time and in the confusion of experiences — that you are the living son of the living God.
Spiritually, you are an idea in the mind of God. That idea must be given expression in you.
You are the Son of God, but not always have you acted the part.”
I can agree with that! Sue even knows that about me! [Laughs] My co-workers do. Anyway, we’re all on that same page.
[Continues reading]:
“Spiritually you are an idea in the Mind of God. That idea must be given expression in you. You are the son of God, but not always have you acted the part. If you will live in as full accordance with your divine nature as your present state of preparation makes possible, you will be made aware of your true identity.”
The time that we spend in the quiet, listening.
And when those voices inside tell you you’re not enough something’s wrong with you; whatever it might be telling you, you can say, “No; I am a child of God. I am a divine being. I am worthy.”
[Continues reading]:
“As the victim of amnesia — a person with amnesia — persists in recalling personal identity, so you must persist in recalling spiritual identity. While you pray, read, meditate, practice spiritual truth, a flicker, then a beam, then the full light of restored consciousness will dawn, and you will know yourself.”
So, it’s through action. It doesn’t just come with a bolt of lightning … that I’ve found anyway. It takes meditation. It takes reading spiritual truth. It takes those affirmations like the one that we that we started the service with: “I reclaim my divine identity. No role, label or lie can define me.”
I claim my divine identity. No role, label or lie can define me.
I invite you this week, in the days to come, when you hear those voices inside saying, “I don’t know who you think you are,” just remember: I am a divine. I am divine. I reclaim my divine identity. No role, label or lie can define me — redefine me.
Thanks for being here. Thanks for listening!