Click HERE to view Rev. Rogers’ guided meditation during the service.
How many of you think you have good DNA? How many of you think you have the best DNA?
My dad was adopted. And I didn’t ever know that he was adopted until I was in my 30s. And we went to visit my grandmother. And she was in a nursing home, and she wasn’t happy about being in a nursing home. And so, we went to visit her. And she really laid it on my dad. My dad felt bad about her being there. And, you know, we’re talking about it; we’re walking out of the place.
And I said, “Dad, you know, you were a great son. You were a great son to both your parents.”
And he turned to me, and he just started crying. And he said, “They’re not my parents. I was adopted.”
And, like, I never knew! Nobody knew! He never talked about it. My mom knew, but she never talked about it. Nobody ever talked about it. My dad was adopted, and he carried the pain of that. He found out that he was adopted, I later learned, in his early teens when his cousins were teasing him that he was adopted. They were all teasing each other about being adopted, and he went home to his parents and said, “Am I adopted?” And they said, “Yes.” Blew him away. And he carried that shame of being adopted.
And, you know, when my brother and I found out we were adopted, my sister and I found out we were adopted, it was like, “Well, this is mom’s side of the family. Now we have no idea about dad’s side of the family. I think we’re in trouble, kids!” Right? And it was this idea that we had no idea, right? This idea … Because when you go through school, you learn about the importance of DNA and how that goes. And it’s like: “Who are we, and where did we come from?”
My dad, a few years after both my grandparents had passed, got a letter from his favorite aunt saying that she was his biological mother, and that she made a deal with his parents that she would never tell him. So, she carried that her whole life. As time went on, we learned more the story about a man coming to town during the early Depression, and my aunt fell in love. And he went back to Canada, supposedly to sell everything and come back to Southern California and started a life together. And he never came back.
And it was part of the family story that was just never talked about. It was never a part of the experience. It was unspoken. And there was always this unspoken — there was always this hidden shame — because you didn’t know. And it was years later that we started putting some of these pieces together and just seeing what happened. And, you know, in hindsight — for me anyway — it was kind of like: my brother and I just made up a story about where our family looked like on that side of the family that was just much better than the reality.
But tonight, I want to talk about your DNA. And I want to talk about in the context of understanding that process. There’s an article that was written in the University of California San Francisco, and I want to share just a couple little bits of it.
“After the 2003 completion of the Human Genome Project — which sequenced three billion ‘letters,’ or base pairs, in the human genome – many thought that our DNA would become an open book. But a perplexing problem quickly emerged: that, although the scientists could transcribe the book, they could only interpret a small percentage of it.
“The vast majority — 98 % — of our DNA was not coded with proteins, but it was actually “dark matter genome.” And it was thought that this is non-functional evolutionary leftovers that are just along for the ride. However, hidden among those non-coded DNA are many crucial regulatory elements that control the activity of thousands of genes. What is even more is: these elements play a major role in diseases such as cancer, heart disease and autism, and they could hold the key to possible cures.
“As part of this major ongoing effort to fully map and annotate the functional sequences of the human genome, including this silent majority, the National Institute of Health announced a new grant for funding a nationwide project to set up five ‘characterization centers,’ including two in the UC San Francisco, to study these this human genome until we understand all the consequences of our DNA.”
So one of the lines that I want to call your attention to today — because I think it’s so important — is this idea that much of the dark matter of genome is thought to be “non-functional evolutionary leftovers that are just along for the ride.” Right? That’s what we believe … is that, of all this millions and millions of information that our DNA carries, most of it, we believe, is about our past. You know, how we got to where we are today as a human species. Like, every bit of our genetic past is still encoded in our DNA.
And we usually think about it from the point of view that we have reached the highest level of evolution, and we are it, right? And everything that’s uncoded that we don’t understand is called this dark matter of non-functional evolutionary leftovers from our past.
Well, I’m going to make a statement that I cannot prove. Okay? You know, I do this from time to time. I’m going to make a statement that I cannot scientifically prove, but I bet dollars to donuts that part of that evolutionary is not past tense, but future tense.
That we have actually been coded for our next and every other evolutionary steps as children of God. So that every step in our DNA, as a species, that it’s taken us to get us to this moment is encoded within us. But that the story isn’t over! That we have not reached the fullness of who we came to be as children of God. And that, too, is deeply imprinted into our DNA. And that we are in the process, I believe, of activating that for the next level of existence.
And out of that millions and billions of code, that there is within it everything that we will ever need to activate our “goodness”: our divine nature, our super spiritual self. And God has wired us — pre-wired us — for that level of evolutionary experience. And that as we do our spiritual work — as we awaken to who we were meant to be from the beginning of time, that we have always had within us — this code of our spiritual potential.
And the more that we focus on our brokenness, the more we miss the process of activating our higher self. And what if, tonight, when we affirm together that “I am a child of God,” that is actually activating the potential that still has not been fully expressed.
“I am a child of God.”
Together: [with congregation] “I am a child of God.”
So do we have physical elements in our DNA? Yes. Does it define so much of how we look and how we function and how we express? Yes. But I believe within that billions of billions of code is also our next evolutionary step into that which we have not yet fully expressed. And as we do that, we actually activate it in a greater and greater way.
“I am a child of God.”
Will you say that with me? [With congregation]: “I am a child of God.”
Myrtle Fillmore … I did a talk a couple months ago where I talked about the line that Myrtle Fillmore used as an affirmation. Myrtle Fillmore is the co-founder of Unity. And she says, “As a child of God, I do not inherit sickness.”
Let’s say that together: [with congregation] “As a child of God, I do not inherit sickness.”
And what she was really going after was this idea that, as a spiritual being, she wanted to separate the physical reality from the spiritual reality. And that, as a spiritual being, that there was a level of reality that you could claim that was greater than your physical reality. That was greater than your current manifestation, your current expression.
And in her own healing from tuberculosis, she got to the point where she had to say, “Oh! I didn’t just inherit this from my mother. I just didn’t inherit this from my grandmother,” who both died of TB. She began to make the spiritual connection that, as a child of God, that she had within her that which is actually greater than her current physical manifestation.
“I am a child of God. I do not inherit disease.”
Let’s say that together: [with congregants] “I am a child of God. I do not inherit disease.”
And I want you to begin to look at both sides in the double strand of helix of who we are, that we are fully physical and we are fully spiritual. But, as we claim the spiritual possibility of who we are, we actually activate it, because it’s wired within you. It is wired within you to be greater than you’ve ever been before, and it just takes activation. It’s your decision to activate a higher level of yourself than you’ve ever experienced before and that activation actually makes it a reality.
Romans 8:15-17; this is the Apostle Paul:
“You did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you receive the spirit of sonship. And when we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ it is that Spirit himself bearing witness to our spirit, that we are children of God and, if children, then heirs: heirs of all that God is, and joint heirs with Christ.”
I mean, that’s a huge statement! That is a huge statement! And I believe that you are pre-wired for that spiritual destiny; for that spiritual possibility. That, within you, is everything that you need to be a joint heir with Christ; to be all that God created you to be as a child of God.
That you don’t have to go find it; you don’t have to go get it; you don’t have to just add the missing piece, it’s already been pre-wired in you, and as we activate it — as we encourage it, as we acknowledge it, as we celebrate it — you actually call forth a higher divine level of yourself that was pre-baked in you.
Isn’t that exciting to know that that’s pre-baked in you?!? That you don’t have to go buy the missing piece!
Like, how many of you have ever had to download new software on a computer? Maybe update your phone; whatever it is. And the idea of operating a computer or your phone, or whatever, is that there’s a new operating system coming, right? We’ve all gotten excited or nervous or worried about the new operating system.
And when the new operating system comes, your phone or your computer either works better than it used to, because the new operating system is better. Or your phone or your computer works worse, because your phone or your computer really wasn’t designed for that operating system. Right? And it just kind of chunks along in a new operating system. And about half the things don’t work that should work. And that’s really what happens, right? Because it wasn’t pre-wired in. It wasn’t a part of the system from the beginning.
And the deal with you is that that operating system has been within you from the beginning of time just waiting to be activated; just waiting to be called upon! That seed of the Divine has been within you waiting for just a little bit of soil, a little bit of water, and a little bit of sunshine! And that seed within you — of the Divine — is waiting to activate so that you can be more and greater and divine. Because it’s already been pre-wired. It’s actually a part of your initial operating system! And just because most people aren’t living it doesn’t mean that it’s not a part of the three billion pairs of code that are within you.
Like, over and over again, we’ve all read that the human mind is using just a small percentage of every capacity that it has. Well, think about your DNA: three billion pairs of code. And part of that is your past: as a species — as people — how we got to this point. But in that three billion is also the code for who you’re called to be now if we are willing to activate it; if we’re willing to express it, if we’re willing to be more than we’ve ever been before.
So how do we do that?
Well, I did a class recently called “The Power of Focus.” And one of the things I said in this class recently is that I wanted people to spend 10 or 15 minutes every day — 20 minutes every day — envisioning their higher self. Envisioning themselves being the greatest expression of God — the greatest image that they could hold for them. And actually BEGIN TO SEE YOURSELF BEING THAT LIVING, DIVINE EXPRESSION OF GOD; being your very best self.
And so that, every day, as we begin to see that higher version of us, we actually begin to activate it. Like, it’s already pre-wired. It’s just waiting for us to give it the signal that it’s time to activate, because it’s already within us! So, every time we hold a higher vision for ourselves, we actually are activating the potential within our DNA.
Now, the opposite, I believe, is also true. Every time we hold an image of ourselves as “less than” or broken, we actually empower ourselves to be stuck; to live in our fears; to live in the limitation.
So, would you be willing to spend five or 10 or 15 or 20 minutes a day just imagining yourself being the highest and best — being your divine self; being your holy self; being your god self; being your most magnificent self — until you can actually see it over and over and over again.
And the other way that we do that is when we begin to CHANGE THE WORDS WE USE ABOUT OURSELVES.
“I am a child of God.”
Together: [with congregation] “I am a child of God.”
You can also say, “I am a divine being.”
Together: [with congregation] “I am a divine being.”
“I am enlightened.”
Together: [with congregants] “I am enlightened.”
“I am God expressing.”
Together: [with congregation] “I am God expressing.”
So, as we change the words that we use about ourselves, we actually begin to activate a higher level in ourselves that is there from the beginning of time!
You know, it would be a cruel God that said that we were created in the image and likeness of God, but it wasn’t true. It would be cruel to say, “Yeah, yeah; you have all this potential, but not really.” Right? If it’s been said that we were created in the image and likeness of God, could you be willing to just take it on faith that you really are that much?
That much of God has already been pre-wired in you to take you beyond anywhere that you’ve known before! And, as we begin to change the words that we use about ourselves, we begin to activate that higher level.
Three, I want you to really look at being willing to FORGIVE YOURSELF FOR THE LESSER IDEAS OF YOU. Has anybody ever held in an image about themselves that they were broken, or less than, or not very good, or kind of stupid, or kind of ugly, or … Right? Have you ever held an image about yourself that’s not very appropriate? What if you could forgive all of that?
“I forgive myself for any way that I’ve ever diminished myself. I forgive myself for any way that I’ve talked myself down. I forgive myself for any way that I believed in less than my potential. I forgive myself for any way that I have not been willing to step into the fullness of who I’ve been created to be.”
And the fourth, for me, is when we ASK FOR DIVINE GUIDANCE. The fourth is when we say to the Universe,, when we say to Spirit, when we say to God – “I am ready to activate my full self. I’m ready to be more than I’ve ever been before. Show me how. Lead me. Teach me. Awaken my soul to my full potential.”
See, it sounds so cute to say, “I’m a child of God.” “Oh, isn’t that cute?” [Congregants laugh] Right? It sounds so diminished. “I’m a child of God.” And we don’t really believe it. Or we think it’s kind of cute.
But what if you’ve really been wired for the Infinite? What have you really been wired for all that God is? And the only thing that keeps you from standing in the fullness of God is your unwillingness to claim it.
And what if, tonight, you just decide that you’re ready. That, however much longer you have on this planet, you’re willing to claim that you are the son or daughter of the Most High. That you are one with all that God is. And that you’re willing to activate all that magnificent DNA that’s within you, and see who you truly came to be. Would you be willing?
Will you pray with me?
I want you to open your mind, your heart, your soul to the activity of God. Tonight, we take a big step. That we’re willing to actually call forth that divine nature within all of us: to be the living, moving expression of all that God is. To awaken all that has been asleep. To awaken our full potential. To be the man or woman that God created us to be from the beginning of time. To be alive with God. To stand with the other spiritual greats who came to know themselves as if for the first time.
Thank you, God! I am a child of God. And so it is. Amen.