Dear Friends,
Imagine that you are dying in fearless, joy and surrounded in love in a new ecological civilization, a new spring for humanity! Those who have had near death experiences, often come back joyful, with a sense of deep meaning in life and dedication to service of others, wanting to reassure us that there is nothing to fear. Their profound death experiences transcend any religious beliefs or rules. Many share their life changing faith in love and a communion with the divine after death. There have been stories about death that have invited us to imagine tunnels of light, loved ones who have passed returning to greet us, and angels taking us home for thousands of years. God experiences and visions around death are common in all the world's religions and cultures. I want to reclaim the genius of the Christian story of Easter as an invitation to prepare and imagine our own death filled with fearless, love, joy and healing. Christianity and Easter for me can be summed up in eight small words. Love is more powerful than torture and death.
New medical and scientific explorers from Eben Alexander, and his best selling book, Proof of Heaven, to The Art of Dying, by Peter Fenwick, and dozens more in recent years, have validated the experiences of millions of people that death is experienced as a spiritual event of love. Sometimes I confess, I feel annoyed that people believe medical research doctors more than the millions of us regular people who have been having these experiences at the bedside of the dying or having near death experiences centuries before science started doing "scientific studies" about death experiences. When in Rome, do as the Romans do, I guess. My gift to you this Easter and Earth Day is three links of talks from scientific medical doctors who share about life after death. Don't believe millions of us or Jesus or Mary Magdalene and our visions of life after death or the truth of nature that is regenerative and brings us spring after winter? Well, I offer you three links, "experts" "doctors" and "scientific researchers" who report what Mary Magdalene and Jesus and millions of others have experienced on Easter and other spiritual death experiences. Give yourself a chocolate Easter bunny of the spirit and watch these youtubes about preparing for death as a way of preparing for a life of the spirit and abundant love for all creatures in creation.
Peter Fenwick - The Art of Dying Well
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-CXpReUpiM
Eben Alexander Proof of Heaven
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbkgj5J91hE
I See Dead People: Dreams and Visions of the Dying | Dr. Christopher Kerr
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbnBe-vXGQM
Church for Our Common home invites you to our sunrise Easter worship at Torrey Pines State Park Beach at 6:30 am and we will celebrate the joyous message of Jesus and Mary Magdalene's life and teachings, that we are never alone and that God loves us always.“God is the great companion—the fellow-sufferer who understands." according to Alfred North Whitehead. None of us want to be alone when we are suffering and in pain and many may fear being alone in death. So be assured you are never alone as you listen to the eater story. Jesus had God as his 'great companion' but he also had Mary Magdalene who was with him as he prepared for death, suffered at the time of death and during his resurrection. I was struck by the angels, this year in the Easter story like never before. I have preached many years about Mary Magdalene's love of Jesus and their love continuing after death. This year I want to also acknowledge the companionship of angels and hope that they will companion me like they did Mary Magdalene in her time of grief. We are in grief as we wake up to the torture and death of human and non-human creatures this Earth Day. Angels do not have to be something we literally see or hear with the first five sense, they may be a loving presence or an experience in a dream. I feel their support this Easter in our small church, in prayer time and overlighting this historic time as we reimagine an ecological civilization and death as an invitation for communion with a God of love.
In, Edgar Cayce on Angels and the Angelic Forces, Kevin J. Todeschi writes, "Taken together the Edgar Cayce readings are extremely clear in the conviction that the angelic realms surround all of humankind. Their role is to assist each and every individual in fulfilling that purpose for which he or she came into the earth. They serve as a source of guidance and inspiration that may come in a dream, in a hunch, in a chance encounter, or in a book or a song that “just happens” to come our way. Ultimately, their role is to help individuals grow toward at-one-ment with the Divine. They stand ever ready and are called into action by our thoughts and activities. Cayce stated that the choices we make toward personal development evokes such an energetic power that.....What may be somewhat unique about the Cayce approach to these guides is that he repeatedly confirmed their existence but at the same time counseled individuals not to seek them outright. Once again, the readings advised individuals to seek only the presence of God or the Christ spirit, which would enable these guides to be used and have an influence only when it was in the best interest of self."
We are called to commune with the source, God, the oneness, the divine called by many names in prayer and meditation as we prepare to live well, as well as prepare to die well. When we are no longer afraid to die, we will become joyful and fearless and passionately devote our lives in service of others. This will be the foundation for a new ecological civilization, a new spring for humanity.
Happy Easter, Happy Earth Day!
Bonnie