(Text of a class sermon)
Calculate this:
The arc of the soaring bird
Times the timing of a friend's call
Divided by the root of your dream theme.
Add the number of times you can collect the words 'wake up'
From billboards, the radio or in conversation,
And subtract the sum of all doubt.
Therein lies God's personalized message for you.
The language of spirit is symbolism.
God's eloquence is conveyed in metaphor.
If you are unsure of the interpretation,
Cross-reference the signs.
God's patience dwells within Eternity.
And when your hearing collaborates with your seeing
And your breathing swells in rhythm with the the coursing of your blood
And all your senses convene in service of your consciousness
Then you will know the lucidity of full peripheral intuition.
The tree of life prescribes this invocation:
(please stand up to embody this with me)
Roots – know your grounding.
Anchor me in my legitimacy as a child of God.
Cradle me with a visceral knowledge of my belonging
And nourish me into the blissful aliveness of my physicality.
Trunk – know your fortitude.
Secure me in the knowledge of who I came here to be.
Grant me the vision to recognize my call,
The courage to be true to it,
And the sovereignty to wield my vulnerability
In the name of authenticity.
Limbs of My Branches – reach ever Godward.
Connect me to transcendent wisdom.
Balance me in harmony with all that is.
Extend my compassion into the selfless skies,
And expand my receptivity to
The thousand, thousand trembling leaf ears
Cupped in wait of God's message.
O My Tree of Life,
Be all these things simultaneously to me,
That I may be granted the peripheral intuition
To read the signs everywhere present in my life.
Make me a marriage between Life and God,
So that I may serve Your forest well.