Tapping into Boundless Love by Rev. Christine Emmerling

“Tapping into Boundless Love” by Rev. Christine 2/5/2023

My talk today is about boundless love, a love with no boundaries. Can you imagine this kind of love for absolutely everyone, even for yourself and your so-called enemies. We start with knowing that God loves us unconditionally. God loves everyone even the robber, murderer, and rapist unconditionally with no judgement, no restrictions, or any punishment. There is just pure love. This love is always radiating forth.

So what does God, Infinite Divine Spirit, know about you? You are part of its very self for you are of God. God is the Divine of you – a living expression of God. Therefore, God knows you as perfect love, perfect in every way – how could God know its Self-expression otherwise?

Why don’t we know this about our self? It's like being the sun, and then seeing the clouds believing that these clouds are you – yet all you have to do is look within for you are the light. Yet we allow these clouds to define who we are; as our bodies, possessions, thoughts and emotions believing this is all that we are. By not recognizing our true essential self we live a limited life of pain and suffering.

This brings me to the Old Testament beginning in Genesis with references to a harsh, judgmental punishing God. A God as a separate being like a king looking down upon its subjects – a god in mankind’s image and likeness. But that was only mankind’s undeveloped perception of God – similar to a child’s view of God as a person wearing a white robe and sitting on a throne somewhere high in the heavens.

Then as we become more spiritually awakened our sense of God changes to an invisible God, and then as Jesus the Christ told us “That God is within you,” and that God is like an all-loving Father. So, who is punishing and judging? We are from our sense of separation from God. By not realizing our oneness in God, we have cut ourselves off believing that we have to live by our own wits. And this is what is keeping us from experiencing God’s boundless love and being that love.

Instead of feeling love we feel pain, suffering and fear. We believe the inner voice, the critic that runs its dialogue of insults, and attack towards our self and all others. This dialogue is based on its perception of past experiences mostly holding on to our pain, wrong doings, and grievances.

The following is an exercise: Imagine you have a rock in your hand. Feel the rock with all your senses. Is your rock large or small like a pebble? Are the edges smooth or rough? Is it cold or warm? Know this rock as all the grievances that you are holding on to. You are also the one holding this rock – do you throw this rock at others that don’t think like you, those that have hurt you even unknowingly, do you throw this rock at your boss, partner or past bosses and partners, to your parents or siblings, to the bully when growing up, or the bully within yourself. Or are you throwing this rock at yourself? What does this rock represent to you?

I am reminded of the story in John 8:6-11, of when an adulteress was brought into the temple by the scribes and pharisees with their stones in hand before Jesus Christ. Their intent was to discredit Jesus by testing to see if he disobeyed the laws of Moses. Jesus knelt down and wrote on the ground, and then said, “He who is without sin throw the first rock.” One by one they left laying down their rocks. And, then Jesus lifted up himself and said to the woman, “where are they? Did no man condemn thee? And she said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn thee; go thy way; from henceforth sin no more.”

Metaphysically we can look at this story as it applies to us today. The characters are all part of oneself, our soul. An adulteress is a woman that has betrayed her husband – their husband would be the Christ within. We are all a betrayer when we make the worldly physical pleasures our pursuit in life over our soul. For some it's all about money and power. We have allowed ourselves to worship these things as a god.

The scribe is one that records every word, and the pharisee passes judgement always holding it in front of us. Metaphysically the scribes and pharisees as witness and judge, represent our own inner memories of misdeeds and thoughts of wrongdoing. Always we are ready to lay guilt and shame towards our self and blaming others.

Metaphysically a Rock represents truth. In this case it is how we use this truth. Do we pass judgement to cause harm or to lift in consciousness and have compassion and forgive. Metaphysically when Jesus lifted himself up, this means we raised our consciousness to the Christ consciousness. In doing so we know the Truth and are no longer judging our self. We forgive and are now free from guilt and shame. We are free to live our newfound life in Christ awareness.

For years I had been blaming myself in guilt and shame for the car accident that I inflicted upon myself back in 1977, which left my left ankle physically disabled. I had fallen asleep at the wheel and thank God no one else was involved – just me, my car, and the tree. But for almost 30 years I had been throwing rocks at myself until one day I finally saw it differently.

I was in a meditative state when I had this vision, as the observer looking down at this woman at the wheel. I felt such compassion for the pain she was holding that had driven her to this place. My gosh she was still grieving over the loss of her son. When I looked closer at this woman, I realized it was me. I couldn’t believe the unforgiveness that I had been imposing on her – and in that very moment said “Forgive me Father for I knew not what I was doing” in my lapse of consciousness. I finally let that rock go.

The Dalai Lama, in his book “An Open Heart” Speaks on pain and suffering as a means to compassion for others. There are three kinds of suffering: the 1st) as painful illness or loss of a loved one; 2nd) as Suffering of change, the comings and goings of wealth and pleasure; 3rd) Negative thoughts and emotions. Our compassion for others grows as our recognition of their suffering does. We do this through our own suffering in gaining understanding and then knowing they too are going through similar pain.

The Dalai Lama says that compassion is the wish that all sentient beings be free of suffering. Loving kindness is the wish that all may enjoy happiness. We can look around and see that each person is suffering in their own way.

This day through love, through forgiveness, we can let go of our rock. I am reminded of a song titled “Love Lifted Me.” It goes like this “Love lifted me, love lifted me, when nothing else would do, love lifted me.” Let this love now lift you right out of all the need to hold on to this rock of burden with all its pain and suffering. There is no one judging you. Just take a moment now to feel unconditional love for yourself. Now just open your hand and let it go. Poof! It's all gone.

Another example: God as our source we have a boundless supply of love. Imagine our heart is our vessel for love and has a faucet that can be free flowing or restricted just by the turn of the spigot; right to tighten and left to open. We have control over this spigot, over the incoming and outgoing flow of love in our life.

Now when we judge our self or another it turns our spigot to the right tightening and slowing down our flow of love. Then we add anger and fear, now our spigot is tightened some more slowing our flow to a small stream. Then we add selfishness and non-forgiveness, and all we have now is a very slow drip. This is not enough love to sustain our body, soul and relationships. Pain and suffering let us know that we have shut our love flow down.

Remember all the time we have the control of our spigot, our flow of love. We can reestablish our full flow of love with right thinking and feeling, and through acts of kindness, forgiveness, and generosity. Then our spigot turns to the left opening up the flow of love from a drip to a small stream to an open full force. Our love becomes a boundless love that heals all pain and suffering.

Let us take a moment right now to open our heart’s spigot. First feel this love as compassion and unconditional love for our self... And now send our compassion and unconditional love to the people in our life; family, friends, co-workers and such... Finally, we send our compassion and unconditional love to everyone everywhere... Truly Boundless Love!

I’ll close with my favorite poem by Emmet Fox titled Love:

1John 4:16 “God is love, and he that abide in love abides in God and God in him.”

Love is by far the most important thing of all.

It is the Golden Gate of Paradise.

Pray for the understanding of love and meditate upon it daily.

It casts out fear.

It is the fulfilling of the Law.

It covers a multitude of sins.

Love is absolutely invincible.

There is no difficulty that enough love will not conquer;

no disease that enough love will not heal;

no door that enough love will not open;

no gulf that enough love will not bridge;

no wall that enough love will not throw down;

no sin that enough love will not redeem.

It makes no difference how deeply seated may be the trouble,

how hopeless the outcome, how muddled the tangle,

how great the mistake; a sufficient realization of love will dissolve it all.

If only you could love enough, you would be the happiest and most powerful being in the world.