'TRANSFORMATION & EXPANSION' - A sermon by Bishop Carlton D. Pearson

a famous train [Music] nothing stays the same [Music] everyone the strain - trance [Music] nothing stay the same [Music] the ER [Music] mysteries to hunt food that's the way nothing and no one you know I'm not mr. Pearson but I just say mother many things in life you can be sure [Music] let's up range from the cloud sunlights up the start [Music] earth could fly everything must change yeah that's our happy birthday right there happy thank you [Applause] I've become an official senior citizen tomorrow 11:15 tomorrow morning I'm a senior citizen I'm looking for my Medicaid card please I'm in one of those really reflective reflective time zone moods for the last little bit you know you get this age you start noticing transformation and change and shifts and your body and your mind your life and you lose a lot of loved ones or at least people pass off the scenes that were pills and pillars in your life your parents and grandparents and godparents mostly are although my mother is still here of course I forgot to tell them that today we were honoring daddy she was planning to come this morning and she at the last minute didn't feel strong daddy left us three years ago two days from now no in two days before now he wasn't right after my birthday I think whatever it was I had my birthday then two days later yeah the 21st our dad my dad left and that was the first time we'd had a major anybody in our personal family of our of our of the eight of us my parents and the six children had transitioned and so it was still difficult it still remains a little bit awkward for us but I was telling who it was Nicky we were talking the other day Nicky deals with a lot of death because she works with those who lose loved ones in this ministry and sets most of the memorial services up and meets with the family she and staff so she's around Allah but she lost eight her first daughter's husband I mean father passed away which was her husband she just got in from from Ohio I think it was and one of her dearest friends here in the ministry and the church one of our members had made the transition and she was very close with this lady and they was just hitting us left and right and many of you have lost loved ones are gone through the period of transition and which does transform you to a certain extent somebody said the other day people who died that have never died before [Music] come on let's settle in there but as you've heard me say a lot the last few weeks when somebody say it says to you how are you doing they're basically saying how are you dying because from the time we take our first inhalation of breath and our exhalation of the same from being in your mother's stomach for nine months and swimming and now you're breathing air and your gills become lungs and you carry that water in your brain 80% water today your brain this 80% water your body was 80% water until you became an adult now it's about 50% moisture or water a hundred thousand miles of of arteries most of the microscopic are in the normal adult body and if you put your hands to your ears you'll hear the rush and the hum of that blood coursing through your veins I don't know the writer of change says hummingbirds do fly we see them flying but I wonder what they're humming and do you hum and do I hum that hum is actually that room that sound you hear that says you're alive if you ever put your hands up there and you don't hear anything you did and so if you put put them up something you haven't done try just put the hands there press [Applause] couple of you didn't hear it I realized that that hum is is the sound that you are alive that's important that we're making transitions constantly driving by oh are you the other day and I realize I came here said forty-seven years ago almost 48 because of oh are you the founder is now transitioned and his wife with whom I was very close I go down there some time to check on Ruth rooks who was oral Secretary for 60 years and I've always lived within walking distance of all our you and for the 47 years I've lived here there was a certain security around them and my close proximity to the family the vision and the visionary and so much has changed in my own my own life I III that I'm 65 as important it I don't know what it means but I feel pretty much as I did when I was 45 except first thing in the morning in the last thing at night but in between there's there's this time that I live and who ever would have thought 47 years ago coming here to oru that I would be 47 years later associated and preaching sometimes here at All Souls where there's a much more expanded way of thinking on a much more open and and and loving and in understanding way about life and about those who live in life and that I'd still be preaching around the country just they told me yesterday that were a week from tomorrow I'm I'll be in New York interviewing on The Today Show with met megyn kelly - about to talk about the movie they're bringing cameras here next week to shoot something about Tulsa and trimmer' tell maybe on from London but they said even if he isn't they still want you on in the New York Times said they may write an article about this movie and it's being premiered here at cinema circle cinema April April 8th and we got a couple more film festivals to go to and it's like things are happening really really fast and too slow at the same time and I asked myself consistently how am i abiding with how am i transforming I will ask you because I'm gonna talk about making managing and mastering transformation making the transformation or change managing transformation or change and mastering that includes death dying living doing being thinking rehearsing reminding remembering reconnecting recollecting reassembling refiguring talking with change as Karma's OS only shared talking with the issues in your life why is this change come what are you here for how am I to cooperate with you whether that's cancer which I dealt with 15 years ago and that's the same question why are you here I know you didn't come to to kill me so I'm gonna give you a name and we'll call you my teacher whatever you need to teach me teach you quickly and get on down the road what is everything happening in our lives for and I would ask you as I have many times before what is working for you today 2018 that's what I'm saying March 18 2018 what's working for you what's being born and new in you or happy bored day sometimes it's just boring what's happening what's working for you and then of course what's not working in your life if you were to make a list of the two which would be the longest what's working for me what's not working for me what's working on me what keeps me awake at night what is the it's that I find difficulties scratching what's working as me how do I show up in the world what how do I show up in my relationships are on the job or with my family my friends even with those who are perceived to be enemies how do I show up what energy do I send it to the universe of bringing to a room what sign do I bear or carry and then what do you perceive is working against you and all of those questions will be addressed somehow by what you believe about you and why you believe that about you so when I say what's working for you I'm also saying what do you believe about you because that will determine what's working for you and what do you believe and why do you believe that particularly thing about you whatever it is because that will affect how you show up in the world your self perception and your self experience are inextricable they are inextricably connected they are inseparably connected how you view yourself will be how you experience yourself how you express yourself or expose yourself how you explain make plain yourself the complexity of who you are all that involves continual transformation we talk about expansion it means to become or make larger to to to make yourself more extensive not necessarily expensive but extensive how are you different today than you were six months ago or six days ago or six years ago or 60 years ago in what ways have you extended yourself are you free or are you more liberated are you more concerned or conservative have you are you less nervous or less tense or more nervous and more tense do you care less or care more what keeps you awake what makes you sleepy what bores you what excites you what incentives are in your life how active are you in your life how active are you in life how you're dying I'm dying pretty good today I'm not dying so good how are you doing how you doing how your mom and em Gary what's happening in you what's happening to you because life doesn't just happen to you life happens through you and life happens as you how are you managing your transformations trans means to go beyond or to be elsewhere or to change the form transformation the form may or the form or the information or the formula of yourself what formula are you living by all right what formula are you living with we live in a nation in the world dominated by uncertainty by change and insecurity which leads to fear and anxiety alarm which in the original term in English for alarm was a call to arms when the alarm went off everybody picked up their guns we sold 200 million in this country since Obama became president strange why all of a sudden people need guns and teachers are now thinking about guns and students and people are training and learning there's a call to arms because people are alarmed and only the only reason they are alarmed is because there's transformation occurring and we don't know how to manage transformation we don't want we don't know how to shift I told you the other day somebody else with Stevie Wonder actually asked me on the phone whatever what do I think about Black Panther what's the name of the play took Taccone duh that's what I'm saying work on condoms how do you even handle Wakanda it actually means the whole idea and I said so you believe in you he said I believe in Wakanda we were talking about him writing a theme song for the movie too late I was asking him the day of the when they were doing the final score and he was gonna do it but he said well have you seen Black Panther I said no he said I I when you see it I want to say have you seen it could you I actually did he said I can see he said I can sense I can feel I can hear and he kind of has the peripheral vision just kind of the very he can feel things but he can't see anything specifically he said but I can feel it I said what did you feel he said I felt what Locanda I believe that it exists that's the first human beings I've ever ever spoken to that said he actually believed in utopia I said you know what utopia is you in the in degree Q means no tapas means place no place nowhere but if you take the W from from where and move it over to no it becomes now here if there is a utopia it would be now here if you move something around that W then it becomes now here in your heart in your spirit in your self in your soul you can be a place or a pace or a space where peace prevails now that it just exists but it prevails but most folk don't believe that in your heart you know it does so you wouldn't want these in your heart you know you're okay but you don't believe it you've heard me say many times that we struggle with what we know in our own solar in our own cells and what we believe in our minds we believe sometimes what the news says but in our soul we know it's not as bad as it seems to be that is an illusion let's make the other one a reality but it takes work to do that it takes effort to do that you've got a planet if you fail to plan you basically plan to fail you make up your mind what you want to do I love this statement biocontrol Gonzalez in Rito a Mexican film director producer he says life and death are illusions we are in a constant state of transformation life and death are illusions we're constantly moving and shifting and changing and evolving you don't really die you just change forms all the people we think are dead they've really the first form they change into as a memory he just remembered them or you memorialize them some people go to graves or some people go around here will be put right right behind this evergreen tree right at the bottom of a we sprinkle ashes my dad's ashes have arrived i package them for my sister's to send them around the country and we'll put some here and I'll take some to the Pacific Ocean and I'll take some out to his old ranch where dad used to live and and from from from when we were coming up we didn't believe in in ashes and and and and cremation but it's a lot cheaper to cremate the day so the Lord was speaking to us ladies in back but we were but then I described that the scripture says ashes to ashes dust to dust so my fundamentals first had a hard time with what the first time somebody came to us and said they're gonna they're gonna cremate somebody with that need to wait how do you know your Bible says ashes to ashes dust to dust so we thought I'd ask just mitt what's between your fingers first thing in the morning black or why your wife was gotta teachers can't tell it as much transformation and we're all going through the process by which one figure or one expression or something some function is converted or changed to another and I would ask you again in what ways have you changed in recent recently think about it what about size or weight or lose it or gain it or hair color or hair amount or teeth what in what inside have you changed at all can you think of one way in fact if you if you can't just write down something or make a mental map how I changed your opinion about anything pops your view UPS is the optimist as the Greek word for i we have opinions and options and views in what way heavy chains at all if at all I know I have dramatically changed I continue to change one of the signs of my change is I'm here that's a big change right there that that I'm here regularly I can't think I'm sorry I've never in my 65 years been so excited about my personal evolution I love the trip I love even when it was difficult and painful I always knew at some point at some place this thing would turn around and people will become more interested in life one of the things that bored me is people I was serving were bored we were doing the same thing every Sunday every Sunday night every Wednesday every convention every conference it got very very monotonous to me even in my own life I was bored in my own revelation of Scripture because I was preaching what I thought you needed to hear I wanted to hear and yet I was hearing something differently and I started getting but took me 10 years almost 12 years of boredom and I felt that I'm being less spiritual or maybe it's because I I need to go to another 40 day fast what is happening with me what is happening to me it was happening as me I began to shift and transform and I'm thankful that I finally said yes it's easier if you say yes turn to somebody say it's easier if you say yes so what values have changed what what have you crossed to transistor cross or to go beyond her to go to the other side in what way have you crossed over what way are you passing over I love transformation because it makes me interesting in me interested in me excited I feel the adventure and the curiosity America is not the same and where we are now is not permanent this is just a pause and a clause and a comma how many of you know that as we look every day we've never been more interested in the news and and because they know by the end there but Trump but every time you turn around is it's the same thing why every day every commute every story every talk is about that and and even though most people are not happy with it it is making us reconsider what we think and why we think it it's showing us a part of ourselves that we didn't know was there sometimes I said it's a bit coming-out party it has been for some for all the haters on the down low but people that I didn't know were as insensitive and cold toward hurting people I you know the whole doctor thing and sending these people away and people that I that I know love God I thought in love you but they'll say Tula get him out and just kick him out even if they came in a 10-year two years old and and they've lived to thirty years and now married with family and have a have a have a Social Security number and and they're working and they're just snatched away and families are torn and you call yourselves having Family Values and you're like how long families to be just ripped apart there's some part of that you need to say wait a minute there's a there's a line we draw you got to care about folks even when the law seems different because there was a time what it was illegal to beat me and my grandparents or to to hang me legally I don't want to get into politics but sometimes make America great just means make America hate again legally and bully folks illegally some of you have been through transformation since the election you changed your thinking about stuff there's a lot of conscious now this election last weekend in Pennsylvania it shocked a lot of people even the Pennsylvanians district that had twenty 28 percent that the president won by 28 percent and now he lost and that party lost and and people are rethinking and it's okay to rethink i I go back and forth I change but I'm open to its turn to somebody say I'm open to change radical change now the word radical means rudimentary it's it comes from a word that means root where there's fruit there's root ask yourself what fruit is in my life am I happy am i sad am i angry am I glad I my sensitive am I suspicious am i comfortable am i vindictive am i revengeful or vengeful am I happy or am I just tolerant do I like me do I like being me do I like being do I have a silent death wish am i suicidal or homicidal do I want to kill a puppy you know all of that lives in all of us that sometimes everybody wants the one thing I wonder what would be if I wasn't here how my family think then if I was there and some of you think what if they wasn't here how am i dying how am i lying how am i living what needs to shift inside of me put your arms around yourself and just do this for a minute but what's the root that causes the fruit in my life look at me please if you don't like you that's fruit that's a symptom of a source don't treat the symptom go to the source why don't you like you it might be because you thought your parents didn't like you you never doubted their love you felt your siblings didn't really like you because you're the only one who didn't get to play with them you go to school where you think people tolerate you you don't feel pretty or attractive or Pleasant you feel just you don't quite fit you're suspicious of the people you love the most and you know that love you the most you you still doubt even though you know they love you you don't believe it the person you sleep beside every night or with you want your kids to like you and your siblings to like you and your dead parents to like you you're going to work tomorrow will they like me do they really want me there you're gonna do something that you think will impact them and make them like you more when you come in and you hate the job these are not criticisms these are observations I'm an existentialist more than I've ever been in my life I have such respect for the elegance eloquence and excellence forward thrust of human beings being human that's part of my transformation I'm not concerned about you going to heaven or hell I'm concerned about you living heaven and not hell here it's important right now the impact that you have put your arms around yourself one more time we're almost finished let me remind you that you are amazing that you're irreplaceable that you're fantastic and beautiful and loving and lovely just because you think people don't like you because of who you're married to or who you love or because you're single or because you're white or black or tall or thin fluffy or Duffy [Music] many of you sitting here today do not feel like by many people you're gonna have lunch alone and you're used to that now but it never really feels right and you don't know how to break that pattern it's almost frightening more frightening or less frightening to be alone than to test to see if anybody likes you and you find out they really don't and then it's astounding if you find like they really do but listen to me you must like you first don't discredit or discount or depreciate yourself you count carry yourself that way that's not arrogance that's confidence just do your face like this they usually love puppy breath your letter snail bread you I just love you you're so freshest yeah little doofus I just think the world of you start doing that more look at them I had a friend in college he's sustained in the mirror every morning Tim Thurston we were to African remember he's standing that I don't want the stuff anybody sure but he's standing there would say you handsome don't you ever die he didn't let white folks hear that cuz they married to a white woman but he says that when I was coming up you if you said it fast nobody knew you saying it the only folks that don't know how to say it right the one get offended by what you say so fast they don't know you said to you dude you to the next word black is not a color it's an experience remember that one of my aunt said don't come with me told me don't don't talk about hair I've been digging with all my life and half of them is white I don't get upset about stuff like that as much we'll see you in a couple of hours I hope some of you who will come for the caring for Candace it's a young woman that's in the hospital now she can't be there today because she's very close to dying she has cancer started out with her breast now I'm brain in back and all parts of her body and she has she's a mother and Walter Armstrong is having us to come Gina and I are going to host it and her mother's husband left her she quit her job to take care of her daughter they're out of money we just want to help so those of you who will join us at the Greenwood Cultural Center and if you want a ticket you can get it from the tickets are only $20 you get it from Nikki and if you really want to go and you don't can't afford it just tell her I'll pay for your ticket does no matter who you are if you want to come today to show your love for this precious family you do that and we will we'll help you if you give if you want to come now don't just do it just for the fun of it we're gonna really love on this family and lovely young lady and do what we can to bless her and to embrace her because she counts and you count as well now stretch your hands real tall and I'm good getting better being me all the time say I'll make them the transformation [Music] manage the transformation and I will master transformation cuz I got this I got it I got it I got it I am let's all stand together my sister Oh sister everybody until I side-by-side [Music] [Applause] take [Music] Oh [Music] [Music] hey we're so happy you're visiting with us online today we love connecting with people all across the country and around the world sharing our powerful message of love beyond belief there's something new happening here you can now join all souls as a virtual member our virtual membership is designed for friends who live outside of Tulsa Oklahoma and who want to engage with all souls in a meaningful way you can be part of an expanding family a global family really wherever you are if you live in Oklahoma Ohio or Orange County California Canada or Cameroon by becoming a virtual member you'll be able to deepen your connections with members and friends here in Tulsa and with members wherever you are each week you'll receive special All Souls content tailored for you our virtual members virtual members have access to pastoral care to personal prayers and also receive invitations that exclusive web events you can learn more and if you're ready you can become a virtual member today by visiting All Souls Church org forward slash virtual membership we're grateful our ministries are having a positive impact on your life and we want to share the good news of love beyond belief with more and more people so no matter what we need your support to keep this ministry growing and thriving so please consider making a gift today you can do so by texting love be be for love beyond belief two seven three two five six or simply visit our websites you are a blessing in our lives may you be blessed and be a blessing [Music] you

Channel: All Souls Unitarian

Views: 2,748

Rating: 4.7600002 out of 5

Keywords: All Souls, Unitarian, Church, Tulsa, Oklahoma, Universalists, Universalism, Sunday, service, sermon, minister, Transformation, life, death, transition, change, challenges, expression, self-perception, expansion, boredom, crossing over, adventure, love, impact, Bishop Carlton D. Pearson, Contemporary

Id: rI4gY7z6OyI

Length: 32min 12sec (1932 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 19 2018