I love where we have come to today, a week after the conclusion of the Creative Field Conference, and more than that, at the conclusion of a whole string of events here at Sunrise that have occurred in the past month. There is a sense of celebration over what has happened, for sure, but also a keen sense of the vigor of this creative cycle that we are in. So I take a lot of enjoyment in that. For me personally, it’s on to the next cycle. I fly out to Glen Ivy, California, this afternoon, and then from there on to London, where I’ll meet Ruth Buckingham, Phil Richardson and Tessa Maskell. We have events in England, and then we go on to South Africa for sessions there. I’ll be back mid-October. This tour involves me and the folks I’ve mentioned, along with others who are involved in these upcoming events. But I know in all of our lives there is a lot being created.

I would name what is to happen as “the coordinated action of love.” That action does bringHeaven Down Here, as Tuck and Patti’s song proclaims. There is a way by which that happens. We could ask why heaven hasn’t come down here in most people’s experience and for humanity at large. It is not because people don’t want a lovely experience—who wouldn’t? But there is something about the heavenly experience that is resisted. Most people would like all the good things in life, for sure—who wouldn’t? But apparently we don’t receive the good things in life just because we think we want them. We have an active part to play in letting heaven come into our world, and it certainly doesn’t occur through what Matthew Fox spoke of last week as acedia, which he defined as the inability or the lack of inspiration to begin new things. There is something required from us.

So, to cut to the chase on what is required, I’d like to make reference to the Book of Job. This is in the great examination, where Job is asked various things from “out of the whirlwind,” as it’s put. Job is asked this:

Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth? (Job 38:33)

When we think of heaven, we probably don’t think of “ordinances.” What would those ordinances be? “No Littering”? “Don’t Park Here”? Clearly they must relate to more than that. There is an ordering power to the universe that has relevance in our lives. I think that’s the point. It might come out in a way that is strange to our ears in Elizabethan English—“Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven?” But there is an ordering power of the universe that has relevance to us and to our lives. There is something that would bring order and intelligence to this world if we let it.

If we look around the world, and then observe people around us, we might come to the conclusion that the ordering intelligence of the universe has been tuned out. Generally speaking, the attitude is this: “Yes, let’s have heaven here, but let’s tune out the ordering intelligence that would allow our experience to be heavenly.” I think it comes down to that. And why? Why would a person tune out the ordering intelligence of the universe? Wouldn’t it be so that I can have it my way? To reference another popular song, is it not so we can claim “I did it my way”? So as we come to the conclusion of this cycle or any cycle, is that our anthem: “I Did It My Way”? Human beings and humanity as a whole are doing it their way, ignoring the fact that there is innate intelligence in this creative field in which we are participating, to which we could have access.

From the personal standpoint, it helps to pay attention to how we resist it. I don’t think that the universe jealously guards its intelligence, sealed up in a vault someplace, kept safe from people. I believe it’s readily available. So what if that were our premise, that the ordering intelligence of the universe was readily available to you and to me, relative to all things? We could have access to it if we were open to uncover for ourselves how we are resisting it.

We would have to admit, I think, that there’s some part of us that wouldn’t trust the universe for a minute—right? Isn’t there some part of us that thinks that we’ve got to order our life, our day, our career, our money, our happiness? That’s resistance to the ordering intelligence of the universe. It certainly begins with a lack of trust. And we are not going to rely on something that we don’t trust. It’s easy to attribute the ordering factor in one’s life to other people or to circumstances, and to say, “I don’t like the way so-and-so is ordering things, or telling me what to do,” as if the real issue was other people telling us what to do. It is easy to believe that the issue is other people, society or a corporation that is setting it up for us in a way that we don’t like.

But isn’t the real issue our willingness to trust the ordering intelligence of the universe as it comes through us? To really tune in and listen, to hear, and to know it? “Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven?” This ancient story is asking: “Are you listening to what comes to you, into your consciousness? And then will you act on it? Will you say it? And will you live your life by it? Canst thou set the dominion thereof in your life?” Can you let it be relevant?

That requires putting our life on the line. In other words, daring to live out of what’s burning inside you. And yes, it’s ignition—I love the image of igniting the next phase of consciousness, which was the theme of the Creative Field Conference. For that ignition to be sustained, it takes openness to the universal intelligence that works in us, so that we allow what really ought to be controlling our lives to control them, from within. It turns out to really not be that big a deal. It seems like it is—it seems like a scary proposition. But the so-called ordinances of heaven are the control factors that bring life and happiness and joy, which gets us right back to the great human boondoggle. The big human boondoggle is that doing it “my way”—not trusting the universe as it comes through me, but doing it my way—brings happiness and joy. It looks like an appealing way to go, but the result is that a person’s life is controlled by fear—the fear that is very naturally induced when we ignore the ordering intelligence of the universe relative to us. That never makes for happiness. The great human boondoggle contains a terrible lie.

The intelligence of the universe is within us, and we have access to that. I don’t think we gain full intelligence in a moment. Openness to the universe makes you smart. But it does take some time for the download of intelligence to come. So it takes a consistency of openness and a willingness to act on it—a willingness to let universal intelligence come all the way through, and act on it in your life, to get the whole download. Over time we become wise. Of course, the first point of wisdom is to doubt all the things we tell ourselves as we resist the universal intelligence.

The primary matter in the universal intelligence is the knowing of what it all serves. All intelligence is based in that. The whole world, the earth, works on that basis, and a human life works on that basis, and all of human relations work, rightly, on that basis. When we know personally what our life serves and what all life serves, it all makes sense. Everything and everyone has their place in the universal design. You have your place and I have mine. There is peace when we know who and what we serve and what all things serve.

So as we near the end of this time together this morning, and of a very particular cycle of intensification and concentration, I come to this simple, joyful place. There is so much angst in the world. It could be so easy for any of us to get caught up in some part of that. It seems to be so easy to be sucked into what we may think of as our own angst or the angst of other people. What saves us from all that is the simple knowing of who and what we serve, and what all being serves. We really can’t help the ignorance of that from somebody else. We may be able to inspire them to know for themselves what the truth is, but ultimately everyone makes their choice and has to face their own resistance. For the individual, for you and for me, our peace and our joy is knowing who and what we serve for ourselves.

I would like to try something impromptu, if you are willing. I’d like to invite some of us who sing regularly here on Tuesday at lunchtime to come onto the stage and sing “Holiness to the Lord.” And perhaps in lieu of our usual attunement time, we could continue singing as those who would like, singly or in pairs, come up onto the stage of this Dome and before this altar to share a time of honoring who and what you serve.

(A choral group sang, a cappella, “Holiness to the Lord,” words by Hugh Malafry, music from Old Hundred Twentieth, while people came to the altar, as David had suggested. That was followed by a prayer, spoken by David.)

Holiness to Thee, O Lord God Almighty. We lift our hearts and our spirits to Thee in this moment, bringing our whole world and the fruits of all that we have done. And thus stand before Thee, naked and not only unashamed but in joy and in pride that we have served Thee, that we do serve Thee now, in this eternal moment, always and in all things, in Thy name, in Thy eternal power, in Thy wisdom. Aum-en.