This recording features the Sunday Talk portion of the service. For the full service watch here.
Unconquered – Rev. John Adams
DESCRIPTION
Howard Thurman tells us that knowing our Oneness is the answer to any threats or dangers we may perceive. He considers this the “high-water mark” of spirituality. This Sunday, we will activate this sacred inner knowing with clarity and intention, even as we engage in the events of the world.
SUMMARY
Rev. John Adams opens his talk by expressing gratitude for the Cityside community, highlighting its role in nurturing and supporting several ministers, including Rev. Linda and Rev. Russell Legere. He discusses the theme of being “for something and against nothing,” acknowledging the challenge of not reacting negatively to certain behaviors in the world. Rev. Adams proposes a spiritual approach of saying “no” to negative energies, which helps clarify what one stands for, such as love, peace, and kindness.
He addresses criticisms of spiritual practices being too internal, emphasizing the importance of internal work to manifest positive change externally. Rev. John encourages spirit-led activism, suggesting various forms it can take, such as climate justice, immigrant celebration, and diversity initiatives. He shares personal experiences demonstrating the effectiveness of spiritual practices, including a recent favorable resolution with his apartment lease.
Rev. John concludes with a prayer, expressing gratitude for the community and the transformative power of spiritual connection, aiming to shape the world into one of peace, love, and harmony.
TRANSCRIPTION
This transcription was auto-generated, please excuse typos, errors and omissions.
Rev. John Adams:
Good morning everybody. Good morning, John. I’m Reverend John. My pronouns are he him. So glad that you’re here today. I have a talk, but I want to just start by just appreciating the Cityside community. This is an amazing place and I don’t know if we always connect to that at, just to kind of point out for a second that this is a community that has incubated or birthed several ministers, nurtured and supported Reverend Linda, who’s now an ordained minister. We birthed and a mentored and supported Reverend Russell Gere, who’s now out in California, and then there’s me stepping into my ministry and more to come. So when you think about that, think about the love and support and the consciousness that creates a space for that. And of course that’s led by our wonderful Reverend Amy and amazing that what a gift she is for all of us here in Chicago, right? So thank you Reverend Amy.
I’ve been thinking about this book and this theme this month and sort of reacted to it and came up with this idea that I wanted to talk to you a little bit about where am I with all of this. I mean, you all can read the book and you have your own reaction to it. I wanted to share some of my, what’s up for me in this? I kind of was thinking a lot about is this idea, this wisdom that’s been shared with us probably several times that I think is really great, which is being for something and against nothing, right? This idea that we’re for, we’re putting our energy into what we’re for and not putting energy into what we’re against. And I understand that. I completely get that. The problem is, this is the problem for me. I don’t know if it’s a problem for you, but it’s a problem for me and that is that I experience things in the world When I look out and I see things happening in the world of form, I see the behaviors and the way people are showing up.
My gut reaction is I’m against that. My gut reaction, my emotional reaction is this is not, I want to push against it. And I understand that that pushing against it actually just adds energy to it. I get that, but that’s sort of where I start. And so as I’m working with this and I’m trying to find my way with this and navigate my way through it, one of the things that I’ve decided for me, and we’ll see if it works for you, I just offer it. If it does, it doesn’t. If it does, it does. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. Which is rather than saying I’m against it, I want to say no to it. This is a definitive spiritual, no, I am not buying into this energy. I’m not moving into this consciousness. This for me is a no. And I think that’s a very powerful thing to say, and I think it’s perfectly fine to say it because we can get kind of caught up in what are the rules and spirituality, and particularly in this time and place where there’s so much happening in the world that I want to react to.
I want to be more evermore in my spirituality. And one of the criticisms that can come up for centers for spiritual living and our practice and our philosophy is that it’s a very internal experience. We work on our internal life to express and to out picture that life in evermore full, loving, joyful ways. And when somebody from the outside is watching me do that, I think their feedback would be, well, you’re not doing anything, but we know we are. And yet it may not feel quite complete yet. So I wanted to kind of reconcile that and understand what is mine to do with all of this. And so I started with this idea of, no, not this. I know there are other things, but this is not it. And if you take a moment and think about something that’s happening right now in your life, I’m actually going to move this out of the way because I’m pacing around and it’s in my way. If you think about something in your life right now that is a no for you, not this, just hold that for a second and I want you to say to me, I’m going to count to three and I want you to say with me, no. Okay, ready? 1, 2, 3. No, that was good. You guys surprised me. I thought we were going to have to do this several times to get the no going, but your passion is right there. I love that. That’s awesome.
And of course, what that does for me, the reason why I like that is because it helps me understand what I’m for. It gives me a clearer picture, a clarity of what I’m for, and of course what I’m for is for love. I am for the sanctity of life. I am for care and kindness and respect for each other. I am for peace. There’s a wonderful Fred Rogers quote, Mr. Rogers, as many of you may know him, and he says, when I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say, look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping. It’s look for the love, look for the kindness, look for the empathy. Look for those who are stepping up to help and to bring positivity into the situation. We can get so caught up in the story.
We can get so caught up in the negativity and get so caught up in, oh, those people and they’re so bad and they’re so awful and all this, and forget that we have a choice to step into looking and seeing those who are contributing, those who are lifting the hearts and minds and souls. So we just say no. And that brings us what I like to think of as clarity in the moment. I know what I’m for, and that experience, that process of saying no to this and yes to this, really helps me step into a more grounded place of clarity. And that clarity brings for me conviction. I have my conviction of what I’m for. I was going to do a slide for this and I think I accidentally deleted it, so there is no slide, but I’ll just tell you anyway. There’s a Bible verse, Hebrews 11, one that says words, the effect of the assurance of things, hope for the convictions of things not seen, right?
This is the idea that we work with a lot, which is that internal evidence of proof of spiritual realities not visible externally until they’re made manifest. And then even when they are made manifest, we have to look for them. We have to look for the helpers. We have to look for the blessing. We have to look for the good that is unfolding for us, knowing what we are for is moving into this world with this clarity, with this having done our work, right? Our work is first that internal work we do that work, we say no, we get yes, I get clear, and I have my conviction.
Conviction not because it’s somebody else’s opinion or somebody else’s very persuasive argument, but conviction from that inner clarity that I’ve done in my internal spiritual work, James Baldwin has this beautiful quote, I’m doing a few quotes today, James Baldwin, the longer I live, the more deeply I learn that love, whether we call it friendship or family or romance, is the work of mirroring, magnifying each other’s light from this place of clarity and the conviction that comes from that internal, just knowing that comes from that we gain courage, the courage of our convictions. We learn that we have that conviction. We’ve done this work, we have this clarity, we have this conviction. We’re stepping into our courage. It is now our chance and our opportunity to step up out into the world and act. This is our moment to say, okay, now I’m going to take action in the world, whether it’s, I dunno, voting or marching or preaching or singing or whatever’s right for you, whatever it is yours to do, we do it from this place of having done our work.
So that old criticism of, well, you’re not really doing anything or prayers really starts to just kind of be their issue, not mine. Because I know that when I do my prayer work, when I do my meditation, when I take the time to sit with what is and allow it to be and say no to that, which I need to say no to and say yes to that which I need to say yes to, and I get that conviction of, okay, I know I remember. It’s not about blaming, shaming or getting angry with or investing energy in something that is trying to push negativity on me. It’s about me remembering that what I’m really about and what I stand for and what I act from is this knowing of love, peace, joy, happiness, connection, kindness.
And this leads me to this idea of spirit led activism. So there is spirit led activism in the CSL sister communities. There’s many places that do this. It’s an invitation to recognize that we are a global movement and that in that global movement, there are communities that are showing up and stepping out in a variety of ways. Cityside does it in its own with its own outreach group that does beautiful work in the world. We also have other people that will put out messages like our nonviolent communication meetings or just simply like something like game night that we host, where we come together and just do a little processing together and get that clarity and get that awakening within us. And we do it with our Sunday morning services as we come together and just do this practice and share and have connection and comradery.
Spiritual led activism can show up in a number of different ways. If any of these speak to you, then I would invite you to sit with it, think about it, maybe talk to Reverend Amy about it, if there’s something here for you in this, it can show up as climate justice. It can show up as immigrant celebration and protection. It can show up as rainbow alliance. We already have an L-G-B-T-Q-A meetup group. Thank you, Jonathan for hosting that. It shows up as diversity, equity, inclusion. We just finished a class that spoke to this, the embodying global vision. It is part of the global vision for CSL, for centers for spiritual living. We bring life and love to prisons and the criminal justice system and those involved in that. It can be common sense gun control. It can be reproductive dignity and rights, and of course it can be mental health and physical health balance and equity.
So we have a way of stepping into activism in our movement that goes beyond just the work that we do here and it or it doesn’t have to. In other words, the work we’re doing here, the internal work we’re doing does change the world. It does create an out picturing that is a shift from what was to what will be. And we are that bridge, we create that bridge from what was to what will be. We are forever stepping into that cycle of evolution. Everything’s an evolution. We are always evolving. We can’t not, right? I mean, I’m just talking regular old science here. Science tells us that we are always evolving. It may take a long time, but we’re evolving. And so we can step more consciously into that and usher in this evolution through the power of our spiritual work and our spiritual tools.
When we have these three ingredients that I find very powerful, this clarity, conviction, courage, we can step more fully into our spiritual activism in a way that really works well for us. And we do it from a place that is heart-centered. We’re not doing it as a way to just be reactive to what’s happening. We take in what’s happening, we sit with it, we process it, and we express our out picturing the mental equivalent of what we want to see happening in the world, our joy, our peace, our upliftment, and we sit in the idea of possibility. This could be true. And if you are thinking, well, maybe, I don’t know, some of this stuff just seems so and locked in and hard. I will just stand up here as an example of a demonstration of answered prayer for sure. I mean, moving into this Nashville community, you can ask Reverend Amy, this doesn’t happen.
You don’t walk out of ministerial school and get a job like this. And there’s a lot of reasons why that lined up and a lot of things just sort of came together to make that possible for me. But it’s a true demonstration of the power of our consciousness, the power of this work that we do together. I mean, just one thing after another, just kept clicking and moving into place, including the most recent thing, which is, I’ll just share this with you. I think I’m kind of loving it, that I have this apartment here in Chicago, and I had just renewed my lease back in August and it was supposed to run for a year. And I talked to the management company and they said, well, you’re going to have to pay all this money and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And they said, but if we can lease your apartment, then we’ll let you out of the balance of the lease.
And I got a call yesterday saying they leased the apartment. One more, just maybe it’s a small thing. And I recognize that in the grand scheme of all the things going on in the world, this is a little thing, but it just reinforces that when you do this work, things happen, things shift. This is real. This stuff really works. I was talking to my mentor, Michelle Mada, who’s one of the ministers at Mile High, one of the lead ministers at Mile High in Denver. And we were sharing this and she was like, I keep saying this over and over again, this stuff works. And you can never say that enough times because I’ve also been on the other side of it. I’ve been on the side of it where, oh my God, how am I going to get through this? How am I going to make this work? How is this? And I can’t even see a path out of it. I’ve been in that many times I want to say. And I think now that I can stand here and reflect back on it, it’s just an invitation. It’s an invitation to trust. It’s an invitation to remember the strength and the power of love.
Howard Thurman, I have to have a Howard Thurman quote, otherwise they’ll kick me out of here. Well, I guess they can’t kick me out, but whatever Howard Thurman says, in the stillness of the quiet, if we listen, we can hear the whisper of the heart giving strength to weakness, courage to fear, hope to despair. And I guess the essence of my message is that there’s always hope, and you will find it here. And I encourage you to keep coming here and keep connecting and keep listening and keep practicing and together we’re going to change the world. We really are. We’re going to take this into prayer in a minute, but I just wanted to again say thank you to everybody for your love and support today and every day that I’ve been here, even through the Bodhi days, and oh my goodness, some of us have been together for a while. I have a weekly prayer call with Reverend Amy, so I will hear about all of you.
And I hope from time to time, Reverend Amy will invite me back to talk again. That would be wonderful. I would appreciate that. And I’m going to try and coax Reverend Amy to come down to Nashville and talk too. So we have this sister community thing happening that I think could be really powerful. So many, many things for many years of connection, love, support, wisdom, teaching, all this beautiful stuff that happens here. So I just invite you to take a breath and step into prayer with me and just recognizing this love that is everywhere. And when it is unconditional in its nature, it is ever expressive. Expressing in and through all that is as it is, all that it is. And I am one with it. As I am part of creation, I am part of all of it. I must be one with it.
And knowing this for myself, I know this for each person participating in this moment of prayer. And so from this place, I just say a word of thanksgiving for all that has occurred here at Cityside, just blessing this beautiful bountiful community. Just seeing and knowing each person stepping ever more deeply into their spiritual life and expressing that in just bountiful beautiful ways, in ways expected and unexpected, as blessings flow, as abundance flows, as wholeness flows, as this connection and harmony flows through each and every single one of us. I just know that we are having this God experience, this human God experience where human self and God self come together and express in a way that is indescribable. And I know that it is so I have experienced it. So I know the truth of this, and I just share this truth with you, knowing for you that you have the same connection, the same oneness, this beautiful, beautiful oneness.
And I’m so grateful for it. I’m so grateful that there is this oneness that we really all ultimately all connected. I’m so grateful for this beautiful community that has taught me to love in ways that I never thought I could or would. I’m so grateful for all our time together and all that’s unfolding, knowing that as we step forward and we move this energy forward, that we do it in a way that is shaping and changing the world into a world of peace, love, harmony, hope, wholeness, abundance, and that for each person in this prayer, holding this in mind, I know that they are truly, truly blessed. And these blessings are showing up today, right here, right now. Knowing it is all good. It is all blessed. It is all so and done. I let it be. And together we say, and so it is.