Mastering the Existential Encounter – Rev. Darrell Jones
How well are you handling your life right now? Would you say with ease and grace or something else like fear, frustration and anxiety? There is no wrong response to your life, however, there are responses that give way to peace, purpose and passion. Join us as we delve into the message of this time of year in nature as well as the spiritual and religious calendars. No matter what is going on in your life right now, may you handle it with more grace after Sunday’s service and message.
DESCRIPTION
Michael Beckwith tells us that most of our urges and desires are rooted in a deeper longing to feel connected to Source. When we look outside ourselves—through consumerism or the habit of “wanting to want”—we’re left unfulfilled. Join us this Sunday to explore how desire points us home—back to the Self, back to the Divine–and opens the way to presence, purpose, and peace.
SUMMARY
TRANSCRIPTION
This transcription was auto-generated, please excuse typos, errors and omissions.
Rev. Darrell Jones (00:00):
Good morning everybody. Isn’t music a wonderful thing?
Audience (00:05):
Yes,
Rev. Darrell Jones (00:08):
Notes, time, space put together in interesting ways. The options are endless. My first, I have a t-shirt that I bought years ago that says my first love was music, and that I really think is the way that I first understood God, the multiplicity, the possibility, the creativity, the freedom, the expression of the Holy Spirit. You could sit at a keyboard, you could sit at a guitar, you could sing a song and just keep making stuff up. It was endless. My name is Reverend Darrell Jones. My pronouns are he, him. And I want to pause on that for a moment.
(00:55):
In the context of our world today, the reason that I say he him are my pronouns is that most of you are making an assumption that those are my pronouns, right? You’re like, oh, this dude is wearing a suit. He’s dressed up like a man. He has a low voice. We make assumptions about who people are. And the reason that I identify that is to say we all live on a spectrum just like God, that amazing musical creative spirit that flows and to make an assumption that there is a singular expression of the divine. That there is one way to name it I am, but just one unique divine expression of that just as you are. And there are so many for us to explore, to awaken to and to realize, you feel me? And so this is not, it’s going to be a minute before we get to the talk.
(01:58):
Sorry, spirit. Spirit. I’m not even on page one yet, other than say hello, what your name is and your pronouns. So I sit on the Diversity Equity Inclusion Committee for the Centers for Spiritual Living, and the Centers for Spiritual Living is the larger international organization that Cityside community is affiliated with. And one of the things that I’m aware of in today’s climate, regardless of where you may land on the spectrum of belief, is that we speak in acronyms in shortened ai, everything, making assumptions all the time. And we need to slow down just like the lyrics of that song said, slow down child, you’re moving too fast. And just check it for a moment and realize what you’re thinking and realize what you’re speaking and realize what you’re doing and the impact not only that it has on your life, but how powerful your actions impact others.
(03:01):
So once again, good morning. My name is Reverend Daryl Jones. My pronouns are he him, and I’m so grateful to be with you all here on this Easter morning. Although I have to admit, the ego of Daryl Jones gets a little anxious on high holidays because people show up and they expect something great like, oh damn, it’s about to be one. It’s Easter, I better go. Or there’s a little bit of the guilt that maybe people grew up with. It’s like you got to go on the high holidays. I think that’s what dressed me up this morning because usually I’m not in a bow tie in a suit, but I felt called to do it and I’m enjoying it. Today we are continuing the conversation on this amazing book. If you do not know Michael Bernard Beckwith, then you need to wake up and read something of this man.
(03:48):
We’re focusing on this book, spiritual Liberation. He has a community in LA called the Agape International Spiritual Center. He’s been on Oprah, he’s got a podcast, he’s got all the things. But the thing that I love about him, I call him my spiritual grandfather because he is a living person who is walking and talking new thought teachings in a pragmatic, realistic way. And that’s what comes through in this book and that’s what we’ve been exploring, and this idea of fulfilling your soul’s potential so there’s fulfilling your soul’s purpose and then feeling your soul’s potential, that means it’s not been realized yet. It’s about to come. Are we willing to stand on the edge of our potential? I think that’s what the world is asking and calling us to do today, but most of us like the world of our soul’s comfort. Well, I’ll let them do that. That’s for them to do. I don’t know, mastering the existential encounter. Donna was like, well, I don’t know where he is going with that today. I have so many ideas of where to go and hopefully I’ll be able to stay concise. Let me start my timer so I don’t get going too long and turn this into a college lecture.
(05:17):
So the description, let me just start off there. It starts with a question. How well are you handling your life right now? Would you say that it’s with ease and with grace, or is it more like you’re handing your life with fear, frustration, and anxiety? There’s no wrong response to life. Let me say that again. There is no wrong response to your living. However, there are responses that give way to more peace, purpose and passion. Those are my three P’s for 2025. Who wants more peace in their life? Who would like to experience being on purpose and who wants to feel that passion? The chills. There are ways that promote that and there are responses to life that do, and there are responses to life that don’t augment that experience. Would you agree? Yes.
(06:23):
Today we delve into the message of this time of year, the seasonal change of spring in nature, as well as the spiritual and religious calendar holidays, which we are in the midst of right now, the big ones for the Abrahamic faiths. And my intention is that no matter what is going on in your life right now, that you may handle it with more grace and more peace and more purpose and feel passion after today’s service and message. Sound good? Take a deep breath in. Close your eyes. And Dom, if you’d pull up today’s reading, just hear these words, what you encounter in your daily life, no matter how simple may also be experienced as an existential encounter.
(07:24):
If you are a sculptor, you will see the marble, the perfect image that is to emerge. If you are a songwriter, you will hear with the inner ear the perfect words to compliment a melody. If you are a parent, you will see the highest potential within your child, even in the midst of misbehavior. If you are a spiritual practitioner, you will see the perfect spiritual being in the midst of the neuroses and pathology of others and yourself. How many of you here are a spiritual practitioner? I’m not talking about licensed practitioners, which we have those in the room that pray with you after surface, which all of those that have been given the title of Reverend have gone through. But if you are living and breathing and having an experience of life, I think that you are a spiritual practitioner and you don’t even have to believe in God as far as I’m concerned to be a practitioner because you are here working something out. Is anyone here working something out today? Okay, so if you are a spiritual practitioner or you’re just working something out, what if we could see the perfection and the possibility within ourselves and others amidst the neuroses in pathology, what that might be like to live a day where we are not catering to that surface level of experience?
(09:01):
So here we sit in this place of emerging from winter to spring. Ramadan, a time of fasting and reflection in the Muslim faith just ended a few weeks ago. Passover just ended officially yesterday in Judaism, and today in the Christian calendar is at the high holiday, the end of Holy Week Easter or resurrection Sunday, an annual celebration of the rising of Jesus, the Christ from the apparent dead three days he had been on the cross by the Romans, just like nature right now, it’s in the process of rebirth. It’s in the process of moving and growing and becoming. And all of these high holidays, I believe, reflect this time of year.
(09:57):
It’s the opportunity to slow down child. You’re moving too fast to pause and reflect on life, living hardship and the possibility of what is to come or to use spiritual speak, to prepare and embrace for the next expression of God, the divine or spirit. How is that springing and emerging in our lives? So I had a powerful moment last week. My wife and I were hosting a Passover Seder at our home, and we went around the table and shared what is sustaining us during this time in our history, this time of public shaming, of power, hoarding of war, sickness, darkness, oppression, unrest and more. Some said that they were going to read the paper less and watch the news less not to be negligent or to forget life, but to actually connect with their own consciousness, with their own mind, with their own truth, and with their own being. While others said that they were leaning more into friends and family and the people that are most important in their immediate circle to find some love and connection to what they may call God life or something greater.
(11:29):
I personally had this visceral and mental spiritual experience of connection to God that evening as I spoke the words out loud to my friends and family around the dinner table, that my connection to God was sustaining me. I was powerfully overwhelmed with this knowing that my connection to God has nothing to do with anyone else. Nothing. And I felt the liberating, powerful, dynamic, radical, embracing of that truth. My relationship to the divine has nothing to do with anyone else. And what are the qualities of the divine that many of us like to assign to God? Love sufficiency. If we want more than sufficiency, we say abundance, power, light, joy, and more. So if those are the qualities of God, if those are the qualities of spirit and God has nothing to do, my relationship to God has nothing to do with anything else, then my experience, my relationship with joy, with peace, with calm, with sufficiency, with everything that I assign God to be. It has nothing to do with anyone else. I love my wife, but my understanding of love has nothing to do with her. I love the work that I do, but my real relationship with sufficiency and abundance has nothing to do with the job. It is my relationship to God, to my spirit, to this word, to my consciousness,
(13:58):
The place to know God. Of course, we want to know God as our lives. Yes, depending upon some communities you go into, the person at the lectern can say God is good. And the audience replies
Audience (14:16):
All the time,
Rev. Darrell Jones (14:16):
All the time. We want God to be good all the time. And I do believe that God is good all the time, but it’s really hard when we pick up our phone five seconds after we wake up and start scrolling and we’re looking for how good it can be because most of the time what gets reflected back to us is what is broken, what is wrong, who is hurting? And I’m not saying that is not important information, but what does that do to foster and sustain the most important relationship on the planet? The one with yourself and your divine? Not much. Most of the time it severs, it cuts it questions. It provokes doubt.
(15:13):
The place to know God is not only without but first within. This is why spiritual practice is the thing to get still mented and pause and breathe and feel and then open our eyes and step out into the world. The place to know God is within and hear this within the divine never leaves this place, but often we do. So this is our work. We must work and practice to find our way back within. This is what the world needs. The world doesn’t need a savior. I’m 100 certain about that. Every four years this country looks for a savior. And every four years, this country is disappointed regardless of who you vote for. So we cannot put all of our faith in a single person that is making decisions based upon their desires. We must turn within. The world doesn’t need a savior, the world needs us to go back.
(16:49):
To me, this is the purpose of all of these holidays. As we transition from winter to spring, to pause and to stop and to come back. It’s an invitation to recognize there’s something emerging here. Are you ready? Are you ready to emerge with all the things that are coming, all the things that are on their way? This is the existential encounter to me, remembering and reconnecting to our divinity and to others divinity in the moment, regardless of what is or isn’t happening, the existential encounter is remembering and connecting to our and others’ divinity regardless of what is happening. The problem is right now, even though you may look outside and see the golden yellow forsythia and bloom, red bud trees popping their pink buds and the beginning of green lushness in our parks and yards, the world, our country, our local communities, probably some aspect of your personal life doesn’t feel like spring. Doesn’t look like spring.
(18:08):
There isn’t an energy of freshness. That excitement right now. I was just talking to my wife the other day and she was just so down. She was sad. She was like, I feel like everywhere I go, everyone’s just angry and disgruntled. She went to Costco and was just trying to buy something and she was talking to people and they’re like, everyone’s just grunting. She had to change some travel plans and was calling a hotel and was just trying to make some things. And the person on the other line of the phone just grunting. So the chapters of the book that I was given for this particular talk, there were four. It’s a lot. Reverend Amy, oh my God, I’m trying to not keep us here until four o’clock this afternoon. You guys are, yes, we are not going to be here until four o’clock. So just for those of you who might be tracking and following the book, it was chapters nine through 12. Chapter nine is Architects of the Beloved Community. If you’re familiar with that phrase, beloved community is brought forward by Martin Luther King and some other folks in the sixties. This idea of what is it that we are creating, I’ll let you read that on your own. It is amazing, and it’s actually what we are living. We are creating the beloved community. Yes,
(19:34):
Chapter 10 is Don’t get serious, get real. And I loved this idea that at least for me, when I first kind of found my way back to spirituality, for me, I had a whole journey of saying F it all. Like everyone’s a sucker. I can’t stand organized religion. They say one thing and go the other way. And so I just said, screw it all. But then there was this void in me. Anyone ever experienced that void? It’s like I would hear music and I would feel like in my body, music would’ve wake something in me. I’m like, oh, there’s that thing that’s not God. Nope. I don’t like the way it expresses. So I found my way back to studying in some philosophy, but I had this seriousness about me. It was like I got to get serious about God. I got to get serious.
(20:24):
And it wasn’t fun. It wasn’t enjoyable, it wasn’t real. It was actually this highfaluting philosophical idea that had a very difficult time applying itself to life. So in this chapter, he talks about getting real and part of getting real. Most of us don’t want to do because it means we actually have to accept what is and what happening in our lives. But when we do that, oh, then we move into the next chapter where he talks about, and this is where I’m going to spend most of my time since it’s Easter, chapter 11, is Jesus the Christ master of the existential encounter. So whether you grew up with Christianity in your background or not, whether you are down with Jehovah or not, there is something powerful in the teachings of this particular individual. And I think that is where I’m going to spend most of the rest of my time today.
(21:27):
And that’s what actually fueled this talk. Because if you can without any of the historical trappings of what Christianity has done to people, if you can read the story, you would read any story, you would read Harry Potter and just get kind of enamored and drawn into the characters and the subtext of what’s happening in the life of Jesus. It’s pretty cool. And the takeaway for me is that he was this amazing master of the existential encounter. No matter where he went, who he saw, what he came into contact with, he basically was in the space of this is God standing before me. Let me treat this person in the situation with the respect and the honor that God deserves, whether it be a leper, whether it be a prostitute, whether it be an outcast from the community, whether it be someone I understand or don’t understand. And then the last chapter of this area, which I’ll kind of just grace upon, is the myth of perfection. And to me, that is one of the things, if there’s a pillar to stand upon, is that there is a myth of perfection that does not allow us to meet the existential encounter of our day-to-day life. Yes,
Audience (23:01):
Yes.
Rev. Darrell Jones (23:02):
We want life to look and feel a certain way. We expect it. We want things to be binary because then we can hold it into hands and not have to actually consider something greater than that. Life has never been that simple. God is not that simple. So to be in the existential encounter and to master it or to be in the mastering practice of it, we must be willing to be humble and realize that we will never, ever, ever know all that God. Is anyone ready to say that with earnest in their life? I know a lot. I’m an intelligent wise being, but I will never, ever know all that God is.
Audience (23:54):
Absolutely.
Rev. Darrell Jones (23:56):
Thank you. I’m only on page two and it’s 18 minutes in. All right, here we go. So I love to break down words. Hopefully this will give some greater context. Existential means if you look it up, it’s relating to existence. Counter is an unexpected or casual meeting with someone or something. So every single day we are having existential encounters. We are having these casual relationships encounters. Some of them expected you put ’em on your calendar, but most of the time we got lots of unexpected encounters with life. Yes, you probably just got a text message from one of them this morning. I don’t know what it is. Maybe an email, maybe a phone call. So to be in the space of mastering or to practice mastery of the existential encounter, it is to meet life as it is. Not just what you know, but mostly what you don’t.
(25:07):
Spring renewal, rebirth. It doesn’t happen at the same time. Let’s look outside for a minute and I hope that this will ease someone’s heart today. Does anyone get depressed in the spring? Anyone experience kind of, yeah. As a kid, I used to get into, it wasn’t dark, but everyone would be like, oh my God, school’s almost out and they’re so excited. I’d kind of be like, maybe I was an only child and I wasn’t going to have all my friends at school. But there was this heaviness that I would experience. There was an uncertainty that would come in the spring and I never really understood it. But here’s what I want to say to you today is if you look outside in nature right now, we’re here in Chicago. Those of you who are online, I don’t know where you’re watching, but in Chicago, there’s green happening. Daffodils are popping. It’s lovely. But if you go down to Alabama, it is a very different spring right now. It is so much further progressed. And if you go up north to Alaska, there’s spring happening, but it’s a very different spring that’s happening in Chicago. And I just want to say because it’s like everyone’s like, yay, it’s spring. Let’s be light and happy. If you’re not experiencing that, don’t make that wrong.
(26:35):
Don’t make that wrong. You’re just living in a space where the winter temperatures are still coming to pass, right? We’d do that here in Chicago. It was 70 the other day and then it was like 42. Spring is not a constant. We’re not going to know all that God is. It’s constantly going up and down. I was talking to my wife about this and she gave me a couple of analogies in terms of where some of us might be right now in terms of the emergence in the idea of birth or rebirth. Most of us don’t remember this, but all of us went through one of the hardest, darkest, most uncertain journeys. It was called birth. We were in the birth canal, we couldn’t breathe. Things got really constricted and tight, but there was a light at the end that we all came through and took our first breath.
(27:33):
So some of us might be like emerging right now going, yeah, I’m here to live. And some of us might be inside that birth canal. And it’s scary. It is tight. Don’t make yourself wrong for wherever you may be. Just know that something is coming. Or another analogy that I like to foster, and this is in relationship to history, and maybe this is something that can give someone a little bit of peace today, is that history is not constant. If you look back in any book, regardless of what the history is about, there’s a pendulum that swings back and forth from one extreme to another. Right now in our history, the pendulum is swinging to an extreme, but it’s not going to be there forever. It doesn’t mean be complacent, but I’m just giving your heart your nervous system because right now everyone’s nervous system is jacked. I dunno about you, but my humanity, I got spiritual. Darryl, I can be over here and say these things, but if I’m honest with my nervous system, it’s kind of jacked up right now. So this is for your nervous system. This is for your actual boots on the ground living being know that this too shall pass. The way to master the existential encounter is to recognize you cannot hold on to it forever.
(28:59):
I was recently listening to a podcast where this guy was being interviewed about anxiety speaking of the nervous system and it being a little jacked. And this particular man was living with really intense, debilitating anxiety for most of his life, but then found some sort of freedom. But it wasn’t that he didn’t experience anxiety anymore. He had a new relationship with the experience of anxiety that he was having. And the interviewer said, well, what is it that you need to remind yourself of every day that helps you meet that anxiety? And he said, the appropriate response to despair is hope.
(29:51):
Go back to the birth canal. There’s despair in the birth canal. Now, we’re not consciously going, oh, I hope I can’t wait until I get to the light. But it’s just an analogy for the travel, for the journey. There is something beyond whatever hardship you are experiencing in your life right now, and it’s not something, let go of the grandiose for a minute. Let go of the savior for a minute. Some of us have the savior known as if I only had a million dollars, anyone ever had that savior that they were praying to? If I only had that perfect partner, anyone looking for that savior? If I, oh, I just can’t wait until I get that job. Anyone ever look for that savior? Oh, I just can’t wait until I lose 40 pounds. I’ve been looking for that savior my whole life.
(30:43):
You feel me? Okay. The appropriate response to despair is hope. There is something more. It could be here right now or it might be here tomorrow, but to stay in the consciousness that possibility is coming. That is the thing that allows us to master meeting our existence today as it is. So I have this silly mind for those of you who know me, you could call it a reverence sometimes. So I sat in meditation the other day and I was like, okay, so let’s just play with the idea. Okay, here it is. Easter Sunday, we’re talking about Jesus and the life and all thing. What if homeboy was here for real, for real? He was 33 in 20, 25 maybe, but he’d be hanging out. He’d probably be on social media. He’d be online posting stuff. And so I was like, well, what would his handle be?
(31:52):
So I love to play with some of the AI things. I was like, what would Jesus’ handle be if he was alive today and doing his message online? So here’s a couple of answers that came back at light of the world. I was like, okay, that’s cool at I am that I am. This one I thought was cool at Carpenter with a cause, right? This one really made me crack up at flipping tables. If you know him, flipping the tables of the tax collectors at Kingdom Disruptor, at Rebel Messiah, at Love Over Law at Blessed are the at loaves fishes for life. But my favorite one and the most irreverent one was at Humble af.
(32:48):
But think about it for a minute. There’s this lofty idea of who this person was, who this master teacher was, but I really love to bring it into today. I think if there was a 33-year-old cat walking around trying to wake the world up, they’d have a handle like humble af. It would piss some people off. I know Jesus did. Not everybody liked what he said. So I did one other little fun thing with ai, that campaign, I think it was back in the eighties when the whole jelly bracelets really first started, what would Jesus do? Ww JD and people started putting ’em on.
(33:34):
So I didn’t ask that exact question, but I was like, what is the message that in terms of the appropriate response to despair is hope? What is the hopeful message? If Jesus was to post something at humble af, what might that be that he would write? I added a little twist to it, but here’s what came back. Hey, hey, I know things feel heavy right now. The world seems loud, divided and uncertain, and it’s okay to feel overwhelmed by it. You’re human, you care. That’s a good thing. But don’t lose heart. I see you. I see your kindness, your frustrations, your quiet prayers, even when you’re not sure what to say.
(34:30):
You don’t have to fix the whole world. You’re not expected to carry it all, but you can bring light to your corner of it, a kind word, a brave truth, a moment of compassion. It matters. And when you’re tired, rest, real rest, not just sleep, but that deep kind of soul rest that comes when you let go for a moment and breathe. I’m there in that stillness. Realize your constant connection to God in that stillness. You don’t have to perform for me. Just show up. Be honest. I can handle your questions, your doubts, even your anger.
(35:30):
Keep showing up for love, for justice, for peace. Keep choosing mercy even when it’s hard. That’s what changes things slowly, quietly, but surely. And remember most of all that you are not alone. You are never alone. Even when you can’t feel it, I’m walking with you, have always been and always will. Pretty good for ai. Yeah, the appropriate response to despair is hope. If you want to be a master of the existential encounter, realize that peace is not about the absence of frustration, fear, sadness, confusion or anger or any of the other emotions that we try to run from.
(36:36):
Peace is available in every moment if you ask for it. I want to close with one last reading from spiritual liberation, an early part of the chapter, and Reverend Michael actually quotes Thomas Merton, if you’re familiar with his writings, he was a Trappist monk and this is how he described his own existential encounter. Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts, where neither sin nor desire, nor self-knowledge, can reach the core of their reality. The person that each one is in the eyes of the divine. If only they could see themselves as they really are, if only we could see each other that way all the time, there would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed. I suppose the big problem would be that we would fall down and worship one another.
(38:09):
May you fall down and worship yourself and the people you meet this week like never before. Master the moment you’re in by loving it as it is and bringing the love of God that you are has always been and will be into it and watch what happens. Peace and blessings to you all. So let’s take a moment to solidify and anchor these words. Take a deep breath in, and as you exhale, if it feels good, bring a hand or two up to your heart whether you hold it in prayer position or you just touch the heart space. Let it be a reminder of the heart of God. The heart of life that is not distant from us, that is right here for there is, but one heart, one life, and that is the life of the divine.
(39:19):
Nothing, no thing separates you from that heart. And it’s nature is love. It is possibility. It is healing. It is freedom. It’s liberation. It is creativity. It is all the things that we desire, but it’s not something to get. It’s something we are Let us step into this week mastering the existential encounter known as our living. We don’t have to have a crisis to meet our existence. Let us just meet our existence this week with love, with hope, with expectancy, with kindness, with compassion, with trust, with understanding, and most importantly, acceptance. Accepting ourself first as we are, and then accepting the world around us and blessing it to bless something means to bestow prosperity. Just as this time in our lives, the spring, things are a becoming abundance. Let us bless our individual and collective lives and know that something is becoming. And so it’s.