Midweek Faith Lift
September 30, 2026
The Beatitudes-Let’s Begin!
Rev. Deb Hill-Davis
Spiritual Passages
September 21, 2026
Eric Butterworth opens Discover the Power Within You with an old Hindu legend. Humanity once possessed divinity but abused it, so Brahma decided to hide it. The gods suggested burying it deep within the earth, sinking it beneath the ocean, or placing it atop the highest mountain. Brahma rejected each idea because eventually human beings would dig, dive and climb far enough to find it. Finally, Brahma said that divinity should be hidden within the human being, because that would be the last place people would think to look.
Imagine sunlight pouring through a stained-glass window. The glass doesn't create the light. It gives the light a particular form, color and expression. We are something like that. The Infinite Life is one Light. Yet it does not erase our individuality. It shines as our individuality. Radical embodiment means allowing more of that Light to come through the particular window that is us – this personality, this body, these gifts, this life.
A violin cannot express music by denying that it is a violin. Neither can a cello become more musical by wishing it had been made a flute. The music needs the instrument. Spirit needs expression. Radical embodiment means caring for and accepting the instrument through which the music of the Divine is being played – and then allowing it to sound fully.
And for a bit of humor:
"An Englishman and an American were having an argument one day about the leaders of their respective countries. At one point, the American shouts, 'The hell with the King!' Thinking he can insult the Englishman by casting aspersions upon someone who has his position by virtue of nothing except for birth; nothing to do with personal qualities, good, bad or otherwise. The Englishman is taken aback, thinks for a minute and says, 'Well, the hell with Babe Ruth!' Now think about that. Who does the Englishman think embodies America? Some scruffy kid who came from the humblest of beginnings, a big, swashbuckling palooka, who strides with great spirit - not just talent, but with a spirit of possibility and enjoyment of life across the American stage. Give me Babe Ruth over any king who's ever sat on the throne and I'll be happy with that trade." - Bob Costas
And with that, we enter our exploration of the Beatitudes as understood by Emmet Fox. This journey is to understand our own inner “Babe Ruth” nature, our Buddha nature, our Christ nature that finds full expression as we live our very human lives. Each time we come up to bat in our encounter with the possibilities in our lives, how do we show up? And when our deep and abiding humanness takes charge, what options do we remember that also invite our Christ nature to have a voice in the process?
We just returned from the Great Lakes Conference and the theme was “Evolving Together Spiritually” which invited us to take a deep dive into our humanity to truly grasp how we embrace our imperfections with love and compassion. Martha Creek took us through a two-hour journey of how resisting our very humanness and not wanting to see it causes us to constantly trip over it without even realizing it. She gave us each a book, Presence & Potential: Experience Your Higher Self and Live in Wholeness. It has 26 chapters each of which explores aspects of our very human behaviors and responses. She was exploring what we often say here: cultivate the power of the pause that allows room for Spirit in your engagement with others and with yourself.
The invitation of the Sermon on the Mount is to live into the teachings of Jesus as found specifically in the Beatitudes. It is found in Matthew 5:1-13
The Beatitudes
5 When Jesus[a] saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2 And he began to speak and taught them, saying:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5 “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
What is significant to note here is that when Jesus saw the size of the crowd, he went up the mountaintop to teach the Beatitudes to his disciples who came to him as he sat down. Jesus is grounded, seated, ready to share a very important teaching and then the disciples joined him. He did not share this with the multitudes. Pause and recognize that this is a higher consciousness perspective, a mountaintop perspective that Jesus shares with the 12 disciples, his closest followers. Twelve is the number of spiritual completion, so in these teachings we are being lifted to a higher consciousness that is one of spiritual completion and fulfillment. That means “Listen up! This is important! You need to get this!”
One of the observations Emmet Fox makes is that while many people may “know “the Beatitudes, rarely do they understand them, and there is a difference. Fox says people see them a “counsel of perfection” with little or no application to everyday life, because that perfection is unattainable. The Spiritual Key to grasping the importance and meaning of the Beatitudes is to realize that it is a prose poem in 8 verses which is complete in itself. It is a general summary of the whole of Jesus’ teaching, the core teaching of Christianity. Fox says, “It is a spiritual, more than a literary synopsis, summarizing the spirit of the teaching rather than the letter.” It is comparable to the 8-Fold Path of Buddhism and the 10-Commandments of Moses. It is more essential to followers of Jesus than the 10-Commandments, even though it generally gets less attention.
According to Fox, Jesus is concerned exclusively with teaching general principles which had to do with mental states rather than specific behaviors. If one’s mental states are “right” than all else will follow. If that mental state is not right, nothing else will be either. When you hear the words “mental state” think of it as the state of your consciousness and then notice how clearly it is aligned with God or your Christ Consciousness. When you are in alignment with that higher consciousness, then what you do and say flow from that energy and all will be “right” and in Divine Order as we say in Unity.
It is crucial to realize that these teachings are NOT about behaviors: what to do, what not to do, what to eat, or how to behave to be holy and pure. It is not a checklist like the Commandments. It is not a prescription of rituals to perform to demonstrate that one is holy and pure. The primary perspective of Jesus was anti-ritual, anti-formalistic, anti-formula. The focus is on Truth and the spirit of the Law, not the form.
The Beatitudes are intended to help us grasp who we really are and to clean the stained glass so that the beautiful light of Spirit shines brightly through us. The Beatitudes are intended to tune the instrument that we are, each with our unique sound and melody so that the music of our soul sounds forth and resonates as Spirit needs it to be. We let Spirit show us the way to tighten our strings or tune our instrument so that what is expressed is what is needed right then and there. We don’t tell Spirit, no, I don’t want to be an accordion so I am going to be silent. That is like telling God that right formula was not followed when you came into being and therefore, you will not participate in life until God gets it right!
I don’t think it works that way. No, I think it is more like the Babe Ruth story where we step into our unique expression of God love and give it all we got! We hit, we miss and sometimes we knock it “outta” the park. All along the way, we practice being and becoming the best version of ourselves so that that Christ light, that inner light of the Divinity within shines ever more brightly.
There are many Scriptures which tell us that this is the path, the path of Truth and of Light:
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is good and acceptable and perfect.” – Romans 12:2
“You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” – John 8:32
“You are the light of the world.” - Matthew 5:14
“I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” - John 10:10
May we have an abundant and well-lit life!
Blessings on the Path,
Rev. Deb