The Santa Anita Church

A New Thought Spiritual Community

Category: Sermon Topics

Sermon Topics

Guilt & Shame: Knock It Off

What they are, why they are, and how to stop, so you can experience your best life yet!

 

March 9 – Guilt? Innocence
We are not the things we tell ourselves we are. Our inner voice is far louder and far meaner than anyone else’s words have ever been or could ever be. Rev. Gina begins a story from Jane Middleton-Moz’s Shame & Guilt: Master of Disguise to illustrate this point.

 

March 16 – Zero Shame
Rev. Gina concludes the story from Jane Middleton-Moz’s Shame & Guilt: Master of Disguise and introduces a new method of journaling to release dark, fearful feelings and bring peace to your life by seeing past events through the eyes of love.

Sermon Topics

Moving Beyond Anger

Anger is largely used as a means of creating distance, to gather some toward the conflict or to push some away. What anger truly is, is a modality for keeping us asleep to the reality of the perfection we are a part of. Anger isn’t real. It’s a destructive force, contrived by ego, to allow us to feel somehow superior. This series serves to point out the damaging effects of anger so we can move past it and get back to, as our last series laid out, how to be Love.

 

February 2 – So, You Big Mad?
Using the trending social media bit, “You Big Mad”, as a jumping off point, Rev. Gina shifts our tendency to play the blame-game when we are angry to a people of peace through a return to love. Drawing on steps from Neill Gibson & Shari Klein’s What’s Making You Angry? and insight from the Testament of Dan found in the The Apocrypha, we are reminded to turn to love to move past anger.

 

February 9 – Madness?
What do we do when our egos start hollering and our fists ball-up and there’s nothing happening to stop us from forgetting that love is the only thing that’s really real? How do we take the lesson from that initial angry emotional response and come from love before we start yelling? Rev. Gina shares from the knowledge of Thich Nhat Hanh and Carol Tavris, distilling the lessons down to a seemingly simple, but often challenging task of living in the now – as we focused on some months ago – to let go of fear, release anger, stop the ‘what-if’ doom scrolling, and recall that our thoughts and beliefs shape our experience.

 

February 16 – Madness!
Rev. Gina recounts two recent stories where turning to love instead of anger resulted in blessings to the local community, both within and outside the church.

 

February 23 – Fed Up or Fed?
Stepping through The Cranky Code from Anger is a Choice by Tim Lahaye and Bob Phillips as the basis for the different forms of anger we see around us, Rev. Gina asks us to pinpoint those we identify with. Then taking a deeper look at the Cherokee story of two wolves, we are shown that both wolves are needed and both must be cared for if we are to attain our highest good.

 

March 2 – Let it Melt Away.
As Marvin Rolnik noted, “There is one language everyone in the world is fluent in: Victimeses.” Closing out the series on Anger, Rev. Gina guides a meditation with an exercise that allows participants to write down those vestiges of victimhood and anger – emotions or thoughts which cause discomfort – to literally watch their sources of anger melt away.

Sermon Topics

How to be Love

 

Even when it appears that love is absent from all around you, you can choose to be the Love. This month Rev. Gina Milligan will explore a variety of ways to be the Love in every situation. Change your life; change the world!

 

December 22 – How to BE Love
There is no question for which love is not the answer. No problem for which love is not the solution. No cause for which love is not the means. When we know this, fundamentally, we’re open to hear and see our angel-moments.

 

December 29 – Love Is…
We have been trained to live from a place where we play silly games to keep others’ opinions of us high. In doing so, we become so busy in living for the acceptance of others, that we forget to live for ourselves. Put another way, we are in a constant state of calling out for love. But when we are calling out, we cannot truly, deeply BE the love that this world so desperately needs us to be.

 

January 5 – Much Love
The Burning Bowl concept is reintroduced as a reminder of how to release our disharmony so we can fully express our love. Continuing a look into how to be Love, Rev. Gina creatively uses her body as a metaphor for the interconnectedness of all that is and tells a beautiful story from the Kuan Yin Chronicles.

 

January 12 – Love Much?
Following the catastrophic week of heavy wind and fire devastating the Los Angeles area, Rev. Gina harkens back to recent sermons on living in the Now and slaying our fear dragons with a reminder that Love can conquer the fear and anger that many in the region may have.

 

January 19 – Marvin Rolnick
To coincide with the holiday weekend, the “How to be Love” series is interrupted as Marvin Rolnick returns to the pulpit to share his thoughts and poetry about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the need for forgiveness, and the non-violent civil disobedience Dr. King learned through his studies about Jesus and Gandhi.

 

January 26 – Love Always!
Recapping the “How to be Love” sermons presented prior to and immediately following the destructive fires that hit the Los Angeles area, and the insights presented by Marvin Rolnick to honor the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rev. Gina tells a tale of divine inspiration and shares from The Gospel According to Shug, a beatitude-esque list about those who have mastered the art of listening to that still, small voice and allowing it to govern their path.

Have you or one of your loved ones been affected by the Eaton fire, or other local fires? Whether you're in need of tangible goods or need a place to express your feelings, The Santa Anita Church community is here to help. Reach out to our church office or join us at the Fire Support Group held every 2nd and 4th Friday.