I changed my lesson title this week after President Biden stepped down and passed the torch to Vice President Harris. It was such a beautiful sacrificial act that I had to at least mention it in the context of the theme of sacrifice. What he did is very rare on the world stage. Pressured or not, it was still his choice, and he made a very unselfish one for the greater good.
Considering the theme of sacrifice, many automatically think of Jesus’ death, which is symbolized by the cross. The saying, “He died for our sins,” bothered me for a long time. I found it difficult to relate to, let alone understand. That is, until I killed a deer! When I was in ministerial school, I was on my way to give an early morning talk on death and dying. My son Justin, who was 6-years-old, was seat-belted in but was leaning over toward the middle of the seat asleep.
A ten-point buck suddenly jumped in front of our car, stopped, looked at me, and all I could do was brace for the crash. It knocked us off the road into an embankment, which ended up saving us from oncoming traffic. Justin was startled out of sleep but was unhurt, thankfully, as was I. The deer was down but got up, stumbled a few steps, fell, got up, stumbled, fell, got up…about four or five times until he made it over to my driver’s window, looked deep into my eyes, and then fell one last time and died! The shock of that was intense, and I was quite traumatized.
I did not have a cell phone then, 30+ years ago, so we made it across the busy highway and rang the doorbell of a stranger’s house to call the sheriff. He ended up telling us it was the largest buck he had ever seen and a miracle it did not go through our windshield.
Later that week, I met a man from the Deer Clan who told me his people believe that when an animal makes a sacrifice for someone like that, they give it their power—which in this case was “gentle strength.” Then a few days later, by a strange set of circumstances, a shamanic facilitator ended up at my house and led me on a shamanic journey to ask the deer why it died. It told me that it “died for my sins.” One realization I had from that was the need to immediately release a belief that I was going to get hurt or die in an accident—since I had experienced too many. I stopped affirming that and changed my entire experience going forward.
In Unity, we say that “sin” is missing the mark of our divine potential. Whenever we think and speak negative thoughts, we express them accordingly and miss our divine potential. Just as Jesus had a sacrificial death to wake people up, I felt that I was awakened by the sacrifice of that deer. Whenever I relate that story, it deepens the meaning for me and helps me to feel grateful, and also, willing to stay awake.
Let us be aware of the sacrifices that others make for us and that we make as well for the greater good. This week, we can certainly thank President Biden for being such an example to us.
Love and blessings,
Rev. Kathy