The Week of January 9th, 2022

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Sermon Noodles and Devotional Guide

This is the last in a series of sermons on “Why people don’t like change.” Our foundational text has been Ephesians 4:22-24: “22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your False Self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the True Self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” We have also introduced a map of the True Self and False Self to help explain why people don’t like change, which is because our wounded parts keep us safe by keeping us small. 

 

1.     Take a look at the map of the human psyche on the other side of this page.  Notice the facets of wholeness of the True Self and the fragmented part connected to the four directions:

True Self (Wholeness)                                     False Self (Fragment)

North:             The Nurturing Generative Adult                     The Loyal Soldier

South:              The Wild Indigenous One                             The Wounded Child

East:                The Innocent/Sage                                        Escapists and Addicts

West:               The Muse                                                       The Shadow

Which of the facets of wholeness do you excel? Likewise, the strongest part of our wholeness usually indicates our weakness is on the other side of the map. If our strongest facet is the Nurturing Generative Adult, our weakest facet is most likely The Wild Indigenous One etc.  

2.     The False Self is full of childhood survival strategies that keep us safe by keeping us small. The strategies, known as subpersonalities, are not necessarily evil or bad. However, they are not the True Self of who we are in God; they are counterparts and aspects of the immature ego of the False Self that need healing

3.     The West is the place of creativity, imagination, and romance. It is part of us who loves to be courted by the natural world. The West is the direction of the setting of the sun, and therefore the place of death and shadow. Journal about these question: What is coming to an end in your life? What do you need to let go of?

4.     The fragmented part of the West is what psychologist Carl Jung named, “The Shadow.” The Shadow is the part of us dwelling below conscious awareness. It is what is true about us--but we would deny until our dying day because the Ego cannot bring itself to acknowledge this is true. The Shadow is not what we don’t like about ourselves and try and hide from others. It is what is true about us but we fail to admit. 

  • The sinister shadow: the Ego cannot accept these traits could be a part of our personality. Example: the pro-life advocate in Kansas who shot and killed a doctor who performed abortions.

  • The golden shadow: the beautiful parts of us we project onto other people through intense admiration.

5.     Jesus was a master at calling attention to the shadow. Notice Matthew 7:1-5. Calling attention to the plank in our own eye is called “shadow work.”

6.     Ever heard of the phrase, “The Scapegoat”? A scapegoat is someone who is blamed for another person’s wrongdoing. Read Leviticus 16:6-10 if you want to find out the origins of “The Scapegoat.”