METAPHYSICAL MEETING, October 19, 2009
Contents
| - Topic | |
| - Call to the meeting | |
| - Opening readings | |
| - Member contribution A | |
| - Member contribution B | |
| - Member contribution C | |
| - Member contribution D | |
| - Member contribution E | |
| - Member contribution F |
Topic
In what way can we better emulate the primitive Christians?
Call to the meeting
In preparation for our metaphysical meeting on October 19, let’s take a closer look at the early Christians to discover the “fire” that impelled their devotion and healing work. We could make this a very comprehensive topic involving deep Bible study, however, let’s simply try to answer one question each in our own way:
In what ways can we better emulate the primitive Christians?
If we’re examining our present-day approach to membership in order to be more effective, to be more true to our mission, isn’t it logical to revisit our roots? On page 17 of the Church Manual, under the heading, “Historical Sketch,” we read:
At a meeting of the Christian Scientist Association, April 12, 1879, on motion of Mrs. Eddy, it was voted, - -To organize a church designed to commemorate the word and works of our Master, which should reinstate primitive Christianity and its lost element of healing.
Among the many resources available to you for study, you will find articles in the bound volumes. There are lists available in the clerk’s office to facilitate your selection.
Finally, you are invited to compose a treatment supporting our growth towards realizing a native, purer devotion as children of a beneficent God.
Opening readings
Matt. 13: 33 (The kingdom)
Matt. 5: 17
Ezek. 21: 27
1 Cor. 6: 14-18
John 13: 34, 35
Rev. 2: 1-5 (to ;)
S&H 572: 12-17
S&H 451: 2-4
S&H 9: 25
S&H 117: 29-12 n.p.
'02 5: 14
Mis. 354: 10
Mis. 270: 16-17
Mis. 175: 12-21
My. 152: 12
Member contribution A
Well, what a wonderful topic. I have explored the scriptures and Mrs. Eddy’s writings, the bound volumes and loved every word written about primitive Christianity and how I can emulate the primitive Christians.
My take on the question of how I can emulate the primitive Christian is to love, love, love! Jesus loved, God loved and we too can “love” and “heal” any thought or suggestion that attempts to weigh us down as the pure and perfect reflection of the Christ, Truth.
I have enjoyed studying I John chapter 4; to me the chapter is relating the wisdom of the ages. “ Beloved, let us love one another”. And here is the awesome statement that thrills me each time I read it “We love him, because he first loved us”. Verse 7 and 19.
So, by loving one another, loving God, loving good, we are departing from the material sense into the spiritual sense of being. It is a material sense that defines things material. It is a view of life as separate from God that darkens our understanding of the real nature of things harmonious. Love and healing are synonymous. Healing reveals aspects of the reality of God as man in all their perfection.
Jesus saw the perfection in each one that he healed by touching and reaching out to the divine. There was a neat bible note in My Bible Lesson last week where Jesus asked the beggar if he wanted to be healed. It is the only place sited where Jesus asked an individual if they wanted to be whole. The note stated that the man had begged for a living for 38 years and knew no other craft or trade to support him. This would be a radical change for him. Also, it stated that the beggar did not seek Jesus out for a healing. Jesus in his sense of spiritual reality or law removed the false sense of materiality from the beggar.
He had to have such a clear sense of his perfection and the perfection of all humanity as he quietly did God’s work. He rose above the material thought to the divine in healing sin, sickness, and death and that is what Mary Baker Eddy discovered in her reading and research of the Bible. She found the complete love and trust and ALLness of our loving God and blotted out that which was no party of God’s creation.
Aren’t we blessed to have such strong role models to follow? Jesus mixed no word with the devil, “Get behind me satan”, and Mrs. Eddy in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, wrote, “Insist vehemently on the great fact which covers the whole ground, that God, Spirit is all, and there is none beside Him”. P.421
I remember a class exercise from my teacher Tom McClain. He told us to write up a case of healing for the next day in class. We were to pray and heal. (Just like we do today.) The next day we were sharing our testimonies and one of our senior classmates said, “Well, I prayed and it was healed instantaneously.” Mr. McClain asked what she had used to heal the case and she told him “God is All in All and as God as All, there can never be any opposition to good”
Member contribution B
This is a great question, because it doesn’t ask us to try to compare ourselves with the early Christian church or churches. Rather, it asks us to consider how we can live more like the early Christians. By this, I presume the question is asking how we maintain a more Christ-like attitude, rather than reverting to first century human life patterns. Becoming a silversmith who refuses to make idols of Diana is not in my future. However, the constant activity of refining my thinking so that it becomes more spiritual and refusing to worship the material idols of today is definitely my focus today and for the future.
To be a primitive Christian requires that one lives in accord with the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. He is the primitive or original Christian and the historical figure I want to emulate. Nobody else expressed completely the Christ. What did Jesus teach? Let’s start with his simple statement, “...Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58 Before). The Jews tried to stone him for making this bold statement, but he passed through the crowd unharmed (v. 59). These five words declare the eternality of the Christ. Indeed, the inspired Old Testament characters expressed the Christly nature. Long before Abraham, Enoch was so “in synch” with God that he was translated without going through the death process. Many of the Old Testament leaders and prophets emulated the Christliness of Jesus, even though the Messiah had not yet appeared to human sense. Elijah emulated the Christ so completely that Mrs. Eddy defines him as “Christian Science” (S&H 585:9).
As primitive Christians, we accept that the Christ has always existed, will always continue to exist, and is one with God. Therefore, as the sons and daughters of God, we are also eternal and are one with Him. Mrs. Eddy writes, “The one Spirit includes all identities” (S&H 333:30). When this coexistence with God is understood, the earth will “...be filled with the true knowledge of Christ” (Mis. 360:31-32). As there is only one Christ, this would be the ultimate demonstration of true primitive Christianity.
What did Jesus do? How do I emulate him? The pat Sunday school answer would be, “He healed, he forgave sins, and he raised the dead.” Actually, that’s probably more than a Sunday school student would say. Jesus absolutely and completely expressed the Christ in every situation he encountered. Let’s take an example. Jesus went to the synagogue one Sabbath. This wasn’t unusual; he was called “rabbi” and had taught in synagogues before. On this particular Sabbath, one of the men had a deformed hand. By this time, Jesus had a record of healing without regard to human laws. He healed the man in spite of the opposition to his good works. He wasn’t afraid. (See Mark 3:1-5)
Reflecting on this incident gave me a better understanding of Mrs. Eddy’s Manual bylaw regarding prayer in church. If I’m going to emulate Jesus — be a primitive Christian — do I walk into church services, Sunday school, the reading room with a commitment to heal whatever may present itself and to overcome the world’s opposition to the Truth? Do I believe that my prayers will heal every discordant condition in that service, even if I don’t know what they are? Do I support my church family in obeying this Manual bylaw? Do I expect every person in that service to walk out healed? To answer these questions honestly with a “yes,” I realized that I must be more prepared and more alert before I walk into the service. This was kind of an Aha! moment for me. On the surface, it could seem like it’s more work, but deeper, I realized that this is exactly how Jesus healed and what Mrs. Eddy expected us to do in our church services. Both Jesus and Mrs. Eddy maintained an attitude of prayer in all their activities and were always ready to meet the needs that were presented to them.
What about the early Christians? If I’m trying to emulate Jesus, is there anything I can learn from them? The Apostles, those who were Jesus’ 12 Disciples, were expected to go out and heal. He even promised “greater works” (John 14:12). After the Crucifixion and Judas’ suicide, they elected another to bring the total to 12. It seems to me that even in the early church, apostleship wasn’t confined to the original 12. The word apostle is from the Greek word meaning “messenger”. Paul, of course, was the most prolific and widely-traveled of those later apostles for whom we have records. He went west to Asia Minor, Greece, Rome, and perhaps Spain. Others went south to Egypt. The Christians of Malabar in India consider the disciple Thomas as founder of their church in about 52 CE and still conduct their services in Syriac, a dialect of Aramaic, the language of Jesus. One only needs to read The History of the Church: From Christ to Constantine by Eusebius to learn that early Christians performed miracles and were martyred for it. Yet, they had “fire” (no pun intended). They knew that Christianity was salvation.
I’m even less interested in being a martyr than I am in being a silversmith, but I can learn an important lesson from these early Christians: they were fearless. They knew Jesus’ teachings were the truth, and they “spread the Word,” in spite of the possible consequences. They were so convincing, which could only be because of their success in healing, that others took up Christianity, even though martyrdom was a possible outcome. I am extremely grateful for their work. It was a revelation to me that I can consider myself an apostle of Christ. This role has been handed down to me from Jesus through the early Christians and Mary Baker Eddy. I don’t expect to be martyred in the “boiling oil” sense, but I do expect that I have work to do to fulfill my apostolic role.
None of us would be here tonight if we weren’t Christian Science healers, as lived by Jesus and the early Christians. Are we willing to be martyred in the present day sense - undergo intense and sometimes unfair questioning about our religion and way of life, defend our use of spiritual healing instead of the “quick fix” of modern medicine (not to say that spiritual healing isn’t quick) - to really stand up and be counted as primitive Christians? It may seem like a lot of work, a lot of learning, and at times, we may feel incapable of fulfilling our apostolic role. We don’t have to do it on our own. We have an instruction manual, Science and Health. In a chapter entitled “The Christian Science Textbook,” Mrs. Eddy wrote in The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, “The textbook of Christian Science maintains primitive Christianity, shows how to demonstrate it, and throughout is logical in premise and in conclusion” (My. 111:15-17). Then, she promises, “The followers of the Master in the early Christian centuries did just what he enjoined and what Christian Science makes practical today to those who abide in its teachings and build on its chief corner-stone” (My. 112:4-8). We, too, are primitive Christians.
I’m very grateful to Dean for suggesting this topic. It has given me much to think about. I would have liked to have included in my paper the Two Great Commandments and some thoughts about the church being the body of Christ, some thoughts about life in the early Christian church and its applicability to our church, exposition on some of Mrs. Eddy’s comments about primitive Christianity, but the paper would have been far too long.
For the Christian Science treatment of this topic, I’d like to simply pray that primitive Christian prayer “which covers all human needs” (S&H 16:10-11):
Our Father which art in heaven,
Our Father-Mother God, all-harmonious,
Hallowed be Thy name.
Adorable One.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy kingdom is come; Thou art ever-present.
Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Enable us to know, — as in heaven, so on earth, — God is omnipotent, supreme.
Give us this day our daily bread;
Give us grace for to-day; feed the famished affections;
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And Love is reflected in love;
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil;
And God leadeth us not into temptation, but delivereth us from sin, disease, and death.
For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.
For God is infinite, all-power, all Life, Truth, Love, over all, and All.
(S&H 16:26-15)
Member contribution C
The Fire Within Us
Does the fire of the early Christians burn within us today? How do we best emulate their thinking and actions? What does it mean to be a “primitive Christian,” anyway?
First, let’s separate primitive Christianity from the early church and its organization. When Paul wrote his letters to the faithful but struggling early churches, he encouraged their good works but recognized and admonished them for all kind of organizational, petty, human problems. They weren’t standing firmly for the truth as he saw it; they were wishy washy; they were unloving. You all know the list. In addition, they really couldn’t figure out who to include and who to exclude from the church. Circumcised? Uncircumcised? Jew or Gentile? Peter’s view? Paul’s view? Hard lessons for the times.
And later, around 325, when Emperor Constantine tried to convince the then-known Christian world that all should adopt the Nicene Creed (I believe in one God, the Father Almighty…and in one Lord, Jesus Christ. . .) who knew that a controversy around the wording would lead to a major schism between the Eastern church and the Western in 1054.
So, let’s assume tonight that we are not going to get down and scrabble about words or ritual or edifices, but keep to the high road and be guided by the spirit of those primitive Christians, the early workers who strove to emulate Jesus in all his ways. What tied them together, and what should tie us to them and to each other?
Isn’t it healing? Isn’t it the firm knowledge of the resurrection and the ascension? Isn’t it, as Mrs. Eddy directs us, “one Christ, the Holy Ghost or divine Comforter.” This is what still marks our road, still keeps us on the path, and still fuels the fire within us.
Are we as courageous as those primitive Christians? Would we be willing to put our lives on the line for Christianity, for Christian Science? Are we willing to answer questions when others ask us about Christian Science? Are we exemplifying absolute nonjudgmental, unconditional love toward each other? Are we working together as “one body we” as members of Christ’s church? Christian Science treatment is our hallmark – so let’s do that right now.
Loving Father-Mother God, we stand on your all power and firm guidance. We know that we each reflect and express Mind. We state firmly and without equivocation that Christian Science heals quickly and effectively. No mortal beliefs calling themselves labels or society or limitation or past history can cloud our thinking. There are no mortal myths of division or opinions or criticism that can enter church, our church. You are the infinite All-in-all, and we are, each and all, an undivided portion. You bless this church as we go about Your way. We stand on the foundation of the Christ, of the revelation of divine Science, and of absolute, fearless, Christly healing.
Oh! Thou hast heard my prayer;
And I am blest!
This is Thy high behest: --
Thou here, and everywhere.
Mary Baker G. Eddy
(on the flyleaf of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures)
Member contribution D
An answer to this question is not easily rendered. Christ Jesus is the central figure in Christianity and it is he whom we strive to emulate. Learning from the experiences of disciples and apostles can be very instructive, but comparisons between our church communities may be difficult due to our limited knowledge of those ground breakers and the vast difference between their time and ours. Our challenges were not their challenges, and vice versa. Yet, the question is useful in terms of furthering our desire to be more consecrated.
We can admire the relative single-minded devotion and boldness of Paul or the quiet and patient shepherding of John and ask what it was that inspired their faith and devotion in the midst of extraordinary inward and outward forces. The disciples were often preoccupied by contrary Jewish theories about the messiah. The primitive churches were beset with eschatological issues (the end times). The world as they knew it was under the stranglehold of Rome and was the catalyst for much rebellion. The proximity of Jesus’ personal presence and the demand to carry on his mission, though positively impeling, may have added to the tension. These elements, considered individually or together, forced upon the early Christians an incomprehensible urgency
Our epoch has an almost diametrically opposite set of challenges, not unlike the various periods in biblical history when the Jews were captives of foreign nations and cultures. During these times, it was more difficult to maintain pure worship and a moral lifestyle. We are beset with an atmosphere of pleasure seeking, the comforts that a post-industrial and information-technology age has afforded, the domineering impress of the developments in medicine, and the draw of popular religion. The Christian Science movement appears to be declining under the duress of these challenges.
What are we responsible for as Christian Scientists? Have we failed to demonstrate spiritual law if the tables of materialism, medical theory, and scholastic theology have not been overturned? Even though we are hard-pressed to see that our church as an institution is having a direct impact in this process, we should accept the notion that the leaven of Truth is having a profound result. Looking deeper, there are obvious “chinks in the armor” of materiality. This Christ leaven has made inroads into every facet of human belief. In general, there continues to be a sobering of motives leading to more balanced living and spiritual searching. The fundamental basis of matter as substance has been seriously challenged. There are pockets of reform within traditional Christianity, and indeed within many religions, engaged in discovering purer approaches to worship. The examination within medical practice of the role of mental causation continues to develop.
We can rejoice in signs of universal progress and take comfort in the fact that we alone are not responsible for bringing about changes in human thought and behavior. So, what is our responsibility? It is to yield to the reality of Spirit, in other words, to grow spiritually, unabashedly and deliberately. This goal we have in common with the early Christians. As they saw it, it was their only means of salvation. Do we really believe this to be desirable or necessary? What inward and outward forces are there today which compel this progress? What role does the Comforter play today?
Historically, the tendency is to clothe spirituality in human garments: to subjugate it, redefine it, recreate it and control it. The most blatant example of this was the endorsement of Early Christianity by Constantine in 313 AD under the Edict of Milan. While we are not in danger of this happening today, there are elements of commandeering which are more subtle. These have to do with having merely the appearance of worship. Due to centuries of reinterpretation, codification, and the development of ritual, it’s more difficult to know what true worship is. Mortal mind, being ignorant of Spirit, is satisfied with merely having us “go through the motions.” What will break the hypnotism of legalism, the belief in “salvation by doing”? (Madiline Maupin Miles, Galations)
The solution is to resign ourselves to love more as a matter of Principle. This is where returning to the simplicity of primitive Christianity can reap dividends. Stephen T. Gray in a 2003 Journal article states that, “The desire to discuss Jesus’ message with those who already understand it and to pass it on to those who don’t,” was the “very reason for the existence of the early churches.” (The Christian Science Journal 2003. Vol 121, Oct. p. 61) We know that Mary Baker Eddy’s focus on “practice not profession” and her uncomplicated design of church were geared toward this end.
Member contribution E
The statement in the Historical Sketch at the front of the Church Manual gives the specific answer to the question being addressed by the meeting when it states that the church was founded to “to commemorate the word and works of our Master, which should reinstate primitive Christianity and its lost element of healing.”
The emphasis is clearly on healing, and yet there is a couple of observations about the statement that led me to think a little further about the statement.
The first observation is that we are reinstating the “words and works” of Christ Jesus. Those two words go together. As it states at the beginning of John’s gospel, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” This hints at the spiritual reasoning that emanates from divine Mind, the outcome of the one, infinite knowing, the triumph and absolute Allness of One Mind. Thus “the light shineth in darkness,.” (verse 5) and overcomes all opposition.
At the same time, “In him was life,” (verse 4), that is, in God, and divine Life embraces the practical demonstration of all activity, development, fruition, achievement. All of that is within and of God, and we express it, both individually and as a congregation.
The second observation about the statement in the Historical Sketch is the word “should.” That word sounds as if it were placing conditions upon the restoration of that “lost element of healing.” I don’t see it as a condition; however, I do see it as a cautionary statement. In particular, practical metaphysics arises from absolute, spiritual consciousness, listening for the spiritual idea as the motivator for every action, and the constituency of every object. This contrasts with the poverty and ineffectiveness of material belief arising from a personal sense of consciousness. Our church is founded on spiritual principles; it is not just another church organization.
A further aspect that the healing work is just one step on our way forward. In Science and Health, page 150, we read: “To-day the healing power of Truth is widely demonstrated as an immanent, eternal Science, instead of a phenomenal exhibition. It’s appearing is the coming anew of the gospel of “on earth peace, good-will toward men.” This coming, as was promised by the Master, is for the establishment as a permanent dispensation among men; but the mission of Christian Science now, as in the time of the earlier demonstration, is not primarily one of physical healing. Now, as then, signs and wonders are wrought in the metaphysical healing of physical disease; but these signs are only to demonstrate its divine origin, — to attest the reality of the higher mission of the Christ power to take away the sins of the world.”
This leads to my conclusion that primitive Christianity, in its highest sense, is the understanding of the purely spiritual nature of man. It’s the absolute truth that heals, and the healing is a form of evidence of spiritual man. The sin to be overcome is the belief that man is a material entity goverrned by personal sense and its beleifs.
With regard to our church, which is what this meeting is all about, we can look at it this way:
Divine Mind is the only Mind, and there is no other. This Oneness of being is absolute, it cannot be contested, cannot be divided into many minds, or many forms of one consciousness. It is Mind’s ideas that our members extpress, and that our community reflects,by virtue of the spiritual nature of man. “All is infinite Mind and it’s infinite manifestation.” (S&H 468)
The richness of Soul is seen in the compound ideas of Mind, and Soul is reflected by all, by everyone, without exception. That reflection of Soul includes the natural recognition and utilization of Church, as “whatever rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle.”
Divine Life constitutes all activity, the motion, enquiriy, and development of spiritual ideas in all their exactness and well-being. Therefore, that divine Life is manifest by Life’s reflection, the compound manifestation of God that includes all of those in our town.
Thus we see that Principle is already established, and our Church is a natural manifestation of divine law, with a useful place in the compound, spiritual community of God., where the spiritual nature of all mankind can participate and find rest.
Spiritual man is the divine nature of everyone, and of our Church, which therefore has a place and progresses according to our cherishing of this understanding.
Member contribution F
What came to me when I began thinking about this topic were these words from:
Luke 24:32 (the walk to Emmaus):
Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?
S&H 45:32-12, 46:30-3:
Jesus' students, not sufficiently advanced fully to understand their Master's triumph, did not perform many wonderful works, until they saw him after his crucifixion and learned that he had not died. This convinced them of the truthfulness of all that he had taught.
In the walk to Emmaus, Jesus was known to his friends by the words, which made their hearts burn within them, and by the breaking of bread. The divine Spirit, which identified Jesus thus centuries ago, has spoken through the inspired Word and will speak through it in every age and clime. It is revealed to the receptive heart, and is again seen casting out evil and healing the sick.
His students then received the Holy Ghost. By this is meant, that by all they had witnessed and suffered, they were roused to an enlarged understanding of divine Science, even to the spiritual interpretation and discernment of Jesus' teachings and demonstrations, which gave them a faint conception of the Life which is God.
They no longer measured man by material sense. After gaining the true idea of their glorified Master, they became better healers, leaning no longer on matter, but on the divine Principle of their work.
S&H 367:8:
…legitimate Christian Science, aflame with divine Love.
I asked myself these questions which I felt would lead a better practice of primitive Christianity:
- Does my heart burn or, in other words, is it aflame with divine Love?
- Am I discovering and enlarging my spiritual sense and measuring man by it?
- As a result, am I becoming a better healer
There is no time involved with primitive Christianity. The Christ presence is not a historical event which happened a long time ago. I can walk the road to Emmaus every moment and hear the Christ, Truth speaking—lifting my conception of man and the universe ever higher. I can recognize the risen Christ who overcame ddeath.