METAPHYSICAL MEETING, July 12, 2010
Topic
Continuing spiritual sense
Call to the meeting
As with last month’s meeting, let’s once again take our cue from the statement on page 298 of Science and Health: “Spiritual sense, contradicting the material senses, involves intuition, hope, faith, understanding, fruition, reality.” That provides the vitality for “whatever rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle,” that is, Church. (S&H 583:12-13)
Having that in mind, let’s divide the meeting into two parts:
A. Give expressions of gratitude related to church, for what we see and have experienced/are experiencing in our church.
B. Identify a couple (or more if you wish) of specific issues our church is facing, and tell us your spiritual/prayerful inspiration for handling those issues. In line with the guidelines found in Science and Health (411:27), including a handling of fear may be helpful here, too. It’s not necessary that your ideas be written down, they can be given verbally.
For Part B, please choose whatever issues you feel are appropriate, which, for example, could range from the sale of the church property (which remains uncertain and incomplete) to broader and longer-ranging questions. Some of the issues uncovered at last month’s meeting are listed on our web site ( http://cslcf.org/mm-100621.php ), but that is not a complete or definitive list.
In Miscellaneous Writings, by Mary Baker Eddy, we read: “While pressing meekly on, be faithful, be valiant in the Christian’s warfare, and peace will crown your joy.” (Mis. 155: 10-12)
Readings
These citations may be of interest in preparing for the meeting (not read at the meeting):
(1) Isa 30:15 (to :)
(2) II Chron 20:17 (to ;)
(3) Ex 14:13 (to :)
(4) II Cor 9:8 God
(5) Ps 23:1-6
1) My 3:13-19
(2) Mis 307:1
(3) Ret 61:13-20
(4) S&H 368:2
(5) S&H 506:10
Introductory readings at the meeting:
Ps 46:10
Mis 154:16-22
Hymns sung at the meeting:
449: “My life flows on in ednless song; Above earth's lamentation”
327: “The God who made both heaven and earth And all that they contain”
Member contribution A
Our last metaphysical meeting gave me much to ponder. As a result, I’d like to focus tonight on ministering to the needs of our members. To me, this is an important aspect of “church,” maybe the most important, because before we can minister effectively to others, we need to be meeting the needs of our members.
These needs come in forms with which we are familiar and those for which we only see symptoms - unresolved health issues, limited attendance at services, limited participation in church activities. There may be issues of which we are totally unaware, and these members need our support, without us knowing the specifics. Some of our members are bravely soldiering on, in spite of these unresolved issues. Others, for whatever reason, we don’t see, except on rare occasions.
(I must hasten to add that I am not presupposing that our members have problems. That would be a form of malpractice. I only note that none of us seem to have totally demonstrated over materiality, so there’s work to be done.)
Our pastor, i.e. the Bible and Science and Health, tells us that Love is the antidote for all error. “If spirit or the power of divine Love bear witness to the truth, this is the ultimatum, the scientific way, and the healing is instantaneous” (411:10). As we love more, get fear and self out of the way, we will support our fellow members’ quests for healing and we will all experience quicker healings. I’m not saying we don’t love each other, because we very clearly do, but that we must work even more concertedly to live pure, unconditional love. This doesn’t mean we have to like or agree to somebody’s ideas. The human ideas are not elements of the spiritually-perfect man.
We have a friend who has visited a lot of Christian Science churches - big ones, little ones, traditional congregations, avant garde congregations. About one of the more avant garde congregations, her comment is that they love each other. She passes no judgment on their nontraditional approach, but indicates that their success (and they are successful) is because of their unconditional love for each. Through that love, they support each other in healing and they work out their church’s avant garde activities in a way that precipitates no hard feelings or discomfort. How is this done? By always thinking of the other person first.
I am struck by The Mother Church welcome on ChristianScience.com. It says, “This Church was designed to bless you.” Wow! It goes on to say, “Christianity as Christ Jesus lived it...shows us how much God loves us.” This got me thinking, or perhaps “questioning” is a better word. Is our church blessing each member? Do we feel it? Does each person (postman, gardener, real estate agent, visitors to services and Christian Science Reading Room, the Presbyterians, etc.) who has contact with our church feel blessed after that contact? Does each member feel God’s infinite love for him/her? What about the nonmembers who have contact with our church? I know these are a lot of questions, without answers, but for me the answers are figuring out how to approach my work in church so each of these people feels blessed, so each of you feels blessed.
What is this blessing? This week’s Golden Text tells us it’s eternal Life (Ps. 133:3). What do we need to do, how do we need to act so that our members and contacts feel this blessing? So that church is their first choice activity, not from a sense of duty, but because it really works for them and they find their lives better because of it? A clue to the answers to all these questions is that it has nothing to do with material organization. It has only to do with our spirituality. If people feel blessed, they will come. If members feel blessed, they will do their best to increase the blessing.
The effectiveness of our church is directly proportional to the Christly affection we have for others, without regard for ourselves.
To the first annual meeting in January, 1900, Mrs. Eddy wrote:
“Communing heart with heart, mind with mind, soul with soul, wherein and whereby we are looking heavenward, is not looking nor gravitating earthward, take it in whatever sense you may. Such communing uplifts man’s being; it makes healing the sick and reforming the sinner a mutual aid society, which is effective here and now” (My. 154:27)
I really like her idea that our spiritual communion with each other is a “mutual aid society.”
I’d like to close with something many of you have heard before, but I think it bears repeating as we think about how to love and support each other even more. It’s called “The Bishop’s Gift.” It’s unattributed, and widely available on the internet.
The Bishop’s Gift
Once a church had fallen on hard times. Only five members were left: the pastor and four others, all over 60 years old. In the mountains near the church there lived a retired Bishop. It occurred to the pastor to ask the Bishop if he could offer any advice that might save the church. The pastor and Bishop spoke at length, but when asked for advice, the Bishop simply responded by saying, “I have no advice to give. The only think I can tell you is that the Messiah is one of you.” The pastor, returning to the church, told the church members what the Bishop had said. In the months that followed, the old church members pondered the words of the Bishop. “The Messiah is one of us?” they each asked themselves. As they thought about this possibility, they all began to treat each other with extraordinary love and respect on the off chance that one among them might be the Messiah. And on the off-off chance that each member himself or herself might be the Messiah, they also began to treat themselves with extraordinary love and care. As time went by, people visiting the church noticed the aura of love, respect, and gentle kindness that surrounded the five old members of the small church. Hardly knowing why, more people began to come back to the church. They began to bring their friends, and their friends brought more friends. Within a few years, the small church had once again become a thriving church, thanks to the Bishop’s gift.
Member contribution B
PART A: EXPRESSIONS OF GRATITUDE FOR CHURCH
In the Preface to her Miscellaneous Writings, Mary Baker Eddy talks about one’s “debt of gratitude to God.” This phrase illustrates so nicely that God, divine Mind, is the only motivator, reasoner, designer, planner, builder, and achiever. Our task is to be the transparency for God’s work, which is essential to our very being. My gratitude for God is my recognition that I owe my very existence to His Life and activity, of which I am the expression. The human mind, in its passage from sense to Soul, expresses naturally the gratitude of knowing that one’s true being and unfoldment is always the outcome of God. Church is an important part of that.
I am supremely grateful that the little town where I was born had a Christian Science Society, which provided amply for our family. I am grateful that I live now in a community that has a branch Church of Christ, Scientist, that serves us so well. Indeed, I have found spiritual support and encouragement in being able to attend or visit Christian Science churches or societies on virtually every continent.
Today there are fewer Christian Science churches than there were when I was young. Perhaps that means that Science is less available to seekers than it was. Actually, that does not follow. But it does mean that the church presence became a wonderful home for our family and others. It also means that the seeker’s contact with Christian Science benefits from the overall presence of Christian Science in the community, especially the love expressed by the church members.
I deeply appreciate firstly having church as an active part of my daily activities because the practice of divine Science demands a spiritual anchor; and secondly having the opportunity that the church provides for me to participate in maintaining the church’s presence. This appreciation embraces all of our members, together with the noticeable recognition by community members that the church is part of our town. The opportunity to serve is a privilege that brings ongoing blessings derived directly from the application of this grand Science.
PART B: DEALING WITH CHURCH ISSUES
The issue that has most concerned me in recent times is how to go forward in our community. This issue is coupled with the issue that the world is becoming increasingly secular. A related issue is that people today are reluctant to become involved in organized activities.
These issues affect many Christian denominations, not just the Church of Christ, Scientist. Many churches respond by becoming more involved in social programs, and while these are highly praiseworthy, they are different from the purpose that Mrs Eddy established our particular church. In the Church Manual, she states plainly that the purpose of this church is to “reinstate primitive Christianity and its lost element of healing.”
We need have no fear that the precious gift of spiritual healing will be lost. Science and Health states clearly, “Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need.” (S&H 494:10) This recognizes divine Love’s natural embrace of our church’s purpose. “The great fact that God lovingly governs all, never punishing aught by sin, is your standpoint, from which to advance and destroy the human fear of sickness.” (S&H 412:1) That sickness could be a church that is poorly performing, poorly located, poorly attended, poorly resourced, poorly equipped, or whatever. Well, we can and must counteract such observations because they are simply not the divine facts.
We pursue healing through understanding that our capabilities are determined not through bodily functionality, but by recognizing ourselves as the spiritual outcome of divine Love. We approach the functioning of our church similarly, not by looking upon the limited scope of a human group, but by realizing that church is the “structure of Truth and Love.” (S&H 583:12) That means our church actually belongs to God, and is a spiritual concept. We can recognize that, and let divine Love unfold its presence and its future.
What about the church members? Perhaps we can liken them to the Children of Israel, who are defined in the Glossary of Science and Health as “the representatives of Soul, not corporeal sense; the offspring of Spirit.” (S&H 583:5) There are no limited of limiting individuals. The realization of these grand facts allows divine Love to be in control. Accordingly, we need especially to love each other as ourselves, letting divine Love grow of itself within us and our fellow members. This love goes out to take in those around us, and we can expect our church not only to continue, but to prosper. And we can expect Love to lead us to take whatever steps are needed to manifest that already-existing permanency.
Thus we can at every moment realize the present of “spiritual sense, contradicting the material sense.” (S&H 298:13) This is what will lead to fruition and reality. And it manifests itself as “whatever rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle.” (S&H 583:12)