METAPHYSICAL MEETING, April 18, 2011
Contents
| - Topic | |
| - Call to the meeting | |
| - Readings | |
| - Member contribution A | |
| - Member contribution B | |
| - Member contribution C | |
| - Member contribution D |
Topic
Finding a home
Call to the meeting
The topic for our next metaphysical meeting, which will be held Monday, April 18, at 7:30 p.m., is be “Finding our Home.” This meeting will contribute to the metaphysical basis for our workshop on Saturday, April 23.
There are many aspects that need to be considered for our move to another location. Each of these areas will benefit from appropriate Christian Science treatment. Possible areas to be addressed are: availability of property for church and reading room, fair price, adequate membership involvement during the move and subsequent activities, wise investment of funds, impediments to our going forward, unity of purpose, timeliness, and many others. As you prepare for this metaphysical meeting, please consider several of the aspects relating to our move and provide a Christian Science treatment for them. Perhaps a framework of questions will help you develop you contribution:
What erroneous thoughts need to be healed in order for our church membership to move to a new location and prosper?
Considering each of these erroneous thoughts separately, please provide Christian Science treatments for them.
Your participation in establishing the metaphysical basis for our next steps is vital. We know each member is prayerfully supporting our on-going activities as they unfold. If you cannot attend the metaphysical meeting on April 18 and would like to share your thoughts with those present, please send your contribution to the moderator for the meeting.
“Pilgrim on earth, thy home is heaven; stranger, thou art the guest of God” (254:31).
Readings
Ps 25:4,5
Josh 1:5 as, 9 Be
John 14:1,2,4
Gen 26:3 (to 1st ;)
Pul 2:5-10,11-15,22-1
Pul 3:11-12
Member contribution A
I’m going to present a paraphrase of Science and Health, with apologies to Mrs. Eddy. For those reading this in print, the italicized words are not in Science and Health.
“The sculptor turns from the marble to his model in order to perfect his conception. We are all sculptors, working at various forms, moulding and chiseling thought. What is the model before mortal mind? Is it a declining membership? Is it church members who have so many outside responsibilities, they can’t work for church? Is it Christian Scientists who choose not to become members or even attend services? Is it a small Sunday School? Is it children’s activities that pull children away from Sunday School? Is it an unpatronized Christian Science Reading Room? Is it too few members to get all the jobs done? Is it a perception that the City won’t approve a conditional use permit for the kind of space we feel is best for us? Is it a disinterested public? Oh, the mortal model! Have you accepted [it]? Are you reproducing it? Are you ruminating about it? Then you will be haunted in your work by vicious sculptors and hideous forms. Do you not hear from all mankind of the imperfect model? The world is holding it before your gaze continually...To remedy this, we must first turn our gaze in the right direction, and the walk that way. We must form perfect models in thought and look at them continually, or we shall never carve them out in grand and noble lives or as a healthy, active church that contributes to the community.” (S&H 241:12-29)
I thought I’d take “bureaucratic entanglement” as the erroneous belief that I will handle tonight. “Bureaucratic entanglement” can manifest itself in several ways: the process for obtaining a conditional use permit, the “belief” that we can’t start the process until the buyers have finished so we know that we’re going to complete the sale, lease negotiations, demands by the buyers, even the need for more special membership meetings to make more financial decisions. It seems like the proverbial “can of worms”.
To treat this rather broad topic, I broke it down into major qualities that would refute the material picture:
- Order and orderliness:
- Ethics and fairness:
- Progress, which is a law of God:
- Oneness
- Communication always from God to His idea, and we all receive the same message, because we are one
- Unity of purpose
- Kingdom of Heaven
- Harmony
- Dominion
- Respect
Member contribution B
Erroneous suggestion #1: The identity of our church is a human history composed of memories and persons, past and present.
Counterargument: Our church and we as individuals are ideas on a spiritual path of progression, “rising higher and higher from a boundless basis.” Jesus said, “I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father.” (John 16:28) As followers of Jesus, our timeless destiny is to return to the Father through the demonstration of divine Principle. The underpinnings of what we think and do have their real source in our eternal relationship with God. We are naturally joyful, loving, delighted, loyal, willing, and able, wherever we are, without condition, because we are created to be so. This is our God-given identity.
Our church is not a temporal place, it is an idea, too: “The structure of Truth and Love; whatever rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle.” The church is an instrument of the Christ. We and the church are from above; we are not of the world. We are never defined or limited by mortality. We are like rays of sunlight and drops of rain:
I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you,
do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which
despitefully use you, and persecute you;
That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven:
for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and
sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. (Matthew 5: 44, 45)
The sun and the rain are oblivious to the blessing they bestow on the earth, but they have unbounded bliss through reflection. Does a ray of light or a drop of rain have a choice?
Erroneous suggestion #2: La Cañada Flintridge is not interested in spirituality.
Couterargument: Good has its source in God; there is no human good. Mankind did not manufacture goodness, love or wisdom. Experience humbles mankind to recognize that we are nothing without divine grace and divine intelligence. The Christ is present in families, in boardrooms, in hospitals, and in congregations, awakening hopes and strengthening faith. Man is interested in spirituality, because he is natively spiritual, never material. He can only be conscious of his quest to bless others out of the bounty of his divine inheritance. Christian Scientists are beholding the true man irrespective of the outward appearance. Scientific seeing is healing. We see what we understand.
Erroneous suggestion #3: Has our church failed? How can it prosper elsewhere?
Counterargument: There is in reality never any death, only resurrection after resurrection after resurrection.
There is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again,
and that the tender branch thereof will not cease.
Though the root thereof wax old in the earth,
and the stock thereof die in the ground;
Yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs
like a plant. (Job 14: 7-9)
Even conventional human institutions decline and are reborn, because the idea behind the business or organization never dies. Church is the most natural extension of who we are as God’s children. Church embodies for us the standard of perfection, the highest ideals of life and its joys, the promise of ongoing progress, healing and complete understanding. It keeps us on the straight and narrow, protects us, and raises our vision of individual and collective fulfillment.
For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and
returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring
forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to
the eater:
So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall
not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I
please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. (Isaiah 55: 10, 11)
Member contribution C
The following is from the Christian Science Sentinel, Vol. V., No. 2, September 111, 1902, with additional related statements relevant to our topic added in parentheses.
Keeping the End in View, by John B. Willis, Second Editor
Infinite mind defines itself clearly and logically, and its action can but be direct, positive, and orderly. (We are ideas of God , made in the image and likeness of God, and therefore can only reflect the qualities of God, Mind, can think clearly and logically, and therefore our actions can but be direct, positive, and orderly.) These characteristics of Principle appear naturally and inevitably in its manifestations, and all the demonstrations of Christian Science are therefore exact, straightforward, and conclusive. (We are all capable of demonstrating Christian Science - we do it daily - and we will continue to do so - our physical structure does not define us nor does it hinder us or help us in our demonstration of Christian Science.)
Human experience has taught us that successful achievement in our undertakings, is largely determined by the clearness of our perception of what we desire to accomplish, and the steadiness with which we hold to our course. (Prayer of petition: Father, give us a clearness of our perception of what we desire to accomplish with our church and give us the steadiness of resolve to hold to our course.)
He who lacks definiteness of purpose, accomplishes little that is satisfactory either to himself or to others, and his pathway is sure to give evidence of vagrancy and vacillation. (Father, give us definiteness of purpose; help us to accomplish what will be satisfactory to us and to our community and for Christian Science - holding to our resolve to not forget our duty to God, our Leader, and to mankind.) But he whose eye is fixed on an exalted goal, and who, avoiding secondary and distracting issues, adheres persistently to the doing of the thing he has in hand, he advances with the step of assurance, and the result is not problematical. (What is our exalted goal? Jesus gave us only two commandments - love God and love our neighbor as ourselves. So our exalted goal is not to have a beautiful physical edifice and reading room. We need not feel ashamed that we will no longer have a large property in a prominent location. The early Christians met in homes and even in caves, and Jesus preached on hillsides and from fishing boats. Early Christian Scientists met in homes and rented halls. We must hold to our exalted goal of praising God and loving our fellow man, loving our community, our country, our planet.)
It is important that we remember all this in our activities as exponents of Truth. If we have some true thing to say, and have the grace to say it modestly, explicitly, and with considerate brevity, our testimonies will be listened to with interest and profit. If, on the other hand, our thoughts lack Truth’s orderliness and continuity, if they are aimless and desultory, we shall effect nothing save perchance the demonstration of patience upon the part of our hearers.
As Christian Scientists, we most honor our profession and enhance our usefulness, when we are so responsive to Wisdom’s guidance, that all our words are made to harmonize with a high and clearly defined purpose, and when we say no more than is necessary to fittingly and effectively express the truth. (We let our light shine by the way we live our lives - expressing love for God and for our fellow beings. In Science and Health our Leader writes, “Our church is built on the divine Principle, Love. We can unite with this church only as we are newborn of Spirit, as we reach the Life which is Truth and the Truth which is Life by bringing forth the fruits of Love, - casting our error and healing the sick.” She also wrote, “...I am cheered and blessed when beholding Christian healing, unity among brethren, and love to God and man; this is my crown of rejoicing, for it demonstrates Christian Science.” [Miscellany 274: 22])
Member contribution D
Treating some erroneous thoughts that need to be healed in order for our church membership to move to a new location and prosper:
Erroneous thought No. 1: There will not be time to find a suitable location before we need to vacate the present property.
We deal with church location the same as we do any other issue. We don’t deal with it on a material plane, we see the spiritual perfection of place that already exists. We don’t try to demonstrate a suitable location or property. Instead, we demonstrate the nothingness of the lie that these are material, and the allness of the divine plan for its own spiritual ideas, for ever housed in the uncompromized readiness of timeless now. Life, Truth, and Love are the three guiding and driving points of motivation and accomplishment, for ever present and active. The idea of divine Mind is already firmly in place, and ours to realize.
Erroneous thought No. 2: Lack of unity in our decision may divide our membership.
Human rationale insists that some people have firm ideas about where we should go and what we should do, while others have completely different ideas and are equally intransigent. However, personality is not man. “Man is idea, the image of Love” (S&H 475). We are each a compound spiritual idea of divine Mind, “the conscious identity of being as found in Science, in which man is the reflection of God.” Divine intelligence includes all wisdom, everything there is to know. The plan is already established within the infinite breadth of Spirit, soundly established in Principle, flourishing in Soul. When we realize this, we see there is nothing that can break us apart, nothing that can disappoint the idea of Mind, nothing that can leave anyone out of the equation of Spirit reflecting Principle in its compound, eternal ideas that are the reality of each of us, individually and as a group. The decision about what to do, where to go, is not our responsibility. Our responsibility is to bear witness to the divine plan, which exists now and for ever. Then we are all embraced in divine Love, knowing that none can be deprived or disappointed, and blessing will encompass us all.
Erroneous thought No. 3: The city is not interested in having a church in a particular location.
Where does one start when rumor says that the city may not look favorably on a request to relocate in an area currently zoned for other purposes? We don’t yet have a preference for a new location, but whatever it is, the plan is already established, and it is God’s plan, the manifestation of immortal Mind, of Truth’s purity. That is the only reality. Given that, it is not our will that dominates, not the city’s will that is unbending. It is divine Mind that govern’s it’s entire manifestation, already now and always. Our task is to understand that there is no other plan. There is no unreasonable objection, and no unrealistic desire on our behalf. “All things work together for good to them that love God” (Rom. 8:28). There is no intransigent ordinance or regulation, nor is there unreasonable human expectation. We know there is only Mind’s perfectly fitting expectation and requirement, Principle and Love in a profound manifestation of good.
Erroneous thought No. 4: We won’t have sufficient members to warrant the effort of setting up in a new location.
This is a prime claim of material sense, of mortal belief that people and our community simply aren’t interested in church or spirituality. That’s a lie about the reality of God and His idea man, which we need not nurture. After all, church is the compound manifestation of divine activity, which is God’s responsibility. Then what about the possibility that our membership may decline to a point of being non-viable? Or that it already is at that point? Consider the article in the Christian Science Sentinel for 28 March 2011, page 11, where Dawn-Marie Cornett writes: “My mom was the First Reader at our church. With only a handful of other members, our auditorium looked very empty. On Wednesday evening, my mom looked at all those empty seats and prayed. The idea came to her to see them as full — full of divine ideas, full of love reflecting divine Love, … that our church was there to bless and that those seeking hope and healing would find our church services. She prayed this way at every service — seeing the whole church filled with God’s ideas and prayerfully calling the community to worship. Soon, a few new people began to come, others moved into the area, and we had a small but respectable congregation of devoted and loving people.”
Erroneous thought No. 5: Whatever can go wrong will go wrong (too many things we don’t know).
This hackneyed statement encompasses the morass of what in Christian Science we call animal magnetism, the belief of a material world where everything goes wrong, where the harder we struggle, the more we become tangled in the mire. Human life can so easily seem like that, but that is not the Truth of being. We need to spiritualize everything we do, everything we perceive about others, everything we perceive about our church location, everything we perceive about the sale of our church, everything we perceive about fellow church members, everything we perceive about preparing for a church move — and what we perceive about everything else, too. Everything we do as a church is designed to bring out perfection, completeness, progress, God’s plan. Everything we do as a church is part of the manifestation of divine reality, spiritual exactness that has nothing in material complexity or material organization. This is God’s church, the spiritual outcome of divine activity. That manifestation cannot be misrepresented by a shaky human arrangement. It’s for ever held within the infinitude of Spirit and Love. Any submission to animal magnetism or material belief is fear, but fear has no substance because Soul is supreme in our individual and collective experience, and Truth entails a purity that is guaranteed. We can expect more and more of the divine reality to be uncovered in our church and individual activity.