METAPHYSICAL MEETING, November 14, 2011 (ONE WEEK EARLIER THAN USUAL because of Thanksgiving)
Contents
| - Topic | |
| - Call to the meeting | |
| - Readings | |
| - Member contribution A | |
| - Member contribution B | |
| - Member contribution C |
Topic
Gratitude for one another
Call to the meeting
’Tis the season of love and gratitude as the holidays draw nigh, and the topic for our November metaphysical meeting is “Gratitude for one another”. Our hearts overflow with gratitude for our earnest band of church workers. The meeting is on Monday, November 14, at 7:30 p.m. in our Reading Room. (That’s one week earlier than usual, in order to avoid the Thanksgiving week.)
We welcome all members to our metaphysical meetings. One need not feel obligated to prepare a written piece. We love having everyone there to participate and share of their own unfoldment on the topic theme.
Question to ponder: What ways are we grateful for one another at church?
Feel free to follow your own inspiration to answer the question.
“A grateful heart a garden is,
Where there is always room
For every lovely, Godlike grace
To come to perfect bloom …” (Hymn 3, Christian Science Hymnal)
Besides coming to the meeting, you can alternatively participate via teleconference.
Readings
Ps. 35: 18
Ps. 69: 30
1 Cor. 12: 12, 14
1 John 4: 9-12
S&H 3: 22-26
S&H 4: 3-9
My 164: 10
My 191: 30 - 15
'00 1: 1
Hymns:
3: “A grateful heart a garden is”
199: "Now thank we all our God With grateful hearts and voices”
150: “In mercy, in goodness, how great is our King”
217: “O, he whom Jesus loved has truly spoken, That holier worship, which God deigns to bless”
Member contribution A
A Church Gratitude List
I am grateful for our loving church membership. It has been a wonderful experience to participate with one another in many outreach activities, such as, “The Soup Kitchen,” and our recent Christian Science lecture activity with Jon Benson C.S., and The Newsong Group. As we share and give to others, it even allows us all to appreciate one another more. We are expressing Soul-filled qualities as we demonstrate lovingkindness and genuine care for others.
I appreciate how our Christian Science Reading Room has so many wonderful Christian Science books, pamphlets, music, and other literature to offer those “seeking a cup of cold water in Christ’s name.” (Science & Health) The Christian Science Reading Room staff has worked together harmoniously in keeping our Reading Room open in order to bless others. I appreciate being able to share C.S. literature to family and friends. Thank-you for making everything so readily available. It’s also been helpful to hear how we have all shared Christian Science with others. Our special C.S. hymn, #105, reminds us:
“Help us to help each other, Lord,
Each other’s cross to bear;
Let each his friendly aid afford,
And feel his brother’s care.
Help us to build each other up,
Our little stock improve;
Increase our faith, confirm our hope,
And perfect us in love.
Up unto Thee, our living Head,
Let us in all things grow;
Till Thou has made us free indeed,
And spotless here below.”
Our healing church services have been so special. It’s wonderful how we have the teleconferencing system to provide a unique outreach for anyone in the field and new listeners who desire to be a part of our healing church service. With gratitude, it is important to acknowledge our Readers, Musicians, Ushers, church members, and attendants, who continue to maintain such uplifting and inspiring church services. One feels the warmth, love, and joy shared by all.
I also appreciate our Sunday School staff and our spiritual dedication to our Sunday School sessions each week. We have enjoyed working together as a Sunday School family, as we learned the Books of the Bible and performed in our Christmas Pageant last Christmas season, for example. We have also communicated with former Sunday School students and would like them to always feel a part of our Sunday School family. Many former Sunday School members have shared with us their fond remembrances of being a Sunday School student at our church. We enjoy hearing about their special Sunday School teachers and family friends at our church.
It is essential to acknowledge the dedicated work of our ACOP as we continue to keep abreast of the times. The timely communiqués from the COP office/ACOP have been so helpful so we can keep a prayerful watch over the various issues that need our attention in this regard within the field.
We are very thankful for our wonderful Executive Board as they have helped to move us forward as a church. In addition, we thank our Clerk for her dedicated work. We are continuing to let Love unfold each step of the way and we are grateful for each spiritually progressive step.
It is important to acknowledge that we have a member of our church who is a Journal listed Christian Science Practitioner, also.
We are clearly seeing that “Love is reflected in love” in all aspects of our church work. We truly are all grateful for one another in our beloved church. We have our marching orders to further the Cause of Christian Science. We are forever grateful to our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy and to our Wayshower, Christ Jesus.
We are thankful for one of our church members who graciously shares fruits and vegetables from her farm.
We always enjoy our church parties, too.
Member contribution B
To prepare for tonight’s meeting, I thought I’d use our Thanksgiving Bible Lesson as my template, a sort of litmus test of my gratitude for each of you. This served a couple of purposes: It got me to study the Thanksgiving lesson in preparation for Saturday’s Bible Lesson Discussion Group, and it provided a truly spiritually-based scorecard — no human opinions. Don’t worry! I won’t include every citation in the Thanksgiving lesson for my analysis.
Golden Text: “Sing joyful songs to the Lord!...Come to worship him with thankful hearts and songs of praise” (Ps. 95:1 [to !], 2; Contemporary English Version).
What is the nature of the songs we sing to God? Of course, they are in gratitude for Him and His entire creation. Practically, this is a reminder to me to be joyful and sing to God about each one of our church members. Would I ever sing a complaint or condemnation? That wouldn’t make a very joyful song and it wouldn’t be the truth about me, that I could ever be a complaining or condemning child of God or that I could ever see anything that is worthy of being complained about. I don’t mean to sound self-righteous by saying this. Rather, not only do I need to see the truth about each church member and be grateful for it, I also need to see the truth about myself. I should hasten to add that this isn’t about a member’s busyness in fulfilling duties at church, but about each member’s full expression of God and specifically correcting my thought when it seems to me that a member might not be doing that. After all, it’s my thought that needs to be corrected if I can’t sing joyful songs about my fellow church members.
Responsive Reading: “Praise ye the Lord: for it is good to sing praises unto our God; for it is pleasant; and praise is comely” (Ps. 147:1).
What are we praising God for? His might and power, but also His wonderful and infinite creation, thanking Him for the multitudinous ways that His idea, man, is expressed. In this Bible verse, it is appealing that “praise is comely” — it is a good reflection on each one who praises God. How could we ever be critical?
Responsive Reading: “He maketh peace in thy borders, and filleth thee with the finest of wheat” (Ps. 147:14).
God makes peace within our church. Why? Because we are one with Him. There can’t be division, differences in direction. By definition, we are “with one accord in one place” (Acts 2:1), experiencing the Pentecost. It is as Mrs. Eddy describes in Retrospection and Introspection:
“The spiritually minded meet on the stairs which lead up to spiritual love. This affection, so far from being personal worship, fulfils the law of Love which Paul enjoined upon the Galatians. This is the Mind ‘which was also in Christ Jesus,’ and knows no material limitations. It is the unity of good and bond of perfectness. This just affection serves to constitute the Mind-healer a wonder-worker, — as of old, on the Pentecost Day, when the disciples were of one accord” (Ret. 76:14).
Wow! Affection for one another makes us spiritual wonder-workers. I need to be grateful for each member to increase my spiritual effectiveness.
The second half of the verse from Psalms, “...and filleth thee with the finest of wheat,” could indicate that our church is filled with the finest of God’s ideas. Each of us is valuable and necessary to God, and to our church. Each of us reflects the “structure of Truth and Love. Each of us “rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle.” That’s a lot to give gratitude for.
Before any of you think, “She couldn’t really be including So-and-So in this spiritual approach to gratitude for our members,” or “Doesn’t she know what we really think about her?”, yes, I am including So-and-So, and while I don’t know what you think about me, I know that you can only see and be grateful for my pure and perfect expression of the true man, and that’s all I can be. Each of us is important to God and has an important role to play in the continuing strength of our branch church. If it doesn’t seem so to me, then I have something to work out with God.
I didn’t get past the Responsive Reading before I ran out of my self-imposed length limitation. The rest of the Thanksgiving lesson contains much that can be applied to our topic of gratitude for members.
I am truly grateful for each member of our branch church. Each is contributing metaphysically. Each is making a stand for the verity of Christian Science. Each is participating in our activities to the extent possible. Each is committed to our branch church. What more can be expected?
Member contribution C
This question posed for tonight’s meeting, “In what ways are we grateful for one another at church?” is an important one. It is closely related to the question, in what ways are we grateful for our branch church? Then the question, why do we have branch churches? In organizing her church, Mrs Eddy decided upon a curious arrangement. We have The Mother Church in Boston, which accepts members worldwide, providing a strength of purpose that is truly global. Organized separately are the branch churches, which serve communities and individuals locally. Mrs. Eddy was emphatic that these branches be democratically run, and enshrined this requirement in the Church Manual. This in turn places critical importance on the value of individual members, without whom this arrangement could not function.
It’s simplistically easy to point out that we value church in proportion to the way we value its members. Frankly, I am immensely appreciative of our wonderfully integrated membership who clearly value and support each other. We have a participative group who clearly like being with each other and sharing the duties of facilitating and promoting our church. At the same time, I realize that, as with any other human activity, what we see manifest humanly is the externalization of spiritually correct ideas. That’s something to be really grateful for. And it’s a great indication of progress.
This unified approach, a manifestation of Love nurturing its ideas in harmony, exemplifies the harmony of spiritual individuality. This week’s lesson on Soul and Body includes that excellent definition of individuality in Science and Health: “Identity is the reflection of Spirit, the reflection in multifarious forms of the living Principle, Love. Soul is the substance, Life, and intelligence of man, which is individualized, but not in matter. Soul can never reflect anything inferior to Spirit. Man is the expression of Soul.” (S&H 477:20-25)
In the past, our church has not always enjoyed the harmony we have at this time. Even so, we know that the individuality of every past, present, and potential future member is that “reflection of Sprit.” As we maintain our cognizance of this spiritual fact, we can expect the harmony of Love and Principle to be maintained in our church membership and its associates. Similarly, we can expect that whatever is needed in the progressive evolution of our church will be divinely inspired and led.
This doesn’t mean that there won’t be differences of opinion or approach. However, we know that church, as the “structure of Truth and Love,” is a divine idea fully established by the understanding and unfoldment of divine Mind itself. It’s the real nature of church, the spiritual idea, and it’s members, the ideas of divine Love, that facilitate both a harmonious now and a progressive tomorrow. We dwell for ever in the timeless now of Love’s divine home and Life’s spiritual adventure.