METAPHYSICAL MEETING, October 15, 2012
Contents
Topic
What is the need for church in the post-moden world? How do we meet that need?
Call to the meeting
Our next metaphysical meeting will be next Monday, October 15, 2012, at 7:30 p.m. in the reading room. Please join us in person or by teleconferencing.
The topic is: “What is the need for church in a post-modern world? How do we meet that need?”
“Now I say to you that you are Peter (which means ‘rock’), and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.” (Matthew 16:18)
“The church then had peace throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria, and it became stronger as the believers lived in the fear of the Lord. And with the encouragement of the Holy Spirit, it also grew in numbers.” (
Acts 9:31)
Readings
The Bible
I Corinthians 3: 18 - 19 (to first .)
Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy
39: 18 - 22
456: 25 - 2
vii: 22
Miscellaneous Writings 312: 10 - 27
Participant contribution A
We know the need for Christian Science in today's world. Supposedly medical science has made enormous breakthroughs in healing disease, but to read the papers and hear people talk, there is even more disease than ever and more that have no cure. Although efforts are being made in the medical community to understand the relationship between our thinking and our human experience and our bodies (think about those Harvard Medical School symposia to which a Christian Scientist is invited each time), without understanding the Science of Being, it is still just "sounding brass and tinkling cymbals."
I loved the prophesy that Mrs. Eddy stated in the Miscellaneous Writings passage I read, "...he touched a tone of Truth that will continue to reverberate and renew its emphasis throughout the entire centuries, into the vast forever." She puts no limitation on how long Christian Science will continue. I know we all want this particular branch church of Christ, Scientist to continue in this community, to let our light continue to shine, to keep Christian Science pure and unadulterated, to show others the great blessings that come from its study and practice, to show how practical it is for the benefit of mankind, that it is not just another religion but is the promised comforter.
New and interesting ideas have been flowing forth from members of the Reading Room Committee on ways to reach out to the public. The Lecture Committee is also getting organized and praying about creative ways to make Christian Science available to our community.
We are the future ages that "must declare what the pioneer has accomplished." We pray each day "not to forget nor neglect our duty to God, to our Leader, and to mankind." I know the results of this prayer must bear fruit.
Participant contribution B
In thinking about our topic tonight, “What is the need for church in a post-modern world,” many words and terms tumbled about my thinking. Well, how about immediate information, technology, up to date and fresh as a start. The opposites were paring up as well, such as machines, history, obsolete, worn out, ancient. Was our church any of these “after modern” terms? NO! Mrs. Eddy, our beloved founder and discoverer of Christian Science, would have been the first to keep up with the new trends. Did she ever use technology back then? She wore the latest creations in fashion, she utilized the latest machines, she was recent in her ideas and forward thinking, and she expected us to do likewise. We are reflecting the Christ Truth and the Christ has no sense of time or past.
The question is, what is the need for church now? Church is more relevant now than ever before. The world is spinning with ideas so quickly that man has to hold tight to what is true. We are to put God first, God Always. As we express the love and spiritual good of God’s qualities in everything we do, we are helping others in doing so. We are helping others in so many ways. The need, I feel, is to hold the genuine idea of what God is expressing so close to our way of life that it is the only thing we can exemplify. Holding these qualities in our prayers, our actions, our sharing and to give to others the Christ. They are looking for “the answer” that will meet their needs. Does that passage sound familiar? Our leader gave us and is still giving us the answer in her textbook, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures”. As we learn to understand the truths, then demonstrate them, more will be revealed to us in our higher consciousness. The ideas are up-to-date, fresh, logical, revolutionary. Our church represents us — the thinkers. We can be ancient and backward, secretive and non-sharing or we can represent our church as vigorous, fresh, intelligent, spiritual, healers, capable Christians of the Cross.
I’m so grateful each member is sharing their talents and spiritual concepts. Our website is state of the art with information about our church and Christian Science in our area as well as the world. It is a fruitful means of learning who we are and what we are doing.
Our music is uplifting and inspiring. Spiritual healing is in action.
Our Sunday School is shaking up the old ideas and replacing them with fresh and needed thoughts for healing.
Our Reading Room has all the latest material and books from The Christian Science Publishing Society. We have a gold mine in healing just by stepping into the bound volume area.
Our church services are healing services, and are reaching out to the whole world for all to hear.
What we “do need to do” is to tear down the tired thoughts that our church building is a shabby fix-it! The shabbiness in our thought is picked up by outsiders and insiders. Do what we can around our church to be proud of who we are, Christians of the Cross. Is this a material thought?
We need to sing more loudly, in harmony — loudly praising God with all we have. Not just in sound but in our faces, radiate and glow in God’s joy and goodness. One of our members knows all the words to all the hymns. We need more songs we can all sing to and keep that inspiration going long after we have left the church. What we need is to be happy in church and always have a prayer in your heart for helping each other.
Take the time to visit — be perceptive and you might see lots we can do to help each other. It’s the gentle touch, a smile, a glad sound that heals. Putting God first, always, will make us grow in our church. It is not the building and the meetings that make our church, it is God’s ideas loving and helping each other in our church family and in our community.
Participant contribution C
In the preface to Pulpit and Press, Mrs. Eddy set forth her purpose in presenting that volume to the world. She said that in 1970 it would instructive to look back at the history of Christian Science with the expectation of increased spirituality and:
★ Observe the power given to Christianity
★ Understand the facts about the development of Christian Science: that the sick and sinning are healed by divine Mind and not by matter
★ Look further at the “vast problem of eternal Life, as expressed in the absolute power of Truth and the actual bliss of man’s existence in Science” (Pul. p. vii).
I started thinking about how our branch church would be described in relation to these points, and what would be the case for us 75 years from now. It seems to me that our response would be an answer the question of the need for church in the post-modern world.
So, here are my questions:
★ How will we nurture the increase of spirituality among our members and in our community so that it’s noticeable 75 years hence?
I think we have a good start. We are loving and supportive of each other. We try to minister not only to the spiritual needs of our members, but also to their physical needs in times of trouble. We are increasing our spirituality through our services in the sermon/readings, prayers, testimonies, and Sunday School teaching. Hopefully, all of our church’s activites are becoming more enlightened. As we strive to increase the spiritual content of these activities, we are guaranteeing an increase in spirituality in our members and in the community. As Mrs. Eddy wrote in “What Our Leader Says,” “Good thoughts are an impervious armor; clad therewith you are completely shielded from the attacks of error of every sort. And not only yourselves are safe, but all whom your thoughts rest upon are thereby benefited” (My. 210:7, emphasis added.)
We mustn’t discount the fact that we are still here in our community 75 or more years after this branch church was first organized. That proves a certain, on-going spiritual strength. The fact that we are all working so hard to continue to present Christian Science in La Cañada is another evidence of our spiritual strength that will continue to grow and show fruit.
Through our activities we increase the reach of Christianity. Our name makes people stop and think about the relationship between Christianity and Science. The “honest seekers” will be blessed by this thought process, even if they don’t investigate further. We support their increase in Christianity through lectures and reading room. It’s absolutely necessary for us to maintain a visible presence in our community so that people can learn about and observe the power of Christianity.
Once they start to see that, they are ready to take the next step, to understand that Christianity is practical when demonstrated through this Science of the Christ. They will see the demonstrations that we make as individual members and learn that these healings are possible for them, too. Ultimately, they will understand the power of the Truth that makes men free.
As I scanned through Pulpit and Press, I realized that it contains a lot of helpful direction regarding “church” that is as relevant today as it was in 1895. We have the outline, discussed above, that is presented in the “Preface,” defining the progress that we can expect to be made. There are many statements in Mrs. Eddy’s “Dedicatory Sermon” that are relevant to church buildings. In fact, she answers the question, “How can we do this Christianly scientific work?” This question is basically asking how we can realize the expectations she outlined in the “Preface.” Her answer: “By intrenching ourselves in the knowledge that our true temple is no human fabrication, but the superstructure of Truth, reared on the foundation of Love, and pinnacled in Life. Such being its nature, how can our godly temple possibly be demolished, or even disturbed?” (pp. 2-3).
Of course, we knew before we had this meeting that Christianity is needed in the post-modern world and that Christian Science is that Christianity. We are meeting the need by demonstrating individually and collectively the teachings of Christian Science. We are a light to our community, a light that it needs. The community will recognize that need as it grows to understand the power of Truth through the Christ and Christian Science
(P.S. Pulpit and Press is worth reading again, if you haven’t read it recently.)
Participant contribution D
In the current November Journal, an article appears in the “Church Alive” section titled, “Church and Generic Man,” by Heather Howland Kany. Some reasons are discussed as to the relative value of church. Is church viewed mainly as an educational institution that supports one’s spiritual growth and practice? The author then makes the observation that church is also about “collective progress.”
I found it inspiring to note that all of humanity is in this together, that we’re all solving the problem of being, whether we know it or not, and that church is the “flagship” that focuses our thought on universal salvation. In fact, as the author points out, the definition of church in Science and Health specifies that “the Church…is found elevating the race.”
Jesus’ two commandments support this effort. We can develop our understanding of God and our relationship to Him through prayer and study, but there is something lacking if it’s not applied to loving our fellow man. Mrs. Eddy says on page 323 of Science and Health:
In order to apprehend more, we must put into practice what we already know. We must recollect that Truth is demonstrable when understood, and that good is not understood until demonstrated.
We are not “isolated, solitary ideas.” (S&H 259) We cannot separate ourselves from God or humanity; we are part of the human and divine family of ideas. We are not alone. In our prayers for specific issues, we naturally include all mankind in the truth we’re knowing. Church provides the dynamic of supporting the vision of working together for good, sharing the Christ-light to inspire each other, and witnessing the individual and collective progress.
Participant contribution E
In today’s world, evidence of change is everywhere, and the pace of change is increasing. This doesn’t mean there is no place for church. After all, true church is based on Principle, which is for ever operative. No matter what individuals may think or say, reality remains firmly within immortal Mind, and nowhere else. Truth, Live, and Love constitute the spiritual facts, the inevitable living certainty, and the loving guarantee that the divine control of Mind is present and operative. In reality, it isn’t in the physical or the material. Personal sense wants us to believe otherwise, but the only substance is Spirit.
Our only real environment is the atmosphere of Love. The only being is divine Life itself. The only future is the eternal, timeless now of Truth. The only modernity is the freshness of Soul’s countless individual inspirations. The only evolution is unfolding good, God. The only world is the universal omnipresence of Spirit. Those declarations define reality, which is at every moment God and His/Her ideas or expression.
Does church have a future in that reality? Of course. And here let’s be clear that church is itself a divine idea, the practical realization of Truth, Life, and Love in human affairs. That manifestation is natural and inevitable when we realize that Principle is ever operative and Love is always acting.
It’s so important to work these things from the spiritual perspective. In worldly terms, the speed of materialistic advancement had advanced exponentially since early in the nineteenth century. Mary Baker Eddy lived during the start of this momentum. However, she initiated a different form of momentum, one that is essential to the the spiritual progress of mankind, based on her revelation that Spirit is all, and matter is naught.
In 1964, L. Ivimy Gwalter wrote in The Christian Science Journal about the significance of Mrs Eddy’s discovery and the criticality of interpreting it spiritually. She writes: “As a result of her lifework, the Protestant churches are looking into Christian healing as they never have before. True, they are largely trying to heal spiritually on a material basis, trying to mix drugs with the power of Spirit, a basis from which it cannot be done; but they are feeling the urge that Christianity must heal.”
We can pray that the spiritual understanding of the scriptures becomes better known to everyone. From the spiritual perspective, this state of affairs already is in place. That’s where we can maintain our thinking, and it’s where church will continue to be needed. Church will inevitably lead to more spiritual understanding and practicality. It’s so relevant to today’s world, and we can nurture the omnipresent Truth on which it is based.
Participant contribution F
I used the word CHURCH and made an acrostic style poem:
C – Comforter, Ever Present
H – Holy and Healing Place
U – Understanding Ourselves and Others More Spiritually.
R – Reflecting God’s Love and Goodness & Letting our light shine.
C – Caring and Loving our Church Members, Visitors, our Fellowman, our World, and All Living Creatures.
H — Home – “the dearest place on earth” (S&H 58:21) and a Place to Honor our Father-Mother God, the kingdom of God reigns supreme.
Attending church helps keep our spiritual thinking Godward, newness of Life is shared, and inspiring ideas are pondered in this most holy place. We aren’t just a bunch of mortals gathering together week after week. We are on a spiritual journey with our spiritually minded friends as we walk on the pathway of divine Love by letting the one Mind guide our every step. We dress up and put on our finest garments to praise God in this holy sanctuary. We also provide the opportunity for people to call in on our teleconference system so that they can participate in our church services and activities via the internet.
Church is a place where God’s angels are with us. (“Angels: God’s thoughts passing to man.” S&H , 581:4) We handle error by seeing the nothingness of a lie. With our unity, this provides us with spiritual strength and purpose. We are “keeping our thoughts so filled with Truth and Love, that sin disease, and death cannot enter them.” (My. 210:1-4) Our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, admonishes us elsewhere in her writings to see the nothingness of evil: “Finally, brethren, let us continue to denounce evil as the illusive claim that God is not supreme, and continue to fight it until it disappears, — but not as one that beateth the mist, but lifteth his head above it and putteth his foot upon a lie” (Pan. 6: 5). We know that as we keep our thoughts with the absolute Truth in our church work, we are protected and guided. We are spiritually attuned to follow in the way that God appoints us to follow.
We are reflections of God’s Love and goodness. For example, it’s like the sun needs all the individual rays to radiate the heat and light source of the sun. When we all join together, we radiate and reflect God’s healing light of joy and Love. My own Sunday School teacher shared that the sunflower needs to always face toward the sun so it can reflect God’s light, too. Our joy and love for the church members and our outreach to our fellowman is all a part of a continuous healing activity.
“And Love is reflected in love.” Mrs. Eddy writes as part of the spiritual interpretation of the Lord’s Prayer (S&H 17:7). As we nurture one another in our spiritual growth and activities, we are blessing and healing others with this precious Christ Science.
Our church activities include:
Church services – Sunday service & Wednesday Evening Testimony meetings & the Sunday School
Church meetings
Our Christian Science Reading Room
Metaphysical meetings
Bible Lesson Discussion Group
Special Hymn Sings
Committee work activities
Christian Science lectures
Outreach Activities: Soup Kitchen
Support the worldwide Christian Science movement
Pray and support our Christian Science Teachers, Practitioners, Nurses, and Chaplains
Pray and support our local Christian Science branch churches
Pray about the new events in The Christian Science Monitor
Read and study the Christian Science periodicals
We are so grateful for the many avenues which we have to embrace God’s healing power and presence. During this harvest season, we can be abundantly grateful that we have this healing religion: Christian Science to share with the whole world.“Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 5:14-16). In Mrs. Eddy’s writings, we read “Happiness is spiritual, born of Truth and Love. It is unselfish; therefore it cannot exist alone, but requires all mankind to share it” (S&H 57:18-21). We have been given this special pearl of Great Price in order to heal mankind. Yes, there is a great need for church in a post-modern world.