METAPHYSICAL MEETING, August 19, 2013
Contents
| - Topic | |
| - Call to the meeting | |
| - Readings | |
| - Participant contribution A | |
| - Participant contribution B | |
| - Participant contribution C | |
| - Participant contribution D | |
| - Participant contribution E |
Topic
Trusting the unfoldment of good
Call to the meeting
Our next metaphysical meeting will be on Monday, August 19 in the Reading Room at 7:30 pm. The topic is: “Trusting the Unfoldment of Good”
You might want to include pages 98-106 of Miscellaneous Writings in your study.
Judge Clifford P. Smith states that this is “one of Mrs. Eddy's most notable utterances.”
You can either attend the meeting in person, or participate over the teleconference system. Alternatively, if unable to be present, you are invited to send your thoughts as a note to the clerk, or to anyone who expects to be present. A variety of ideas always enriches the meeting.
“If God is All, and God is good, it follows that all must be good; and no other power, law, or intelligence can exist. On this proof rest premise and conclusion in Science, and the facts that disprove the evidence of the senses” (Mis 101:26).
Readings
The Bible
Psalms 91:1,2
Miscellaneous Writings by Mary Baker Eddy
Mis 98: 6-21
Mis 99:1-2
Mis 101: 22-28
Participant contribution A
In a recent responsive reading [see the Christian Science Quarterly] was the following passage from Ephesians 5:20, “Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;”
It is easy to be grateful for the obvious good that comes into our lives daily, but this Bible passage says to be grateful to God for “all things.” Seems hard to do if we are dealing with an illness that doesn’t want to yield, financial problems that seem insurmountable, the need for employment, or even those pesky lost car keys just when we are ready to leave the house. Studying the history of Mary Baker Eddy’s human experience one can believe that she must have felt overwhelmed at the hardships she had to endure and the endless disappointments in her life. Even after she discovered Christian Science at the age of 45, she didn't have immediate success — far from it. Yet, she could write in Science and Health, “God had been graciously preparing me during many years for the reception of this final revelation of the absolute divine Principle of scientific mental healing” (107:3).
Like Job she never blamed God for all her misfortunes but saw her life experiences as preparation that led up to her discovery of Christian Science. As we watch and listen and of course pray for our church, we can expect only good to unfold. We can say with Mrs. Eddy that God has been graciously preparing us these past 7 years and will continue to guard and guide us as we move forward. Even though we don’t know what the outcome will be, we can truly put our trust in the one divine Principle, Love, to lead us. “Love inspires, illumines, designates, and leads the way. Right motives give pinions to thought, and strength and freedom to speech and action. Love is priestess at the altar of Truth. Wait patiently for divine Love to move upon the waters of mortal mind, and form the perfect concept. Patience must ‘have her perfect work’” (Science and Health 454:18).
Participant contribution B
God’s perfect law is always in operation, therefore we can trust God’s orderly plan in our daily activities, home life, work responsibilities, and church progress. We know that God is omnipresent and fills all space. We are at one with God as we are a part of this wonderful unfoldment of good in our day.
We can see only as God sees. We can deny any claims of error that would suggest anything less than perfection and harmony.
We are listening for God’s voice to direct each step of our path. We know that Mind is governing and we will obey God’s commands.
We are at one with God, and God cherishes us as we work together with our family, church family, and universal family. Mrs. Eddy states, “Universal Love is the divine way in Christian Science” (Science and Health 266:18).
A favorite hymn, No. 370 from the Christian Science Hymnal:
We are hid with Christ forever
In the Father’s holy plan.
In this pure eternal union
We behold the perfect man;
And we know that sin can never
Overthrow the sacred rod
Of dominion over evil:
We are hid with Christ in God.
Another favorite hymn verse is from Hymn 460:
We are all God’s children,
expressions of One Mind, living in the radiance of Spirit all divine.
Ev’ry heart and nation is answering the call to a true salvation knowing God is All in all.
We can continue to trust God’s unfoldment of good for all.
Participant contribution C
Truth is unfolding, today and tomorrow, the substance of good, in individualized bestowals, to each and every idea throughout creation. The Christ and Church are interpreting and imparting these bestowals, meeting the needs of men, women, and children, perpetually and completely. The operative laws of Truth bring clarity, definitiveness, and purpose in conjunction with all of its activity and formation. Man is now and forever the recipient of all of the blessed and meaningful unfoldment of Truth.
Deity outlines. Man is the direct outcome of Deity, and in the here and now, we reflect the capacity to know what Truth, God is doing each moment and to expectantly and patiently follow the development of Truth’s will. This capacity precludes the possibility of misinterpretation, willful manipulation, and premature conclusion. It ensures the love, humility, and desire to do good as well as the alertness and forthrightness to act.
Truth blesses man, and the Christ, through our inspired love for the community of La Cañada and for all mankind, will cause us to envision more clearly our individual and collective response to human needs and their preordained fulfillment. Divine Love enriches and illumines our lives with Church’s fuller depth and meaning on the human scene, destroying all perplexity and fear.
Right now, Truth is determining and asserting its beneficent will for our church and its members, guiding, governing, and guarding our footsteps toward the greater good and security in store for each of us and for all whom we come in to contact with.
Nothing can interfere with or thwart the lovely unfolding of God’s gift of the Christ to our community.
Participant contribution D
For our preparatory work for this meeting, it was suggested that we read “Science and the Senses,” an address Mrs. Eddy made to the National Convention of the Christian Scientist Association in Chicago in 1888. While this address was to the association of her pupils, her instructions to her pupils are also pointers for how a congregation in a branch church should work together. Here’s the list from the first paragraph of the talk:
- Minister
- Be ministered unto
- Mutually aid each other to find the ways and means to help the whole human family
- Quicken and extend the interest in spiritual healing
- Watch with eager joy the growth of individual Christian Scientists
- Watch with eager joy the progress of our Cause
- Strengthen and perpetuate [our church]
- Find strength in union to build up our religion whose Science demonstrates God and perfect man
She continues by telling us that our purpose must start with individual growth so that each of us can “attest the authenticity” of our mission and call the world to acknowledge divine Principle. It seems that Mrs. Eddy is telling us that through our individual growth, we will accomplish the above list of eight items.
Each of us is growing individually. We wouldn’t be committed to Christian Science and our branch church if we weren’t. Through each demonstration, no matter how seemingly “small” it is, we are attesting, or bearing witness, to the Truth, and proving to the world the divine Principle of Christian Science. Our individual demonstrations prepare us to help the world through the activities of our branch church.
Going through the list…
Minister. As I think through our list of church members, each of us is ministering in our own individual calling. It is unselfish. Ministering gives without expecting reciprocity.
Be ministered unto. This might be a little harder. Sometimes it takes humility to accept help when it is offered. Often we don’t realize we need it, but after being the recipient of ministering, we realize what a blessing it is. We can trust that if we call upon one of our members, he or she will help us. I’m sure each of you has witnessed or been the recipient of such ministering by our church members. I have, and I’m grateful.
Mutually aid each other to find the ways and means to help the whole human family. I think of the Manual-based activities of our branch church: our services, lectures, and reading room activities. “Ways and means” means “methods and resources for accomplishing something and especially for defraying expenses” (Merriam-Webster). We have been able to continue to bless mankind, as we work toward a new expression of “branch church” in our community. As we have journeyed on our path, we have been obedient to the Manual chapter, “Guardianship of Church Funds,” by expressing “wisdom, economy, and brotherly love” (Article XXIV, Section 5). It has taken tremendous trust, but we’ve learned valuable lessons at each step.
Quicken and extend the interest in spiritual healing. Isn’t this what we do when we sponsor lectures and go about our daily activities glorifying God? People do want to know about spiritual healing. We can trust that God help unfold the way for our individual missionary work, as well as supporting us during our branch’s organized activities.
Watch with eager joy the growth of individual Christian Scientists. One only need attend one of our testimony meetings and hang around afterwards to see the joy that is expressed towards those who tell about their healings. In a way, this is part of the mutual aid and the ministering and being ministered unto that was discussed earlier. Our testimony meetings are wonderful! When I’m away, I can’t wait to get back.
Watch with eager joy the progress of our Cause. Let’s don’t be tempted to think that this directive isn’t relative to our Movement today. As Mrs. Eddy wrote, “…progress is the law of God…” and our proofs of Christian power are the elements of progress (S&H, pp. 232-233). We must demand progress. It gets back to our individual demonstrations. As we demand individual spiritual progress, our Movement will flower and progress.
Strengthen and perpetuate [our church]. Isn’t that what we’re doing in these metaphysical meetings? We are “resting on divine Science,” using it as the foundation of our forward movement as a branch church. It is a delight to watch how our church members really enjoy talking with each other after services. We are so much stronger than we were five or six years ago, as a result of the solid metaphysical foundation we’ve been building.
Find strength in union to build up our religion whose Science demonstrates God and perfect man. This last item is pretty much a summary of the previous seven. We are finding strength in our mutual efforts to maintain the presence of Christian Science in La Canada. We are seeing results. We are trusting that good is unfolding.
Let’s keep going!
Participant contribution E
Humanly speaking, we live in uncertain times. Situations such as the economy of nations, the future of our planet, our individual well-being, the status of our church movement, the behavior of individuals, the reliability of the mechanisms we depend on, and even the workings of our own branch church, are all apparently subject to uncertainty. If we accept or tolerate or remain indifferent to any one of these situations, or the myriad of others that surround us, then we may be accepting breakdown, evil, failure, or impossibility in any on the other situations.
However, Science and Health states: “The Scriptures imply that God is All-in-all. From this it follows that nothing possesses reality nor existence except the divine Mind and His ideas. . . Everything in God’s universe expresses Him.” That vast statement leaves no room for anything less than divine good as the reality. And that implies the inevitability of the continuous unfoldment of that reality. Anything less is not the truth of divine Science.
With regard to our church specifically, We have can nurture the inference that this church is the active presence of divine Love’s activity in the midst of our community. In stating this, it’s important to realize our community as a compound manifestation of God’s, divine Life’s, ideas, the image of good, of enlightenment and revelation. Nothing less is possible in the infinite expanse of Spirit.
Therefore, we can proceed in the confident joy that Mind is in control, revealing each step of unfoldment in its divine plan, bringing to the surface the wholeness of Principle and Truth in our church’s progress. This means revealing the solution to each apparent obstacle or roadblock. In Science, the working of infinite Mind knows no objection or impossibility or difficulty. All is Mind’s expression of idea, and this implies constant, positive unfoldment.
I love this statement in Mrs. Eddy’s Miscellaneous Writings, “Science demonstrates God and the perfectability of man” (Mis 98: 20-21). We know that every aspect of our church is already established as a divine idea. We can nurture, claim, and realize that idea, or image. The structure of our church is divine Principle expressed in concrete Spirit. This expression of God is natural, normal, and fully formed, now. It marches forth with the good that is natural and inseparable from its source. This is unfoldment acting as God’s expression. And it is all that can occur.
Therefore, we can expect that negotiations on the details of what to do about our church property are really the expression of divine Love wielding the intelligence of immortal Mind, which is infinite good, unfoldment unrelated to time, divorced from any material measurement. All those individuals participating in the business of devising agreements, preparing designs, exploring possibilities, or perusing regulations are themselves images of Mind expressing the laws of divine Principle.
What a joyous opportunity we have to realize the unfoldment of good throughout our church adventure, and throughout all of the daily activities and worldly events of which we are cognizant.