METAPHYSICAL MEETING, June 16, 2014
Contents
| - Topic | |
| - Call to the meeting | |
| - Readings | |
| - Participant contribution A | |
| - Participant contribution B | |
| - Participant contribution C |
Topic
A spiritual foundation of Christ healing (TMC Annual Meeting topic)
Call to the meeting
Our next metaphysical meeting, to be held Monday, June 16, at 7:30 p.m., in the reading room study room will focus on the primacy of Christian Science healing in our branch church experience. This topic is in response to a request from the Christian Science Board of Directors to support the Annual Meeting topic, “A spiritual foundation of Christ healing.” Preparation for the meeting could include:
- Considering how we can elevate our individual and collective understanding of and response to all that Christian Science requires of us to more fully demonstrate the true, healing substance of Church.
- Reading Mrs. Eddy's message, “Choose Ye,” regarding the dedication of the Extension of The Mother Church (My. 3:1-6:29), and considering its application to our individual and branch church’s healing activities.
- Watching this year’s Annual Meeting, which may be found here.
As always, your presence at the meeting is valued, whether you prepare in advance or just attend to be inspired. The meeting will be available by phone/Skype. If you cannot attend and wish to contribute something, please send it in.
Readings
Prov. 10:24 3rd the, 25 3rd the
Luke 6:46-49
Eph. 2:19-22
SH 599:6-7
My. 357:13
Participant contribution A
When I thought about this topic, it seemed that there are three areas that could have been considered for this meeting: 1) how to individually more fully demonstrate Christian Science; 2) how to support our fellow church members in their full demonstration of Christian Science; and 3) how our individual and collective demonstrations benefit our community through a better understanding of the healing substance of Church. Each of these topics is worthy of its own metaphysical meeting. I decided to focus on a subset of the third area, how our collective demonstrations of Church benefit our community.
Much of the focus of Christian Science practice is based on individual demonstration. We don’t put much emphasis on collective demonstration. Yet, it has been proven that when the members of The Mother Church, a branch church, or an Association focus their prayers on a world or community topic, healing occurs both for the community and for the individuals praying.
I’m the first to admit that I’m guilty of saying, “If we’d only heal better and let the community know about it, then our church would be overflowing.” Then I do nothing about it. Lots of talk, no action. As I’ve been contemplating this subject and the Annual Meeting, it came to me clearly that our church needs to prove its spiritual foundation by actively and collectively addressing and healing problems in the community. The article, “Choose Ye,” brings out that we are Christian Scientists only as we practice the Golden Rule. Well, if somebody “out there” had the solution to all problems, I would certainly want them to share it with me. If I’m not sharing our “pearl of great price,” I’m not practicing the Golden Rule.
How do we share? How do we let our light shine? There are lots of good, human activities, which let people know we’re here – Christian Science lectures, our Christian Science Reading Room, serving at Union Station, occasional literature distribution activities, our physical presence, our services and Sunday School, advertising in the newspaper, one-on-one conversations with our neighbors, our Assistant Committee on Publication work. These are good activities. They are supposed to support a lot of healing. How much healing do we see? How much community interest in our church results from these activities.
I know these metaphysical meetings are supposed to stay on the high note. They aren’t intended to propose church activities. I’m going to break the rule and propose an activity that we can do collectively, and then give a metaphysical example.
Our community needs to know that we are here for them, that we can be counted on to provide an effective solution to any community problem through prayer. We are the only community group that has built the spiritual foundation of Christ healing but few people know about it. The only way they will know is if we start proving it, rather than talking about it among ourselves. The community needs to feel that our presence is so vital that they care about and actively support our continuing presence as a viable institution.
It occurred to me that if we as a membership collectively addressed and healed the problems reported in the Valley Sun that people would start to take notice. Each member could go to the Valley Sun’s website (http://www.lacanadaonline.com) and treat a local news item daily. To support each other’s efforts, we could report our individual inspiration and growth on the topic during our Wednesday evening meetings. If more than one person chose to treat the same article, I can see the possibility of a discussion during the testimony period. The reader could be alert to local topics that need to be addressed. The executive board could alert members if a “big” issue came up and everybody concentrate on that issue for the week. We would have a really good idea of the on-going issues so we could invite lecturers to address those topics, sending personal invitations to local administrators in those areas. We would be a church that is truly serving its community.
(I want to be clear that I’m suggesting a collective effort of our members on behalf of La Cañada. I don’t doubt that each of you is doing your individual duty “to all mankind.”)
I picked out a few phrases from “Choose Ye” that seem appropriate to this opportunity of more fully supporting our community through the active, collective prayer of its members (all from the paragraph beginning My. 3:11):
- “Christian Science is not a dweller apart in royal solitude...”
- “Its presence is felt, for it acts and acts wisely, always unfolding the highway of hope, faith, understanding.”
- “A Christian Scientist verifies his calling.”
So, I decided to test this proposed course of action this morning. I went to the Valley Sun’s website, looking for the local headline. The first two headlines concerned state issues. The third headline was, “Workers inspect new wire mesh on Foothill Boulevard slope.” I was dismayed! My first thought was, “What kind of problem is that? Why should I spend my metaphysical efforts there?” Then, I remembered that although practitioners are allowed to accept or decline any case that comes to them, they can’t define the kinds of cases calling for help. When a case comes, it is asking for healing, no matter how mundane it seems.
Here is my treatment of this morning’s local news item:
“Thank you, God, for your omnipresence and omnipotence. You are the only power at work. Man, your idea, cannot be afraid of the effects of material laws. The laws of nature, gravity in this case, never endanger Your ideas or overpower Your omnipotence. All of Your creatures, including boulders, are in their right places. They cannot be dislodged. In fact, “All of God’s creatures, moving in the harmony of Science, are harmless, useful, indestructible” (514:28-30). This includes people, boulders, streets, and cars, each of which is one of Your ideas. People, boulders, streets, and cars are harmless, useful, and indestructible. Your construction engineers and workers reflect intelligence and wisdom. They are held safe in Your care. There are no accidents or injuries. You are supplying every need of this project. Soul is being expressed through beauty and design. Time is not a factor, because time is measured by the good that is unfolded (584:4). Good in the form of safety, beauty, strength, wisdom, supply is being expressed by this project. Thank you, God.”
Participant contribution B
It’s interesting that in dedicating the extension of The Mother Church, Mrs. Eddy doesn’t speak about the magnificence of this new huge structure with its soaring ceilings and enormous dome. No, she addresses us as Christian Scientists and tells us that first of all we must engage in “well-doing.” In fact, “well-doing” is demanded “in order to demonstrate truth.” Then she goes on to say that “well-doing” means keeping God’s commandments.
Since faith without works is useless, we must demonstrate the power of Christian Science to heal. And she defines Christian Science as “…a law of divine Mind…an ever-present help.” It is clear that healing is paramount in her requirement of each of us as Christian Scientists. When she was teaching classes, she would demand of her students to go out and find someone in need of healing and then heal them.
Healing sickness and sin is a demand on each of us. She said, “A Christian Scientist verifies his calling.” I took this to mean that I must verify my calling, which means that I have been called by God to heal. This is my vocation, my calling, my job.
Verify in the dictionary means to confirm or substantiate in law by oath, to establish the truth, accuracy, or reality of something. It is from the Latin word verus meaning true. Calling is defined as “a strong inner impulse toward a particular course of action especially when accompanied by conviction of divine influence.”
So just as in Joshua chapter 24, Mrs. Eddy asks us to choose how we are going to live our lives. Are we going to choose to rely on God and live a spiritually based life or are we going to depend on matter and accept the mortal sense of existence. Joshua gives the Hebrew people a choice. We have that choice daily.
Likewise Elijah in 1 Kings 18:21, the people are asked how long they will halt between two opinions.
And so we must choose this day who we will serve, God or mammon.
To further strengthen our spiritual living, Mrs. Eddy states that obedience to the Golden Rule spiritualizes us. She is telling us to love our fellow man. One would have to have love for one’s fellow man in order to go out and heal. I think she is saying that we need to get away from a self-centered life and go out and find someone to heal. This is true good-will towards men, true well-doing.
To love God more and serve him/her better, this is my calling, my vocation, my job. The first commandment and the Golden Rule being the all-in-all of Christian Science, obeying them is what constitutes a Christian Scientist.
Participant contribution C
I read Mrs. Eddy’s message, “Choose ye”, prior to this year’s Annual Meeting. It reads as if it is imploring the members to stay fixed on Truth and not be tempted by the ways of the world. As the title implies, the message more than once advises the reader to choose which way they go, and whom they will follow.
Mrs. Eddy indicates how she is present at the dedication of the new building “in spirit and in truth”. It struck me that there really is no other way we can be present. Church is a spiritual idea, and even if we build a new edifice and hold an opening ceremony, the accomplishment represents spiritual realization of Truth, and the event is the opening out of Love’s embrace for it’s image or idea, man.
The message from Mrs. Eddy emphasizes the Golden Rule, the second great commandment to love one’s neighbor as oneself, stating that their fulfilment is “the spiritual idealism and realism, which, when realized, constitute a Christian Scientist, heal the sick, reform the sinner, and rob the grave of its victory.” That certainly is what church is about, practical Christianity, not the mere solemnity of ceremony. Not only that, but when we love more, we recognize the genuine spiritual nature of everyone, even those who take a different path in life, or who oppose us individually or as an organization. When we do this, then we find divine Love expressed universally through man, and all are blessed. And that is our role as a church.
In order to do this, and to facilitate the healing and saving that church truly represents, it’s important to realize true faith, spiritual understanding. Mrs. Eddys dedicatory message states that, “by losing his faith in matter and sin, one finds the spirit of Truth, then he practises the Golden Rule spontaneously; and obedience to this rule spiritualizes man.” “We cannot serve two masters. Do we love God supremely? Are we honest, just, faithful?”
This is not about spiritual idealism. It is the most practical of sciences, the realization in human affairs of God’s presence and power. On the surface, when read without appreciating this, Mrs. Eddy’s message seems a curious one for a dedicatory statement. But we are never dealing with physicality, and certainly not with a purely physical structure, or human organization. We are part of the expressing of divine Love itself, the reflection of immortal Mind, the outpouring of Truth, building upon the foundation of Spirit, the practicality of Principle. That’s where our church resides, always. The world’s nolens volens, or willy-nilly nature, is naught, and the Christ helaing prevails.