Worthiness

February 21, 2002

The more I understand true humanhood, the more I see it to be sinless,--as ignorant of sin as is the perfect Maker.

Unity of Good, by Mary Baker Eddy

Our topic sprang last week from a member's experience of finding through prayer why he deserved the new intimate relationship unfolding in his life. It was a gift from God, untouched by lesser motives or drives. Since the topic derived from his experience, this member assumed the role of chairman for the evening.

We adjusted our format a bit to accommodate the presence of a member's two dogs who moved around the room strewing affection on their new fans. This gave the chairman a chance to give us a fuller explanation of how he demonstrated worthiness in relationship.

His history with love affairs has not been good; inevitable breakups led to sadness and self-blame. After a few weeks in the new involvement he realized his friend was someone quite special, with the qualities he has always wanted in a lover. He began to worry that old patterns of self-hatred, jealousy and arguments would reassert themselves. This time he prayed in Science about the situation and discovered the divine cause at the center of the partnership. This freed him enough to relax and enjoy what was happening. He also discovered the scientific fact that "whoever gets me gets something wonderful." He stated this without hubris. The new relationship is thriving.

On to the readings. Those from the Bible called attention to what is valuable and worthy in the human concept: its divine reality as opposed to any mortal or dualistic counterfeit. This distinction is shown by Jesus' experience in the crucifixion (Science and Health, p. 51:6-18). One member commented that the Savior did apparently grant some value to the evil motives of his persecutors as helping to dramatize his and man's divinity, yet to be uncovered in the Resurrection and Ascension. In order to carry the demonstration forward to these results Jesus had to practice the presence of the perfect man in Science (Science and Health, p. 476: 32-5).

We agreed that the student of Christian Science must see everyone and everything as divine ideas. Anything less is malpractice. Other scriptural texts mentioned, but not read at the meeting, were Matthew 5:43-48; 10:18; and 20:1-16. Also a statement from Bicknell Young, a Christian Science Teacher, was quoted, "there is but one I or Us...God's own being. This is the only man there is; this is you, this is me, this is everybody." (For the full statement, see page 240 of Christian Science Re-Explored, by Margaret Laird).

We went on to individual experiences.

1) A member told of his first meeting with his lover. "We met one evening and spent the rest of our lives together." He described their relationship as a transformative experience, with continual chemicalization forcing translation of material beliefs into divine ideas. The Christian Science pamphlet, God's Law of Adjustment, by Adam Dickey has been his constant companion in the work.

2) Another member talked about his partnership of six years. They come from different backgrounds but have similar abuse issues to deal with from the past. Both have found their spiritual practice fundamental in the recovery — our member on the basis of Christian Science and his lover from a Yoruba religious standpoint.

This member outlined two healings — one from being a control freak, leading to arguments (he studied Science and Health, p. 476: 32-5) and the other from anxiety attacks when a Reading Room attendant suggested he study Science and Health, p. 422: 5-10, which reads a s follows: "If the reader of this book observes a great stir throughout his whole system, and certain moral and physical symptoms seem aggravated, these indications are favorable. Continue to read, and the book will become the physician, allaying the tremor which Truth often brings to error when destroying it."

3) Another member found himself several weeks ago in a deep depression which neither medication nor visits to a psychotherapist could break. He felt life was worthless and that he had no center, nothing holding him together. A friend suggested he visit a Christian Science practitioner; while our member is basically a follower of A Course In Miracles, he has found no conflict between it and Christian Science — so he went. The practitioner reviewed a few basic points in Science with him and said she would pray. That night he slept soundly and awoke the next day "feeling totally myself again."

4) Our member who has been seeing a sex/romance therapist to help him work through some intimacy issues reported further healing and spiritual insights. After their second encounter he found he wanted more — as in candle lit dinners and walks along a beach. These desires he more or less expected to arise but he had not foreseen that he would also start taking a more active role in friendships. For instance, he has sent flowers to one friend suffering an emotional rough time and to another confined to a hospital bed. Before the romantic opening he would have done some metaphysical work and left it there. He is aware that material means alone will not heal. But if they are undergirded with divine knowing then having sex and sending flowers don't merely mark the presence of Love — they are It. So he was refuting the so-called Arian heresy on a very practical level.

5)Another member talked about his day. He arrived at work minus his house keys. His initial worry transmuted into serenity when he saw that the keys were in Mind — his very own, and the only, Mind. Immediately he knew he had left them stuck in the mail box and returned home. There they were. As he prepared to go back to work he ran into a friend he hadn't seen in decades and found that he was unemployed. They recalled that our member had helped him long ago to get a job working for a man who had gone on to become a Christian Science practitioner. They decided to call him and they all had a good talk about old times. When informed of the man's present problem, the practitioner just happened to know someone who was hiring people with this man's talents. So he will now call this shop. Our member was very happy about these contacts and the results. He was also hoping that all of them are now at a place where they can work out some difficulties that drove them apart in the first place.

6) One of our dog visitors has suffered for years from the effects of being cast strictly in the role of breeding animal at a puppy mill. She gave birth to seventy two puppies before our member rescued her. She is now in a loving home where our member, his lover and the other dog care for her physical, emotional and spiritual needs.

For next week, members want to get a better scientific view of the many world problems now making the news. For instance the Mideast, Afghanistan, the so-called "Axis of Evil", as well as the economic distress in Argentina and Japan. We called the topic Crisis/Opportunity and will use this text from Romans as a guide: "where sin abounded, grace did much more abound" (Romans 5: 20).

The Bible

God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.

the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

On the morrow, as they went on their journey, and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour: And he became very hungry, and would have eaten: but while they made ready, he fell into a trance, And saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth: Wherein were all manner of fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, and eat. But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean. And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.

While Peter thought on the vision, the Spirit said unto him, Behold, three men seek thee.

And as Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him, and fell down at his feet, and worshipped him. But Peter took him up, saying, Stand up; I myself also am a man. And as he talked with him, he went in, and found many that were come together. And he said unto them, Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation; but God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean.

Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:

While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy

Jesus could have withdrawn himself from his enemies. He had power to lay down a human sense of life for his spiritual identity in the likeness of the divine; but he allowed men to attempt the destruction of the mortal body in order that he might furnish the proof of immortal life. Nothing could kill this Life of man. Jesus could give his temporal life into his enemies' hands; but when his earth-mission was accomplished, his spiritual life, indestructible and eternal, was found forever the same. He knew that matter had no life and that real Life is God; therefore he could no more be separated from his spiritual Life than God could be extinguished.

In the Gospel of John, it is declared that all things were made through the Word of God, "and without Him [the logos, or word] was not anything made that was made." Everything good or worthy, God made. Whatever is valueless or baneful, He did not make,—hence its unreality. In the Science of Genesis we read that He saw everything which He had made, "and, behold, it was very good." The corporeal senses declare otherwise; and if we give the same heed to the history of error as to the records of truth, the Scriptural record of sin and death favors the false conclusion of the material senses. Sin, sickness, and death must be deemed as devoid of reality as they are of good, God.

Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick. Thus Jesus taught that the kingdom of God is intact, universal, and that man is pure and holy.

When understanding changes the standpoints of life and intelligence from a material to a spiritual basis, we shall gain the reality of Life, the control of Soul over sense, and we shall perceive Christianity, or Truth, in its divine Principle. This must be the climax before harmonious and immortal man is obtained and his capabilities revealed. It is highly important—in view of the immense work to be accomplished before this recognition of divine Science can come—to turn our thoughts towards divine Principle, that finite belief may be prepared to relinquish its error.

Retrospection and Introspection, by Mary Baker Eddy

The immortal man being spiritual, individual, and eternal, his mortal opposite must be material, corporeal, and temporal. Physical personality is finite; but God is infinite. He is without materiality, without finiteness of form or Mind.

Limitations are put off in proportion as the fleshly nature disappears and man is found in the reflection of Spirit.

This great fact leads into profound depths. The material human concept grew beautifully less as I floated into more spiritual latitudes and purer realms of thought.

From that hour personal corporeality became less to me than it is to people who fail to appreciate individual character. I endeavored to lift thought above physical personality, or selfhood in matter, to man's spiritual individuality in God,—in the true Mind, where sensible evil is lost in supersensible good. This is the only way whereby the false personality is laid off.

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