Peace
February 6, 2003
This is done through self-abnegation. Universal Love is the divine way in Christian Science.
We took up Peace as our topic last week realizing that the world would be lurching ever closer to war in the days ahead. Members started the meeting with readings they'd studied during the week and descriptions of the prayerful watching and reversing of error they'd been doing and continued to do.
One told how he'd managed to shock attendees at a branch church testimony meeting by trotting out his favorite Christian Science koan, "Let that Mind be in us which was also in Adolph Hitler," with an addendum, "If we can't get the absolute Science embodied in this apparently absurd statement, then we're just not fit to handle the case for peace."
Another member observed, "People, places and things are now so dangerous in belief that we must live them all as divine idea."
This led into a discussion of what peace is and whether it's always what's needed. "Peace, peace, when there is no peace," (Jeremiah 8:11) summarizes the point that the mere absence of visible conflict is hardly a holy or stable condition if it masks the presence of injustice, exploitation and so forth. Upheaval and chaos might then be required to break the inertia. This process can be said to be in accordance with Christian Science: we had a very good description of it in the Readings (see Science and Health, p. 540:5-16).
A couple of members introduced the idea that inner peace can lead to world peace. This seemed reasonable to others and one even quoted a prayer he and fellow yogis repeat together at the end of their classes: "May the whole world attain peace and harmony and may that peace and harmony begin in our hearts."
Another member contrasted Jesus' struggle at Gethsemane to get beyond personal sense and find peace while the dopey disciples drift into peaceful sleep. He also mentioned the very active "leap of faith" he had to take when suddenly confronted with life-threatening thuggery on the streets of New York. In both Jesus' case and his own, the result was a peaceful resolution, but to get there required a great exertion to surrender to the reality of being.
Is there validity in the concept of creative conflict? At the grossest level members pointed to scientific and sociological breakthroughs coming from wars. There was mention of World War II's contribution of radar and atomic power as well as the ferment that eventually led to improved rights for African Americans, women and Gay people. Perhaps we could have moved forward in these areas without war, but there's something about the sheer desperation and danger of war that brings forth human progress. For the student of Christian Science — i.e., a fact finder rather than a fault finder — the phenomena could be evaluated properly by stripping away the dualism and living the underlying divine ideas.
Here's a dispiriting thought voiced by one member: "With all the religious and political animosity, all the greed and fear of lack, all the bad personal history projected unto world events — do we seriously expect to see peace in our time?" He did offer us this glimmer of prophesy from Mary Baker Eddy: " The Science of physical harmony, as now presented to the people in divine light, is radical enough to promote as forcible collisions of thought as the age has strength to bear." (Unity of Good, p. 6:10-13) If this is true, the hand of God —the infinite, eternal being of each of us — is what's driving the whole unfoldment. Or better, what's pressuring us to give up the limited material view of ourselves and others, for the Truth of oneness and peace.
Should peace per se be a goal? If achieved, mightn't it look like Mark Twain's heaven, where the departed float about playing harps? Members agreed what we really want is meaningful activity. Even if that means work, struggle and strife. The promise of Christian Science is that we can work out from Mind which "rests in action."
We discussed the "greater Jihad" of Islam. Surprisingly to some of us, this refers to one's internal struggle with sin. (The "lesser Jihad" has to do with outer conquests — and perhaps, by modern interpretation, material accomplishments). Some of us don't like the word "sin", so things came to a screeching halt right there until a member offered some updated synonyms, like "objectification, stereotyping and paranoia." "Wouldn't materialism cover the whole field in Science?" asked another. Anyway, the call here is to struggle with one's own sense of self. Mrs. Eddy said, "the warfare with one's self...gives one plenty of employment" (see the Readings, Miscellaneous Writings, p. 118:24-28).
Was this too painful to face? We ended the meeting discussing what we can now do to further the position of LGBT people in the Christian Science movement. There were no conclusions, but it is an area that concerns us and on which we'll work behind the scenes for now.
For next week we'll look at Fun. "I can't even imagine," said one non-fun-lover. But it was fun watching his scowl lighten a touch.
The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord.
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
Eternal Truth is changing the universe. As mortals drop off their mental swaddling-clothes, thought expands into expression. "Let there be light," is the perpetual demand of Truth and Love, changing chaos into order and discord into the music of the spheres.
In Isaiah we read: "I make peace, and create evil. I the Lord do all these things;" but the prophet referred to divine law as stirring up the belief in evil to its utmost, when bringing it to the surface and reducing it to its common denominator, nothingness. The muddy river-bed must be stirred in order to purify the stream. In moral chemicalization, when the symptoms of evil, illusion, are aggravated, we may think in our ignorance that the Lord hath wrought an evil; but we ought to know that God's law uncovers so-called sin and its effects, only that Truth may annihilate all sense of evil and all power to sin.
God rests in action. Imparting has not impoverished, can never impoverish, the divine Mind. No exhaustion follows the action of this Mind, according to the apprehension of divine Science. The highest and sweetest rest, even from a human standpoint, is in holy work.
We cannot obey both God, good, and evil,—in other words, the material senses, false suggestions, self-will, selfish motives, and human policy. We shall have no faith in evil when faith finds a resting-place and scientific understanding guides man.
Be of good cheer; the warfare with one's self is grand; it gives one plenty of employment, and the divine Principle worketh with you,—and obedience crowns persistent effort with everlasting victory.
In the midst of depressing care and labor I turn constantly to divine Love for guidance, and find rest. It affords me great joy to be able to attest to the truth of Jesus' words. Love makes all burdens light, it giveth a peace that passeth understanding, and with "signs following." As to the peace, it is unutterable; as to "signs," behold the sick who are healed, the sorrowful who are made hopeful, and the sinful and ignorant who have become "wise unto salvation"!
Are we duly aware of our own great opportunities and responsibilities? Are we prepared to meet and improve them, to act up to the acme of divine energy wherewith we are armored?
Never was there a more solemn and imperious call than God makes to us all, right here, for fervent devotion and an absolute consecration to the greatest and holiest of all causes. The hour is come. The great battle of Armageddon is upon us. The powers of evil are leagued together in secret conspiracy against the Lord and against His Christ, as expressed and operative in Christian Science. Large numbers, in desperate malice, are engaged day and night in organizing action against us. Their feeling and purpose are deadly, and they have sworn enmity against the lives of our standard-bearers.
What will you do about it? Will you be equally in earnest for the truth? Will you doff your lavender-kid zeal, and become real and consecrated warriors? Will you give yourselves wholly and irrevocably to the great work of establishing the truth, the gospel, and the Science which are necessary to the salvation of the world from error, sin, disease, and death? Answer at once and practically, and answer aright!
Through the accession of spirituality, God, the divine Principle of Christian Science, literally governs the aims, ambition, and acts of the Scientist. The divine ruling gives prudence and energy; it banishes forever all envy, rivalry, evil thinking, evil speaking and acting; and mortal mind, thus purged, obtains peace and power outside of itself.
This practical Christian Science is the divine Mind, the incorporeal Truth and Love, shining through the mists of materiality and melting away the shadows called sin, disease, and death.
The Founder of Christianity said: "My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you."
Christian Science reinforces Christ's sayings and doings. The Principle of Christian Science demonstrates peace. Christianity is the chain of scientific being reappearing in all ages, maintaining its obvious correspondence with the Scriptures and uniting all periods in the design of God. The First Commandment in the Hebrew Decalogue—"Thou shalt have no other gods before me"—obeyed, is sufficient to still all strife. God is the divine Mind. Hence the sequence: Had all peoples one Mind, peace would reign.
God is Father, infinite, and this great truth, when understood in its divine metaphysics, will establish the brotherhood of man, end wars, and demonstrate "on earth peace, good will toward men."