Tell the Truth

Archive for March, 2009

24 Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: 25 But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. 26 But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. 27 So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares? 28  He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? 29 But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn. Matt 13:24-30 (KJV)

This world seems to be full of both good and evil living side by side: a Mother Teresa living amid the squalor in Indian slums; a newly-married woman getting breast cancer; a new Christian getting diabetes. Good and bad. Side by side.

In the parable of the Tares and the Wheat, Jesus describes this situation and tells us how to handle it.

Our human tendency is to stop everything and focus on the problem. This approach fixates us on the difficulty to the extent that our prayers take on the character of a worry session, and God is crowded out. Jesus in the Parable of the Sower speaks of this very thing when he describes the sowing of the seed where “some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them…” Matt 13:7 (KJV)

Problems always want to focus us on the visible world–the world of the five senses–the world of temporary effects. “…the things which are seen are temporal” II Cor 4:18 However, the answer to all of our problems lies not in the world around us, but in the realm of God–”the things which are not seen are eternal.”

If we try to stop everything and uproot the tares we may, as the parable tells us, “root up also the wheat with them.” Matt 13:29 We may be so focused on our problem that we can’t concentrate to pray, and stop all together, choking the growth of the good seed with the thorns and thistles of worry and fear.

A Christian Scientist, given a health challenge, prays to know God more deeply. In doing so, he is nurturing the wheat in his field. The health challenge may very well continue to exist right alongside of his prayer work, but he keeps praying. As his consciousness matures, the Truth growing in his consciousness bears its fruit, and the time for harvest has come. Along with the fulfillment of his realization, not only is the Truth harvested, but the evil as well, and right alongside of the spiritual fruit, the healing of the body occurs.

“When the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come.” Mark 4:29 (KJV)

The owner of the field in the parable says,

“Let both [the tares and the wheat] grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.” Matt 13:30

Mrs. Eddy says,

“…Science separates the wheat from the tares, through the realization of God as ever present and of man as reflecting the divine likeness.” 300:20

So, though problems arise, and may persist, keep praying. The time of harvest will come. 

“Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world”  Matt 25:34 (KJV)

“Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.” Matt 25:21 (KJV)

In the story of Nicodemus meeting with Jesus at night as reported in the gospel of John 3:1-19, Jesus illustrates the idea of being “born again” in three ways: being born of water and the Spirit; comparing the new birth to the movement of wind whose point of origin and final destination we can’t know; and in referring to the story of Moses lifting up the serpent on a pole (Numbers 21:4-9) healing all who looked upon it.

John 3:5
5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

The metaphysician, William Walter, in his book, The Unknown God, interprets this passage as:

“Jesus answered, In fact and in truth I tell you, Unless an individual becomes conscious (born) of the true thought, and of the true understanding of Life, he can not comprehend the truth and all-power of Life, God.”

Mrs. Eddy gives us this insight into water in the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures:

506:22; 507:1-3
    Genesis i. 10. And God called the dry land Earth; and
    the gathering together of the waters called He Seas: and
24 God saw that it was good.

1                                      In metaphor, the dry land
  illustrates the absolute formations instituted by Mind,
3 while water symbolizes the elements of Mind.

I like the idea of Spirit as representing Science in the passage, and to think of it as saying, “Unless a man learns to think Scientifically, he can not enter into a living experience of God’s harmonious creation.”

The second illustration Jesus gives us is that of the movement of the wind:

John 3:8
8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

In the glossary of Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy has this to say of wind:

597:27-29; 598:1-10
27 WIND. That which indicates the might of omnipo-
    tence and the movements of God’s spiritual government,
    encompassing all things.

1 The Greek word for wind (pneuma) is used also for
   spirit, as in the passage in John’s Gospel, the third chap-
   3 ter, where we read: “The wind [pneuma] bloweth where
   it listeth. . . . So is every one that is born of the Spirit
   [pneuma].” Here the original word is the same in both
   6 cases, yet it has received different translations, as in other
   passages in this same chapter and elsewhere in the New
   Testament. This shows how our Master had constantly
   9 to employ words of material significance in order to unfold
   spiritual thoughts.

The new spiritual birth is an activity of Mind, Spirit, and not a human phenomena, and Jesus says we can no more make it happen ourselves than we can understand where it will lead us in our lives.

The final illustration given is of the story of the serpent being lifted up in the desert. It is recorded in the Bible in the book of Numbers:

Numbers 21:4-9
And they journeyed from mount Hor by the way of the Red sea, to compass the land of Edom: and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way. And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread. And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died. Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord, and against thee; pray unto the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.

Of course, this passage is often identified with Jesus. Learning of Jesus’ life and demonstration of God’s power, through his healing work, preaching and resurrection, what Jesus showed us is vitally important in the transformation of our consciousness referred to as the new birth.

Romans 12:2 to not (to mind)
2 be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind

45:16
    Glory be to God, and peace to the struggling hearts!
    Christ hath rolled away the stone from the door of hu-
18 man hope and faith, and through the reve-
    lation and demonstration of life in God, hath
    elevated them to possible at-one-ment with the spiritual
21 idea of man and his divine Principle, Love.

Being born again is a spiritual activity, not a human one, which occurs as the result of a transformation of our thought. This change in our thinking is brought about through an examination of the life of Jesus who demonstrated the Christ, God’s divine idea of man, for us. This new thought is referred to by Paul in 1st Corinthians as the “mind of Christ”, and this new Scientific thinking at work in our consciousness makes all things new.

476:32-4
                                Jesus beheld in Science the per-
1 fect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal
   man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour
3 saw God’s own likeness, and this correct view of man
   healed the sick.

This rebirth in our thinking is the gift of God to us, and in Christian Science, Mrs. Eddy has given us a precious pearl hidden for centuries, the rediscovery of the nature of the Christ mind, buried for so long under human doctrines and materialistic thinking.

Sunday at church, a member shared with me that his nephew was in town taking a look at our local college, the University of Tennessee, here in Knoxville. His nephew had remarked that many of the students he met seemed more interested in drinking than in anything else. The church member remarked that there were also many Christians in school as well—”good people” as he called them, that his nephew could be friends with. So, I got to thinking about the idea of Christians as being “good people”.

I have a hard time with that. Much of my past experience with these “good people” has been negative. Conservative Christians, to me, seem self-righteousness, critical and condemning—anything, but Christian. When I think of them, I think of Jesus’ condemnation of the Pharisees in the 23^rd chapter of Matthew or the 11^th chapter of Luke. I remember the story of them bringing the woman “taken in adultery, in the very act” from the 8^th chapter of John to Jesus. In short, I am critical of them. They make me embarassed to be a Christian.

I’ve recently begun working with “A Treatment for Every Day” which Mrs. Eddy published in an 1883 Christian Science Journal. It ends with, “When I cease to judge, criticize or condemn, I begin to make progress.” And as I thought about them this morning I saw how condemnatory I was being—in short, I was being as critical of them as the Pharisees had been of the adulterous woman. Ouch!

I thought of the statement,

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. 476:32–4

And I saw that when I looked at them, I was not seeing the perfect man. This weeks lesson cites 2^nd Corinthians:

Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh… II Cor 5:16

I saw that I was seeing them “after the flesh”—and, not through the eyes of Spirit. The eyes of Spirit see man in God’s image:

The Christlike understanding of scientific being and divine healing includes a perfect Principle and idea, — perfect God and perfect man, — as the basis of thought and demonstration. 259:11

And seeing man as perfect, as reflecting God is the consciousness of man that heals. In Mrs. Eddy’s definition of man in Science and Health, she says that man

has not a single quality underived from Deity; 475:20

Self-righteousness is not a quality underived from Deity, and God never created a single self-righteous mortal. As I thought about this, I was relieved of the condemnatory and critical attitudes of other Christians I’ve been holding. All men are God’s image and likeness—not mortal man, the man of the flesh, the self-righteous man, but the spiritual man, the actual man, the man destined to come

in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:  Eph 4:13