Tribute to Billy Graham

The death of American Christian evangelist Billy Graham deserves homage. I’ve only heard Graham speak a few times, over the radio or on the television. He didn’t really hold my attention. I have read books about Graham, they were nice. I’ve also read about his wife, Ruth Graham, because behind every great man is a great woman.

Graham is known for repeating, “The Bible says…” and, to be honest, those words don’t appeal to my thinking because the Bible is open to interpretation. Words in the Bible can say many things to many people and I have yet to meet someone who gets it always right. And words in and of themselves don’t have power.

So, Graham’s words didn’t enlighten or inspire me, but his integrity, perseverance, and dedication did and still will enlighten or inspire me. What motivated Graham? I suppose it was his love of God, family, and the Bible. And I suppose that is about all I have in common with this, which is plenty.

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The ascension

From 21st Century Science and Health:

On the road to Emmaus,[1] Jesus was known to his friends by the words that made their hearts burn within, and by the breaking of bread. The divine Spirit, which identified Jesus centuries ago, has spoken through the inspired Word and will speak through it in every generation and milieu. Spirit is revealed to the receptive heart and is again seen driving out evil and healing the sick.

Physique is not Spirit, and Jesus proved this point. After his resurrection he proved to the physical senses that his body was not changed until he ascended in thought; in other words, until his understanding of Spirit, God, expanded. To convince Thomas that mortality has nothing to do with Spirit, Jesus caused him to examine the nail marks and the spear-wound.[2]

Jesus’ unchanged physical state after the resurrection posits a progressive state beyond the grave. The spiritual growth that allowed Jesus to rise from the dead was increased even more to allow him to ascend. Jesus was “the way;”[3] that is, he marked the way for humankind. The final display, called the ascension, closed the earthly record of Jesus, and this world’s human minds and physical senses could no longer detect Jesus.

After Jesus’ ascension, his students received the Holy Spirit. Meaning, that by all they had witnessed and suffered they were wakened to a clearer understanding of divine Science. The scientific spiritual interpretation and understanding of Jesus’ teachings and demonstrations gave them a faint conception of the Life that is God. This allowed them to stop interpreting people through human knowledge and turn their thoughts instead to divine knowledge. Through the Holy Spirit they gained the true interpretation of their glorified Master and became better healers, leaning no longer on matter or human mind, but on divine Principle.

[1] Luke 24:13

[2] John 20:27

[3] John 14:6

Don’t twist metaphors

Metaphors use a blend of realistic narrative and imagistic poetry to address the deepest concerns of humanity. Metaphors evolve within a language and can profoundly influence perception, speech, even decision making.

We use metaphors all the time in order to say something about things we know little about. “It was a hairy situation.”

Metaphors are utilized because it’s impossible to express ideas that can’t be stated in plain language without a loss of meaning.

Conventional wisdom meshes with rhetoric to produce metaphors that give us something to identify with. “God is father.”

Metaphors have proven their worth for millenniums although they are risky and open-ended. The child with an abusive horrible father doesn’t want to hear about a God who is father. So, other metaphors enter the scene, “God is mother, energy, the universe, a river that never stops…”

One must live with the risk of metaphors since there is no way to get at the principal subject of that which can’t be regulated to our limited language. The unlimited God can never be described in full with the human language.

The down-side of metaphors is when theological reflection is replaced with human conviction. It’s when the reader attempts to wed the two subjects of ordinary life and the transcendent. It’s when the ordinary becomes the principal focus and God becomes the subsidiary awareness.

For example, in the study of Christian Science, I read Mary Baker Eddy’s exegesis of the book Revelation, a book replete with metaphors.

In Revelation of the New International Version, chapter 10, the metaphor of an angel “holding a little scroll, which lay open in his hand,” is considered. The question is asked, “Did this scroll contain the revelation of divine Science?” (21^st Century Science and Health)

This question maintains the metaphorical stance. It’s metaphysical. It doesn’t reverse the ordinary and the transcendent and ask, “Is this scroll, or book in the angels hand the physical book titled, Science and Health?”

There is nothing wrong with identifying a physical book with the book in the angels hand, but to make a decision based on this literal interpretation will lead to flawed circumstances and disappointment because the decision attempted to reduce a revelation to a physical thing, it attempted to make the infinite into something finite.

We can steer clear of the traps of trying to close the open-endedness of a metaphor. And, experience revelations.For example, the common metaphor depicting God as father produces images of horror to a child who was abused by their human father. Or it can be confusing to a child. Therefore we have mothers who see through metaphors and make sure not to interpret them literally.

For example, the other day, my cousin told me about her husband and I felt a touch of revealed divine knowledge.

Her husband is one of 6 children who grew up with a war-bride mom and an alcoholic father. The father drank himself to death when the children were younger. Their mom told them, “You are not your father. You are you. You make your own choices.” All six children grew into responsible, family oriented, successful individuals. What a nice revelation to know we are individuals, separable from human history and capable of wonderful goodness.

The revelation of divine Science is spiritual, a spiritual force, alive and well. It’ a spiritual knowledge that can be applied in the human experience to align our thoughts to divine Spirit, Truth, and Love.

God does not skimp on details

While reading though the book Exodus in the Bible, I had to laugh.

After the children of Israel escaped Egypt, they looked lost. But Moses goes up on a Mountain and hangs around or 40 days and 40 nights while God gives him instructions on what to do with the people.

The instructions were so detailed that I got bored reading. Here’s an example from Exodus 25: “They shall make an ark of acacia wood. Two cubits and a half shall be its length, a cubit and a half its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height. ¹¹ You shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and outside shall you overlay it, and you shall make on it a molding of gold around it. ¹² You shall cast four rings of gold for it and put them on its four feet, two rings on the one side of it, and two rings on the other side of it. ¹³ You shall make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. ¹⁴ And you shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark to carry the ark by them. ¹⁵ The poles shall remain in the rings of the ark; they shall not be taken from it. ¹⁶ And you shall put into the ark the testimony that I shall give you.”

Yea, that’s like me telling my husband to grasp the top edges of the 13-gallon plastic bag firmly with both hands and bring in together while pulling up out of the container. But before pulling completely out of the container, find the drawstring and pull on it from both sides to close in the top of the bag. Tie the drawstring together with an under the loop tie knot. Remove the bag from the container and backup two steps. Turn to the left and make another two steps. Turn to the right and walk 5 steps. Turn to the right again and make 4 steps. Open the back door. Walk through the door into the garage. Walk down 2 steps. Walk over to the garbage can, lift the lid and insert the bag into the can.

Or, I could say, Take out the garbage please.

Idolatry turns an asset into a liability

This was first posted on Beliefnet.com Everyday Spirituality blog

Christian Science is mired in the mud of idolatry. Most of the students of Christian Science have dug their way out of the mud and moved on in life. They strive to live a moral, spiritual, and intellectual lifestyle, successfully, and help to bring relief to those suffering with broken relationships, addiction, pain, and sickness.

Idolatry of the written word, in the Bible and Science and Health, by Mary Baker Eddy, has turned what use to be an advantage into a disadvantage. The written word, or the letter, has buried the spirit.

But, the spirit can’t be killed. The spirit of Truth and Love is being discovered, even without the written word in the Bible and Science and Health.

The sheer fact that Christian Science is a discovery proves it is metaphysical in nature, not physical, therefore we can thrive in the study of Christian Science without getting in the mud. Books may help, but as soon as they become attached to idolatry, they sink.

Idolaters point to their precious physical words as if they are the truth of the spirit. They insist those words be read. But, idolatry has no effect on those practicing Christian Science from the rock of the spirit.

Some ex-Christian Scientists banter and bark at those stuck in the mud, and though unproductive in light of progressing spirituality, the bantering indirectly serves to dry up the idolatry. Let’s hope it can dry up to the point that Christian Science can again be found inclusively without a “we versus them” attitude.

Idolatry is nothing new.

With foresight into the human nature and its strong inclination to idolize, a commandment cautions, “You shall not make yourself an idol.” (Ex. 20:4) Mary Baker Eddy wrote, “Posterity will have the right to demand that Christian Science be stated and demonstrated in its godliness and grandeur—that however little be taught or learned,  that little shall be right.” (Retrospection and Introspection)

As world circumstances change, the written word too must change. In this interactive, globalized, hyper world of 7 billion people, there is little resemblance to 6000 years ago, or even 100 years ago.

Digging Christian Science out of the mud of the letter, to recapture the spirit, is our right. The use of modern Bibles, and the revision, 21^st Century Science and Health, now in its 4^th edition, satisfies the demand that Christian Science be stated effectively in the modern world.