Unity Church of Castro Valley
Sunday Message for April 15, 2007
The Celebrants
Since everything had been centered around Jesus' teachings - after he ascended to heaven his followers were left to carry on without him. Those who had lived, loved, and worked with him faced the challenge of creating community in his physical absence. With fear, hope, and different opinions about what it meant to be a follower, those whom Jesus left behind began to struggle with what it meant to be apostles of his teaching. Even in the days between the resurrection and Pentecost, the women and men of Christ began to create patterns that would shape the church to come as they met for prayer and broke bread together.
In our own journey from Easter to Pentecost, we think about the meaning of community and talk about stories of several communities created by the women followers. Still remembering our Lenten journey but reaching forward to the day of Pentecost, we acknowledge that our communities are filled both with the pain of our errors and the joy of healing as we learn to understand new languages as well as speak them.
Each community has a different rhythm, created by the movements of its comings and goings, work and play, meetings and partings. The rhythms of the community itself may change over time, depending on how it discerns its own identity in the midst of a changing world. We have our own individual rhythms within our church community; some people thrive on contact while others prefer a more solitary life, and some devote their lives to the daily maintenance of the community while others breathe life into it through their art, music, and poetry. We may find ourselves in a radically altered relationship to the community as we move to its edges or outside it entirely for brief or lengthy periods of time.
We know that the rhythms of community can be both life-giving and stifling, liberating and oppressive. So in these days we listen to and follow the Spirit's own rhythms as it moves within us. Seeking to intuit its sacred movements, we explore stories of other women in other communities. Praying for new language as well as new hearing, we gather at their table to listen, to learn, to commune. In our communion, may we better understand what it means to be a creative, spirited community of healing, of hope, of resistance, and of transformation.
TABITHA/DORCAS: NEW LIFE
(Acts 2:46-47) "Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread from house to house and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people."
The first Christian community that we will explore is in the 9th chapter of Acts. Dorcas, also known as Tabitha, was a Christian living in Joppa, which is about 30 miles north west of Jerusalem. She was known for her acts of charity, including the making of tunics and other garments for the poor.
When Dorcas became ill and died, many people mourned for her. But on learning that Peter was only 10 miles away in Lydda, the disciples sent two men to ask him to come to Joppa.
When Peter reached the town, he secluded himself in an upper room with the body of Dorcas. He prayed and said, (Acts 9:40) "Tabitha, get up."Then she opened her eyes, and seeing Peter, she sat up." Peter called to the others and showed her to be alive. The raising of Dorcas was the first miracle by the apostles and gained many believers.
Charles Fillmore tells us that Dorcas means gazelle which signifies a grace, lightness, and symmetry of the soul and body that are of Spirit. Dorcas lived in Joppa which means beauty. It signifies an awakened soul-opulence in Christ, or spiritual goodwill. Everything we read about Dorcas tells us that she was a beautiful person, dedicated to the Christ life.
The raising of Dorcas from the dead by Peter teaches us to deny away and put out of mind the belief in failures and lost opportunities. Perhaps you can remember someone who brought new life to you. Someone who tended you during an illness, or brought light into your life during a depression. Give thanks for those who brought new life to you.
Blessed are you, God, who brings forth new life from the earth. Bless us that we may rise into the newness of life in you.
MARY AND RHODA: HOSPITALITY
The second Christian community we want to look at is from the 12th chapter of Acts. After Peter was miraculously released from prison in Jerusalem, he came to the home of Mary, the mother of John Mark, and knocked at the gate. Rhoda, a family servant and probably a Christian attending a prayer meeting there, answered the knock. But when she recognized Peter's voice, Rhoda was so excited that she ran to tell the others without letting him in. At first no one believed her, saying (Acts 12:15) "You are out of your mind!" However, at the continued knocking, the others went to see for themselves and were astonished to find Peter.
Fillmore tells us that Rhoda means rose. Love, active in the feminine, intuitive, serving, receptive phase of consciousness in the individual or servant in the home of Mary.
This story, silly as it is, is about Christian hospitality. Perhaps you can remember someone who offered hospitality to you. Someone who offered to take you to church with them, or told you about the Unity belief system, or just sat with you in their kitchen and listened. Give thanks for those who serve and who offered you hospitality.
Blessed are you, God, who brings forth hospitality from the earth. Bless us in prayer that we too may be astonished at your Spirit's breaking forth in us.
LOIS AND EUNICE: FAITH
The third Christian community is mentioned in Acts 16 and in 2 Timothy, chapter 1. Lois was a devout Jewish woman living in Lystra, in Asia Minor. She had a daughter, Eunice, who had been married to a Greek and Timothy was the child of this marriage. Timothy was acquainted with the sacred writings from childhood thanks to Lois and Eunice.
Both Eunice and Lois became Christians and were praised by Paul for their sincere faith. They passed this faith on to Timothy, who became an eager convert and an ardent missionary.
Fillmore tells us that the grandmother, Lois, means freed or pleasing. The very free state and superior quality of the soul that is established in faith and Truth.
Eunice means happily conquering or good victory. It is a blending of our inner spiritual qualities of faith and love. Faith is the victory that overcomes the world, and love is the harmonizing influence in our life that brings us conscious joy and good.
Perhaps you can remember a relative or a friend who passed on to you strengthening faith or who had faith in you when you didn't. Let's give thanks for all those in our lives who inspired us to have faith.
Blessed are you, God who brings forth faith from the earth. Bless us that we may live in that faith.
LYDIA; TRANSFORMATION
The 4th Christian community we will talk about is mentioned in Acts 16, verses 11-15. In a dream, the apostle Paul saw a man calling him to Macedonia. There, the apostle made his first convert in Europe. At Philippi, on the Sabbath, he (Acts 16:13) "went outside the gate by the river, where we supposed there was a place of prayer." There he met Lydia, a Gentile who worshiped as a Jew.
Lydia apparently was a prosperous merchant who sold royal purple cloth to the rich. Inscriptions of the period show her hometown had a guild of dyers. And Homer's Iliad tells of two women famous for their work in purple dyeing in this town. Lydia had either moved to Philippi or had access to a large house there. After she and her household were baptized, she invited Paul and Silas to use her home as a center for their ministry while they were in town. Macedonian women were known for their independence, and Lydia's prominence allowed her to overcome Jewish custom that would have prevented her from making such an offer. It may have been Lydia's hospitality that persuaded Paul to keep accepting help from this church.
Fillmore says that Lydia means travail or childbirth. It is the travail that the soul undergoes in conceiving and giving birth to spiritual ideals. Spiritual understanding is developed in the feminine realm of the soul.
Her hometown Thyatira, represents the soul's intense desire for the higher expressions of life. When this inner urge comes forth with power the Lord opens the heart and we receive the heavenly message.
Remember those who have transformed your life through their prayers or have baptized you into a healthier way of thinking. Give thanks for those blessings of transformation.
Blessed are you, God, who brings forth transformation from the earth. Bless us in our continual unfolding.
PRISCILLA: PARTNERSHIP
The 5th Christian community is Corinth and is from Acts 18 and Romans 16. Twice we see Priscilla's name placed before that of her husband Aquila. This may be to imply that she was a more active minister than he was – or that she was of a higher social position.
Priscilla and Aquila were perhaps among the first Christian converts in Rome. When the two spoke of Jesus in the synagogues, the controversy became so inflammatory that the emperor expelled all Jews from Rome, including Priscilla and Aquila.
The couple moved to Corinth, where Paul met them and because he too was a tent maker, lodged with them and worked at his trade alongside Aquila.
After a 1 1/2 years all three moved to Ephesus, where Priscilla and Aquila offered their home as a meeting place for the Christian congregation. It was there that they met Apollos, who was taught by Priscilla and Aquila all about Jesus' teachings.
After the death of the emperor, the couple returned to Rome, again hosting a church in their home. When Paul wrote to the church at Rome he mentioned Priscilla and Aquila as fellow workers who risked their necks for his life.
Fillmore writes that Priscilla means ancient, old, or little old woman. It is the feminine or receptive phase of the healing forces of nature that are always at work rebuilding the body and repairing the ravages of ignorant man.
These healing forces of nature are very old, in so far as man's idea of time refers to age. They have been present and active since manifest creation began. God has ever been in every atom of His universe as unifying, constructive life, energy, love, intelligence, power, substance, and progressive influence.
Remember who has shared in partnership with you. Who have you prayed with, worked with, or played with in your life? Give thanks for all those who have been your partners.
Blessed are you, God, who brings forth partnership from the earth. Bless us that we may experience joy in our companions.
EUODIA AND SYNTYCHE: STRUGGLE
The next Christian community we will discuss is from Philippians, chapter 4. In a letter to the Philippians, Paul talks about Euodia and Syntyche as women who have struggled alongside him in the work of the gospel. He asks that the Philippians help these women.
Fillmore tells us that Euodia means prosperous, fragrant, and sweet-scented. It is the soul aspiring to that which is spiritual and high, to abundant good.
Syntyche means fortunate or fate. It is a phase of the soul that is in close touch with the Euodia state of thought, but has not yet become fully awakened to the fact that everything comes about according to divine law. We all make our own fate, and nothing just "happens."
We need to remember those we have struggled with, or who have shared our struggles. We give thanks for our struggles that lead to inspiration.
Blessed are you, God, who brings forth struggle from the earth. Bless us in our struggles that we may see that it is all God.
Go in peace, blessed by new life and hospitality. Go in strength, filled with faith and transformation. Go in solidarity, joined by the partnership and community of others. Go in hope, challenged by struggle. (Acts 1:8) "For you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses to the ends of the earth."
SCRIPTURE: Acts 2:46-47; Acts 9:36-42; Acts 12:12-16; Acts 16:1; 2 Timothy 1:5; Acts 16:11-15; Acts 18:1-3,18,24-26; Romans 16:1-16; Philippians 4:2-3; Acts 1:8
REFERENCE: Sacred Journeys by Jan L. Richardson; Metaphysical Bible Dictionary by Charles Fillmore
Last updated
April 17, 2007
