Unity Church of Castro Valley
Sunday Message for April 29, 2007
Women of Spirit
The Coming of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-13) "When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs--in our own languages we hear them speaking about God's deeds of power." All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "What does this mean?" But others sneered and said, "They are filled with new wine.""
BEARERS OF NEW WINE
In (Acts 1:14) it says that following Jesus' ascension, the disciples "were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers." Certainly the women were also there on the day of Pentecost, the fiftieth day after the second day of the Jewish festival of Passover. The Holy Spirit descended on the women as well as on the men. The gift of speaking in other languages came to the women as well as to the men. Accusations of being drunk on new wine were hurled against the women as well as against the men.
No wine had touched their lips that day, as Peter goes on to explain; rather, he says, this was a fulfillment of what the prophet Joel had spoken (Acts 2:17) "I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy." Filled with the Spirit, the women as well as the men remembered the new wine offered by Jesus - the new wine of his life poured out among them; the new wine of healing brought to those who lived in sickness and on the margins; the new wine of justice for women, men, and children; the wine of shared, life-giving power. The new wine that had satisfied their thirst without touching their lips was Spirit-stirred and tasted anew on the day of Pentecost. Touched by wind and by flame, the women as well as the men realized again their power as vessels of the wind, fire, and new wine of the living God.
We remember these and other Spirit-filled women who poured out the wine of their lives, their dreams, their prayers, and their struggle to find a new language. We remember women whose lives were stirred and transformed by the wind of the Spirit, women who became bearers of hope, healing, justice, and peace. From many ages and lands we gather at their table, knowing their journeys made a way for our own. We call their names, we remember their stories, we taste the new wine they bear, and we invoke the Spirit who stirred their lives. In so doing, may we be blessed.
BERURIAH
In second-century Jerusalem there lived a woman, Beruriah, who intimately knew the Torah. She is remembered in the Talmud for her great scholarship and her wise teaching.
When her husband, Rabbi Meir prayed for the death of robbers who had plagued the town; Beruriah told him to pray, instead, that their sinful ways would die. The robbers repented and asked for forgiveness.
We still live in a world where knowledge is a commodity. Education is a privilege not extended to all people.
In Unity we teach the Truth of Universal Principles. Do you extend this cup of Wisdom to those you know? Do you allow yourself to live this Wisdom?
SAINT BRIGID
In fifth-century Ireland was a woman we remember as Saint Brigid. Her arrival at sunrise was marked by a flame that stretched from the top of her head to the heavens. She established a religious community at Kildare and became its first abbess. She was revered for her wisdom and her healing wells brought new life to the inhabitants of the countryside. Her fire was tended by priestesses and later by Catholic sisters until a bishop declared it pagan and had the fire extinguished in 1220.
In Unity we hold a teaching that can cure the world of all its ills. Do you extend this cup of Healing to those you know? Do you allow yourself to be healed?
SAINT GERTRUDE THE GREAT
Saint Gertrude the Great came to the convent of Helfta in Germany in 1261 at the age of 4 or 5. She had a passion for study, speech, and for writing. At the age of 25 she began to have visions of Christ, who promised she would "drink from the torrents of his delights."
Her visions of the sacred heart of Christ sparked a tradition of religious devotion that still continues. She became abbess of the convent that educated women in grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music, and theology.
In Unity we teach the Truth of seeing beyond the physical world. In a world comfortable with its familiar patterns of seeing, do you extend this cup of Vision to those you know? Do you allow yourself to truly see?
TERESA OF AVILA
Teresa of Avila was of both Jewish and Christian ancestry. She was born in Avila, Spain in 1515 and had a privileged upbringing as she belonged to the Spanish nobility.
At the age of 20 she chose to enter the Carmelite Monastery in Avila. It wasn't until the age of 40 that Teresa finally surrendered completely to God and started her work. In 1560 she was guided to reform the Carmelite Order, both male and female. Teresa created 17 new monasteries altogether.
Teresa has numerous volumes of writing in which she described her profoundly rich inner life. Her masterwork, The Interior Castle, one of the most celebrated books on mystical theology ever written, is a detailed guide for the journey toward spiritual perfection.
Teresa wrote in The Interior Castle, "I can find nothing to compare with the great beauty of a soul and its infinite capacity... the soul is nothing but a paradise in which God takes delight."
In Unity we teach the Divinity of God within us all. Do you extend this cup of holiness to those around you? Do you allow yourself to accept your Divinity?
MYRTLE FILLMORE (MARY CAROLINE PAGE)
Then in Ohio on August 6, 1845 Mary Caroline Page was born - better known to us as Myrtle Fillmore. This was almost two decades before the Civil War. She was a very bright girl and very curious. She used to sneak off with the books that were intended for the big boys and the grown-ups. Little girls were not encouraged to do such reading.
She was raised a Methodist, but was repulsed by the God that they taught. She couldn't understand a God that would punish or get revenge. There was something within her that rebelled at a teaching that said she was by nature, evil and sinful.
At a very young age she contracted tuberculosis. TB ran in the family on her father's side. She went through several bouts of illness during her childhood. She suffered from poor health often during the early years of her marriage to Charles. She was told by the doctors that she was dying, or very close to it.
In the spring of 1886 Myrtle attended a course of lectures on Christian Science given by Eugene B. Weeks. She said, "The physical claims that had been considered such a serious nature faded away before the dawning of this new consciousness, and I found that my body temple had been literally transformed through the renewing of my mind."
Myrtle healed herself of tuberculosis. She explains it this way, "I began to teach my body and got marvelous results. I told the life in my liver that it was not torpid or inert, but full of vigor and energy. I told the life in my stomach that it was not weak or inefficient, but energetic, strong and intelligent. I told the life in my abdomen that it was no longer infested with ignorant ideas of disease, put there by myself and by doctors, but that it was all athrill with the sweet, pure, wholesome energy of God. I told my limbs that they were active and strong. I told my eyes that they did not see of themselves but that they expressed the sight of Spirit, and that they were drawing on an unlimited source. I told them that they were young eyes, clear, bright eyes, because the light of God shone right through them. I told my heart that the pure love of Jesus Christ flowed in and out through its beatings and that all the world felt its joyous pulsation."
"I went to all the life centers in my body and spoke words of Truth to them - words of strength and power. I asked their forgiveness for the foolish, ignorant course that I had pursued in the past, when I condemned them and called them weak, inefficient and diseased. I did not become discouraged at their being slow to wake up, but kept right on, both silently and aloud, declaring the words of Truth, until the organs responded."
Myrtle Fillmore healed herself, and then dedicated herself to spreading the word to others. In fact, people started to flock to her to share her secret of healing.
And, like us, she would still have things come up to heal. Judging and criticizing others was a problem she struggled with through-out her lifetime.
But Myrtle and Charles studied the teachings of Jesus Christ and religious literature from the East and the West and eventually started a teaching which they called "Practical Christianity."
Myrtle was the ‘Torch-Bearer to Light the Way' to this wonderful Unity teaching that we are part of. From childhood on she had every good reason to feel sorry for herself. She was sickly and weak and had no good reason to think otherwise - but she turned her life around and affected many, many lives. She is truly a woman of spirit.
She taught us that we can change our minds and change our lives. Do you extend this cup of hope to those around you? Do you allow yourself to have faith in your own possibilities?
UNNAMED WOMEN
I think we also need to remember all the unnamed women who wove the threads of history. Those who gave to the world their music, their labor, their children, their struggle, their art, their visions, their laughter, their wisdom, their words, and their lives.
All the women who survived in wars, who died in death camps, and who told the stories. Those who made a way out of no way and who gave life to women who do so still. Women who live with AIDS and other illnesses. Women who work as healers, teachers, mothers, laborers, and community organizers. We need to remember all the unnamed women who bear the cup of life.
In Unity we honor all people no matter where they are on their spiritual path. Do you extend this cup of honoring to those around you? Do you honor yourself and all that you have done?
Filled with the Spirit, may you taste and know the sweetness of new language, the sustenance of new hearing, and the power of bearing the cup of blessing to one another.
SCRIPTURE: Acts 2:1-13; Acts 1:14; Acts 2:17
REFERENCE: Sacred Journeys by Jan L. Richardson; Torch-Bearer to Light the Way by Neal Vahle
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Last updated
April 30, 2007
