Unity Church of Castro Valley
Sunday Message for July 4, 2010
Hearing & Understanding
This month we will be studying the Power of Understanding. This is your ability to know, perceive, comprehend and apprehend. The disciple is Thomas. He represents the ability to see beyond appearances to reality. The corresponding color is gold and the location is the front of the brain.
Understanding is important in developing our spiritual nature, because it is the faculty which puts feet under our prayers and gives our spiritual activity something to stand on. Blind faith, faith without understanding of the spiritual laws, may get results on occasion, but our spiritual growth demands a base that is more dependable ... understanding that is grounded in spiritual Truth.
The awakening of our own faculty of understanding starts with questioning—questioning the old ways of thinking that may have been taken for granted. ... The desire for understanding leads to thinking about what is learned and seeking to put it all together in a body of information that will provide a basis for living.
Understanding is different from ... wisdom. Charles Fillmore defines wisdom as "intuitive knowing; spiritual intuition," ... and understanding as "the ability of the mind to apprehend and realize the laws of thought and the relation of ideas to one another."a
To put it more simply, wisdom knows. ... Understanding knows why. ... When your understanding is developed in both head and feet, not only will you have the light in mind, but you will also have the ability to apply it in your world.b
So what we want to practice this week is understanding ourselves as an expression of God. We are the ones who form our life experiences. c
OUR BASIC NATURE IS GOOD
Our basic nature is good. We believe that people are divine beings made in the image of God, so we are basically good. We are created with spiritual powers that we have to use in a balanced and coordinated way to create a good life and world. The "know how" to grow into full expression is already genetically encoded within us, as it is within every seed.
Meister Eckhart wrote, "The seed of God is within us all." Jesus said, "I am the vine and you are the branches."d Metaphysically, he was referring to the I Am or the Christ within that is the core or vine within each of us. Out of this core grows our Twelve Powers, which branch out as us, according to our level of understanding.
HOW CAN WE UNDERSTAND?
So if all this is true why do we have problems and why do people do such terrible things?
There are those who affirm that we are all sinners. This is a misunderstanding of the basic nature of people. Rather than sinners, we are basically growth-seeking children of God. Just as a seed for a plant or a tree somehow "knows" what it will become someday, so also do we have within us spiritual powers and purposes - a "knowledge" of what we are intended to express
WHAT SOME PEOPLE CALL EVIL IS IMBALANCE OR CUTTING OFF GROWTH
What some people call evil is imbalance or cutting off growth. If too many branches are cut off one side of a healthy tree, the life forces flow into the other side, and the tree is strained and has bad problems. The seed is the same. Our life energy is the same.
IF CERTAIN BRANCHES OF OUR EXPRESSION OF GOD ARE NOT ALLOWED TO GROW
If certain branches of our expression of God are not allowed to grow we have an imbalanced personality. If someone has lots of strength, imagination and will, but lacks love, wisdom and life, then she may become cruel and dictatorial. If another person is loving, imaginative and enthusiastic, but has undeveloped wisdom, strength and power, then he may be used or abused
OUR FULFILLMENT OR "SALVATION" IS THE BALANCED COORDINATION AND EXPRESSION OF ALL 12 POWERS
Our fulfillment or "salvation" is the balanced coordination and expression of all our twelve powers. As our spiritual powers are increasingly operating under the direction of our Christ (God) Self, they fulfill their inherent purpose (just as the branches of a tree fulfill the pattern in the seed).
INFORMATION & TRANSFORMATION
Most of us know peace is better than war; forgiveness is better than resentment; abundance is better than lack; positive attitudes are better than worry. But, we need to translate our knowing into practice. Dr. H. Emily Cady suggests in her classic book, Lessons In Truth, "You may have an intellectual perception of Truth. You may easily grasp with the mind the statement that God is the giver of all good gifts - life, health, love-just as people have for centuries grasped it. Or you may go farther, and intellectually see that God is not only the giver, but also the gift itself; that He is life, health, and love, in us. But unless Truth is 'revealed... unto thee' by 'my Father who is in heaven'e, it is of no practical benefit to you or to anyone else... This revelation of Truth to the consciousness of a person is spiritual understanding."f
THE DISCIPLE THOMAS REPRESENTS THE POWER OF UNDERSTANDING
Thomas ... is the disciple who stands for the faculty of understanding. A study of his contact with Jesus gives us some insight into the way we must develop our own ability to think and learn to make deductions and draw conclusions so that we may awaken this spiritual quality in us.
Thomas didn't always have spiritual understanding but he wanted to learn. He didn't mind asking questions, and he listened to Jesus' answers. ... Thomas is probably best known for doubting the news of the Resurrection when he heard it secondhand from the other disciples. Jesus respected Thomas' need to know firsthand.
Thomas was a fisherman who worked with Peter and Andrew, Thomas is known as the 'doubting one' who came to believe. Because he had not been present when Jesus appeared to the disciples after the crucifixion, Thomas said: 'Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and place my finger in the mark of the nails, and place my hand in his side, I will not believe.'g
Later, when Jesus again appeared to the disciples, Thomas was the one who fell immediately to his knees crying out to Jesus, 'My Lord and my God!'h - expressing even greater understanding than the others had revealed. His was the kind of mind which gradually 'unfolds' by searching, inquiring, discovering - the mind which seeks Truth that it may believe."i
In the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Thomas appears only in the lists of Jesus' innermost circle of disciples, the 12 apostles.
The Gospel of John, however, includes several incidents late in Jesus' ministry in which Thomas played a leading role. Thomas is first mentioned in the Gospel of John at a point when Jesus' life was in danger. He had preached in the temple at the Feast of Dedication (Hanukkah), but his words had led to threats of stoning for blasphemy. When the authorities had attempted to arrest him, Jesus fled Jerusalem and crossed the Jordan.
Then they received word that Jesus' friend Lazarus was on the point of death in Bethany, a village just outside Jerusalem. At first, Jesus delayed two days in returning to the dangerous territory. Only when he knew that Lazarus was dead did he summon his disciples to say, ".... let us go to him."j
Many of the disciples likely thought it was foolhardy to risk the very real threats of arrest and execution for the sake of visiting the tomb of a dead friend. But when Thomas realized that Jesus was serious about returning to Jerusalem despite the death threats, he urged his fellow disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with him."k Although he apparently expected the worst, Thomas was committed to his master – willing to stand by him in the face of threats and if necessary to die with him.
TRANSCENDENT UNDERSTANDING
But this is the incident that gave him the name "doubting Thomas." On the day of his resurrection, Jesus appeared suddenly to his disciples.
Somehow, Thomas was not present for this supremely important moment. When he arrived and the others told him what had happened, he could not overcome his sense of loss and doubt. He had had the courage to face death with Jesus, but to believe in his resurrection required even more. The tension of a doubter in the midst of the believing disciples continued for a week until Jesus resolved it by appearing again to the group with Thomas present. He showed himself specifically for Thomas's sake and said to him, "Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe."l
In many ways the Gospel of John comes to its climax as all the fears and doubts of Thomas are swept away in that moment of revelation, and he responds to Jesus, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus, in turn, draws the readers of the Gospel into Thomas's faith by adding, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe."m Six centuries later, Pope Gregory the Great expressed the impact of this narrative when he wrote, "Thomas's lack of faith did more for our faith than did the faith of the disciples who believed."
Our understanding helps us get past problems and experiences but does not necessarily do away with what has happened. Louise Beaty was a dynamic and active Unity minister with a large congregation in St. Petersburg, Florida for many years. Years before, she had been given up by doctors as a hopeless cripple who would "never walk." Through faith she found healing, but still limped. When questioned as to her right to teach healing because she still limped, she would remind people that the Bible story tells how Jesus still had the nail prints, which satisfied Thomas after the resurrection. She would say, "My limp is my nail print." Can you see relevance in your own life for this perspective on the reminders of your journey? Does this help your understanding of your life experiences?
WAY TO GO
The plot to arrest and execute Jesus took longer to come to fruition than Thomas had feared, but as Passover approached, Jesus knew that he had reached his last opportunity to teach the disciples.
Thomas is constantly trying to better understand the Christ teachings and life. He is not hesitant to ask questions. Here is a famous interchange between Jesus and Thomas, as translated in The New Testament and Psalms-An Inclusive Version:
"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In the house of my Father-Mother there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going."
Thomas said to Jesus, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to God except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father-Mother also. From now on you do know God and have seen Godn."o
"The way" needs to be understood as Aramaic for "road" or "pathway." There is no word for "religion" in Hebrew or Aramaic, strangely enough. The word that is used means "way," that is, a "way of life and living" - not a "religion" that is set apart from the rest of life. So Jesus here identifies the Christ in him (and us) as "the Way."
Thomas and most of the resulting Christianity have had trouble understanding this mystical message that we are not only on the path, we are the Way. No one can come to self-realization and fullest expression without finding the Spirit that each of us truly is.
Jesus says to Thomas, our inquiring and searching mind, if you see the way I am and see what I am doing, you will know you are seeing God. God is not a separate person - God is the dynamic activity of healing, comforting, bringing truths, forgiving, transcending limitations. That is, I am God. You are God! Jesus lifts the understanding of God out of a personality superbeing somewhere "up in the clouds" and reveals the true nature of God as Loving Spirit, always active in and as us.
I would like to close with a piece from The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran. He writes:
Your hearts know in silence the secrets of the days and the nights.
But your ears thirst for the sound of your heart's knowledge.
You would know in words that which you have always known in thought.
You would touch with your fingers the naked body of your dreams.
And it is well you should.
The hidden well-spring of your soul must needs rise and run murmuring to the sea;
And the treasure of your infinite depths would be revealed to your eyes.
But let there be no scales to weigh your unknown treasure;
And seek not the depths of your knowledge with staff or sounding line.
For self is a sea boundless and measureless.
Say not, "I have found the truth," but rather, "I have found a truth."
Say not, "I have found the path of the soul." Say rather, "I have met the soul walking upon my path."
For the soul walks upon all paths.
The soul walks not upon a line, neither does it grow like a reed.
The soul unfolds itself, like a lotus of countless petals.p
a Revealing Word by Charles Fillmore
b Build Something to Stand On By Winifred Wilkinson Hausmann
c Twelve Powers In You TV/video & book by David & Gay Lynn Williamson, & Robert Knapp, MD
d John 15:5
e Matt. 16:17
f Lessons In Truth, "Spiritual Understanding," by H. Emily Cady, Unity Books
g John 20:25
h John 20:28
i Suné Richards
j John 11:15
k John 11:16
l John 20:27
m John 20:29
n The New Testament and Psalms-An Inclusive Version, Oxford University Press
o John 14:1-7
p The Prophet
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