Unity Church of Castro Valley
Sunday Message for July 25, 2010
Understanding: Something to Stand On
We are talking about the Faculty of Understanding this month, so what we want to learn and practice this week is to develop an understanding of who and what we are, from our head to our feet - all that is contained between them and all that is beyond them; to understand ourselves and the true path of our life; to know what is within us and what stands under us; to be sure that our spiritual feet are on firm and solid ground: which is Truth.a
Sometimes we think we have understanding, but we don't. We make assumptions and misunderstand what is being communicated.
For instance: A cowboy rode into town and stopped at the saloon for a drink. Unfortunately, the locals always had a habit of picking on newcomers. When he finished, he found his horse had been stolen.
He comes back into the bar, handily flips his gun into the air, catches it above his head without even looking and fires a shot into the ceiling. "Who stole my horse?" he yelled with surprising forcefulness.
No one answered.
"I'm gonna have another beer and if my horse ain't back outside by the time I'm finished, I'm gonna do what I dun back in Texas and I don't want to have to do what I dun back in Texas!"
Some of the locals shifted restlessly.
He had another beer, walked outside, and his horse was back! He saddled up and started to ride out of town.
The bartender wandered out of the bar and asked, "Say partner, what happened in Texas?"
The cowboy turned back and said, "I had to walk home!"
UNDERSTANDING IS OUR ABILITY TO KNOW THAT GOD STANDS UNDER ALL THINGS
Understanding is our ability to know that God stands under all things. God - the One Presence and One Power - stands under all things, but this doesn't mean that all expressions or manifestations are the highest or best. God-energy is behind all things but all things are not "God-like."
Charles Fillmore wrote, "I am not under any spell of human ignorance. I am one with infinite understanding."b We need to know this and know that at any time we can tap into infinite understanding.
In Exodus it is written, "And the Lord said, 'Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand upon the rock.'"c
And in Matthew Jesus says, "Every one then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house upon the rock; and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the wind blew and beat upon that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock."d
The Bible speaks often of the "rock" that we find to stand on, to base our thinking on and to base our life on. The rock is here even when we can't seem to find it. Even when there seems to be neither rhyme nor reason, there is a spiritual principle in effect.
Jesus called the disciple Peter, the rock. And Peter stands for our faculty of Faith. Faith is our rock that we can stand on, even when we can't seem to find it.
Our faculty of understanding helps us discern the God-rock beneath the shifts, changes, losses, and turmoil of our living. Through getting still, turning within, and centering ourselves; we find light, inner strength, and greater understanding. We can find that under all things and behind all things. God still is.
The 2nd verse of the hymn Rock of Ages, Truth Divine says:
On the rock of Truth I stand,
Destiny at my command;
Filled with peace and power of God,
Boundless good, eternal love;
Safe with Truth so firm and strong,
Praising in triumphant song.
Right understanding of others and ourselves is one of our powers - a gift from God. Know what stands under all the changing circumstances and problems of your life experience. Let go of mis-understanding, feeling no good and feeling that you are mis-understood.
PURIFY YOUR UNDERSTANDING
Purify your understanding. Charles Fillmore suggests that understanding is often represented or symbolized in the Bible by "feet." Jesus washing the feet of the disciples is a lesson in cleansing our understanding - being humble, seeking to minister to human understanding. What is the greatest thing we can do for ourselves and each other? Don't you really want real understanding above all else? Charles suggests that we need to purify and renew our understanding so we have true understanding of ourselves and others.
Wasn't it Shakespeare who wrote, "Know thyself, thou canst not then be false to any man."
UNDERSTANDING IS OUR KNOWING HOW TO ACCOMPLISH
Understanding is our knowing of how to accomplish. Are we just to know that God is at work in spite of all appearances and let it go at that? Not at all. It is important to remember that understanding is more than mental cognition. It is a spiritual faculty that connects with Divine Intelligence. This is why we can move forward in an assured manner even though we don't have all the answers.
Think of a time in your life - maybe there's even something happening now - where you knew God was at work and you moved forward even though you didn't have all the answers.
The character of the disciple Thomas, who represents Understanding, stands out clear before us.
(i) First he made one mistake. He isolated himself after the crucifixion. He sought loneliness rather than togetherness. And because he was not there with his fellow disciples he missed the first coming of Jesus.
We miss a great deal when we separate ourselves from the Christian fellowship and try to be alone. Things can happen to us within the fellowship of like-minded people which will not happen when we are alone. When sorrow comes and sadness envelops us, we often tend to shut ourselves up and refuse to meet people. That is the very time when, in spite of our sorrow, we should seek the fellowship of those who care for us, for it is there that we are likeliest of all to meet The Christ face to face.
(ii) But, second, Thomas had two great virtues.
(a)He absolutely refused to say that he understood what he did not understand, or that he believed what he did not believe. There is an uncompromising honesty about him. He would never deny his doubts by pretending that they didn't exist. He was not the kind of man who would rattle off a creed without understanding what it was all about. Thomas had to be sure--and he was quite right.
Tennyson wrote:
"There lives more faith in honest doubt,
Believe me, than in half the creeds."
There is more ultimate faith in the person who insists on being sure than in the one who glibly repeats things which he has never thought out, and which he may not really believe. It is doubt like that which in the end arrives at certainty.
Which is why I encourage questions and discussion in the classes I teach. I know too many people who run around spouting Charles Fillmore or Ernest Holmes verbatum – but don't have a clue about how to live the teaching.
(b) Thomas' other great virtue was that when he was sure, he went the whole way. "My Lord and my God!" he said. There was no midpoint about Thomas. He wasn't airing his doubts just for the sake of mental aerobics; he doubted in order to become sure; and when he did, his surrender to certainty was complete. And when a person fights his way through his doubts to the conviction of the Christ within; he has attained to a certainty; that which the person who unthinkingly accepts things can never reach.
THOMAS'S MISSIONARY WORK
THOMASe
We don't know for sure what happened to Thomas in the after days; but there is an apocryphal book called The Acts of Thomas which claims to give his history. It is of course only legend, but there may well be some history beneath the legend; and certainly in it Thomas is true to character. Here is part of the story which it tells.
After the death of Jesus the disciples divided up the world among them, so that each might go to some country to preach the gospel. India fell by lot to Thomas. (The Thomist Church in South India does trace its origin to him.) At first he refused to go, saying that he was not strong enough for the long journey. He said: "I am an Hebrew man; how can I go among the Indians and preach the truth?" Jesus appeared to him by night and said: "Fear not, Thomas, go to India and preach the word there, for my grace is with you." But Thomas still stubbornly refused. "Wherever you would send me, send me," he said, "but elsewhere, for unto the Indians I will not go."
It so happened that a certain merchant, called Abbanes, had come from India to Jerusalem. He had been sent by King Gundaphorus to find a skilled carpenter and to bring him back to India, and Thomas was a carpenter. Jesus came up to Abbanes in the market-place and said to him: "Do you want to buy a carpenter?" Abbanes said: "Yes." Jesus said, "I have a slave that is a carpenter, and I desire to sell him," and he pointed at Thomas in the distance. So they agreed on a price and Thomas was sold, and the agreement ran: "I, Jesus, the son of Joseph the carpenter, acknowledge that I have sold my slave, Thomas by name, unto thee Abbanes, a merchant of Gundaphorus, king of the Indians."
When the deed was drawn up Jesus found Thomas and took him to Abbanes. Abbanes said: "Is this your master?" Thomas said: "Indeed he is." Abbanes said: "I have bought thee from him." And Thomas said nothing.
But in the morning he rose early and prayed, and after his prayer he said to Jesus: "I will go where you want me to go, Lord Jesus, thy will be done." It is the same old Thomas, slow to be sure, slow to surrender; but once his surrender is made, it is complete.
The story goes on to tell how Gundaphorus commanded Thomas to build a palace, and Thomas said that he was well able to do so. The king gave him money in plenty to buy materials and to hire workmen, but Thomas gave it all away to the poor. Always he told the king that the palace was rising steadily.
The king was suspicious. In the end he sent for Thomas: "Have you built me the palace?" he demanded. Thomas answered: "Yes." "When, then, shall we go and see it?" asked the king. Thomas answered: "You cannot see it now, but when you depart this life, then thou shall see it." At first the king was very angry and Thomas was in danger of his life; but in the end the king, too, was won for Christ, and so Thomas brought Christianity to India.
There is something very lovable and very admirable about Thomas. Faith was never an easy thing for him; obedience never came readily to him. He was the man who had to be sure; he was the man who had to count the cost. But once he was sure, and once he had counted the cost, he was the man who went to the ultimate limit of faith and obedience. A faith like Thomas' is better than any glib profession; and an obedience like his is better than an easy acquiescence which agrees to do a thing without counting the cost and then goes back upon its word.
THE CONQUERING SPIRIT
Let me tell you a story about understanding Truth.f
The elven king called together his three sons. "It is time for you to make your mark." he told them, "Beyond our borders are unknown worlds of dragons, maidens and black-hearted nights. Go out and conquer."
And so his sons ate the feast of the departing, donned the green and set out across the world.
After three years, the first son returned and the whole court came out to greet him. "What have you conquered?" asked the king.
"I have slain dragons, rescued maidens and vanquished black knights." spoke the son. "I have conquered lands such that our territories are now doubled in size."
"Boldly done!" said the king, gravely, "That new land shall be your kingdom to rule and protect."
After three more years, the second son returned, and the whole family came out to greet him.
"What have you conquered?" asked the king.
"I have parlayed with dragons, negotiated with black knights and made the maidens fair swoon." replied the son. "I have conquered the minds and hearts of ten kingdoms, and we now have fond allies all of the way to the Azure Sea."
"Brightly done!" cried the king, "You shall be my most noble lord, ambassador in my stead to all of the lands."
After three more years, the third son did not return. After three further years, he still did not return. After three years again, a ragged stranger walked alone up the steps to the royal court.
The old king was the only person to recognise the stranger. He came down from his throne, embraced his third son deeply, and then asked, "What have you conquered?"
The son smiled a long smile.
"I have slept with dragons and caroused with knights. I have danced with maidens and sung with the children. I have laughed with old men on the quay and cried with old women left alone. I have howled at the moon and lain in the sun. I have scaled high mountains and seen distant lands of mystery and promise. I have plumbed the depths and met magicians of the mind.
"I lost some fear and gained some wonder. I lost some of myself and found some of other people. I tore down the walls of ignorance and found many more. And I have found my way home. I have no need to conquer or fight or persuade. Today is now enough for a lifetime."
A deep silence fell over the court as the king thought long and fully about what his son had said.
"Wisely done." he said, eventually, "For you have conquered yourself, and the world and the worlds beyond shall be your playground."
I would like to close with a saying from the Gospel of Thomas:g
Jesus said, "Let one who seeks not stop seeking until one finds.
When one finds, one will be disturbed.
When one is disturbed, one will be amazed,
and will reign over all."
a Twelve Powers In You TV/video & book by David & Gay Lynn Williamson, & Robert Knapp, MD
b Christian Healing by Charles Fillmore, Unity Books
c Exodus 33:31
d Matthew 7:24-25
e The Acts of Thomas
f Story by David Straker
g Gospel of Thomas
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