Unity Church of Castro Valley

Sunday Message for August 22, 2004

Learning

 

Today’s talk is about learning. The Truth about you is that you are perfect. The facts about all of us are that we have not manifested that perfection in our lives… yet. But we have to ask ourselves; are we learning? Are we moving forward into the perfection that God created, as us? We don’t have to be perfect yet. But we need to be learning, changing, and growing. We need to look at what is not working in our lives and change our minds about it. (Romans 12:2) “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds.”

We are all children of God and therefore we are disciples, apostles, and Christians. Our purpose on this Earth is to learn more about God by learning more about ourselves and the Christ within us. This is a life-long project. We learn more about our true nature by developing the twelve powers within us on a spiritual level. We came here to be spiritual beings operating in a material world. And we have the perfect example to mimic – Jesus. Jesus represents the I AM within us. All of this learning is part of our being a disciple in a material world.

But we are also apostles. We are the ones called to be the Christ in our world. We are to be the example for all those who follow us. When we learn to live as the Christ, those around us become disciples from seeing the joyous way that we live.

And we are Christians; not in the worldly sense, but we are practical Christians. In Unity we scientifically practice the spirit of the law as given by Jesus.

DISCIPLE

Jesus chose twelve followers who, with the exception of Judas, would eventually comprise the core group of the early leadership of his teachings. (Matthew 10:2-4) “These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him.”

In the New Testament there are at least three names used to identify this group: disciples, apostles, and Christians. Each of these names in its own way reminds us of what it means to learn from our elder brother Jesus – and what it means to learn from our Christ within.

A disciple is one who learns from another – and we are all disciples. In ancient cultures teachers would gather a group of students or disciples who would live with and learn from them on a full-time basis. This education involved both listening to the teacher’s words and observing and imitating his lifestyle. And so today, being one of Jesus’ disciples implies that we are students of both his teaching and his manner of living. We continually learn from him and incorporate what we are learning into our own lives.

Jesus offered the same invitation to everyone in (Matthew 11:29) “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Learning is our life project here in the physical plane. I gave a seminar once called, Five Steps to Illumination, which talked about the different states of consciousness we go through on the way to enlightenment. One of the students asked me if this would finally enlighten her so that she could stop reading books and taking classes and get on with her life. That’s NOT the way it works.

When Paul approached the end of his life, having already written a number of letters that would eventually become part of the New Testament; he still desired to discover more. Prior to his execution Paul asked for his scrolls and parchments. To the end, Paul was a true disciple.

And of course Charles Fillmore tells us that “the disciples of Jesus represent, in mind analysis, the faculties.” After we have been illumined by Truth, we desire to express it, to go out in its ministry. This doesn’t mean that we should give up our day job, but that spreading the Truth should be foremost in our mind as the most important object of life. Our various faculties of the mind have been occupied almost wholly in secular ways; now they are to be turned to spiritual ways.

Some of the disciples of Jesus are represented as being fishermen. Metaphysically this means striving to catch living ideas (fish) in the thoughts of this physical world (waters). In Mark 3:7-19 Jesus and his disciples went to the sea and crowds of people followed them. People had heard what he was doing and they came from all the regions around just to be near him. He told his disciples to have a boat ready so that he would not get crushed in the crowd. He had healed many people, so all that were diseased pressed closer to try to touch him. Jesus then went up a mountain and called to him those he wanted. He appointed twelve to be with him and to be sent out to teach his message and heal the sick.

In this Bible story the I AM, Jesus, sees the futility of this struggle with temporal things and sets his energies at work on eternal things. The scattered faculties are drawn together and are brought to a recognition of the Christ, the I AM. This is the inner interpretation of Jesus’ calling His disciples. Material things are temporary; spiritual things are eternal. When our mind is focused on materiality, and on its objects and aims, the faculties are not developed along permanent lines. Truth reveals to us that every faculty must be used to spiritual ends in order that the law of Being may be fulfilled. To learn more about the faculties and how to develop them, pick up Charles Fillmore’s book on The Twelve Powers.

APOSTLE

An apostle is a “sent one,” one who is on a mission for another. Following the Christ means not only that we learn from him but also that we do what he asks and go where he instructs. When you pray and get an answer – follow it, do it, be it. Charles Fillmore writes in The Revealing Word that apostles are “those sent forth; messengers; ambassadors; active spiritual thoughts. Jesus conferred this title on the twelve whom He sent forth to teach and to heal.”

In order for us to command our powers, or faculties, and to have them unified in action, we have to know what they are and their places in our Being. Christ has twelve powers of fundamental ideas, represented in the history of Jesus by the Twelve Apostles. So each of us has twelve faculties to make manifest, to bring out, and to use in attaining our ideals. There are many other ideas, but each one stems from one of these fundamental ideas. Jesus’ twelve apostles were: Peter (faith); Andrew (strength); James, son of Zebedee (wisdom or judgment); John (love); Philip (power); Bartholomew (imagination); Thomas (understanding); Matthew (will); James (order); Simon the Cananaean (zeal); Thaddaeus (renunciation or elimination); and Judas (life conserver).

Just before Jesus ascended into heaven he reminded his apostles of their mission: (Matthew 28:19) “Go and make disciples.” We are disciples, but we are also sent to invite others to learn from the Christ within themselves and to live joyous lives. I often think that Unity is the best kept secret in religion. Why are we so reluctant to tell our friends and families about this wonderful teaching? How can you see them in the middle of their misery and not offer them an answer? And we have to ask ourselves – why aren’t people asking us to tell them our secret of happiness and success and health? We need to portray a clear example of Unity teachings to the world by our actions and our life.

CHRISTIAN

So there are disciples, apostles, and Christians. I have noticed that people in Unity differ on whether they call themselves Christians. Literally, Christian means one who is like Christ and identifies with him. In Jesus’ day his followers were call followers of “The Way.” After Jesus had transcended it says in (Acts 11:26) “it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called "Christians".”

Charles Fillmore referred to the Unity teaching as practical Christianity. It is the teachings of Jesus practically applied to our everyday life. Fillmore says, “Practical Christianity is not a term applied to an arbitrary theory of human origin; neither is it a revelation to humanity from some prophet whose word alone must be taken unquestionably as authority.” This is how our teaching differs from most religious systems of the world. Students of Unity are not asked to believe anything that they cannot logically demonstrate as true. So our brand of Christianity is the science of eternal life. It is governed by scientific principles of mind action, which are really the foundation of all the various sciences. We deal with the deep metaphysical truths that Jesus taught. We work with the spirit of the law, not the letter of the law.

As Christians, or Christ-like people, we need to learn to “let our love be genuine.” According to (Romans 12:9-21) this is one of the marks of a true Christian. We need to “hold fast to what is good, love one another, and outdo one another in showing honor.” If you are doing this, then you are a true disciple. If others see this in you and are changed, then you are a true apostle.

It goes on to say that we should, “Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, and persevere in prayer.” Prayer is one of the main teachings of Unity. Unity started because Myrtle Fillmore prayed until she healed herself; and then prayed with others who wanted the same thing. So as a Christian we need to spend daily time in prayer.

Also, being a Christian means that you are free. It talks about the nature of Christian freedom in (Galatians 5:13-14) “For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Christians are free and there is power in that, but it is the power of love that we have. Over and over again it is stressed that we need to love our God, ourselves, and our neighbors. That was Jesus’ main teaching and he demonstrated it in his life time and time again. But we don’t want to fall into the trap of thinking that Jesus could do these things but we can’t.

It says in (2 Peter 1:3-4) “His divine power has given us everything needed for life and godliness. Thus he has given us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may escape from the corruption that is in the world, and may become participants of the divine nature.” As Christians, disciples, and apostles we come into this world equipped with everything needed to live a Godly life. But we have to learn that and use our divine nature to live life fully. We have to develop our apostles (or our faculties) so that our divine nature becomes second-nature to us.

It continues in (2 Peter 1:5-7) “For this very reason, you must make every effort to support your faith with goodness, and goodness with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with endurance, and endurance with godliness, and godliness with mutual affection, and mutual affection with love.” And so it comes back again to love. We are to have faith, not to beat anybody up with, but we have to temper it with goodness. We are to have goodness, not to be a goody-two-shoe, but we have to use it with knowledge. And our knowledge is to be toned down with self-control; it is not to be used to put another down. Our self-control can’t be just for this moment and then forgotten but must have endurance. And our endurance must support our godliness, our mutual affection, and our love.

So, as disciples of Jesus, we learn his teachings and imitate his life. As apostles we are called to be an example to others and to help teach them that their lives can be so much better than they are. And as Christians we love God, we love ourselves, and we love all others.
 

SCRIPTURE: Romans 12:2; Matthew 10:2-4; Matthew 11:29; Mark 3:7-19; Matthew 28:19; Acts 11:26;
           Romans 12:9-21; Galatians 5:13-14; 2 Peter 1:3-7

REFERENCE: The Metaphysical Bible Dictionary by Charles Fillmore; The Twelve Powers by Charles Fillmore;
           The Revealing Word by Charles Fillmore