Sunday, 5/17/09, What About Ascension?

The I Can't Funeral
By: Copyright@ Phillip B. Childs
Donna's fourth grade classroom looked like many others I had seen in the past.
(Story of the class burying "I Can't.")
On those rare occasions when a student forgot and said, "I Can't", Donna simply pointed to the RIP sign. The student then remembered that "I Can't" was dead and chose to rephrase the statement.

Jesus was an “I Can” kind of guy – don’t you think?
• He taught the multitudes
• When there wasn’t enough to eat, he fed them with miracles of supply
• When people were sick, he performed miracles of healing
• When people didn’t know how to live, he told them how as in the Sermon on the Mount, Matt. 5-7
o Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today. Mt 6:34
o Do not judge so that you may not be judged Mt 7:1
o Ask and it will be give you. Mt 7:7
• He performed miracles of nature like calming the seas.
• He told them stories to illustrate his point.

In a traditional church calendar, Thursday, May 21, would be the celebration of Jesus’ ascension into heaven.
• Acts 1: 8-9 NRSV But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.”
As most of you know, Unity is not a traditional church. Ascension is part of traditional Christian story:
o God sent his son, Jesus
o Jesus lived, preached, taught
o Jesus died on the cross
o Burried & rose on 3rd day
o Ascended into heaven to the Father

So how does this fit?
• God who is all powerful, all knowing, and everywhere sends his son to live a short life, teach and preach, and he does this knowing it is a suicide mission!
While I might poke a little fun at this, Unity and I leave it totally open for you to believe this if it serves you. It is not, however, what we teach.

No manuscripts of the New Testament.
• Most people couldn’t write, and
• those who wrote recorded from the oral tradition.
• They were story tellers. As many as 35 to 40 years passed after Jesus’ death before anything was written down. And some of it took up to 100 years to be written.

3-Tiered Universe: The ascension story reflects the view of the universe of the time. Hell below, a flat earth in the middle, and heaven above. So Jesus rode a cloud right up into heaven to be with God.

SOMETHING HAPPENED!
• There was something so inspiring about the man Jesus that it was passed down for generations, then written.
• Something happened after the death of Jesus that was startling and had enormous power. Profound!
o Turned denying Peter into a witnessing Peter
o Turned disciples who fled for their lives into heroes willing to die for Jesus’ teachings.
o It was so intense that it created a new holy day – 1st day of week
• Something profound happened!
o The words that were written can only point to the truth of what happened.
o It was an experience that is beyond description.
o Yet so compelling the witnesses could not stop telling the story.

What difference does that make to us today?
• Between then and now humankind has developed
o Air travel
o Space travel
o Telescopes and radioscopes that show us a universe vast beyond belief in which our small round planet is virtually insignificant
• How do we bring together the notion of the story of Jesus and his ascension with the facts of modern science?
• Fillmore said,
Every time we rise to the realization of eternal indwelling life, making union with the Father-Mind, the resurrection of Jesus takes place within us. All thoughts of limitation and inevitable obedience to material law are left in the tomb of materiality. (KTL, 197)
o Fillmore’s solution when faced with the 19th century scientific discoveries was to accept science and search for the inner, spiritual meaning of the Bible.
o F. based interpretation on
 MPH theory that reality is ultimately spiritual or mental.
 Concluded that Gen 1 is a metaphorical account of the creative process

In the metaphysical mindset, ascension--The ascending or progressive unfoldment of man from the animal to the spiritual. It is measured by three degrees or states of consciousness: first, the animal; second, the mental or psychical; and third, the spiritual. Jesus first manifested Himself as the man on the physical plane, from which He was resurrected to the mental or psychical; from thence He ascended to the spiritual. (RW 16)
For Fillmore, Jesus demonstrated the evolution through 3 stages of soul development
• 1st physical existence
• 2nd through resurrection he demonstrated the mental or psychic plane of existence
• 3rd & finally with the ascension he achieved the spiritual plane
Obviously we are on the physical plane. We may experience some mental and psychic evolution, but are still here physically.
For us:
• We have the option to evolve
• We can change our experience by learning to see it rightly
• We can embrace that creative process that Fillmore talked about
• We can try it out for ourselves.
• If it doesn’t work, then take what is useful and leave the rest.
• The short version of the creative process is that “thoughts held in mind produce after their kind.” What we hold in our minds and embellish with emotion creates our world.
The world has caught up with Fillmore. There are many who know this who never heard of Unity.
‘If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. Don't complain.’ — Maya Angelou
Nothing we can do can change the past, but everything we do changes the future.’
‘If you can neither accept it or change it, try to laugh at it.’ --Ashleigh Brilliant
If we create our world with our thoughts, to change our world, change our thoughts! Change our expectations!
But this is hard work. We run into that thing we talked about last time – race consciousness.

This is akin to Jung’s archetype of the shadow.
It is, by its name, dark, shadowy, unknown and potentially troubling. It embodies chaos and wildness of character. The shadow thus tends not to obey rules, and in doing so may discover new lands or plunge things into chaos and battle. It has a sense of the exotic and can be disturbingly fascinating. In myth, it appears as the wild man, spider-people, mysterious fighters and dark enemies.
We may see the shadow in others and, if we dare, know it in ourselves. Mostly, however, we deny it in ourselves and project it onto others. http://changingminds.org/explanations/identity/jung_archetypes.htm

For Fillmore, according to Jim Gaither, former instructor of Metaphysics at Unity School, his interpretation of the Bible allowed him to accept scientific truths without rejecting the truths of the Bible. He took the concept of evolution and interpreted the Bible as an allegory of human consciousness evolving from a “fallen” state to a divine state. He took the concept of law and applied it to the Bible as an allegory for spiritual and mental laws. The concept of the Bible as allegory for human consciousness anticipated the theory of Carl Jung that human mythology symbolized primordial archetypes in the collective unconscious. (19)
So how does this show up in our world, beyond what some famous people have said?
You Get What You Expect
Parents of a high school freshman, we will call him John, asked Robert Brooks to serve as a consultant for his school program.
(Story of 2 teachers' differing views and the affect on the student.)
Brooks understood why John was a discipline problem with the first teacher but not with the second teacher. He was following what he believed to be their expectations for him.
If we wish children (or adults for that matter) to change their behavior, we must have the insight and courage to change our behavior first.
We all possess different mindsets or assumptions about ourselves as well as others. These assumptions, which we may not even think about or be aware of, play a significant role in determining our expectations and our behavior. Even seemingly hidden assumptions have a way of being expressed to others. Not surpisingly, people begin to behave in accord with the expectations we have of them and when they do, we are apt to interpret this as a sign that our expectations are accurate. What we fail to appreciate is the extent to which our expectations subtly or not-so-subtly shape the behavior of others. http://www.drrobertbrooks.com/writings/articles/0210.html
If we want to change the world, we have to learn to see it differently, to interact with it differently.
If we want our world to be a happy place, then focus on the beauty and the fun in our own lives.
We, as a people, are looking for those who can prove in actual works the presence of the indwelling Spirit. So let’s prove it to ourselves.
We can take charge of our thoughts. First, pay attention to them.
• When you find yourself thinking the same thoughts or small collection of thoughts repeatedly, especially if they are affecting your mood or outlook, sit back and watch them. Just play observer. You are likely to find:
o Your thoughts run in a loop (when we are anxious or preoccupied, the same thought seems to appear with monotonous regularity)
o You can observe your thoughts, therefore your thoughts are not who you are!
o Thoughts drive emotions; as you think, so you feel. Even though it feels like your anxiety is driving your thoughts, it’s really the other way around
• As you observe your thoughts, allow yourself to experience the freedom of knowing that:
o Our thoughts are not inevitable
o Our thoughts are self-made
o Thoughts affect mood – not the other way around (Dowrick, Choosing Happiness, 175)
As Goethe said, “Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them become what they were capable of being.”
And in a similar way, treat yourself as if you were what you ought to be, and you help yourself become what you are capable of being.
Thoughts of ourselves as expressions of God, perfect, loving, and whole help us to become that.
God loves you and so do I.