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Notes and references: Oct 29, 2000 The Story of the Masterpiece Many masterpieces were lost forever when the owners covered them up by painting another scene over the original painting. This happened for a number of reasons: tax avoidance, an art thief fearful of getting caught, protection of art collections during a war, etc. A collector who searched out these hidden masterpieces bought one such painting at an auction. He then went to work removing the newer painting from atop the masterpiece he suspected might be there. He gently rubbed off the fresher paint to discover that, in fact, there existed a signature or the Master painter Rembrandt. Now let me pose a question to you. If you owned that partially revealed masterpiece would you concern yourself with the nature or subject matter of the painting covering the Rembrandt? Of course not. It would be irrelevant. Every time you looked at your painting you would only focus on the painting underneath. Every time you thought about it you would be thinking about the masterpiece. Every free moment you had would be spent uncovering more of the masterpiece. So it is with you and me. We are God’s masterpiece. Every time we look at corporeal personality or physical descriptions of each other we are looking at the false covering and not the true masterpiece, the Christ image. False, erroneous thinking has to be removed (“bring into captivity every thought tot he obedience of Christ”). In this week’s lesson we had the story of the blind man whom Jesus healed. Let’s discuss this story in greater detail. But first understand something about the King James Version of the Bible. The Bible was translated from three languages and often from unpunctuated capital consonants. That’s right . . . No punctuation, no vowels and no spaces between the words. Consider then that there may be two ways to read the following story. The first way is the original translation punctuated as we see here in bold: John 9:1-7 The punctuation suggests that the man was made blind so that “the works of God could be made manifest in him”. That’s absurd! God would never make a blind man just so He could then heal him. That is like a fireman starting a fire just so he could put it out. Lets look at another punctuation option: Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents! But, that the works of God should be made manifest in him I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day. The night cometh, when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. It reads differently doesn’t it? Now it reads that there is no cause of the blindness and Jesus will prove it by demonstrating the works of God. Isn’t that more consistent with the rest of Jesus teachings? Another point about this story that is interesting. There are two viewpoints about the man’s blindness: Jesus view that he “was blind from his birth” and the disciple’s view that he was “born blind”. What’s the difference? Well, Jesus saw a man blind from his birth only not before he was born. The disciples saw a man that came into the world already blind-born blind. Our Leader writes in Mis 189: “The meek Nazarene's steadfast and true knowledge of preexistence, of the nature and the inseparability of God and man, — made him mighty.” He knew that this man was perfect. His original nature did not include any result of sin and certainly no blindness and he would prove it. He taught us that Life is infinite-no birth or death. He let his enemies try to destroy the body but three days later her ascended and then reappeared to his disciples. At this point in our discussion one of you asked what happens after death. I am not sure, but I can tell you what Mrs. Eddy says about the subject. Here was an interesting question asker of her: Mis 42:1-16 Christian Science teaches the infinite nature of Life and our indestructibility. Knowing this and recognizing your spiritual Life, which can never be eliminated, gives you the same knowledge of preexistence that Jesus had and it makes you mighty. I ask you now, Is your consciousness in your body or does body dwell in consciousness, the consciousness of Mind, that is continually and forever thinking you? If your consciousness dwells in your body then when you die you lose your conscious existence. If, however, your body dwells in consciousness then when you appear to die, “consciousness constructs a better body”. Jesus also said that the second death hath no more power then the first. We may have to go through that experience a number of times until we finally get it. 3 And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst, Here’s another question for you. What did Jesus write on the ground? In those days when someone was accused of a crime they had a stone engraved with the crime on it. Could it be that Jesus wrote her crime in the sand? I like that thought. With the swipe of his hand her sins are eliminated. Isn’t that a similar thought to the healing of the blind man? He saw perfection, the masterpiece in both individuals. He must have seen that the human claim was never a part of their experience or their pre-existence. This is what gave him the power to heal both the blindness and the sins of the woman. We are all capable of wiping away past mistakes. Look at the sentence in Science and Health about no intercourse during pregnancy. Here it is on page 62:2 “The foetus must be kept mentally pure and the period of gestation have the sanctity of virginity.” Now if a pregnant mother to be, (obviously not a virgin), can have the sanctity of virginity, then can’t we so purify our thought whether we are dealing with sickness or sin? Absolutely. We all can reach that sanctification or spotless purity no matter what past claims about ourselves have been accepted. We need only go back in thought and examine what we have taken in about ourselves that is not part of our original perfect self and get rid of it. Say to yourself, “you are not my thinking, that was never my thinking. Get out of my thought.” Like Job, say, “I never knew you!” Mrs. Eddy tells us this is possible with this sentence from Ret 22:1 “The human history needs to be revised, and the material record expunged.” So let’s do it. Let’s revise the human history about ourselves in the same way Jesus did it. (Just in case you don’t know what expunge means: EXPUNGE Students Ref.: v. 1. to blot out; to rub out; to obliterate. 2. to efface; to strike out; to destroy.) Mrs. Eddy talks about this original perfection in several places. Two of them show an interesting comparison: First from Mis 14:8-12 (to ;) “It is urged that, from his original state of perfection, man has fallen into the imperfection that requires evil through which to develop good. Were we to admit this vague proposition, the Science of man could never be learned;” Here is that same thought from the Bible story about the blind man. We were perfect but we fell into imperfection so that God could pull us out. Nonsense! Look at her other quote from My 262:1: “God creates man perfect and eternal in His own image. Hence man is the image, idea, or likeness of perfection — an ideal which cannot fall from its inherent unity with divine Love, from its spotless purity and original perfection.” That’s the truth of the matter. You cannot fall from your original perfection, from your spotless purity. You have the sanctity of virginity. You are a Masterpiece that cannot be hid. Finally I must ask the question, HOW? How do we see that perfection about ourselves and others? How can we do good? How can we be good? Again I turn you to your Leader in Ret 86:0-16. The article is called: Exemplification Imagine, it is as simple as doing it! When you are in trouble or feel sick, lonely, helpless, whatever, “wipe the dust from your feet and the tears from your eyes” and see yourselves as a fellow saint of a holy household. By the way, what does “escutcheon” mean? It refers to the reputation of your holy household. (In other words it is your family crest—what you stand for.) ESCUTCHEON Now you’ve got it. There can be no stain upon your family reputation as the Christ child. You are truly perfect, spotless and pure. You always have been and you always will be. You are the Masterpiece! |
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