Christian Scientists must live under the constant pressure of the apostolic command to come out from the material world and be separate.  They must renounce aggression, oppression and the pride of power.  Christianity, with the crown of Love upon her brow, must be their queen of life.

Mary Baker Eddy

(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures 451:2-6)

 

 

ALL Mankind

A Wednesday Night, Christian Science Testimony

04/02/2014

by Rob Scott

Chicago, IL

 

 

 

Thank you for the readings from the desk.

I want to recognize and express gratitude tonight for last Wednesday night’s testimony meeting and say how it had a positive impact on my health and well being.

First, here is a little background on myself. I am a life long student of CS and have been through class instruction. My grandmother, whom I loved dearly, was a Journal listed CS practitioner. I tell people she was the real deal because she was pure love and wisdom and had many beautiful healings demonstrated in her practice.

Next, I was ambitious when I moved to Chicago after college and discovered I had a strong ability to be persuasive. Thus I ended up in pharmaceutical sales for 10 years where I also trained others.

I spent the last four years in the mental health division calling on psychiatrists. I left the pharmaceutical industry and returned to Christian Science stronger from that experience as I could not have learned those lessons in my father’s house.  What separated me from a lot of the other reps was that I am an advocate for the patient.

The pharmaceutical industry was very seductive and I came to the same conclusion the documentary ‪Escape Fire did.

America is in the grip of a very big industry and it doesn’t want to stop making money and that we have a disease management system not a health care system.

Now back to last week’s testimony meeting . . .

The Bible story of the Canaanite woman was one of the most disturbing passages in the New Testament for me because Jesus rejected the woman gain and again.

How many of us have ever felt alone, rejected, unworthy or even unloved?

This is a quote from Henry Nouwen who wrote Return of the Prodigal Son and taught at the Divinity Schools of both Harvard and Yale, which shines a light on rejection.

Over the years, I have come to realize that the greatest trap in our life is not success, popularity, or power, but self-rejection. Success, popularity, and power can indeed present a great temptation, but their seductive quality often comes from the way they are part of the much larger temptation to self-rejection. When we come to believe in the voices that call us worthless and unlovable, then success, popularity and power are easily perceived as attractive solutions. The real trap, however, is self-rejection. As soon as someone accuses me or criticizes me, as soon as I am rejected, left alone, or abandoned, I find myself thinking, ʻWell, that proves once again that I am a nobody.” … [My dark side  – says ] I am no good… I deserve to be pushed aside, forgotten, rejected, and abandoned. Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the “Beloved.” Being the Beloved constitutes the core truth of our existence.

Here is why all this is so close to home for me.

I spent the past year as a crisis intervention and suicide prevention counselor for gay and lesbian kids some of whom were coming into the awareness of their sexuality and were contemplating ending their life due to their fear of family and religious rejection which led them right into self-rejection.

If there are two themes that ring out clearly it can best be articulated by Linda Robertson  (JustBecauseHeBreathes.com):

First, that we ALL deeply desire to be known and loved by our Creator God, and second, that we ALL desperately need to know that the people we are closest to, our families and friends, love us just because we breath.

Thus, some of these kid’s experiences are similar to how the Canaanite woman must have felt when she was rejected over and over again by Jesus.

What saddened me even more was that the Canaanite woman had a child who was ill and if she had left then her child would have continued to suffer.

So the part that moved me to the core and brought me peace and understanding in last week’s service regarding this particular Bible story was when a member got up and referenced these 3 themes from Dummelowʼs One Volume Bible Commentary pp 678, 679.

A. Jesus tested the strength of her faith.

B. The woman demonstrated that persistence in prayer pays off.

C. She demonstrated that greater faith is often among the so-called heathen than in Israel.

Thus what became clear to me from this and the other testimonies and from the discussion that followed was that the story of the Canaanite woman takes us on a journey from religious tension and rejection to healing due to the power of faith. 1

Faith is that conviction that God is helping you even when you can’t see the proof 2   which reminds me of my favorite Winston Churchill quote: Never, never, never give up.

And most importantly by the end of the Gospel of Matthew or after the resurrection (as somebody pointed out in their testimony last week) Jesus ministry had been expanded beyond the Jewish community to anyone who had faith regardless of whether they are white, black, gay, straight, rich, poor.

It was for ALL mankind.

Thus the feeling that went though me from last week’s service can best be articulated by one word – HOPE.

HOPE is what I always tried to leave those kids with as their counselor.

And as the chair of the department of psychiatry, 3 hospital system, once told me: I have patients who are at a level of despair that I cannot reach as we donʼt have a pill for HOPE.

Christian Science is HOPE that is alive and healing.

Why Hope?

Because HOPE is the major weapon against suicide.

And Hope is what will fill the churches back up again.

I will close with a short quote from our beloved leader Mary Baker Eddy (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures 116:8).

The last shall be first, and the first last,” so that God and His idea may be to us what divinity really is and must of necessity be, – all-inclusive.

Truth, Wisdom, Love and sincerity, to ALL mankind.

Rob Scott

Chicago, IL

 

1, 2

“Lesson of Faith”

From the May 2011 issue of The Christian Science Journal