Without Fear or Shame or Blame
Martin Cecil April 5, 1981
This morning evoked from a number
of those present a beauty of response that was to me most glorious. This was
revealed in the expression of some who spoke at my house after the service, and
subsequently through some of the letters that I received. I would thank the
Lord for what was so offered. I would that we all might have been in agreement
in an active sense. Too many have been inclined to imagine that there could be
some sort of adequate passive agreement. Some may have said to themselves, “Martin
knows that I am with him.” Maybe. But it is always what is done that counts. There
was indication in the Psalms, at one point, that the redeemed of the Lord
should say so.
There was, as I say, a yielded
response. This is not all there was. I would that it were. There was also present
what I might describe by using the word “diehard.” The diehards are those who
have had much opportunity but haven't taken quite as much advantage of the
opportunity, so that the dissolution of the human corruption has not occurred
to the extent that it might. There is a spectrum of response: a beautiful
brilliance of yielded response at one end of the spectrum and then fading away
at the other end of the spectrum into a gray area. Of course occasionally
something really black sticks out.
If we are stewards of the tone,
the sounding of that tone will only be as much as there is the fact of
agreement—agreement based in yielded response, agreement based in mutual love.
Then the tone may intensify and we may be accounted faithful stewards. So I
rejoice in what has been offered in yielded response, what I perceived in the
general pattern of things while the service was moving along this morning and
what became evident subsequently by reason of specific action that certain ones
took. Today it was somewhat outstanding in my experience.
It has always been the longing of
my heart that in the Chapel there might be a gathering of those
who are indeed with me with one accord in one place. What do you think might
happen? It tends to move into a realm of speculation because it has never
occurred in my experience thus far. Some yielded response, some diehards, some
gray areas, some definite resistance at times—on that basis we can't have
unity.
We seem to be talking about unity
these days and propose to offer the opportunity of unity to others. How much of
it do we know ourselves? What do we have to offer? What would it be to be with
one accord in one place? Under the stress of circumstances long ago, it is
indicated that there were about a hundred and twenty people in an upper room in
Jerusalem who were more or less compelled to be with one accord in one place.
It didn't hold. But even with that little experience there was something
tremendous known. What was known at that point of focus carried over into
subsequent experience of those concerned, even though a scattering almost
immediately began to take place. Those people were in a difficult situation,
and they had been together for a period of time, so that there came a
recognition that nothing else really mattered very much except the experience
of being with one accord in one place. We are inclined to have so many
distractions, aren't we? We get carried away by these in our daily affairs.
I think, in looking at what
occurs, it is usually seen that what comes to focus on the Sunday should be
prominent in consciousness and experience during the week that follows. Perhaps
what has actually been known has been that there was a gradual fading away of
what had occurred on the Sunday during the focus points of the services. So
next Sunday we had to gather together and reinitiate the cycle, which probably
repeated in much the same way the following week. One step forward, one step
back; one step forward, one step back. It's remarkable how far we've got on this
basis! We must have been inching at least in the right direction. But really,
you know, the week in between is rightly a week of preparation; not a week of
trying to sustain something that had occurred before but a preparing for what
shall come to point when the opportunity is brought to us again, so that we are
all ready for it. We will only all be ready for it if we have all prepared for
it, if we have all had a consciousness of the fact that this is our
stewardship. I'm sure we would all wish to be faithful stewards rather than
unfaithful ones. So, rightly, what occurs on a Sunday is the initiating point
for something expansive to happen during the following week, so that we may
move from glory unto glory, as it has been put.
When I go out walking, which I do
from time to time, I like to walk briskly, and it is quite painful in a sense
to have to accompany someone who doesn't do it. I have suffered this agony over
the years in a vibrational sense, this business of inching along, almost
marking time in one place. I don't know how anyone can really stand that
indefinitely. If anything has tried my patience it's that. Yet I couldn't set
out in a brisk walk and achieve what presumably I'm here to do if no one else
is going to accompany me on the walk. Oh what agony I've been put through!
I'm not complaining. It's just a way of conveying something to you, because I'm
still here. But a little creative imagination
would reveal, I'm sure, that if we all strode out together it would be most
exhilarating. The other way isn't too exhilarating, as I'm sure most of you
have found out. Let us be with one accord in one place, and in
reasonably rapid motion because we are agreed. There's no use remaining in the
state of rationalization, because rationalizing is always giving us excuse for
failing to experience what would actually be experienced if there was a
sufficiently pure heart for the spirit of God to come freely forth.
That spirit of God coming freely
forth moves through this realm of the heart where there is a transparency when
the heart is pure—it doesn't get hung up in there. And it moves the machinery
of our incarnation, in particular the two aspects of mind: conscious and subconscious.
The movement of that spirit is designed to resurrect the body of the Son of God
on earth. This is the whole reason for our presence on earth, if we are to have
a reason for being present on earth. This has been my total concern over the
years. Some have agreed with me with open hearts; others have had their
reservations. They would participate in what was being resurrected, or brought
forth, if it conformed to their own views and desires, which in turn were based
in the impurities of their hearts.
I have indicated that in a
personal sense I'm not here to participate in this body but rather to provide
what is necessary to let the body take form. There is no one else in this
particular position. The body has been taking form, inching forward, or upward,
and I have provided what I could to allow this process to occur—bringing
forth the living body of the Son of God. In this body all are invited to
participate. Those who accepted the invitation have found a delightful
experience of increasing friendship and understanding with those who are also
participating in the process. There is no place else to be! That's going to be
found out sooner or later. There will only be this one place for human beings
to be. For the moment it seems that they can do their own things, but there
comes a point where there is no experience of existence outside of this body.
That's the restoration. That's the re-creation. Man was created to be
on earth. Man is restored to be on earth, totally providing what is necessary
for the action of God—and all participate in that body.
As this body has been forming
there have been various tendencies in people to try to make it into something
that it isn't. I suppose a general description of this would be a cult. The
cultic attitudes of human beings are universal on earth because this is what
occurs when the heart is impure. The isolationist, cultic consciousness is
strong because the hearts are impure and there is fear. There is shame and fear
in human hearts. This is part of the corruption. The fear brings a sense of
insecurity, and so the frantic endeavor to gather things around to make one
feel secure.
Could you imagine that my approach
over the years has been an endeavor to gather something around me to make me
feel secure? If you have any insight at all into the nature of my character you
would realize that I would feel quite secure even if there were none of you
here. That hasn't been my purpose—simply that there might be the resurrection
of the body of the Son of God, open to all to participate in.
There has been this tendency
still, because of impure hearts, to try to make what was thought of as the
Emissary ministry into a safe haven so that there could be a sense of security.
But we have the opportunity of allowing this living body to become incorporated
into our experience. Sometimes, as we have moved along the way, because of this
cultic consciousness based in the impurity of heart, there have been those who
have rationalized themselves into producing little cults within the bigger
cult. These are sometimes called cliques—a cyst in the developing body.
Wherever such cysts put in an appearance—and they have done it repeatedly over
the years—there is one of two ways by which they are dealt with. The most
satisfactory way is that the cyst is reabsorbed into the body. The other way is
that sooner or later the cyst has to be removed from the body, for the sake of
the health of the body.
These cliques, or cults within
cults, are produced by the rationalization springing out of the impure heart.
All those who respond to the invitation to participate in the resurrection of
the body of the Son of God lose themselves in that body. Only after they have
lost themselves in that body will it be found that they will move in the systems
of circulation into the place, into the organ, or whatever it may be, that is
fitting. All who are to participate in the body of the Son of God must be
released into that body totally. This relates to love. It is because of one's
love for the sounding of the tone, which is resurrecting or recreating the
body, that one may move into the body. There is a delight to do that, and to
find one's association with all who are present in that body, in one way or
another. Of course, obviously, people are in different places geographically,
so you can't associate with everybody; but where there are a number of people
together, here is almost a melting pot, one might say, for everybody to find
friendship.
It requires some deliberation to
do this. People have different natures. There are always right associations. So
there needs to be this blending. The blending can never take place, so that all
concerned may be with one accord in one place, as long as the impurities of
heart are maintained. Fear obviously is one of the primary, out-front elements.
Of course some fears are pushed down well into the subconscious mind; the
individual is not quite aware of what they are. But fear relates to this matter
of insecurity, and a person is bound to feel insecure as long as he has an
impure heart. So, even though it may be based in the subconscious feeling, he
rationalizes his actions as being necessary to establish a sense of security. The
only way by which a person can be secure is to have a pure heart. So if there
is genuine love for the tone, whose purpose is to recreate the body of the Son
of God on earth, he will give himself joyously and with the greatest zeal and
enthusiasm into the developing body of the Son of God. He will not take a
diehard position. What needs to die should die. Why make it hard for it to die?
So the longing of my heart over
the years has been that there might be a body in position to share what it
means to be with one accord in one place; because if it is allowed to happen
with such a gathering as this, that would transform everything that is present
in our unified creative field. If my concern has been, over the years, to do
what I might to assist in the development of this body it was for this purpose,
a purpose which might be described as the purpose of the Lord—to transform the
world. The world is transformed by the sound of this trumpet, by the tone
sounding because there are those who have let their hearts be purified and are
consequently in agreement. The evidence of that agreement is certainly
friendship, for one thing, a sense of closeness—a closeness which is no longer
established on the basis of one's rationalizations.
When people try to set up patterns
of closeness with others they are always, as long as the heart is impure, based
upon rationalizations. Woe unto those who maintain these impurities of heart
and try to make things work out on the basis of their consequent
rationalizations. They not only defeat themselves but cause a good deal of
havoc in doing it.
How beautiful it is to be
together, to know the reality of friendship, to have no fear that something
might happen to destroy one's own meaning, something that someone might do to
us. Can anyone really do anything to you to destroy your meaning? Knowing the
truth because the heart is pure it is discovered that one is secure. And that
security is not an isolated phenomenon; it relates to this forming body of the
Son of God. The body is secure and all that is in it is secure. Let us be in it
because we choose to allow impurities of heart to dissolve by reason of our
love for God, for the truth, for the sounding of the tone. The consequent body
then puts in an appearance. It means everything to us, because the fact of the
matter is that we have no life without it.
We do not need to be compelled by
fear. If we are compelled by fear, greed almost inevitably comes into the
picture too; and in trying to make ourselves secure, probably flattery comes
into the picture as well. We try to deceive other people by telling them
stories that aren't true, rationalizations that we thought up on the basis of
this impurity of heart. But when the heart is pure, it's clear—there is no
concern for self anymore. There is no concern for position, or for vast
achievement, which is equated in the rationalization process, with
meaning. The meaning is already present, and that meaning is included in the
whole.
We are keenly aware of this
particular aspect of the whole which we call the body of the Son of God. That
body is not an isolated body either, any more than we are isolated ourselves as
individuals. We belong in the body. We belong in the whole. Our meaning is
there. Let us not have an isolationist attitude but let our love be so complete
that we stand where we belong, without fear—without fear, and without shame,
and without blame. It is indicated it would be good to be blameless. That is
usually translated as meaning that one hasn't done anything for which one could
be blamed. But it also means that one is not blaming anyone or anything; that
is the way we become blameless.
So I thank God for those who,
yielded in their response, are receiving the invitation to blend into the body
of the Son of God. Then we may all be with one accord in one place, the body
complete unto itself, that what that body is here to accomplish may come to
pass. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see as God sees, they shall
act as God acts, they shall think as God thinks.
© Emissaries of Divine Light
