There is Transparency When the Heart is Pure
from 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. I would thank the Lord for what was so offered. I would that we all might have been in agreement in an active sense. There was indication in the Psalms that the redeemed of the Lord should say so. There was 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. 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.
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 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. 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. I'm sure we would all wish to be faithful stewards rather than unfaithful ones. 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, 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 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 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—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 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. 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. 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?
