Midweek Faith Lift
September 22, 2021
What is a Miracle?
Rev. Deb Hill-Davis
Spiritual Passages:
Daily Reflection: September 9, 2021
“When I was in the seminary, finances were very tight for my teenage daughter and me. But I told her to have faith, that God will provide. One day, a clerk from the grocery store called and said we had just won a hundred dollars of groceries. I was elated and shouted to my daughter, ‘You see? God has provided. God is so great!’ My daughter looked at me and deadpanned, ‘Great, nothing. I stood down there at that grocery store all afternoon filling out a hundred entry forms for their contest!’”– Edwene Gaines
“When we live our lives with an appreciation of everyday miracles, we connect with the field of infinite possibilities. There are cosmic twirlings of Intelligence that endlessly create our Universe. And if we pay attention, we can let synchronistic moments guide us, inspire us, and provide us what we need in order to do great works.”– Deepak Chopra, Living Beyond Miracles
Affirmative prayer: Infinite Presence, I see the winding journey of my life, the joy, and the difficulties, and I behold it all as a gift. All about me is the evidence of Pure Spirit loving Itself. The energy of Divine providence, optimism and good fortune is everywhere, awaiting my recognition and my full participation. Thank you, God, forever. Amen.
So what about miracles? Do you believe there are miracles? If you are a skeptic, then you are wary about the whole idea of a miracle. Or you view miracles with amusement like the song by Hot Chocolate from 1975 “I believe in miracles, where you from, you sexy thing?” And of course, you remember the story of Annie Sullivan and Helen Keller in the play, The Miracle Worker, when the blind Helen suddenly grasps that the fingerspelling Annie Sullivan is doing actually means the water Helen feels on her hands! If you think about it, there are lots of references to miracles in popular culture.
When something works out in an unexpectedly good way, we often say, “Wow, that was a miracle!” I don’t know how that happened! In the same way, when there seem to be endless obstacles to something working out, we often say, “Wow, it’s going to take a miracle for this to work out at all!” But take a moment and reflect on your own life and check it for what seem like miracles. I know you have them! We all have those moments, those times, and those stories when, as we look back, it did all work out in a way that seems like a miracle. I love hearing miracle stories!
I remember learning in drama class in high school about a specific strategy in Greek plays to rescue a hero. It was called deus ex machina, and it means “from the machine of the gods.” When the hero is in a tight spot with no way out, there is a divine rescue that saves him or her and moves the story forward. I think we have adapted that to modern times to think of a miracle as a divine rescue, or divine intervention, but that is to miss the whole point of a miracle. And that point is that we have some part to play in a miracle unfolding. The question for us is to see our part, what is ours to do, and to actually do it. That at times does take a miracle! Seeing and then doing!
So why miracles as a subject to explore? Well, right now, our world is in such turmoil and chaos, it could use a few miracles. If we can do anything to play our part in miracles unfolding, I am all for it. I also learned about and purchased a book, The Twelve Conditions of a Miracle: the Miracle Worker’s Handbook, by Todd Michael. It was recommended by Rev. Aubrey Linn, Unity minister at Unity of Sheboygan in Wisconsin, who has done a whole series based on this book, so it seemed like the right time to explore it. And a huge part of the story of Jesus in all 4 gospels involves miracles, so perhaps it deserves our attention!
When you step back and look at the ministry of Jesus, he told stories that we call parables, earthly stories with a “heavenly” meaning. He healed people but only after asking them if they wanted to be healed or recognizing their faith, which made them whole. He also performed miracles of plenty such as the loves and the fishes and changing water into wine and raising Lazarus from the dead. The whole point of the ministry of Jesus was to make us aware of the energy of God that is present in our lives here and now, in everyday life. His actions were to teach us all how to work with the energy of God, of Love in our everyday life.
There is an invisible realm of energy to which we say yes, and then we are able to co-create with that energy that is greater than we are. That in essence is a miracle, but there are conditions for that to happen and that is what we are going to explore over the next several months. On page 135 of the Revealing Word, Charles Fillmore speaks of a miracle as
…events that take place as a result of the operation of a higher, unknown law. Nothing just happens. All happenings are the result of cause and can be explained under the law of cause and effect…to faith, we now add an understanding of the law and our achievements will be a fulfillment of the promise of Jesus, “He that believeth on me, the works I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do. (John 14:12)
It is through realizing our divine essence that miracles will unfold. Myrtle Fillmore had something to say about miracles also in How to Let God Help You. She had an actual healing experience or a “lived experience” of a miracle, which came about through her spiritual practices. Her firm conviction in the power and Presence of God in her very being is what carried her through two years of being with the process of healing from tuberculosis.
It did not happen overnight, yet it was a miracle. Myrtle’s take on it goes like this, from page 117 of How to Let God Help You:
It is all a matter of consciousness, and when we unfold our fourth-dimensional consciousness we shall see into Omnipresence and there will be nothing hidden from us…Mind is omnipresent, and it is through letting the same Mind that is in Christ Jesus be in us that we transcend the limitations of the material mind.
As it says in Romans 12:2 “Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Her material mind told her she was sickly and prone to illness and would have TB all her life. When her higher, spiritual Mind was activated, she could see and then manifest a greater reality of healing and wholeness that was beyond what her human mind could see.
That realization and the manifestation of a miracle were not instantaneous like the stories of healing in the Bible. As Myrtle says, Jesus had a consciousness of his Divine nature that was so powerful, present, and strong that the manifestation of love, of healing, and miracles were described as being immediate. The stories and reports of the teachings and work of Jesus drew a following of people who were desperate for hope, for kindness, and for love. His powerful presence drew a crowd who longed for something, even if they weren’t sure what to call it. Reading the stories about Jesus in the Christian scriptures lets us know that Jesus had a power and presence that was love. He was not calling the people to battle he was calling them to love and they responded! That in itself is a miracle!
It took time and disciplined prayer for Myrtle to actually cultivate the “Christ-Mind” that she talks about in her writings. Our path of discovery of the 12 conditions for a miracle will take us through a specific process and reflection on what it takes for a miracle to manifest. We will work through a specific miracle story of the loaves and fishes, a version of which shows up in all 4 Gospels. It is the only one that is in all four Gospels and that means it has a special energy. The author of the book, Todd Michael,D.O., has studied the language of this story in the gospel of Matthew 14:13-23 from the original Greek, so he can understand the deeper meaning in how the story is told.
This is the story where Jesus is teaching and speaking and there are 5000 people present. At the end of the day, they are hungry and his disciples tell him to send all these people away. But Jesus says no, tell them to have a seat, and then he feeds them all. In this era of saying no to refugees and turning away those in need, it feels especially appropriate and meaningful to unpack and explore the feeding of the 5000. I am reminded of the words of our song this morning, “Here I am Lord, it is I Lord, I have heard you calling ….” What is ours to do, how do we answer the call? What is our part in unfolding a miracle?
If we all take a moment and reflect in the quiet, it becomes clear that when we lean in and listen, we know in our heart what is ours to do. We cannot do all the good the world needs, but the world truly needs all the good we can do. I have truly had so many “happy accidents” in my life; so many small miracles that just kept pointing me in the right direction for my good to unfold. Even in my most recent “trial by stone” in my salivary gland, it was a miracle that the Hospital ER was within walking distance from our hotel! You have participated in miracles…..now we will explore and begin to understand how what and why it unfolded the way it did! We have all filled out our 100 entry forms for free groceries!
Blessings on the Path,
Rev. Deb