Readers in Churches of Christ, Scientist, feel the challenge of tremendous opportunity. They read to expectant congregations messages that are spiritually radical in premise, revolutionary in promise, and both tender and persuasive in appeal.
For you and me as hearers, the opportunity is no less challenging. Hearing becomes the complement of reading. If we are members of the church, we know that the Readers have been chosen by us, the listeners. We appreciate the fact, made clear in Christian Science, that both the reading and its message really proceed from the same basis—God's message. God's allness, with its message of power and beauty and its applicability to human need, is Truth's self-expression.
To read effectively in public from the Bible, and Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, has been called an art. Appreciation of the beauty and meaning of the texts shows itself in clarity, right pause and emphasis, and regard for language skills. The daily study of these books and the practice of what is learned from them make the art of reading aloud available to anyone who himself learns and listens.
"In the beginning was the Word,"John 1:1; declares the Bible. A Christian Science service is founded on Christ, God's true idea, powerfully expressing God's allness in ways that free human consciousness from material limitations. "The Word was made flesh,"v. 14; the writer continues in the same chapter. Christly reality, resistless, makes itself understood humanly, and healing and redemption are its results. Even before Mrs. Eddy ordained the Bible and Science and Health as the Christian Science pastor, these books proved their Christliness by their healing consequences.
When a church member is elected to serve as one of the two Readers, some question of ability—in view of the high standard indicated—almost inevitably arises. The new Reader may feel qualified, but he may also have some doubts. The church members, delighted that he has accepted the opportunity, may speculate. Such tendencies are common to human nature.
But Christian Science redefines human nature and thus lifts this burden. It shows that only the God-derived elements of humanity are true. So students of Christian Science are quick to reject personal evaluations. They hold fast to the fact that Truth, God, is the one Mind of all, and that God's power of self-expression supplies its own humanly needed evidence.
Among the mistakes of those tempted to think personally about this subject may be the notion that reading should be colorless and stereotyped, or the related notion that listening may be passive and undisciplined. Nothing could be farther from what is needed! What Readers and their hearers both need is to become so immersed in the message that everyone present will sensitively respond to its thrilling announcement of God's presence, power, and allness.
Techniques for good reading can be studied by oneself or with a competent instructor. Reading from the books Mrs. Eddy ordained as the Christian Science pastor, however, calls for such a willingness to listen for and to follow God's guidance that techniques will serve this purpose but never dominate it. Style in reading then becomes earnest but informal. It is marked by joy and the sense of renewed discovery.
Many people in these times are unused to reading aloud. In the study of our textbooks reading aloud a passage will often clarify it. When the motive of reading aloud is not to hear one's own voice but to hear God's message, the reading proves to be instructive. For a Reader, much reading aloud in private can lead to richer reading in public, although the Reader who remembers that freshness is highly important will avoid getting a fixed emphasis in advance.
When I was first asked to read at Christian Science services, a more experienced student said to me: "Read from these books as though they had never been read from before. Read as though their message were brand new, a revelation." This helped me to view the service as instancing Mind's limitless self-expressing power. I began to see that the Christian Science pastor has countless messages for mankind, all to the effect that Mind, Spirit, is All and the universe spiritual. The purpose of the services is the demonstration that there are no mortals—only immortal ideas of Mind. I found a guideline in Mrs. Eddy's statement, "Whatever holds human thought in line with unselfed love, receives directly the divine power."Science and Health, p. 192;
Both the Bible and Science and Health speak in terms appropriate to the human condition, but they lead to the realization that God, infinite Mind, is man's Mind now. They expose the limiting personal sense of existence as fraudulent misconception, which we progressively refuse to entertain. In this way our love becomes unselfed. We understand that actually no mortal sense of self has power to stand between God and man, and that God's selfhood therefore manifests its omnipresence as infinite Love, all-constituting Spirit, vitalizing Life. Power, say dictionaries, means capacity to produce effect, and the perception that God's power is the fact at hand opens wide the doors to larger usefulness and deeper joy.
Sometimes a Reader gets criticized. If he is already self-critical, he will not be distressed, for he knows that criticism can be wonderfully constructive. The hearer who also knows this will be slow indeed to belittle the Reader's work in any way. He will recognize that if he has advice to offer he can expect the recipient to be wise in listening courteously while not letting himself get overwhelmed.
Tradition sometimes presses persistently, and it's not uncommon for a Reader to be reminded that somebody else performed differently. "We've always done it that way," someone observes. Christian Science services are notably simple and their order is established, but they do provide limitless opportunity for freshness. The Christ-idea, surely, is not illustrated by a sense of routine, formula, or by tiresome monotony of manner.
Pondering Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, we can hardly fail to think that the occasion must have merged a kind of hushed solemnity with joyous expectancy. It is not hard to believe that never before had any audience been made so powerfully aware of God's marvelous presence. The Christ, which animated Jesus, is with us all today, as Jesus promised. And today the Christ deserves our most complete attention, our most willing receptivity, our readiest response.
Conventional thinking associates dull preaching with bored listening. As Christian Scientists committed to the practice of God's allness, we go to church expectantly. We approach our daily lives in the recognition of Mind's continuing self-expression. Our work is with infinity. And although it is completely clear to us that our religion must belong to every day, we value our church service as a significant means to the relinquishment of belief in mortal selfhood in behalf of all mankind.
Whether Reader or hearer, we should think of the service as unrestricted in its benefits. Indeed, we accept its message as embracing the community, the world. We do not say, "I hear it, but my neighbor doesn't." Instead, we take the position stated in Christ Jesus' words—quoted from the prophets—"They shall be all taught of God."John 6:45.
[A series of twelve articles, entitled "Reading Aloud," will begin in the January 1977 issue.]
