In this Sentinel Watch podcast, adapted for print, David Brown talks with Chet Manchester, a Christian Science practitioner and teacher from Lebanon, New Jersey. To hear the entire podcast, visit sentinel.christianscience.com/not-in-the-storm.
David Brown: Over the years, as more and more people have found out about Christian Science, they likely came across the history of The Church of Christ, Scientist, founded by a lifelong student of the Bible, Mary Baker Eddy. What’s meant by Science, and the tremendous importance placed on that other word, Christian? Science means it’s a systematic approach to knowledge or learning. A more modern interpretation might include the demonstrable evidence of that Science. But what about Christian? It is putting Christ at the center of that knowledge. That’s why it’s so crucial, not just to church members, but to the world at large. And it’s something that our guest today knows a great deal about.
Chet, maybe people have heard about the promise of Christian Science, but some of the language used can be tough to get through. For instance, people talk about the Mind of Christ. When I think of Christ, I think of Jesus from the Bible that I grew up learning about in Sunday School. But what does the Mind of Christ mean?
Chet Manchester: It’s a good concept, because we don’t have the personal Jesus with us today. But the Gospels show what that deep, genuine spirituality that lit up his life was. Then we begin to see that Christ is an eternal idea that didn’t go away when Jesus ascended. It’s actually his divine nature. When you think about the man Jesus, his character, that divine nature is the Christ. There’s always more to learn about the Christ. In the Preface to her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy describes herself as “waiting for the Mind of Christ” (p. ix), yearning to understand more.
Have you had an experience where this idea of the Mind of Christ has actually played a role in altering the direction of something that looked like it was going downhill?
Well, I can say without any question that getting to know, feel, and understand the Mind of Christ is really what has given direction to my life. I remember a time when I was living in Los Angeles trying to make it as a film writer and producer, and not making much headway. I had gotten a script accepted, and we were working at getting this film made. I poured everything into it over the course of a couple of years, including practically all my finances. Then it completely fell apart in a matter of days, and there was nothing we could do to put it back together.
Around this time I began to experience some problems with my heart. I’d been a student of Christian Science all my life, so I was looking at mental factors, because the body is like a dog on a leash. It goes where thought goes. And I really felt that what needed my attention was not the physical heart, but getting a handle on this turmoil I was feeling. As I prayed about it, one of the words that came to my thought was discouraged. I was deeply discouraged and disheartened, and I realized that’s what I needed to address—this feeling of being disheartened about the loss of the film, since the potential and sense of purpose seemed to be
all gone.
Early one morning, I was praying and opened one of Mary Baker Eddy’s collections of writings compiled in a book called Prose Works. Staring at me on the page was this statement: “The heart that beats mostly for self is seldom alight with love” (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 160). It was speaking right to me. I began to ask myself, What’s your heart beating for, Chet? I knew that it was primarily beating for my own ambition, my desires, my success. I loved God and I loved Christian Science, yet I was pretty much pushing forward with my own agenda.
I paused, and really felt that the purpose of the heart is to beat for God, to be in service to God, and not self-service. It’s seeing that God created us for a purpose, gave us talents and inspiration, but for the greater good, to use them to bless the world in the largest way possible.
So I got very quiet and said, “Okay, God, I’m listening. I’m on my knees. Tell me what You’d like me to do. How can I serve You? What can I do?” And then I heard the word “Church.” And I thought, “Oh gosh, maybe when I’m retired, then I’d love to be of more service to church. But now it feels like a heavy responsibility and something that you do later in life.” At this point, I was in my early thirties and I just didn’t want to hear that. And yet this feeling of being of service to church was persistent. I would say this was the Mind of Christ breaking through, this message from God, from divine Love, straight to me, reminding me who I am and what my identity is as God’s child—God’s own expression.
I couldn’t resist, so I said, “All right, show me, God.” And, I think, in a week or two, I went to Boston and dropped by The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and I asked if there was anything I could do to help. I actually thought I’d love to get involved in some production or radio activities. But the only thing they really needed help with at that time was in a very humble position in the Clerk’s Office, which involved correspondence, responding to people who were in need around the world. I didn’t even blink. I said, “When can I start?” And my wife, Anne, and I picked up and moved across the country in the middle of winter just before Christmas.
What an adventure.
It was the most freeing feeling to be part of something that was requiring selfless thinking and truly unselfed love. The problem with my heart was just naturally healed. The shift in thought had an immediate and profound effect on my well-being. And I saw that I loved creativity and communication, and that church needs those qualities too, so that’s where I began to help. And I began to get involved with Christian Science practice—with healing. Since then, it’s been pure joy with a focus on healing, and helping humanity understand what the Science of Christianity is all about.
I want to get back to that remarkable story of that healing of a heart condition. And it sounds like this has been permanent.
Absolutely.
I wonder if there may be people who have difficulty distinguishing it from positive thinking or New Age approaches. How do you distinguish what’s going on with Christian Science as opposed to some of these other approaches?
Well, I certainly have great respect and appreciation for people of all faiths and philosophies. Thinking more positively, less fearfully, is a step in the right direction. It’s like lighting a candle or switching on a light in a dark room. It brings light to your thought. But what Jesus was opening up for us was not just a lightbulb or a candle. What he spoke of was “the light of the world.” In comparison to positive thinking, the Mind of Christ is as the sun is to a tiny lightbulb in a room. What Jesus was expressing was God’s nature—divine wisdom, intelligence, love.
When we pray in Christian Science, what we’re striving to do is give up this sense of having a personal mind and a human agenda, like I did, and yield to the divine Mind—God—that Jesus was teaching about.
You’re talking about opening yourself up to this power . . . am I describing that right?
Yes. One of the teachings I’ve grown to really love and see as a road map for having the Mind of Christ is Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. At the beginning of this teaching in Matthew, Jesus is speaking about teachability. He speaks of being “poor in spirit,” or I could say, being truly receptive. That’s a word Mary Baker Eddy uses with that concept of poor in spirit—the receptive heart (see Science and Health, p. 46).
Jesus is encouraging this receptivity, this openness of thought, as you just said. Letting that divine Mind, that higher source of intelligence and wisdom, be your Mind. Jesus said the result of this way of thinking was having the kingdom of heaven—that consciousness of God, or awareness of God’s government in your life, where everything is controlled by a loving God. To do that, Jesus said, you’ve got to become like little children. You know, most of the time we’re just running the show in our lives.
We’re trying to run the show . . .
Exactly. Until we’re humbled as I was and as I’ve been many times since then. It’s an ongoing journey, really, of learning to yield to God more. One of the beautiful, powerful teachings in the Gospels is Jesus’ ability to say, “Not my will, but Thine, be done.” He said this as he was heading into something he didn’t want—the crucifixion—and he yielded, gave up any personal will. That’s such a big point in theology because a lot of religions teach the concept of free will. But I think what Jesus was illustrating in that prayer is to give up the belief that you have a separate or personal will—to yield to the idea that there’s just one will, and that’s God’s loving will.
That’s next level! It just hit me what you were saying. There’s a deep humility involved.
Yeah. That’s the concept of humility in the opening of the Sermon on the Mount. When you think of humility, oftentimes it’s seen as not thinking highly of yourself, having a very modest sense of yourself. But is that really what Jesus was speaking of when he said, “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5)? Is he saying you’re blessed if you don’t think highly of yourself? He said of himself, “I’m the light of the world.”
So, it is recognizing that your source is God. True humility, it’s been said, is not thinking less of yourself, but not thinking of yourself at all. It’s thinking of God, and recognizing that God is the source of your inspiration, your energy, your intelligence, your life purpose—that it all comes from God. To be truly humble is to yield to the idea of being God’s reflection. And when you do that, then you inherit, or receive freely, everything that belongs to you as God’s reflection. I like to say that the proud have to work for a living. But the meek inherit all good—a rich, divine inheritance. And it comes by seeing the real spiritual significance of what Jesus is teaching.
What do you think the connection is between this idea of getting a more profound sense of God, and that lived experience of seeing healings take place?
A lot of people who first hear about Christian Science or maybe vaguely know about it think it is all about trying to pray yourself to be healed without the use of medicine. That really is a caricature of Christian Science, because Mary Baker Eddy said the “emphatic purpose of Christian Science is the healing of sin.” She says physical healing “is the smallest part” (Rudimental Divine Science, p. 2).
People might say, “I want to hear about healing. Don’t be talking to me about sin!”
Yes. But let’s just think of sin as a misconception—a mistaken view of yourself and of God, and of others. The original meaning is to miss the mark, like archers shooting arrows and missing the mark. I like to think that in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is teaching how to harmonize every thought, feeling, motivation, and action with Love.
Jesus’ mission was to bear witness to God as pure Love. We are to learn to love the way God loves, to have that same universal, impartial love. And when we’re doing that, our thought, our whole being, is in harmony with God. That’s healing.
So the focus isn’t, “I’ve got to think myself well, or change something.” It’s yielding to what God is and what God knows; and learning to reflect more of God’s love. Going back to the story I shared and other healings I’ve experienced, this description in Mary Baker Eddy’s writings is so vivid. She says, “A little more grace, a motive made pure, a few truths tenderly told, a heart softened, a character subdued, a life consecrated, would restore the right action of the mental mechanism, and make manifest the movement of body and soul in accord with God” (Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, p. 354). What a beautiful list of qualities.
I’ve often thought about whether that is my motivation when I’m praying, no matter what the problem may be—am I praying for more grace, and so on?
Jesus’ followers had been so moved by his character, love, and spirituality that it transformed them. The healings that took place were secondary. And a lot of people also feel that when they’re healed in Christian Science, the physical healing is secondary to this transformation of thought, where they really find themselves made new by the Christ and the love of God.
It was so interesting that you talked about that activity of humbling, learning, and healing that takes place. Because I have heard so many people who’ve been healed through Christian Science talk about how they knew a healing had taken place even before they looked for evidence of it. They didn’t even have to look for evidence of it because they felt it in that learning.
Well, this really distinguishes Christian Science. I like to think of Christian Science as getting back to that original love that Jesus taught, love that was so infused with this deep love for God and others. In early Christianity, this love was tearing down walls between cultures and races and genders. The Bible says, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28).
That is the heartbeat of what the Christ is all about. It shows us we’re all the offspring of God, who is Love, and our purpose in life is to express that Love, no matter what our job is. What gives meaning to our lives is living love and growing in it, just as Jesus and his early students taught and practiced it. This is what we’re about today in the Christian Science movement—reviving this original practice of Love-based healing.
When you’re following what Jesus taught to the best of your ability, you may hit a few road bumps. When you look at the Beatitudes in Jesus’ sermon, there’s only one that he repeats. The one that’s sometimes seen as the ninth beatitude is really just a reiteration of the eighth. It’s the teaching about persecution.
Jesus says, “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:10).
And then he goes on, “Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you” (verses 11, 12).
It is as if he is saying, “I want you to be prepared that this is going to stir thought and you might have to face some tough things. But when that happens, I want you to rejoice because right there where that challenge and that persecution seem to be, is the greatest blessing.”
We can get preoccupied with thoughts of, “What am I doing wrong? And what is this sin within me that I need to correct?” Of course, we must be willing to do honest self-examination, where we truly need to rid ourselves of things like pride, resentment, anger, and so forth. But I’ve been finding that often the thing we most need to address when we’re praying is this hatred of what Jesus was teaching.
What do you mean, “hatred of what Jesus was teaching”?
Well, we all know that this wonderful healer, this good man of incredible love who was raising the dead, walking on water, and feeding thousands, was stirring the religious thought of the time and the human mind to such a degree that it crucified him.
I see.
And so if you’re a follower of Christ today and you’re striving to live these teachings well, be prepared that this will also stir thought. And you may face some tough stuff. But this is the time I’ve found to really do what Jesus is saying—to rejoice, and claim your blessing. The difficult stuff forces us to grow closer to God. It helps us understand that hatred, evil, resistance, actually don’t have the power and the substance that they seem to have. This is where revelation takes place.
As you know, Jesus had to face the crucifixion and the grave. But what came out of that was the resurrection and the ascension, piercing through the gloom and darkness that says evil has the upper hand and is inevitable. I can say from experience that, right in the toughest battles, the Christ has encouraged and sustained me, lifted me up and carried me forward, helping me see that the challenge is actually illusory. It doesn’t have validity or any real capacity to harm.
I’ll give you a little example of what I mean. I was completely absorbed in some work in my garage when my daughter and wife called me outside. “You gotta come see this!” they said.
We’d had a couple of days of solid rain—the last remnants of Hurricane Ian—and the early morning sun was coming through the trees. There was the most exquisite rainbow arching way over head, just lifting our eyes and thoughts upward. The timing of it, the grace of it, made it feel like a message.
In the Bible, in the story of Noah in the Old Testament, the rainbow is seen as a promise that God won’t send another flood and destroy everything on earth. We may think that God not “punishing mankind again” is good, yet this implies that God is responsible for floods and storms. But moving through the Bible, as humanity’s understanding of God’s nature progresses and grows, there’s a more enlightened view.
The story of Elijah shows this. He’s up on a mountain deeply discouraged about things, when all of a sudden the wind whips up, and there’s a raging fire and an earthquake. Elijah glimpses that God wasn’t in the earthquake, the fire, or the storm; rather, Elijah perceives in the “still, small voice” the nature of God that is peace itself.
In the New Testament, Jesus, who had by far the most enlightened and expansive view of God, didn’t put up with storms; instead, he calmed them with, “Peace, be still.” He understood that “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (I John 1:5). What a breakthrough idea! God is infinite good, and in Him is no evil at all. There is no place for what we perceive as disease or physical limitations or matter to exist. And a better understanding of Christ just keeps lifting our thoughts higher and higher until we understand God as the one and only reality, the All-in-all of everything.
So as I was looking at this beautiful, glowing rainbow, I was getting a perspective that the hard things that have blown through my life don’t have the substance, power, or ability to stop the light and love that God is expressing. We can see, as Jesus did, that evil in whatever disguise, whether illness, natural disaster, or anything else, is a lie—a misconception about reality. And the more we learn about God’s nature and love, and the more we follow what Jesus taught, the less impressed we are with the lie called evil. We can look back at these hard experiences and say that we weren’t “in the storm” at all. All that those experiences did was help us grow closer to God.
Thanks for sharing that rainbow with us, Chet.
