Easter’s Truest Meaning

IS IT EGGS?!

One of camp’s wonderful practitioners, Eric Oyama, is here to tell us more!

Eric lives out in Los Angeles, California. But many summers he has come to camp to love and support us all. He can often be found very happy and busy helping inspire and uplift everyone during the session.

The following CLC pictures are Eric’s. Gentle reminders of Easter’s spiritual celebration.

As Easter is often seen as a time for eggs, bunnies, candy, etc, and don’t get me wrong, candy mmm…But besides the bunnies, chocolate, and all the fun Easter egg hunts, Easter has a spiritual meaning and significance. 

Keeping in mind that Easter is just around the corner this weekend (Sunday), ready to be celebrated, Eric has kindly offered to share a spiritual view of Easter.

FROM ERIC

One of the great things about the Bible is that there is always something to learn, even from familiar stories, and sometimes it is the familiar stories that need to be revisited. One story that comes up at this time of year is the Easter story. It is helpful to look at the four Gospels and see how each one covers this important event — ranging from the triumphal entry into Jerusalem all the way through to the Resurrection. Another helpful key to understanding this story is the chapter, “Atonement and Eucharist” in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. Each time we sit down with the Bible or one of Mrs. Eddy’s published writings I find it helpful to just listen and see what God would like us to see during this particular reading. What stood out this time was the atonement we have between God and ourselves and the role of the Christ in atonement.

This past year I have been focusing on the story from Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem and the visit to the temple (Matthew 21:1-16, Mark 11:1-19, Luke 19:28-48). Jesus is greeted like a king, the pathway is covered with palm leaves and the people are cheering for him. Then he and his disciples enter the temple grounds where they see the typical business happening in the courtyards, venders offering to exchange Roman currency into the temple currency, venders offering animals for sacrifice at inflated prices, and people using the temple as a shortcut with their animals across the city. It is interesting what happens next. Jesus is with his disciples and a huge crowd, but he doesn’t ask them for help; instead he cleans out the temple on his own. In the platform starting on page 330 of Science and Health, Mary Baker Eddy explains the important points of Christian Science. The ninth one states, “Jesus was born of Mary. Christ is the true idea voicing good, the divine message from God to men speaking to the human consciousness. The Christ is incorporeal, spiritual,—yea, the divine image and likeness, dispelling the illusions of the senses; the Way, the Truth, and the Life, healing the sick and casting out evils, destroying sin, disease, and death. As Paul says: ‘There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.’ The corporeal man Jesus was human.”

So, it is the Christ’s job to “clean house” so to speak, not our job. To me this story illustrates the activity of the Christ and our role — the need to make room for the Christ to do its job in consciousness.

On page 18 of the chapter “Atonement and Eucharist” Mrs. Eddy writes, “The atonement of Christ reconciles man to God, not God to man; for the divine Principle of Christ is God, and how can God propitiate Himself? Christ is Truth, which reaches no higher than itself. The fountain can rise no higher than its source. Christ, Truth, could conciliate no nature above his own, derived from the eternal Love. It was therefore Christ’s purpose to reconcile man to God, not God to man. Love and Truth are not at war with God’s image and likeness. Man cannot exceed divine Love, and so atone for himself. Even Christ cannot reconcile Truth to error, for Truth and error are irreconcilable. Jesus aided in reconciling man to God by giving man a truer sense of Love, the divine Principle of Jesus’ teachings, and this truer sense of Love redeems man from the law of matter, sin, and death by the law of Spirit,—the law of divine Love.”

Here is a small illustration of this point. Last week I got out of the car and walked towards a wide driveway to the sidewalk. It was dark out and difficult to see. Just as I reached the driveway my foot hit something solid and I went flying. What I later discovered was that it wasn’t one driveway but two driveways and there was a low curb about 9 inches wide dividing the mouths of the two driveways and my foot hit that curb. As I lay on the ground, I reminded myself that God was taking care of me and that I couldn’t get hurt. I got up and felt fine, but as I started to walk to my apartment I slowly started to feel pain in my hand, elbow, knee and leg. In the streetlight I could see that I was a bit scraped up. About this time it was as though a huge tidal wave of anger began racing towards me threatening to swallow me up. I could see that this anger had nothing to do with me and so I knew that I didn’t have to invite it into my consciousness. I kept batting the angry feelings away and I could see my thought bouncing from one activity, object, person, myself, etc. trying to find a landing point or justification for this anger. By the time I got home I was getting tired of the mental battle when I mentally stepped back and looked at what I was doing. I had turned this into a human mental exercise where I was trying to will anger away by myself. What I needed, of course, was the Christ. With that I turned on some hymns from the Christian Science hymnal and listened to Mrs. Eddy’s poems being sung. Room was made in thought for the healing activity of the Christ. These angel messages reminded me in a way that was different from a human reminder of my unbroken connection to God. The Christ brought my thinking back into alignment with God, good, and when this happened the anger just didn’t have a place to land and so it vanished away. And when the anger left, the pain and all of the signs of a fall left as well. There were no marks on my hand or legs and the pain in my elbow and knee just ended. I expressed gratitude for the healing message of the Christ and gratitude for all that God has done. It was a nice reminder again that it is the Christ which does the work and not me.

I hope you’ll take time to read these different accounts of Christ Jesus as well as the chapter of “Atonement of Eucharist” and see what new idea comes to you that can be demonstrated. Have fun!

 As you celebrate, keep these ideas of the Christ in your thought, along with your months leading into Summer, your Spring, your excitement for camp, and getting ready for another great summer at Crystal Lake!

See all of you soon!

Eric on Lake Trail around Crystal Lake.

Spring Clean-Up Weekend is this May 2-4. Come get your hands dirty and join us for a fun weekend as we prepare camp for the summer. Hope you can join!

Photos #2-8: Eric Oyama: #2-4 Crystal Lake, #5 Stream leading into Crystal Lake, #6 Eric on Lake Trail, #7 Unique perspective of Boy’s Camp and White Pine from across Wild Rice Lake

Easter Egg Photo (#1): PA Photos “traditional Sorbian Easter egg market in Schleife, Germany”