PSST: Embrace your role as ambassador, as God’s representative, here & now.
Possible Sunday School Topics for The Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson:
“Mortals and Immortals”
for May 9-15, 2022
prepared by Merrill Boudreaux, C.S.
pegasus6524@gmail.com • 314-308-1059
P.S.S.T. Golden Text (GT)/II Corinthians 5:20: “…we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.”
What does the word “ambassadors” mean, as found in the Golden Text? Most commonly it means “an accredited diplomat sent by a country as its official representative to a foreign country” (according to dictionary.com). It can also mean “a person who acts as a representative or promoter of a specific activity.”
With that definition in mind, answer the question, “Am I representing mortality or immortality in my life?”
Ask another question, “What does it mean to be a representative on earth of the Christ?” See Mary Baker Eddy’s scientific definition of “Christ” in Science & Health 583:10.
So, might you conclude that you are a representative of God here and now, and that you are come to promote the destruction of incarnate, or bodily, error? How does this ambassadorial role look in your life?
Responsive Reading (RR)/II Cor.3:3-6,17,18; & II Cor.4:5,6
The Responsive Reading states that we are “able ministers of the new testament.” What is this “new testament”? Where can you find it? It is the life and works of Jesus and his disciples found in the Bible. The heart of this new testament or new covenant may be recorded by John in John 13:34: “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” And in verse 35, “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” (A nice hymn on these citations is Hymn #433.)
P.S.S.T. Section 1 – See what Science & Health tells us about the model we should follow in preparing for our ambassadorial role. Read together SH 248:12-32. The ambassador usually presents credentials of authenticity when first arriving in a foreign country. See your credentials in the statement in SH 249:1. That is you, O Ambassador, a model of excellence, an immortal model.
See also what God has declared about Her support for you in this role, in citation B3/Isaiah 42:1-7 (additional notes quote the Common English Bible version):
- The Lord hath called thee in righteousness (CEB I, the Lord, have called you for a good reason)
- Will hold thine hand and will keep thee (CEB I will grasp your hand and guard you)
- Give thee for a covenant of the people (CEB will give you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the nations) (The covenant to love one another)
- To open the blind eyes (CEB to open blind eyes)
- To bring out the prisoners (CEB to lead the prisoners from prison, and those who sit in darkness from the dungeon)
P.S.S.T. Section 2 – Read how powerful is the Christ that it turned Saul from being a persecutor of the early Christians into Paul, an ambassador for Christ in citation B7/Acts 9:1-18. What do your students know of Paul’s life after this conversion? Explore his ambassadorial role in the Bible as found in Acts, Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, and so on… Your students might enjoy reading these books from the Common English Bible (CEB), which they can download online.
P.S.S.T. Section 3 – Christian Science as stated in Science & Health is your expanded ambassadorial credential. See what is stated in citation S13/288:10,27-28. What do you think of these glorious possibilities for you?
P.S.S.T. Section 4 – This is a good opportunity to examine how we are watching our thought. Are we keeping our thought on a higher plane based on the spiritual rather than the mortal? Science & Health and the scriptures are good guides.
P.S.S.T. Section 5 – Do you think that Christianity was only relevant to Jesus and his immediate disciples? Is it relevant today? See citation S21/97:29-32, “Christianity is again demonstrating the Life that is Truth, and the Truth that is Life, by the apostolic work of casting out error and healing the sick.”
Share with students some statements of this relevancy in recent Sentinels or Journals. By the way, those magazines are also ambassadors of Christian Science to the world.
Read together Hymn 297 from the Christian Science Hymnal (words printed here):
Hymn 297
Science, the angel with the flaming sword, God’s gift, the glory of the risen Lord; Light of the world, in whose light we shall see Father and perfect Son, blest unity;
Calm of Shekinah where hope anchors fast, Harbor of refuge till the storm be past; Sweet, secret place where God and men do meet, Horeb whereon we walk with unshod feet;
Place of communion with the Lamb of God, Fold where the sheep must pass beneath His rod; Ark where the dove may close her faltering wings, Love’s law divine that makes us priests and kings;
Loosener of prison bands at midnight hour, Of self-forged chains that fall through Love’s all-power; Christ’s morning meal by joyous Galilee: Science, thou dost fulfill all prophecy.
P.S.S.T. Section 6 – What clarity is stated in these words from Science & Health in citation S27/301:32, “Immortality is not bounded by mortality”?
“Not bounded” may mean not restricted, not confined, not imprisoned, not held hostage. Part of your role as an ambassador is to assist in freeing humanity from false beliefs to awaken to the fact as stated in citation S30/258:11-15, “Man reflects infinity, and this reflection is the true idea of God.”
I trust you to embrace your role as ambassador, as official representative of God, here and now.
