Wholeheartedly Accept as your own, Bible-based GEM
examples of God’s unconditional LOVE!!
Let God Expressed Meekly/Mightily in you sparkle brightly with insights from Cobbey & others
as inspired by The Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson on
“Love”
for Sunday, January 29, 2023
(Cobbey Crisler’s insights are shared with the blessing of Janet Crisler janetcrisler7@gmail.com)
by Warren Huff, CedarS Executive Director Emeritus, warren@cedarscamps.org
WHAT GOD KNOWS OF YOU [as “the loved of Love*,”* YOU KNOW OF YOURSELF AND OF OTHERS!
Cobbey on I Corinthians 13:12 (Responsive Reading) “see face to face” as “the loved of Love,”* Hymn 232]
[Cobbey Crisler:] Verse 12. Seeing “face to face” is a mental thing…
“then I shall know even as I am known…” What God know of us, we know of ourselves and of others…
[Transcribed from notes from Cobbey taken in the margin of Warren’s Bible]
[Warren:] In 2018, “LOVE NEVER FAILS” WAS THE T-SHIRT VERSION OF CEDARS THEME and the Principia Parents Association (PPA) asked me to give their May 6th Spring inspirational talk on how parents could better teach love and spiritual identity to their children. So, I opened my weekly GEMs application ideas (posted the next day) with the paragraph below that includes a YouTube link to my PPA talk. (Fast forward ~2+ minutes) This talk – with its yard signs, healing examples and pledges from Paul’s analysis of Love in 1st Corinthians 13 (in this week’s Golden Text and Responsive Reading) – formed the basis for my Pre-camp staff inspirational talk on HOW TO BETTER LIVE LOVE EVERY MOMENT.
[From Warren’s May 7, 2018 GEMs:] Click the YouTube link below to HEAR LOTS OF HEALINGS AND APPLICATION IDEAS from my 40-minute inspirational talk yesterday to the Principia Parents Association on “Live Love Infinitely” (CedarS 2018 Metaphysical Theme). Woven throughout are connections to this Bible Lesson—on heredity (“Psalm 23 & Me”), pledges you can take to get rid of the “dust man”— “three times faster”, making sure our prayers contain “no opposing element” – no “Fake News” (like the tree of good AND evil)… and much more at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxyV_czaSlI]
CHANGE YOUR PRIORITIES, LIKE NAAMAN, TO OVERCOME INSTANT-GRATIFICATION URGES,
PROUD PARADING & REACTIVE ANGER– AND IN SO DOING
HUMBLY OBEY THE SIMPLE DEMANDS OF SPIRITUAL SEEING.
Cobbey Crisler on II Kings 5:1-27 (citation B5+) & Naaman’s healing of pride, leprosy
Cobbey on 2nd Kings,] “Chapter 5, we’re going to have another example of healing, of leprosy. This example involves a Syrian, a non-Jew. It is one that Jesus himself cites later on. Remember Jesus said [in Luke 4:27], “There were many lepers in Israel.” But, he didn’t go to them, he went to a Syrian. He wasn’t even an Israelite, showing that receptivity has no ghetto, no narrowly drawn lines.
We have an insight into what is going on in Naaman’s thinking here which is helpful, as far as studying the method used here in healing. “Naaman comes [in Verse 9 of Chapter 5] with his horse, chariot,” the [showy] accoutrements of his position. Notice the accoutrements of his position had done nothing for his leprosy. Yet that’s what he came for. That was his priority for the moment. Elisha didn’t serve that priority, did he? He disappointed him.
Apparently, that’s the lesson of the story. If Naaman wanted a healing he had to change his priorities. “Elisha merely sends a messenger out [Verse 10], ‘Go and wash in Jordan.’” Jordan you can go and leap across at some portions. Yes, “seven times.” For a man that was used to instant action, like Naaman: He orders, it occurs. You can imagine that this was not exactly as what he expected. But the promise is, if he does this, here’s the equation again, the result will be that his “flesh will come unto him restored and clean.”
Naaman says, “Forget it” [Verse 11]. Out go all the accoutrements with him. But notice in Verse 12 you at least get the name of one of the early ancient cars. We have Cougars, and various other names for our cars. In Verse 12, Naaman “turned and went away in a Rage.” [Laughter] The same automobile manufacturer makes a huff. [Laughter] Some people go away in that. The servants, the humble thought, suggest to him [in Verse 13]. “You know, if the prophet had wanted you to do something really dramatic, you would have done that. Why quibble when it’s simpler?” The simple requirement for healing, perhaps being asked of us all through our lives, but we wait for more dramatic demands. They never come.
In Verse 14] “He goes down.” He listens. “He dips himself seven times in Jordan and his flesh came again like the flesh of a little child.” Not even the flesh he, perhaps would have expected, but the pure, clear “flesh of a little child, and he was clean.”
Beyond citation B5, FYI]
Of course, in Verse 15 he’s ready to give the world to Elisha. [In Verse 16] Elisha accepts none of it. But guess who does? [In Verses 20-23] his servant’s willing to deal under the table. Unfortunately, [in Verses 25-27] his servant gets the results of his thoughts and becomes leprous himself.”
transcribed from “Heal the Sick”: A Scriptural Record, by B. Cobbey Crisler**
BONUS: Click here to watch a realistic YouTube video of Elisha healing Naaman of his leprosy as filmed by the Mormon Church 10 years ago.
BE HUMBLY EVER-READY TO MAKE WISE, LOVING ADAPTATIONS that always bring DIVINE BESTOWALS!
[Warren Huff & Geith Plimmer on citation S7, Science & Health 13:2]
[Warren:] “I will always cherish my time in the mid-1970s as a church lecture committee host for Geith Plimmer, a Christian Science Practitioner and Lecturer from Great Britain. In one of his very Bible-based, Christian Science lectures, Geith commented on this sentence in Science and Health “Love is impartial and universal in its adaptations and bestowals.” (SH 13:2-3, citation S11) He said something like, “individuals and organizations will only be ready to receive divine BESTOWALS when they are ready to make wise, loving and divinely-directed ADAPTATIONS. Humility and love are the keys to the letting go of limiting circumstances and of humanly-outlined outcomes. We need to open up a willingness to let “Thy will be done” and to humbly make appropriate adaptations so that all we do is “characterized” by “wisdom, economy and brotherly love.”
[Warren:] “A need to make adaptations seem to imply that we can make mistakes with lasting bad results even when we are striving wholeheartedly for good. But we are blessed to be students of the Bible and so to know that no mistakes can really be made when we love God with all our hearts and put all we do in His hands. As Saint Paul declares as one of the rules by which we gladly operate: “And we know that ALL things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” (Rom. 8:28, emphasis added)
I was delighted to share in my INSPIRATIONAL TALK (AT THE END of Arden Wood’s 2022 Annual Meeting), A DETAILED EXAMPLE ABOUT MAKING AN ADAPTATION TO CORRECT A “MISTAKE” THAT RESULTED IN A WONDERFUL BESTOWAL OF BLESSINGS. We all now “see the past (“mistake”) through wisdom’s eyes, as a blessing in disguise.” (You can read & hear this verse & Desiree Goyette’s whole, inspiring solo, “Let It Go,” at https://desireegoyette.com/track/2585018/let-it-go — ALSO, Mark your calendar to hear Desiree lead CedarS next Hymn Sing on 2-5-23, the first Sunday of February, at 7pm CT with a Prelude at 6:45pm CT. Details to follow.]
Click on the ARDEN WOOD WEBSITE FOR A REPLAY of this meeting. In the 2nd half) are SPECIFIC TAKE-AWAYS OF APPLICATION IDEAS TO MAKE YOUR OWN!
[I shared this application example in my May 1, 2022 Arden Wood inspirational talk:]
“Over thirty years ago, even though prayed about in advance, it looked like a big mistake had been made when CedarS was left maintaining an expensive piece of property and an old building in West St. Louis County to operate a service that was often undersubscribed. It was an attempt to put CedarS resources to use to offer an after-school and day-care program in the St. Louis area near Principia School when camp was not operating. The site featured a stone house built in 1818 on 8-acres that adjoined Queeny Park. It was bought during a high inflation period when interest rates could not he secured for more than 6 months and they had jumped to 20%. We were spending unsustainable funds to own that high maintenance property and the anticipated enrollment was big on some days and very small on most other days. To make a long and detailed story shorter, our Board prayed with several ideas and adaptations to make this program and property sustainable in keeping with Mary Baker Eddy’s guidance in the Church Manual: “God’s Requirement. Sect. 5. God requires wisdom, economy, and brotherly love to characterize all the proceedings of the members of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist.” (Church Manual 77:18)
As we prayed about the idea of selling the property, my mom who was then serving as Executive Director Emeritus, suggested that, like Gideon, we ask God for signs of this being a right idea. We did ask for “signs” – and God sent two quickly. First was a clear one right away that St. Louis County had favorably considered our application for this amazing Thomas Mason House to become an Historic Landmark so that developers wouldn’t tear it down; and the second sign was that my sister, her husband and their young daughter planned to move to St. Louis, knew of the house, were very interested in bidding on it and restoring its historic features. We did put out a sign and they won a bidding war that keep the Thomas Mason House in the CedarS family, so to speak, and the rest, including its preservation, is history.
In hindsight, after CedarS Board sold the house and land we had the financial wherewithal to “love into view” not just one, but two, unique, game-changing camp resources— first, our 30-acre Crown Lake in the shape of a crown positioned just right on our cross-shaped, 1,000 acres; and, second, a fun, over-300-foot-long waterslide to get from our Aquatic Center to our new Crown Lake. Both have blessed thousands and thousands of kids of all ages from every state in the U.S. and from over 25 other countries in the 32+ years since we sold CHEER House and they were built.
We now clearly “see the past through wisdom’s eyes, as a blessing in disguise” as Desiree Goyette wrote and sings in her solo “Let it Go.” Confidently holding out to see God’s blessing, always gives you the “grace to go forward wherever he guide thee, gladly obeying the call of his word” (from Hymn 278:2 – which was not only CedarS 2021 metaphysical theme, but also that of The Mother Church and Principia.)
A Bible-based comfort that gave us the grace, strength and courage in advance to sell the house was thinking of the conversation between Jacob and the angel he was wrestling with. Jacob’s condition for letting the angel go became ours for letting the property go: “And he (the angel) said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he (Jacob) said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. … And he (the angel) said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.” (Gen. 32:26, 28)
MINE JESUS’ SERMON ON THE MOUNT GEMS! FIND SURE DEFENSE WHEN HATED & PERSECUTED IN YOUR DIRECT RELATION TO GOD AND IN LOVING YOUR ENEMIES — Cobbey Crisler on Matthew 7:12 (cit. B8) & Matt. 5:44-45 (citation B9)
[Cobbey Crisler on] (Matthew 7:12, cit. B8).
“The golden rule. A rule that has been the basis of almost every religion.”
(Matt. 5:44, cit. B9). “I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that that hate you.” Is Jesus just saying everyone should be helpless in the face of opposition? Or is he saying, this is your defense in opposition, and will solve the problem at hand?
(Verse 45). He says that “state of mind directly relates you and me to our Father.”
“Book of Matthew, Auditing the Master, A Tax-Collector’s Report”, by B. Cobbey Crisler**
Here’s an EXAMPLE of HOW to APPLY these TIPS from JESUS IF YOU ARE BULLIED OR IF YOUR LOVE MEETS “NO RESPONSE.” REMAIN LOVING LIKE JESUS DID IN GETHSEMANE (SH 586:23). FIND COMFORT KNOWING that “… to them who love GOD… ALL things work together for good…”— even when it doesn’t look it. (Rom 8:28)
[An A.P. (Answered Prayer) History application idea from Warren Huff:]
Have you ever been bullied or treated unfairly?
I was. And, I found great, healing inspiration in Jesus’ example in Gethsemane and on the cross. Here are ideas that helped me overcome inharmony and unjust bullying in my first workplace (other than CedarS) by using Jesus’ example and Mary Baker Eddy’s spiritual definition for Gethsemane as found in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. It reads in part: “love meeting no response, but still remaining love.” (SH 586:23-25)
My situation was that the owner of TEAM One Architects in Kansas City who hired me for my first job after graduating from Princeton University, made a big deal of my Ivy League education and athletics – which caused a good bit of jealousy and hostility from my immediate job supervisor. Not only did he assign me all the least meaningful and most tedious jobs to do, but he also took aggressive actions to make my work look bad before our mutual employer. (In days before CAD (Computer Assisted Drafting) this took form first in his smeared my pencil lettering and later in poking a hole with a drafting triangle in what I’d been working on all day.)
I tried not to react, but rather respond with love and prayer. On my drive home after his most aggressive attack, I started to really pray the “Daily Prayer” — line by line, idea by idea. (Church Manual 41) When I got to the part which reads “rule out of ME all sin,” I realized that although the healing seemed to be needed in another, the solution to this and to every problem really needed to take place in me, in my consciousness and in my loving response.
I naturally looked to Jesus –our supreme role model. After all, Jesus had overcome hatred, injustice and persecution in their harshest forms. In the Garden of Gethsemane, when he’d been captured and was being led away to be unjustly tried, whipped, tortured and crucified, I recalled his example of healing the cut-off ear of one who was leading him away to this awful experience. When I got home I looked up the spiritual definition of “Gethsemane” in the Glossary chapter of “… the Key to the Scriptures.” The application idea in this definition that stood out to me to use in my situation was “love meeting no response, but still remaining love.” (SH 586:23-25/cit. S12)
I determined to follow Jesus’ example and be loving no matter the response. The next day started out no differently, except that during a work break, my persecutor realized and said out loud that it was his wedding anniversary and that not only did he have no card or gift, but also that he’d left his car at the repair shop with his wallet inside it by mistake. This meant that he had no way to shop for anything during the upcoming lunch hour. Because of my prayers and desire to remain loving and to bless even my so-called my enemies, I quickly said, “Here are the keys to my Opel GT, Joe, and I’m happy to loan you money to buy whatever is needed.”
From then on, we became best of friends, both in and out of the office. We waterskied often behind his boat and played Frisbee or racquetball almost daily in the park, discussed Science & Health and its Biblical, Christian principles, went together to Christian Science lectures… What cannot love do, for “Love never fails!” (1st Corinthians 13:8/Golden Text)
Take a minute to pray about how you intend to use love to heal any and all inharmony in your workplace, in your home, as well as in our country and world. Don’t hesitate to give past challenges your best “retroactive treatments” to release all involved from a past, present or future of wrongdoing. Instead, see them and yourself as always loving and naturally eager to bless. Try pledging to have – as your own mind-set – that mind of Christ that keeps the following Beatitudes daily.
Determine to Be free from pride (“poor in spirit” per Larry Groce’s CedarS Beatitude song):
Decide to Be quick to forgive (“merciful” per Larry Groce’s CedarS Beatitude song):
Choose to Win without a fight (a “peace maker” per Larry’s CedarS Beatitude song):…
STOP TRYING TO JUST TWEEZE THE DIRT FROM A GLASS OF WATER, OR THE SIN FROM THOUGHT. “THE WAY TO EXTRACT ERROR FROM MORTAL MIND IS TO POUR IN TRUTH WITH FLOOD-TIDES OF LOVE.” (SH 201:17-18, cit. S15)
[Warren:] I’ll always remember how effectively CedarS Met writer, Christie Hanzlik, CS, illustrated pouring “in truth with flood-tides of Love” for groups at CedarS. Her video had her sitting at a picnic table with a muddy glass of water and pair of tweezers showing how impossible it was humanly to purify the water that way. Then, without missing a beat, she raised up a fully running hose that quickly washed all the impurities away!
Another friend, Reid Charlston, Director of Camp Owatonna, added more great insights into Mary Baker Eddy’s use of this “flood-tides of Love” analogy.
Flood Tides of Love
Written by Reid Charlston, Friend and Director of Camp Owatonna
“In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy says, “The way to extract error from mortal mind is to pour in truth through flood-tides of Love” (201:17). Many people who do not live near the ocean, and especially the northeastern coastline of the United States, are not very familiar with tides. As a long-time sea kayaker who has taken and led many trips along the Maine coast, I want to share a little more about these tides to help explain this metaphor a bit more.
“The tides on the ocean are caused by the gravitational pull of the moon as it orbits the earth. The tide changes every six hours and thirteen minutes from high to low and back, which means you can predict it accurately to the minute for every day into the future and back into the past. When the moon is on one side of the earth it both pulls the water on that side towards itself and it pulls the earth itself towards itself and away from the water on the other side of the earth. This means that high tide will always be experienced on the side of the earth the moon is on and the opposite side at the same time. Low tide will be on the other two sides, and the shift between the two causes the rising and falling of the tides.
https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/geophysics/tide-cause.htm
“From what I have been told, this tidal pull affects every body of water on earth, even a glass of water on your desk, but it is only visible when there is a large amount of water moving over huge amount of space. Thus we really can only see the moon’s gravitational effect on the oceans, and nowhere is that effect more prominent than the coastline of the Atlantic ocean from New England up into Canada.
“So, what is a flood tide? When the tide is going out (being pulled to the other side of the earth) we call that an ebb tide. When all that water comes rushing back, we call it a flood tide. The greatest example of this tidal swing is in the Bay of Fundy in Canada where the tidal range is 56 feet between low and high tide. Go to these web addresses to see some great time lapses of the water coming in and out of the Bay of Fundy. One video I watched said that at least 100 billion tons of sea water comes in and out of the Bay of Fundy each day.
https://youtu.be/_x9nbW0HW8c (great explanation of how tides work)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3LtEF9WPt4 (short time lapse)
https://youtu.be/6Rl4-vJ8Unw (another great short one)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OObk9ZPcGfo (longer video of the area with some great perspective of how much water comes in and out…
“While I’ve never heard that Mrs. Eddy got to experience the tides at the Bay of Fundy, she more than likely got to witness the shifting tides off the coast of her native state of New Hampshire, possibly too in Massachusetts and Maine, both places we know she visited. So, this concept of flooding and ebbing tides was a natural one for her to use as a metaphor in this sentence.
“As I have read this passage I have always been struck by just how much love she is implying we need to pour in to extract error. It is no trivial amount, but rather a surge of the absolute maximum amount of love that we can possibly give – an amount we know is unlimited as we can only express God’s love which is infinite.”
Written by Reid Charlston, Friend and Director of Camp Owatonna
OBEY CHRIST’S COMMANDS AND BE WHOLE!
Cobbey Crisler on the withered hand healing in Mark 3:1-5 (B12)
“In Mark 3, Verse 1, we have a renewed definition for church where another healing occurs in the church context, namely, ‘the man that had the withered hand.’… According to an earlier, largely lost gospel called the Gospel of Hebrews, we find this man saying to Jesus, “I was a mason seeking a livelihood with my hands. I pray thee, Jesus, to restore me my health that I may not beg meanly for my food.’ According to Luke 6:6, it was his right hand. As a mason, you could not really pursue your craft. If that is an authentic recollection, it just adds a little more enrichment to our comprehension of the story. Again, it’s the Sabbath and we find that prayer is a church activity. It would be hard to find someone that would disagree with that no matter what denomination one belongs to. Healing would have to take place, because prayer is no idle exercise without results. Healing follows prayer…
Verse 3. Jesus stops the order of service again. He says to the man with the withered hand, ‘Stand forth.’ Would that electrify most congregational worship today? ‘Stand forth.’ Everything stops. The priority is here.
Verse 4. Then he asks the question, ‘Is it lawful,’ is it a church rule, ‘to do good on the Sabbath days, or to do evil?’ Notice his definition of ‘doing-good’ here. He must not remain on the surface. Doing-good for Jesus would be what? Healing the man. Doing-evil would be what? Not healing the man. He regarded not-healing as evil. The normality of the spiritual function of healing is underscored here…
Verse 5. Then he says, ‘Stretch forth thine hand.’ Why didn’t he go and stretch it forth for him? Again, the consistency of having dominion. Dominion doesn’t exercise you, does it? You exercise it… ‘Stretch forth thine hand and it was restored whole.’”
“What Mark Recorded,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
This stonemason no doubt could earn a living again using his hands.
BONUS: Click this link to see on YouTube video how Jesus healing the man with the withered hand is shared on “The Chosen.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWoTGzlefq8
Cobbey Crisler on Mark 3.1-5 (cit. B12): dominion method works from his “Heal the Sick”
“Chapter 3 of Mark, Verse 1, the man with the withered hand. It’s on the sabbath day again. Jesus hadn’t checked his calendar. Here it is in the middle of a service, the man with the withered hand. [Verse 2:] they’re watching Jesus, almost like they hope he will break the sabbath rule, so they could accuse him of something.
Notice how he takes this early church-service-to-be. [Verse 3:] “He says,” right in the middle of the service, in the middle of the synagogue, “to the man with the withered hand, Stand forth.”
So, he’s going to make an issue out of it. Then, he turns to those around. Notice, again, this is not an immediate healing. He deals with the environment. [Verse 4:] “He says, Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath days, or to do evil?” How about that being the basic law for what we do and where? If it’s good, it’s according to the law. If it’s evil, it isn’t, regardless of what man has legislated to the contrary. “They didn’t answer him.”
[Verse 5:] It says, “he looked round about on them with anger.” Only Mark used those things with reference to Jesus. And “being grieved for the hardness of their hearts,” the blindness of what? Of ecclesiasticism. “He says to the man, Stretch forth thine hand.” Did he go up to that man and say, [Speaker made sound of physically straightening out the man’s hand] Did he do it himself, “Let me help you,” even though it was bent perpendicularly to his arm probably?
He says to that man to do what? “You do it.” Notice what his support of that man’s ability to do resulted in. Suppose Jesus had gone up and done that to him, performed a surgical operation, in a sense, on that man’s arm? It would have been depending on person and not God. [Live recording voice: not clear] That’s right. Look at the great impersonal freedom, plus the dignity of the man in participating in his own healing. Is it dominion if someone else does it for you? It’s not your dominion. It’s someone else’s. Jesus told him to stretch forth his hand, the very thing he thought he couldn’t do. He does, “restored whole as the other.”
We’re just sitting here as neophytes in the twentieth century reading the account of a method which worked. If we are laboratory scientists at all, or oriented in that direction in our century, which we certainly should be in our technological age, the least we should do is to be willing to study the method and see if it works.”
“’Heal the Sick’: A Scriptural Record,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
Click here to hear a correlative healing that is amazing and well worth listening to and sharing as widely as possible. [Or click this sharable link https://sentinel.christianscience.com/shared/view/dp5lm7ioj6?s=copylink ] to hear all about an undisputable Christian Science healing of a workman crushed under a huge, falling tree who was very quickly back on the job. It was first given at a testimony meeting in our Creve Coeur, MO church by Doug Jenkins (husband of CedarS regular Met’s contributor, Kerry Jenkins)]
Here’s the title & intro for this JULY 11, 2022 SENTINEL WATCH interview by Jenny Sawyer
“Crushed by a tree on Thursday—back to work next Wednesday”
With Doug Jenkins
“One day when working alone, professional logger Doug Jenkins faced a life-threatening situation. He recently spoke to host Jenny Sawyer about how God can turn even the most dire circumstances around.”
DO GOD’S WILL TO GAIN JESUS IN YOUR FAMILY!
Cobbey Crisler on Matt. 12:46-50, similar to Mark 3:31-35, citation B16
[Cobbey on] (Matt. 12, Verse 46). An unusual incident where Jesus “is talking to the people and his mother and his brothers stand outside wanting to speak to him.”
(Verse 47). “And someone delivers the message.”
(Verse 48). “And Jesus said, Who is my mother? and who are my brethren?” Notice his family ties extended universally.
(Verse 49). “He stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren!” In other words, are we relatives of Jesus?
Verse 50 is the definition, “Whosoever shall do the will of my Father, the same is related to me.” Doing God’s will makes us relatives of Jesus.”
[According to Warren’s marginal notes Cobbey said also about this: “It’s neat to have someone like Jesus in the family—and we do! Jesus’ family includes those who live alone, not just those with blood ties or those living nearby or in his day.”]
“Book of Matthew, Auditing the Master, A Tax-Collectors Report,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
CHRIST BREAKS any CONVENTIONS that’s NOT OF God & REWARDS LOVE with FORGIVENESS, HEALING, ONENESS…
Cobbey on Luke 7:36-48 (cit. B18) & Jesus sensing repentant humility in the woman who washed his feet
[To open her Science & Health chapter on “Christian Science Practice,” Mary Baker Eddy chose to highlight this woman’s meek mindset of “genuine repentance … and affection” as a worthy role model. (cits. S24, S26, S27, pages 363-367)]
[Cobbey Crisler:] “In Verse 36 of (Luke’s Chapter 7, we have the incident of a woman coming into the Pharisee’s house where Jesus had been invited for a meal. We’re told in Verse 37), “the woman was a sinner.” In no case is this woman Biblically identified with Mary Magdalene. Very early tradition began to call her Mary Magdalene because of thinking that’s what it might have meant when it described Mary Magdalene as one out of whom Jesus had cast seven devils. Who could get worse than seven devils?
“It was just simply moved over into this context. There is nothing Biblical that ever identifies Mary Magdalene’s name with it, however. It’s an early tradition but there is no Biblical authority for it.
Again, if Jesus is interested in a state of mind, let’s study it from that angle. In fact, if we studied all the gospels from the state of mind that is presented, and that Jesus said we should change to, then, it would be like an entirely different Bible to us.
“Here this woman comes right in. In that day and age, one would eat at a table on a reclining couch supporting your head with one hand resting on your elbow. Your feet would be away from the table so that your attention would not be there. The woman could very easily have slipped in unnoticed and begun “to wash Jesus’ feet with the tears” that were pouring from her eyes, and “wiping his feet with the hair of her head” (Verse 38). If you remember what a dusty land that is, and that shoes were open sandals, one might get a little bit more of an idea what this woman had undertaken without regard for the effect on her hair among other things.
There was a deep feeling motivating this, there’s no question about it. The Pharisee had forgotten some of the elementary hospitalities that have been passed right down to our century.
“He hadn’t provided water for his guest. Jesus pointed that out later. While the Pharisee was blaming this woman for intruding on his dinner party, this woman had introduced some things that Simon himself had failed to do. We know his name is Simon.
If he happens to be the same Simon who is at a home in Bethany, according to one of the other gospels, he
had been a leper, or perhaps one that Jesus had cured.
And if that’s true, imagine someone who should have been filled with gratitude. That’s a state of breathing
in a Holy-Ghost-form of thinking, yet having an attitude against this particular woman and her needs.
“Simon isn’t very good at reading thoughts. In fact, he says, “This man, if he were a prophet, should have known who this woman is” (Verse 29). Indeed, Jesus did know. Simon hadn’t really read Jesus’ thought at all but Jesus certainly had read his. Simon “spoke within himself,” it says. He didn’t say a thing out loud.
And in Verse 40, “Jesus said, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee. And he saith, “Master, say on.” There’s a sort of poetry to it.
“The interesting result of this parable is that the parable doesn’t really speak to where the woman is mentally. The woman is beyond the minimal requirements of the parable. In this parable Jesus told Simon that the one who had owed the most, and was forgiven the most, would then love the most. Love after the fact of forgiveness.
“This woman is well beyond that and Jesus knows it. This woman has loved even before the concept of forgiveness has come up, this woman has shown a deep confrontation with herself and where she has been mentally. She is simply expressing it in the presence of someone whom she feels could comfort and meet her needs. Just sensing that the environment in which Jesus moved would help her.
“This woman was part of a despised profession. The ceremonial purity and public professions of piety of the Pharisees would necessitate a great show of contrast between those states of mind. The surprising thing is, Jesus is going to find that the state of mind of the woman is more receptive and filled with love, hospitality
and repentance than the Pharisee who seems to fill the category of one of those that we’d heard was already full, with no more room in Simon’s thought.
“In Verse 48, Jesus speaks to the woman for the first time. Imagine addressing a woman, especially in a Pharisee’s house, where this woman clearly didn’t belong. (At that time, the most devout rabbis and strict constructionists wouldn’t dare to speak, even to their women relatives, if they met them on the street.)
“Jesus is breaking all convention.
Apparently, he doesn’t think that God is behind that convention. He says, “Your sins are forgiven,” addressing the woman directly. Up to now, she’s just regarded as an object, an object of scorn, derision, repulsion and a sex object. A mere “thing”.
“Jesus addressed her through his lenses that magnified for him the sense of God’s manhood and womanhood, “Your sins are forgiven,” he said. Immediately that set a mental buzz around the table. They said in Verse 49, “within themselves,
“Who is this that forgiveth sins also? “Jesus unperturbed, still addressed the woman,
“Your faith hath saved thee.”
Why does Jesus make such a great effort for the woman to comprehend that a change in her mental state has even overcome sin? It can be done because it is implicit in the word “dominion.” If we’re stuck with our mistakes, there’s no way out. If we can solve our problems, then Jesus would have to indicate such as a matter of encouragement to humanity. “Your faith hath saved you.” Your mental state filled with something that has come directly from the Holy Ghost. Faith is a state of mind. “Go in peace.”
Imagine how she came, with very little peace in thought. She left with her mental state changed, and one is left also with the thought that her entire life must have changed as a result.”
“Luke the Researcher,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
HERE’S DAILY, HEART-HEALTHY NUTRIMENT THAT YOU CAN’T OVEREAT!
[Christie Hanzlik, CS, from her June 14, 2020 Met on “God the Preserver of Man” Section 2:]
“… Mary Baker Eddy even offers a nutritional guide…our right nutrition is “peace, patience in tribulation, and a priceless sense of the dear Father’s loving-kindness.” (citation S27 this week, 365:31) I could eat a whole buffet of that meal every day of the year!”
[Warren proposed memory aid: note that’s 365 days a year from page 365]
Verse 13 of 1st Corinthian chapter 13 (citation B20) begins Section 7 where this Bible Lesson on “Love” began in the Golden Text and Responsive Reading
Click here to listen to The Greatest Thing In The World, by Henry Drummond
What is the greatest thing in the world? Find out as you listen to Henry Drummond’s famous treatise of the love chapter – 1 Corinthians 13 – edited and narrated by Dr. Batsell Barrett Baxter. At https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEH_x4DCaVY
