5 PYCLs: 1) BRING PLAY MONEY & TALK ABOUT COUNTERFEITS… 2) BRING HANDHELD MIRRORS… 3) FIND THE KINGDOM NOT DEPENDENT ON PLACE… 4) ILLUSTRATE LIFE WITH A HULA HOOP 5) PLAY a LISTENING GAME…
Possible Younger Class Lesson ideas for the Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson on
“ADAM AND FALLEN MAN”
for Sunday, November 7, 2021
by Kerry Jenkins, CS, of House Springs, MO
kerry.helen.jenkins@gmail.com • 314-406-0041
Pycl #1: BRING PLAY MONEY & TALK ABOUT COUNTERFEITS. KNOW the REAL to QUICKLY SPOT FAKES.
Tell the two creation stories from Genesis back to back. Ask the children what they think. Why are there two stories? What does the 2nd Genesis story explain that the first one does not?
Is it important to explain evil, the “origins” of it?
Would evil/temptation start with a God who is all good and all powerful?
I think we are then left with the perennial question, “why does evil seem real?”
This is a question where we can bring in play money and talk about counterfeits.
Probably your play money doesn’t look much like the original, but you can explain that a “good” counterfeit can fool people. There are ways to tell, things to look for, pens that reveal a counterfeit. How can we spot a counterfeit, a lie, about ourselves or others? (one thing I have heard about people whose job it is to recognize counterfeit, is that they have spent more time looking at the real thing, so that the false stands out. This is a great image for what we are doing in Christian Science healing!) Often truth is best “spotted” by healing! When something is healed, it goes against the material picture and gives us proof of what is true.
The thing about counterfeits is that they are designed to fool us into thinking they are true. A supposed “puddle” in the road on a hot summer’s day, turns out to have been pure illusion when you arrive at the place where you think you saw it. But for all the world it looked real!
When we feel ill, it is tempting to accept that illness, discomfort and pain are the truth about our being, when, in fact, healing proves otherwise. With older children you may need to engage this discussion further. Why don’t we have a healing every time we feel ill? Ask the question, do we sincerely pray to love God more deeply every time we feel like we are presented with the counterfeit?
Do we sometimes yield to the feeling and just want to curl up in bed? Honest engagement here is important, and it is also important not to leave anyone feeling like it is a question of “fault”, that is, feeling as if we can “do it wrong” and that’s why we weren’t healed. We are not in this to prove anything, we are here to glory in and love God, to see God around us in all that we do. Doing that, we cannot help but find ourselves reflecting that joy, energy, harmony and life. Look together at citation S22/14:12-18 and talk about what it means to “become conscious for a single moment…”.
Pycl #2: BRING SOME HANDHELD MIRRORS. TALK ABOUT REFLECTION, IMAGE, AND LIKENESS.
What do we look to in order to see an accurate likeness of ourselves?
Do we check out what someone thinks or says about us?
Do we compare ourselves to celebrities, or social media portrayals of people our age?
Do we trust the mirror on a day when we are not looking/feeling our best?
What “mirror” is the most accurate?
What does it say in the 1st Genesis account of creation?
Can our reflection in the mirror we are holding do something different than we are doing?
Can it reflect, say, a different hair color than what we have?
You can share or reword citation S17/200:16 which addresses the fact that we, as reflection or image, cannot be “inverted or subverted”. Discuss the meaning of these terms.
Pycl #3: FIND THE KINGDOM WITHIN THAT’S NOT DEPENDENT ON PLACE AT ALL, BUT ON THOUGHT!
What is the difference between the kingdom of God within that Jesus tells us about, and the paradise that is mentioned in the 2nd chapter of Genesis? Isn’t one of them quite material in its description, full of fruits, etc.? And the kingdom within that Jesus mentions is not described in human terms. But we can assume, it is a place of harmony (health), peace, joy, love, intelligence, satisfaction, and so on. These are qualities of consciousness, rather than physical “setting”. Look together at citation S19/171:4, which tells us that we can discern this holy space by looking straight to God/Truth to discern it. It is the “spiritual opposite of materiality”. This kingdom isn’t dependent on place at all, but on thought!
We are never shut out of peace, health, joy. It is “human beliefs” that have seemingly closed the “gates of paradise”. What are these beliefs (or counterfeits!)? Maybe make a list of these beliefs, and then ask “what are the facts that counter them?” The belief might be: I don’t have many friends, I’m not smart enough/pretty enough/funny enough/athletic enough, etc. The counterfacts as opposed to counterfeits might look like this: I reflect the full complement of intelligence because I reflect infinite Mind. I am athletic because Life is expressed as energy, grace, agility, and skill. I can only possess the beauty of Soul which is felt within me, expressed as loveliness without, and cannot be missed by me or anyone else.
Pycl #4: ILLUSTRATE WITH A HULA HOOP THE “BEGINNING-LESSNESS” OF MAN, OF LIFE, OF BEING…
I love the visual image of a circle without beginning or end to illustrate the “beginning-lessness” of man, of life, of being. John Q. Adams, who used to be a member of the Christian Science Board of lectureship, used a Hula Hoop to illustrate this idea. He would set it in the top of a bucket where only a portion of the hoop would be submerged in the bucket. He would illustrate the idea of infinite life by showing that the little piece of the hoop that dips into the bucket is like what we perceive as our human life: it begins when it starts into the bucket and ends when it rises out of the bucket. What we don’t see in that “bucket” experience, is the continuous nature of life as it keeps on going, the largest portion completely outside that bucket that represents our limited understanding of life. This is a helpful way to illustrate the idea that there is no beginning at all, any more than an ending.
We tend to think of life as beginning and ending, when Life is not actually confined to time at all. If Life is more like that beginning-less circle, then there can only be divine heredity, only one source of life/Life! Where do we “fall” on that circle? Are we “after” our parents? (In other words, do we inherit good and bad from our parents?) Or, is there no “order”, no linear timeline at all?! I think this is what they are pointing to in the Bible lesson this week by that little sentence in citation S9/555:17: “Adam was created before Eve.”. In material “creation”, there is a material source, in this case it is first dust for the Adam man, then Adam’s rib, then the Eve woman… But in the true, spiritual understanding of creation, there is only being that reflects God. This being is always!
Pycl #5: PLAY THE TALKING SERPENT LISTENING GAME…
Play a little game that helps us discern when we are listening to the second Genesis story about ourselves and when we are listening to God. Section 3 has excerpts from Genesis chapter 3.
These excerpts tell us that error is tricky, subtle.
They tell us that creation is incomplete—man perceives the need for the forbidden fruit.
They tell us that we cannot accept responsibility for our mistakes, i.e. we should blame.
They tell us that we should feel shame, that God would forever punish us for a mistake.
What are the antidotes to these claims?
Error cannot fool us when we are alert, focused on God’s goodness, when we don’t let human will rule the day.
Listen to the truth about you and all mankind that we are not incomplete, lonely, needy mortals, but we have all the joy, companionship, completeness of Love, at all times, and so on…
On top of all of this, we can ask the children if there is any such thing as a talking serpent?
Have a great week in Sunday School!
