Click here to print PDF version
6 PYCLs: 1) JUICE-POURING EXPERIMENT. 2) COMPARE JOHN 1 TO GENESIS 1. 3) GOD’S REQUIREMENTS AS SIMPLE, NOT ALWAYS EASY. 4) JESUS’ HEALING & A TREATMENT 5) FLASHLIGHTS SHOW EVIL AS NEGATION. 6) HYMN 457
Possible Younger Class Lesson ideas for the Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson on
“UNREALITY”
for Sunday, October 2, 2022
by Kerry Jenkins, CS, of House Springs, MO
kerry.helen.jenkins@gmail.com • 314-406-0041
PYCL #1: EXPERIMENT WITH POURING FROM A BOTTLE OF JUICE…
I know we do this often, but I never know who is new to these ideas so I offer certain PYCLs for new subscribers!
Bring a jar of juice or an unopened box of crackers or something that’s clearly labeled. Bring cups (if having juice) so you can pour it out to show that 100% apple juice, for example, cannot be part grape juice, all it has in it is apple juice! (You may want to get something labeled “100%” apple juice so there are no added ingredients for the sake of this example.)
Now have some fun sharing the drink and talking about how God is all good. There is no evil part of God’s goodness and government. We can be sure that if we are bearing witness to something evil, then we are seeing it with our material senses and we can turn to God’s light and intelligence to have the reality of goodness brought into our sight.
Read the Responsive Reading from James about a spring sending out salt and “sweet” water in the same place and discuss this impossibility. (James 3:11-13) In our part of the world it is apple season. You could inquire as to whether they have been apple picking this fall and if so did they harvest lots of strawberries off the trees? Maybe they were able to pick some pinecones off their blueberry bushes this summer?
Another angle on this concept of 100% goodness is found in citation S18/339:7-10 where Mary Baker Eddy describes God’s allness. “Since God is All, there is no room for His unlikeness.” In this way we can think about the all-apple juice. You could also bring in a very full container of something like sand. Can we fit anything else into it? No! it is already full. And likewise, we can keep our thought filled with Good—with God, and there will be no room for error.
PYCL #2: COMPARE JOHN 1:1-3/CITATION B1 TO THE GENESIS 1 CREATION.
How does this John 1 passage compare to Genesis 1? What is the “Word”?
Come up with your own definition together. Might it include “Truth”?
Can Truth have a little bit of a lie in it?
Does Truth mix even just a tiny bit with error?
Is there such a thing as a partial lie? Or does any part of a lie make something a whole lie?
If you put a little bit of grape juice in your apple juice is it 100% apple anymore?
Does the Word speak to each of us? Can we all understand it?
Check out citation S1/525:17-24 in parallel with citation B1/John 1:1.
Did God/Truth create error, sickness, sin, evil?
Is it possible for something that is 100% good to create something that does not do, or dwell in, goodness?
Can something that is 100% good even conceive of something that isn’t good?
PYCL #3: WHAT ARE GOD’S REQUIREMENTS OF US?
I love citation B8/Micah 6:8 for memorization: “He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?”
Try it from this translation: “The Lord has told you what is good. He has told you what He wants from you: Do what is right to other people. Love being kind to others. And live humbly, trusting your God.” (International Children’s Bible)
And this translation from the Amplified Bible “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you except to be just, and to love [and to diligently practice] kindness (compassion), and to walk humbly with your God [setting aside any overblown sense of importance or self-righteousness]?”
These directives are so clear and so simple, though not always easy!
Discuss ways we can fulfill these requirements. With the younger ones you can give them each a note card with ideas following the quote…well, even with the older ones, though they can write them for themselves.
PYCL #4: TELL the LUKE 5:18 STORY (cit. B13) & SHARE a TREATMENT from cit. S16/412:23
After sharing the story of Jesus healing the palsied man who is lowered by his friends through a hole they made by removing tiles from a rooftop, you can share thoughts together on his friends’ persistence in getting this man in front of Jesus. See in this week’s Application GEMs more insights from Cobbey Crisler and a link to a related Ken Cooper poem written from the eye-witness view of the friends.
You can discuss this story in relation to citations S10/30:19-21 and S11/352:8.
What are Pharisaical or scribe-like rules that we have today?
How are we proscribing healing and “deserving” today by humanly limited “laws” that tell us that God is not all-powerful, or man is not “deserving”?
How do we regard the things of Spirit?
Are they tangible & real to us, or are they the things that are intangible & uncertain, and matter seems the opposite?
If the latter is the case, is there a way to make the things of the Spirit more tangible to us on a daily basis?
Now check out citation S16/412:23 for a short and powerful treatment:
First, “mentally insist that harmony is the fact—sickness is the lie/dream/unreality.” “Realize (what does that mean? —does it have the word “real” in it?) the presence of health and the fact of harmonious being…” Even when it doesn’t seem like it’s there.
Talk about how when we have a nightmare, we sometimes pant, like we are running, yell, feel tense and scared, all while asleep. Is it possible that our waking dreams of inharmony are similarly unreal to those nightmares?
Notice that harmony and health are the “normal conditions” that we are uncovering (not creating— the creating already happened with God!).
Memorize this passage as a treatment to give ourselves when we are needing to meet a challenge.
PYCL #5: USE FLASHLIGHTS & SOME KIND of DARK SPACE to ILLUSTRATE EVIL as a “NEGATION”.
Maybe you could use a box that you simply open to expose the inside to the light?
The point is to make a thing of the fact that the darkness always disappears when exposed to light.
You can make a deal of looking for the darkness with smaller children. “Hey, where did the dark go?
Did you put it in your pocket? Do you think it ran next door?”
Compare this with citation B9/186:11 Where she tells us that “Evil is a negation, because it is the absence of truth. It is nothing, because it is the absence of something….” etc. What does that mean? Isn’t that a little like how darkness is not a “thing”, but the “absence of light”?
Darkness isn’t an “entity” that runs around combatting light. Light simply eliminates it!
PYCL #6: LEARN HYMN 457.
This is such a pretty hymn.
If you have younger children who are willing to sing, you could learn a verse of this hymn and the refrain with them.
Have a great week in Sunday School!
