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“God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.”
Metaphysical Application Ideas for The Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson on
“DOCTRINE OF ATONEMENT“
for October 9 through October 15, 2023
Join Desiree TONIGHT (10/8) @ 6:45PM for CedarS Hymn Sing!
(see PS BELOW for details)
Met by Angela Sage Larsen, C.S., Osage Beach, MO
angelasagelarsen@gmail.com (707) 540-3053
The title of this Met comes from citation 18 in the Bible, Acts 3:26:
“God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you,
in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.”
INTRODUCTION
The phrase “doctrine of atonement” can seem a little cold and clinical until we understand the meaning of the words; once we are clear on the definitions, they are warm and fuzzy, even comforting…and “nourishing” as this week’s Golden Text says.
“Doctrine” in Greek means “applied teaching; Christian (teaching) as it especially extends to its necessary lifestyle (applications)” (HELPS Word-studies as found on Biblehub.com)
At CedarS this past year, my husband and I learned how to play pickleball; with every new aspect we learned, we couldn’t wait to try it on court. When you learn something new, you can’t wait to apply it! How much more than pickleball do we love to learn something “Christian”—something about man’s indestructible relationship to God called sonship or Christ, and then live it? Nothing is more joyous and fulfilling, as we can see from this Bible Lesson Sermon.
“Atonement” can be broken down as “at-one-ment,” of course. One of Mary Baker Eddy’s students and close family friends once explained that “atonement” is a “collective challenge to the destruction of original sin” pointing to the fact that at-one-ment includes not only our unity with God—our source, divine Love—but also our unity with each other. The concept of “sacrament” (another Bible Lesson subject) has to do with our individual salvation (we learned last week that salvation is “Life, Truth, and Love understood and demonstrated as supreme over all; sin, sickness, and death destroyed” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, p. 593). Both sacrament and atonement are necessary to understanding and demonstrating Life, Truth, and Love as supreme over all and to the destruction of the lies of sin, sickness, and death—as laid out in the Adam-myth fable of Genesis chapters 2-4. Christ Jesus, “[t]he Son of the Virgin-mother unfolded the remedy for Adam, or error…” (SH 534:12–13 The (to ;))
Through Christ Jesus’ faithful example, hope-full healing works, and righteous teachings, we see and understand what would otherwise be invisible: spiritual sonship, including and especially our own spiritual sonship; our unbreakable relationship to our divine Father-Mother Source. In fact, our whole purpose in being is to be at-one with God, good; to reflect Him as He is.
The Teacher of the longest running Christian Science Pupils’ Association in history wrote, “The one rational reason for man to exist is to reflect the Life and Truth that is God. God contains and maintains man, immune from every supposition of material thought or mortal mind force. No meddlesome evil can be an influence in, or on, God’s reflection. Nothing can get at man except through God, with whom man is at one. Because God is All, there can be nothing to affect man but God. (“Protection in Reflection” by Paul Stark Seeley, from the January 1946 issue of The Christian Science Journal)
Citation 8 in Science and Health, p. 18:1-9, says: “Atonement is the exemplification of man’s unity with God, whereby man reflects divine Truth, Life, and Love. Jesus of Nazareth taught and demonstrated man’s oneness with the Father, and for this we owe him endless homage. His mission was both individual and collective. He did life’s work aright not only in justice to himself, but in mercy to mortals, — to show them how to do theirs, but not to do it for them nor to relieve them of a single responsibility.” (The marginal heading is “Divine oneness”). Look for how this paragraph plays out in the lesson with the ideas of:
- Salvation (divine Truth, Life, and Love [understood and demonstrated]);
- Jesus’ mission;
- “Collective”-ness (look for plural words like we; “ye”—or you all; mortals; men; all, etc);
- Justice and mercy;
- And, though not explicitly included in that paragraph, look for a continuation of last week’s themes of faith and hope (and their related qualities of understanding and fruition).
As you well know, these CedarS “Mets” are not to replace your study of these God-given Bible Lessons, but to inspire you to dig deeper for ways to apply them. “The intercommunication is always from God to His idea, man” (SH 284:31–32, emphasis added by yours truly). There is no intercessory prayer or Met! Because as this lesson points out, you are at-one with God and nothing can get—or needs to get—between you and your divine Source.
GOLDEN TEXT
The whole verse in the Golden Text reads, “If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained” (I Tim. 4:6).
It is an “if…then” statement; if you do this, then that will be the necessary effect. (Notice that the verse is in reference to helping the “brethren”…remember that atonement is collective.) I love the word “nourished”! In fact, it’s my “word of the year.” Instead of having resolutions, I choose (or rather, God gives me!) a word or phrase to cherish. This year it’s nourish.
The 1828 Webster’s Dictionary mentions I Timothy 4:6 in its definition of nourish, “To educate; to instruct; to promote growth in attainments. 1 Timothy 4:6,” and also has, “To feed and cause to grow; to supply a living or organized body…” Isn’t cool to think of a living or organized body as church, the collective atonement?
Here’s how it translates from the Greek in this verse. Nourished up: “Am educated in” (Strong’s); “Properly, in the state (condition) of being nourished, i.e. trained by ‘continuous instruction in the area of skill and practical knowledge’ …This happens by receiving God’s inworkings (gift) of faith which has lasting effects (note the prefix en, ‘in the state/condition of”’. (Entréphō) is only used in 1 Tim 4:6. See also pístis (‘the Lord’s inbirthed persuasion’)” (HELPS Word-studies as found on Biblehub.com).
Notice that word at the end there, pístis, is translated as faith and persuasion [as in, “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:38, 39).] So, it makes sense that as we “live a model of faith” for our “brethren,” we ourselves are nourished by that faith and doctrine, or “applied teaching.”
Don’t you love it when we start the Bible Lesson with a strong tie-in from the week before? This week, faith in the Golden Text does that for us.
RESPONSIVE READING
This verse from Philippians 1:27 is the perfect tie-in and lead-in to this week’s lesson: “…ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.” The King James Version of the Bible uses words like “thee” and “thou” and “ye” and they are helpful clues to understand who is being referenced. “Thee” and “Thou” are singular, referring to one person or one God; while “ye” is plural. So, in this case, Paul (and Timotheus) are writing to a group at Philippi, “the bishops and deacons” (see Phil. 1:1) and instructing them in “atonement,” with one mind striving together (“cooperating vigorously”) for the faith of the gospel (“God’s good news”).
The Responsive Reading introduces another theme, a key of atonement: réconciliation. Another big word that seems clinical and cold, that when understood gives us the warm fuzzies. The Webster’s 1828 online Dictionary has this tidy and perfectly relevant definition of reconciliation: “In Scripture, the means by which sinners are reconciled and brought into a state of favor with God, after natural estrangement or enmity; the atonement…”
“A state of favor with God” could also be a state of “grace.” Grace is unearned, even undeserved on our end, but it is God’s nature as divine Love that reconciles, “call[s] back into union and friendship the affections which have been alienated; …restore[s] to friendship or favor after estrangement…” (Webster’s 1828 online Dictionary) It’s one thing to feel loved by our parent/s when we are good children, it’s a whole other thing to feel loved when we know we’ve been naughty or realized we’ve made poor choices!
Only “…God is able to make all grace abound toward you…being enriched in every thing to all bountifulness , which causeth through us thanksgiving to God” (II Cor. 9:8, 11). Grammar enthusiasts! This is the lesson for you! Look for all the prepositions (I’ll put some of them in italics). A preposition “is a word (e.g., ‘at’) or phrase (e.g., ‘on top of’) used to show the relationship between the different parts of a sentence. Prepositions can be used to indicate aspects such as time, place, and direction” (Scribbr.com)
At-one-ment shows the relationship of God and man (individually and collectively).
SECTION 1
The second Bible citation has this beautiful verse that speaks to the heart of Jewish and Christian teachings, or doctrine: mercy and justice. Psalm 40:10 says, “I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not concealed thy lovingkindness [chesed] and thy truth [righteousness, justice] from the great congregation.”
The word translated into English as “lovingkindness” is a wonderful Hebrew word, chesed. Look for the English translation every week in our Bible Lessons, translated as “lovingkindness,” “compassion,” “kindness,” sometimes “favour,” and often, “mercy.” Bible commentators love this word chesed, too, explaining that it can mean steadfastness, beauty, and charm. The word is not sentimental, however, because it includes righteousness. Though God demands righteousness, or “right standing with him,” also translated as justice, His lovingkindness and mercy remain above all; in other words, even if we are disobedient, His lovingkindness is unconditional [Mary Baker Eddy says that justice is subservient to mercy, see SH 36:9]. So much so that commentators say that chesed most closely resembles the New Testament concept of grace: that is to say, the undeserved, unearned, favor of divine Love. That’s not to say that we are undeserving, but it is to say we don’t have to deserve it because it is God’s nature as Love to love.
Strong’s has the definition of grace (charis) as: “The divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in the life; including gratitude.”
In Psalm 40:10, the word translated as truth means “righteousness” and “justice.”
The only justice is loving; the only fairness is universal Love. This paragraph in Science and Health (304:9-14/cit. S3), then, though it is obviously about love (“mercy”), is also about justice: “divine Love cannot be deprived of its manifestation, or object; …joy cannot be turned into sorrow, for sorrow is not the master of joy; …good can never produce evil;…matter can never produce mind nor life result in death.” [“This is the doctrine (‘applied teaching’) of Christian Science”!]
Divine Love cannot be deprived of manifesting you! (What a great lesson! And more grammar!) “Object” is the part of speech that “receives the action [or verb]” (the subject does the action; God is “I” or the subject…God does the action; in the Responsive Reading: “he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it…” and “God is able to make all grace abound toward you”). So not only is divine Love manifesting you, but you also are the object of divine Love, receiving the action of divine Love’s being. I learned recently that “man” is short for “manifestation.” Talk about being at-one!
SECTION 2
If this Lesson were a big Thanksgiving spread, this section features the centerpiece on the table, the cornucopia; the paragraph on page 18 of Science and Health about atonement. (By the way, this is in the chapter “Atonement and Eucharist,” the perfect chapter to read this week along with your study of this lesson.) The paragraph includes this important phrase about Jesus of Nazareth: “his mission was both individual and collective. He did life’s work aright not only in justice to himself, but in mercy to mortals, — to show them how to do theirs…” The word mission has the root word meaning “sent”—“A sending or being sent, usually the latter; a being sent or delegated by authority, with certain powers for transacting business.” So, whenever you see in the Bible or Mary Baker Eddy’s writings the word “sent” you can think of “mission,” and vice versa. I like to think of the difference between being born [into matter] and being sent [from Spirit]. Jesus was not born, he was sent (see Gal. 4:4–7).
That centerpiece paragraph includes describing what Jesus’ mission was: to teach and demonstrate man’s oneness with the Father.
SECTION 3
A woman of Canaan came to Jesus on his travels and begged him to heal her daughter. She asked him to have mercy on her and identified him as “thou son of David,” a way of acknowledging that he was sent, i.e., the Messiah. Every time I read this story in Matthew 15:21-28, I’m caught off guard by Jesus’ response. First, he seems to ignore her, then he seems to dismiss her by saying he’s “sent” only to the “lost sheep of the house of Israel.” She continues to plead with him, making a great argument, then Jesus relents and says, “O woman, great is thy faith; be it unto thee even as thou wilt.” Matthew follows this with, “And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.”
It’s possible that the lesson for me in this story isn’t so much what I typically focus on, Jesus’ motives for rebuffing her, but on how she handled it. In great humility and faithfulness, she assured him that she understood that even the crumbs that dogs vacuum up after meals would be enough for her. This “great faith,” not self-righteousness or indignation, enabled her to “be it unto [her] even as she desired.”
Our at-one-ment requires humility and faithfulness on our part, like it did on her part.
SECTION 4
In this section is buried (haha, that’s tree humor and résurrection humor…if there is such a thing…there’s probably not) a tree analogy. What we see above ground called “tree” depends on the strength and health of the root system, which we don’t see. Paul says “That Christ [the unbreakable, invisible relationship of God and man] may dwell in your hearts by faith [not seen]; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend [see] with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height [the outward and upward expression, like a tree above ground]” (Ephesians 3:17, 18/cit. B14).
Christ Jesus’ power to heal and teach us about our oneness with God (hence, our power and strength) came from his sent-ness, his being “rooted and grounded in love.” That deep, invisible connection he had to man’s source divine Love was visible in the “leaves of the tree…for the healing of the nations” that Revelation talks about (see 22:2).
Because Jesus is our example and we must go and do likewise, “The scientific unity which exists between God and man must be wrought out in [OUR] life-practice, and God’s will must be universally done.” (cit. S19/202:3).
(Notice all the “collective” yumminess in this section!)
“We [collective] must prove our faith [invisible] by demonstration [visible]” (cit. S20/329:12).
With this idea of letting our “above ground” be a visible testament to the strength of our invisible roots, in other words, demonstration, you might appreciate this helpful article about demonstration and healing: “What’s the Demonstration?” by Barbara Vining from the November 2009 issue of The Christian Science Journal.
SECTION 5
I love how Jesus took away any power of his enemies to sacrifice him because he “gave himself a ransom for all…” (I Tim. 2:6/cit. B15). He not only willingly submitted to being falsely persecuted and violently killed, but he also saw it as an opportunity to glorify man’s relationship with God: “These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.” (John 17:1, 2/cit. B16)
Next Jesus prayed for us—he prayed for you and me! I get choked up every time I think about that! “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.” (John 17:20, 21/cit. B16 continued)
That was his prayer hours before being arrested; not “Dear God, I did everything you said to do, so get me out of this mess.” Because of his actual prayer, this makes him the “mediator between God and men.” (1st Tim. 2:5/cit. B15) He was not focused on self, he was focused on the relationship of God and man; because that was his focus, “it was not possible that he should be holden of [death]” (Acts 2:24/cit. B17).
We own with gratitude what Jesus did for us individually and collectively. When we unite with church [the collective demonstration of man’s unity with God], we make a “confession of faith,” that is constituted of six tenets, or “important points of Christian Science.” Five of the tenets start with “We acknowledge…” Acknowledge means to own with gratitude. The sixth tenet is a solemn promise to follow Christ Jesus’ example because we acknowledge what he has done for us. Two of the tenets are in the lesson in this section (cit. S21/497:13-23). It’s worth pausing and in all sincerity, considering if we really do own with gratitude Jesus’ atonement and crucifixion and their very practical significance for us right here and now.
Indeed, we owe him “endless homage” (cit. S8/18:3)—never-ending “respect [paid] by external action”!
SECTION 6
In the previous section, Mary Baker Eddy admits that “atonement” is a “hard problem” or unanswered question when looked at academically “in theology”—because how can you explain the false notion that atonement is God allowing His son to suffer??—but scientifically—or considered “in Science” or Love—it does away with sin and suffering (see cit. S22/23:7). This section poetically extols the scientific sense and beauty of at-one-ment, using figurative language like, sitting “on the right hand of God,” being “called in one body” (cit. B20/Col. 3:1, 15); being “begotten unto a lively hope,” “inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled” (cit. B21/I Pet. 1:3, 4); the “‘arm of the Lord’” being revealed (cit. S28/24:11). The marginal heading of that paragraph on page 24 is “Radical changes.” Radical means proceeding from the root, again making me think of “the unseen.”
“Glory be to God, and peace to the struggling hearts! Christ hath rolled away the stone from the door of human hope and faith, and through the revelation and demonstration of life in God, hath elevated them to possible at-one-ment with the spiritual idea of man and his divine Principle, Love.” (cit. S29/45:16)
May you feel the blessing of Jesus’ effective prayers for you, empowered to demonstrate, out of gratitude, your unity with your divine Principle, Love! Happy “at-one-ing!”
P.S. An application testimony from Angela about her “at-one-ing”—
“I experienced a healing from feeling entirely at one with God’s being. A wisdom tooth was growing in and causing a lot of pain (and fear). It was at its worst on a Sunday evening, so even if I’d thought a dentist could help, it wouldn’t have been possible at that day and time. I called a Christian Science Practitioner who reminded me that “Nothing inharmonious can enter being” (SH 228:5–6 nothing (to ,)). We got off the phone and while he worked, I started pondering “being” (see this published version, “‘What is’ rules out ‘what if?’” from the April 2016 issue of The Christian Science Journal for more details); the short story is, I really felt to my core my oneness with God and was healed when I told my husband moments later about what I was learning. A wisdom tooth never did grow in or come out and the pain was permanently gone. I go back to this healing often because it was such a significant feeling to realize my unity with the one I AM.”
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The first cache of GEMs of BIBLE-BASED application ideas (from Cobbey Crisler & others) will hopefully be emailed early in the week and the second cache will be emailed later in the week. You can always check for GEM contributions in progress before then at CedarS INSPIRATION website, whether or not you’ve SUBSCRIBED here for this free, inspirational offering.
Also later in the week, look for Ken Cooper’s
”POETIC POSTLUDE”
contributions related to this Bible Lesson.
THANKS to all you PRECIOUS DONORS for ALL of your ONGOING SUPPORT! Every camper & visitor will be blessed by your GENEROSITY, VISION & LOVE!
ANOTHER MATCH WAS MET and its project operationally completed before camp! Thanks to several generous donors to our special A/V Appeal we were able to finish building a CHAPEL A.V. BOOTH that will protect not only new, donated equipment, but also all our hymnals for worship services and for CedarS Sunday Hymn Sings.
If you haven’t lately checked out the GIVING TREE, there are still plenty of other smaller areas of need to fill yet this year! Campers & staff will also be blessed bigtime by the donations made to additional areas of camp, including our horse program, activity equipment, camperships, and Christian Science nursing and practitioner services.
We’re deeply grateful for EVERY GIFT of love & support,
The CedarS Team
P.S. For more about ways to keep CedarS operations ever more green and flourishing and/or to make a PLANNED GIFT, A REQUIRED IRA DISTRIBUTION or an ENDOWMENT GIFT (that will all be MATCHED), feel free anytime to call or text me (Warren Huff, Executive Director Emeritus and Project Manager) at 314-378-2574. I can put you in touch with our Financial Advisor/broker who donates all fees for stock transfers and freely shares tailored, tax-advantaged giving
