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NOT TWO, BUT ONE DIVINE CREATION ACCESSIBLE HERE AND NOW!
Metaphysical application ideas for the Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson on
“Adam and Fallen Man”
for Sunday May 8, 2022
by Kerry Jenkins, C.S. of House Springs, MO
kerry.helen.jenkins@gmail.com • 314-406-0041
SECTION OUTLINE, INTRODUCTION, GOLDEN TEXT & RESPONSIVE READING
SECTION 1: THERE’S ONLY ONE, SPIRITUALLY GOOD CREATION.
SECTION 2: DON’T TRY TO EXPLAIN CREATION FROM A MATERIAL STANDPOINT.
SECTION 3: THE REAL “SERPENT” IS THAT WHICH ROBS US OF TRUST IN GOD.
SECTION 4: LOSE SIGHT OF MORTAL SELFHOOD.
SECTION 5: ACCEPTING TRUE CREATION SETS US FREE TO “MASTER THE INFINITE IDEA”.
SECTION 6: DON’T BELIEVE THE LIES, YOU ARE GOD’S CHILD.
This Bible lesson always brings to the fore the suggestion of two creations, one springing into spiritual being, one shaped from matter. From the perspective of Christian Science there is only one true creation, springing from Life/Mind. So, where does that put us in terms of bringing together our understanding of daily experience, and the 1st Genesis creation where man is brought into being, “male and female”, and given dominion?
This Bible Lesson really forces us to ask ourselves these questions:
“Why am I interested in anything beyond the material appearance of things?”
What brings me back to my deep desire to study and mine these Bible lessons for truth week after week, are the glimpses I get through genuine moments of spiritually inspired consciousness, that this one true creation is actually here and now and provable through divine healing?
This is not the run of the mill “matter isn’t real” argument that looks at objects around us and tries to claim that they are not “real”. This is a daily, passionate, commitment to becoming more and more conscious of spiritual reality, here and now. It is a constant “bearing witness” with Love to our true nature as “children of God” (see our Golden Text for this week from Romans 8:16).
We can stop trying to peer through the mist of material, subtle suggestion that we should fear and distrust that spirit within (and therefore divine Love itself). Instead we can learn to bear strong witness to our internal spiritual sense and find that mist dispersing to reveal more of grace, beauty, safety, supply, health, and joy. This is Life’s divine creation here and now.
Our Responsive Reading from 1st Corinthians 15:45 and 1st John 3:1-3, 7,9; 5:4,5 right away contrasts the “living soul” with the “quickening spirit”. As I see this, it is contrasting the idea of man shaped out of material substance (dust/rib/egg) versus the man who is life giving, vibrant, springing from Spirit. Obviously, it is referencing Adam versus Christ Jesus who taught us the true nature of man. In this set of readings, we see that the dust man belongs to that misty, obscured view of man as material, while the true man springs straight from God, is indeed the very son/daughter of God!
In both this Responsive Reading and the Golden Text we have a reference to children which is a sort of sub-theme in this lesson letting us know that the way to experiencing this true, spiritual creation, is through the door of childlike humility. There are at least ten references to children in the lesson and one that is implied in the healing of Jairus’ daughter, who was herself a child. There is a simplicity that comes with accepting that God’s creation is wholly good, sinless, pure, healthy, joyous. This simplicity is not easy to attain, but it is demonstrable through steady conscious practice of identifying ourselves and others as children of God.
SECTION 1: ONE SPIRITUALLY GOOD CREATION.
Pause here, and consider for a moment a wholly good, tangible, spiritual creation….. No really, pause…. This creation is not something that happens in the future, that happens if we are particularly good, or is in any way dependent. This creation is present here and now, available and tangible in our spiritual consciousness of God’s beauty, goodness, intelligence, and love. These qualities are not in any way tied to matter. They are everlasting, immortal, and part of our spiritual being, and of Mind’s spiritual creation.
Real life is not dependent on matter. The path to seeing this fact is to silence material sense. “Be silent, O flesh, before the Lord: for he is raised up out of his holy habitation.” (citation B1, Zechariah 2:13). This ever-unfolding creation is not based on limited resources, global climates, or human interference. This does not mean that it doesn’t matter what we do on our planet—far from it.
The message of dominion from citation B2, Genesis 1:1,3,26-28,31 means proper respect and stewardship, not exerting power over the earth and its inhabitants. And the word subdue here means “development” not intimidation. (See the Bible Lens from Christian Science Sentinel for the week ending May 8). This is a complete creation, a complete man (male and female).
SECTION 2: TRYING TO EXPLAIN CREATION FROM A MATERIAL STANDPOINT.
Here comes the mist, obscurity, rising from the earth or clay, from the premise of a dual creation. For every answer we get from matter, there are a dozen more questions. Mortal mind thrives on its own desire to solve spiritual questions with material “answers.” It certainly isn’t Science to go forward without questions. Indeed, without asking questions we have no curiosity, no unfoldment, progress, and hence no real joy and healing! It’s just that mortal thought asks all the wrong questions based on a material sense of things rather than on spiritual sense.
When I feel really stumped about an issue I’m facing, I know it’s time to pause and wait on a clearer spiritual perspective. While this may seem difficult with anxiety knocking at the door, (deadlines, family difficulties, heavy workload/responsibilities), it is truly the only way to resolve these worries into clarity, space, joy, and freedom. I have spent hours/days/years trying to solve problems that seemed without solution, only to find that when I stand on the promontory of spiritual sense, my view clears and I have great solutions. I have shared one simple example here before, but I’ll share again.
Some years back I was at the end of my rope with time commitments, homeschooling, my practice, caring for my mom. I had told Doug (my husband) over and over that I was going to have to change something, send James back to school, or something else. When I finally stopped trying to “solve” the problem by complaining to Doug, stressing out over it, or, illogically, trying to continue doing the same thing over and over with my scheduling, we found a very simple solution that yielded an extra hour and a half a day of time for me! All I had to do was mentally climb above the mist of material thinking that goes around and around in circles without ever solving anything.
SECTION 3: THE REAL “SERPENT” IS THAT WHICH ROBS US OF TRUST IN GOD.
Isn’t this what the serpent does in this 2nd Genesis rendition of creation? This is what mortal mind does. It fears, doubts, and acts out of that fear and doubt. Go back to that Golden Text where we are told that God bears witness with our own spiritual sense, that we are children of God. This is where we need to “go” when we face fear, and not to that circular thought that we spoke of in our last section.
Mortal mind thrives on complexity and confusion, and it is threatened most by the peace and clarity that come from trusting spiritual sense. So, mortal mind might seem to argue for its own identity more vocally when we are closest to clearing away the false arguments of that mortal thought.
I can hear the wheedling tone of the serpent every time I read the passage: “Ye shall not surely die…”. “It’s not that bad”. But, it really is! Because every time we buy into the false promises of mortal sense we also buy into a false creation of birth into and death out of matter. Today we can choose to trust God, to trust our spiritual sense that tells us that Love is present even when we aren’t really feeling it.
We can go outside, close our eyes and listen for the beauty of a bird song, the scent of a lilac (if it’s spring where you are)—these kinds of things hint at God’s presence and love. We can be present to the moment we are in and acknowledge that Love is powerful to remove any gloom of sadness about the past or anxious thought about the future. This will build that unshakeable trust in Love’s power and presence that helps us to recognize the lie of the serpent for what it is.
The serpent’s offer of supposedly greater knowledge is brilliant. It would seem to be timely, even today, so many years since this myth was recorded. Yet the offer still yields not greater knowledge, but greater vulnerability and fear. There is no dominion or completeness in this record.
SECTION 4: LOSE SIGHT OF MORTAL SELFHOOD.
Mary Baker Eddy tells us in citation S21 (316:3-7), that we can “lose sight of mortal selfhood”–the idea of self as sinning (separate from God), or limited. This is because we are a spiritually divine child of God, we are not becoming such. Her passage here reads: “The real man being linked by Science to his Maker, mortals need only turn from sin and lose sight of mortal selfhood to find Christ, the real man and his relation to God, and to recognize the divine sonship.” This sentence starts with the real man. This real man is already linked to his Maker.
We are not creating this link to our Maker, but revealing it, rising above the fog of material sense to see it more and more clearly. Jesus was the best at illustrating this fact about man through his remarkable healing work, but we can do this too at some level, every day.
In this section Jesus illustrates our true spiritual “roots” when he is baptized and God claims him as his “beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (cit. B9, Mark 1:9-11) This is ours too when we claim our heritage and “lose sight” of a false sense of creation. Jesus tells us that he came to bring this truer vision to all mankind, not to those who already felt secure in their identity. He came to help those who felt separate and were humble enough to reach out to him for that help. (cit. B10, Mark 2:15-17)
Jesus’ eagerness to love and support the humbleness of the marginalized is made even more pointed when he welcomes the children for a blessing after the disciples tried to send them away. He makes it clear that “of such is the kingdom of heaven”, that is, it is the humble who are quickest to lose sight of material views. (citation B11/Mat 1,2,13,14) I love this image of “losing sight” of a false self. We are leaving a falsehood behind, not trying to “destroy” it, or beat it to death. We are simply moving forward until it recedes from view!
SECTION 5: ACCEPTING TRUE CREATION SETS US FREE “TO MASTER THE INFINITE IDEA”.
Maybe that sounds too lofty? But that’s what keeps me coming back to study and pray day after day. There is the beauty, wholeness, delight of God’s true creation. Mary Baker Eddy puts it this way: “The admission to one’s self that man is God’s own likeness sets man free to master the infinite idea. This conviction shuts the door on death, and opens it wide towards immortality.” (cit. S29, 90) This is vastness at its best. Matter cannot offer that scope of discovery or joy.
It takes tremendous humility to keep denying material sense, and searching for that spiritual truth. Jairus certainly had that kind of humility. He was a respected “ruler of the synagogue”, but set aside his reputation to reach out to Jesus for healing for his little girl. I’m sure this humble recognition of the power of the Christ that Jesus represented and demonstrated, was what allowed this healing power into his home and resulted in her rising from the dead. (cit. 14, Luke 8:41-55)
We can each catch a glimpse of immortality daily when we open our thought to the presence of Life around us. There are indications of the enduring nature of love, of vigor, of beauty. When we make a practice of acknowledging these indications as being the presence of Life/Love/Soul/Mind etc. in our experience, we then are experiencing immortality right here and now. We are living in the one and only divine creation.
SECTION 6: DON’T BELIEVE THE LIES, YOU ARE GOD’S CHILD.
Much is said in this lesson, about children and being God’s child and about sonship. It can sound cliché — but ideally children represent openness to good, receptivity to things that we cannot see with material sense, and trust in Love. We can embrace these ideal qualities of childhood, whether or not they were part of our own human experience.
We can remain innocent to the claims of the serpent, the lies that we are shut out of the kingdom because of our own or another’s foolish choices. We can accept the liberty of the first and only true account of creation in which male and female and all life simply came into being through reflection of the Divine. In that reflection we are connected with the Divine, we know to refuse the lies of material sense.
As Bible citation 15 summarizes “Beloved (that’s you and me), believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.” (1st John 4:1,4., parentheses added) We are Godlike. The mists of material sense will rise and obscure this fact on a regular basis. But, we can rise higher than these mists/lies, through spiritual consciousness, and stand in the brilliant sunshine of divine Truth to see what Christ Jesus saw and demonstrated — man’s spiritual origin.
[Warren:] Already posted on YouTube at https://www.ardenwood.org/events/annualmeeting22/ is ARDEN WOOD’S 2022 ANNUAL MEETING, which announces a major, coming change in the first half of the meeting. During the second half of it, you can hear me share, as Arden Wood’s 2022 inspirational speaker, a score of application ideas from the Bible in an interview of me by former CedarS camper and Director, John Mitchell. I share from my forever-grateful heart how HYMN SINGING SAVED my life and my love of “BIBLE-BASED HEALING RULES TO APPLY AND PROVE TODAY!”
During the interview, John, Arden Wood’s Executive Director, reads the classic Woodruff Smith poem, “GENESIS ONE OR GENESIS TWO?” (below). It relates perfectly to this week’s Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson. (The poem, and a life-saving testimony from applying it, are Downloadable as a PDF on the online version of this week’s GEMs.)
A Ken Cooper POETIC PRELUDE related to this Bible Lesson was POSTED on CedarS INSPIRATION website & was EMAILED TO THOSE WHO SUBSCRIBE FOR IT HERE.
GEMs of BIBLE-BASED application ideas from COBBEY CRISLER and others are yet to be fully excavated and refined and so should be POSTED later this week on CedarS INSPIRATION website & EMAILED TO THOSE WHO SUBSCRIBE FOR IT HERE.
HUMBLE, HEARTFELT THANKS to all you difference-making DONORS WHO HELP US FEED & SHOE OUR HORSES, MAINTAIN OUR CAMPSITE, AWARD CAMPERSHIPS…
Your needed, ongoing support – whether it’s one-time, monthly or forever (though an Endowment Matched gift) will help us “love into view” lasting, DIFFERENCE-MAKING BLESSINGS for hundreds of families and thousands of individuals, for generations to come, all across the U.S. and the world. For more on making a planned gift, a required IRA distribution or an endowment gift (that will be MATCHED) feel free to call or text me (Warren Huff) at 314-378-2574.
CLICK HERE for full info & VIDEO LINKS to CedarS 22 AWESOME PROGRAMS! PLEASE SHARE THEM WITH ANYONE WHO WOULD BE BLESSED BY AN UNBEATABLE BLEND OF SKILL-BUILDING FUN AND SPIRITUAL GROWTH — WITH LOTS OF FINANCIAL AID OPTIONS as needed!
