PSST: Be a metaphysician! Look at eternal not temporal things!

[PSST: Be a metaphysician not a matter physician !
Look at eternal not temporal things!]
Possible Sunday School Topics for the Christian Science Bible Lesson

“Matter”
for September 11-17, 2017

prepared by Merrill Boudreaux, CS
pegasus6524@gmail.com 314-308-1059

P.S.S.T. Golden Text – What is the difference between a matter-physician and a metaphysician (meta-physician)? What are you examining to tell you who you are and what is your state of being? If you are looking at things which are temporal, what will be the result? If you are looking at things which are eternal, what will be the result?

P.S.S.T. Responsive Reading (RR) – What does the Responsive Reading tell us about looking to temples made with hands? Do they reveal anything about the God who created heaven and earth? What does the RR tell us about the Creator and His Divine Nature and His children? What is declared as to where our mind or thinking should be focused? Does that make you a matter-physician or a metaphysician? See Science & Health 269:11-13.

P.S.S.T. Section 1 – Are you a Christian? Why? What aid does Christianity provide for you as stated in citation S1? Which is real to you, spirit or matter? What does the Science & Health portion of this section tell you what Spirit has done? What also does it tell you about the opposite statement of Spirit, which is called matter? How would you define error? See citation S5 for guidance:

• Unreal
• Temporal
• Mortal
• Material

Is that you? How do those statements of error, when reversed, reveal who you are?

P.S.S.T. Section 2 – Read together the Bible story in citation B6. How were the servants of Saul acting as matter-physicians? How did David act as a metaphysician? What was the result of David’s clarity as a metaphysician? What pointers for your own work as a metaphysician can you take away from this story? What is the question for you in citation S6? What do citations S7, S8, and S9 tell you about the results of siding with error, matter, or siding with Spirit, Truth?

P.S.S.T. Section 3 – Read together the parable in citation B10. Ask students to state in their own words their interpretation of this parable. Now read citation S13. How are you like the shepherd boy going forth to battle Goliath? See part of the answer in citation S18. How would you define the word “constantly”? Now define the word “earnest”. What do you gain from living constantly and earnestly? S18. Finishing your course with joy is what awaits the metaphysician. Christian Science is your aid.

P.S.S.T. Section 4 – What is stated in citation S23 about how to structure your prayer treatment?

• Reverse the false testimony, matter testimony.
• Look away from the physical senses.
• Answer the question, Is a man sick if the material senses indicate he is in good health?
• Can matter make any condition for man?
• Is a man well if the senses say he is sick?
• Health is not a condition of matter.
• As a metaphysician, testify truly to the real status of man.

What is the demand for you in citation S25?

P.S.S.T. Section 5 – Are you like the disciples in citation B16 when they are in the ship and it is dark, or like the disciples in the ship when they willingly welcomed Jesus into the ship with them? What is the profound question to be considered in citation S30? Spiritual causation. When you consider spiritual causation, are you being a matter-physician or a metaphysician?

P.S.S.T. Section 6 – What is freely given to you and to us all? B18. What can you do, will you do, with the spirit of God? What is a metaphysician’s action in the last statement in citation B18? “comparing spiritual things with spiritual”

We know that matter does not enter into metaphysical premises or conclusions. See again the previous reference to Science & Health 265:11-13. See also the clear statement about the metaphysician and his action in S32. What is Mary Baker Eddy’s guidance for you as a metaphysician in S32, lines 21-25? This is your standpoint, your foundation.

Read together Hymn 123 from the Christian Science Hymnal (below).

*************************************************************

Hymn 123:

How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word. What more can He say than to you He hath said, To you who to God for your refuge have fled:

Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed, For I am thy God, I will still give thee aid; I’ll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand, Upheld by My gracious, omnipotent hand;

When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie, My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply; The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design Thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.

---

[Warren's PS: I think that Mrs. Eddy's connecting of Paul's message to the Athenians (in Acts 17:28, RR) to her Scientic Statement of Being is especially powerful in what it asks particularly of our older Sunday Scholl students: **“St. Paul said to the Athenians, “For in Him we live and move and have our being.” This statement is in substance identical with my own: “There is no life, truth, substance, nor intelligence in matter.” [S17, 468:9] It is quite clear that this great verity has not yet been fully demonstrated, but it is nevertheless true. If Christian Science reiterates Paul’s teaching, we, as Christian Scientists, should give to the world convincing proof of the validity of this scientific statement of being. Having perceived, in advance of others, this scientific fact, we owe to ourselves and to the world a struggle for its demonstration.” Retrospection and Introspection, 93: 17]

I also found helpful Cobbey Crisler's insights on the context of Paul’s words to the Athenians in Acts 17 (RR): “Well, now Paul is heading for the cultural capital of civilization, Athens. And you can’t even go to modern day Athens without appreciating somewhat of what Paul saw, looking around at the remnants of that great city and “the columned buildings that were dedicated to so many gods. It must have moved Paul.” …

“And so he opens his mouth and begins right away to talk in Athens. Now this is a tough area in which to introduce Christianity, except at least they were willing to listen because everybody talked about anything. I mean there were a lot of weirdo sects and ideas that they welcomed without question in Athens because everybody liked to dispute these ideas anyway.

“He’s in the market, the agora, as well as in the synagogue. He runs into Epicureans; he runs into Stoics.” Now Tarsus where Paul came from happens to be a Stoic stronghold. So he must have been certainly aware of that philosophy…

“They bring him to Areopagus, the hill of Mars or Aries, and they asked him to explain what he has to say.” …

Acts 17:22  Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars’ hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. (Translated in the Amplified Bible (AMP) as “very religious and devout in all things” as in the Responsive Reading]

Paul, standing there, shows how a lecture can be tailor-made to any environment. And, it’s better than uniformity if you want to get the ear of the locals. And in this way, you will find at no point does Paul mention the Old Testament. Why? (Pause) What would that mean to the Athenians? (See below, Acts 17:23, paraphrased)

Instead, he kind of says, “On my way to the forum…you know. In other words, here I was, and I saw something you had back here. And, it says TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.” (See Acts 17:23 …

“Would everybody be listening? It relates. He’s picked up something locally. And, would you also be listening if he said “That monument you put ‘TO THE UNKNOWN GOD’, I want to tell you a little something about him. He’s unknown to you, but here’s some information that might be helpful… “And then, in Acts 17, verse 24, he describes “that God who made all, and therefore, couldn’t dwell in temples made with hands.” …

We’re reminded of whom? Yes, but since Jesus, we heard that from Stephen, remember? As Saul, himself, he had heard that.

“He dwelleth not in temples made with hands.” (paraphrased)

What do you think that comment does when you’re looking at the Parthenon and buildings like it? “God doesn’t dwell in all of this. He made everything. How can you contain Him?” … Very interesting point.

Have we even arrived at that point today in our thinking? … I doubt the Athenians had either.

“The search where God is…” will end up with the conclusion in the last line of Acts 17, verse 27, “that He’s not very far from every one of us.” And then Paul very cleverly introduces lines from local poets: “In him we live, and move, and have our being” and “for we are also his offspring” – parts of poems we have identified, and they even know the authors. (See below, partial)

Acts 17:28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being**; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. [RR]”
After the Master, What? The Book of Acts by B. Cobbey Crisler

Click to enjoy CedarS Online version of several more Cobbey Crisler insights on select Bible citations from this Christian Science Bible Lesson on “Matter” for September 17, 2017.

You can buy your own transcripts of most of Cobbey’s 28 talks at a new website: www.crislerlibrary.co.uk Please email your order or inquiry to office@crislerlibrary.co.uk, or directly to Janet Crisler, at janetcrisler7@gmail.com