PSST: Seek to understand the oneness of God & you in this lesson.

PSST: Seek to understand the oneness of God & you as manifestation!
Possible Sunday School Topics for the Christian Science Bible Lesson:

“God”
for December 28, 2020-January 3, 2021

prepared by Merrill Boudreaux, C.S.
pegasus6524@gmail.com • 314-308-1059

P.S.S.T. Golden Text (GT), Deuteronomy 6:4: “The Lord our God, the Lord is one!”

Read together Science & Health 361:16-18: “As a drop of water is one with the ocean, a ray of light one with the sun, even so God and man, Father and son, are one in being.”

Ask students how does the oneness mentioned in that passage relate to them?

See this definitive statement in SH 361:15-16: “… ‘I and my Father are one,’ — that is, one in quality, not in quantity.”

Let’s seek to understand this oneness of God and man, or God and manifestation, or God and you, as we think about this week’s lesson.

P.S.S.T. Responsive Reading (RR) – Read together Hymn 157 from the Christian Science Hymnal (printed here):

Hymn 157

Jesus' prayer for all his brethren: Father, that they may be one,
Echoes down through all the ages, Nor prayed he for these alone
But for all, that through all time God's will be done.
One the Mind and Life of all things, For we live in God alone;
One the Love whose ever-presence Blesses all and injures none.
Safe within this Love we find all being one.
Day by day the understanding Of our oneness shall increase,
Till among all men and nations Warfare shall forever cease,
So God's children all shall dwell in joy and peace.

What was Jesus’ prayer as recorded in this hymn? Who were and are Jesus’ brethren? Be still for a moment and consider what this means for you. This prayer also helps to remove the belief in separation from God, from alienation, from being left out, forgotten, or abandoned by God. An impossibility. In fact, verse 3 of this hymn states clearly that “Day by day the understanding of our oneness shall increase.” What is the result?

“Warfare shall forever cease” and

“All shall dwell in joy and peace”

As you read through the Responsive Reading, please pick out statements that support this understanding of oneness. Specifically – “My kindness shall not depart from you….” (Isa 54:10, NKJV).

P.S.S.T. Section 1 –

If God is one, as stated in citation B5 (Galatians 3:20), then can there be any other gods? The truth of this passage in Galatians is a direct rebuke to a belief in evil, devil, error, or animal magnetism. Are “one” and “all” the same? How can there be an outside to one or to all? (Cit. S2, SH 267). Oneness and allness is the truth of being. Read what Mary Baker Eddy says about waking up to this truth in SH 218:32-2, “When we wake to the truth of being, all disease, pain, weakness, weariness, sorrow, sin, death, will be unknown, and the mortal dream will forever cease.”

Citation S3 states, “Spirit blesses men…” (SH 78:28). How are you blessed? Citation S4 states: “All substance, intelligence, wisdom, being, immortality, cause, and effect belong to God” (S4, SH 275). If they belong to God, and you are one with God, then they belong to you. Then claim them.

Read together Hymn 135 from the Christian Science Hymnal (printed here):

Hymn 135

I know no life divided, O Lord of life, from Thee; In Thee is life provided For all mankind and me: I know no death, O Father, Because I live in Thee; Thy life it is that frees us From death eternally.

I fear no tribulation, Since, whatsoe'er it be, It makes no separation Between my Lord and me: Since Thou, my God and Father, Dost claim me as Thine own, I richly shall inherit All good, from Thee alone.

P.S.S.T. Section 2 –

What are the promises for you as you “wait” upon God as stated in Citation B6 (Isaiah 40)? What does it mean to wait on God? How about “rely”. Can any be left out of this waiting, this reliance? Citation B7 (Isa. 41)–the poor, needy, thirsty, need for shade in the desert, the blind, the ignorant. These promises are NOT exclusive to men, but include women also. Citation S9 (SH 516:21), “Man and woman as coexistent and eternal with God forever reflect, in glorified quality, the infinite Father-Mother God.”

P.S.S.T. Section 3 – Now let us expand our concept and understanding of oneness to more than a single man or woman, but according to citation B8, to “all the nations” (Isaiah 43:9). Imagine that, as further stated, “This people have I formed for myself;..” (Isaiah 43:21).

Read together Psalm 90:1,2,4 (B10),

“Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.”

Citation S14 (SH 340:23) includes a Christian Science prayer treatment –

“One infinite God, good, unifies men and nations; constitutes the brotherhood of man; ends wars; fulfils the Scripture, ‘Love thy neighbor as thyself;’ annihilates pagan and Christian idolatry, — whatever is wrong in social, civil, criminal, political, and religious codes; equalizes the sexes; annuls the curse on man, and leaves nothing that can sin, suffer, be punished or destroyed.”

What does it say to you? –Unity not division, inclusion not separation, love and healing to all mankind…

Ask students to write out a prayer of their desire for mankind and place it on the altar with the acknowledgement that “God Love” “leaves nothing that can sin, suffer, be punished or destroyed,” as stated in S14.

P.S.S.T. Section 4 –

God has not abandoned us, has not left us far off, but has provided for us a comforter. What do you know this comforter to be? What is this gift to mankind? Read in Science & Health 55:27: “In the words of St. John: ‘He shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever.’ This Comforter I understand to be Divine Science.”

The Golden Text from last week’s lesson stated: “Thank God for this gift too wonderful for words!” (II Cor 9:15). This is speaking of Christian Science, mankind’s best friend.

We speak of Jesus of Nazareth as our way-shower. What was the way he showed us? How did he show this way? Through his actions more than words. See citation S17, SH 18:3-5: “Jesus of Nazareth taught and demonstrated man's oneness with the Father, and for this we owe him endless homage.”

He showed, or demonstrated, “man’s oneness with the Father.” The comforter, Christian Science, is here and is yours and mine to “understand and to practice” (S19, SH 98:15).

P.S.S.T. Section 5 –

By the healing in the scripture story in citation B19 (John 5:1-9), what did Jesus demonstrate?

• A problem has no history
• It doesn’t matter how long it claims to have been around
• Compassion for others is essential
• Love for God and man eliminates the belief in separation, in being alone, with no friends or someone to provide aid

If you can provide the words for one prayer treatment found in Jesus’ life and works, what might it be? Citation B20 (John 10:24-32) states, “I and my Father are one.”

Read what Mary Baker Eddy says about this one I or us in citation S22,

“There is but one I, or Us, but one divine Principle, or Mind, governing all existence; man and woman unchanged forever in their individual characters…” (SH 588:9-15)

Do you desire to understand this better, to use and live this truth? How can you do this? See citation S25:

“Let us rid ourselves of the belief that man is separated from God, and obey only the divine Principle, Life and Love. Here is the great point of departure for all true spiritual growth” (SH 91:5).

P.S.S.T. Section 6 – What kind of power is yours when you have One God, One Mind? Citation S26:

“Having one God, one Mind, unfolds the power that heals the sick, and fulfils these sayings of Scripture, “I am the Lord that healeth thee,” and ‘I have found a ransom’” (SH 276:1-4).

See also the Sixth Tenet of Christian Science:

“6. And we solemnly promise to watch, and pray for that Mind to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus; to do unto others as we would have them do unto us; and to be merciful, just, and pure” (SH 497:24, also in Church Manual 16:8).

See also citation S29:

“By the truthful arguments you employ, and especially by the spirit of Truth and Love which you entertain, you will heal the sick” (SH 418:22)

If you seek to learn of your oneness with God as revealed by the comforter, you can rest assured your desire will be fulfilled – citation S31:

“As mortals reach, through knowledge of Christian Science, a higher sense, they will seek to learn, not from matter, but from the divine Principle, God, how to demonstrate the Christ, Truth, as the healing and saving power” (SH 285:27).

P.S.S.T. Section 7 –

Read together the citations in this 7th section. I trust you are feeling uplifted and assured and joyful.

Read together the joy of assurance in Hymn 120 from the Christian Science Hymnal (printed here):

Hymn 120

How beauteous on the mountains The feet of him that brings,
Like streams from living fountains, Good tidings of good things;
That publishes salvation; From error gives release
To every tribe and nation: God's reign of joy and peace.
Break forth in hymns of gladness, O waste Jerusalem;
Let songs instead of sadness, Thy jubilee proclaim;
The Lord, in strength victorious, Upon thy foes has trod;
Behold, O earth, the glorious Salvation of our God.