PSST: Stay in the KOH as you travel in “the way of holiness”!

[PSST: Stay in the KOH as you travel in “the way of holiness”!]
Possible Sunday School Topics for the Christian Science Bible Lesson on

“Reality” for Sunday, 9-29-13

By Tom and Amy Evans, St. Louis, Missouri
[Amy and Tom have been CedarS Staff Development Directors & work at The Principia School.]

PSST – Golden Text and Responsive Reading
Look at the Golden before Sunday School starts.  Ask your class to think about (as they read the Responsive Reading and Golden Text in the opening exercises) what the Kingdom of God or Kingdom of Heaven is like if it is “within you”. 

Isaiah 35 is incredibly important to CedarS.  Warren wrote in an earlier PSST, “The whole chapter of Isaiah 35 was what CedarS Founder Ruth Huff opened the Bible to “at random” in response to her question “God, what is your purpose for your CedarS Camps?”  How to hourly apply Isaiah 35 remains a backbone of CedarS Counselor-in-Training program each summer.”

In this lesson to better understand Reality, we have to keep our thought in the Kingdom of Heaven.  All across America there are campgrounds to stay in called “KOA’s.” Warren says, we can stay in the “KOH” (Kingdom of Heaven).

PSST – Section 1—What reality is all about!
Everything God made was good (B1).  Is this something we really understand?  It seems like we hear it a lot in [discussion of] Christian Science.  Why do you think that is the case?  What is the light that citation B4 talks about?  Is it light from the sun or light bulbs?  Something we see with our eyes?  No!  It is spiritual insight, guidance, understanding…  Why is it we can say in citation S3 “harmony in man is as real and immortal as in music"?  What is harmony in music?  Is it a natural thing?  Is it hard?  (It should be normal and natural.)  Look at the definition of "Kingdom of Heaven" from the glossary in Science and Health.  Look in the actual book— not the full-text.  Does your class know where to find the “Glossary”?  Have they ever explored it?  It’s a great practice to bring marked books to Sunday School and let students read from them.  Why not read directly from the “Pastor”?

PSST – Section 2 –Recognize Reality like Elisha did.
Older classes: discuss the current conflict with Syria.  Notice that Israel and Syria were at war in the time of Elisha too.  Look at Elisha's confidence in a situation that appears to be certain death (B8).

Talk about Elisha’s understanding of Love’s provision and protection.  He saw the protection from God that was always there.  He saw it manifested in horses and chariots of fire.  How do you see God’s protection?  Think about citation S7.  How can your understanding [brought about by spiritual sense] be a “line of demarcation between the real and unreal”?  What do we need to distinguish between?  How can we, like Elisha, look through “the camera of divine Mind”? (S10)

PSST – Section 3 –Light is real, Darkness is unreal.
This section is all about the contrast between light and dark.  Encourage your students to count the number of times light (7x) and darkness (6x) show up in this section.  Talk about chaff (waste, dry shell of the grain that falls off and blows away) and wheat (wholesome, nourishing grain worth keeping).  How can reality /light /wheat / and real, tangible, substance be compared to one another?  What about unreality /darkness /chaff /nothingness?  How can this new view of light and darkness inform your understanding of reality and unreality?  Look at Paul’s description of the two in II Cor. 6:14-15 (B10).  Paul compares light to Christ and darkness to “Belial” or the devil.  If Paul equates darkness or the lack of inspired thought with the devil, why should we keep our thought filled with light? 

PSST – Section 4— Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom.
What is significant to you in the healing from citation B16?  Was it the pool that healed the man?  Were there inherent healing effects in the dirt and water? (NO!)  If dirt or clay is equivalent to the “Adam dream”, and spit is the symbol for discontent or disapproval, what does Jesus have to say about heredity with his actions?  Compare this with citation S19, “Heredity is a prolific subject for mortal belief to pin theories upon”.  Look at the citation in light of the story.  Jesus found the third option when his disciples asked why the man was blind.  He didn’t look for a material source of blame.  How can you respond the same way Jesus did, “that the works of God should be made manifest”?  Do this instead of being afraid or asking, “why is this happening?”  It’s an opportunity to recognize what’s really going on (spiritual permanence).  Read citation S18 to see more clearly why Jesus made that statement.  Why is there such an emphasis on the permanence of our faculties (S17)?  In citation S20 we see the theme of light return.  What is significant about light in terms of reality?

PSST – Section 5—Freedom now!
Discuss the immediacy of Paul’s healing of the crippled man.  How did Paul know that the man was willing and ready to be healed?  What do you think about citation B19?  What does that mean to you?  Citation S23 is fantastic to use for sports.  MyBibleLesson defines “disport themselves” as “behave playfully; move lightly without restraint”.  How can you use this on the athletic field?  That’s an easy one to memorize.  Say it a couple times and memorize it: “Mind’s infinite ideas run and disport themselves.”  Look at citation S25.  Discuss the direct relationships and proportionality in the citation, particularly in the three following sentences. “Your influence for good depends upon the weight you throw into the right scale.”  “The good you do and embody gives you the only power obtainable.”  “Whatever holds human thought in line with unselfed love, receives directly the divine power.”  Can you see the direct connection between the effort you put into spiritual good and the blessings that you recognize and witness?  Can you give an example of how this has happened in your experience?

PSST – Section 6— RECAP!
How do we purify ourselves (B23)?  Look at the assignment in citation B24.  How are you doing this every day?  Discuss how the Science and Health citations in this section are a recap of the lesson.  Citation S26 focuses on reality from section 1, and citation S27 discusses what reality is not.  Citation S28 reminds us how we see Soul and Spirit (section 2).  Citation S29 goes back to understanding found in section 3, and citation S30 refers us back to section 4. What other recaps or summaries do you notice in this section?

PSST – Assignment:
Like Elisha, we too can recognize the spiritual good which is already present when we appear to be in a jam.  Practice looking through the “camera of divine Mind” (S&H 264:3-10) all this week. Report your findings next week.

[Warren’s endnotes, Section 2: You can click on Elisha and the Peaceful End to War , scroll down to it and click again to watch a fun video re-enactment of this 2^nd section story.  You can also download a PDF-formatted script of this reenactment skit with follow-up questions by clicking on the link in the upper right corner of CedarS current metaphysical webpage.  Last summer, as cabin groups of all ages toured CedarS Camps Bible Lands Park, they had the opportunity to re-enact stories like this one from the current Christian Science Bible Lesson.  Each week, videos of selected skits were posted on the CedarS website as well as on a community webpage for TMCYouth.com.  These scripts and follow-up questions may be downloaded free of charge by those seeking Bible-centered activities and contemporary applications for their Sunday School classes and/or Bible study groups. These Bible skits were written by Sara Romo, a CedarS counselor, as part of her Girl Scout Gold project.  Sara raised over $1,000 to cover the initial scripts, props, costumes, and scriptural sets; and your ongoing support has enabled us to continue offering this resource.

[Warren’s endnotes, Section 4: By clicking on the link in the upper right corner of CedarS current metaphysical webpage you can download a reenactment skit of Jesus Heals the Man Born Blind with inspiring insights from Cobbey Crisler and follow-up questions to bring the healing to present day applications. ]