[PYCL: Be willing to leave the net of sadness, grumpiness… and bless people instead -3
Find ways Christ is speaking, revealing, leading, dispelling, healing, casting out…-1]
Possible Younger Class Lessons for the Christian Science Bible Lesson on
"Christ Jesus"
for August 27, 2017
by Kerry Jenkins, CS, House Springs, MO
kerry.helen.jenkins@gmail.com (314) 406-0041
Pycl #1: What do words do? Why the focus on "Word" and what is the Bible telling us that this Word is (citation B2 helps here). We use words to communicate, to make things clear, to help us understand things. The Christ is how God speaks to us, and helps us to understand who He is and who man is. This word is illustrated by the healing actions of Jesus that stem from this Christ. Maybe some of the older classes could look together or on their own to see how many action words they can find that are associated with what the Christ or Word does. Some that they may notice the Word/Christ doing are: voicing, speaking, revealing, leading, dispelling, healing, casting out, destroying… Can we find ways that this is happening in our lives today? If not, can they think about it in the coming week and come back with some ideas? If we do this, a midweek email reminder—or a phone call is a good way to help them!
Pycl #2: It is helpful to get a clear sense of the difference between Jesus and the Christ. Knowing this in no way diminishes the importance of Jesus, but emphasizes the value that he placed on doing those Christly, healing works. Knowing that the Christ is the eternal idea that is still expressed and with us today, helps us understand that we have access to that same authority and power that Jesus had. Also, I don't think that God, our Father-Mother has created mysteries to surround Him/Her. We don't have to feel that the whole Christ, Holy Ghost, Son thing is a great mystery, though that is commonly accepted. Citations S1, S2, and S31 are some examples where these terms are helpfully defined in the way they are employed in those paragraphs. As adults, do we have a sense of how to define these terms? If so, we should be able to share some experiences where our own understanding of Christ, or the divine idea or the Holy Ghost, helped us find healing.
Pycl #3: There are some great stories of healing that Jesus brought about in this week's lesson. What about looking at each story to see what Christ Jesus was teaching us each time. So for this Pycl, we could look at Jesus calling for some of the disciples (before they were his disciples), to leave their nets and follow him. Talk about fishing a bit. What do nets do? There is obviously nothing inherently wrong with fishing, you could say it is a job that fed people, and Jesus was asking for a different, spiritual kind of feeding. But you can also bring in a net and talk about how it might stand for the way a material focus on life can keep us trapped in a false sense of what we are here to do. Maybe Jesus is asking us today to leave whatever would keep our thought and time occupied by something that isn't healing and blessing others. Can we do this in any occupation? What about going to school? Playing with friends? Maybe the thing keeping our thought trapped in the "net" is grumpiness, or sadness, or something like that. Are we willing to leave that net and bless people instead? You could have them kind of symbolize that by letting them drop the net along with such a quality that they are wanting to "leave behind".
Pycl #4: Maybe we can think about the story of the insane man in Section 2 as an example of how the Word can communicate clearly even to those that don't seem to be able to think clearly. The Christ was even recognized by the man who was resisting healing. But that Christ spirit that Jesus embodied healed the man with great authority and power. We can think of that as an example of how Christ speaks to us even when we feel like we are resisting God, Love. Nothing can actually come between us and the healing Christ!
Pycl #5: In Section 3, we again have an example of communication. A deaf man who didn't speak clearly—obviously this is a person who had trouble communicating and maybe even more trouble receiving communication from others. Yet the same Christ heals him immediately and with that same authority! Again, nothing can interrupt the communication of God to His idea, man.
Pycl #6: The parable of the sower and seed is a great one to share with little children. Talk first about gardening, soil, what do they think would make a good garden spot? How should it be tended? How can we be like the seed that falls on good ground? If you have a patch of ground at church that you could plant something in, this would be a great illustration. It may be too late in the season for many, but you might find that it is not, or you could plant a few seeds in a pot in Sunday School and keep checking each Sunday to see the progress and use the planting illustration in many other spiritually insightful ways! (You may have to bring it home to water during the week!) The analogy can "grow" even more if you want to include citation B12 and thinking about how when you plant cucumbers, you get cucumber plants, etc. So we want to be sure that the things that we are "planting" are what we want "growing" in our lives!
Pycl #7: What if someone left you in charge of something important, something you need to tend and care for? Maybe it is something valuable that you need to guard carefully? You could act this out with a pretend treasure. Put someone in charge of watching and have them pretend to go to sleep while someone else sneaks in and takes the treasure. You can explain that this treasure is like those Christ qualities that we possess. If we are not watchful of our thought, they can be "stolen" by lies and errors that come to us. They might seem like they come to us as friends (who are really being unkind) or in some other way. How can we remain watchful? Do we really have to stay "awake" all the time?
Pycl #8: Our final example is Jesus sending his disciples out to heal and preach with no money or supplies. Why did he do this? Can you think of reasons why this is included in a lesson about Christ Jesus? Are all of these stories examples to us of how to live and heal as Jesus did? Make sure they understand what Jesus was asking. Where would the disciples sleep? How would they get food? What can we do to rely more on the Christ to give us all that we need?
