[Warren’s apologies: Yesterday while doing construction supervision at CedarS, I automatically (by default) emailed our Met/GEM subscribers this week’s Possible Sunday School Teaching ideas also. (I am knowing this too is a blessing because “All things work together for good to them that love God…” (Romans 8:28) Thanks for your patience with me/us as we grow into our new site’s unique features.]
Pycl: Let Beatitudes move you to a Christ man model, and away from an Adam model. (#1)
Possible Younger Class Lesson ideas for the Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson on
“Adam and Fallen Man”
for May 9, 2021
by Kerry Jenkins, CS, of House Springs, MO
kerry.helen.jenkins@gmail.com • 314-406-0041
Pycl #1: Consider together why this lesson includes parts of the Sermon on the Mt., like 3 Beatitudes. This week’s Bible lesson includes some parts of the Sermon on the Mount, including a few of the Beatitudes. This Sermon is the heart and soul of Christianity. It is also one of the Manual requirements of Sunday School teaching, so this could be a great opportunity to start a Beatitude and Sermon on the Mount study together! Consider together why this Bible lesson includes these parts of the Sermon on the Mount. Why these three Beatitudes?
I discuss possible reasons for the inclusion if these passages in the CedarS Met this week which is on the CedarS website at cedarscamps.org under “inspiration” and then “weekly metaphysical newsletter”. The basic idea is that all of these passages are particularly focused on how we can get matter, or a material view of man, out of the way, so to speak. They are also wonderfully connected to a theme in this week’s lesson of how God feeds/nourishes/gives us abundance. This message is in opposition to the allegorical version in 2nd Genesis where we are told that there is a tree that man is not allowed to eat from (even though it’s in the middle of the garden), furthermore, when man disobeys, he is banished from paradise, and cursed.
Take each Beatitude in this lesson and discuss how they can be understood to practically help us move our consciousness toward the true man, the Christ man, and away from a material model of man. The same goes for the part of the Sermon included in Section 4 from Matt.6:25 Take, 26, 33/citation B14.
Pycl #2: The crux of this lesson is that we were never made of matter, never a Genesis 2 man of lack!
Look at the Golden Text which promises that God gives us “food to the full”; the Responsive Reading/Deut. 5:9 which amplifies “…bread without scarceness…”; and citation B 1/Gen.1:29 where man is given every herb, and every fruit-bearing tree!
How does the second Genesis allegory square with these, and other Biblical examples of provision? Think about Jesus feeding the multitudes. Are these messages about God and man contradictory?
I would say that is at the crux of this week’s lesson! We were never made of matter, never that Genesis 2 man!
This week’s “GEMs” from CedarS include a fun, childlike poem by “Woody” Smith titled “Genesis 1 or Genesis 2?” It’s printed as one of the beginning GEMs and is available as a Download at Cherish GEMs of the unfallen, true YOU! – CedarS Camps . Younger children might enjoy memorizing it and you might also after reading the remarkable testimony of healing based on praying with that poem!
Citation S26/476:13-15, 21-22 in this week’s Bible lesson from Science and Health drives this point home by declaring the truth about us, that mortals NEVER had a perfect state of being, which may subsequently be regained.”!!! We are not trying to “get back to harmony”. We have the kingdom within and we are spending our days learning to detect, recognize, rejoice in that kingdom as often as possible.
Can you and the children come up with all the ways that God “feeds” us? Include the metaphors such as giving us joy, love, inspiration, care, and so on. Use a felt board, if you can, and hang a piece of fruit on trees, or plants in a garden with each idea that you come up with until you have a board full of things that represent God’s/Love’s care and provision for man. Another way would be for each child to stick stickers or pre-drawn and cutout Emoji pictures of food, to a sheet of paper. They could also draw a garden themselves, adding food as you speak about each way that Love nourishes us.
Pycl #3: Bring out your pretend snake to practice rejecting snake talk lies that pull down your best self.
If you don’t own a stuffed animal snake or just a rubber one, you can easily use a long piece of rope with a couple of eyes and a tongue glued to one end! Make it slither around. Talk about how it can twist and turn, wind around things, be sneaky, and so on. (I actually think snakes are lovely creatures, useful in many ways, though I know in many countries where the majority of snakes are very venomous, this would not be the viewpoint! Just be sure they understand that this is a symbol!)
Can you come up with ways that “snake talk” can get into our consciousness and trick us into thinking lies about ourselves? How does the “serpent” speak to us? This is so important! You can discuss Jesus’ temptations included in Section 2/Matt. 4:1-11. Would the “serpent” tempt you to turn rocks into food? (or any of these temptations?) Why not? Why were these how Christ Jesus was tempted? Now go back to our earlier question. How do we get tempted by the “serpent”?
Remember to be clear that serpent thought does not “belong” to us. It is impersonal evil. It has no source in God, Truth, which is why we can tell it to “go away”! It “parades” as our own thought. We know it doesn’t have roots in Truth. Usually our “temptations” are things like being tempted to leave someone out of a game, say something unkind, avoid a chore that we are asked to do, eat a cookie that mom asked us to save until after dinner, think we are “bad” at something, and…well…there are infinite ways, just have a few to get them started. All these temptations come from the serpent thought that “it’s no big deal”. While it is true that we can always turn back and repent or rethink things, it is far better to head them off and tell them to “get behind us” rather than indulge and then repent repeatedly!
Pycl #4: Set a tasty treat in a bowl in front of students at the start of class & forbid their having any.
Does God/Love tempt man? If you are in-person for Sunday School, you could bring a tasty treat in a bowl and set it in the middle of the table at the beginning of class. Tell them that they cannot have any. (You can use this same thing over the internet, it’s just hard because in the end you cannot share the treat!) Suggest that it might not be loving if your mom or dad put a big bowl of, say, M&M’s on the table and left them there, and then said no one can eat any of them. This would not only be silly, but it would be unkind, don’t you think? Why would our mom or dad want to test us in this way? They wouldn’t! So, would divine, infinite, Love do this by telling us “hey, there’s this special tree in this beautiful garden I put you in, and even though it has beautiful tasty fruit on it, I want you to leave it alone”? After sharing this story and asking their opinions, you could share the treat with them if you are in person for Sunday School!
Pycl #5: [Uplift the “No pain, no gain” sports belief and win your way to doing all for God’s glory!]
In the last section we have the Revelation passage about the angel with the book, and Mary Baker Eddy’s echo of this passage on p.559:1-2, 19. Why is this message of Christian Science healing “sweet” tasting when we are healed by it, but “bitter in the belly”? What makes it bitter? Why is this wonderful Science worth pursuing? See what the students say.
Can you look at Jesus’ life (I think this spring we had three, maybe four lessons, in a row that included Jesus’ crucifixion!) and see how this amazing message might also bring a bitterness with it? Why does the Christ message stir up anger, envy, shame, among some? How can we heal those feelings in ourselves when we are confronted with them? Aren’t these feelings what come with the belief that life is in material man who has a separate existence from the one Mind, a separate Ego and identity?
Matter and a material sense of selfhood cries out to be noticed, to be soothed, praised, recognized, and so on. But it is God —not matter— that supplies us with our true satisfaction, intelligence, creativity, joy! When we take away the seeming power of matter to be an identity, it would seem to “respond” with fury, in Jesus’ case, crucifixion!
Think of examples where we can learn to give God the glory and take away more joy, peace, true success. For example, a sporting endeavor can bring great joy and satisfaction if our sense of success is based in glorifying God, loving our fellow competitors, striving for deeper dominion over the limitations of matter, and so on, rather than on personal success, desire to win, or fear of failure!
Have a great week discovering the Christ man!
