PYCLs for SPIRIT to ENGAGE YOUR CLASS: SHOW SPIRIT by a FAN. “DIG” into PLANTING & ELIJAH’S “FIELD.” MAKE the INVISIBLE VISIBLE! ACTUALLY “POSSESS” DOMINION by USING IT!
Friday, February 3rd, 2023
By Kerry Jenkins, C.S., House Springs, MO
PYCLs ACTIVITIES about SPIRIT to ENGAGE your class:
SHOW SPIRIT by a FAN. “DIG INTO” PLANTING & ELIJAH’S “FIELD.” MAKE the INVISIBLE VISIBLE!
ACTUALLY “POSSESS” DOMINION by USING IT!
Possible Younger Class Lesson ideas for the Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson on
“SPIRIT”
for Sunday, February 5, 2023
by Kerry Jenkins, CS, of House Springs, MO
kerry.helen.jenkins@gmail.com • 314-406-0041
PYCL #1: DEFINE SPIRIT WITH A FAN.
As always we want to define the synonym we are working with. This is done through the Bible stories in our lesson, through passages included and in any other ways that you can find to help.
ACTIVITY WITH PROPS: One way I’ve loved is to bring in a small electric fan. Talk about the wind, plug the fan in and have someone either put their face in front of it and watch what it does to their hair, if they have longer hair, or hold a tissue in front of it. Can we see the wind coming out of the fan? No. But can we feel it? Can we see what it does? This is like Spirit. We may not be able to see Spirit, but we can feel it and see what it does! Bring in some examples of how you have felt or seen the effects of Spirit. If you don’t have ready access to a fan you can make simple fans with folding paper and fan a tissue across the table, fan each other’s faces, etc.
PYCL #2: GOLDEN TEXT PLANTING AND HARVESTING
“…if you plant in the field of the Spirit, from the Spirit you will gather the harvest of eternal life.” (Good News Translation in Today’s English Version–Second Edition.) This passage is included a second time in citation B7 in the King James Version. (Gal.6:8).
What happens when we plant a pumpkin seed (or seed of your choice) in a nice patch of soil. This soil is great! It has all the nutrients to nourish that seed, it is well-watered, but not too much, it is deep and soft and has plenty of earthworms to keep it full of air and more nutrients, it never gets choked with weeds or dried out or stomped down. In other words, it is a perfect growing medium and environment for the best pumpkins in the world!
Now, consider that this field of Spirit is where we are meant to focus our “planting”. All that we do can and should be “planted” in this field of Spirit, because then it will prosper, bring happiness, satisfaction, wisdom, and all the success that we really want. It seems tempting sometimes to “plant” in more “exciting” fields that look like they will bring us happiness. But these apparent “fields” don’t give us the kind of happiness that lasts. It’s a little like saying something mean to someone because others are doing this and you want the others to like you more. That kind of joy is pretty short-lived.
Planting in Spirit, cultivating lasting qualities of Spirit (make a list together of these qualities when you define Spirit), doesn’t mean that everything will be “easy”, any more than it is in any walk of life. It’s just that we will feel the presence of Spirit while we are working out such hard challenges. That feeling makes it all worthwhile!
PYCL #3: CHECK OUT ELIJAH’S “FIELD”!
In citation B6/1 Kings 17:1-6, Elijah is led by Spirit into the wilderness during a drought. (Explain drought– and the backstory with King Ahab and Elijah if you want, it’s a pretty entertaining story). Remember to explain that Elijah lived in a dry, desert like land–not at all the soil we mentioned in the Golden Text.
Click for a painting and the backstory of Elijah Being Fed by the Ravens. Oil/Herbert Mandel
https://manchesterinklink.com/the-story-of-the-prophet-elijah-jezebel…
Tell or read the story of Elijah being fed in the wilderness. All of his needs were met with clean water and food. It was extraordinary! This is a beautiful example of how when we are planting/living to bless and reveal Spirit’s goodness, we are naturally “fed”, cared for, in a way that we can truly feel.
It doesn’t matter if we are living in a jungle, a desert, in the city, country, with family, or without, we can feel Spirit’s care when we are planting our works in Spirit.
PYCL #4: MAKING THE INVISIBLE VISIBLE.
We learned with the fan that while Spirit is invisible, its actions are not. We also saw how Spirit provided for Elijah in a visible way. Citation S10/264:13 includes Mary Baker Eddy’s statement about how “…multitudinous objects of creation which before were invisible can become visible…” when we look to Spirit and not matter for answers.
A fun story you can share illustrates this point. There was a beggar man who sat by the roadside for his whole life begging for food or money. He was a good man, just never able to catch a break. He had a specific place where he went each day at a crossroads where travellers would venture by. There he would sit on a big box that he owned and beg until night. One day a traveller came by, he was a man of God who prayed and loved to serve God. The beggar asked him for some money. The traveller looked at him and asked him what was in the box that he was sitting on. The beggar replied that he had never looked inside. Together they pried open the lid and found that it was filled with gold.
You can expand on this story as you wish, alter details, have them act it out, whatever seems fun & helpful. Have a conversation about the story.
Was the gold there all along?
Was the man actually wealthy with all he needed, right there under him?
Is it possible that we are each actually given spiritual wealth beyond measure, treasure that we are “sitting on” and unaware of because it seems to be “invisible” to us?
Why do you think the spiritual traveller thought to ask about what was in the box?
Can we be more aware of what to “look for” so that we aren’t blind to the abundance of good that we have? [I’ll never forget six related words that Miss Mary Kesler told our Sunday School class: “Gratitude outlaws blindness to present good.” (Warren)]
PYCL #5: ACTUALLY “POSSESS” DOMINION BY USING IT!
So, along with the story above, you can explore this question: What happens when we actually “possess” dominion, but don’t use it? In citation S28/393:8 Mary Baker Eddy says to “Exercise” your “God-given authority. Take possession of your body, and govern its feeling and action.” The following sentences are equally powerful.
But if we don’t “exercise our authority” or “take possession of our body”, isn’t that a little like sitting on a box full of gold and begging for pennies?
How do we go about “prying open that box” and finding our dominion over the body, exercising our divine authority?
We can start with Spirit and Spirit’s allness. The first citation in Science and Health this week-275:6-14 tells us “The starting point of divine Science is that God, Spirit, is All-in-all, and there is no other might nor Mind……To grasp the reality and order of being in its Science, you must begin by reckoning God as the divine Principle (source) of all that really is.” (parentheses added)
ACTIVITY WITH PROPS:
Bring out a hoola hoop or lay out a big circle of rope or yarn. Explain that this represents all, the entire infinite universe. In it is Love/Spirit, and nothing but Love/Spirit/Mind and so on. Review the synonyms that you have studied the last few weeks.
With the presence of all-Mind can anything unintelligent, thoughtless, or random occur?
With all-Love around you can anything unkind have power, substance, ability to influence you?
Go through all the different synonyms in this way. When we feel sick, we can go through these synonyms and their allness and claim that good for ourselves. This can lead to healing.
Have a great week in Sunday School!!
