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“Look out from the stars” and discover an infinitely unfolding universe!
Beyond Hubble & Kepler Space Telescopes, Christian Science offers new views of our universe.
CedarS Met
aphysical Application Ideas for the Christian Science Bible Lesson Sermon on
“Is the Universe, Including Man, Evolved By Atomic Force?”
for December 18, 2011
by Rick Stewart, CS, Dresden, Germany   (Most of the references for research and further study are shown as computer links. If you are reading this MET as a print copy and have no access to computer links please contact me and I will be glad to help you access the referenced information.) (Telephone +49 351 312 4736) Email: RickStewartCS@aol.com
[Bracketed italics by Warren Huff, CedarS Director and Met, PSST & PYCL Newsletters Editor]
[Editor's Note: The following application ideas for this week, and the Possible Sunday School Topics (PSST) that will follow, are offered primarily to help CEDARS campers and staff (as well as friends) see and demonstrate the great value of daily study and application of the Christian Science Bible lessons year-round, not just at camp! You can sign up to have them emailed to you free — in English by Monday each week, or by each Wednesday you can get a FREE TRANSLATION in French thanks to Pascal, in German thanks to Helga and Manfred or in Spanish thanks to a team of Ana, Erick, Claudia and Patricio. YOU CAN SIGN UP at www.cedarscamps.org/newsletters]
 
Mary Baker Eddy shares in her book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, the following observation, “,“The astronomer will no longer look up to the stars, – he will look out from them upon the universe…” (125)
Two recent announcements could be seen as a confirmation of this statement. The NASA Kepler Space Telescope team announced to the world the following finds:
Kepler-10b is the first confirmed terrestrial planet to have been discovered outside the Solar System. Discovered after several months of data collection during the course of the NASA directed Kepler Mission which aims to discover Earth-like planets crossing in front of their host stars, the planet's discovery was announced on January 10, 2011
 Kepler-22b is the first confirmed extrasolar planet found by NASA's Kepler Space Telescope to orbit the habitable zone of a Sun-like star.  Kepler-22b, a possible super-Earth, is 587 light years away from Earth, in orbit around the G-type star Kepler-22. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepler
 
Dr. Laurance Doyle is one of the Science team working on NASA's Kepler Space Telescope project. He has been a pioneer in developing the techniques used in the search for exosolar, habitable planets. Laurance also happens to be a student of Christian Science. In a video lecture made for the church in the early 1990s, “Infinity and Individuality,” Laurance made the following comment: “Of the many great and outstanding discoveries in the 19th and 20th centuries- from Maxwell's work in electromagnetics to Einstein's studies in time and space-by far the most outstanding and significant was Mary Baker Eddy's discovery that reality is perfect.” Lodi News Sentinel, April 14, 1992
As we examine this week's Bible Lesson subject, “Is the universe, including man, evolved by atomic force,” it will be interesting to think of the ongoing new discoveries regarding our universe. And also to recall what Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health, page 263: “There can be but one creator, who has created all.  Whatever seems to be a new creation, is but the discovery of some distant idea of Truth; else it is a new multiplication or self-division of mortal thought, as when some finite sense peers from its cloister with amazement and attempts to pattern the infinite.” 
As we plunge into our observations regarding this week's Bible Lesson we might expect similar astounding results  as we lift our thought out of “finite sense” into a view of the “perfect reality” that lies as the heart of God's spiritual universe.   We can begin to answer our questions regarding our understandings of what is actually involved in the evolution of the universe, material atomic force, or the divine precision of infinite Mind.
 
Golden Text:   Psalms 19:1 (to 😉 “The heavens declare the glory of God;”
The heavens are telling us about the glory of God. Psalm 19 is a Psalm of David and this whole Psalm is worth a reading.   We do not know when he wrote it, perhaps he had just spent a night watching his sheep and looking to the heavens. In this Psalm he writes of the wonders of God's universe and also relates the wonders found in God's word.
 
Like David, many people over the centuries have been inspired looking to the heavens.   Looking up has always inspired mankind and so it was with David. As we are now looking up and also “looking out” from the stars I found it interesting to read about the Kepler Telescope's “field of vision.” It was illustrated as being the size of a man's fist held at arm's length.    That sounded a little bit like trying to describe a room by looking through the keyhole. But then I realized nowadays there are lots of devices including “keyhole” cameras that can turn a keyhole view into a panorama. And so perhaps that is how we can think of the search techniques that Laurance Doyle and his fellow team members are utilizing in their “new views” “looking out” from Kepler. And we can also see a parallel of us looking at our universe not from the darkness of mortal, limited, matter-based thinking, but with the Science of Reality, the “lens of Science.”  [See Warren's PS for scientific discoveries about passages in the Responsive Reading and the rest of the lesson.]
 
Section 1:   What makes up our universe in reality: matter or Spirit?
Early astronomers often offered views of the heavens that met with great skepticism by the religious leaders of the time.   Because of a desire to keep man, the earth, and God at the center of things, the Catholic Church authorities often persecuted some of these individuals even to the point of death. Examples can be found in the lives of Giordano Bruno and Galileo. 
 
Both of these men presented ideas that challenged the long held belief of earth as the center of the universe. Instead their astronomical observations led them to recognized the seeming stability and stillness of earth as being due only to the limits of the material senses
 
“In the sixteenth century the Italian philosopher, Giordano Bruno, an early support of the Copernican theory that the Earth and other planets orbit the Sun, put forward the view that the fixed stars are similar to the Sun and are likewise accompanied by planets. He was burned at the stake by the Roman Inquisition in 1600, though his views on astronomy were not the main reason for his condemnation.
 
“In the eighteenth century the same possibility was mentioned by Sir Isaac Newton in the “General Scholium” that concludes his “Principia”.   Making a comparison to the Sun's planets, he wrote, “And if the fixed stars are the centers of similar systems, they will all be constructed of a similar design and subject to the dominion of One. ”   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extrasolar_planet
 
We all remember from school Galileo (Galileo Galilei) (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642), in relation to the telescope. He was an Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer and philosopher. Galileo has sometimes been called the “father of modern observational astronomy,” “The father of modern physics, and “the Father of Modern Science.”
 
Galileo's championing of heliocentrism was controversial within his lifetime, when most subscribed to either geocentrism or the Tychonic system. He met with opposition from astronomers, who doubted heliocentrism due to the absence of an observed stellar parallax.  The matter was investigated by the Roman Inquisition in 1615, and they concluded that it could only be supported as a possibility, not as an established fact.  Galileo later defended his views in Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems,  which appeared to attack Pope Urban VIII and thus alienated him and the Jesuits, who had both supported Galileo up until this point.[9]  He was tried by the Inquisition, found “vehemently suspect of heresy”, forced to recant, and spent the rest of his life under house arrest.
 
As we look at this section establishing the fact that God's glory is seen in all of creation maybe we should be grateful that at least we are not being burned at the stake. Citations B1-B5 outline how God's creation and glory fill the universe. And when we read the citations from Science and Health it is clearly established that “Spirit, God has created all in and of Himself.” (S-3)
 
Citation S1 states that “God creates and governs the universe, including man. The universe is filled with spiritual ideas, which He evolves and they are obedient to the Mind that makes them.” And, citation S4 continues “The true theory of the universe, including man, is not in material history, but in spiritual development. Inspired thought relinquishes a material, sensual, and mortal theory of the universe, and adopts the spiritual and immortal.” (S&H 547)
 
Section 2:  The angel, Gabriel, speaks to Zacharias, Elisabeth, and Mary with news that shatters the “normal” routine.
In citation B8 we have unfolded the remarkable story of Zacharias and Elisabeth. Zacharias is a faithful priest and his wife, Elisabeth is identified as a descendant of Aaron.  They are both past the time we might call the prime child-bearing years. But evidently Zacharias had been praying because he receives a message in the form of the angel, Gabriel.   “Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John.” And when Elisabeth's cousin, Mary, comes the little one dances for joy.  Elisabeth recognizes the significance of Mary's thought.
 
As citation S7 and S8 state: “The Old Testament assigns to the angels, God's divine messages, different offices. Gabriel has the more quiet task of imparting a sense of the ever-presence of ministering Love.”
 
Citation S9 establishes that “Love, the divine Principle, is the Father and Mother of the universe, including man.” (S&H 256:7)   What a powerful example of God's love as Father-Mother breaking through the barriers of age and general beliefs about conception. And the individual demonstration of Zachariah and Elisabeth glorified God in evolving in their thought the certainty that God, Love is the “force” behind all birth. The reality of God's divine presence found receptivity in their thought. This “prepared” ground of receptivity gave birth to a spiritual idea that would prepare the thought of humanity to recognize and see the advent of the Christ. And Mary also received a promise that would shatter even further the world's belief about man's origins.
 
Like the space-based telescopes now sending clearer images of distant stars and planets, we can also raise ourselves out of the mists of mortal limitation to behold more clearly the true source of man's existence as God's own child, untouched by the clouds of mortal sense.
 
In the spring of 1977 I rented my first office for the public practice of Christian Science.  I had applied Christian Science in my own experience, I had taken primary class instruction in Christian Science, and I was eager to share what I was learning. One of the first individuals that came for healing was a young mother of three children. She had just taken a medical examination as required by her medical insurance. Immediately following the exam, the doctor told the young woman to stop work. He informed her that she had a form of cancer that could prove fatal and would certainly prevent her from having any further children. 
When she came to my office I agreed to take the case. She contacted me daily by telephone or by personal visit. We decided to support our prayers with a regular, deep study of the Christian Science Bible Lesson. As we worked together for several months the young woman began to find herself desiring to change some of her lifestyle choices. There was a significant “evolution” and elevation of her thought spiritually. I can remember specifically guarding my thought from the desire of telling her what she should or should not be doing. But on her own she began a definite improvement of her lifestyle.
 
In a few months she was able to pass an insurance exam that allowed her to go back to work. And in just a short while later she found herself expecting again. She was thrilled. There had been no medical treatment, procedures, or medicine. The only operation that had taken place was the raising of her thought to a more spiritual way of thinking.
 
As citation S10 states “Multiplication of God's children comes from no power of propagation in matter, it is the reflection of Spirit. Whatever reflects Mind, Life, Truth, and Love, is spiritually conceived and brought forth; but the statement that man is conceived and evolved both spiritually and materially, or by both God and man, contradicts this eternal truth. All the vanity of the ages can never make both these contraries true.” (303:5, 10)
 
Section 3:  Mary and Elisabeth cherishing the holiness of what they are sharing.
What a joy it must have been as Elisabeth and Mary spent their time together, cherishing the spiritual developments they were sharing. As we make the glorious news that came to Zacharias, Elisabeth, and Mary our own, we can also experience the “leap” that little John made in his Mama's womb. We are then entertaining the promise, the Spirit of a source of Life that goes beyond all material conditions. 
Below you will find the account as translated in Eugene Peterson's “The Message” Bible translation.  Here is what Eugene Peterson himself has to say about why he wrote The Message: “While I was teaching a class on Galatians, I began to realize that the adults in my class weren't feeling the vitality and directness that I sensed as I read and studied the New Testament in its original Greek.  Writing straight from the original text, I began to attempt to bring into English the rhythms and idioms of the original language.  I knew that the early readers of the New Testament were captured and engaged by these writings and I wanted my congregation to be impacted in the same way.  I hoped to bring the New Testament to life for two different types of people: those who hadn't read the Bible because it seemed too distant and irrelevant and those who had read the Bible so much that it had become 'old hat.'”
 
Citation B9 from The Message translation reads:Mary didn't waste a minute. She got up and traveled to a town in Judah in the hill country, straight to Zachariah's house, and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby in her womb leaped. She was filled with the Holy Spirit, and sang out exuberantly, You're so blessed among women, and the babe in your womb, also blessed! And why am I so blessed that the mother of my Lord visits me? The moment the sound of your greeting entered my ears, The babe in my womb skipped like a lamb for sheer joy. Blessed woman, who believed what God said, believed every word would come true! And Mary said, I'm bursting with God-news; I'm dancing the song of my Savior God– the God whose very name is holy, set apart from all others. Mary stayed with Elizabeth for three months and then went back to her own home. When Elizabeth was full-term in her pregnancy, she bore a son. Her neighbors and relatives, seeing that God had overwhelmed her with mercy, celebrated with her. (Luke 1:39-47, 49, 56-58)
 
Citation S18 states clearly that: “Christian Science presents unfoldment, not accretion; it manifests no material growth from molecule to mind, but an impartation of the divine Mind to man and the universe. Proportionately as human generation ceases, the unbroken links of eternal, harmonious being will be spiritually discerned; and man, not of the earth earthly but coexistent with God, will appear.” (S&H 68:27-2) [The concept of consistent upgrades is continued in citation] S19: “Through many generations human beliefs will be attaining diviner conceptions, and the immortal and perfect model of God's creation will finally be seen as the only true conception of being.” (S&H 260:8)  
 
Section 4:  The “Conception” of Immanuel, or “God with us.” “The Son always shines!”
The world and those wrapped up in the world are not always ready to acknowledge the presence or the ever-presence of God. A divine event can occur and some may not even realize what has taken place. The blindness, the denseness of mortal thought and mortal belief can be even more impenetrable than the deepest of cloud cover, as it attempts to cover up the sun. But when one rises above the clouds, the glory of the sun can be beyond description. Since airplanes nowadays are equipped with sensors and instruments that can pierce right through heavy cloud cover, it is sometimes possible for an airplane to take off in conditions that are almost like flying in the dark. 
 
But as the airplane rises higher and higher the clouds are left behind. And I have had the experience of a completely rainy day, with thick clouds, being transformed into a day of brilliant sunshine. It was only a question of elevation. 
In this case the Christ, Immanuel, God with us, touched the lives of ten men sick with leprosy. All ten were healed. But only one came back to say thank you.  (B14)
In her book, Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy refers to this event. It is in a paragraph with the heading, “Ingratitude and Denial”: “Of the ten lepers whom Jesus healed, but one returned to give God thanks, – that is, to acknowledge the divine Principle which had healed him.” (S 22, 94:20) I find that I have to continually remind myself to “acknowledge the divine Principle.”  The mortal attempt to monopolize or steal God's creation through blinding us to God's Christ, God's saving presence is like a dense cloud or fog bank. Ah, but rise through acknowledgement, rise through gratitude.  We can't be made to be blinded to what God has done and is doing.  [As Miss Mary Kessler once said in Warren's Sunday School class: “Gratitude outlaws blindness to present good.”]
 
Recently I remembered a healing that I had never acknowledged. It actually is one of my first recollections or memories. My Grandmother and Grandfather Stewart were visiting our little house in Leesburg, Florida. I must have been about two years old. I remember them being there. And I remember that my mom brought in a pot of coffee. Our little living room was full. And I remember reaching up to the table and pulling the very hot coffee right on to my face, the whole coffee pot. I remember no pain whatsoever. I remember my Grandmother being completely upset. And I remember my mother taking me in her arms. And I remember being stilled and comforted. There was no trauma left in me or on me. My sight was not affected. My skin was not burned. I was fine. The other day I returned to give God thanks. I realized how grateful I should be.
 
With my healing with the coffee was there any “power” in scalding liquid to disrupt the perfection of reality? If God is the one and only cause, the only force in the universe what is there to disrupt man's perfection, the “reality of perfection” as Laurance Doyle described Mrs. Eddy's discovery. There is actually nothing to oppose the perfection of God's reality. 
 
Section 5:  The Revelation of God's glory at the center of the universe.
The early  Church persecuted many visionaries who were simply seeing things as they were. But the only problem was that these new insights into the nature of stars and planets challenged long-cherished beliefs. These false beliefs about earth and man as being the center of the universe were never the fact, but religious dogma held the false view as fact. 
 
Perhaps there are long-cherished beliefs that each of us hold close:  like tatters that we wrap about us. When we remember that the garments of Christ are “without seam or rent,” can't we go forth as explorers, as discoverers opening our hearts to see the glory of God made manifest.
This week's lesson can open our lives to these new visions, these new insights. And we can learn: that there truly is no limit to infinity; that the infinite nature of the universe reflects all the perfection of reality. As Revelation 21:”And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away”. (B16)   
 
Citation S28 continues: “Spiritual sense is the discernment of spiritual good. Understanding is the line of demarcation between the real and unreal. Spiritual understanding unfolds Mind, – Life, Truth, and Love, – and demonstrates the divine sense, giving the spiritual proof of the universe in Christian Science. This understanding is not intellectual, is not the result of scholarly attainments; it is the reality of all things brought to light.” (S&H 505:20-28)
 
In excerpts from her article called “One Cause and Effect” (Misc. pp. 21-30) Mary Baker Eddy [further explains how her remarkable re-discovery of the spiritual nature of the universe changes everything:] The prophets, Jesus, and the apostles, demonstrated a divine intelligence that subordinates so-called material laws; and disease, death, winds, and waves, obey this intelligence.  Was it Mind or matter that spake in creation, “and it was done”? The answer is self-evident, and the command remains, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”  
 “It is plain that the Me spoken of in the First Commandment, must be Mind; for matter is not the Christian's God, and is not intelligent. Matter cannot even talk; and the serpent, Satan, the first talker in its behalf, lied.  Reason and revelation declare that God is both noumenon and phenomena, – the first and only cause. The universe, including man, is not a result of atomic action, material force or energy; it is not organized dust.  [italics added]
 
 “No human hypotheses, whether in philosophy, medicine, or religion, can survive the wreck of time; but whatever is of God, hath life abiding in it, and ultimately will be known as self-evident truth, as demonstrable as mathematics.  Each successive period of progress is a period more humane and spiritual. The only logical conclusion is that all is Mind and its manifestation, from the rolling of worlds, in the most subtle ether, to a potato-patch.”
 
“The agriculturist ponders the history of a seed, and believes that his crops come from the seedling and the loam; even while the Scripture declares He made “every plant of the field before it was in the earth.”  The Scientist asks, Whence came the first seed, and what made the soil?  Was it molecules, or material atoms?  Whence came the infinitesimals, – from infinite Mind, or from matter? If from matter, how did matter originate? Was it self-existent? Matter is not intelligent, and thus able to evolve or create itself: it is the very opposite of Spirit, intelligent, self-creative, and infinite Mind. The belief of mind in matter is pantheism.”
 
When my son, Noah, first came to me with the news that a planet had been found that was habitable and around 72 degrees [Fahrenheit] , it seemed like he was ready to pack up and go that very minute. “And Papa, it's only 600 light years away!”  (Well, I think actually 587 light years. But after all, what are a few light years anyway?) As we talked about the discovery and discussed 600 light years, I had one question: What is even faster than the speed of light? What is from one side of the world to the other without time? As my mom's Christian Science teacher, Mary Sands Lee, encouraged her students to declare, “By virtue of unfolding Mind I am already home.” By virtue of unfolding Mind we are already there. No delay, no stoppage, no coming and going, simply [being] there as Jesus showed on the Galilean Sea.   “When evening came, his disciples went down to the lake, where they got into a boat and set off across the lake for Capernaum.  By now it was dark, and Jesus had not yet joined them.  A strong wind was blowing and the waters grew rough.  When they had rowed three or three and a half miles, they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the water; and they were terrified.  But he said to them, “It is I; don't be afraid.”  Then they were willing to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading.” (John 6:16-20, New International Version
 
It is not Star Trek; it is better. It is not “to boldly go where no man has gone before;” it is to boldly, joyfully, gloriously go where our Master has gone before.
Won't you join me; I can't wait to see what Kepler 22 B looks like in all its spiritual glory.

[MATCHING FUND OPPORTUNITY FOR MAINTENANCE MUSTS!  A precious donor has recently re-pledged a matching grant of $25,000 if we can raise that amount by year-end for “Maintenance Musts” work on buildings and vehicles before next summer.  After our Board meeting and recent email appeals we now have “only” $5,000 to raise this month; so, if you have been blessed by any of CedarS 3 weekly inspirational newsletters (our Mets or our PSSTs and PYCLs for Sunday School teachers), NOW would be a wonderful time to share your appreciation. We are profoundly grateful for your ongoing support!
 
 To send an actual check please mail to:
The CedarS Camps Office

1314 Parkview Valley Dr.
Ballwin, MO 63011
 
 [Your 50th Anniversary gift to CedarS–as generous as divine Love directs-will play a needed part in CedarS important, year-round work for Christian Science Sunday School students.]
 [Sharing the applicable principles of Christianity in CedarS Bible Lands Park: Our new Fall-season outreach (that is fostering a proper understanding of Christian Science) is giving tours of our new Bible Lands Park that clearly demonstrate to Bible-loving churches and youth groups of other denominations how Christian Scientists love and “take the inspired Word of the Bible as our sufficient guide to eternal Life.” (S&H 497:3)  As shown in video clips we are currently working in our Bible Lands Park to expand our ability to share applicable New Testament insights by building a trail with activity, learning stations that follow Paul's teachings and trips from Antioch to Ephesus, Corinth, Athens, Rome … We welcome all gifts to enable such inspiring “Home Improvements” to be made NOW before it gets too cold and snowy to work outside.]
 
[CedarS recurring needs are listed at http://www.cedarscamps.org/giving/unrestricted-gifts.htm  Just click here to use a credit or debit card (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, or Discover card) or a virtual check to make very helpful monthly donations to CedarS (or to give one-time gifts) in support of spiritual growth.  International supporters can give to CedarS via PayPal using built-in currency exchange rates by filling in an amount under International Donors and clicking on the “Donate Online” button.  
 
[Lastly you can help by telling “un-camped” children and families about CedarS being a wise and happy place for them to glimpse and demonstrate more of their spiritual natures!  We'll gladly send anyone a DVD and info on CedarS financial aid forms; programs for all ages; 2012 session dates & rates; 2012 online enrollment; transportation… to help get them or anyone in your extended church family to camp!]

 [Camp Director's Note: This sharing is the latest in an ongoing, 11-year series of CedarS Bible Lesson “Mets” (Metaphysical application ideas) contributed weekly by a rotation of CedarS Resident Practitioners and occasionally by other metaphysicians.  (Ask and look for “Possible Sunday School Topics “and “Possible Younger Class Lessons” in subsequent emails.) These weekly offerings are intended to encourage further study and application of ideas in the lesson and to invigorate Sunday School participation by students and by the budding teachers on our staff. Originally sent JUST to my Sunday School students and to campers, staff and CedarS families who wanted to continue at home and in their home Sunday Schools the same type of focused Lesson study, application and inspiration they had felt at camp, CedarS lesson “mets “and Sunday School ideas are in no way meant to be definitive or conclusive or in any way a substitute for daily study of the lesson. The thoughts presented are the inspiration of the moment and are offered to give a bit more dimension and background as well as new angles (and angels) on the daily applicability of some of the ideas and passages being studied. The weekly Bible Lessons are copyrighted by the Christian Science Publishing Society and are printed in the Christian Science Quarterly as available at Christian Science Reading Rooms or online at eBibleLesson.com or myBibleLesson.com. The citations referenced (i.e.B-1 and S-28) from this week's Bible Lesson in the “Met” (Metaphysical application ideas) are taken from the Bible (B-1 thru B-24) and the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health With Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy (S-1 thru S-30). The Bible and Science and Health are the ordained pastor of the Churches of Christ, Scientist. The Bible Lesson is the sermon read in Christian Science church services throughout the world. The Lesson-Sermon speaks individually through the Christ to everyone, providing unique insights and tailor-made applications for each one. We are glad you requested this metaphysical sharing and hope that you find some of the ideas helpful in your daily spiritual journey, in your deeper digging in the books and in closer bonding with your Comforter and Pastor.]
 Enjoy!    And, please contact us for more info about any and all things about CedarS!

[Warren's PS for GT: With their infinite dimensions “the heavens declare the glory of God” as Mrs. Eddy revealed. Far ahead of any astronomical calculations that prove the vastness of infinity she wrote: “even as nebulae indicate the immensity of space.”  (S&H 509:16) Click here to check out a rap about what Edwin Hubble discovered and published as Hubble's Law in 1929 and about the Doppler Effect and Red Shift of light that conclusively show our rapidly expanding universe.  Try to imagine the immensity of space in which nebulae (clouds of interstellar gas and dust) reflect the red-shifted color of light moving away from us at the speed of light at the same time as blue-shifted light waves moving toward us at about at the speed of light are compressed in the visible spectrum.  In like manner sound waves of a siren moving at the same speed toward you are higher than the sound as it passes you and moves away from you.]
 
[Warren's PS for RR and Section 5: Consider this insight about the Responsive Reading (RT) command to “bring an offering and come before him” (I Chron. 16:29) and about Section 5: “Behold the tabernacle of God is with men”. (B16, Rev. 21:3) In the Tabernacle in the Wilderness at CedarS Bible Lands Park, we spiritualize the steps of coming before God and bringing an offering.  To make sure our offering is pure; we need to stop viewing it as a sacrifice (at the altar) brought about by our human effort. Only after we wash self out (at the laver) from our sense of giving will we have an “offering pure”. (Hymn 253:7) Only when we stop making our sense of giving personal and “Quit Taking It Personally” (Q-T.I.P) will the offering and the prayers we bring lead to the next highly desired stages: God's light and provision (as represented by the menorah and table of shew bread in the tabernacle.]
 
[Warren's PS for Section 1: CedarS Camps got its name over 50 years ago when its Founder, my Mom, Ruth Huff, opened her Bible at random about starting a camp for Christian Scientists on her dad's property located in the beautiful Missouri Ozarks near Lebanon. Her eyes first feel on citation B3 (Ps. 104:16-18) “The trees of the Lord are full of sap; the cedars of Lebanon which he hath planted;” Like CedarS Camps, each of you is planted by God and is “full of sap”-filled with the vitality and vigor of putting Christian Science in action. Remember that “Christian Science brings to the body (your body) the sunlight of Truth, which invigorates and purifies.” (S&H 162:4)]
 
[Warren's P.S. for Section 2:  Like Zacharius, Elisabeth, Mary and Joseph in citation B8, we should “Brake for Angels” that are ever repeating to us God's messages like: “Fear not” and “You are My beloved child in whom I am well pleased!” As we “make radiant room” (Hymn 298:2) for these celestial messages about our true being, all the seeming pressures of the season yield to best, Omnipresence of the Christ. As the daughter or “son of the Highest” (B8, Luke 1:32) you have the highest “ancestry” of “the beautiful, good, and pure”. (S12)  Like a hybrid car, you are a “High-Bred”, energy-conserving idea that gets great mileage and feel rested while following Jesus' advice to the heavy-laden to “take my yoke upon you and learn of me”. (Matt. 11:29-30)  With a pulling partner like the “Christ…yea, the divine image and likeness” (S&H 332:11), you can operate as unspent and burden-free as a reflection does!]
 
[Warren's P.S. for Section 3 & 5: I like to think of Mary's mindset that brought in the Christ — “My soul doth magnify the Lord; and my spirit hath rejoiced in God, my Savior”–as her tip to us for the mindset we need to fully welcome Christ as the reason for this season. Like Mary, we can consistently use our spiritual sense (or soul S&H 577:8) like a magnifying glass to magnifying Good to make it larger and easier to “read” and to understand.  See more about CedarS intended gift to each camper, that is: “spiritual sense” in citations S27 & S28). Stated another way: “The real Christian Scientist is constantly accentuating (magnifying) harmony in word and deed, mentally and orally.” Mis. 206:19]

[PSST: Feel whole from “sum”, whole-making hymns!]
Possible Sunday School Topics by Merrill Boudreaux
for the Christian Science Bible Lesson for December 18, 2011:
“Is the Universe, Including Man, Evolved by Atomic Force?”
[bracketed italics by Warren Huff]
 
Let's read hymns together this week to anchor what we are learning about our subject in each part of the lesson.[Learn lesson parts through our whole-making hymns! The lesson becomes more than the sum of its parts, like our class, camp family and universe do!–Warren]
 
P.S.S.T. – Golden Text   
Hymn 45. Why is and should God be glorious to us and praised?
 
P.S.S.T. – Responsive Reading
Hymn 73. Why is the world stable and unmoved? Even when the material view claims destruction and nature out of control look to the Responsive Reading for anchoring ideas to hang on to: The Lord reigneth.
 
 P.S.S.T. – Section 1
Hymn 332. What can you know about God from this section?
 
P.S.S.T. – Section 2 –
Hymn 50. How did Elisabeth and Zacharias serve God?  How did the angel Gabriel help Mary to be relieved of any stress about the role she was about to undertake?
 
P.S.S.T. – Sections 3
Hymn 136. How did Elisabeth and Mary serve God? What was God's promise to each of them? S15 and S16.
 
P.S.S.T. – Section 4 –
Hymn 222. What happened to those lepers who Jesus met on the street? Why? Do you think those lepers felt like Christmas morning?
 
 P.S.S.T. – Section 5 –  
Hymn 72. Glory be to God indeed! Where does real power lie? What does real power reveal?  – “…the spiritual facts and harmony of the universe.” (S 26)
 
NB [Nota Bene, Note well]If you complete all the above then familiarize your class with Hymn 23. Where is Christmas? When is Christmas? To whom does Christmas come?
 
[PS sent yesterday from Met subscriber, Laurance Doyle: “Much thanks — great ideas! I hope I'm not being immodest, but I would add Kepler-16b (the first Kepler circumbinary planet)  to the list below:  http://kepler.nasa.gov/Mission/discoveries/kepler16b/ All the very best,”]

[PYCL: “Occupy Heaven St.” here and now!  Make stepping stones to it.]
CedarS PYCL–
Possible Younger Class Lessons for:  
 “Is
the Universe Including Man Evolved by Atomic Force?”
The Christian Science Bible Lesson for December 18, 2011
by Kerry Jenkins, CS, House Springs, MO (314) 406-0041
[Bracketed italics by Warren Huff, PYCL Editor]
 
[PYCL: Discuss what evolution & atomic force mean. Analyze the choice of evolution events.]
Well the short answer to the question of this week’s lesson is “of course not!!” But it might help to discuss with slightly older grades what “evolved” [and evolution] means and what “atomic force” refers to, just so they know why this topic was chosen. This lesson shouts out the glorious creative, healing power of God. I might be tempted to try writing out some sort of chart with the three or four main occurrences in this week's lesson so we can see them all at once. You could include Elizabeth's and Zacharias' visit with Gabriel and their subsequent conception of John. Follow that with Mary's encounter with the angel and her conception of Jesus. And next there’s the story of Jesus healing the 10 lepers. Finally, add the passage from Revelation about the spiritual unfoldment and discernment of the universe of Spirit. Lay this out so that all the “stories” can be seen at once and see what the kids make of it. I would say that above third grade might have some ideas of their own about how they relate to the subject and may have some insight on how these stories illuminate this subject. (Again you will have to gauge your class and their understanding). But with some pre- discussion earlier grades can take a look at this chart and have a fruitful study of these stories and what they say to the kids about God's creation. With the stories of conception, it may be quite apparent what the connection is, but I would encourage them to dig deeper once the obvious is stated.  What does it say about Elizabeth's, John's and Mary's spiritual view of the universe that they were willing to accept, for the most part graciously, the angel's word to them even though Elizabeth was considered too old to conceive and had also been unable to have children, and Mary had not been “with a man”?  (You can read further in the story of Zacharias' encounter with the angel and see that his skepticism caused him to be unable to talk until John's birth!  But clearly he was still a humble and holy recipient of God's grace.)  Was it important that John and Jesus be born under such unusual circumstances?  Couldn't they have come about in the “regular” way?  What do their births teach us about our own existence?  Do you think that we are all actually spiritual creations?  When we accept a mortal sense of birth, what else comes with that as “natural and normal”?  
 
[PYCL: Discuss the freedom & responsibilities of having “not a single element of error”!] 
Talk about citation S17, the well-known part about “A spiritual idea has not a single element of error,…”  Can any of the kids talk about what that means to them?  What freedom does that bring?  What responsibilities does this statement demand of us?
 
[PYCL–Section 4: Occupy the 10% Mindset & action: be as quick as the 10% to recognize God’s “hand” in your day!] 
Look at the stories in Section 4:  John sends his disciples to ask about whether Jesus is the prophesied Christ.  Jesus responds with a record of healing.  This is followed by the healing of the 10 lepers with the one “stranger” [10%] returning to give gratitude.  What does this say about the leper's discernment of Jesus' special place in God's creation?  What does it say about the one Samaritan's gratitude and clearly deeper understanding of Jesus' role as the Christ presence?  Are we as quick to recognize God's “hand” in our day to day lives as the one leper that returned to give thanks?  If our answer is, “well, I wasn't just instantaneously healed of leprosy”, then we are like the other 9 [90%].  God is a present and powerful force in our lives and we must constantly “turn” and give thanks in order to perceive more of God's creation.  Can you think of reasons why it was the “stranger” that turned to give thanks? (This implies that the others were countrymen of Jesus', Hebrews.) What does this mean in present day terms?
 
[PYCL- Section 5:Occupy Heaven Street” here and now! “advancing steps”…]
How about the spiritual perception that John of Revelation displayed in his vision of the divine universe of Spirit right here and now?  How can we glimpse some of that present power and beauty today?  What senses are we listening to when God seems far away and dim to us?  (See S29)  What “advancing” steps can we take to make the glory of God's creation clearer every day for us?
 
[PYCL-more on Section 5: List ways heaven is showing itself. Make stepping stones to it.]
Here’s another thing to look at for the youngest classes; and this can be used for older too… Look at the Golden Text and notice that “The heavens declare…”  To me that indicates that it is the highest good that is all around that tells us of God's creation, His glory!  Can you list things that you see around you that are ways that heaven is showing itself?  Can you turn these things into stepping stones (representing those “advancing steps” from Section 5?)  Make a list in big print or pictures one to a page and set them out as “stepping stones” to the “new Jerusalem”.  You can talk about New Jerusalem as heaven and what heaven is here.  Can we tell when we are on those advancing steps?  When we are not?  How are things different when we are stepping off the path and choosing to argue with our brother or sister, _____ (you fill in the blank).  What is heaven to you?  You can describe something to them that represents heaven to you, and see if they have some ideas too.  Heaven represents not only God's home where harmony reigns, but something that is highest, most elevated.  So you could talk about what is “high” and what is “low”.  When you are high in the sky, above the clouds, it is always sunny (in the day).  This light represents joy, understanding, illumination, etc.  Whereas something “low” might be underground, “dark”, hard to see or discern/understand, etc.  It is what is most elevating that glorifies God.  Anything that doesn't do this is a lie about creation, has no power and we shouldn't “recognize” it as valid!  We should “declare” God's perfect creation through healing!  A little kid can grasp this as well as anyone older.
 
Hope this gives you some ideas, have a wonderful Sunday School!
 
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