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[Have a Happy Easter with proofs of matter’s unreality!]
Metaphysical Application Ideas for the Christian Science Bible Lesson on

Unreality

for Sunday, April 5, 2015

by Kerry Jenkins, CS, House Springs, MO
(314) 406-0041 kerry.helen.jenkins@gmail.com

[Bracketed italics added by CedarS Director, Warren, who’s very grateful for good support already received, with more needed. Now that applications are coming in daily, it is apparent that getting many to camp will depend on "Love's Provision" of campership assistance. Won't you be an angel who gives a life-altaring and life-altering experience at CedarS?]

There is probably no more gruesome story in the Bible than the crucifixion of Jesus. His great love for God and man, the powerful healing and restoration of broken lives and bodies that he bestowed, eventually was met with envy, shame and hatred, which led to his crucifixion. If you’ve ever had a mighty struggle with something, an illness, family issue, accident, death or any other evil that seems profound and undeniable, you will know how challenging it can be to keep thought focused on the spiritual truth at all times and not to be swayed or convinced by the very aggressive testimony of the material senses (unreality). That’s the challenge that this lesson helps us to meet. Jesus’ resurrection and ultimately, his ascension, were the real story. They were the quieter, less well-attended, but far more powerful events that were the culmination of his Christly mission on earth. Jesus’ life was one that was dedicated to God and to blessing God’s creation. He denied the reality of material sense throughout his life; this denial was central to his healing power. He taught us how this was done and expected us to carry on this work. This includes the resurrection of our own thoughts and lives from existence for, and in, matter, and our ascension out of matter into Spirit in every way that we can. His example was for us today, wherever we are in location and in thought. Resurrection is not for some time “down the road”—it is now, seeing reality, overturning unreality, welcoming the Christ at every turn.

Speaking of timing… our Golden Text tells us just that: “The hour is come…”. This is the call to us to lift that Christ-consciousness above the swirling, obscuring mists of unreality, to heal, and in the process, be a beacon of light to all around you. The Responsive Reading (RR) declares that God has made His power and presence visible, and obvious to all (“…made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.”).

As we devote ourselves to the Christly mission of healing that Jesus laid out for us, we will see the seeming solidity of matter fall away—while “…those things which cannot be shaken may remain.” (Also from the RR) The unreality of evil becomes apparent to us, and by our example, more apparent to those around us.

Section 1: Christ reduces mountainous evil to breeze-born chaff.
This section is filled with powerful imagery that illustrates Christ’s ability to help us discern between the real and unreal. When we experience a Christian Science healing, prophecy is fulfilled once again. The Christ has come to our own consciousness and with its “sharp teeth” (B1), has reduced what may have seemed like a mountain of aggressive material evidence, into the insubstantial hull—the chaff—that it is. For us this may or may not be an instantaneous process. But our perseverance and faithful adherence to Christ’s truth, will always reveal the reality of God’s goodness—the unreality and powerlessness of matter.

We’ve had experiences “big and small” in our family that have proven this fact repeatedly. One of the simpler ones that occurs to me was on a day where I awoke early in the morning feeling very sick to my stomach. Not only could I not stop throwing up about every ten minutes, even when there was absolutely nothing left to get rid of, but the discomfort in my stomach was intense. This went on very persistently from about 5 in the morning until 9 in the evening. There was no napping, no break, no let-up. I remember at about 9 o’clock that night that I realized that all the good work that I was trying to do, all the good work that the practitioner I had contacted had done, was being obscured from my view by this aggressive evidence that matter could somehow be more powerful than Spirit, that unreality could obscure from my sight the reality of God’s presence and my own perfection or wholeness. I got off the couch, and despite my seeming weakness and discomfort I began to pace in circles and declare about the only thing I could bring to thought at the time—the Scientific Statement of Being from Science & Health on page 468. I began to expand on each sentence and did this aloud and firmly. I did this for about 20 minutes, and then the entire illness vanished. It just disappeared. There was no recovery time, no “saltines and chicken soup”—just total and complete health and well-being. And along with that there was, of course, the very real conviction of Love’s warmth and presence in my life, the inspired and joyous feeling of reality that made all evidence of unreality/sick matter, disappear.

Section 2: Don’t look back—keep that “high goal” before you!
What does progress have to do with either unreality or Easter? Unreality seems to have the ability at times to trap us in the past, or at least in matter and a material sense of reality. Had Jesus accepted the material view of life as simply existent in matter, he could not have experienced the resurrection. We also must be willing to rise above the daily pull of matter and material responsibilities (taking care of our house, “burying our father”—B4). If we are focused on these urgent demands and tend to them with a deep sense of responsibility, there will never be time “left over” for the things of the Spirit. Trust me; you can never get material duties completed enough to feel that you now have time to spend on the things of God. If you are waiting for life to “settle down”, waiting to “finish school”, “until you have a good job”, “are married”, “have kids”, “kids are grown”, “retirement"—you will find yourselves many years down the road, still thinking that “someday” you will… This is why Jesus said, what may have seemed harsh at the time: “…Let the dead bury their dead.” This is also our opportunity to move forward from a material view of our history that may attempt to keep us from progressing. Have you made mistakes, even big ones? We all have done this, and there is nothing error would like more than to keep us tied to those mistakes so that we can never get to the real work of Christly healing. Let us learn from our mistakes, allow the Christ to wash us clean from them, and then show our gratitude for Jesus’ life by following in his path.

Section 3: You gotta take the car out of the garage to get anywhere.
I love this analogy. If you leave your car in the garage—never back it out—it will likely never get a scratch or dent, never break down. It will stay in the condition in which you parked it. Is that an achievement? Obviously not! We’ll never see the country around us (for the sake of this analogy, let’s assume we need a car), we will never have any adventure or life-experience. Likewise, if we take that “seed” of Christ healing and never use it, never try it out or practice it, we will never live on any level other than the material, unreal. Healing is what reveals reality. Citation B6 introduces the analogy of the seed “falling into the ground”. There it will transform, it will split, even seem to be destroyed. Yet the result will be a plant that produces much more than that single seed, in food for people or shelter for birds and insects. In order for us to be fruitful healers we have to be willing to give up that narrow view of success and life that is completely contained in the comforts of matter. [As we often say at camp to remind us that our growth-zone is just beyond our comfort-zone: “whatever stretches you, blesses you!”] We have to be willing to risk a scratch or dent through the experience of living in order to experience the transformation that comes from denying the reality of matter as all that there is. Jesus established his mission, as Mrs. Eddy says in citation S14 “…on a spiritual foundation of Christ-healing.” We can establish our lives on nothing less.

Section 4: "Evil is not supreme; good is not helpless;"—a lesson we have to learn.
This was perhaps Jesus’ darkest hour, the period of agony and prayer in the garden of Gethsemane. There he felt the sting of betrayal and isolation, even from his most faithful followers. One friend of mine points out that his prayer was so earnest that it was like “great drops of blood falling down to the ground”. I cannot think of a time when even my most earnest prayers brought this result… I may have a ways to go… But the Science and Health portion of this section points out that this period, followed by the awful crucifixion, reveals, ultimately, the unreality of evil. How so? If Jesus had avoided this experience, he would not have given us the resurrection, the final proof that God is truly the only power. There was no power in evil’s attempt to kill the Christ. Jesus gave everything to help us understand that evil, no matter how aggressive, has no ultimate power or hold over man, God’s beloved son. We prove this by degrees in our own experience, building one healing on another as we practice seeing the unreality and powerlessness of matter and evil.

Section 5: The crucifixion ended up proving that life is immortal.
How could killing someone end up proving that life cannot be “killed”? Because Jesus did not cling to a sense of life in matter in the first place. Like that seed analogy from earlier, he was ready and willing (though not without asking God to let this experience pass by him), to allow them to kill his body (plant the seed), in order that all of us could better understand that life is of God, not of matter—that the Christ truth is ever alive and active. I’m sure we can all think of many instances in our lives where we would not have chosen to be in the positions we were in. Yet a willingness to look for a deeper understanding of God, rather than for more ease in matter when we are struggling yields healing glimpses of Christly reality. Hopefully none of us will ever undergo such a grueling experience as the crucifixion, but our own willingness to take up the challenges presented us with grace, joy, poise, authority, will reveal to us, and to others, something of the immortality of Life, the power of Love to heal, and the continued comfort of the Christ today.

Section 6: Where are we looking for the Christ?
Rather than looking into the “tomb” of matter for our well-being, health, joy, success, etc., we can be always looking to the risen and ascended Christ idea. We can look to the living, real, visible, active, healing and present Christ. Matter/the tomb will never show us reality. Jesus’ tomb was “empty” save for the angel that greeted the “Marys”. And even the heavy stone, which might be thought of as representing impenetrable and solid matter, was rolled away by the power of the risen Christ and the Love of God. There is no experience of matter, no matter how “substantial”, that can resist the healing power of Christ. The resurrection showed us that and the ascension put the seal on the lesson that life is truly immortal, not within matter.
Happy Easter!


[W’s P.P.S. If you want additional insights on this week’s Bible citations from Cobbey Crisler’s commentaries on them, return to our online version of this “Met” later this week.]


[The weekly Metaphysical Newsletter is provided at no charge to the 1,200 campers and staff blessed each summer at CedarS, as well as to CedarS alumni, families and friends who have requested it. However, current and planned gifts are a big help and are greatly appreciated in defraying the costs of running this service and of providing needed camperships, programs and operations support. Click http://www.cedarscamps.org/giving/ for more about how you can provide even monthly support online. Or you can always call the Huffs at 636-394-6162 get information or discuss privately how to transfer securities or other assets to help support and perpetuate CedarS work.]

[You can also reach a member of the Founding family nearly anytime by
PHONE at 636-394-6162
or MAIL your tax-deductible support to our 501C3 organization
(Our not-for-profit, Federal Identification Number is #440-66-3883):

The CedarS Camps, Inc.
1314 Parkview Valley Drive
Ballwin, MO 63011

THANKS TO YOU PRECIOUS DONORS FOR YOUR ONGOING, GENEROUS and NEEDED SUPPORT OF CedarS IMPORTANT WORK!

[LETTING 3 SPECIAL NEEDS BE KNOWN –
Significant funding is still needed for these special opportunities:
1. Now that CedarS video show circuit is in full swing, it is apparent that getting many to camp will depend on "Love's Provision" of campership assistance. Could you be one of the angels who gives towards camperships and the life-altaring and life-altering experiences they provide at CedarS?]

2. Over 100 needed items are featured on CedarS Giving Tree that could fit the budget of every grateful Met-recipient and camper. You can choose for yourself $1-and-up ways to give to support CedarS needs. Click here to see 2 young alumni tell their reasons to give.

3. “Adopt the Herd” Matching Opportunity! Generous donors, aware of the ongoing need to care for CedarS herd, will match donations for our horse program! (~$20k needed to reach $50k goal)]


[The Met application ideas above are provided primarily to help CedarS campers and staff (as well as friends) see and daily demonstrate the great value of studying and applying the Christian Science Bible lessons throughout the year, not just at camp! YOU CAN ALSO SIGN UP for weekly emails from past CedarS staff of possible ways to share Bible Lesson applications with older, as well as younger, Sunday School classes by clicking the "Subscribe Now" button (lower left) at http://www.cedarscamps.org/metaphysical/ ]

[For additional "Director's Notes" on the history, development & 4 translations of CedarS weekly Bible Lesson "Mets" go to Notes in our online online version of it.]

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