This week’s Christian Science Bible lesson in on “Mind” – a term used with a capital “M” by Mary Baker Eddy as a synonym for God.
The Golden text is from Philippians (2:5).
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.
This verse has me thinking not just “WWJD?” but “HWJT?”- In other words, it has me thinking not simply “What Would Jesus Do?” but “How Would Jesus Think?”.
Being a Christian, it might be argued, is primarily about how one behaves [WWJD?]:
- are we loving? The early Christians were known by their love for each other.
- are we healing? When John sent his disciples to ask if Jesus was the promised Messiah – Jesus didn’t spout doctrine – he sent them back to tell John what he was doing – healing the sick. Jesus said his disciples would be known by the fruits – the disciples and early Christians were all healers.
Being a scientist, on the other hand, is more about how one thinks than how one behaves [HWJT?].
Mary Baker Eddy observed that “The time for thinkers has come”(S&H vii:13-15) and she recognized that Christ Jesus was “the most scientific man that ever trod the globe” [S&H ]. Today Jesus isn’t normally considered a scientist – after all he didn’t wear a lab coat or carry test-tubes!
There are lots of reason why we’d want to have the Mind of Christ – for a start this attitude of Mind clearly and naturally healed and saved. But how can we attain the attitude of Mind that Christ Jesus had?
The good news is it is actually normal for all us to think this way. Psalms 40:8 assures us that “(God’s) law is written on (our) hearts”. And I Corinthians chapter 2, while warning that the “natural man”can’t know the things of God – reassures us that “we have the mind of Christ”. Those quotes are from the first section of this week’s Bible Lesson. And that first section ends with Mary Baker Eddy – the author of Science and Health, the founder of the global Christian Science Church and Discover of Christian Science – describing herself as “a willing disciple at the heavenly gate, waiting for the Mind of Christ.”
I too am “ a willing disciple at the heavenly gate, waiting (and working) for the Mind of Christ.”
There is lots in this week’s Bible Lesson that helps us live/adopt/demonstrate more of this Mind of Christ. I have blogged a bit more about the lesson for my Sunday School class tomorrow in Scarborough. So I won’t repeat myself here. But If you are interested in learning more about God, Christ Jesus and the Science of Christianity, then I’d encourage you to study the Bible Lesson yourself – it is available from CS Reading Rooms around the world and also online at mybiblelesson.com and ebiblelesson.com. There’s always an article in each week’s Christian Science Sentinel about the week’s Bible Lesson and you can read it in print or online at spirituality.com.
Back to where I began: If Christianity is about how we act? And Science is about how we think? Then don’t those need these to be integrated in our lives. Christ Jesus could heal because he understood the divine nature or reality. As a passage from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, that in the selection comprising this week’s lesson explains:
The mission of Jesus confirmed prophecy, and explained the so-called miracles of olden time as natural demonstrations of the divine power, demonstrations which were not understood.
S&H 131:26-29
“Natural demonstrations” – Christ healing is natural! How glorious is that? To repeat the ancient works, what do we need? “The Mind of Christ”.
Finally, I am mindful of another passage from Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy:
The letter of Science plentifully reaches humanity to-day, but its spirit comes only in small degrees. The vital part, the heart and soul of Christian Science, is Love. Without this, the letter is but the dead body of Science, — pulseless, cold, inanimate.
S&H 113:3
The last section of the lesson speaks of the “foundation of fellowship” – and don’t we all need the Love and the Truth that make up the Mind of Christ?
Any thoughts – please feel free to comment?
