IN THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE BIBLE LESSON September 15, 2008 Issue

MATTER HAS NO PLACE IN SPIRITUAL BEING

BETH CAREY

THROUGH THE AGES, thinkers have explored the basis of existence. This week's Bible Lesson, titled "Matter," advances this vital investigation, grounding it in St. Paul's remarkable statement on Mars Hill in Athens. Referring to God, Paul said, "For in him we live, and move, and have our being" (Acts 17:28, Section I, citation 1).

Eighteen centuries later, Mary Baker Eddy bluntly challenged the reality of material existence when she wrote, "There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter" (Science and Health, p. 468, cit. 1). That sentence begins her answer to a fundamental question in Christian metaphysics: "What is the scientific statement of being?" The full answer to this question, including how the reader can prove it, is woven throughout this week's Lesson, concluding in Section VI with the statement that "the great spiritual fact must be brought out that man is, not Shall be, perfect and immortal"(Science and Health, p. 428, cit. 26).

I found that Section III, which discusses Jesus' parable of the tares and wheat, helped me know how to distinguish material fiction from spiritual fact. The "great Teacher," Jesus, often used agricultural images as many of his listeners were involved in farming and easily understood such imagery. The tares (weeds) in this parable can be seen as representing matter, and the wheat, spiritual reality, or immortal Truth.