In the Christian Science Bible Lesson January 2, 2012 Issue

A cup of salvation

For the lesson titled "Sacrament" from January 2-8, 2012

By Kathleen Collins

How is it possible to express to God the depth of our gratitude? The Psalmist ponders this question in the Golden Text of this week’s Bible Lesson, titled “Sacrament”: “What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me?” and then thoughtfully answers, “I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord” (Ps. 116:12, 13). 

In the same vein, Mary Baker Eddy asks her readers, “Christians, are you drinking his cup?” (Science and Health, p. 33, citation 23) This Lesson’s twenty-one references to cup suggest this is a question worth investigating! 

A cup in Bible times, then as now of course, was a drinking vessel, but cup also symbolized one’s God-given lot in life. As Psalm 11:3 puts it, “The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup” (cit. 12). To be close to God, to “stand in his holy place” requires “clean hands, and a pure heart” (Ps. 24:3, 4, cit. 5), a state of thought symbolized by baptism. Science and Health defines baptism as “purification by Spirit; submergence in Spirit” (p. 581, cit. 2). Jesus tied the themes of cup and baptism together, asking his disciples, “Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” (Matt. 20:22, cit. 3).