Life in the kingdom
For the Lesson titled "Reality" from September 23 - 29, 2013
Recently, I was listening to a podcast hosted by renowned astrophysicist, Neil deGrasse Tyson. When asked about the possibility of accessing higher dimensions, he replied, “If you could access another dimension, you could never be contained within a prison.” He explained that an ant on a piece of paper cannot be contained within a two dimensional square drawn around it because the ant can always step over the lines, using three dimensionality to claim its freedom.
This illustration reminded me of the revolutionary nature of divine Science, which gives us access to an entirely different dimension—that of the kingdom of heaven. This week’s Bible Lesson, “Reality,” demonstrates how an understanding of this frees us from the human prison of fear, time, disease, heredity—or anything measured by the material senses.
Throughout time, prophets (see definition, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 593 , citation 8) have been helping us break free of the human shackles by making spiritual reality more real to us. In First Corinthians, (cit. 5), Paul explained that it is only the Spirit that can reveal what God creates in and for us. Those who worshipped in house churches—the believing community in Corinth—were so busy arguing with each other about which material laws to follow that they were losing sight of the magnificence of the kingdom. Lack of harmony was their prison. A later prophet and spiritual seer, Mary Baker Eddy, wrote, “The realization that all inharmony is unreal brings objects and thoughts into human view in their true light, and presents them as beautiful and immortal” (Science and Health, p. 276 , cit. 3).
This clarity of thought and purpose that honors and praises only God is the way to break free of any “prison”—and begin to experience the peace that is divinely ours.
Giving credence to spiritual reality can radically transform one’s experience—as exemplified by the series of healings that appear in the Lesson: Jesus healing the blind man (John 9:1–7 , cit. 16), and Paul healing the crippled man at Lystra (Acts 14:8–10 , cit. 18). By healing the blind man, Jesus challenged what at the time was a commonly held belief about the connection between illness and inherited sin. Jewish scholars even argued, based on the enmity of Jacob and Esau in the womb (see Genesis 25), that sin was possible before birth. Many Christian traditions also believe that we are born captive to sin because of Adam and Eve’s folly in Eden.
Divine Science, however, reveals spiritual reality to us in a way that necessarily corrects such erroneous views of life and health. This occurs because “The eternal Truth destroys what mortals seem to have learned from error, and man’s real existence as a child of God comes to light” (Science and Health, p. 288 , cit. 20).
Reality is entirely separate from what we can perceive with our material senses, but that does not mean it can’t be revealed to us here and now. We can each be a prophet—raising thought to the comprehension of the perfect law of God, “converting the soul … making wise the simple … [and] enlightening the eyes” (Psalm 19 , cit. 21).
