In the Christian Science Bible Lesson September 23, 2013 Issue

Life in the kingdom

For the Lesson titled "Reality" from September 23 - 29, 2013

Maya Howe Dietz

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).