Monthly Archives: January 2015

The Covenant – Self-knowledge

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January 21, 2015

http://www.christianscienceneworleans.org/ArchiveWedReadings2015.html

     This Wednesday our readings are about the covenant, an important Biblical concept that appears 280 times in the Scriptures.  We first encounter the word covenant through the symbol of a rainbow in the cloud at the time of Noah. We know covenant as an agreement between God and Abraham and the patriarchs, and as a divine constitution of laws governing Moses and the Israelites in their new country. We know it as a treaty between men and nations, as a marriage covenant, and as the “blood of the New Covenant” shared by Jesus during the Last Supper.  “The Way” by Mary Baker Eddy provides structure for this concept of the covenant, and we will be following her steps of self-knowledge, humility, and love over the next three weeks. “The Way” is an article from Miscellaneous Writings (pages 355-359) in Prose Works, and if you don’t have a copy, I have attached a pdf of “The Way” on the readings page.
     In addition to following the structure in “The Way,” the readings also follow the three degrees in the scientific translation of mortal mind — physical, moral, and spiritual (Science and Health pages 115-116). Over the next three weeks, there are also references to the marriage covenant which is used as a symbol throughout the Bible.
     One of my goals in being First Reader has been to cover all the paragraphs in Science and Health, including the ones that I don’t remember ever appearing in our Bible Lessons. The story of Noah gave me an opportunity to use one of those unusual paragraphs, so I wonder if anyone will notice it?

 

Employment

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January 7, 2015

http://www.christianscienceneworleans.org/ArchiveWedReadings2015.html

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday break, and I know that many of us are heading back to work this week. Employment is the subject of this Wednesday’s readings, and I’ve also included some Sentinel articles on this topic.  (Please send me an email if you don’t have a jsh-online subscription and would like a copy of any of these articles.)
Here is a short poem by Patricia Perkins from the August 22, 1994 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel which makes a sweet introduction to this topic:

God is our Employer.
The firm is God and man;
Our permanence is established,
In fact, before the world began.
No one is made redundant—
His plan for us is well done!
Our employment is the expression of
God’s love for everyone.

*Luke 2:49