Picture this: Crowds forming, thronging a man. Someone maybe even perching in a tree or climbing on a roof to see him. Perhaps they arrived the night before, and slept on the ground, or huddled under makeshift shelters.
A rock concert? A movie premiere? Not in Galilee nearly two thousand years ago. No. These throngs gathered often to see, hear, and be healed by a former carpenter named Jesus. Many people came out of curiosity alone, but come they did, sometimes by the thousands. Some stayed to learn more about Jesus and his mission. Had they glimpsed that the Saviour they sought was not the carpenter but Christ, the spiritually perfect ideal that Jesus consummately represented?
Jesus promised that the Christ would continue with us forever. Even though Jesus is no longer physically present, that promise has been kept. The Christ, Truth, that Jesus exemplified, that he taught on a Galilean mountainside, in cities and villages, and in the temple at Jerusalem, is found in the teachings and practice of Christian Science. And where better for humanity, still distressed by ills and persecutions, to receive basic relevant answers to its troubles than in a Church of Christ, Scientist? In the Christian Science Sunday School, children can find a foundation on which to build their lives unafraid and free.
As the world awakes to the Christ in its midst and as its children press our Sunday School doors, hungering for Truth, our teaching should be fit to feed them. Creative teaching that adheres to the instructions given by Mrs. Eddy in the Manual of The Mother Church See Man., Art. XX. and is imbued with the Christ will encourage both those honestly seeking or "just looking" to stay and learn more about God and man. It can help them learn what it means to be a Christian Scientist.
Where does a Sunday School teacher start? Where better than in his own thought about children? Definitely one shouldn't start with the concept of an imperfect mortal who ultimately graduates into a state of super-perfect mortality. But, rather, we should begin with the spiritual understanding of man as God's perfect idea and eliminate from thought misconceptions that don't live up to that ideal.
The Sunday School teacher who holds this clarified concept of man is better equipped to help students understand the Christ, which is man's true selfhood. This uplifted view aids the students in distinguishing between ideas of divine Mind and suggestions of mortal mind. Mrs. Eddy writes: "Too much cannot be done towards guarding and guiding well the germinating and inclining thought of childhood. To mould aright the first impressions of innocence, aids in perpetuating purity and in unfolding the immortal model, man in His image and likeness." The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 261.
By glimpsing their true selfhood, teacher and student alike can begin to demonstrate the unlimited possibilities open to those delving deeply into the inspired words of the Bible and Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy. The truths therein are alive with hope and promise. The need is for discovery and application that help demonstrate Christian Science in daily life.
Unquestionably, a Sunday School teacher's approach toward spiritual discovery and its human application can make the difference between a humdrum or an adventurous Sunday School hour. Perhaps one who contemplates teaching hesitates, thinking, "Would I be a good Sunday School teacher? Do I have the extra hours a day to prepare for it?" Extra? In a sense, it takes the whole twenty-four! More important than the quantity of hours spent in specific preparation is the quality of one's life.
Consider the life of our great Teacher—Christ Jesus. He didn't isolate teaching from daily life. He constantly communed with God and thus was ready with helpful answers—not just comforting words or memorized clichés, but on-the-spot, God-inspired healing. Should Sunday School teachers be satisfied with less? We need a life reformed, regenerated, purified, made relevant Monday through Sunday. Every God-oriented thought, every error corrected, every sin denied, readies one for teaching and fits one to give adequate answers to simple and difficult questions alike.
Of course, good teaching means more than giving adequate answers. It includes asking relevant and inspired questions, as Christ Jesus did. For example, he asked: "Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?" "Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?" "Who is my mother? and who are my brethren?" Matt. 7:16; 6:25; 12:48.
Though pertinent and probing, our Master's questions weren't motivated by a fault-finding or condemning attitude. Similarly, the Sunday School teacher can show Christly concern by refraining from asking prying or judgmental questions. Tact and wisdom are needed to heal humanity's weaknesses and to strip worldly attractions of their appeal.
Sometimes a teacher may spend hours studying the Bible Lesson, In the Christian Science Quarterly. jotting down volumes of notes in conscientious readiness for asking and answering questions about the lesson for that week. But this could be the Sunday when a student asks at the outset, "Do you feel students should go on strike on campus?" Or, "My mother and father aren't living together anymore. How can I bring them back together?" These questions need answering, because they are of immediate concern to that Sunday School pupil. What needs healing can be healed. Christly compassion will give proof that the Comforter is divine Science, operating right then and there to fill a need. The Lesson-Sermon will always relate to Sunday School discussions. But whether or not our well-prepared notes are used or referred to that Sunday doesn't mean the preparation has been wasted. Teachers and teaching methods should remain flexible.
This flexibility, however, should not stretch to include psychology, which cannot substitute for wholehearted reliance on God's direction for what will feed the hungry and inquiring thought.
What about those who appear to resist being fed? Who respond with heavy lids and ill-concealed yawns? We do well to recognize that Mind's reservoir is spilling forth with no let. Teachers don't have a monopoly on this fount. In fact, exclusivity may lead to sermonizing, which often fosters apathy. Sharing based on questions and answers, as called for in the Manual, and not pontifical preaching, will result in a lively and more balanced class experience.
"The instruction given by the children's teachers must not deviate from the absolute Christian Science contained in their textbook," Man., Art. XX, Sect. 3. states the Manual. There is no need to stifle freedom of expression—students' or teachers'—with set formulas for discussing the Bible Lesson or preconceived methods of discipline. Spiritually inspired spontaneity of thought provides the impetus that dispels the doldrums and guides us when relevant, effective discipline is needed.
I remember the first Sunday School class I taught. It was a group of nine-and ten-year-old boys. One boy seemed to be a little tyrant! On one of our first Sundays together he brought his play guns and holsters to class. Prior to the beginning of Sunday School, he was busily brandishing them, complete with sound effects. I didn't know how best to handle the situation, but knew I needed a better concept of this child. I prayed to our Father to tell me what to do. The thought came to ask the boy, "Do you like western movies?"
"Oh, yeah, sure," he answered.
"Well, in the days of the Old West, when a cowboy came inside, he checked his guns."
His interest was sparked, and I went on, "How about our going out to the checkroom and finding a special place to check yours?" It worked! And that is where the guns were deposited every Sunday after that. A small victory but an encouraging one. Here was instant relevance! Disciplining my thought to see this child in the light of the Christ, knowing that the same Mind was manifested in each of us, helped me see the practical and effective discipline this small cowboy would respond to.
Perhaps most important, and most relevant, is our love for the students, which parallels our love for teaching. Loving both, the Sunday School teacher will find it easier to be prompt, prepared, and spiritually alert in helping students understand the truths they are being taught.
If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God;
if any man minister,
let him do it as of the ability which God giveth:
that God in all things may be glorified.
I Peter 4: 11
