Service for Sunday, March 31, 2013


Subject: Reality

 Hymn 381 
 William P. McKenzie

 What brightness dawned in resurrection
   And shone in Mary's wondering eyes!
 Her heart was thrilled with new affection,
   She saw her Lord in life arise.

 She knew the Christ, undimmed by dying,
   Alive forevermore to save;
 Creative Mind, all good supplying,
   Had triumphed over cross and grave.

 With hope and faith, like exiles yearning
   For homelands loved through patient years,
 The hearts of men are homeward turning
   To God Who giveth rest from fears.

 Assured and safe in Love's protection,
   Great peace have they, and unsought joy;
 They rise from sin in resurrection,
   And works of love their hands employ.

The scriptural selection is from Colossians.

Colossians 3:1‑4,9,10,12‑17,23
If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.  Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.  For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.  When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. 

Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:

Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.  And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.  And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.  Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.  And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. 
And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;

Silent prayer, followed by the audible repetition of the Lord’s prayer, with its spiritual interpretation as given in the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy


Our Father which art in heaven,
Our Father-Mother God, all-harmonious,
Hallowed be Thy name.
Adorable One.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy kingdom is come; Thou art ever-present.
Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Enable us to know – as in heaven, so on earth
God is omnipotent, supreme.
Give us this day our daily bread;
Give us grace for today; feed the famished affections;
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And Love is reflected in love;
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil;
And God leadeth us not into temptation, but delivereth us from sin, disease, and death.
For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.
   For God is infinite, all-power, all Life, Truth, Love, over all, and All.



 Hymn 413
 Frances Thompson Hill

 Let us sing of Easter gladness
   That rejoices every day,
 Sing of hope and faith uplifted;
   Love has rolled the stone away.
 Lo, the promise and fulfillment,
   Lo, the man whom God hath made,
 Seen in glory of an Easter
   Crowned with light that cannot fade.

 When we touch Truth's healing garment
   And behold Life's purity,
 When we find in Love the refuge
   That is man's security,
 When we turn from earth to Spirit,
   And from self have won release,
 Then we see the risen Saviour;
   Then we know his promised peace.

 Living meekly as the Master,
   Who of God was glorified,
 Looking ever to the radiance
   Of his wondrous Eastertide;
 Freed of fear, of pain, and sorrow,
   Giving God the honor due,
 Every day will be an Easter
   Filled with benedictions new.

Solo: “Awake, Thou That Sleepest”           


Friends:
The Bible and the Christian Science textbook are our only preachers. We shall now read Scriptural texts, and their correlative passages from our denominational textbook; these comprise our sermon.

The canonical writings, together with the word of our textbook, corroborating and explaining the Bible texts in their spiritual import and application to all ages, past, present, and future, constitute a sermon undivorced from truth, uncontaminated and unfettered by human hypotheses, and divinely authorized.

The lesson-sermon from the Bible and the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, read by the First and Second Readers.

The content of the Lesson Sermon may be found in the Christian Science Quarterly. You may also read the Lesson-Sermon for this week online by clicking here.


 Hymn 287
 Edith Gaddis Brewer 

 Prayer with our waking thought ascends,
   Great God of light, to Thee;
 Darkness is banished in the glow
   Of Thy reality.

 Lo, to our widening vision dawns
   The realm of Soul supreme,
 Faith‑lighted peaks of Spirit stand
   Revealed in morning's beam.

 Thus in Thy radiance vanishes
   Death's drear and gloomy night;
 Thus all creation hears anew
   Truth's call, Let there be light.


"The Scientific Statement of Being" (S&H p. 468} and the correlative scripture according to I John 3:1-3.

There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all. Spirit is immortal Truth; matter is mortal error. Spirit is the real and eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal. Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore man is not material; he is spiritual.

Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p.468

1John.3

[1] Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
[2] Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
[3] And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.

Benediction

Colossians 2:6
As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:

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