Staggering privileges and feeding the world

Saturday June 28

Yesterday, at the Christian Science Reading Room, I read the full six chapters of Ephesians from J.B. Phillips' The New Testament in Modern English. In his introduction J.B. Phillips writes on the theme of the book. I think it is worth including here:

     THEME. Paul is concerned first to establish in his readers' minds as great and wide and deep a conception of Christ as he can. He points out that he is not only the Saviour of the world, but also the divinely appointed focal point of all activity and all knowledge, whether it is physical, mental or spiritual. Race distinctions cannot matter therefore for those who are “in Christ”.

     He follows this by stressing the resultant responsibility of the Christian, and his own proper authority as the messenger commissioned to deliver such news.

     Then, as usual, Paul points out the practical outcome of being “members of Christ's body”, “new men”, “children of God”, etc., and begs his readers to see that their lives are lived on a level worthy of the staggering privileges that God has given them.

“Staggering privileges”! How awesome is that! One is reminded that we are falling so short of taking up even a fraction of those privileges.

As I read the short chapters, it seemed to me that at times I was reading of Mrs. Eddy's experience in discovering and giving to the world the truth of Christian Science. Paul and Mrs. Eddy both received the Christ through revelation. Paul writes in this regard, “For you must have heard how God gave me grace to become your minister, and how he allowed me to understand his secret by giving me a direct revelation” (Eph. 3:2, 3 J.B. Phillips version). Mrs. Eddy writes a lot about revelation in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, and in particular we are very familiar with the phrase, “I won my way to absolute conclusions through divine revelation, reason, and demonstration” (SH p. 109:19-21). And, on the following page: “In following these leadings of scientific revelation, the Bible was my only textbook. The Scriptures were illumined: reason and revelation were reconciled, and afterwards the truth of Christian Science was demonstrated” (ibid p. 110:13-17). These quotes are from the chapter 'Science, Theology, and Medicine' in Science and Health.

And so it must be for Mrs. Eddy's followers – we have the privilege of our own revelation, reasoning, and demonstration.

Chapters five and six (Ephesians) give instruction regarding husbands and wives (five), children and parents, servants and masters. How we must use those “staggering privileges” in living our daily lives.

Oh yes! I wonder if I may share an inspiration (revelation?) I had this week about the leaven hidden in three measures of meal. I had made a side note in my Bible “330 loaves.” There could have been 300 loaves made from that amount of meal! I looked the verse up on the Internet and in The Bread Monk I found this:

   The amount of flour is the most surprising element of the parable, which is not entirely evident in most English translations.  “Three measures” is the usual translation for the original Greek “tria sata” which is a little over a bushel of flour (1.125 bushels, to be precise).  That’s a ridiculously large amount of flour---you’d need a 100-quart Hobart mixer with a dough hook as big as your leg to knead it!  Translating into kitchen measures, 1.125 bushels is 144 cups of flour.  Presuming we used a common recipe for basic white bread that uses 5 ½ cups of flour, 144 cups is enough to make 26 batches of bread of two loaves each, giving us a total of 52 loaves, each weighing about a pound and a half.  If we’re frugal but not stingy, we can get 16 slices out of a loaf, yielding 832 slices, enough for 416 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (we’d need 33 jars of jelly, and 64 of peanut butter).

     What’s the message of the story?  It’s simple: The kingdom of heaven is like a woman who wants to do more than feed her family.  The kingdom announced by Jesus is like a woman who wants to feed the village.  The kingdom of God is like a woman who wants to feed the world.  The kingdom is for everybody.

(The Bread Monk's web-page is interesting – all about bread.)

“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a woman who wants to feed the world.” Ah! I said to myself, that was exactly Mrs. Eddy's purpose. To leaven the whole of science, theology, and medicine – the “three modes of mortal thought,” as page 118:19-20 (Science and Health) has it.

Conclusion: In Ephesians Paul was teaching Christian Science.

Joyce Voysey