Thank you for the assignment on the kingdom of heaven. The readings and the work associated with this assignment have been very much needed and appreciated by me. This assignment has also made me tune in to how often the kingdom of heaven is included in our Lesson-Sermons!

As the one Mind would have it, my branch church invited Mark McCurties to speak early this spring for our lecture. His subject was “Meaningful Change for Ourselves and the World.” I found the talk very impactful in addressing my own concerns about politics and world issues.

Mark opened by talking about the kingdom of heaven and said that Jesus’ “mission statement” as he began his ministry (after his temptations in the wilderness) was “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Mark discussed the true meaning of the word repent as “change” or “think again.” He told how praying to change his own thought had brought about harmony in several situations and said we can do the same as we think about seemingly intractable situations in the world and in our own lives. Mark said that to correctly identify ourselves, we need to identify ourselves as God knows us, which is what Jesus came to show us. As Mrs. Eddy points out in her well-loved statement on p. 476 of Science and Health, “Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God’s own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick.”

In my role as First Reader in my branch church, I was led to prepare readings for a Wednesday night meeting on the subject of the kingdom of heaven, and was able to incorporate portions of the Sermon on the Mount. The readings seemed to be well-received, and a busy and substantial testimony period followed. Hymns 204, 572, and 485 resonated with peace and uplift as we sang them. I really felt we were experiencing the kingdom of heaven during that meeting, as there was a warmth and glow of love that pervaded the sanctuary. There were hugs and other expressions of love following the service. A holy night for sure.

In general, I am more and more grateful for the excellent teaching we received from Skip and am trying to be more alive to the fact that I am well-trained in spiritual endeavors and spiritual understanding, and thus equal to the task of healing and seeing through matter’s many suggestions. A couple of sentences on the wall of The Mother Church so impressed me that I took a photo of the engraving and had a print of it framed for my little First Reader’s room at church: “If sin makes sinners, Truth and Love can unmake them. If a sense of disease produces suffering and a sense of ease antidotes it, disease is mental, not material. Hence the fact that the human mind alone suffers, is sick, and the divine Mind alone heals” (Science and Health 270:26). From this I see that in order to heal, Mind must lead us out of any misguided suggestions that the human mind can conjure up. And that I need to trust Mind to be omnipotent and equal to all that may be required.