"Hear, O Israel..."

One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, "Which commandment is the first of all?" Jesus answered, "The first is, 'Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one.'" (Mark 12:28-29, NRSV)

Sometimes, it pays to listen for subtle sounds in the music of sacred writings. Everyone hears the brass band sounds of the Sermon on the Mount, the Concerto grosso of the Ten Commandments, the pastoral symphony of the Twenty-Third Psalm. But can we hear the sly melodies, tunes which slide along the air, barely tingling our eardrums? As with the songs of birds, the sweetest sounds are often hardest to hear.

Take the passage from Mark 12, mentioned above. When Jesus is asked to name the greatest commandment, he first replies with the Shema, the great declaration of faith prayed daily by Jews: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.” Although we’ve walked over this passage in our haste to get to the good parts which follow (“you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and…your neighbor as yourself...”), it was not by accident that Jesus began with those words. This affirmation has become the central creedal statement of Judaism, and it summarize metaphysical Christianity as well. It is none other than a call to recognize God as One Presence, One Power.

Jesus underscored the Absolute Oneness of God as the first principle of Judaism, a lesson many Christians quickly forgot. Within a generation after the crucifixion, his followers were proclaiming Jesus as a unique expression of God, and creating mechanisms to place a third entity—the Holy Spirit—in the Christian pantheon. All of the “persons” of the Trinity were seen as separate from each other and yet fundamentally One; yet they were related to humanity only in a subject-object role: Three Caesars on celestial thrones, lording over the subjects of their heavenly empire. This was not the vision of Jesus, who insisted on the Oneness of God and claimed an Intimate relationship to the Father, not just for Himself but for all humanity.

It’s time to re-claim that vision, to see God as Absolute Good, not just as One Presence/One Power, but as the only Presence and Power in the Cosmos. This vision of the Oneness of God requires spiritual insight. We walk over the evidence in our daily lives, but the illusions of lack, limitation, dis-ease, and separation from God are hard to overcome without conscientious effort. But overcome it we shall. Nineteen centuries after Jesus answered the question about the greatest commandment, H. Emilie Cady would write a modern vision of the Absolute Oneness of God:

“God is the name we give to that unchangeable, inexorable principle at the source of all existence. To the individual consciousness God takes on personality, but as the creative underlying cause of all things, He is principle, impersonal; as expressed in each individual, He becomes personal to that one—a personal, loving, all-forgiving Father-Mother. All that we can ever need or desire is the infinite Father-Principle, the great reservoir of unexpressed good. There is no limit to the Source of our being, nor to His willingness to manifest more of Himself through us, when we are willing to do his will.” [Lessons in Truth, 22]

Meditate on the Oneness of God. See yourself as an expression of Divine Love and Light. Try affirming: “The Father-Mother God and I are one.” And remember: The greatest commandment is to know that God is One…which means God is One with you!
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Carol-Jean and I will be visiting with Unity churches and study groups in the United Kingdom for the next two weeks, returning to Unity Village June 6. There may (or may not) be Theo-Blogs posted from internet cafes in London and Birmingham, so stay tuned..
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ONE LAST REMINDER: Theo-Blog's "Flying $20 Club" Church for the Month for April-May is...
Unity Southeast
3421 East Meyer Blvd.
Kansas City, MO 64132

If you feel called by Spirit to support this small but vibrant ministry, send your "Flying $20" contribution to the above address.