responding ...

I've been asked to let community members in on the process of preparing my "Lesson" for Sundays. I often tell people I begin working on it on Monday morning right after Sunday. This is true. I've been doing this consistently over the last 12 years. The process has changed a bit.

I used to put the title of the next lesson on a worksheet and leave it on my desk, letting its presence there direct my attention and awareness. Throughout the week I would jot down notes to myself, add articles and scraps of information that presented themselves. I notice now that the entire process happen internally.

This Sunday's title, "ISRAEL: I'm Not Comfortable with God" came to me as I thought about how often people tell me that they don't like the word God because of all of the associations with violence, oppression, religious wars etc. that come to mind, the ongoing Israeli Palestinian Conflict being a good example. It's an old argument we have to get over. It's as simple as getting a bigger idea of God. The Declaration of Principles of the Science of Mind inspires me to get a bigger idea.

We believe in God, the Living Spirit Almighty; one, indestructible, absolute and self-existent Cause.

I remember sharing this, the first element of the declaration with my mother in the early 90's while I was a ministerial student. I and it were summarily dismissed by my Roman Catholic mother with "far too many words." Of all the things I learned in Ministerial School, this rebuff was one of the most valuable. I learned how important it would be to make this idea of God easily accessible. It's our idea of God that is the problem. Thomas Merton once said that the single largest cause of atheism was "silly" theism. All of problems are not with God but with people's ideas about God, including our own.

If the conflicting ideas of God/Allah are not at the root of the conflict in the Middle East then the rhetoric and posturing around those differences are great fuel for a territorial and economic standoff that has been going on since the Hebrews returned from Egypt circa 2500BCE. That a Supreme Being cares where people live serves to make God too small to solve any real problems I may have and will render me powerless to deal with anything more significant than going to the store for a litre of milk without first consulting my "Sacred Writings of choice."