God Is One

Preached by the Right Reverend Grant Lynn Ford at the Sunshine Cathedral on Sunday, June 11, 2006.

The Written Word

The Light of the Ages

Tao Te Ching

From its first days, the universe came from the One:

The heavens are one, and clear, and round because of it,

The earth is one, and is its firm infused foundation…

The spirit is one, with all it brings into being,

The valley is a oneness, and so it flows and renews all things.

Everything is one — every living thing is one, and alive!

The Light of a Teacher of Truth

Scientific Christian Mental Practice – Emma Curtis Hopkins

God is Spirit, therefore it is the Science of Spirit which we are to study when we open the reasoning with the word ‘God.’ God is the name of that Intelligence which out of its own substance bestowed upon you that intelligence you now have. Intelligence is Mind.

The Light of the Master Teacher

John 4:21-24

²¹Speaking to the Samaritan woman, Jesus said, “Believe me, the time is coming when neither this mountain nor Jerusalem will be considered the only place to worship God. ²²You Samaritans have a vague idea of who you worship; we Jews worship with great certainty because God’s way of salvation is clear to us. ²³But a New Age is dawning — in fact, it’s here! People everywhere are being drawn to a sincere worship of God in Spirit and Truth, and this is exactly what God desires. Let me say it again: ²⁴True worshippers will worship God in Spirit and Truth.”

The Proclaimed Word

What’s in a number? There are all sorts of numbers in the Bible, and they all claim some importance. Some are not even in the Bible, and we are called to make them a matter of faith. Some numbers scare us so much that prospective mothers try to delay birth rather than have their child born on a day that comes to 6-6-06. Go figure!

If the Mark of the Beast is 666, does that mean his zip code is 00666? And did you know that when your bill comes to $69.25, that’s the Price of the Beast plus 5% Sales Tax? Is 668 the house number of the Neighbor of the Beast?

People see numbers all over the place, and draw their own conclusions. But there’s only one important number — and it’s one! Not one God for Catholics and another for Protestants; not one God for Jews, another for Christians, and yet another for Muslims. One God, by many names, but one God. Many planets, but one universe, one God, creator of all, in all, as all, and more than all there is.

Akhenaten, one of Egypt’s pharaohs, got it right, ruling that Aten the sun-god was to be the only God in Egypt — that there was only one God. Tutankhamun, his son, paid for it when he became pharaoh. The old religion was quickly restored, and his name was taken out of the list of the pharaohs. Some have even suggested that his burial early in life meant that he was removed from the throne by conveniently dying. His tomb was covered over and forgotten, much to our benefit today because it stayed buried for centuries and we have been able to view his treasures in our generation.

The early Israelites got it right, and it stuck. They declared: “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is One.”

What did Jesus have to say about this? One day he was walking with his disciples to Jerusalem. They had to travel through Samaria, though they were warned never to talk to the Samaritans because they were considered heretics and therefore unclean. Jesus send his disciples into town to buy some lunch, and then struck up a conversation with a Samaritan woman at the well.

While they had a wonderful and insightful conversation, one of the things Jesus said to her was: “You Samaritans worship God here on Mount Gerazim, and we Jews worship on the Mount in Jerusalem. But the time is coming when you will worship God neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem... The time has now come when true worshipers will worship God in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers God seeks.”

Then he went on to clinch his message to her, and to us: “God is spirit,” he said, “and worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”

There are still Samaritans living in Israel, though very small in number. Some live near Tel Aviv, but their holy site and the center of their community is still Mount Gerazim. They continue to worship one God revealed by the prophet Moses.

What may we learn from all this? First of all, there is only one God, and God is all there is. God created the heavens and this planet in the power of Spirit, as spirit took on the form of matter. Read about it at the front of the book, Genesis 1:1-2: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was a formless mass, and darkness covered the abyss, while a mighty wind swept over the waters.”

Before there was anything there was God. Each time there was something, there was God. Nona Brooks and her sisters, along with Malinda Cramer, founded Divine Science. They created an affirmation that states so clearly what we are talking about this morning, and how it applies to us. Read it with me:

“God is All, both invisible and visible. One Presence, One Mind, One Power is all. This One that is All is perfect life, perfect love, and perfect substance. We are individualized expressions of God, and are ever one with this perfect life, perfect love, and perfect substance.”

What does that mean for us? When we realize that God is in all and that God IS all, then we know that God is for more than just interested in our circumstances… God is IN our circumstances right along with us. And when we affirm the omnipresence of God, then where God IS untoward circumstances cannot continue to exist.

That’s why when Moses asked God in the burning bush, “Who are you? What’s your name?” the voice came back, “I AM.”

How can illness stand up against the omnipresence of God? How can poverty exist in the abundant omnipresence of God? How can fear and failure and even grief survive in the presence of God who is everywhere present, all powerful, all knowing? This is the God of Jesus, the God who we worship in Spirit and in Truth!

Jesus healed the sick by affirming the omnipresence of God, the power of God alive in him and in the one he touched. What did Jesus read when he was asked to read in the synagogue? It’s in Luke 4, and he reads from Isaiah 61:

‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because the Eternal has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are downtrodden, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.'

No matter who you are, no matter what your circumstances may be, Jesus knows that God is present everywhere to meet your every need. No need may continue to exist in the presence of this One God, who we all worship in Spirit and in Truth.

Jesus knows it, and so do we. So let’s affirm it and experience it and be made whole. It’s ours for the affirming…