KEN’S POETIC PRELUDE for this week’s Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson on:
“God the Only Cause and Creator” for June 6, 2021
HEAR on YouTube a KEN COOPER POEM, “Just Say in a Word” . Plus enjoy two related poems from recent weeks: “Ye Are the Light of the World” and “The Balloon”.
All three bring extra inspiration to citations in this week’s Bible Lesson.
[Ken wrote:] “The opening words of the Gospel of John are the confirmation of the Golden Text “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof: the world, and they that dwell therein” (Psalms 24:1) The Word, the voice of God, says “You are Mine”, nobody else’s. There is no other creation or power. Paraphrased from various translations and extended, John writes: “Before time itself was measured, the Voice, the living expression of God, was already speaking. The Word and God were always One and the same. With this Word God created everything that was ever made. Nothing was made without the authority of the Word. It is the source of everything that exists. Anything else is purely illusion, the Adam dream. There is nothing apart from His infinite goodness”. (John 1:1-3, citation B1)
This is the joy of creation. It is what Jesus saw and knew. His authority was in speaking what God spoke, the at-one-ness that invites us all to have the mind of Christ, to be the manifestation of the Infinite Mind that has no beginning, but has always expressed the perfection of Spirit, which man reflects. As the Word and God were always one and the same, so too are God and man. We speak with the Voice and authority of God. “The intercommunication is always from God to His idea, man.” SH 284:31–32)
With the story of the Centurion (which has a different story line in Matthew 8:5-13) we witness the authority of this Word made manifest. “For He spake, and it was done: he commanded and it stood fast.” (Psalms 33:9, Responsive Reading) This is the authority with which Jesus spoke, and to which the centurion referred. When we speak the truth, we have the full backing of infinite good, and as shown in last week’s poem, the point of Truth explodes the myth of error. The centurion was used to being obeyed. In this week’s poem “Just Say in a Word” (read by my son James) we see the result. He did not need to know exactly what Jesus said or thought. He just knew he spoke with the authority of God, and that was all that was needed. Time and distance were immaterial. The Word represents the perfection of now. Each of us can speak with that same authority, for we can do nothing of ourselves, but express the Word. It has never stopped speaking; we have never stopped reflecting / responding.
The last section links back to the lesson on Soul and Body and the importance of letting the light of God shine through in everything we do, and the poem “Ye Are the Light of the World” re-enforces the point that the purpose of light is to shine, to be what it is. The purpose of man is to express God, to show what God is, to demonstrate the glory of the fullness and completeness of creation.
What God sees is what man is, — what can be grander than that! God never created matter, He created man. Love, Spirit, Truth, indeed all the seven synonyms of God, are our authority of being.
And how beautifully the recent lesson sermons run together in their message of One God. Infinite Light removes all darkness, the empty threat of evil is destroyed, and the fulness and beauty of God’s creation is revealed. The poems written for each of these lessons all link together. “Ye Are the Light of the World” sets the scene of man at one with God, shining as his light, being active as God’s expression. Looking at “The Balloon” the threat of error was destroyed by a pinprick of Truth. The tiny pin is like the candle, – whose tiny light is sufficient to remove the dark wherever it goes. Darkness has no power against light. Once there is light there is no dark. Once the pin has burst the balloon, the balloon can never be blown up again. No matter how hard error puffs, it comes to nothing. The error is seen for what it is. Error has no power against Truth. We have the encouragement of Mary Baker Eddy: “Error found out is two-thirds destroyed, and the last third pierces itself, for the remainder only stimulates and gives scope to higher demonstration” (Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, p. 355). These two poems are the “Yes and No” referred to by Cobbey Crisler in the last GEM sent out. The candle light and the pointed pin of Truth all have the authority of God: “Just Say in a Word” resonates with this authority. God is our cause and creator, our guarantee that what we are is the I AM of God’s being. “He commanded and it stood fast.” No exceptions!
When we speak the Truth, it also stands fast. We see God and His perfect creation. There is nothing to heal.
PDF versions of the poem “Just Say in a Word” is available in color and B&W at the top of this week’s email and on CedarS webpage of this article. The full range of videos is visible on Ken G Cooper Poetry.