Ken Cooper’s “POETIC POSTLUDE” shares Poetry and more relating to this week’s Bible stories
Thursday, May 25th, 2023
By Ken Cooper, poet from Great Britain
Ken Cooper’s “POETIC POSTLUDE” shares Poetry and selected “Combined Bible Translations” relating to this week’s Bible stories
inspired by The Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson on
“ANCIENT AND MODERN NECROMANCY, ALIAS MESMERISM AND HYPNOTISM, DENOUNCED”
for Sunday, May 28, 2023
- Click“THE FALL OF JERICHO” to hear and see Ken’s poem, on You Tube [“There is no problem that won’t go, We just remember Jericho!”]
- Click “THE BATTLE WON” to hear and see Ken’s poem, on You Tube [“Because He is God and you are His son, The battle revealed as already won!”]
- Click “LOOK ON US; THE MAN AT THE BEAUTIFUL GATE” to hear and see Ken’s poem, on You Tube [“So too for us; may we so leap and be: At one with Love, in God’s reality”] DO DWELL IN PERFECT LOVE as I reflect Thy will.]
The key to this week’s lesson is simply stated in the opening citation Science and Health citation 1; 228:25-26 “There is no power apart from God.” Hold to this truth. It’s like saying 2+2=4, so that any suggestion of anything else is immediately dismissed. Whether 2+2=5, 4.0000001 or 5 zillion. Our denunciation of the error is “quick and powerful” because we know the truth: “God is infinite, therefore ever present, and there is no other power nor presence.” (S Cit 28; 47118-19). This is from the end of the lesson, so we have in these two quotes the alpha and omega, all there is and all we need to know.
The Golden Text states “I am the Lord that healeth thee”. The full verse is interesting: The Lord God said, ‘If you will listen carefully to My voice, and do what is right in My sight, and give heed to My commandments and keep all My statutes, I will not bring upon you any of the diseases that I brought upon the Egyptians (who did not these things); for I am the Lord who heals you, your only physician and healer.’ How can we reconcile these words, the knowledge/manipulation of health and disease, with what we know of God? “Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?” (James 3:11). The serpent of hypnotism will ascribe to God the knowledge and power of good and evil, but this serpent is a myth, nothing, blown away by Truth. Our God is infinite good, and that is all we can know. The reflection can only respond to its source. We reflect the power of God, there is no other power. Fact.
The Responsive Reading shares the words of Joshua to the children of Israel: “Israel, remember this! Pay attention: The Lord—and the Lord alone—is our God, and He is the only God there is! He is ONE, (I AM THAT I AM)”, and the instruction from Joshua is explicit: “Now fear ye the Lord, and serve ye him with a perfect and honest heart, with full commitment and true sincerity; and do away with the false gods whom your forefathers served in Mesopotamia, and in Egypt; and serve ye only the one Lord.”
Joshua spoke with the authority of demonstration. When the Israelites were seeking to enter the Promised Land, they hit a problem. Something big was in the way. We all want to make progress, but how often do we come up with a challenge that says “NO!”, “CANNOT BE DONE!” It can take over, divert us from where we want to be, – it is the ancient and modern mesmerism / hypnotism that says God is not God, not in control, – there is another power, the fear of separation from good. In my Christian Science Journal article “The Fall of Jericho” these challenges are laid out. Do we make them real, try to heal matter or prove its nothingness? The beauty of the fall of Jericho is that full trust in and obedience to God led to the complete destruction of the material obstacle. The possible separation of God and His plan for man was denounced!
The healing of a contagious disease (aggressive animal magnetism?) referred to in the article led to my writing the poem “THE FALL OF JERICHO”. When faced with a challenge, do we accept its reality or turn to God?
“We looked up at the awesome sight: What chance was there against this might?
But Joshua he loudly cried:“ Fear not, for God is on our side!””
When we listen to God, we hear the Word speaking, the one Mind that knows everything, and dismisses anything else for what it is. The solution given to Joshua was certainly not what his generals expected! In my healing, I did not expect to be told to stand up from my bed and sing!!! THERE IS NO ACTUAL POWER THAT CAN STOP US REFLECTING ALL THAT GOD IS, AND WHAT GOD DIRECTS.
The instruction to walk round Jericho seven times emphasises the importance of seven in the bible, – fullness, completeness, perfection. Walking round Jericho each day for seven says would have built up the confidence of the Israelites, leading them into the awareness of the Promised Land. “Progress is born of experience. It is the ripening of mortal man, through which the mortal is dropped for the immortal.” (SH p. 296:4–6)
“Each step we took on earthen sod
Was made in prayer to mighty God.
Each step, left, right, we thanked the Lord,
We knew He’d given us His Word!”
During my dog walk this Wednesday the each step became “Love, Truth, Mind, Life”, and I could imagine the Israelites marching round the city, and the enemy watching with increasing trepidation because they knew they were being challenged by a force beyond their own.
“The seventh day our hope was high, (Principle our banner)
Despite the fortress large ‘gainst sky. (the false claims trying to reassert themselves)
Seven times we marched around, (Life, Truth, Love, Soul, Spirit, Mind, Principle all reaffirmed)
The seven trumpets loud with sound; (Alleluia!)
And at the seventh, with no doubt,
Our people shouted a great shout.
The confidence was like a roar: (Not holding back!)
The walls fell flat! They were no more! (Matter can never be an obstacle to Spirit)
That Jericho once proud and tall
Defeated by the prayers of all.” (Never give up! The Battle is already Won)
The poem led to a conclusion that has long stayed with me, and given much comfort:
“There is no problem that won’t go: We just remember Jericho.”
Whatever the challenge, our footsteps in the right direction turn us away from the mesmeric false beliefs of matter and materiality, and plant us firmly in the kingdom of heaven.
The lesson shares a number of instances where evil influences / suggestions would try to insinuate their way into our thinking. But they have no place in infinite Mind, which spiritual man reflects and expresses. The material concept of man is the false belief of duality, the impossibility of more than one Mind, that there is no Promised Land, no kingdom of heaven. But it is already within us.
The poem “THE BATTLE WON” confirms that in God’s kingdom there is no challenge!
“Thy weakness makes the enemy strong,
Therefore in strength you prove him wrong:”
Strength is confidence in God, the roar of rejoicing in the Truth. It is a strong reminder of David running to meet Goliath, not running away from the threat! Goliath thought he was invincible, David knew that God was invincible, and he was God’s representative.
“Therefore fear not, stand, never give in,
With God at your side you can only win,
The moment you place your hand in His own,
His infinite power is all that is known.”
Once we accept the infinity of God we have won. “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:32), – free from the falsity of hypnotic suggestion and guile.
“Because He is God and you are His son,
The battle revealed as already won!”
We live now in the kingdom of heaven, where God is the only power, which man reflects and demonstrates.
This is what we see in Section 5, with the poem “LOOK ON US; THE MAN AT THE BEAUTIFUL GATE”. The appearance of this man to many who walked by could be likened to 2+2=5, as someone seeing him for the first time might see him, or 5 zillion, if someone had known him all his life, and accepted this for reality, for the longer we hold on to a lie does this not make the lie appear nearer true? But when we wake from the hypnotist’s grasp, we are free. We cannot ask any for more, that two plus two is always four!
“Peter saw him, and spiritually discerned with surest gaze
The perfect man, whole, complete, a fellow child of God.
And he saw too, lifted up by Peter’s knowing praise
To see himself as whole indeed, no longer to live
Upon the alms of man, but in the freedom of the Lord!”
What a contrast was thus given, – reliance on the temperamental gifts of others, or on the permanent gifts of an infinite and ever-loving God! And we can share the same joy that Peter and John also experienced, Going back to citation S5/450:19-22 “The Christian Scientist has enlisted to lessen evil, disease, and death; and he will overcome them by understanding their nothingness and the allness of God, or good.” What was proved in the Bible is being proved now. Each step we take towards God, good , is a step away from the false beliefs of matter, a denunciation of what is untrue, the glorious affirmation of what is true. The presence of the Comforter. See citation S30/55:15.
“So too for us; may we so leap and be:
At one with Love, in God’s reality.”
[Ken writes:] Copies of the poems are available in pdf format in color and B&W as DOWNLOADS at the bottom of the online version of this Poetic Postlude to this week’s Bible Lesson. The full range of Ken’s videos on YouTube can be found on KenGCooperPoetry. All Ken’s poetry and other writings can be found on Ken Cooper Poetry. His Christian Science published poems can be found on JSH Online.
Selected Bible verses, including the Golden Text, for this week’s lesson, can be found in my combined translations, a free copy of which is available on an excel spreadsheet for those who may be interested. The spreadsheet also includes a genealogy from Adam to Jesus, with related notes. Shared with love. Write to Ken on kengcooper@btinternet.com.
