My first Science of Mind teacher was Reverend Dr. Ernie Forks. A
man with presence, sense of humor, and a baritone bass voice that was uniquely
suited to both the operatic solos he performed on Sundays, and, to the well-rounded
talks he delivered afterwards. I smile
when I think about that cross-cultural experience that came neatly packaged in
one Sunday service. Although the music was Euro-centric, his subsequent
delivery of the message evoked the small Black Baptist church where the
preacher covers the music and the message. I believe it was this taste of
tradition that led to the steadily increasing numbers of Black
congregants. Eventually, we grew to such
numbers that the very white Masons[1],
whose building we held services in, did not renew our lease! When we moved
services to the Berkley House Hotel, we rented a house for classes and office
space. That is where I encountered that
little word—AS.
I had to
look it squarely in the face. I circled
it. Looked it up and down. I asked Webster about it:
When an
adverb, used in comparisons to refer to the extent or degree of something. Pray
as often as you can. When a preposition it is used to refer to
the function or character that someone or something has: Behave as if it
is already so. When a conjunction, it’s
used to indicate that something happens during the time when something is
taking place[2]:
It is [famously] done unto you as you believe. What!!! Are you kidding me!!! Please!!! There
it was, out in the open! The bait and
switch of the whole thing!! I came to SOM because it was exactly NOT what I’d
grown up with! And here it is, not even
50 pages into the textbook and Holmes is talking about that Jesus dude! Really?
This is why
Jesus summed up His whole philosophy in this simple statement: “It is done unto
you as you believe.” … That “believe” and that “as” symbolize heaven and hell.
And so we suffer, not because suffering is imposed upon us, but because we are
ignorant of our true nature. Holmes,
Ernest. The Science of Mind: The Definitive Edition (p. 37). Penguin
Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Not one to
leave a thing alone, a little bit further on, Holmes shares:
We are
immersed in an Infinite Creative Medium which, because of Its Nature, must
create after the pattern our thought gives It. Jesus understood this, and in a
few simple words laid down the law of life[3]:
“It is done unto you AS you believe.” No more simple and yet no more profound
statement could be made. Holmes, Ernest.
The Science of Mind: The Definitive Edition (p. 140). Penguin Publishing
Group. Kindle Edition.
My Mom would say, “Lord have mercy Jesus!” I still don’t quite know what that means, but I really like the way it sounds, and, I think Mercy is definitely something we could all use right now; as we grapple with how we have collectively applied this Law of life. We have believed –by ignorance, internalization or collusion, that it is okay to justify and codify greed in the forms of sex trafficking of women and children, police brutality, election tampering, environmental devastation, systemic racism, and all of the other ways that we have to deny each other’s humanity.
But the good news, the really good news is that we are waking
up to the power of our “AS”! We are collectively recognizing and
embracing that the same processes that got us here can take us to our next
level of evolutionary magnificence! We
have the power and are increasingly growing the muscle of our will such that we
can tap our cellular memory of our connectedness to each other. We can act from a new paradigm, a new
belief. We can collectively recognize Umbuntu[4],
I am because we are. The good news is
that there are beautiful, brilliant young women and men all over the world who
have a soul-level understanding of their rights, responsibilities and abilities
to create a world of wonder, joy, health, prosperity, education, housing, equity,
justice, inclusion, grace, love, and peace--in perpetuity. As for the rest of us, we can get out
of their way, we can support them or join them.
But the momentum is on. We cannot stop them. I am deeply grateful to be here to
participate in and to witness this iteration of the r/evolutionary As. Like so many other quantum leaps, this one
was foretold. In 1976, the bicentennial year for the United States, the great
griot and poet, Stevie Wonder gave us this:
Reverend D. Jacquelyn Edwards,
Community and Civic Engagement Minister,
East Bay Church of Religious Science, Oakland, CA
[1]
See Freemasonry and Prince Hall Freemasonry
[2]
Emphasis added.
[3]
Emphasis added.
[4] The
Zulu term, not the Linux software!
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