SPIRITUAL MATTERS: Power of transformation

I’m not sure that I completely buy into the whole Big Bang Theory idea.
I mean, who was there to hear it? Like the saying goes, “If a tree falls in the forest and there is no one there to hear it, does it make a noise?” Or my favorite version, “If a man speaks in the forest and there is no woman to hear him, is he still wrong?”
I do believe that science continues to unravel the mystery of creation and yet there will always be mystery.
Did all of existence, the Universe, come from a single point of energy the size of a walnut? I don’t know, that is the current theory.
The expanding nature of the Universe, background radiation or the echo of the big bang, plus many other observations point in that direction.
And, I believe the Big Bang Theory is consistent with the creation story as it is told in the book of Genesis as well as in other traditions.
Out of nothing something came into existence through an orderly process of events, days or cycles. Behind this process are principles or laws which are personified as divine beings, God or gods and goddesses. These divine beings not only acted upon creation but were the source or substance of what is created.
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” Genesis 1:1-2.
What was in the beginning other than God? What science continues to unravel is how God is expressing through principal and law as the process of creation and ultimately is the substance out of which creation expresses.
Some scientists like to say that there is no God and that their science proves it. Many people like to say that there is no science and that their faith proves it. I like to say “nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong!” (Buffalo Springfield, For What It’s Worth – 1967)
Everybody has a right to be wrong, and we have to accept what others believe as being true for them.
Acceptance is not approval. It does not require that you support the idea or belief or life style.
It does not mean that you have to believe the same way or have to promote it. It only means that we acknowledge its existence. And that is all any of us really want, to be acknowledged and accepted for who we are. Until we do that, we are not going to be able to have the dialogue or exchange of ideas that allows for greater understanding, peace and harmony.
Many, maybe most and possibly all, of us desire to be heard and will not listen to other points of view until we are. We are like rebellious teenagers, the more you tell us what to do the less likely we are to do it.
The more you deny my beliefs, the harder I cling to them and the less likely I will be to acknowledge you and your beliefs. We begin the process of creating peace and harmony by acknowledging what is, listening and accepting anothers viewpoints as valid for them. Then we still make them clean their room.
One of the greatest mysteries of Christianity is the Resurrection of Jesus on Easter morning. Maybe one day science will be able to unlock the process by which this occurred.
For now, I do believe something incredible had to have happened in order to transform Peter, a bumbling, stumbling, Jesus denying fisherman into a healing, preaching dynamo willing to die for his beliefs. And, not just Peter but all of those who followed the path that Jesus laid out.
Metaphorically, we all have to go through a crucifixion experience in order to be resurrected into a greater level of being joyous, happy and free.
We cross out the negativity we have experienced through our faith in a greater level of being, God the Great Mystery, that is coming into expression through you and I and all of creation. So as we complete the Lenten Season and prepare to celebrate Easter, we accept life on life’s terms while envisioning and affirming a new and greater level of joy and fulfillment embracing the Great Mystery.
Blessings of peace, joy & love – Rev. Matthew E. Long, Peace Unity Community

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