Lyrics by Daniel Nahmod to “One Power” —
“There’s one Power, invisible, and you see it everywhere and every day – one Power, indescribable – and you speak of it with every word you say; mysterious, until you know the Truth, as simple as the love inside of you.
Call it God, call it Spirit, call it Jesus, call it Lord,
Call it Buddha, Bahá’u’lláh, Angel’s Wings or Heaven’s Door –
But whatever name you give it, it’s all one Power, can’t you see?
It’s the power of the love in you and me.”
Responsive Reading for Sunday, July 15
“I, the LORD, am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery. You shall not have other gods besides me. You shall not carve idols for yourselves in the shape of anything in the sky above or on the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth; you shall not bow down before them or worship them” (Exodus 20:2-5).
There’s one Power, invisible, and we see it everywhere and every day – one Power, indescribable – and we speak of it with every word we say; mysterious, until we know the Truth, as simple as the Love inside of us.
“Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone!” (Deuteronomy 6:4). “God’s royal power rules over all” (Psalms 103:19).
“It’s the moment of creation, it’s an everlasting peace.
It’s the freedom of forgiveness, it’s the sweetness of release.
It’s the joy of inspiration, it’s the sunshine on our face.
It’s the birthright of all nations, it’s the boundlessness of space. It’s one Power.”
“Then Paul stood up …: “You Athenians, I see that in every respect you are very religious. For as I walked around looking carefully at your shrines, I even discovered an altar inscribed, ‘To an Unknown God.’ What therefore you unknowingly worship, I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and all that is in it, the Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands because he needs anything. Rather it is he who gives to everyone life and breath and everything …. so that people might seek God, even perhaps grope for him and find him, though indeed he is not far from any one of us. For ‘In him we live and move and have our being,’ as even some of your poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring’” (Acts 17:22-8).
God is: “the beauty of a baby, the serenity of sleep.
“It’s the anger we abandon, for it’s love that’s most deep. It’s one Power.”
“‘There is no God but one.’ Indeed, even though there are so-called gods in heaven and on earth (there are, to be sure, many ‘gods’ and many ‘lords’), yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom all things are and for whom we exist . . .” (I. Corinthians 8:4-6). “You believe that God is one. You do well” (II James 2:19). “ . . . one Spirit . . . one Lord . . . one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Ephesians 4:4-6).
Whatever name we give to God, “It’s the very air we breathe,
It’s the power of the love in you and me.” Everywhere and always, one God – one Presence, one Power.