Poem: Thinking of God as Compared to Knowing God

Sitting in church on Sunday
the great gathering of believers:
the woman with a pistol in her purse,
the espoused white supremacist family man,
the patriarchal church elder who fears gays

All believing Jesus is their personal savior,
who looks like them,
likes and dislikes the same people as they,
and judges all as to the meritocracy of heaven
which is not here and not now

What bad theology,
what past dogma or creed,
what misreading and poor preaching,
what age-old council of churchmen
has brought them all to this small, limited God

Yes these gathered souls
think of God rather than experience God
distracted by the ten million things that separate us
many of which have been elevated to idolatry
including personal power, control, and violence

How have we reduced God to being so small and limited
how has God’s awe inspiring presence and love
escaped our experience of each moment,
this God who is as close as our next breath
and limitless as the great Cosmos spinning about 

Creator of the Cosmos, breath of our lives,
our Beloved and beloved of God,
the Universal Christ of grace, love, and our only true hope
for authentic community in our true diversity
in the anti-empire, anti-dominant system of kin-dom

Unless and until one turns out towards and enters into
the Universal Christ mystery and opens to  its’ radical
consciousness that rewires each of us on the physical, cellular,
neurological, and spiritual levels,  Christianity will remain
a personal cerebral exercise rather than Eternal Life together as Beloveds 

   – Herb Stone, here & now working poetry, September, 2019