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THIS IS YOUR
DOMAIN
by
Reverend Sandra Rae Hymel
In
the very beginning of the Hebrew Bible, we read the story of creation by God of
all that is, and are told that the Spirit of God moved through all things,
breathing into it the breath of life … and God saw that it was good!
There is a story told that God created the world in six days, rested on
the seventh, then on the eighth day began answering complaints.
We read these words as given us by the writer of the Book of Genesis
[1:26-28]: “God created man in
His own image, in the image of God created He him, male and female created He
them: ‘Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it, and
have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air, and over
every living thing that moves upon the earth.’”
Perhaps the complaints began coming as man and woman found themselves
saddled with having dominion over “every living thing that moves upon the
earth.” Perhaps the
complaints began as they realized they were given “free will” to decide how
this dominion might be carried out and rebelled at having to figure it all out
for themselves. After all, what was
so “free” about “free will” given to us without our own choice?
And so the questions arise: What
is it over which we are given dominion? For
what are we given responsibility to replenish and subdue?
Where does it all begin?
In Unity we often say: “As
within, so without.”, and so the answers lie within us.
We alone are ruler over that which we replenish and nurture and that
which we subdue in our own consciousness. We,
each one of us, til the soil of our own consciousness, plant the thought seeds,
manifest and gather the fruit of good … OR … allow the weeds of negativity,
thought of lack or fear, to overtake our consciousness and smother our spiritual
gifts that are but waiting to be irrigated so as to bloom forth our God-given
potential as co-creators. Our own thought is our domain, that over which each of us individually has dominion; that over which you have total influence. Day by day, moment by moment, you choose that which out-pictures as your life experience. And we, together as the human race, then influence our earthly domain and all its inhabitants.
When the
12th Century
mystic, Hildegarde
of Bingen,
cried out way back then: “The earth
should not be injured!
The earth should not be destroyed!”
She recognized
that injury
and destruction as coming from within the people themselves.
Listen to her words: “Now
in the people that were meant to be green there is no more life of any kind.
There is only shriveled barrenness.
The winds are burdened by the utterly awful stink of evil, selfish
goings-on. Thunderstorms menace.
The air belches out the filthy uncleanliness of the peoples.
The earth must not be destroyed!”
[ORIGINAL BLESSING by Matthew Fox p117] I believe it is indicative of a rising consciousness that there are people gathered under the banners of environmental, animal, and humane causes, promoting care and concern for nurturing of high quality, conscious living. Yet, unless each of us cares for our own inner domain, all this effort will have been in vain. As Hildegard so graphically described it: “The air belches out the filthy uncleanliness of the peoples.” And I and you must first tend to the cleansing of our own inner domain should we wish to cleanse the air we breathe.
We read in Matthew 5:5 that Jesus, our Way-Shower, told us:
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”
The Aramaic word here translated as “Blessed: is the word “Toowayhon,”
which we are told means “happy, content, blissful, delighted and fortunate,”
suggesting great happiness, prosperity and abundant goodness,” and the word
“meek” indicates those who are yielding, pliable, flexible and unassuming
toward God, not toward humankind. The
spiritual writer, Emmet Fox, says that “When you possess the spiritual
meaning of this text you have the secret of dominion, the secret of overcoming
every kind of difficulty.” [Sermon
on the Mount p28]
Metaphysically your “earth” is the whole of your outer experience and
to “inherit the earth” is to have dominion over all conditions in your life,
including your mental, emotional, physical and spiritual health and every other
area of your daily involvements.
Jesus demonstrated for us what this quality of meekness truly means when
he acknowledged: “I of myself do nothing.
It is the Father within Who does the works.” [JOHN 14:10] And
Unity minister, Eric Butterworth, in his stellar work Discover the Power
Within You [p63] says: “This
meek consciousness is not self-centered, it is God-centered.
It is not afraid of public opinion, not even failure. because success to
this person is not a matter of public-acceptance, but of God-acceptance.”
In other words: “Blessed are you who are
empty of self, for you shall be filled
with God.” One who
is meek meets
life’s changes and pain with nonresistance, recognizing that in being
emptied of self is the opportunity to be infilled with the wisdom of God. One who is meek meets life with patience and faith , rather
than anger and fear. One who is
meek meets life with open mindedness to the workings of Divine Wisdom, knowing
that it brings forth only good in any and every situation. There is an Oriental saying that “Meekness
compels God Himself.”
If
we fail at all in our care for the world around us, if our sin is one of
CO-mission ecologically; if we go about treating other creatures and creation
with attitudes of greed fashioned by our manipulation and control, this is but
an outer manifestation of the uncleanliness of our own inner domain.
If we fail through our negligence in caring for the world around us due
to laziness or indifference, you can believe that this very sin of O-mission is
operative in our own inner domain as well.
To ignore our directive given by God, to have dominion over all the
earth, is to ignore our invitation to savor life and all that is in it.
This is “sin” in its truest sense, for we have indeed “missed the
mark” and with this choice we then fail to pass on to younger generations an
appreciation for their own image and likeness as that of God’s and their own
call to celebration of their dignity and responsibility as caretakers of God’s
good earth.
This
is your domain, that which we are called to celebrate and savor, that for which
you are called to care. No matter
how small the act, you make a difference, and I make a difference, there is no
thought, word or action too small. Do
it and do it well, and do so with a grateful heart, remembering that this
beauty-filled earth IS your domain!
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