In the Name of God

People sometimes come to me saying, "We're not religious. We don't want the word "God" used in our ceremony." For them, I can often use a phrase such as "all that is good" in a blessing.

There are, of course, many, many names for that Unfathomable Mystery that many call "God." Among them are such terms as Allah, Jehovah, Yahweh, I AM, That Which IS, The Divine, The Self, The Source, One, The All, Consciousness. The most Orthodox of Jewish worshippers are not permitted to utter the sacred Name. Zen teachers speak of "Nothing."

Many women now seem to be protesting the use of the patriarchal "He" when referring to God. They prefer "She" as the holy pronoun. Some contemporary writers speak of the importance of newly appreciating the receptive, compassionate, feminine aspect of the deity. Mary Baker Eddy, founder of Christian Science, was ahead of her time when she referred to the divine as "Father-Mother God." Mrs. Eddy also gave seven synonyms for God: Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth and Love.

The 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous speak of one's "higher power" in an attempt to find language that can be accepted by all AA members, no matter what their background of faith or lack thereof.

A number of contemporary folks, who may say they don't believe in God, nonetheless conceive of a power that supports and harmonizes all things, a universal force or essence or pattern, a vibration, or simply the vast, mysterious Universe itself. Numerous books are being published now on the closing gap between science (especially physics) and religion or metaphysics.

Master science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke created a classic story called "The Nine Billion Names of God." In it, a group of monks in a lamasery high in the mountains have toiled for many years to write down all nine billion names of God, based on a set of sacred words. It is said that if this task is completed, the world will come to an end. The monks finally decide to hire a pair of consultants, who provide them with a computer to run through all the permutations and combinations of sacred letters that form the names. When the computer has almost finished the task, the consultants leave the lamasery and ride away at night on horseback. They laugh with each other about the project, estimating that the computer must just have finished, when suddenly, ". . .overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out."

One name too sacred to pronounce, or nine billion names, what is this potent yet indescribable Ineffable-ness we try to name? Who can say?

The late Dr. Kenneth G. Mills often spoke of the "One Altogether Lovely." That phrase touches me very much. Yet, for myself, I think my favorite name of all for the Mystery of God is a single word: Love.