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Primitive religion is not believed, it is danced!

Arthur Darby Nock

Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
And only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.

Elizabeth Browning



Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Jesus and the Lazy Moochers

Jesus does not see his task as gathering an elite of the “saved” but founding a general hospital for the throwaways… in the Gospels, wherever you read “sinners” it simply refers to the people who can’t do it right (adhere to ritual purity – follow the rules of the religion) – very often because they can’t afford the Temple fees.  I might drive the point home for modern Americans to read these passages replacing “sinners” with “people on welfare” or unemployed, uneducated, homeless, in jail – the effect is the same.
                                                                                Richard Rohr
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the world is full of litter
as we walk the streets
and drive the road
there it is

empty cups
bags with golden arches
water bottles
paper
glass
plastic

it is everywhere
discarded
worthless

ah, and people too
our world has decided there are throw away people
people who are too poor
too disabled
too ill
with depression, or mania

people who are too oppressed
too downtrodden

to do it right
to follow the rules
rules we have set
rules we have made more important than people

when the rules got in the way of helping people
Jesus broke the rules

for Jesus there were no throw away people
just people
to be loved
and accepted
forgiven and healed

Jesus did not see people as lazy
as moochers
as bad
as losers
as garbage

he saw people
all people
as sons and daughters

so when he gathered guests at the table
the table of grace
the feast of the Kingdom

the chairs were filled
with all sorts
clean and unclean
rich and poor
the powerful and the weak

and they all had two things in common

the need to be loved
and the need to be fed

all

nothing has changed

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