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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



Friday, May 2, 2014

Mercy within Mercy

Jesus does not see his task as gathering an elite of the “saved,” but founding a general hospital for the throwaways….

Jesus is looking for : risk-takers over security freaks….

It is not that Jesus is a liberal one who thinks boundaries don’t matter.  No, he has met the God who is “mercy, within mercy, within mercy” (In Thomas Merton’s words)….

We would probably say a loving person will forgive, but Jesus says a forgiven person will know how to love”  (Luke 7)
                                                                                                                Richard Rohr
___________________________

they are everywhere
those who are out
who are really really “out”

excluded
judged
but mostly unforgiven

the lie on the sidewalks of cities
hands outstretched

they slump in chairs in therapists offices
defeated
worthless in their own eyes
and in the eyes of many around them

they are in our families
the father who knew not how to parent
the mother who judged
the child who walked down a path
into addiction
or violence

they are outside looking in
welcome but not welcome
in our fellowships of faith
(why I heard he  is gay)
(she has a drinking problem)

yet there is the God
who is
mercy
within mercy
within mercy

loving them is a risk
love is always a risk
we may be rejected
we may be hurt again
the despised one
the unclean one who dares not approach God
may not change

and yet
the God who is mercy within mercy within mercy
approaches them

and forgives
and forgives
and forgives
planting in forgiveness the seed of love

of such is the kingdom

and as those who would follow the way
we too
must forgive and forgive and forgive
finding our capacity to forgive
and love
in our own forgiveness

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