Welcome

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



Monday, November 19, 2018

opening our hearts


“Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one”
― John Lennon, Imagine
__________________________

It’s hard to imagine
In this time of radical polarization

It is hard to imagine
In a world where fearful souls
Feel it is necessary to carry an AR-15 to by a BigMac

It is hard to imagine in a time when
A man placed in the leadership of a great nation
Sits a sulks alone

It is hard to imagine
As we celebrate the war to end all wars
(which was how many wars ago?)
By looking over white crosses representing thousands of young men
Killed

It is hard to image as the rhetoric flies
About immigrant caravans
And as the evangelical church endorses exclusion and hate

It is hard to imagine unity
It is hard to imagine peace

But I can imagine
And I know one thing
It will never happen when we sit on the poles of the ideological
(or even theological) spectrum shouting at one another

It will not happen if we always insist on getting our own way
It will not happen if we focus on winning and losing
It will not happen if in fear we reject and exclude
It will not happen if we lie, or bully,
It will not happen if we insist on power rather than servanthood
It will only happen if we come together
Recognizing that we share the same heart
The same spirit (and Spirit)

It will only happen if we are willing to be servants to one another
To see others as important (or more so) than ourselves

At the end of many services I share a verse from Paul’s letter to
The Romans (15)

It goes this way…

“May the God who inspires us to endure, and gives us a loving parent’s care, give us a mind united towards one another because of our common loyalty to Jesus Christ. And then, as one person we will sing from the heart the praises of God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. So let us open our hearts to one another as Christ has opened his heart to us, and God will be glorified.”
                                                                                                            JB Phillips

God will be glorified, indeed

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