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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, April 24, 2019

We belong to God (not the other way around)


“…. Being a saint means first and foremost belonging to God…  Once you are baptized, you belong to God and all that remains to be seen is what you will do about it.  Just remember that you do not have to be famous, or perfect, or dead.  You just have to be you – the one-of-a kind, never-to-be repeated  human being whom God created you to be – to love as you are loved, to throw your arms around the world, to shine like the sun”
                                                                                  Barbara Brown Taylor
____________________________

Think what you will about Sacred
There is something in us
Each of us
That participates in something we can only understand as Mystery

Some call that mystery God
and try their hardest to remove the mystery from Mystery

It doesn’t work
It only gets confusing

Others choose to think of the Mystery differently
As something woven into the earth
Into the sky, the ground
The mountains, the valleys
Into the lakes and rivers and streams
Into the trees, and the animals that live in and under them

However you think about it
We are part of something that is beyond us
We cannot contain it or grasp it
We can only participate in it

Or accept that it participates in us
As Rumi once said
“you are not a drop in the ocean,
 you are the entire ocean in a drop”

We are not people who believe in Love
We are people who participate in Love
Who are filled with Love

And our lives are to be about one thing
Love

Love God, love others, love yourself
Said Jesus

That’s it!  Period
That is the sum of it all

Love, love, love, love
Christians (and everyone else) this is our call
Love your neighbor as yourself
For God loves all

We sing it
We are called to live it

When we don’t, no matter how many Bible verses we know
Or how “correct” our theology
We are simply sinners

Sometimes garden variety sinner
Sometimes a hot mess sinner
But a sinner

Which simply means, there are tears in the fabric of love
We have become rent
And need repair

Our goal is to become saints
Its simple
“You just have to be you –
the one-of-a kind, never-to-be repeated  human being
whom God created you to be –

to love as you are loved,
to throw your arms around the world,
to shine like the sun” (Barbara Brown Taylor)

Simple, but not easy

But we all know saints!
And at times, most of us are one.

We all have those people in our lives

We all have those people who
For whatever demented reason, choose to be our “greatest fans”
And love us with that love that is not calculating
But just is

With that love which welcomes
And affirms
And forgives
Which lifts us up

Each of us has personal experience with saints
Or we have failed to have such a person in our lives
Either way, we know how important they are

The world is full
The church is full
Of saints and sinners

But it is not that there are saints and sinners
As much as we are saints and sinners

Works in progress
Imperfectly reflecting the divine image

But as those who participate in the mystery
We are always a little bit what we have not yet fully become
Saints

Here is to all the saints
Living and dead
Noble and ignominious
Loving, and not so loving

Here is to all those people seeking to
Be love
Who embrace the world,
And shine like the sun…..

May we be one of them

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