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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, August 23, 2019

Grace or Merit


May I live this day
Compassionate of heart,
Clear in word,
Gracious in awareness,
Courageous in thought,
Generous in love.
                     JOHN O'DONOHUE
____________________________________

Tonight I cooked hamburgers
A lot of hamburgers
As the chaos of a rodeo swirled around me

Cowboy hats everywhere
A lot of extra long boot cut jeans (on the guys)
And really tight jeans (one the women)

And big hair

And, as the rodeo opened
Kind of a hyperventilated patriotism
A “love it or leave it”
“These colors don’t run”
Kind of patriotism

Offended patriotism
Resentful about affronts real and imagined
Hints about a liberal agenda that has dishonored the flag
And the ability to true patriots to flourish

(the slights were imagined and exaggerated, but I suspect few cared)

It was unabashed
Intense
Aggressive
And yes, arrogant

And I thought about a mind set
That must go to that place of rabid and blind loyalty
To that place where no criticism is allow
No self reflection

Where is it all
Exceptionalism

And then I thought of my faith
And the teachings of the one I followed
And the call to be
Compassionate
Honest
Aware
Self-critical
Generous
Inclusive

And I thought about how
In America
Jesus has been wrapped in a flag
And his teachings ignored
In the cause of political and economic expediency

How the counter culture faith of Jesus
Has become the faith of the status quo

How the faith of humility
Has be come the faith of arrogance

About how the faith of service has become
The faith of power and coercion

About how the faith of inclusion
Has become the faith of exclusion

And the faith of grace
Has become the faith of merit

And the faith of love,
The faith of hate

I listened to he deep voiced, ultra masculine
Rodeo announcer pontificate
And I wanted to shout out about injustice
And the shaming of the poor
About our treatment of immigrants
And our abandonment of the poor

But I didn’t

I just turned hamburgers
And felt very, very sad

When [Jesus] had finished washing [the disciples] feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.  I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.”  John 13



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