Hold on!

From Augustine’s theological “no” [original sin] the hole got only deeper.  Martin Luther portrayed humans as a “pile of manure,” John Calvin instituted his now-infamous doctrine of “total depravity,” and poor Jonathan Edwards famously condemned New Englanders as “sinners in the hands of an angry God.”

                               Richard Rohr

 

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ... And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

                               Paul (to the Corinthians)

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Sometimes

when I look at the behavior of human beings

when I watch how people with power abuse it

and how people re-create God into their own image

and twist and torture the good news into bad news

and how money has become more important than people

 

I almost believe in the “total depravity” of human kind

 

I mean seriously!

 

We may be the children of God

created in God’s likeness

carrying God’s image

 

but you would never know it

by looking at how we behavior

 

Donald Trump alone is enough to have me join Luther

in his assessment of human beings!

 

So is a look in the mirror!

Paul was certainly correct when he insisted

“all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”

 

me too

 

and yet

as politicians plot

and leaders lie

and “ministers” hate (and claim to have prayed RBG to death)

and church goers throw aside the teachings of Jesus

to follow the way of domination a greed

 

the fact remains

we ARE children of God (even Trump)

we are created in God’s image

we are carriers of the sacred

 

and that means

that woven into our DNA are faith, hope and love

 

the faith, that this all means something

the hope that we can, and at some point will be, our true selves

the love that comes from LOVE, and permeates us, and then

 

even if it is only a trickle

 

flows from us

 

In this time, when it feels like there are piles of manure all around

and the temptation is there

to give up

or to become what we resist

 

we must be people of

faith

hope

and love

 

How do we get there?

I once read that it takes great pain and great love

to open us up to the presence of the Sacred

 

this is a time of great pain

and if, in this time, we can hold on to great love

love of God

and love of others

 

then we can make it through

 

that is the only way to make it through

for only great love can overcome hate

only good can overcome evil

 

only as we live as children of God

(as best we can)

can we bend the world away

 

from the chaotic, violent

hateful place

where some are valued and many are not

 

that some would make it

 

this day as the sun rises once again

my prayer is that God’s light will penetrate

my darkness

that it will light up the corners of my soul

and reveal

faith

hope

and love

 

especially love