God Carriers!

We are each a God-carrier, a tabernacle of the Holy Spirit, indwelt by God the holy and most blessed Trinity.

 

To treat one such as less than this is not just wrong. . . It is veritably blasphemous and sacrilegious. It is as if we were to spit in the face of God. Consequently injustice, racism, exploitation, oppression are to be opposed not as a political task but as a response to a religious, a spiritual imperative. Not to oppose these manifestations of evil would be tantamount to disobeying God.

          Desmond Tutu

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there are a lot of ills in the world

there is a lot of pain in our countries (all of them)

there is a lot of anguish percolating in each community

 

and in each family, all the ills,

the pain and the anguish

become distilled

 

and it all makes our hearts hurt

 

we cannot help ourselves

for we are part of one another

bound together by our shared source of being

by the indwelling of Love

that is common to each of us

 

we are one

in the One

all God carriers       

all image-bearers

 

when harm is done to one

to anyone

harm is done to all

 

when in one person

the image is blurred

we are all affected                    

 

we can become ill as individuals

but our illness is contagious

and eventually permeates our world

 

greed, hubris, hate, tribalism, racism

spread like a winter darkness

squeezing the light                  

 

we try to combat it ideologically, politically

we try to use the power of the courts

we plot and plan, we grab power and abuse power

try to fix the problem with the very things that have created the problem

 

we are like addicts trying to drink away their addiction

 

we must try to combat the pain in this world

injustice, racism, exploitation, oppression are to be opposed

they are a violation of God, of all that is sacred

 

but they must be combatted sacredly

 

Jesus showed us what that looked like

He showed us that combatting evil is not a religious task

it is not a political task

it is a spiritual task

 

only when we are awake to Love in ourselves

only when we see Love in others

only when we see the inherent value and beauty of each one

only when we see that those close to us

and those far away from us

all

 

are brothers and sisters

and live love

sacrificial love

giving love

forgiving love

can we combat evil

 

only when we are willing to treat all

as God carriers

can we touch the pain

 

we have gotten it so wrong

look at our politics of domination and wealth

look at our religions of exclusion and privilege

look at our abuse of power

and our greed

and our toxic individualism

 

that denies the Presence

in ourselves and in those around us

 

We are on the wrong path

 

Lord have Mercy

 

set our hearts on fire

give us a singleness of heart

and action

that we might heal the world