A true revolution

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I don’t know, but I suspect

That as his ministry progressed and he displayed

that strange compassionate power that feed the hungry, healed the sick and repaired broken hearts

 

that a lot of people tried to co-opt Jesus

 

there were the Zealots who wanted violent revolution

the Essenes who wanted to hide in the desert and “be pure”

the Pharisees who wanted to double down on piety and the Law

and the Herodians who wanted to play along with those in political power to stay safe

(and influential, and rich)

 

But Jesus, who was clearly interested in changing the world

was not interested in any of those approaches

 

Yes, he came to usher in the Kingdom

a new way of doing life

 

but his way was far too radical

to fit into any of those existing strategies

 

the temptations was there, as he meditated those 40 days and 40 nights

to go down the path of dominance, and power

to buy into the political systems of the world

 

the pull was there, from the religious community

to be drawn into radical piety

(we don’t drink or smoke or chew, and we don’t go with girls that do)

and align with the religious “elite”

 

but he refused to be “used”

not by the religious system

not by the political system

not by the economic system

 

and he refused to run and hide

hoping the mess would go away

 

instead we stayed in the midst

doing his ministry of love and reconciliation

teaching things that seemed naïve and foolish

speaking on behalf of the poor and forgotten

accepting the unacceptable ones

 

instead he loved, and forgave, and healed

he exposed hypocrisy and evil

 

he stood, he spoke, and yes, he died

showing us that the way to stage a holy revolution is not by engaging in  violence

since violent revolutions are not revolutionary (Thanks Brian McLaren for that insight)

but by feeding the poor

selling what we have and giving to the poor

walking the second mile

being humble

and willing to mourn

and working for peace

 

How sad it is that much of the church wants to turn Jesus into

a super-Pharisee, super-Herodian, super-Zealot, super-Essene

 

too bad people try to align Jesus with legalism, politics, and violence

or alternatively walk away from the mess and remain uninvolved (in Jesus’ name)

 

these are mess times

and if we want the holy revolution

we have to stay in the mix

 

but we have to stay in the mix the Jesus way

with love and compassion

with eyes that “see” the other

with kindness

and love

and, often, with sacrifice

 

it is hard

the way of Jesus has always been challenging

some would say it has rarely been tried

 

we have to stay in the mix

and be revolutionary

and change things

 

it’s possible!

 

Jesus said the Kingdom is near

Jesus said the Kingdom is inside us

Jesus said the Kingdom comes

 

It comes

when the last are first

and the greatest of all shall be the servants

when service trumps dominance

and generosity overwhelms greed

 

it comes through changed hearts

and changed minds

and advances through reconciliation and peace

it expands through faith love and love

 

and its agenda is to level things out

as John the Baptist (and Isaiah) said it

“Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low.

The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth.

And all people will see God’s salvation.”

 

Its agenda to bring down the mighty

and raise up the poorest, the weakest, the meekest, and the least

 

its time for a new way of living

are we in, or not?

 

 

Denial

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God is the denial of denial

          Meister Eckhart

________________________________________

 

If God is the denial of denial

If God is truth (and fortunately love)

 

then is the denial of truth a denial of God?

and behaviorally is a failure to love a denial of God?

 

It has always mystified me how people can claim to be

“on God’s side,” can claim Jesus

and then overtly, persistently lie

 

I mean we all struggle, sometimes to embrace the truth

We do get sucked into lies, about ourselves and others

It happens

 

But I think about those

who have embraced the lie that the last election was stolen

who radically throw lies out there about others, who lie about themselves

 

I think about people who clearly know the truth but speak untruth

People who use lies as a way to manipulate and even harm

As a way to grab power or increase wealth

 

How can they do that, and then claim to be people who respect Jesus?

who is all about truth?

 

That gets me thinking about denying truth

I am overwhelmed by the plethora of ways we can deny truth and embrace untruth

 

and I wonder, what happens when we embrace lies?

what happens when we deny the obvious truth?

 

very often that denial of truth, that rejection of truth translates into action

 

it translates into an assault on our capital and our democracy

it translates into people being used as pawns

it translates into violence

it translates into injustice and inequity

it translates into a neglect of the poor

and a failure to welcome the stranger

 

it translates into the oppression and cruelty

 

a failure to be truthful translates into a failure to be loving

 

I understand that some people are just misled and misinformed

they have chosen to trust liars, which is sad

 

but for some this is willful

and in some cases this willful embrace of lies, this denial of truth

is done while at the same time, they claim to be those who are on God’s side.

 

and this thought often crosses my mind

“this person, who is so proudly claiming God, touting God, doesn’t really believe in God”

 

I mean seriously?

If they actually believed in the kind of God they are claiming

A God who is demanding and retributive

A God who seems to hate a lot of people and is willing to punish them eternally

 

Would they dare lie the way they do?

Would they dare act the way they do

 

In my head, they can’t really believe in God and do and say what they do.

they would not dare violate (which is exactly what they are doing)

the rules of the God they have coopted and appropriated

 

or perhaps I am way off, perhaps they just don’t have the same God that I do

perhaps it is as simple as this

they do not worship a God who is love

but rather a God who is manipulative, arbitrary, and all about abusive power.

 

Is it unbelief or a belief in a God of their own making

That is the problem?

 

I am not sure

But this I know.  My relationship with the Sacred

Is hard on denial

I cannot deny the truth

About myself, or my country, or the planet

I cannot deny impending fascism

Or the destruction of the planet

Or injustice

Or the pain of inequity

 

I cannot deny my own complicity

My own failures

My own need

 

God is the denial of denial

God demands that I see things as they really are, and see myself as I really am

And respond by letting God heal me, fill me, change me

And teach me to love

 

our superpower

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Ugh, Jesus.  He always seems to be showing up when I want him to politely keep out of my business.

          Nadia Bolz-Weber

___________________________

 

Ugh, Love

Yeah, I know, love is cool!

There is the love that shines through

As the sun rises, brilliant, pink, orange, and yellow

God’s grandeur

 

There is the love that sings in the river that flows

Through the rocks

and in the wind rushing through the trees

 

There is the love reflected in mountains high

And valleys low

 

There is the intense love of a mother deer for her fawn

And the love of an aged horse, nuzzling me over a gate

 

Love is warm, comforting, healing

 

But love is also intrusive and demanding

Because love, if it is really love

Takes us outside of ourselves

 

When we love we see

Everything

We see the beauty

But we also see the pain

 

We feel, everything

The joy, the exultation

The fear, the hate, the anguish

 

When we love we are not allowed

To think only of ourselves

But also of all those who are placed in our path

More

All those who inhabit this planet earth

 

And love impels us

To thus move beyond ourself

 

Yes, Love fills us

With hope, joy, and peace

 

but we cannot contain

what we received

it is beyond our understanding

it is more than we can ask or imagine

 

love overflows

it spills out

 

when we try to contain it

hold it

keep it

it spoils, it dries up, it dies

 

it is no longer love

love must be shared, given, expended

 

love shows up and things change

love shows up, and there goes the hate

love shows up and there goes greed

love shows up and our power and privilege must be redirected

away from ourselves

and used for the benefit of others

(sell all you have and give to the poor)

 

Love, the Beatles sang, is all we need

Indeed

 

What would it look like if we took that seriously

If we took Jesus seriously

Love God

Love your neighbor

Love yourself

 

What would it look like if we voted Love?

Treated the planet with love

Welcomed the stranger with love

Saw those different from with the eyes of love

Used our money with love (not lust)

Responded to hate with love?

 

It would look like Jesus

It would look like giving, and compassion, and forgiveness

It would look like kindness

And welcome

Inclusion

 

Ugh!

Hallelujah!

Ouch!

Yay!

 

Love can hurt

It can cost

But is the most powerful, amazing, rewarding gift

It is our superpower

It is why we are here

 

To love

 

blessed are the meek

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there is meekness, and then there is meekness

one form of meekness does not look like meekness.

It looks like (in America) extreme patriotism

but is it meekness because it is a matter of giving up your freedom

in the name of freedom

 

meekly believing liars

meekly giving over your future to predators

meekly accepting policies that hurt yourself and others

meekly allowing yourself to be controlled and manipulated

 

the other form of meekness is simply a matter of

being aware of yourself as one of many

a part of a larger whole

 

knowing that while you are important

so are those around you

knowing that while your needs are important

so are the needs of those around you

knowing that it is not OK for anyone

not even you

to climb their way to the top

on the backs of others

or use others, and abuse others for one's own benefit

or even to simply ignore their pain

 

The original meaning of the word meek is not submissive as much as it is gentle

The origin of “meek” in English comes from the Old Norse mjukr, meaning “gentle,” though perhaps a fuller understanding comes from the Greek origin, praus, which is translated as “strength under control.”

 

it is the ability to be strong enough

to focus your strength, not on domination,

but on the common good

 

Yes, when one is meek in a healthy way one is controlled

but not by people using one for their own purposes

(which is why today's MAGA folk are actually meek, they are radically submissive to a leader and an ideology that is destructive)

it is being controlled by love, and awareness that one is part of a "body"

a common humanity

 

and being strong enough to keep one's eyes on the Sacred

and on love

and being controlled by love in such a way

that one lives a life of radical love and service

 

I am proud to be meek (or at least to try being meek)

I am proud to turn my life over to Love and in the strength given me by love

live a life that helps others

that serves the common good

 

blessed are the meek

for they shall inherit the earth

love

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Ugh, Jesus.  He always seems to be showing up when I want him to politely keep out of my business.

          Nadia Bolz-Weber

___________________________

 

Ugh, Love

Yeah, I know, love is cool!

There is the love that shines through

As the sun rises, brilliant, pink, orange, and yellow

God’s grandeur

 

There is the love that sings in the river that flows

Through the rocks

and in the wind rushing through the trees

 

There is the love reflected in mountains high

And valleys low

 

There is the intense love of a mother deer for her fawn

And the love of an aged horse, nuzzling me over a gate

 

Love is warm, comforting, healing

 

But love is also intrusive and demanding

Because love, if it is really love

Takes us outside of ourselves

 

When we love we see

Everything

We see the beauty

But we also see the pain

 

We feel, everything

The joy, the exultation

The fear, the hate, the anguish

 

When we love we are not allowed

To think only of ourselves

But also of all those who are placed in our path

More

All those who inhabit this planet earth

 

And love impels us

To thus move beyond ourself

 

Yes, Love fills us

With hope, joy, and peace

 

but we cannot contain

what we received

it is beyond our understanding

it is more than we can ask or imagine

 

love overflows

it spills out

 

when we try to contain it

hold it

keep it

it spoils, it dries up, it dies

 

it is no longer love

love must be shared, given, expended

 

love shows up and things change

love shows up, and there goes the hate

love shows up and there goes greed

love shows up and our power and privilege must be redirected

away from ourselves

and used for the benefit of others

(sell all you have and give to the poor)

 

Love, the Beatles sang, is all we need

Indeed

 

What would it look like if we took that seriously

If we took Jesus seriously

Love God

Love your neighbor

Love yourself

 

What would it look like if we voted Love?

Treated the planet with love

Welcomed the stranger with love

Saw those different from with the eyes of love

Used our money with love (not lust)

Responded to hate with love?

 

It would look like Jesus

It would look like giving, and compassion, and forgiveness

It would look like kindness

And welcome

Inclusion

 

Ugh!

Hallelujah!

Ouch!

Yay!

 

Love can hurt

It can cost

But is the most powerful, amazing, rewarding gift

It is our superpower

It is why we are here

 

To love 

Strangers

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Sacred is just weird

call that power that creates, enlivens, heals, forgives and loves what you will

God, Love, something bigger than myself, the power that brings all into being

 

Sacred is just weird

for that which is the source of all true wealth (not the same as money)

and is power personified

calls us to a way of life few if any of us would choose

 

we are called to die

to self, to old ideas, to self-reliance

we are called to let go of possessions and help the poor

live sacrificially

love our enemies

pray for those who have hurt us

 

and welcome the stranger

 

of all the things we are asked to do

sometimes welcome seems the hardest

 

welcome the stranger

welcome, to put it another way, the one who is not like you

 

why is it so hard?

perhaps it is because those label those as strangers

those we think God doesn’t like

those who violate (in our minds) all that is Sacred

 

for some people those who are “in violation” are those

who are gay, or lesbian, or transgender

they are those deemed lazy, or opportunistic

they are people of other creeds, other colors, other languages

 

they are those who aren’t convenient

the immigrant

the poor

the addicted

the mentally ill

 

but for some of us (and this would be me)

the stranger is that person who embraces an ideology of power

or is too wealthy

or ignores climate change

 

the stranger is one who embraces a theology I consider destructive

and votes for politicians who (I think) abuse power and are greedy

 

we all have a stranger we struggle to welcome

 

but if I understand God’s love at all

(and I am not sure I can really “get it”)

no one is a “stranger” to God

 

in the Kingdom of God there are only children

loved, embraced

black children, white too

poor children, rich too

young, vibrant, strong children

twisted, humped, wrinkled children

liberal children, and conservative too (even beyond conservative)

 

I look around me and I see strangers

people who are alien to me

people whom I deem alien to God

 

but for God there are no strangers

only children

welcomed and loved

 

only children

drawn close

and in that closeness

finding the chance to be changed and healed

A new perspective

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The word “repent” (metanoia) means a deep and profound shift in perception. It's a turning about in the deepest seat of our consciousness or awareness. It's like the blinders fall off, and we see things as they really are. . .

 

The healing work most attributed to Jesus was restoring sight. There is a symbolic significance to this - Jesus knew the necessity of seeing clearly. He once said, "If the eyes are good, the whole body is good." In other words, true liberation is for one's eyes to be opened to see things as they truly are - to see the true nature of reality, to see the true nature of who we are, and to operate within that reality. This is "metanoia".

                     Jim Palmer

________________________________

 

Repent

for the Kingdom is at hand

 

does not mean

you’d better watch out

because a vengeful God is about to hold you accountable

so straighten up!

 

Repentance may involve

remorse and sorrow

 

it clearly involves change

 

but it is not about fear

 

it is less an “oh $hit!”

and more an “ah ha!”

 

it is a shifting of perspectives

it is moving from not seeing to seeing

from psychological, moral, and spiritual blindness

to sight

 

and what it does is open up the pathway to the Kingdom

which is near

as near as your heart

 

the kingdom is not about apocalyptic disaster

it is the place where Sacred rules

where peace, joy, hope, and love rule

it may, someday, be this earth

 

but is also within

it is at hand when we let Sacred rule in the deep place

that makes us who we are

 

when our perspective shifts

and we see God for who and what God really is

when we see the planet and the people on it

through the eyes of love

when we understand, finally, that power and wealth do not bring happiness

and certainly not peace

 

the grace becomes real

and the kingdom comes

 

amazing grace, how sweet the sound

that saved the precious child of God that is me

I once was lost but now am found

was blind but now I see

 

grace is ours

the kingdom is near

the peace, freedom, joy, liberation, wholeness, and harmony

we desire is right at our fingertips!

 

it cannot be found in earthly leaders

or through political parties

or through the accumulation of wealth

or through the abuse of power

 

it can only be found when we let the Sacred

open our eyes

and our hearts

to Love

and see people, all people, as they are, precious souls

and see the earth for what it is, a fragile treasure

and see ourselves for what we are, sacred children

 

then the kingdom will come

and Love’s will be done

on earth

and in our hearts

Just like me

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A Buddhist practice to help us connect with others is, during meditation, to chant “Just like me…”

          Brian Miller, Reducing Secondary Traumatic Stress

_______________________

 

the strategists know

those foul propogandists whose job is it

to secure our alliance to one country, one leader, one party, one ideology

that the best way to do that is to create separation

 

all they have to do

is create an abyss between us in the other

make us focus on differences

make those differences terminal

 

all the have to do

is convince us that “those people” are our enemy

and are not like us

 

while we are good and noble

while our values are appropriate

and our priorities and goals sacrosanct

 

they are evil and deplorable

with values that will destroy life as we know it

and priorities and goals that are despicable and disgusting

 

common good, indeed!

Capitalism, indeed!

 

our ideology is logical, ethical, and even blessed

their ideology violates everything that is good

 

it is only a small step from there to the idea

that we are superior

not only superior, but indeed different, at a profound level

 

we are those created in God’s image

endowed with original blessing and saturated with the Sacred

they?

 

they are creatures, caricatures

dehumanized monsters

beings without faces

 

objects who don’t count, don’t matter

and thus do not have to treated with respect

they can be used an abused

manipulated and expended on our behalf

 

women, who are turned into soulless “vessels”

minorities who are nothing more than cheap labor

soldiers who are damaged in many ways, for the sake of profit

the list goes on

and on

 

and soon these people are so vague

that we can not only hate them, not only use them,

lie to them, manipulate them, send them to their deaths

but we can literally kill them

 

As Sam Keen suggests in this book Faces of the Enemy

 In the beginning we created the enemy

Before the weapon comes the image

We think others to death

Then invent the [weapon] with which to actually kill them

 

And so it is

As we walk through this world

Dealing with people we love

And people who disgust us

 

We breath

Breath in and out

Breathing in hate, breathing out love

And muttering under our breath

 

That person is “just like me”

We are brother and sister

We are part of the human family

We are children of God

 

That person just wants to feel safe, just like me

That person wants to be valued, just like me

That person wants comfort, just like me

That person is greedy, (sadly) just like me

Fearful, angry, reactive, threatened…  just like me

 

I am a child of God

They are a child of God

They have a face I can see.  Eyes I can look into

A soul to which I can connect

Issues for which I can have compassion

 

They are just like me

Deficit thinking

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Therefore, I have cheerfully made up my mind to be proud of my weaknesses, because they mean a deeper experience of the power of Christ. I can even enjoy weaknesses, suffering, privations, persecutions and difficulties for Christ’s sake. For my very weakness makes me strong in him.

                     I Corinthians 12:9,10 (JB Phillips)

 

The experience of powerlessness is where we must all begin

                     Richard Rohr  (Daily Meditations 9/27/2022

______________________________

 

Strength

Dominance

Power

Wealth!

 

We love it!

It is as American as apple pie

Or lunatic fringe politicians

 

It is so very human

 

Alas, we human creatures

We have gotten it so very wrong

 

We think somehow it is bad to fail

That pain and struggle are bad things

We equate power and success with blessing

And weakness and failure with sin

 

What do we then do

With the cross?

 

I grew up with at least a stainless steel spoon in my mouth

I was moderately gifted with intelligence

A functioning body

And a fair degree of comeliness

 

Affluence and comfort marked my life

And things were for the most part, easy

 

And then I screw up

I allowed anxiety and other human quirks

To push me into patterns that hurt me and others

 

I failed

Miserably

 

And that is when I started to understand

Grace

Forgiveness

Love

And yes, God

And yes, the cross

 

My facades ripped away

my power eroded

I learned humility

And dependence

 

I learned how to accept love (and help)

And how to give it (at least better than before)

 

Perhaps the word I am looking for here is

Surrender

I had to surrender to grace

Surrender to love

I had to let go of power and prestige

And my need to be powerful and rich and “big”

 

Would I still love to be “relevant”

Yes

To have people admire me?

Yes

To have enough money to play?

Yes

 

But it has been my moments of despair

My moments of abject failure

My times when I looked in the mirror

And realized I needed help

That have made me a deeper

Better

Kinder

More generous person

 

I am sorry for those people

Who must have power, must have the limelight

Must have their 3 seconds of fame

Who have not learned that lesson (we know who they are)

 

I am sorry because they will always be haunted

Always be striving

Always be defensive and angry and insecure

Pushing themselves in front of the cameras

Promoting themselves

 

And always always, always, finding themselves

Deficit

 

And that is no way to live