This is the fourth
in our
Fall Series
FOLLOW THROUGH
living out
The Sermon On The Mount
******
Dear All of Us,
Ah, The Arts!
Earth elements
heaven soaring, searching.
Sound, stone, paint, motion,
word, glass, wood, metal -
all singing, showing the sacred.
See the power of the potter.
Caressing clump clay,
whirling dervish spinning divine,
fondled free, upward,
drawn out to form fulness.
See Potter Jesus.
He works the clay of
Tradition,
The Law and The Prophets -
earthbound elements
sprung free.
Clumps of consciousness
evolved expansive,
wide - deep - high - full.
"You have heard it said...
But I say to you..."
Six pericopes
of potential released,
Tradition
evolved, worked to
furtherance and fullness -
from the letter of the law
to the sprung spirit of Love,
from act based law released
to soul stance, Love Embraced.
Matthew 5:21-48
See Six Soul Leaps to Love,
from:
- contempt to communion
- lust limits to pure presence
- discarding to dedication
- confounded word to simple truth
- resisting to embracing
- selective to universal love.
See Potter Jesus.
See the art of transformation.
See the evolution,
the expansion of the
first periscope:
contempt to communion:
THE MESSAGE
Translation of the oldest
manuscripts into
today talk.
Matthew 5:21- 26
"You're familiar
with the command
to the ancients,
'Don't murder.'
I'm telling you that anyone
who is so much as angry
with a brother or sister
is guilty of murder.
Carelessly call a brother 'idiot!'
and you just might find yourself
hauled into court.
Thoughtlessly yell 'Stupid!'
at a sister and you are
on the brink of hellfire.
The simple moral fact is
that words kill.
"This is how I want you
to conduct yourself
in these matters.
If you enter a place of worship
and, about to make an offering,
you suddenly remember
a grudge a friend has against you,
abandon your offering,
leave immediately,
go to this friend
and make things right.
Then and only then,
come back and
work things out with God.
"Or say you're out
on the street and
an old enemy accosts you.
Don't lose a minute.
Make the first move;
make things right with him.
After all, if you leave
the first move to him,
you're likely to end up in court,
knowing his track record,
maybe even in jail.
If that happens,
you won't get out
without a stiff fine."
How's that for
"throwing a pot"?
Blunt, strong, earthy
very Jewish talk
and parable from Jesus.
In it
Potter Jesus
shows us
the art of spiritual living,
how to draw out
and fashion
earthiness to divine fullness.
It means accepting
the divinity
at the center
of our earthiness.
It's there in clay.
It's there in us.
It's there in others.
At the Center Point of
all is All.
It is the Love that is God,
uniquely, creatively,
dynamically present
in all and each.
Divine.
At that Center Point
we are one
with all in ALL.
GOD LOVE
is that
Center Point
and
The Fullness.
Draw that out,
fashion it to fullness
in thinking, feeling.
Attitude to action -
transformed, evolved.
For sure there are impurities
in the clay of our earthiness.
We irritate each other.
The art is to go to the center
of the troubling other
and draw that Godness out,
to be drawn out with it
as a divinely diversified
ONE
The Art of Love Living.
So, we don't damage
or destroy the painful other.
No looks that kill,
nor any other deadliness.
And there are too many of them:
denigration, disparagement,
mocking, ridicule, belittlement.
Sad to say, my personal default,
and is it ever a "fault,"
is to go dead on the other
when I'm angry,
the "silent treatment."
I withdraw from them,
push them away from me.
I deny them.
I deaden them.
I deaden me.
It's murder,
inflicted from
my impure haughtiness.
It defiles and denies
the divine
in us both
- hellish -
So, way better we see
self and God in other.
We embrace all three
at once and as
One.
We absorb any deadening
from other in the deepest
of our liveliness.
We return good for evil.
We suffer fools, and more, gladly.
We refuse to kill in defense
of a life that can't ultimately be killed.
We are patient with those that pain.
All this takes place in our
here and now
as it is.
Right now is a murderous
time and culture:
-governments that can't
- trillion dollar militarism
- cut throat competition
- blatant, vicious political attracts
- sports and other "entertainments"
violence laced
- deadening social, racial,
financial disparities
- culture clashes
- the denial of objectivity and truth
- a "me" materialism
and self absorption pursued
to absurd indulgence,
"and the hell with you
and your need"
- there's some, but not nearly enough,
recognition of the evil of sexual abuse
- even less recognition of nature abused
- religious institutions and leaders at times
giving the lie to Love Lived Godness,
"wolves in sheep's clothing."
All that and tons more need not be
the frustration and fraction of
our earthiness being drawn out,
fashioned, to divine fullness.
We get to live Heavenly Kingdom
in the midst of Evil Empire.
It's an alternate lifestyle for sure.
It needs the support of community
in a real, practical, praying, caring
Oneness.
It needs a centered spirituality
that meets
all in All
and grows out from there.
So, let's hang out with
Potter Jesus
and learn the art of
Love Living,
the beauty of life giving
rather than death dealing,
let him draw us out beautiful.
On his business card it reads:
"I've come that you
might have life
and that abundantly."
John 10:10
That's just how things
shape up with
Potter Jesus
and his artistry.
On the chance no one
has told you lately,
or you haven't had
a good look at yourself
in the mirror of Reality
for a while,
let me say what
a beautiful fashion of God
you are!!
You Brother
John Frank
******
As always, welcome to
our first time visitors.
This week we had
many dozens of
new friends from France.
Please be right at home
with us all from
Kingdom Come.
We're so glad
we're here together.
Many and sincere thanks
to all who are sharing
with others
"frankly speaking"
spirituality for the street
- it is posted by
mid-day Thursdays
east coast USA time
johnfrankshares.blogspot.com
- an email version goes out
Friday mornings
sign up is top right above
- Blog Archive has all past postings
bottom right column above.
If anyone gets on your case
this coming week and says
"You're a real piece of work!",
tell'em you sure are!!
******
To do that let's see
