WAR AND PEACE

Dear All of Us, 

Well, and it isn't,

it's war more.

The despots of

     Empire

      pitch 

the nations into 

hellish violence,

the peoples into

devastating pain,

       foul 

  land, sea, air,

     shatter

peaceful living.

War may stop an evil.

It will never birth peace.

I found that out in the 60's

during the Vietnam War

while ministering at 

Walter Read Army Hospital 

to ward upon ward of 

late teen and 

twenty something

non-coms.

Their bodies, 

minds and souls

were shattered from 

shattering those 

of opposites in combat.

I realized that

the killer dies.

Jesus put it way clearer:

"Put your sword back 

 where it belongs. 

 All who use swords 

 are destroyed 

 by swords." 

Matthew 26:52 

 The Message.

The sword 

cuts two ways.

One of countless horrors

still paining my heart

from those back ward days

at Walter Read 

is the nineteen-year-old 

kid from Baltimore.

He had worked 

in a gas station, 

had a girlfriend - 

ordinary as can be.

He didn't have 

the money or

connections 

to duct the draft.

First time out in combat 

he blew the head off 

a young Vietnamese solider.

At that he screamed,

dropped his gun 

and broke down,

deeply down and out.

When with him 

in the hospital

he would 

laugh hysterically

and then 

cry the same.

He kept pleading

over and over,

"Father, tell me

 I'm not crazy.

 Tell me 

 I'm not crazy.""

But he was, 

shattered, 

psychologically

dead on arrival 

at the border 

of adulthood.

The sword

cuts both ways.

The same deadliness 

rebounds on 

waring nations.

The Vietnam War 

did not bring peace 

to Vietnam or to 

the United States.

Just the opposite.

Division and conflict.

The sword cuts 

both ways.

Way back when,

Jerimiah challenged

Empire's fault fraught 

chieftains and their 

phony claims of war 

begetting peace:

"Peace, peace, 

there is no peace"

Jerimiah 6:14, 8:11

No peace, 

just more war.

As Richard Rohr says, 

the only way to peace 

        is peace.

  Augustine saw that

    "Peace is the 

 tranquility of order."

Peace is Creation flowing 

as God gives it.

Peace is people 

thinking and acting, 

soul and society, all

love based and lived -

the tranquility of 

God Good Order.

Jesus assures that

"Blesses are 

 the peace makers.

 for they shall be called 

 children of God."

    Matthew 5:9

The Message 

puts it this way:

"You're blessed 

 when you  

 can show people 

 how to cooperate 

 instead of 

 compete or fight.

 That's when 

 you discover 

 who you really are, 

 and your place 

 in God's family."

       Positive 

putting things together.

    The tranquility 

      of order.

Regrettably, 

there really isn't 

a whole lot of peace

      just now

around town or globe.

War on the battlefield 

is a metastasis 

of cultural war

in town.

There is economic 

warfare between 

The Have's Most Of It,

The You Get Enough 

   To Keep You Quiet's,

The Have's Not 

Nearly Enough's.

There is the warfare 

between religions, 

social classes and castes,

far out lefts and 

not at all rights,

media moguls 

perverting mind and soul,

democracy and despotism

slugging it out, so too

social barbarity 

attacking civility.  

So, what do we do?

We do Jesus.

More specifically,

we let Jesus 

do us, gift us 

  peaceful.

"In everything, 

 therefore, 

 treat people 

 the same way 

 you want them 

 to treat you, 

 for this is the 

 Law and 

 the Profits."

Matthew 7:12

The Message 

again:

"Here is a simple, 

 rule-of-thumb guide

 for behavior.

 Ask yourself what

 you want people 

 to do for you, 

 then grab 

 the initiative 

 and do it for them. 

 Add up God's 

 Law and Prophets 

 and this is 

 what you get."

Put pointedly:

You don't want 

to be beat up,

so don't beat up.

You want the best.

Give the best.

Everybody scores.

Nobody loses.

What a plus 

arrangement 

for everybody.

Tranquility of order.

The UMPH for this 

comes compliments of 

Jesus:

"Peace I leave with you. 

 My peace I give to you, 

 not as the world gives 

 do I give.

 Do not let your heart 

 be troubled,

 nor let it 

 be fearful."

    John 14:27

WOW!!

What a wonder.

We can take that 

to the bank and

bank on it we can.

The Rightness,

The Integrity,

The Verve

The Vigor

The Vitality

 of Jesus' 

own peace 

being our peace.

It's not the

transactional paste 

that the world 

passes off as peace.

This is pure rightness,

divinely dynamic.

And we can be as well,

and well it is.

No hearts troubled,

no fear faintness

      for us.

The peace of Jesus

doesn't mean 

trouble free.

It does mean

freely robust

in facing troubles

peacefully.

It does mean

deep soul trust that 

ultimately peace will prevail.

So, we clear clean,

open wide, 

our hearts

to the gift of 

Jesus own peace.

We live Jesus' own

tranquility of order

in the sweaty-sweet

of our place and time.

We're patient with

the complexities

and imperfection 

of daily life.

Given a rock 

we offer a rose.

We bring a 

calm strength

to unraveling 

the knots of 

community life

and Nature Care.

We realize 

we can do little

about the 

outrageous evils of 

Empire's waring.

We can and 

do commit to 

harmony and peace 

with family, at work,

in our communities,

driving, dealing with 

difficulties of difference,

a tranquility of order.

War there is.

Peace there can be,

The Peace of Jesus.

If each of us is a 

peace plant

the world will

one day be 

peace blanketed.

In the meantime,

"Don't fret or worry,

Instead of worrying, pray.

Let petitions and praises 

shape your worries 

into prayers,

letting God know 

your concerns.

Before you know it,

a sense of 

God's wholeness,

everything 

coming together

(tranquility of order)

for good, will come 

and settle you down.

It's wonderful 

what happens

when Christ 

displaces worry 

at the center 

of your life.

Philippians 4:8-9

  The Message

Peace is the tranquility of order,

           God's order

      Creations free flow.

       "Peace be with you."

              Jesus

             ******

              WELCOME ALL

Online postings

Thursday mornings

East Coast USA time

A Sampling of Past Postings

         is available

              by

    scrolling well down

          beneath 

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See you next week.

       Peace.

    Love to all.

    God Bless,

   John Frank

        frankly speaking

   spirituality for the street

johnfrankshares.blogspot.com

             ******

             

 

SPEAK UP

      Dear All of Us,

As a boy back in the 1940's

(and is that ever BACK!)

my Mother taught us that

it was impolite to say, 

        "Shut Up".

   These days of 

     Empire's

darkening danger

   it's critical 

 that we don't 

  "Shut Up".

   These dark days it is imperative 

                 that we 

                SPEAK UP

                    in 

           word and action.

   

    To Shut Up is to say OK to 

              Empire's 

           foul depravity.

            Jesus didn't

        in his day and way. 

            We dare not

              in ours.

  As his followers, we model our 

             Response 

              on Him.

              Jesus 

              Lived 

              God 

            and then 

          Spoke Up 

       Godly Corrective

                to 

            Empire's 

       Godless, Loveless,

           Depravity. 

          There it is.

     Live it then talk it

     in word and action.

All this was in bold relief 

for me a week plus ago.

    Here in the USA

        Empire  

broad cast bombast.

It was an hour 

and forty minutes 

         of 

  UNREALITY TV

       in a 

bilious, buffoonish

travesty of truth,

       and 

 denial of love -

 The State Of The 

Dis-Union Address

That evening and 

the next day

I witnessed response, 

      SPEAK UP

lived and spoken 

in word and action 

Over dinner a dear friend 

shared that his daughter, 

a high school senior

planning to be a nurse,

is already taking 

nursing courses 

while in high school.

She recently went to one of 

those horrid, God-awful 

nursing homes of neglect.

She visited a very old man. 

He mentioned that 

he had not had a shower 

in a long time.

She took it upon herself 

to gave him one.

Then she decided 

to change his sheets.

They looked like 

they had been 

on the bed 

since the Civil War. 

The next day 

that old man died.

He died anointed in 

God's Love Lived,

administered by 

a high school student.

That old man 

was a victim of 

selfish Empire.

That young girl 

   "actioned" 

         a 

   SPEAK UP 

        of 

God Love Lived

     It talked.

The morning after the travesty of  

The State Of The Dis-Unity Address

two thousand United Methodist

from around the country 

gathered on Capitol Hill

here in Washington, DC. 

            They

talked-prayed-walked a

        SPEAK UP

             a

     God Corrective

to the current abuses in 

  migrant deportation.

It was peaceful and pointed. 

They then proceeded to  

congressional offices to claim

humane treatment of migrants.

            It talked.

Harry Truman remined us that 

those who don't know history 

are bound to repeat it.

We need to remember that

the sinful silence of Germany's

two major Religions,

  Roman Catholic 

        and

    Lutheran,

was tacit acceptance

that green lighted

the rise of Naziism.

It culminated 

in the hideous

        twin horrors 

             of

Holocaust and World War.

The times bid us

     Beware

  Speake Up

Three articulations

we have to 

       Speak Up

   in the midst of

       Empire's

rapidly metastasizing

    bedevilment 

         are 

 -  Be all in on 

     personal 

        and 

    communal

  Gospel Living.

         A

   Light Bright 

   in the midst of

   Dark Empire

      like the 

high school student.

  Living Witness

      It Talks.

       AND

 - To peacefully,

    lovingly do 

    what those 

dear Methodists did, 

    find ways of

Faithful Resistance,

clearly, peacefully, 

   animated by 

   Godly Love.

       AND

- Speaking of 

  SPEAK UP

 we do so in 

   prayer.

Individually 

and as a 

community

we pray that

"Thy kingdom come, 

 thy will be done 

 on earth as in heaven."

    Matthew 6:10

We are one in 

God's will and way 

for all Creation.

We praise.

We thank.

We hold in 

God's Love

all those 

damaged, hurt, 

violated by every 

form and instance of

      Empire.

We hold in that prayer

all those working 

the evils of Empire.

We pray that 

our shared life

as a society

be purified of

lust for 

power,

acquisition, 

dominance,

selfishness,

victimization, 

injustice, 

scapegoating,

militarism,

materialism,

aggression,

dishonesty and

distortion of truth.

We pray for the world

The Fruits of the Spirit:

"...affection for others, 

exuberance about life, 

we develop a willingness 

to stick with things, 

a sense of compassion 

in the heart, 

and a conviction that 

a basic holiness permeates 

things and people. 

We find ourselves involved 

in loyal commitments, 

not needing to force 

our way in life, 

able to marshal and 

direct our energies wisely."

   Galatians 5:22-24

     The Message

We have 

a lot to say 

   and 

not just in 

words or church.

       

People of honest, 

palpable spirituality,

cannot help but do things like

give an old man blessed comfort,

march to Capital Hill,

pray kingdom come,

        always as 

lived words and ways 

       of Jesus, 

       ways to

      SPEAK UP  

       ******

      

      WELCOME

 Online Postings

Thursday mornings

East Coast USA time.

A few past postings 

are available by

scrolling well down

      beneath 

      this one.

"Speak up 

for the people 

who have no voice, 

for the rights of all 

the down-and-outers. 

Speak out for justice! 

Stand up for 

the poor and destitute!"

Proverbs 31: 8-9

  The Message

Empire explodes

all across the

Middle East.

From our hearts 

let us pray 

that somehow 

order and peace 

will take root 

and blossom

in the Middle East

and while we're at it,

in all places,

for all peoples.

See you next week

    Love to all.

    God Bless.

    John Frank

         frankly speaking

    spirituality for the street

johnfrankshares.blogspot.com

                     ******

 

       

                

BOTHER

Dear All of Us,

"Oh bother!"

 Winnie the Pooh

sure pegged things

    gone wrong

       right.

They more than

      qualify

        as

    BOTHER

In these torturous times

    

    all sorts of wrong

  bothers the liv'n heck 

       out of us!

    

Well, not always "out."

We can get bogged down

          "in" it,

         literally

     be-deviled by 

      the evil of it.

 

 Currently and tragically, 

        the heinous 

           wrong 

             of

 

          Empire

      bothers many 

            into

     Moral/Spiritual

          Inertia.

     "Why bother!"

    "There's nothing 

 

     I can do about it" -

Putin, XI Jinping, Trump,

environmental dangers,

"Rupture" of the

Western Alliance,

Gaza, Ukraine, Iran

AI, economic fragility,

cartels, gestapos,

most for the few,

some for a select some,

not nearly enough

for most worldwide.

"There's nothing 

 I can do about it."

  "Why bother?"

  Au contraire!

     There's 

mountains much

     we all 

can do about it.

So, let's go to 

God's First Bible,

     Nature 

 and check out 

those mountains

      much

and see positive 

     Bother

Zillions of zillions 

beyond count of

miniscule molecules

      BOTHER

 to stick together.

 

They are rock solid

      in union

   and we have 

     The Alps.

  No one molecule 

   can be what 

  The Alps are.

  Molecules fused 

  in community

        are 

  monumental.

So it is with us

    in these 

difficult days of

    Empire

days more like 

deadly dark night.

  We can let 

  

  The Spirit

   fuse us 

        

     ONE

    in the 

  rock-solid 

 community 

   that is

    The 

 Kingdom 

  

     of

 

    God

  right in 

the midst of

Evil Empire -

a whole 

new range 

of living.

We adhere 

to each other 

    living 

 God's love

 practically, 

where we are, 

as we are.

 That shared 

   dynamic

       is

local and vital.

We look out 

for each other 

and "others" 

beyond our 

community of 

  God Good 

  Cohesion.

    "Nice-Nice" 

     feel good

      religion

 has flunked out, 

     doesn't

 cut it, count 

       or 

  

    qualify.

We're talking here,

    not words 

    but actual, 

     for real

  action based,

  experienced

  

 living together 

         as 

The Body of Christ.

As a community 

  we joyfully 

      and

practically live 

  The Sermon

 On The Mount.

 We learn live 

    together

     those 

  Beatitudes

We take a pass, 

indeed bypass, 

as in heart bypass,

anger, lust, 

an eye for an eye. 

As tough as it is,

we love our enemies.

We are subtle humble 

in giving to the needy.

We don't waste on worry 

nor judging others. 

   Matthew 5-7

We enter Kingdom Living

through the narrow gate 

        of actuality 

       rather than 

       spin out at 

   "wide the gate 

 and broad the way 

that leads to destruction" 

     Matthew 7:13

 

We gather for 

prayer, scripture, 

reflection,

Communion.

We are a village 

raising our children.

We regularly

gather for meals.

We share space

and means.

We weave in 

single parent 

families,

the alone elderly,

isolated singles.

We fit in misfits.

We share tools,

table, gardens,

stories, song,

celebrations.

We shovel out 

those unable  

in snowstorms.

We gather for 

the arts 

and learning.

  We do 

life together,

  God Life

 One day all this 

   positive plus

     BOTHER

  will molecule 

   by molecule

   overspread

   and replace

 the rot rock of

  monumental 

    Empire 

       by

  God's Love 

     Lived

In the meantime,

 we've "got a life,"

   we give a 

    BOTHER

   

   

   Eventually 

   the night

       of 

    Empire 

 will be over 

 and all that 

 will be left 

      is a 

Land of Light,

The Kingdom 

        of 

      God 

come on earth 

as in heaven.

We can make 

the difference

It sure is worth 

       the

    BOTHER

    ******

               

               Speaking of

                "BOTHER"

             

 We experienced one last week 

when our email editions of this blog 

             did not go out.

Supposedly the hitch is cleared up

and last week's missing post,

               FRESH

is being posted with this one.

In any case, if the email edition 

does not arrive on time Fridays, 

please go online for it at  

       frankly speaking

  spirituality for the street

johnfrankshares.blogspot.com

    Thanks for your patience.

What a goodness 

that we all bother 

to be together here 

    each week.

ONLINE POSTINGS

Thursdays

East Coast USA time.

PREVIOUS POSTINGS

      AVAILABLE

            by

  scrolling well down

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      this posting.

     All the best.

       See you 

     next week.

     Love to all.

     God Bless,

     John Frank

         

       ******

 

  

FRESH

      Dear All of Us,

     Where I grew up

  a common maxim in

The Lexicon of Parenting

            was

  "Now, don't be fresh!"

Well, my parents 

are long gone and 

I've never really 

bothered to

 grow up 

     but

I have come 

to realize 

how important 

it is to be

 FRESH

not sassy 

   but

sparklingly, 

vibrantly

 FRESH

Pilots take refresher courses.

We freshen up before dinner.

We refresh our computer.

We come up with 

fresh solutions 

for old questions.

Nature seasonally 

refreshes itself.

Marriage and friendship 

depend on being

regularly refreshed.

Dear old Pope John XXlll

called the church to

"aggiornamento"

urging that we 

throw wide 

the windows 

and let the 

fresh air of The Spirit

      free flow

to renew, to refresh 

a dusty, musty church. 

The German people practice 

           "Luften"

Twice a day, no matter 

the season or the weather, 

they open wide the windows 

to let out stale air 

and welcome in fresh.

It so improves health

  (body and spirit).

That's what 

we are doing 

right now in 

    Lent 

and does it ever 

improve things.

Stale, fetid, foul air 

of soul and society

is blown out 

as The Spirit

winds us 

clean and fresh,

renewed and reinvigorated. 

We're energized free of 

lifeless routine and ritual,

of sinful stifling strictures,

of all that pollutes 

head and heart,

of poisonous relations 

social and interpersonal,

of suffocating injustices,

of faux and phony religion.

Balmy spring days 

and bracing fall ones

make Luften easy.

Humid hot summer days and 

blustery frigid winter ones 

are opposite hard.

  So it is in 

    Lent,

our spiritual

    Luften

Hard or easy 

we throw open

the windows of 

soul and society

for pure real.

On our own 

and as community

we test the quality

of the air

that oxygenates 

our living.

    Two Central Helps

A slow, honest measure of 

soul and society registers

spiritual air quality 

as we open to all of

The Sermon on the Mount

and the trilogy of love

 God, neighbor, self

with their purity and gusto.

Two clear cleansing exercise

and examples:

- "Blessed are the pure of heart

   for they shall see God."

      Matthew 5:9

   Only sparkling purity 

   at the heart of 

   who we are 

   and what we do

   will clear the air 

   pure enough 

   to see God,

   Pure Good.

   In Lent 

   we air out the real

   reasons/motivations,

   and dynamics that

   power our consciousness,

   our relationships, 

   business, politics, religion, 

   lifestyle and work,

   our spirituality.

- The beauty of Lent is that 

  it puts before us 

  what often gets lost in the 

  hurry/scurry of daily life.

     We are called to

          love

    in who we are 

         and 

    what we do. 

  The flow fresh 

  of The Spirit is

         to 

    Love God 

with all our heart, 

mind and soul and

     To Love 

  our neighbor 

  as ourselves

(because they are).

Matthew 22:37-40

In the fullness and 

intensity of God Love 

we are wind swept

in the surging's of

The Holy Spiritus, 

the wholey energy,

   for full living,

     window 

     FRESH

    ******

   For those who wish it 

       

      LENTEN LUFTEN

      Each day of Lent 

       we open wide 

   the windows to deep.

      We breath in 

       Spirit Fresh

  as it blows clean in the

  Sermon on the Mount 

       Matthew 5-7

           and

    The Love Trinity 

   Matthew 22:34-40

A Few Prompts/Examples:

- Matthew 5:3

 "Blessed are 

  the poor in spirit, 

  for theirs' is 

  the kingdom of heaven."

 

  We don't have to wait for 

  some long off by ad by.

  The kingdom of heaven is

        move in ready

          right now

         if we are.

All it takes is to 

completely move out of

every habit and habitation 

of significance and security

less than kingdom living. 

We vacate 

self-reliant, 

self-centered 

systems and structures

   - poverty of spirit -

for the grandness of 

residence rich living 

right now, right here.

We have a completely new 

location and address 

and way we address life. 

It's the paradox of poverty 

clearing the way for 

limitless enrichment.

We just need to break 

the lease of less.

- Matthew 5:43- 48

  " Love your enemies."

Right now people are 

mad as hell at each other, 

literally "mad" 

and "hell" it is.

They are 

"loaded and cocked",

attitudinally and 

too often more

to do in the 

heavily hated/feared

       others,

those on the 

radically different side 

of the hate/fear divide.

Jesus is offering us 

a heaven of a deal 

for a hell of hatred and fear.

We do not have to accept 

the manner and ways of

those dreaded "others". 

We do have to 

dive deep 

through our anger, 

fear and hatred,

through their 

ideas and actions

to the core 

of who they are -

children of God,

temples of the Holy Spirit

and embrace them in love, 

the God of love 

at their center,

whether they 

know it or not.

It's the only way 

to peace.

It's hard.

It's also perfection.

Jesus offers it.

We move out of

the hell of now 

to the perfection of it

           in 

The Love That Is God.

- Matthew 22:34-40

           Love

   God, neighbor, self

   with all you've got!

We are what we love.

God wants us to be 

in love with

God, neighbor, self.

Love means intimate union.

Love means oneness.

I like shrimp scampi.

I don't dare love it.

I want to be 

a lot more than

shrimp scampi.

God doesn't want us 

to be in bed with,

in love with,

power, stuff, pleasure,

a pretend, cardboard self,

with anything less than 

          LOVE

God neighbor self 

          a

 Divine Oneness.

Jesus underscores 

this wisdom of the 

Hebraic Tradition.

In it we discover that 

all creation is neighbor,

proteins to planets,

that other is God

present in 

unique diversity.

Then I get to love 

shrimp scampi in our 

 Loved Oneness!!

We get to be in love 

with all that is.

That means 

peace and joy.

So, as we move 

through lent 

we breath in 

each bit of 

freshness in

      The Sermon  

     on the Mount  

           and

         Love of 

  God, neighbor self.

On Easter Sunday, 

we find ourselves

     lite lifted

        up 

      freed

     FRESH

     ******

It's a breath of fresh air 

being here together each week.

Online Postings

Thursdays

East Coast USA time

A sampler of past posting

       is available

            by

   scrolling well down

        beneath 

      this posting

     Thanks to all 

 who share this blog 

     with others.

     All the best.

See you next week. 

     Love to all.

     God Bless.

     John Frank

      frankly speaking

  spirituality for the street

johnfrankshares.blogapot.com

           ******