Friday, September 21, 2018
CONTEXT II
THIS IS THE SECOND
IN A SERIES OF FOUR
ON
" CONTEXT CONDITIONS."
IT WOULD BE HELPFUL
TO READ OR REREAD
CONTEXT I
BEFORE BEGINNING HERE.
JUST SCROLL DOWN
THROUGH THIS POSTING
OR GO TO
BLOG ARCHIVE
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THANKS
*****
Hi There !
So, last week we started off
with a tale about my
teenage efforts to cool off
in a hellishly hot attic bedroom,
so I could simply get to sleep.
It was a practical,
personal experience
of how
CONTEXT
CONDITIONS.
In my case it took
a fair degree of effort
to cope with
that torrid context
of sleep depriving heat.
Today millions upon
millions of us
are trying to find a way
to cool things down so as
to live peacefully,
indeed to continue to live
in our hellishly
over heating world context.
It's a world threatened by
a volcanic eruption
of our shared life.
The very grounding
of societal stability
shakes and shifts.
Hateful word incinerates
concern for the common good.
Fear and anger,
like molten lava,
overspread.
.
It destroys structures
of civility and culture.
As noted last week,
fully one third of likely voters
in the United States expect
a second Civil War here
within the next five years.
This disruptive, destabilizing,
dangerous
CONTEXT
CONDITIONS
just about every aspect
and dimension of our lives.
It will take way more
than a fair degree of effort
to deal with this conflagration.
Heroic effort of epoch proportions,
and then some, is requite.
In this context
how do we make
our way spiritually?
How be real in
a context of
flaunted unreality?
How live love in
a hateful setting?
How be transformed beautiful
as we together seek to be part
of God's transforming evil
to glorious good?
How can we
live together
rather than
devastate and destroy
each other
and
our world?
How can we cope with this
context of crisis?
How do we modify it,
if we can?
How do we modify ourselves
as we must simply to survive.
HOW RECONDITION
CONTEXT??
The first and most pivotal thing
that comes to my mind and heart
is the
foundational bedrock
of
Jesus.
Please lets come to it afresh
rather than give a quick glance of
"Been there, know that."
It holds the way forward,
I would say the only way forward.
It's just that key!!
So, let's hear it again
for the first time
while we still have time.
The Foundational Bedrock of Jesus:
* "Do unto others as you
would have them
do unto you."
( Matthew 7:12 )
* "Which commandment
is first of all?"
Jesus answered,
'The first is
'Hear, O Israel:
the Lord our God is
one;
you shall love
the Lord your God
with all your heart,
with all your soul,
and with all your mind,
and with all your strength.'
The second is this,
' You shall love
your neighbor as yourself.'
There is no commandment
greater than these."
( Mark 12:28-31 )
* "...whatever you do
to the least of my
my brethren,
you do to me."
( Matthew 25:40 )
The granite of
this bedrock foundation
is that we are
one.
That's because
God is one
and
we existed
in God.
" ...you participate
in the divine nature."
( 2 Peter 1:4 )
We are one,
we exist
in
God's oneness.
"...Yet for us
there is but
one God
the Father,
from whom
are all things
and for whom
we exist,
and one Lord,
Jesus Christ,
through whom
are all things and
through whom
we exist."
( 1 Corinthians 8:6 )
All exist together in
God's Oneness.
We are one because
"God is love,"
( 1 John 4:8 )
and love is union,
oneness.
We are invited into
God's Oneness,
God's Love,
invited to love God,
neighbor, and self
with every bit of
who and how we are.
We are invited to a
RECONDITIONED
CONTEXT.
It builds on
ONENESS,
God's
and
ours
in
. God
While united,
we are unique.
Unique and unity are
two ways of being
one.
Unus ( L ) means
"one."
It is the root of
"unity"
and of
"unique,"
both as words
and even more so
of the diversity
in oneness they speak.
Each of us is the
one God
uniquely present,
personalized.
As Bonaventure,
mystic and theologian
said:
"You are not God,
and you are not not God."
This paradox is like
the one sun having
countless unique rays.
Each of us is a unique ray
and at the same time
the one sun is our source,
our shared, same substance.
It shines through us all
and altogether.
You are me another way,
and I am you another way.
This beautiful bedrock
foundation of unity
gets covered over by
the trash of
selfish individualism,
pride and greed.
People and peoples stumble in
that trash, crashing into each other.
Adam and Eve had the problem
and we caught it.
Actually, we get caught up in it
and start separating from each other
into
"us and them,"
"mine and thine."
That makes us threats to each other
and as threats we start swinging
with everything from
words to war,
with heaps of
hurt and horror
along the way.
Yet, if I hurt you I hurt myself.
If you kill me we both die.
That's the real threat
because we are
one in God.
The makers and shakers
of our world,
those setting our
societal context,
miss this
and mislead to ruination.
Right now there are few
we can count on whether
in government, religion,
commerce, education,
entertainment, letters,
the arts and sciences,
or the media.
Most don't see the problem
and are sadly a large part
of the problem.
We need to hold them in love
and set them an example of a
RECONDITIONED
CONTEXT,
a cooperative, loving, caring
oneness.
We need to again and again
and always invite
and challenge them
to grow from split to unity.
As for us,
we need to see ourselves
in more than just the
mirror of individualism
and self interest.
We need to see ourselves
as one with all others,
who aren't all that "other."
We need to see others
as us in another way,
as God incarnate in them.
We need to see in a whole,
as in holy,
new way.
It's quite a conversion.
We really need
to help each other
convert to a corrected optic.
That means
COMMUNITY.
Real spiritual community
is not a luxury.
It is essential.
If it isn't present
in your religious setting,
get the hell out of there -
literally, actually, now!!
Find or found
an honestly loving, spiritual,
unitive, serving, caring
community.
We're not talking about
feel good religion,
churchy tribalism,
ecclesial elitism,
institutional ever
"biggerness"
and busyness.
We are talking primal,
for real gathering as
one
in
The Spirit
and
going forth
with the impulse
and
direction of
The Spirit
as did the first
Christian communities.
They were noted for it.
First century members
of the Roman Empire,
when commenting on
the Early Christian Church,
were recorded as saying:
" See how they love
one another."
(Turtullian's Apology,
Chapter XXX1X)
Community is of our essence
and is essential as our context.
So much here to ponder, pray,
to mull and meditate over.
In our various ways and places.
Let's do just that.
Next Week:
CONTEXT III.
We'll consider very immediate,
personal, practical, communal ways
to live our oneness,
to embrace a context
that relishes our
Oneness,
a
RECONDITIONED
CONTEXT..
Good to be together here seeing
just how it is
where we are,
where we can be,
the
CONTEXT
that so
CONDITIONS
our spiritual life
here on the street
of everyday living.
Holding one and all n
God's Dear Love,
John Frank
*****
Welcome to those new to us.
Thanks for your company!!
Please take the time
to catch the spirit of
"frankly speaking"
by reading over both
"What's Going On Here?"
and
"Consider Your Source"
They are in the right column here.
"frankly speaking"
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johnfrankshares.blogspot.com
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