Friday, October 5, 2018
CONTEXT IV
THIS IS THE CONCLUSION
OF
OUR FOUR PART SERIES
ON
CONTEXT CONDITIONS.
FOR THOSE NEW TO US,
PLEASE DO TAKE THE TIME
TO PRAY/PONDER
OVER
THE POSTINGS OF
THE PAST THREE WEEKS.
JUST GO TO
BLOG ARCHIVES,
LOWER RIGHT
OR
SCROLL DOWN HERE.
I REALIZE THAT'S
A FAIR BIT OF READING,
BUT I SUGGEST IT
WOULD GIVE A HELPFUL
"CONTEXT"
FOR CONTEXT IV.
IN ANY CASE,
DELIGHTED WE ARE HERE.
TOGETHER,
IN
COMMUNITY.
*****
Hi There !
So, on a blistering hot day
we go swimming.
On an icy cold day
we go ice skating.
It's the same water,
but the context
sure makes a difference
whether
( intended!! A pun plant!!)
we do one or the other.
CONTEXT
CONDITIONS.
It conditions
attitude and action.
Context doesn't alter
who we are.
It does effect how we are
and what we do,
and how we do it.
Of course,
that then does have
a lot to do with
who we become,
who we are,
doesn't it?
We are trying to make
our way spiritually
( and every other "...ly" )
out here on the street
of everyday living.
Our context has changed,
BIG TIME,
and promises
( threatens )
to change even more
and not at all
in a good way.
See "The American Civil War, Part II,"
by Thomas Freidman, NYT, 10-03-18.
It is cogent, clear and frightening.
The atmosphere is dark.
It's so hard to see where
you are going.
Direction ????
There's collision of:
Ideas, values, principles,
economic advantage/disadvantage,
nationhood, guns and bombs,
environmental concerns,
religious practices,
international arrangements,
spiritual and sexual orientations,
minorities and elites,
marginalized and more than
a bit of "affluenza" for the few
and not nearly enough for the majority.
The mood out on the street
is one of fright and anger.
Terra firma isn't at all that "firma."
Rock solid foundations crumble -
ideological, societal ones.
This context conditions
how we make
our way spiritually.
Right now it is a
difficult and dangerous
"way to go.
SOME
REFLECTION PROMPTS
for
A WAY FORWARD.
* In Regard To Public Officials:
Consider our base:
"Do unto others as
you wish done to you."
"Love your neighbor
as yourself. "
The "other" is us
in a different way.
The "other" is an
absolute contact
with the Ultimate,
with God:
"Whatever you do
to others you do
to me."
Communicate with
public officials
in a non-hostile way.
Urge them to always reference
* human made regulation/law
as just that,
human and limited,
* The Common Good,
* the natural order of things
* the effects of their governance
beyond those directly addressed
For example:
Immigration is a complex,
many faceted matter.
But, it must not be worked out
by the mass devastation
and life long traumatizing
of innocent children.
They are neither guilty parties,
nor must they ever be
political pawns.
In the natural order of things
and in terms of
The Common Good,
children belong with their parents.
The family unit is
to be honored and protected.
There are exceptions,
e.g. abusive parents,
but then the exception
proves the rule.
2300 migrant children
were severed
from their parents
at our borders
earlier this year.
416 of those children
have not been reunited
with their parents.
Those families
that have been reunited
are suffering
all sorts of trauma.
See
"US government accused of
'devastating damage'
to families separated at border,"
The Guardian,
September 14, 2018.
Beyond this there are currently
13,000 migrant minors
in the custody of the US government.
Many are children and teens
that came on their own.
Recently 1600 of them were removed
from shelters or foster care,
settings that were licensed
and monitored by state welfare authorities.
Schooling was provided.
Neither is the case as the minors were shipped
to a new tent city in the Texas desert.
See NYT, 10-01-18,
"Migrant Children Moved Under Cover
of Darkness to a Texas Tent City."
We need to remember
and not repeat
the atrocities of
the forced relocations
of the First Americans,
the internment of innocent
Japanese American citizens
during World War II.
It's a moral matter,
a humanitarian matter.
Violation here is
horrendously sinful.
* Help them remember that
human law can be flawed -
slavery was once
law in this country.
When such happens,
higher law
must prevail and
public officials
need the courage
to respect that
in their practice,
no matter the political
or career consequences.
Pontius Pilot was
a government official.
He found no case
against Jesus,
washed his hands
of responsibility
in this case of
that innocent man,
"Do what you
will with him,"
effectively
sentenced Jesus
to one of the cruelest
and most painful forms
of death ever devised.
It was perfectly legal,
perfectly legal!.
* Ask them to consider what
"Do unto others..."
would mean to those public officials
if they were to have their children
taken from them and shipped off
to devastating disconnection.
*An excellent resource and guide is
the newly published
"Sacred Resistance,"
by Ginger Gaines-Cirelli,
2018, Abington Press
It' is a vision for living out
God's way of justice.
by the pastor of
Foundry United Methodist Church,
Washington, DC.
*"Love your neighbor as yourself":
Recently Pastor Rob Myallis, of
St. Paul's Lutheran Church,
in Lititz, PA,
got at that so well.
He pointed out that
we live a touch screen life
way more than a life
with a personal touch.
He referenced Jesus as consistently
being in touch with people,
having real touch,
personal touch.
He cited the woman
with twelve years of hemorrhaging
and the dead daughter of Jairus.
( Mark 5;21-43 )
Jesus' touch healed and revivified.
So will ours, if we really are
personally "in touch":
* with those "others"
whom we see as really "other,"
and not comfortably so,
and/or those those "others"
returning the disfavor -
not easy but essential -
we can't stay away
and be in touch
* it helps to remember
that walking is
the symmetry
of opposites,
of a left and a right,
not the exclusive venture
of a solo left or solo right
- left and right opposites
may not always attract,
but they sure can help us
and our society keep balance
and move forward together
* what does that mean for being
personally in touch
in the realms of
church, politics, government,
cultural expression,
family, neighborhood,
business and finance?
* it also helps to remember
that we are not the trustees
of total truth in all its forms,
nor are others,
even if they think they are.
* to be in a true healing,
vivifying, personal touch
means reconsidering
our means -
as noted in Part I
of this series,
more and more
people worldwide
want to live
like we do and
for the whole world
to live as we do
in the USA would take
the resources of
4.1 planet earths,
but we have one
* to do unto others as we want done to us,
to actually and practically and personally
love our world neighbors as ourselves,
are we willing to significantly adjust
our life style and our life of privilege ?
* does heart/soul direct spending?
* how avoid being a Cadillac Christian,
a talk liberal, but not be in
the stretch of sharing,
the sharing of too much for the few
and not nearly enough
for the many?
* probably the two best ways
to be present and
personally in touch
with others/neighbors
is to work together
and to eat together
* let's get together with those
we most dislike/disagree with/fear
and find ways to work together
for yet others, for those in need, for
The Common Good.
* working together,
shoulder to shoulder
is "together,"
does put us "in touch" -
*here are a few connects
to touching,
to working together,
to being shoulder to shoulder:
- together establish and
tend a community garden
to feed the poor and homeless
in our immediate area
- together take
inner city/poor children
camping, canoeing,
hiking, swimming
- together set up and staff
after school shelters
for latch key kids
- together renovate the houses
of the needy
- together organize
neighborhood/block/building
parties
- together celebrate holidays,
birthdays, anniversaries
around a table
of nourishing variety
and fellowship
- together go to ball games
and have a few beers
- if that's a touch too plebeian,
get together for wine and cheese
and then go to the philharmonic !!
- together develop groups of four
to regularly visit shut in's
and sing to them,
have indoor picnics with them,
play board or card games,
and ask the shut in's
to tell you what
it was like seventy/eighty
years ago, be prepared to stay
and pay attention as they do it,
and that likely at some length
- in other words and ways,
get together for others with others,
agreeable/not so agreeable,
but get together
- working, eating,
- helping together
will put us together,
personally in touch
- it will make it
harder and harder
to hate and hurt
- just the opposite
- it will heal and vivify
-it will be
COMMUNITY
A
RECONDITIONED CONTEXT.
*In his book, Exclusion and Embrace,
Bosnian theologian Miroslav Volf
writes so rightly that,
It may not be too much
to claim that the future
of our world will depend on
how we deal with
identity and difference."
*"By their fruits
you will know them"
(Matthew7:16-20)
Sure enough.
That's the litmus test
Jesus gives us.
We need to evaluate
context,
community,
conduct
by it:
social media, religion,
political talks and tweets,
spiritual communities,
our words and actions,
governmental policy
and practice, life style,
finance and commerce,
ecology, entertainment,
community,
- in all these areas
are we doing unto others
as we would have them
do unto us?,
- are we loving our neighbor
as our self?
- since what we do to others
we do to God, what are we doing?
"By their fruits..."
Among the "downers," "the fallen "
Fruits of the Flesh
that spoil and rot are
"... enmities, strife, jealousy,
anger, quarrels,distensions,
factions, envy..."
By contrast are
The Fruits of the Spirit:
"...love, joy, peace, forbearance,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, and self -control."
Galatians (5:19 and 22-23)
*The fruits of a life of love for neighbor
and of doing to others
as we wish done to us
are spelled out by Paul:
" Love is patient; love is kind;
love is not envious or boastful
or arrogant or rude.
It does not insist on its own way;
it is not irritable or resentful;
it does not rejoice in wrongdoing,
but rejoices in the truth.
It bears all things,
believes all things,
hopes all things,
endures all things.
Love never ends."
( I Corinthians 13: 4-8 )
It would be good
to read those wisdom words
before opening our mouth,
using social media,
making decisions.
*"Whatever you did
to the least of these
you did unto me"
Jesus
( Matthew 25: 45)
Sure enough.
"By their fruits
you will known them."
What a litmus test!
It clarifies and guides.
How are we doing here?
What kind of fruits
are we serving up?
We've heard these scriptures
so often that there can be
a tendency to zip through them.
Given the context of our world
just now, we'd do well
to spend a month with these scriptures
and then come back every week forever.
* "I tell you, on the day
of judgement
you will have to give
an account for
every careless word
you utter;
for by your words
you will be justified,
and by your words
you will be condemned."
Jesus
( Matthew 12: 36-37 )
* " Let no evil talk come out
of your mouths,
but only what is useful
for building up...
Put away from you
all bitterness
and wrath and anger
and wrangling and slander,
together with all malice,
and be kind to one another,
tenderhearted, forgiving
one another as God
in Christ has forgiven you."
( Ephesians 4: 29- 32)
* "Let your speech be gracious,
seasoned with salt,
so you may know how you
ought to answer everyone."
Colossians 4: 6
These are tones and touches
of community,
of how to be and do
in the distress of
our world's current context
by living a
RECONDITIONED
CONTEXT.
*****
Friends, these four weeks
on how context conditions,
and a non-blinking look
at our current context,
as well as a call for
COMMUNITY
and
RECONDITIONED
CONTEXT
are hard to write
and I'm sure
they are hard to read.
We all know that what
we need to be and
what we need to do
are even harder.
Hear the honesty,
and commission,
and challenge of Jesus:
"SEE, I AM SENDING
YOU OUT LIKE SHEEP
INTO THE MIDST
OF WOLVES;
SO BE AS WISE
AS SERPENTS
AND AS INNOCENT
AS DOVES."
( Matthew 10: 16)
"LET ANYONE
WITH EARS
LISTEN !"
(Matthew 11: 15)
OUR PRAYER
AND
ACTION PLAN
ARE
"THY KINGDOM COME
ON EARTH AS IN HEAVEN."
(Matthew 6:9-13)
AMEN AMEN AMEN
Holding each and all in
God's Dear Love,
John Frank
*****
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with folks new
to our gathering here.
We welcome you
and we thank you for joining in.
To best get the sense of
"frankly speaking,"
please check out
"Consider Your Source"
and
"What's Going On Here?"
They are on the right
of this posting.
"frankly speaking"
*is posted each Friday at
johnfrankshares.blogspot.com
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*******************************************************************************
