Hi There !
So, here we are concluding
our three part look
at how we look at God,
at how we look at God,
at what and how
we see God,
we see God,
our images of God.
Those images condition
our whole spiritual life.
Paradoxically,
they are images
of
The Imageless.
It would be good
to first read
IMAGE I
and
IMAGE II
- just scroll down,
or go to
Blog Archive.
What follows here are
more notes and notions,
unedited from the
Blog Notebook.
See what you and
The Spirit make of them.
What follows is
a compilation.
a compilation.
Their composition is
up to you and The Spirit.
*****
NOTES AND NOTIONS
FROM
THE BLOG NOTEBOOK
- Keep in mind that
our image of God
is one thing, and
God
is quite a bit different,
more and vastly so...
- 1 Corinthians 13:12
" Now we see
but a dim reflection
as in a mirror,
then we shall see
face to face."
- Images of God
are necessary
to get us started,
but not a place
to stop or stay.
- It's like orthodoxy
and orthopraxis
- ideas are fine (orthodoxy),
they picture God for us,
but experience (orthopraxis)
immerses us in God.
- If we want to "find" God,
we go to Jesus.
- He is the most perfect
image of God,
and the very person
and presence of God
as well.
- Yet image a relationship
doesn't make.
-It is a lead up to one.
-It conditions one.
-Jesus invites us
to move on in
and live together,
to be right at home,
sharing in the love making
that is God:
"Abide in me as I abide in you...
As the father has loved me,
so I have loved you;
abide in my love."
( John 15:4 and 9 )
-"abide" means live here,
let me be your "abode"
- " Oh, night that guided me,
Oh, night more lovely
than the dawn,
Oh, night that joined
Beloved with lover,
Lover transformed
in the Beloved."
John of the Cross
-Yes, if we want to "find" God,
we do well to find Jesus.
-Actually, we can't "find" God.
-God isn't lost,
but we are at a loss to awake
to our immersion in
The Being that is God.
Images help us get a start.
-Jesus is "Emmanuel...
a name which means
"God is with us"
( Matthew 1:23 )
- We find Jesus in his
portrayals and teachings
as shared in the Gospels.
- It is best to just let The Spirit
bring us to him through slow,
open immersion in the Gospels.
- There The Spirit images God
for us in word, offers grace,
moves us to insight,
then invites union.
- In fact, Jesus is The Word of God
(see the Prologue to John's Gospel).
- His person is an articulation
of God in a human way
- Check his life style.
See what it "pictures"
- Check his teachings.
They "bespeak" a
Word Picture/Image of God
and living in union with God
Yes, Jesus pictures God for us.
He and His words
are enlivening,
are life giving.
" What has come
into being in him was life,...
and the life was
the light of all people."
( John 1:3- 4 )
- We find Jesus
as Paul and the other
New Testament writers
pictured him,
imaged him for us,
as the Christ
in their various reflections,
toned and conditioned
by their life level,
faith experience
and the effects
of their culture on them
- We find Jesus as
we let his life style
be our life style,
moving from image
to experience/union
simple, traveling light -
"One Tunic Living."
- We find Jesus by hanging out
where he hung out the most,
and still hangs out the most,
being with the poor,
the needy, the hurt
as they show up
on the street of
our everyday living
and making sure
that we don't cross
to the other side:
- the kid needing
a foster parent
- an old man/woman
needing respect
and company
- a single parent needing
someone to care
for the child(ren)
until he/she can get home
from work
- a Muslim, conservative,
liberal, Latino/a, gay, straight
trans, black, Asian -
a "different" person
at work/school moving
into the neighborhood
and needing a friend
in an unfriendly setting,
even if it costs us
some "friends"
- closer to home,
right in our house actually,
"actually" listening to
our spouse/partner/kids/roommate
and not hiding behind a newspaper,
TV show, sportscast, texting, video game -
giving them clear channel attention.
- regularly and generously supporting
a homeless shelter, soup kitchen,
financially and perhaps by jumping in,
hanging out, rolling up our sleeves
and helping
- contributing to a college fund
for impoverished students,e.g.
The American Indian College Fund,
Berea College Scholarship Fund,
- teaching Sunday School,
religious instruction classes at
our synagogue, mosque,
spiritual community
- helping out with a youth program,
- tutoring a struggling student
- sticking with a "twenty something"
while they sort themselves out
and what adult life really is all about
- vigorously sharing what we're good at
with people that need just that
- Jesus/God is imaged, and if we buy in,
experienced, beyond image
in these and so many other people/needs
- We find God in the closeness of quiet,
private prayer.
Like Jesus, we go off to
a quiet solitary place and let Abba
move us beyond image and
hold us in his love.
- Check out the book/movie
" Wonder."
A great story - painful and beautiful -
a good icon/image of suffering
through pain and evil
to freedom and joy -
death and resurrection motif -
a lot of Jesus/God image there.
- Get a copy of Richard Rohr's book,
"just this"
CAC Publishing 2017
a short compendium
of his seminal
insights and sharings.
He paints a fine portrait
(word image)
of God/Jesus/Christ/Spirit.
- Everything said, sung, painted,
sculpted, ritualized,
philosophized, theologised,
dogmatised about God
is but a finger pointing
to the sun.
-Too often religion
has played God
about God
- Theological/dogmatic constructs
may image God in a helpful way.
At best they are minuscule and partial.
At worst they obfuscate, e.g.
"How many angels can you get
on the tip of a pin?"
That was actually a medieval,
scholastic concern!!!
(angels were seen ad
an extention/presence of God)
Angels don't hang out on pins and
we shouldn't get pinned down with such
arrogant, wasteful image questions.
- Before his death Thomas Acquinas
("Summa Theologica") -
the all time Hall of Famer of
Church Theologians - said that
all he had written about God
was so much straw.
He had moved from image of God
to enfoldment in God.
- "All spiritual language
is by necessity
metaphor and symbol."
Richard Rohr
Falling Upward.
- Best of all God images
after Jesus are ritual,
music, art, creation,
scripture, nature,
the poor and needful,
having a baby,
making love
(ok, reverse the sequence!!).
-We start with image,
move to experience,
end up wrapped up,
beyond image, in union.
-Our spiritual lives start
with images of God.
May they end in God.
Holding each and every in
God's Dear Love,
John Frank
*****
New folks are joining us
here each week.
here each week.
In good part that
is because people
like you have told them of
is because people
like you have told them of
"frankly speaking"
and recommended it through
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their social media contacts.
THANKS TO ALL
WELCOME TO THOSE NEW HERE.
"frankly speaking"
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johnfrankshares.blogspot.com
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Blog Archive - right column,
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Thank You
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