RIGHT AT HOME

                        

 Dear All of Us,

"Make yourself right at home."

Lovely sentiment.

Terribly difficult just now.

Where we live and how we live

have really been hammered this past year.

Big Time! Bad Time!

And there are more hammers 

in the toolbox of next.

Homeland and home sweet home soured.

Our home game a win wished,

but sadly a strike out instead.

A murderous pandemic, 

a nation that couldn't/wouldn't take hold of it,

just about everything politicized to a peril,

states of mind and peoples not at all united,

governance on life support,

anger in the air everywhere polluting the peace,

country and culture at war within,

finances flipping ever more to the ten percent

and slamming the ninety percent 

to the floor yet again and maliciously more. 

Many-most stretched to snap.

Yep, hammered! Things not at all 

             RIGHT 

           AT HOME

In one way and too many, 

everyone has been evicted

from an at-homeness desired and lost.

What to do?

How be with all this?

We can kick and scream,

drop into depressions 

of spirit and society,

wait it out in a quarantine of numbing now 

that just won't quickly flow away.

Or we can see things as they are

and adjust to new habitats of 

meaning, manner, mode.

Whatever our reaction and response,

our spiritual living will be effected,

and that in a pervasive, telling way.

Yes, in a lot of ways 

we really are homeless,

at least to what was 

and what is wanted.

We are forced to relocate,

if not physically, 

attitudinally,

spiritually for sure, 

and in many unfamiliar 

and less than easy ways. 

Six feet apart and more than 

six degrees of separation.

    All this raises 

         THE

  SOUL QUESTION

   critical and yet 

 often long avoided:

   Where and how 

   can we really be 

        RIGHT 

     about being

      AT HOME

in a solid spiritual way,

no matter the travail 

of our "Nows" and "Here's"?

Where are we located 

in this right now and here with 

our values, 

our life style, 

our focus,

our preoccupations 

and possessions, 

what we are taking 

and what we are giving?

How really, how radically 

in the best sense of it,

are we living out 

   The Sermon On The Mount 

and making our real home in the

  Kingdom Come and Coming,

     even in the midst of 

        PanProblems

             and 

    Empire's Lies To Life?

       What's our real 

    location and address?

  

Our PanProblems 

can motivate us 

to make sure 

that we have

a home base rock real,

one that gives surety,

a foundation firm,

no matter the trouble and turbulence,

one that stabilizes and strengthens.

It means to 

  simply, 

       actually, 

          practically,

                  for real 

                    be

           RIGHT AT HOME

                   IN

          JESUS THE CHRIST

 "the way, the truth, and the life" (1)

             so truly so that

"I live now not I, but Christ lives in me." (2)

That takes us to a place and way 

of being really "right at home"

no matter the travail and trouble about us:

                "Live in me. 

         Make your home in me 

             just as I do in you...

               I've loved you 

    the way my Father has loved me. 

    Make yourself at home in my love..." (3)

                  RIGHT AT HOME

                     Yes, Yes. Yes!

             Your Home Mate

                John Frank

                  ******

(1) John 14:6   (2) Galatians 2:20

(3) John 15:4, 9 The Message 

                  ******

     If you wish, here are some 

     prompts and supports

    to personalize and socialize 

   what we have shared above.

           PRAY AND PONDER

In a time and a place and a way 

of calm and quiet 

we invite The Spirit

to breeze through us,

to blow out the fetid air of fear 

and of stifling self centeredness,

to flow us clear and clean.

We ponder.

We pray.

Where am I really "right at home"

in my everyday-everyway living?

What's the context and consistency 

of my consciousness?

What constructs fashion 

and fix my habitation,

my fears and hopes, 

my surety and fallibility,

my flaws and forte,

my clarity and my confusion,

my sense of things,

my vice and virtue,

my freedom and growth,

my deepest intimacy,

where /how am I rock solid 

and/or sand soft?

On what foundation

and of what construction

is the house and home 

of my living?

How real and reliable?

How open for expansiveness

in grace and creativity 

and how safe in storm? 

How about all this with a view 

to our shared home 

as a people on a planet 

       - us here -

So let's sense the wisdom 

of our childhood.

Three little pigs in peril.

One constructed a home of sticks.

One constructed a home of straw.

One constructed a home of brick.

The big bad wolf huffed and puffed

and blew down the homes of sticks and straw.

He also consumed pork roast for dinner.

For all the vigor of his velocity 

as he huffed and puffed, 

the home of brick held

and it held that wise little piggy 

safe and secure.

Ill winds buffet us in the best of times.

These times don't come within 

a country mile of best.

PanProblems and Empire 

with their ill winds bang against 

the structure of soul and society.

Any habits and habitations 

of stick or straw

fall apart and fly away,

leaving us naked and homeless.

Are there any sticks and straws

in the structure of my living?

How about sticks and straw in

our shared habitation 

as a national and world wide people?

What are they - in detail and candidly so?

Am I willing to make a move 

to a new and solid home, to be 

      "Right At Home"

as offered by Jesus The Christ?

Am I willing to share 

with others habitation in the 

       Kingdom Come

as we open to the 

     Kingdom Coming,

and that in the midst of Empire 

and its terrifying tornedo of evil?

Does that really draw me?

Does it frighten me?

What can I/we do to better locate 

as a society - specifically - 

where we are and as we are?

Will I labor for a reconstruction of church,

mosque, synagogue, religious grouping?

Will I team up with all sorts of us

for a reconstruction 

of our social system, 

for justice, compassion, equity?

Will I invest me, my time, concern, 

effort and money for these?

Will I have and use less 

so others have enough?

Yes, lots of childhood wisdom 

from which to draw.

And oh what "beyond wisdom" from Jesus!!

This is how he wraps up 

The Sermon On The Mount.

    Matthew 5:1 - 7:28

Let's clear the airwaves 

and hear it again for the first time:

  Everyone who hears these words of mine 

  and acts on them will be like a wise man 

  who built his house on rock.

  The rain fell, the floods came, 

  and the winds blew and beat on that house, 

  but it did not fall, 

  because it had been founded on rock. 

  And everyone who hears these words of mine 

  and does not act on them will be like 

  a foolish man who built his house on sand. 

  The rain fell, and the floods came, 

  and the winds blew and beat against that house , 

  and it fell - 

  and great was its fall!" 

                    Matthew 7:24- 27

There's a torrent of rains, floods,

winds battering where and how we live. 

What's the foundation of how I live -

specially spelled out in a cogent, clear 

one line statement of its essence?

It is critical to see and say it.

What are we counting on to hold up

in the storms of self and society

and to support glorious, 

creative Kingdom Living?

Going over The Sermon On The Mount,

what do I hear Jesus say and The Spirit

speak to my soul right Here in my Now

and those of our society?

This is good for weeks of 

pondering and praying.

If I hear Jesus aright, 

what am I being and doing about it?

There's a couple more weeks of

pondering and praying - at least!!

Have I gotten out of head 

and into heart with Jesus

and Kingdom living?

Have/How do I kick into gear

and practically put into action

the words of Jesus?

( "act on them" )

How much do I really want to be

       RIGHT AT HOME

in and with Jesus and all those

homesteading in 

The Kingdom Here So Far 

and opening up to the limitless, unending  

Kingdom To Come?

Jesus wants me to live with him.

Jesus wants to live with me.

Where am I with that - with HIM - with us?

How am I about moving in 

with all sorts of others in this 

Jesus habitation -

others really "other"??

In what ways can I invite many more 

to move into this Home built on rock?

It's a place of love and justice lived.

Am I "all in" or sort of, or soon, or..?

How much am I really 

       RIGHT

     At Home

Hey! This sure will keep us off the streets

for a while and it sure will send us out 

to the streets in sharing and service.

                 ******

This holyday week there were 

exceptional numbers

of first time visitors joining in with us,

especially from Russia, Portugal, 

Bulgaria, Germany, Romania, 

and of course the USA.

Please make yourselves

    "right at home" 

         here at

   "frankly speaking"

spirituality for the street

- posted by mid-day Thursday

  east coast USA time

  johnfrankshares.blogspot.com

- email delivery Fridays

  sign up above right

- past postings at

  Blog Archive

  right column

                            ******

      All the best in the new year

      and pray that we all are

      really and rightly and truly 

             RIGHT AT HOME

                     in

                   2021

    and make it that way for those 

             other "others."

                 ******

                        PLEASE

Special prayer for those of us here in the USA.

We are entering a week of potential violence

to principle, people and the peace.

May peace prevail.

                Thank You!!

                  ******

           

 

                  

         

     

 

YES

 

        CHRISTMAS 2020

            

         Dear All of Us,

                  Mary said YES.

                  Look what happened.

         Mary Christmas

           John Frank

PUZZLE

    This is the tenth in our

      Occasional Series

    FOLLOW THROUGH

          living out

The Sermon On The Mount

          ******

Dear All of Us,

So how are you with puzzling out,

well, puzzles?

Puzzles like 

- how to stay cool reacting/adapting 

  to ever new and forced  "upgrades"

  to your stable of technologies

 (if that sounds a bit elderly, 

 cranky and autobiographical, 

 well, it sure as irritated heck is!) 

- spending less than a lifetime 

  on a New York Times 

  Crossword Puzzle,

- assembling an IKIA desk

  without uttering 

  even one swear word,

- figuring out how to keep things 

  from igniting a relational bonfire 

  with your mother-in-lawlessness?

So, whatever our skill (or less) set,

let's have a try at this puzzle.

What do traffic lights, refrigerators,

Krups coffee makers,

doorbells, garage door openers,

and our local ATM,  

all have in common?

You're right!!

For all their differences,

each is a non-starter

without electricity.

It takes that surge 

to kick in and make it a go.

Well, it's quite a lot 

like that with all the 

different  behaviors 

catalogued in 

 The Sermon On 

    The Mount

Matthew 5:21-7:27

as we puzzle out 

how to "be' with it, 

how to "do" it.

Things as varied as:

- a peaceful response 

  when you feel like 

  decking someone,

  making him a mailable

       "Flat Stanley"

  ready for immediate posting

- purity and justice when 

  lust, adultery, divorce tempt

- simple, clean truth telling

  rather than truth twisting verbiage

- loving enemies into union 

- discrete, genuine, quiet 

  alms giving, prayer and fasting, 

  rather than self pumping, 

  public performing at it

- a heart for heaven stored treasures 

- an eye for enlightened looking 

- one master and it isn't money,

- "Not to worry" freedom 

- judgement free living

- holding holy high,

-"Yours' for the asking" prayer

-  behavior's gold standard

- narrow door life,

- heads up - you'll know 

  the source by the result

- walk it more than talk it

- building a rock solid life.

All that Jesus points out

in this monumental sermon

is powered by one electrifying

         Source.

It is embedded at the 

core of who we are.

In fact it is

          THE 

Center of our being.

It holds us in Being.

It is dynamic, energizing, pulsating pure 

          GodLove.

We can't generate that kind of current.

We sure can accept it, though, 

and clear way for its 

   surge beautiful 

through us to others.

It's living from the inside out.

It's being right at home

as Jesus invites,

        "abiding", 

in him and embracing him 

        "abiding" 

          in us, 

and that at our deepest self.

It doesn't happen with 

skimpy, selfish, surface living.

It means wonderful, 

deep-in-divine love making.

God is Love and we can be as well.

It's a merged Oneness.

GodLove ever expands 

who and how we are. 

Its current pulsates 

in us and through us.

The particulars of the

  The Sermon On

    The Mount

are not primarily things

for us to do or not to do

      on our own.

That would be a crippling 

     "No Can Do!"

Rather, they are things that God 

would be about in establishing

      The Kingdom.

We disciples are asked to be

the change agents for this, truly be

       "salt of the earth"

       "light of the world"

God making the difference through us, 

Being the Power Source.

The critical thing is to 

      Be There, 

centered in our Center.

That's the core 

of our spiritual life.

Real "at-homeness"

      "abiding"

          in

      GodLove

  powered forth in

  Kingdom living.

  A simple, homey, 

even hokey, metaphor: 

  We are power tools 

completely plugged into 

   Divine Current.

What Jesus teaches us here

is how to puzzle out

the practical, functional,

on the street, living out 

        of the eight

       BEATTITUDES

with which he began this sermon, this 

  Disciples' How To Be and Do.

     Before we go out 

         we go in 

    so we can go out

      real and right.

That resolves 

the puzzling particulars 

in our spiritual living.

It's like a couple so "in" love 

that they can't help but

   LIVE OUT LOVE.

They know what to do 

and are powered to do it.

First for us now is accepting 

       Centered Love,

then the giving of self, 

widening in the giving 

to the other, so that now there is 

                "US"

      God - Neighbor- Self

           

Time  to stop here and go

         CENTRAL

 go to our love chamber 

            to 

   Pray and Ponder

 This Beautiful Puzzle.

   Blessings as we 

     "Go Figure!"

      John Frank

        ******

Again and always, a great big

         THANK YOU 

for sharing with others

our weekly Soul Share here at

       "frankly speaking"

    spirituality for the street

- it goes online by mid-day

         each Thursday

     east coast USA time

  johnfrankshares.blogspot.com

- an automatic email version 

         goes out Friday

      just sign up above

- Blog Archive contains all

         past postings

      right column above

Every week it's a joy to greet 

folks joining in here 

for the first time.

This past week we had 

our first ever visit from Azerbaijan.

You can bet I triple checked 

to make sure I spelled that right!

To one and all visitors,

   WELCOME!!

Please come back 

anytime/all the time.

Here's to  a fruitful week

  Puzzling the Paradox 

        of being

   a change agent,

   a Kingdom disciple,

   one who for real

   FOLLOWS THROUGH,

        living out

The Sermon On The Mount. 

        *************

               

       

 

RIGHT NOW

 

Dear All of Us,

Webster got it wrong.

There is no reality match for the word 

                   WHEN

No such thing exists. There is only

              RIGHT NOW

        We miss so much of 

             RIGHT NOW

   waiting for the non existent 

                 WHEN

"When I get my Masters..."

"When I loose twenty pounds..."

"When we get this country straightened out..."

"When the mortgage is paid off..."

"When I get my new pick up..."

"When I find the right church (religious group)..."

"When I have the time..."

"When we retire..."

"When we achieve (name your preferred justice issue)"

There are enormous pressures on us all in our 

                   RIGHT NOW  

        a pandemic compounding, 

        governance angry and vindictive,

        cultural chaos, 

        limits and lacks multiplying all over the place.

Not nice!

Those pressures push to a postponed now 

we call when.

There's the real limit, the real danger.

We can't wait!

We can long for lots.

We can work for lots.

We can only do that,

we can only live  

           RIGHT NOW

There is this temptation to count on 

that non existent when to become a now

before we can live freely and fully.

That's a fake out.

It stalls and stymies.

We just cannot wait for things to get better,

for church, government, financial, 

and societal reform to the ideal.

What we get and what we give are

             RIGHT NOW

             or not at all. 

People living in war zones, in dictatorships,

in abject poverty, in loveless families, 

know what we need to learn in our tough time.

         There are hardships 

           and frustrations,

    but you go on in the flow of

                   RIGHT NOW

     We can kick and scream 

            about how it is 

              RIGHT NOW

           but we need to 

       full face it and live it

              RIGHT NOW

       There are all manner 

        of good and delight

          that are current, 

    that can only be embraced 

                in our 

            RIGHT NOW

What Isaiah said to Israel

and Paul repeated to the Corinthians

about their now

we need to heed in ours 

  " See, now is the acceptable time;

    see, now is the day of salvation."

           II Corinthians 6:2

Put another way, now is the only river

to float your boat.

Peasant mystic and philosopher, Peter Maurin,

spoke to the now of living the GodLife.

He said we should not await 

some presumably propitious moment,

some idealized when.

Rather we need to move in that river of now.

       "The future will be different 

        if we make the present different."

That is a flowing now.

Maurin had a "gentle personalism" about him.

He lived a radical Gospel life 

right where, when, as he was.

He teamed up with Dorothy Day to do that, 

opening a house of hospitality 

in the slums of Depression New York. (1)

He didn't wait for a when of better.

He lived a best of now.

Whatever our situation and setting

in this turbulent, treacherous 

             RIGHT NOW

it is the moment, the only moment, 

in the movement of now.

This is where 

          we live out our True Selves, 

          we flow in mystic GodLove

          we companion others in love and service

          we are currents of creativity and justice

We sure don't want to miss the boat.

We open wide to every goodness and grace offered.

We open wide to every goodness and grace we can offer.

We don't wait for a when of better.

John Wesley lived a spirituality of

                  RIGHT NOW

         "Do all the good you can,

          By all the means you can.

          In all the ways you can,

          In all the places you can,

          At all the times you can,

             to all the people you can,

          As long as ever you can."

                 That's ALL for 

                 RIGHT NOW

  (please take that a couple of ways)

                        John Frank

                   ******

Welcome to all new here.

We had first ever visits this week

from folks in Mozambique and 

sizeable groups from Canada,

Germany and Sweden.

Thanks for sharing this right now.

                   ******

           "frankly speaking"

        spirituality for the street

- is posted each Thursday by mid-day

  east coast USA time

  johnfrankshares.blogspot.com

- is delivered by email each Friday

  sign up top left above

- past postings are available from Blog Archive

  right column above

                   ******

          Life can't be put on hold.

       It's an immediate connection.

                   ******

          

(1) See "Introduction," Dorothy Day: 

Selected Writings: By Little and by Little,

ed. Robert Ellsberg (Orbis Books:2005), xxv

GOD TOUCH

Dear All of Us,

So, here goes -

How do you feel 

about being touched?

       "Never can get enough"
      

       "Don't you dare"      
       

      "Only on my terms"
       

      "They light up my Christmas Tree 
        any time of the year"
       

       "Sort'a, sometimes"
      

      "A touching movie, sure.

       Otherwise make a reservation"

      

      "Want to be touched 
        but feel uncomfortable 

        when touched"

       "Yes...not sure...maybe...

         depends on the day 

         and a heck of a lot more"

        "It's so wonderful'
        

        and umpteen more sensitivities

        about being touched.

Those sensitivities pulsate through us.

They greatly effect 

the feel,

the tone,

the tenor of living.

They reach to the depths 

of who we are, 

to our very souls.

During this Pan Problem Plus

so many of us 

are so out of touch 

in so many ways.

Being in touch,

and that in myriad manner, 

is critical to vigor and health.

This is definitively so 

in our spiritual living  

The Goodness, 

the Love, 

the Rock Reality

we call God

reaches out

to touch

to companion,

to sustain and strengthen.

It's ours to be sensitive to the touch.

God touches us through 

every creature and energy surge in nature,

your pet pouch to summer warmth.

God touches us through each other,

through life and love shared,

be it a ride to the store, friendship, 

a welcome to the neighborhood,

as lover and lifemate.

God touches us through 

all that is good and beautiful.-

supper to symphony.

God touches us through scripture and sacrament,

in the fellowship of spiritual community.

God touches us as we reach out 

in supportive touch to 

the frightened and disconnected.

God touches us in times of 

wonder, need, terror, delight -

always our sustaining Abba.

God touches us in moments 

of surrender to mystical

enfoldment and love making. 

Got asks us to play it forward,
to find all sorts of ways,

appropriate to others,
to reach out and share

        God Touch

That could be sending a card. 
It could mean getting in on 

a ZOOM sharing
(as I did recently 

with boarding schoolmates
of sixty five years ago - 

same basic personalities,
plus pounds, plus wrinkles, minus hair!!), 

We offer assurance of God's closeness and care

in ways without number -

big ways,

little ways, 

always.

A few examples:

    - by surprising a person living alone 

      and in quarantine 
      with an Uber Eats  delivery 

      of a delicious take out dinner

    - by using a trusted intermediary 

      to pay the rent for a struggling family

    - by inviting a few people to join in 

      a weekly virtual prayer group 

    - by organizing an online game night

      or book group with friends 

   - by hosting a weekly 

     Happy Hour via ZOOM -

     share The Spirit with spirits

   - by reaching out to children 

     with story and hobby hours online

  - by supporting our local foodbank

  - by getting active with a political party 

    or political action group to promote 

    people focus and principle 

    in the political process

  - by daily holding others in loving prayer

A host of connects are offered to us

and can be offered by us.

It takes openness and generosity of soul.

During this Pan Problem Plus,
this time of separation 

in so many ways

for so many,
some sectors of society 

are restlessly trying 
to move out of isolation.
Others are firmly captive to it,
and yet others are just now moving into it.
Many of us may be right back in it 
all too soon and severely. 
We are especially important to each other.

in this time of isolation and disconnect.
We need to be in touch,
connecting with a God Touch,

received and given.
Separated but not alone.

We are marvelously and mysteriously
touch sensitive, Soul Sensitive 
and that in a galaxy of needs and powers.
In gentle to vigorous ways, 
          given our gift and grace, 
                           and that of others, 
                                    we offer and share 
                  
                  GOD TOUCH

      So glad we can stay in just that,

                  John Frank

                    ******
     This past week many new folks

              joined in with us.

                WELCOME !!

                    ******

   
               frankly speaking

         spirituality for the street

- is posted each Thursday by mid-day

           east coast USA time

    (johnfrankshares.blogspot.com)

- is available by automatic email delivery
  
  each Friday - sign up top of this page

- past postings are available at Blog Archive

  bottom right column.


Please do invite family, friends, colleagues 

and associates to join in with us.

                       ******

  LET'S STAY IN TOUCH FOR GOD'S SAKE

          

      

ROUGH AND READY

    

        This is the ninth

             in our 

          Fall Series

      FOLLOW THROUGH

           living out

  The Sermon On The Mount

It builds on last week's posting,

        ROUGH STUFF

    which is available by 

    scrolling down here, or

by going to the Blog Archive

  ( November 19, 2020)

           ******

Dear All of Us,

What would you make of a commanding general

who sent his troops into fierce combat 

with absolutely no protective gear nor armaments -

not even a camouflage cap, not even a spit ball?

Implausible! Derelict! Hideous!

Some feel that's what Jesus does by insisting 

we love our enemies and that we do not retaliate

when we are the victims of evil.

They feel we're sent out defenseless

into a rough, tough world,

vulnerable, victims in the making.

This we need to check out!

Now, an important caution right from 

the get go here. In no way are we meant

to passively endure any or all evil.

What Jesus shares does mean, though,

that we do not return evil for evil,

we do not retaliate.

For sure the victim of sexual or spousal abuse

must not feel compelled 

to just stay there and take it.

They should get the hell out of hell

for God's sake - literally so!!.

The systems and leaders responsible for 

social inequities need to be corrected, 

but without a tinge of retaliation,

again "for God's sake."

I once tried to pastor a church that wasn't.

It was toxic. It was damaging my soul,

my psych and my body.

I asked for and received another assignment.

It was professionally embarrassing 

to spend such a short time in one place.

It also and happily led to health 

and appointment to one of

the best church I ever pastored.

Yes, there's a lot of rough in life.

We need to be ready for that.

Jesus spoke and lived out

        how to be

 READY for the ROUGH.

In our own way and world we wade into 

fierce combat zones all the time: 

   - cut throat competition

     in the business world

   - not at all "social" climbers

     stepping all over us

     to get to the top of the pile,

     the heap of personal carnage 

     they cause at school, church, 

     on the team, at the club

  - the crude and course who 

    cut us off in traffic or conversation

  - the friend who betrays and belittles us

 - the relative who despises us and 

   makes drama of it at family gatherings

 - social/systemic evils - affronts to justice

   and The Common Good.

 - the list would exhaust 

   any cloud's storage capacity.

As we wade into life's fierce combat zones

how do we arm ourselves?

What protective gear covers us?

What weapons do we carry?

How secure our advantage?

Well, the way of the world would have us 

load up on ammo of various calibers:

  - cunning

  - mocking

  - out smarting

  - hitting first and hard

  - sarcasm

  - over powering/whelming

  - getting a good lawyer

    and suing the socks off 

    the suckers

  - doing a social media smear 

  - never mind " a tooth for a tooth",

    KNOCK OUT ALL THE BASTARD'S TEETH!

  - spill the beans, spread the dirt

  - subtlety set loose  

    devastating misinformation.

  - figure out how do you get them 

    before they get you

  - misuse law and or position 

    for political, economic, 

    social dominance

  - riot rather than reform

That's the way of the world 

in pursuit of protection

and advantage.

It bears no closeness to living 

and responding in 

"the reign of God."

Not only are protection 

and advantage issues here, 

but even more so is the purity, the reality, 

the viability of our spiritual living.

That goes for the individual and the group.

How do we go right under the siege of wrong?

How stay safe in harm's way 

without harming others

and our very own souls?

The Sermon on The Mount calls 

for heroic valor.

And this is where it gets

      Rough Tough

In Matthew 5:38-48

Jesus sets the high bar 

of response to enemy and hurt.

  

      - "Do not resist the evildoer"

      - "Love your enemies".

A personal confession, well, more like 

an old fashioned, early church public confession.

I get it in my head. I buy it in my heart.

I can't do it all in practice.

Now long in the tooth 

(and glad to still have most of them),

I really can love and not retaliate

at being cut off by the crude and course,

at getting stepped on by sick social climbers,

at a friend's betrayal and belittlement,

at the despising relative, 

when working to right a social wrong,

and I don't have the money 

or energy to be in the cut throat business world.

It's not so much virtue.

Just, "Been there. Done that" 

and suffered the futility of such foolishness.

But come at me or my loved ones physically,

or at my loved ones attacking their spiritual, 

social, psychological, or financial safety, 

and I'll try not to hurt you too much,

but I'll use force to stop you.

This is the one place where I just don't follow 

what many feel is what Jesus requires of us.

I will resist the evildoer, be that person, party,

church, corporation, politician, government.

Am I in spiritual jeopardy?

Am I am wrong?

Am I spiritually flakey and frail?

And in all cases, I know I'm far

from  alone - we are legion.

We all seem to stall out,

get stymied just about here. 

How about this?

If we can learn the genius 

of what Jesus commands,

and really accept an infusion 

of his Holy Spirit, 

we can make grade.

We can get though the granite of

misunderstanding and fear to

the vein of gold in what Jesus tells. 

So, a closer look for a closer way

to follow Jesus' lead to unrestricted Love

for enemy and the spiritual energy not to retaliate.

Let's have a try!

   The Genius of Jesus,

   The Largeness of His Love

Jesus responds to evil,

pierces evil, not with a weapon, 

but with the power of 

Absolute Sheer Reality,

Absolute Sheer Love.

He wants to do the same for us and with us.

The evildoer's casing of hurt 

may continue but it no longer excludes us 

from going to the heart of the matter

and embracing the hurtful one/group 

at their core and thus on unto loving union,

even if the hurters don't yet get it

and continues to hurt.

Empire is likely to last longer than any of us.

Responding in and with Jesus 

and his limitless love means  

the evildoers are then powerless to block 

our GodLove for them.

They cannot keep us from piercing past 

their hurting us to God's deep Oneness in them.

The evildoer is no longer enemy

because we won't let that be the story shorted.

We don't retaliate because that would continue 

discontinuance between us.

And this is key -we don't "resist" 

by revengeful counter attack.

That just compounds evil.

So, we counter in lavish love.

Using the metaphors of Jesus 

in this Gospel section

  ( Matthew 5;39-2)

we some how or other 

say something like:

  - "Hey, you want my coat, 

     here's my cloak as well.

     You'll really look good in both."

  - "You want to take me to court?

     Hop in. I'll drive and pay your court costs

     when we get there."

  - "What you just said sure

     was a real slap in the face. 

     But, hey, together we can find a 

     a way to face what's bugging you." 

  - "You're really pushing me 

     to go along with you on this.

     Tell you what, let's see 

     how much more

     I can stretch to just that."

   - "You want me to cosign your car loan?

      You know what? I've got the money. 

      I'll just buy the car for you."

These sorts of responses and their animating spirit

apply whether the enemy/hurter is a person,

a government, a corporation, a social system.

The secret here is to stop the chain of evil 

by out doing the hurter in honest goodness.

That's the meaning of

           "Do not resist the evildoer".

Refuse tit for tat. Up the ante to a

response of lavish generosity. 

Now if someone or a system is out of control,

is violating, desecrating, destroying,

we employ LoveEnergy to restrain that.

But, we do not retaliate in the venture.

"Love your enemies" sure as heaven   

takes a lot of love.

I/We cannot pass muster 

on our own steam, 

and by our own good intentions.

We just don't have nearly enough juice

pulsating through our wires. 

We need to so absolutely, so sheerly, 

so totally allow ourselves to be consumed, 

enfolded, enwrapped in God's Love

that then God's Love in us embraces God's Love 

in the painful other, bonding us all three.

As always, the issue at the center of everything 

is letting God love us to Love.

We really need to get sick and tired 

of the loneliness, the incompleteness,

of trying to go it alone, the futility of trying 

to be our own fullness and god,

fighting our way forward.

We're just not up to it. We end up up side down.

We just ice ourselves out of God's warm love.

God wants intimacy. God wants us to get lost 

in God within us and God within each other.

That means and makes a Divine Love Union.

So enlivened, we can't waste ourselves, 

or others, by hurting enemies.

That would keep us apart from God in us

and God in the other, and thus from God.

It would short the divine circuitry.

Without a doubt the hardest of the hard

is not resisting the evil doer

in revengeful  violence.

What Jesus says and shows here

is so often misunderstood and then rejected.

It does not mean allowing Empire's evil 

in person, group, action - just taking it on the chin.

Turn the other cheek means give the hurter

another chance to kiss rather than slap, 

being sure not to slap back.

To get it right and live it out 

takes careful attention

and a lot of Soul-Smart-Stamina.

Jesus resisted the evil doers in the Temple.

He used force. He publicly castigated them.

He flipped their money tables.

He chased then out of the place with a whip.

He challenged and interrupted their evil. 

He did not hurt or destroy them.

He stopped them.

No vengeful response.

On the cross it wasn't calling down 

vengeful, wrath.

It was "Father, forgive them

for they know not what they do."

Holy wisdom shows us what and when.

At times we do need to model on Jesus 

vigorously flipping the tables on the 

evil doers in the temple.

Whether it's the energy of voice or arm, 

we do right to right a wrong.

We publicly protest police brutality

and brutality toward police.

We challenge to change corrupt

political/governmental evils.

We overpower a shooter or rapist.

What we don't do is fall into the trap 

of vengeful retaliation.

Our culture trains us 

to defend ourselves.

Jesus trains us to make sure 

that defending doesn't 

just fend off union

at the deepest level,

even if the hurter

isn't ready to go there. 

Our nuclear nations are like 

tectonic plates pushing 

against each other, 

pressure building to 

rupture and devastation -

a defense offensive,

ready to retaliate 

unto mutual annihilation.

Jesus nurtures us in the softening 

of edges and borders, 

not pulling or pushing,

reducing the conflicting pressures.

That makes possible merging mutuality,

               Oneness 

 and the dynamic of expanding creation.

God creates diversity,

invites complementing

       "fullerness" 

yet we trash the immigrant, 

the poor, minorities, the "different",

those that don't suit and satisfy

our ego demands, 

who trigger our insecurities,

making them enemy,

denying them lived GodLove from us,

thus denying union and 

       "fullerness''

by practicing anti-creative 

birthing control of GodLove.

Jesus trains our heads and hearts,

to strip away the contraceptives 

of retaliation and enmity,

to overcoming evil with GodLove.

Jesus has us go through 

the hurt to the hurter's God-Core,

merging there with the hurter and God.

In the process we do right wrongs 

with positive energies of sheer truth,

reality, and divine love.

Never, though, in negative 

vengeful, destructive vengeance -

always good for good.

It comes down to this or up to that:

we deny GodLove and descend 

to the hell of maddeningly lonely,

self imposed solitary confinement, 

or we lavish GodLove on all 

and ascend to the heights of 

shared and expansive creative union,

even in the immediacy of inflicted pain

from evildoer/Empire.

So, let's do spiritual stretch with Jesus.

That means the stress of facing 

our limits, pain and hurt,

    and accepting God's

        " fullerness"

all the way inside, being 

        Loved To Life

  so others can be as well.

To wrap up, there is here a 

       Sacred Trinity

 God - the hurt - the hurter

"in" love even if the hurter 

does not realize it yet.

It's ROUGH and we're READY.

Please let's love and pray

 for each other so we 

"go all the way" 

in Divine Love Making.

      John Frank

       ******

This past week we had 

a large number of folks 

from Russia join in with us.

        Wonderful!

Welcome to you and all 

new to our gathering.

Please come back and stay 

   as we SoulShare 

  each week here at

   "frankly speaking"

spirituality for the street.

-It is posted by mid-day 

 every Thursday

 east coast USA time

 johnfrankshares.blogspot.com

-automatic email copy

 is delivered each Friday

 sign up above top right 

-Blog Archive contains all 

 past posting

 right column above.

           ******

One of the really neat things 

about being non retaliatory

is that all our energies are harmonized,

are all together going 

in the same right direction.

We don't split and splinter.

                    ******

Thanksgiving Good Wishes !!!!

       Looking forward 

         to seeing you 

         next week.

           ******