Thursday, March 5, 2020
LENT III: YOURSELF
Dear All of Us,
Before proceeding here please make sure you've had your coffee,
a hearty breakfast, a vigorous work out at the gym,
and said your morning prayers.
This will take all the pep you've got.
So how much of yourself are you?
That's personal - very personal.
That's tough to understand and address - very tough.
That needs to be pondered regularly and really - very regularly and very really.
So how much of yourself are you?
That's the puzzle Jesus had to solve those forty desert days and nights.
That's the work out of his Lent.
That's the question of his coming out.
Jesus had left the life of his first thirty years.
He went down to the womb water of the river.
He dove in, a communal solidarity with all that needs
a rebirth, a cleansing, refreshment,
the invigoration of a needed watering.
Climbing out of the Jordan,
the heavens opened up, were '"torn apart" as Mark has it,
and so did his sense of self.
The Spirit, dove like, gentled him
as he heard from the heavens
a speaking of himself:
" You are my Son,
the Beloved;
with you I am
well pleased."*
In our words,
"This is Dad.
You're my Boy
and I'm crazy nuts
about you."
In other words,
"I AM"
and your I am
is in mine,
Father to Beloved Son
- tight -
I AM well pleased.
What a coming out from the heavens
as Jesus came out to begin new life and work.
No time to party, though.
The Spirit dropped him off at boot camp
to work out his new way -
to prove out real and true.
"And the Spirit
immediately drove him out
into the wilderness.
He was in the wilderness,
tempted by Satan."*
So how much of yourself are you?
Well, here we are in Lent,
forty days in our spiritual boot camp
to prove out real and true,
And are we ever tempted not to.
As for Jesus, so for us in Jesus:
So how much of yourself are you?
Like Jesus, we are tempted not to be who we are.
The temptation is exactly the same.
It comes in the three same devious ways -
the misuse of pleasure
power
possessions.
It starts with a question that is a lie
"If"
"If you are the Son of God..."
There was no "If" about it for Jesus.
There is no "If" about it for us.
In lovely, unique ways we all are
sons and daughters of the Father - Beloved -
and The Father is well please with the arrangement.
We don't need to prove it,
and we sure as heaven don't want to presume on it
or pervert it by misusing the sacred gifts and trust of
pleasure
power
possessions.
So, here's a little workout for our Lenten boot camp:
- what pleasures me and how do I deal with them?
spiritual ecstasy to sexual climax
favored food and drink
forms of recreation and types of vacation
preferred company
types of successes
sights, sounds, touches, aromas that delight...
- what powers do I have and how do I have them?
persuasion
popularity
political
position
intellectual
skill sets
artistic
scientific
spiritual
office...
- what possessions do I have and how do I use them?
property
furnishings
wardrobe
investments
modes of transportation
books, art, jewelry
tools...
Are pleasure, power, possessions such that they are in sync
with who we really are - Beloved daughters and sons of God ,
sharing the Divine DNA - no "ifs" about it?
Or do we sucker in and substitute one or more
for a portion/dimension of who we are,
So how much of yourself are you?
Jesus came out of his Lenten boot camp real and ready.
May we as well, and well it is not to be a substitute for the real you.
Glad we could have this workout together.
John Frank
* Mark 1:12
*****
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"frankly speaking"
spirituality for the street
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