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.
*************
