Greetings All,
As promised,
this is a wrap up of
last week's posting,
"PROOFED"
That posting is available
by scrolling down
past this offering,
or going to
Blog Archive,
June 17, 2021.
This week's offering
continues our reflection on
John 13: 34-35
Discipleship
******
Dear All of Us,
Actually flying an airplane
proves you are a pilot.
Actually serving up a
gourmand's delight
proves you are
a master chef.
Actually writing
a best seller
proves you are
a popular novelist.
Actually loving
the socks off
your fellow disciples
proves you are a
disciple of Jesus.
"This is how everyone
will recognize that
you are my disciples -
when they see
the love you have
for each other." (1)
Jesus
Actuality,
and only actuality,
is
PROOF POSITIVE
of
what we're all about.
Training, certifications,
credentials, memberships,
positions, testimonials,
are all fine thank you,
but they don't mean
that one is a master chef.
A superb
beef bourguignon does.
It is
PROOF POSITIVE
So it is with being
disciples of Jesus
actually
- genuine and real -
Roles, robes, rituals,
dogmatic statements,
theological degrees,
denominational status,
don't cut the mustard.
Personally, practically,
actually
- and only -
living Jesus Love
for fellow disciples
does.
Hum!
Let's check this out.
We want to make sure
we get it right.
Just about everything
rides on it.
In Jesus' time and place,
rabbis had disciples.
Those disciples lived
with the rabbi 24/7,
travelled and ate with him.
They were apprenticed
to the rabbi to become rabbis.
They were to become rabbis
by becoming like their rabbi.
They learned from his teaching
and they leaned from his living.
The goal was to become
a who and how like the rabbi.
Rabbi Jesus is the
Son of God
and
" God is love." (2)
Rabbi Jesus
is God,
is God Love,
in our midst,
God Love humanized,
God Love in "person,"
God Love in the flesh,
our flesh.
Rabbi Jesus is
God Love
and does he ever
share it.
That's who he is.
That's what
he's all about.
That's what he does.
It's personal.
It's communal.
It's actual.
Rabbi Jesus
calls disciples
- long ago and right now -
Rabbi Jesus
loves his disciples
into love.
He wraps us
into his love for
our fellow disciples.
To be a disciple of Jesus
is to be drawn into
who he is and how he is
ACTUALLY
so much so that it shows:
"This is how everyone
will recognize that
you are my disciples -
when they see the love
you have for each other"
It's
Proof Positive
that we are disciples of Jesus
It's the only proof
that's positive.
All this means
that as disciples
we are blest
to become one
in
Jesus' Love
and that we live
it out together,
actually,
and not just
notionally claim it.
Jesus Love means
we reverence,
we give what we have
for what other disciples need.
In practice ( actuality )
it means things like::
- to cut them slack
when they come up short
- to see and reverence God
in another disciple's
disfigured body or psyche
- to "deep listen"
to each other
until we hear
our Oneness
articulated
quite differently,
even if uncomfortably
- to rejoice in the
preferment of another
- to gratefully take
what we need
and generously give
what others need.
- to make space and
encourage others
to grow fully into
who and how they are
by God's giftedness,
even we don't "get it."
- to live modestly
and share so that others
can live adequately
( to pony up rather than
trot off insensitive
and self indulgent )
- to host with heart and home
- to boil/bake "Everything Bagels"
as a community -
to be a mix of
all sorts, styles, types,
ages, orientations, tastes,
and persuasions -
conservative, liberal,
gay, straight,
well off, poor,
refined, rough,
reserved, rip roaring,
poetic, scientific, athletic
or a mix of much
- to love enough to challenge evil
and to accept frailty among us
- to be "in touch" - connecting,
to check, care, comfort,
support, celebrate each and all
way more together than for just
a Sunday morning hour
- to gather together for meals,
mission, and certainly mirth
- to pray together,
to share Holy Communion
by bread and wine,
by acceptance, embrace
in community
We need to be together
to be and do all this.
Showing up Sunday morning
with large numbers of strangers
doesn't bake the bagel.
We either form small groups
within large congregations,
or we start home churches.
We live, as the Italians say,
"faccia a faccia,"
up close and personal,
lovingly, actually.
To be disciples is
to be church and
church is way more
than organization,
or belonging system.
Loving the socks
off each other
is so dynamic
that it fuses
and propels us
as individuals and
as a community
in mission
and ministry.
We do what we are.
In reflective prayer,
with candor and clarity,
we see what Jesus
sets before us
in John 13:34-35,
and how we are with that.
How fully, how actually,
how really are
we living 24/7
with Rabbi Jesus?
What's that look like,
or could it look like?
Let's be quite clear,
candid and specific here -
the wheels we ride,
dealing with hurt feelings,
being relationally frustrated,
forgiving a massive screw over,
putting out time, energy
and money for someone
at the bottom
of the totem pole,
together going wild over
a summer flower field,
holding a fellow disciple's baby
and being touched by God
( Oh Yes, Ollie touches me God ).
Are we learning him
from that immediacy?
Are we learning him
from his teaching
and life style
as we together we let
The Spirit open
the Gospels to us?
Are we woven tight
into a fabric of
lived community
with him
and his disciples?
Do we mix it up
really, personally,
in close, with vigorous
love for each other,
the way Jesus loves us?
When someone walks
into our church
for the first time,
and then after
being there six months,
what kind of lived love,
Jesus Love,
disciples love
for each other
will they see?
Will they find it is
ACTUAL?
What does this mean
for church life,
for church renewal,
for church growth?
What will we do
about that?
Loving each other
as Jesus loves us
identifies us as
his disciples,
and does our world
just now ever need
actual disciples and
that kind of
PROOF POSITIVE
Your fellow apprentice,
John Frank
******
(1) John 13:35
(2) i John 4:8
******
This week we had
a first time visit from
Kuwait
and large scale
participation again from
Indonesia.
How wonderful!
Welcome,
and welcome to all
newly with us
and letting us
be with you
here at
"frankly speaking"
spirituality for the street
Thursdays:
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johnfrankshares.blogspot.com
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Anytime:
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******
What would be ten practical,
actual ways to
"Love each other
as I have loved you" ?
See you next week!
******
Church membership
is rather easy and not
all that demanding.
Being in actuality
a disciple of Jesus
is quite different and
one heck of a lot
more demanding.
It means that
in actuality
we fervently,
passionately,
practically
live love
for
fellow disciples.
It's functional
and
obvious.
The context for what
Jesus shares here
is critical.
In his time and place
only the brightest
of the bright
made the cut to be
a rabbi's disciples.
They has to persuade
the rabbi to accept them.
Jesus comes along
and invites less than
bright lights
to come follow him
- still does
In ancient Israel
a disciple was an
apprentice.
The disciple had to learn
the teachings of the rabbi,
travel with him and the band
of other disciples.,
live with him,
model his whole life on him,
- his manner, values,
value system, life style.
That meant all sorts
of study and erudition.
For Jesus it meant
to live the love that is God
with and for your fellow disciples.
That was your credential.
That was your I.D, your
PROOF POSITIVE
as a disciple.
IT STILL IS
Doctrines, rituals,
practices and polities
a disciple do not make.
