Dear All of Us,
Time to start the blog.
It's a beautiful,
clear, comfortable
Monday morning
here in Washington.
But no it isn't!
There's scare in the air.
Like too many elsewheres,
we're experiencing a
significant Covid up tick
with the Delta variant
and its vastly wider reach.
Masks are mandated
yet again for all
indoor gatherings
here in DC.
You can almost
fear-hear doors
threatening to close on
churches, shops, offices,
restaurants, schools.
Are we in for another
winter of stressful
discontent, dislocation
and danger?
To double the trouble
for families, there's the
early arrival of a
more virulent RSV,
threatening infants,
children and youth.
As our Jewish friends say,
"ENOUGH ALREADY!!"
Yet, they and we
all know it's
probably not yet
enough already.
So how do we get ready
for fearful possibilities?
Stocking up on can goods
and bathroom tissue certainly
aren't buffer enough.
Here we are with
all sorts of
medicines and monies,
communications,
transport, production,
technologies galore.
And this complex that is
modern mammon's god
is having the props
knocked out
from underneath it by
millions of mysterious
microscopic mighties.
A David and Goliath
confrontation.
With it goes much of our
accustomed and preferred
assurance, life style and
for many, livelihood.
We're up against something
we can do some things about,
but not near enough
to completely control
the crisis, the chaos.
That's tough for us
"Can Do", "Have Done",
now "Can't Quite Do"
frightened sorts.
World-wide our
secular gods are failing us.
The are gods of control.
They preach and promise:
"We can figure everything out."
"We can produce all
you want and more."
"We can control and direct
everything - air traffic
to criminal justice
to migration."
"We can create a super safe
everything - finance, health,
government, transport,
defense, supply chain."
"We are the gods
of the 'Good Life'
you want and
we can deliver."
Going down with secular gods
is a lot of faux religion:
Feel good, comfy,
cozy religion.
Fire insurance religion
(just in case).
Show up, pay up and
up you go religion
(pro forma that protects).
We've got an answer
for everything religion.
Play by the rules and
rule out suffering religion.
Crown without
the cross religion.
Phony, faux just doesn't hold up,
secular or so called sacred.
So how do we hold up?
We do what Israel did
in the desert -
we keep on truck'n,
dust storms,
thirst and all.
We do what Jesus did
on the cross - we hold on.
We do what John, Mary and
the holy woman did
at the cross - we stick it out.
We do what Israel did
every time they screwed up
and ended in a ditch -
we turn from our false gods
and faux religion
and ask God to get us
back on the road to real.
We do what the
white man's slaves
did in their misery -
they clung together
and lived hope.
We do what all the saints
have had to do -
we suffer
the destruction of
our false selves
and our faux gods,
secular to seemed sacred.
We let go the illusion
of all-round
safety and security.
We accept the flow
of God's creation,
understood or not,
comfortable or not,
as that creation
works chaos
to a heavenly harmony.
All around us
we observe
a pregnant creation.
The difficult times of pain
throughout the world
are simply birth pangs.
Romans 8: 22
The Message
We do as my friend,
Ma Willett,
did in abject poverty
there in rural Kentucky.
Tough as nails,
she widow-mothered
thirteen children.
She'd get mad
as hell sometimes,
but she absolutely
would not quit.
She had a
rough tough trust
that God would
get them through.
And God did!
Not comfortably,
not easily,
not in a way she could
understand or control.
In her own way she lived
a trust prayer
Be good to me, God
- and now!
I've run to you
for dear life.
I'm hiding
under your wings
until the hurricane
blows over.
I call out to High God,
the God who
holds me together.
Psalm 57:1-2
The Message
Faith Flow was her go.
She lived her
mailing address:
New Hope, Kentucky.
The Jews had to do that
kind of painful trust living
during the Holocaust.
The poor have always
had to do it.
We are going through
rough terrain.
We are forced
face to face
with limit.
Yes, that throws us in
with the vast majority
of people world wide
as they struggle with
ambiguity, vulnerability,
insecurity, danger
and need.
We are also pushed
to face up to just
how much do we
hear promise
and live trust.
Do not fear,
for I am with you;
Do not anxiously
look about you,
for I am your God.
I will strengthen you,
surely I will help you,
Surely I will uphold you
with My righteous right hand.
Isaiah 41:10
Rough terrain.
The only way through is
trust the promise.
Life for now is like
making love and
having a baby.
It is beautiful and ecstatic.
It hurts like hell.
It breaks out in new life.
One day it will be
infinitely more than
ENOUGH ALREADY.
With you on our
retreat forward,
John Frank
******
WELCOME
One and all.
A High Five
to our many,
many visitors
from France this week.
******
"frankly speaking"
spirituality for the street
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******
If you choose to meditate
and pray about all this,
some starting points follow.
PONDER AND PRAY
What we are going through
just now knocks the hell
out of easy religion.
We're pushed into
a cosmic mix and stir.
The controlling mind can't!
We find ourselves like
an element
in a vast Mix Master,
pulsed all over the place
until everything blends.
We can't control or figure it -
just experience it,
and that in trust.
"I saw Heaven and earth
new-created.
Gone the first Heaven,
gone the first earth,
gone the sea.
I saw Holy Jerusalem,
newly-created,
descending resplendent
out of Heaven,
as ready for God
as a bride for her husband.
I heard a voice thunder
from the Throne:
"Look! Look!
God has moved into
the neighborhood,
making his home
with men and women!
They're his people,
he's their God.
He'll wipe every tear
from their eyes.
Death is gone for good -
tears gone, crying gone,
pain gone - all the
first order of things gone."
The Enthroned continued,
"Look! I'm making
everything new.
Write it all down -
each word dependable
and accurate."
Revelation 21:1-5
The Message
For here we do not have
a lasting city, but we
are seeking the city
that is to come.
Hebrews 13:14
I love you, God -
you make me strong.
God is bedrock
under my feet,
the castle
in which I live,
my rescuing knight.
My God - the high crag
where I run for dear life,
hiding behind the boulders,
safe in the granite hideout.
I sing to God,
the Praise-Lofty,
and find myself
safe and saved.
Psalm 18:1-3
The Message
Since everything here today
might well be gone tomorrow,
do you see how essential
it is to live a holy life?
Daily expect the Day of God,
eager for its arrival.
The galaxies will burn up
and the elements
melt down that day -
but we'll hardly notice.
We'll be looking the other way,
ready for the promised
new heavens and
the promised new earth,
all landscaped
with righteousness.
2 Peter 3:10-13
The Message
God is our refuge and strength,
A very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear,
though the earth should change
And though the mountains
slip into the heart of the sea...
Psalm 46:1-2
******
Grateful for our wonderful
little community here.
Looking forward
to being together
next week.
******
In my family we puzzle.
Can our daughter do
in person teaching
this Fall?
Can we have
a church baptism
for little Ollie?
Will our other
two daughters
and our son-in-law
be working remotely?
Do we need again
"to bubble"?
And we are among
the most protected
and most prosperous.
How ever will all
the essential workers do?
What about the poor
here and worldwide?
In our own ways,
and to varying degrees,
many/most of us
are in a fix like Job.
He and his soars
just had to sit it out
on that pile of
difficult disgust.
He tried to look
the other way.
It didn't work.
He couldn't miss
the mess,
nor could he do
anything about it.
His support system
crashed.
He got angry.
His version of God
turned out to be
a faux god,
one of his own concocting
and it fell through on him.
Job receives all
when he surrenders all.
We're up against something
we can do some things about,
and simply cannot completely control.
That's tough for "Can do" sorts like us.
