Dear All of Us,
"Build Longer Tables
Not Higher Walls"
Jose Andres
Jose pegs it perfectly.
Sadly, many don't,
can't, wont.
We're more and more
walled in and walled out.
We have walls
within walls and
walls around walls
and they just keep
getting higher
and higher,
harder and harder-
territorial,
political,
racial,
religious,
social,
economic,
international,
local,
cultural,
educational,
health care ones,
red ones,
blue ones,
school board ones,
environmental ones...
The Body Public
is fractured into
walled segments
of isolation.
And they are getting
more and more
weaponized.
Things have gotten
exceedingly dangerous.
We cannot go on like this
if we are to go on at all!
It's just that terrible
and potentially terminal.
It's walled hells
of our devising.
The tragedy of our
plight and peril
right now is that
we are like fingers
that insist on
being severed
and independent
from the body
and we wonder
why we hurt and
why we are in danger.
That throws us into panic.
So we wall and weaponize
ourselves in and others out.
It doesn't have to be so.
There is another way if we will
accept it,
embrace it,
share it,
live it.
It is the only way.
It is the only way.
It means recognizing
the powerful, spectacular
paradox and goodness
that we are
unique in unity
That's bedrock,
ultimate reality,
The Reality
that is
God
and that we are in
God
with all that is.
We are not free floating
entities unto ourselves.
We are individual
presences of the
Oneness
that is God and
"God is love."
1 John 4:8
We hear Jesus anew:
"I am the vine.
You are the branches."
John 15:5
Same life shared
in different ways.
Either we are
in God as God is,
or we fail and fall
into nothingness.
We are created
by Love,
in Love,
for Love,
unique in unity
Asked what is the
foremost commandment,
Jesus said,
"The first in impotence is
'Listen Israel:
The Lord your God is one;
so love the Lord your God
with all your passion
and prayer and
intelligence and energy.'
And here is the second:
'Love others as well as
you love yourself.'
There is no other
commandment
that ranks with these."
Mark 12; 29-31
The Message
translation
Our only reality is to be
passionate lovers of God
and all that is in God.
Instead of walling in and out,
we joyfully build
ever longer tables of loving,
vigorous inclusion
where we feast together
in our shared life and love.
We delight in taking our place
at the table and making room
for every other one of us in
THE ONE
that is God.
The only way to save
people and planet
is to get passionate in
Love
Then One in the
Love Who Is God,
we cannot sever, slice
and box into nothingness
ourselves nor others.
So we welcome
every sort of person
to the table just as
the sort of person
we are is welcomed.
Once we catch on,
fire up, we sizzle
as we welcome
to the table of shared,
practical daily life
the brilliant
the hurt,
the gifted,
the different,
the black, brown and white,
the understood and the puzzling,
the newborn to the dying,
the quiet and the exuberant,
All
unique in our unity
Politicians, pundits,
power brokers,
popularity, riches,
military might
can't save
people and planet.
Only passionate lovers can
as we keep extending
the family table, freely,
vigorously sharing
everyday life.
In reflective prayer
we see how to be and do that,
how to extend the
table of fellowship:
- how re-orientate
our reference points
understanding and practices
- how this passionate loving
shapes our life style
and activities
- how we deal with the difficult,
- how we gather in those lost
in loneliness and pain.
- how we welcome
our polar opposites
in a mutuality of enterprise
- how red and blue blend
to royal purple
- how we seek spiritual guidance
and community
- how we champion justice
in our daily doings
- how to fully free creativity
in ourselves and each other
Our current walled off world
is not far from collapse.
Do let's see that.
We are invited into
full fellowship with all in
ALL
to passionate loving.
Do let's see that.
We are privileged
to build to ever longer tables
of inclusion and communion
and exuberant creativity.
All this is far from
light and feel good fluff.
It is far from a game of
Trivial Pursuits or a
spirituality hobby.
It's dead serious,
or it's life real.
As it says in Deuteronomy,
" I lay before you
life and death...
Choose life
so that you and
your children may live..."
Deuteronomy 13:19
"Build Longer Tables
Not Higher Walls."
Happy to be sitting here
next to you!
John Frank
*****
For Reflection::
Please see
Marcella Kribal's
website
for her beautiful painting
"Build Longer Tables
Not Higher Walls"
If you have time and interest,
please Google Jose Andres
and see the wonderful ways
he builds longer tables.
******
A heartfelt welcome
to our visitors.
Thanks for joining in
here at
frankly speaking
spirituality for the street
johnfrankshares.blogspot.com
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******
Looking forward to us all
being together here at the table
next week.
******
