Dear All of Us,
So, how are you each and all?
Actually, that's quite a concern
of my heart.
I think much and pray deeply
for all of us who gather here weekly.
My little efforts in this blog
are a try to clarify and encourage
as we live through the ups and downs
and all arounds of what we call our
spiritual lives.
Of course, there's really
no such thing as our "spiritual lives."
There's just life in its wholeness,
and hopefully its holiness.
And right now life is
pretty darn hard
in so many ways
for so many people
in so many places.
Please allow me a go at trying to
clarify and encourage a little bit
as best I can with my limits.
Like you, I'm in the midst of the mix.
It's so like chocolate - bittersweet -
sometimes a lot more
of one than the other.
Right now there's a burst of the bitter.
We live in lands and societies
quite different all around the orb.
Our specifics vary, but all peoples are
are troubled, some to terror.
The pandemic has taken
the starch out of our souls,
- admitted or not -
It continues to rub our noses
in vulnerability.
Putin's satanic slaughter
is hellish horror
beyond grasp or word,
devastation of people and place.
It has torched the tissue
of international stability.
People on every continent
are subjected to dreadful
violence and violation -
Myanmar, China, Ethiopia,
city streets USA,
a few of too many more.
Undergirding flaws are causing
the floor to give out under
structures of church, finance,
civility, safety, education,
health care, democracy
and governance,
the common life and good.
We just don't know
how much will hold up
nor how we are to hold on.
We're all living in some variant of
a war zone.
Here where I live in the USA:
- a fundamentalist Christian right
that is neither Christian nor right
prostitutes the Gospel for
social/political dominance
- White nationalism that refuses
to see and confess the sin
of racism that is sadly
foundational and corrupting
to our national construct.
It's like the days of
my RC youth when you carried
an unconfessed mortal sin
and were thus not admitted
to Holy Communion.
Confession alone can open
to reconciliation.
-Truth telling muzzled,
book burnings,
curricula white washed,
fact fractured.
-Cynical slander in
media and politics -
congressional hearing
of Justice Jackson.
OK, let's take a break
and a deep breath.
There is a sweet to the
bittersweet of our living.
-God is joyfully busy,
unabashedly creating forth in
endless new expansions of love.
Sin will not stop it.
-We have the companionship
and strength-giving of
The Enlivening Spirit.
-We are welcomed to the
Realm of Real
to living in the Reign of God
and that in company with
each other in holy community,
right in the midst of
Empire's Madness.
-There are way more people
living God's Love
than those who are attacking
Godness and Truth.
See kids learning
the wonders of life.
See couples lovingly
merged in marriage and
raising beautiful families.
See the champions of
justice and goodness,
locally and globally.
See elderly folks mellowing
into peace and gratitude.
-Happily we can
sing songs,
speak poems,
cook for feasts,
join the dance.
Folks come together in
Lived Love
and experience
The Spirit
fill their sails.
This time of year we note the
Springing of Life
after the cold dark of winter.
We recommit to absorption in
the bitter death and
the sweet resurrection of Jesus.
BITTERSWEET
In the words of my long ago
spiritual director:
"Don't let the bastards
get you down
because with God
it's power through and up."
Bitter for sure and sweet forever.
Here's hope and prayer
as together we
suffer the bitter and
savor the sweet.
Your Brother
John Frank
******
BITTERSWEET
Two takes/talks
Romans 6:3-4
"Do you not know that all of us
who have been baptized
into Christ Jesus were baptized
into his death?
Therefore we have been buried
with him by baptism into death,
so that, just as Christ was raised
from the dead by the glory
of the Father, so we too
might walk in newness of life."
(NRSV translation)
"That's what baptism into
the life of Jesus means.
When we were lowered
into the water, it is like
the burial of Jesus;
when we are raised up
out of the water, it is like
the resurrection of Jesus.
Each of us is raised into
a light-filled world by our Father
so that we can see where
we are going in our new
grace sovereign country."
(The Message translation)
******
This week we were joined by
a visitor from Ukraine.
Thank you for being with us
and know we are with you
and all Ukraine
in prayerful support.
frankly speaking
spirituality for the street
johnfrankshares.blogspot.com
Posted by mid-day Wednesday,
east coast USA time.
Email format delivered Friday.
******
Together
We support in times bitter.
We celebrate in times sweet.
******
