Dear All of Us,
Holy Cow!
What's coming down here?
It's Sunday morning.
It's The Fourth of July weekend.
What's the matter with me?
I should be getting ready for church,
pool time, a brass and organ concert at
The National Cathedral, family time,
hotdogs with lots of sauerkraut,
the blitz and blast of spectacular fireworks.
What's the matter with me?
Why am I bothering to start
this blog now of all times?
That usually happens during the week.
I'm bothering because
that's exactly how
I really, really am right now -
really
BOTHERED BIG TIME
What's bothering me is that
just about everyone is
so terribly bothered,
bothered to the point of
fear and frustration,
despair and depression.
I look, I listen, I care.
Some say it.
Some duct it.
It's all over the place.
Society is saturated
with despondency.
Things are out of control
and there's a hell of
a lot more to come.
Those who can are trying
to circle the wagons and
they know down deep
it won't work.
Those without wagons
are already knocked
to their knees, naked to peril.
I know of what I speak and
what we don't want to know.
We live in a house built of cards
and the winds of consequence
are blowing it to hell.
A lived lie is now
laying life low.
The bottom is falling out
because there is no bottom,
no substratum of reality.
It's a cockeyed fantasy -
faux, phony, fictitious -
a plastic Disney- Like Delusion
that can't hold up to the
light and heat of reality
The delusion is to have
SELF
be
center and ultimate,
ME-ISM
US-ISM
individual
and
collective
self-seeking
white supremacist
on the march in Boston,
devastation in Ukraine,
price gauging,
dictatorship of ideologies,
SELF - seeking satisfaction in
"The Good Life"
that is neither.
It's
EMPIRE
It manifests in
a cascade of chaos -
rampant malicious misinformation,
obscene wealth at the expense of
inhuman poverty and misery,
politics without principle,
refusal to resolve racial injustice,
destruction of democracy
in the name of patriotism,
me over we,
escalating violence
locally-internationally,
raping Mother Earth
(rain forests for hamburgers),
leaders lost,
truth denied.
EMPIRE
Like every other empire
- without exception -
collapsing, crumbling
imploding, folding, taking
safety, stability, security with it.
Governments, corporations,
capitalism, socialism,
military, media, militia, money,
soft, spongy religions, banks,
programs and politicians,
can't prop us up much longer.
They are dimensions
and departments
of this falling fiction that is
Empire.
I so feel for us all
as we deal with it.
"It ain't nice and
it ain't go'n away!!"
We can cave to fear,
be had, roll over and die.
We don't have to!
There's a Road to Real,
not easy, but unbeatable,
divinely beautiful
and eternally durable.
We can come alive anew,
righted, fresh, invigorated by
fully accepting,
fully embracing,
fully engaging
active citizenship in
The Realm of Real
"The time is fulfilled,
and the kingdom of God
is at hand;"
It's time.
It's Now.
It's at hand.
We can
"Repent and believe
the gospel"
Jesus
Mark 1:15
Repent isn't
wasting ourselves
in a guilt trip.
Repent literally means
metanoia,
change your mind,
your direction,
your heart,
how you be
and what you do.
Believe
isn't a doctrinal
head trip.
It means "be + life"
in a whole new way,
That way is "gospel,"
literally and actually
"Good News"
It means to
Live Love
as
"God is Love"
1 John 4:8
Jesus started his sharing,
his ministry, with this invite
to a new citizenship,
the exact opposite of Empire
He details it in
The Sermon On The Mount
Matthew 5-7
That's the
prospectus and the promise.
He Lived Love,
showed how to do that,
invited us into a unity with him,
into a people, a community
doing just that.
He names it
The Kin-Domain of God
and it is a vibrant kinship,
an immediate and full fledged
Living Love
all of us, all of nature
and God as
One.
As in Jesus' time,
it is lived in the midst of Empire,
in counter distinction to Empire
as a culture counter to Empire.
Empire is falling apart.
We don't have to.
Rather than checking
the news 24/7
with its obsessive detailing
the obituary of Empire,
we can grow
right, real, forever,
joyful, beautiful,
unstoppably alive in this
"Kin Domain of God"
of
God Who is Love
sheer, essential,
unlimited, outgoing,
won't ever quit goodness
that just keeps
bursting in beauty.
It bonds us in
active communion
with others in a
Beloving Community.
We have no choice
but to be in the midst of
Empire's collapse.
It's rough and
it's going to get rougher.
Its citizens are tearing
each other apart,
taking no prisoners,
demolishing structure and order,
scorching the earth and all nature.
It's a hideous demolition derby.
We will get wiped out
if it's all we have.
It's not!!!
We have the opportunity
for intimate union with God,
to come together
for real community -
caring, supportive
life sharing within and outward.
For God's sake
really
"For God's sake"
we simply cannot settle for
polite, gentile, feel good religion.
It's the real deal or no deal at all.
We need real God in real community.
As John Wesley said:
Personal Holiness
Social Holiness
So, we find it, or we found it.
******
Well, it's now The Fourth of July.
I did get to church yesterday.
It was simple, simply real.
Occasional contributor here,
Caly McCarthy
led and preached beautifully.
Please check it out for a
Soul Lift
Small, warm, homie church.
Cleveland Park Congregational
United Church of Christ
Washington, DC
July 3, 2022
Couldn't handle the "rha rha"
of civil religion at the
cathedral concert this
Fourth of July morning.
I tuned out.
Looking forward to
family and pool
later today
AND
those once a year
hot dogs with lots of
sauerkraut. Then the
spectacular fireworks
here in DC.
They give me a feel for
God's Bursts of Love.
******
As I wrap up this sharing
it's now Tuesday evening.
More evil and chaos as
ordinary, garden variety people
tried to celebrate shared freedom
at a parade.
Murder, injury, fractured families,
multiple points of pain and trauma,
more fear and vulnerability
as another safe zone no longer so.
The cult of the gun!
The madness of Me-ism.
Even though this sharing
has been tough,
I'm glad we
BOTHERED
to face up
together
to
our peril
to
our potential.
Hang on.
Lots of land mines ahead.
So is
THE REALM OF REAL
THE KIN DOMAIN OF GOD
Your brother right next to you,
John Frank
******
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frankly speaking
spirituality for the street
johnfrankshares.blogspot.com
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See you next week!
******
and the
