Dear All of Us,
Some folks from our church
are all signed up for
a pilgrimage to the
Holy Land.
Not gonna happen!
Not safe.
Not a land all that holy, either.
Seething hatreds.
Mass murder and mutilation.
Lots of religious shrines and sights.
Hard to see God, though.
God missing in the action
across the land fouled evil.
An Unsafe Unholy Land.
Holy Land Pilgrimage
A Rethink
A Redirection
As pilgrims we stop running off
to where Jesus was.
Rather and better,
we dig in, hunker down
lifting up
people and places
in lands where Jesus needs to be.
That's just about everywhere.
The worldwide lay of the land
right now is an unholy landmine.
"Peace, peace,
but there is no peace."
Rather, things are falling to pieces:
governments and politics,
environmental integrity and viability,
ethnic and racial relations,
vapid, dumbing, soul dulling
sports and entertainment,
divisive, shallow religiosity,
shell game economics,
compulsive consumerism,
dictators at the door,
some already inside,
social systems rigged
by the few for the few.
We need to face all this.
We need not freeze in fear
at the facing.
We need to do something
about it, and we can.
We can go on a
Pilgrimage of Place,
the place right where we are.
We can band together as
Pilgrams in Place
living our land into a
Holy Land.
It's crucial that we not go it alone.
We'll get lost in fatigue and failure.
We need to be together.
We need to be church.
The root word and reality
for church is
Ecclesia
"The Gathered"
Paul reminds us we are integral
to each other
The Body of Christ.
Jesus draws us together in
The Kingdom
and has us pray
"Thy Kingdom come
on earth (the land)
as it is in heaven.
Beautiful expressions of
"The Gathered"
If we are blessed with
a for real church
where we are,
together we really
"get go"
Gospel Live.
If where we are,
what claims to be
and fails to be
for real
Church,
we prayerfully
band together
as small home churches.
Either way we live
the Good News
vigorously and fully
in all we think, do and say.
Pilgrimage Of Place
Now here comes
the game changer.
We put flesh
on the bones
of concept.
We discern as church.
We get practical.
We cull
The Sermon on the Mount
and let it live us real
in our land
We don't "spiritualize" it.
We don't water it down to
a comfortable, non-demanding
collection of pious platitudes.
So, for an example or more:
"For where your treasure is,
there your heart will be also"
At the heart of things,
what do we really treasure,
personally and as a church:
reputation, comfort,
supposed security,
a hefty portfolio, control,
or
a simple and sufficient lifestyle,
the wellbeing of the
not at all well off in our land,
deep, divine intimacy,
doing what we can for
at risk children and
ignored elderly,
using our talents and privilege
to lift the social, spiritual
and cultural level
where we land in life,
at home, at work, around town?
This is grist for the mill of
personal and communal
discernment and action.
As we let God piece together
the things going to pieces
in our land, we
Pray Live
The Prayer of St. Francis.
Again and always,
what does it practically mean
right here, right now
to live it live in our land?
THE PRAYER OF ST. FRANCIS
A PILGRIMAGE OF PLACE
Lord, make me an instrument
of your peace:
Where there is hatred,
let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
Oh divine Master, grant that
I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning
that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying
that we are born
to eternal life.
So true,
and it will be so,
living our land holy.
******
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frankly speaking
spirituality for the street
johnfrankshares.blogspot.com
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Great to be on
Pilgrimage
together
helping ours be a
HOLY LAND
Love to all,
John Frank
******
