Dear All of Us,
Truth to tell
we all have our
PREFERRED,
our prized people,
our favorite folks,
our "go to's"
who prove true,
our "count on's",
our "come on over's"
our "tight in's."
Jesus sure has his:
CHILDREN
and age has nothing
to do with it.
One day, actually
many days,
the disciples
were jockeying for
standing and status,
one upmanship,
(Yes, they were all men)
being top banana,
kind of like the
gang of teen-terrors
in the Clown Car
crashing/smashing
The Common Good in
The House of Far From
Representative of
America's best
just now.
When the close-in's,
got out of whack,
pumped up on
self-supposed superiority,
Jesus popped their
pomposity balloons
on the spot.
He let them know
they were rushing
hell bent the wrong way,
needed to do a three sixty,
a complete
SOUL SHIFT
At that time the disciples
came to Jesus and said,
"Who is greatest in
the kingdom of heaven?"
And he called a child
to Himself and set him
before them, and said
to them:
"Truely I say to you
unless you change
and become like children,
you will never enter
the kingdom of heaven.
Whoever then
humbles himself
as this child,
he is greatest in
the kingdom of heaven."
Matthew 18:1-4
How do we translate
that then to our this now?
We really need
to figure forward.
For a variety of economic,
cultural and social reasons,
nobody was more a
nobody
than children were
where and when
Jesus lived.
Children had
no standing
whatsoever
and
Jesus stood a
child
in their midst
and measured
"greatest"
Counter intuitive then.
Counterintuitive now.
What's so great
about children
for God's sake?
Why do they have
the greatest standing?
Well, because they live
humility
and we will only be great
and part of the
kingdom of heaven
if we do as well.
It's not a matter of groveling,
not about being put down.
It's living a dear down,
a simple start,
created to grow up
(L) humus
an earthiness
of dependence,
of potential,
a need that
God can nurture,
fill to unending fullness,
true greatness.
It's living Soul Free,
truly dependent
on God,
an uncomplicated and
uncompromised openness,
a willingness to be
growth given.
There's spontaneous
playfulness and joy to it,
centered in true trust.
Children live that
from the ground ("humus") up
Put another way,
even God can't grow a
"just started"
to its potential fullness
when it deems itself
already and
independently such.
Only an emptiness
can be filled.
Only a lowly seedling
can grow up,
lifted to the heights,
certainly not one
posturing as already
grown greatness.
Put yet another way,
we're invited to the
Kin-Domain of Goodness,
The Kingdom of God,
a garden of wonder
upon wonder,
God's Love
creatively unfolding,
too God to ever stop.
All we have to do is
stop strutting about on
stilts of arrogant illusion
and attempted dominance.
God wants to grow us
to real greatness,
and will if we heed
Jesus
and
"change"
have the
"humus"
of a child
with its gleeful openness
and spacious simplicity.
So, we let God sprout us,
delighted with our unique
body, personality, spirit,
strengths and giftedness,
our special place in
the garden of Creation.
We go with
the growth given.
We don't try to tower over,
but glory in God Good
spread all around
and shared with
our fellow children
of whatever age,
sprout-starts all.
We totally depend on God.
We are truly one with the
"No Bodies"
of our state, station, location -
geographic, economic, social.
All this seems like
"Kid's Stuff"
It is!
That's the
point and possibility.
Jesus isn't out
to impoverish
or demean us.
Living in the midst of
Empire
has already done that -
deluded, doped, deprived us.
Jesus countermands
the word, way and world
of Empire with its
perversion of
power and position,
its arrogance and posturing,
degradation of nature,
demeaning and death dealing,
dispossessing the poor,
dominance of the
many by the few,
denial of justice.
Jesus offers us
The Realm of Real.
A hard question and
challenge for us is,
how much of
our lifestyle
and manner
and means
are sad such,
products of Empire's
dominating, destructive
steel fist,
cloved in the velvet
of unreflected
dominance and privilege?
In the best sense of the word,
Jesus puts us in our place.
A place of
freeing dependence,
trusting openness,
joyous simplicity,
spacious growth,
genuine, unpretentious
community,
accepting and accepted,
alive in love of
God, neighbor, self
So "placed,'"
we take our place
in life free and real,
be it as a day laborer,
an executive,
chef, teacher,
partner, parent,
builder, artist.
We are happy to be
a nobody in Empire
to be a somebody
in the Kingdom,
delighted to be people
JESUS PREFERRED
KINGDOM REFERRED
******
For those open to it,
A PONDER PRAYER
Lord, this is tough stuff.
Hard to take.
Hard to be given.
Free us in your embrace
to take to heart and street,
to open wide to your givenness.
"For here we have
no lasting kingdom,
but we are looking for
the kingdom that
is to come."
Hebrews 13:14
How much of what
goes on with us is,
however disguised,
really an attempt
to establish our own
heaven on earth?
- career-wise,
- comfort-wise
- as a nation
- as a church
******
"Do you see
what we've got?
An unshakable kingdom!
And do you see
how thankful
we must be?
Not only thankful,
but brimming
with worship,
deeply reverent
before God.
For God is not an
indifferent bystander.
He's actively
cleaning house,
torching all that
needs to burn,
and he won't quit
until it's all cleaned.
God himself is Fire!"
Hebrews 12:28-29
The Message
The heat sure is
turned up here!
How fully invested
are we in this
"unshakable kingdom"?
Any hedging going on?
What kind of thanks
do we have cooking?
How "brimming"
is our worship
these days?
Are there things
in our set up
that need to be
torched?
Such as...
******
"So Jesus
got them together
to settle things down.
He said
'You've observed how
godless rulers throw
their weight around,
how quickly
a little power
goes to their heads.
It's not going to be
that way with you.
Whoever wants
to be great
must become
a servant.
Whoever wants
to be first among you
must be your slave.
That's what
the Son of Man
has done.
He came to serve,
not to be served -
and then give away
his life in exchange
for the many
who are held hostage.'"
Matthew 20: 25-28
The Message
What are ways we
throw our weight around?
How power happy/grappy
are we?
Does that show up in church?
How sold are we
on being "servants"?
With us is it more fact
or more fiction?
How do we and
our church serve
rather than seek
to be served?
What are some
for real examples?
What are some
for real calls
to serve?
******
We welcome each other,
Kingdom Kids All
here at
frankly speaking
spirituality for the street
johnfrankshares.blogspot.com
a weekly
ONLINE POSTING
Each Wednesday morning
East Coast USA time
LAST FIVE POSTINGS
Please scroll down below
the current posting
EMAIL DELIVERY
Each Friday
Sign Up top right
Online posting
You know,
turns out
humble pie
is really
pretty darn
good!.
Looking happily ahead
to our gathering here
next week.
Love to all.
John Frank
*******
.
