HI HELLO
and
WELLCOME
A substantial number
of folks continue
to seek
last week's posting,
"TC"
It is available
by scrolling down
beneath this posting.
This current posting
is its sequel.
Thanks
for stopping by!
******
Here
is
This Week's Posting
Dear All of Us,
Hum!
What's the best way
to get at what's really
getting at us these days?
Content and Container
or
Maker's Mark?
Come on now,
trust me
and please
do stay tuned.
Let's go for both.
Both are about
the balance,
the interdependence
of
Content and Container
Maker's Mark is ranked
the best of bourbons,
deep, even and rich.
It is beautifully bottled,
capped with its signature
hand dipped red wax seal.
I've visited the
family-owned distillery
in Loretto, Kentucky.
The Samuels family there
have mastered that
balanced interdependence -
great product
beautifully bottled
Content and Container
So, before you question if
too much Kentucky bourbon
has crossed my lips
and fogged my head,
let's look at what is fogging
our souls and world to
hellish confusion and conflict,
We are having
fuss to freight
to feud to fight
on how
to be together,
on how to
structure and cooperate
in a balanced society,
rock real principle,
faithfully enacted practice.
It's not going well.
It's more like
going to hell.
We are deficient on what
and conflicted on how.
The What:
that which is the
principle and purpose
of life shared
The How:
principle applied in practice,
the mode and manner
of social structure
and governance,
how we go about
living together in
cooperative harmony.
Content and Container
Maker's Mark has a smooth,
superior content
effectively, artfully delivered
in an excellent container -
great blend of
Content and Container
We don't.
We are neglecting the
God given treasure
of cooperative living
and
we are scraping about
how to organize ourselves
for that very treasure
which we are neglecting,
and that to our peril.
Central to the chaos are
Church
and
State
Way, way too many
churches
are
lead laden with
polity, property,
programs, positions
- excessive containers
for a content, a fire
that is close to out.
And out do go the people,
dispirited with the lack,
the low level, of spirit,
as in The Holy Spirit,
The Spirit of
Red Hot Love Lived
cooperatively,
communally.
The how be church
"form fights"
are container conflicts over
a lost intensity of content,
i.e, real, joyous, vigorous,
disciple life in community -
lots of love and care
for each other,
for humanity and all Creation.
Not many congregations
go full court press,
are red hot on fire
with personal, practical,
love of God and each other.
Just check out
what they are busy about.
(Hey, after opining like this,
will my clergy pension check
continue showing up
each month????)
In any and way too many cases
what's peddled as church is like
Maker's Mark reduced to a
cheap blend
in a plastic container.
Sad same worldwide.
What form of government?
That's a cultural, a moral,
spiritual, container concern:
conservative, liberal,
wide webbed, minimalist,
democratic, oligarchy,
populist?
We ware out waring
at each other
about its resolution,
about the container.
It's a futile figuring fight.
To answer it we need a
cohesive, communal clarity
we don't have about
what we are
all about
as a people,
Foundational Principle.
That's a What question,
a Content question.
It's answer would inform
the question of governance
Both questions
and their answers
are vital, spiritual ones
through and through.
Are we restrictive clans,
insistently homogeneous,
a religious, political
amalgam of sameness?
Are we a weave of
multiple ethnic, racial
and spiritual threads?
In my homeland
here in the USA
we have been
vague and varying
about
meaning and manner,
principle and practice
- content and container -
since our start.
We have tried
a variety of emphases,
concepts and containers
Federalism,
a Republic,
Democracy,
black slave
white free,
immigrants welcome,
immigrants denied,
New Deal,
isolationist,
world power,
Taft and Reagan
conservatism,
Un-Christian Nationalism,
and none have been
a stable fit because
we do not have
clear content,
a unity of
soulful
principled purpose.
So, one group
wins power
and tailors
a together
that isn't.
In opposition, people
of different persuasions,
win power
and insist on forms
that fit and force
their sense and structures.
Faulty Principle
Fractious Practice
Conflict and Chaos
over
Content and Container
Versions and variants
of this
chart experience and
consequence across
the peoples and places of
this our God created world
and that to our detriment.
"Without a vision
the people perish."
Proverbs 29:18
Here in the
not all that united
states of America
we voice a vision
- content -
and do not live it
- container -
"E pluribus unum"
"From many one"
Actually
many are not welcome
and we are not one.
Here and in land after land
migration and difference
of color, religion,
ethnicity, sexuality,
political preference,
conflict in chaos.
It is a human horror
at the lack of
a shared vision and
a difference welcoming
unity
Content and Container
We don't need
to settle for it
or
stay stuck in it.
Jesus offers
a vision and application,
principle and practice,
of what we can be,
a
Kin-Domain of Good,
Red Hot Real
God Love Lived
in many ways
by
many different
peoples
and that in
loving mutuality.
We can be the
New Isreal
"A light unto
the nations."
Isaiah 49:6
Our Kin-Domain
charter
invites and guides.
It is a
New Testament
with
radiant clarity
of purpose
and
consequent
congruence,
of
spirit and structure,
Content and Container.
It's the best way
to get at
what's getting at us
these days.
We don't have
to wait for a
civic utopia
that will
never spring
from an orphaned
What
and its chaotic
How
We have a life to live,
Content and Container,
a way to go about them
together
in the
Kin-Domain of God
right here
right now
Principle and Practice
detailed
in
The Beatitudes
and
The Sermon
on the Mount
Matthew 5-7
Yes, we do have
a way to go.
So, lets go.
"Give your
entire attention
to what God
is doing right now,
and don't get
worked up about
what may or may not
happen tomorrow."
Matthew 6:33
The Message
Hum!
The best way
to get at what's
getting at us?
Well,
May our Maker's Mark
be on us and all we do.
*******
FOR REFLECTION
"This constitution
will only work for
a moral
and
religious
people."
John Adams
A
Founding Father
United States
of
America
HUM?
******
It's always great
to have
good company.
And that's what
we had here
this past week and
lots and lots of it!
Large groups from
Germany
Austria
France
USA
Singapore
blessed us
with their company.
WELCOME
NEXT ONLINE POSTING
Tuesday morning/afternoon
East Coast USA time
February 25, 2025
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Friday
February 28, 2025
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LAST FIVE POSTINS
AVAILABLE
by
scrolling down
beneath
this posting
A MOST GRATEFUL
THANK YOU
to the many
who are sharing
frankly speaking
with others
Every goodness and grace.
See you next week.
Love to all.
God Bless
John Frank
frankly speaking
spirituality for the street
johnfrankshares.blogspot.com
******
