Dear All of Us,
Well, and it isn't,
it's war more.
The despots of
Empire
pitch
the nations into
hellish violence,
the peoples into
devastating pain,
foul
land, sea, air,
shatter
peaceful living.
War may stop an evil.
It will never birth peace.
I found that out in the 60's
during the Vietnam War
while ministering at
Walter Read Army Hospital
to ward upon ward of
late teen and
twenty something
non-coms.
Their bodies,
minds and souls
were shattered from
shattering those
of opposites in combat.
I realized that
the killer dies.
Jesus put it way clearer:
"Put your sword back
where it belongs.
All who use swords
are destroyed
by swords."
Matthew 26:52
The Message.
The sword
cuts two ways.
One of countless horrors
still paining my heart
from those back ward days
at Walter Read
is the nineteen-year-old
kid from Baltimore.
He had worked
in a gas station,
had a girlfriend -
ordinary as can be.
He didn't have
the money or
connections
to duct the draft.
First time out in combat
he blew the head off
a young Vietnamese solider.
At that he screamed,
dropped his gun
and broke down,
deeply down and out.
When with him
in the hospital
he would
laugh hysterically
and then
cry the same.
He kept pleading
over and over,
"Father, tell me
I'm not crazy.
Tell me
I'm not crazy.""
But he was,
shattered,
psychologically
dead on arrival
at the border
of adulthood.
The sword
cuts both ways.
The same deadliness
rebounds on
waring nations.
The Vietnam War
did not bring peace
to Vietnam or to
the United States.
Just the opposite.
Division and conflict.
The sword cuts
both ways.
Way back when,
Jerimiah challenged
Empire's fault fraught
chieftains and their
phony claims of war
begetting peace:
"Peace, peace,
there is no peace"
Jerimiah 6:14, 8:11
No peace,
just more war.
As Richard Rohr says,
the only way to peace
is peace.
Augustine saw that
"Peace is the
tranquility of order."
Peace is Creation flowing
as God gives it.
Peace is people
thinking and acting,
soul and society, all
love based and lived -
the tranquility of
God Good Order.
Jesus assures that
"Blesses are
the peace makers.
for they shall be called
children of God."
Matthew 5:9
The Message
puts it this way:
"You're blessed
when you
can show people
how to cooperate
instead of
compete or fight.
That's when
you discover
who you really are,
and your place
in God's family."
Positive
putting things together.
The tranquility
of order.
Regrettably,
there really isn't
a whole lot of peace
just now
around town or globe.
War on the battlefield
is a metastasis
of cultural war
in town.
There is economic
warfare between
The Have's Most Of It,
The You Get Enough
To Keep You Quiet's,
The Have's Not
Nearly Enough's.
There is the warfare
between religions,
social classes and castes,
far out lefts and
not at all rights,
media moguls
perverting mind and soul,
democracy and despotism
slugging it out, so too
social barbarity
attacking civility.
So, what do we do?
We do Jesus.
More specifically,
we let Jesus
do us, gift us
peaceful.
"In everything,
therefore,
treat people
the same way
you want them
to treat you,
for this is the
Law and
the Profits."
Matthew 7:12
The Message
again:
"Here is a simple,
rule-of-thumb guide
for behavior.
Ask yourself what
you want people
to do for you,
then grab
the initiative
and do it for them.
Add up God's
Law and Prophets
and this is
what you get."
Put pointedly:
You don't want
to be beat up,
so don't beat up.
You want the best.
Give the best.
Everybody scores.
Nobody loses.
What a plus
arrangement
for everybody.
Tranquility of order.
The UMPH for this
comes compliments of
Jesus:
"Peace I leave with you.
My peace I give to you,
not as the world gives
do I give.
Do not let your heart
be troubled,
nor let it
be fearful."
John 14:27
WOW!!
What a wonder.
We can take that
to the bank and
bank on it we can.
The Rightness,
The Integrity,
The Verve
The Vigor
The Vitality
of Jesus'
own peace
being our peace.
It's not the
transactional paste
that the world
passes off as peace.
This is pure rightness,
divinely dynamic.
And we can be as well,
and well it is.
No hearts troubled,
no fear faintness
for us.
The peace of Jesus
doesn't mean
trouble free.
It does mean
freely robust
in facing troubles
peacefully.
It does mean
deep soul trust that
ultimately peace will prevail.
So, we clear clean,
open wide,
our hearts
to the gift of
Jesus own peace.
We live Jesus' own
tranquility of order
in the sweaty-sweet
of our place and time.
We're patient with
the complexities
and imperfection
of daily life.
Given a rock
we offer a rose.
We bring a
calm strength
to unraveling
the knots of
community life
and Nature Care.
We realize
we can do little
about the
outrageous evils of
Empire's waring.
We can and
do commit to
harmony and peace
with family, at work,
in our communities,
driving, dealing with
difficulties of difference,
a tranquility of order.
War there is.
Peace there can be,
The Peace of Jesus.
If each of us is a
peace plant
the world will
one day be
peace blanketed.
In the meantime,
"Don't fret or worry,
Instead of worrying, pray.
Let petitions and praises
shape your worries
into prayers,
letting God know
your concerns.
Before you know it,
a sense of
God's wholeness,
everything
coming together
(tranquility of order)
for good, will come
and settle you down.
It's wonderful
what happens
when Christ
displaces worry
at the center
of your life.
Philippians 4:8-9
The Message
Peace is the tranquility of order,
God's order
Creations free flow.
"Peace be with you."
Jesus
******
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See you next week.
Peace.
Love to all.
God Bless,
John Frank
frankly speaking
spirituality for the street
johnfrankshares.blogspot.com
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