RADICAL RIGHT

       This is the fifth in our

           Fall Series

     FOLLOW THROUGH

           living out 

THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT

             ******

            HEADS UP!

 We're in for a real workout 

       in what follows.

Dear All of Us, 

    All right!

    In fact,

"Radical Right"

      it is 

and that for sure.

 "Radical Right"

       here 

   has nothing 

to do with political 

persuasion/position.

It has everything 

to do with spiritual 

persuasion/position,

     with being  

    "Soul Right."

         Get 

    the center 

        and 

     the start 

  radically right 

and our spiritual lives

      will be

    "ALL" Right

from there on out.

That's how Jesus 

steers us right

in this next part of 

   The Sermon 

  On The Mount.

Matthew 5:27-30

What he says here is strong.

He speaks as an ancient Jew -

blunt, pushing the point.

What we moderns would take 

as exaggeration,

as excessive,

was their way of

emphasizing importance.

These were regular

literary forms of speech

understood for emphasis 

not for factuality

nor literal interpretation.

Jesus uses the temptation 

to adultery as a launch 

on how to be real and right 

about any and everything 

that would draw us off center,

that would tempt us to be

unreal, foiled and fouled in life:

  

  "You know the next 

   commandment pretty

   well, too:

   'Don't go to bed 

   with another's spouse.'

   But don't think 

   you've preserved 

   your virtue simply by 

   staying out of bed.

   Your heart can 

   be corrupted 

   by lust even quicker 

   than your body.

   Those leering looks 

   you think nobody notices- 

   they also corrupt.

   Let's not pretend 

   this is easier 

   than it really is.

   If you want to live 

   a morally pure life,

   here's what you have to do: 

   You have to blind 

   your right eye the moment 

   you catch it in a lustful leer.

   You have to choose 

   to live one-eyed 

   or else be dumped 

   on a moral trash pile.

   And you have to chop off 

   your right hand

   the moment you notice it 

   raised threateningly. 

   Better a bloody stump than 

   your entire being discarded 

   for good in the dump.

    The Message Translation

PHEW!!!

Tough talk.

Let's scope this out.

In these three short verses

Jesus speaks volumes 

to our souls on

     radical 

   (L."root") 

   rightness

      and 

its flow forth 

 from there.

     Get 

the sentiment, 

the intention,

the attitude

      at  

Soul Center

pure, clear 

right and real,

and so it will be 

in all the particulars 

of lived out practice.

From the get go, 

Jesus tells us,

cut off and out 

any and everything 

that fouls soul center 

and thus all that

flows from it.

In this section 

of the sermon

 Jesus insists 

    we be

Radical Right 

 about the 

temptation 

      to 

  adultery 

in particular, 

as well as about 

all temptation 

in its multiple

  moments, 

  modes 

  manners.

Jew Jesus spits it out 

hard, loud and clear.

Having a lustful 

focus/fantasy

is adultery before ever 

bed and deed.

So, clean it up inside 

and all the way out.

That goes for all, 

any and every

occasion of sin, e.g. 

"And you have to

 chop off 

your right hand 

the moment 

you notice it raised 

threateningly..."

Matthew 5:30).

So it is with 

every temptation,

any sort of pull toward

"missing the mark", 

        of

being off center,

of loosing our balance

when it comes to being

genuine and real.

So, in all sectors of life,

not just adultery,

we excise any relationship,

activity, habit, disposition,

preference, passion, pattern,

value system, life style, 

systemic structure

that is an occasion of foul up, 

that draws us off being

        Radial Right, 

        Heart Right,

        Soul Center 

       clean and clear.

That means all and 

every one of them,

be they as much a part 

of us and our way of living 

as our right hand, our eye.

They must go if we are 

      to go on in life

      Real and Right.

Better to be restricted than 

lost, deadened, off the rails.

Yep, tough stuff.

Strongly put.

No two ways about it.

No two ways to be

   Radical Right

So, what, who's 

      gotta go

in us and our living

so we can "go" 

spiritually, really,

so we can actually live,

free and full,

     Radical Right

from center on outward?

Let's take ten with that

for starters - how about

ten hours?

No causal, comfy Christianity here.

Excising for clarity's freedom -

sexual and all otherwise - costs.

It may cost a relationship, 

job, wealth, position, 

prerogative, pleasure -

you name it

      - and we must -

then cut free

      - and we must.

I'll spare you and me 

the details,

but I know all this

from my own painful liberation. 

Yes, it hurts like hell

but it opens to 

some heavenlike living.

Jew Jesus is blunt, stark, 

unambiguous, forthright,

uncompromising.

His is a prophet's push.

What he insists on for a person

goes for us as a people.

What societal operating systems

are radically wrong from the start

and thus they horribly wrong 

people and planet in practice?

What fouls and foils?

What needs excising?

Right now here in The States

some are beginning to more fully

and painfully address

the genocide and slavery

foundational and unresolved

to us as a people

and the continuing evil 

they reek.

We are hardly dealing with, 

much less excising,

the discounted valuation 

on human life that is

pervasively operative 

among us from

separating migrant children 

from their parents,

to unsafe working conditions, 

to excessive and 

non restorative incarceration, 

to the death penalty,

to the militarization of 

local "peace" officers.

     

Then there is capitalism.

  A great read here is

Pope Francis' new letter,

      Fratelli tutti

  (October 3, 2020)

Capitalism rewards 

an elite few,

favors some,

impoverishes masses

worldwide - 

a cultural, constricting 

caste system,

a dirty rotten shame,

an impurity 

that is a cheating on 

our bonded unity as humanity

(social and economic adultery).

Add to the list of concerns,

living in uncensored, soft, 

selfish sensuality - 

forty some varieties 

of breakfast cereals 

to choose from,

extravagant spending  

on adult toys and vacations,

luxuries taken as staples 

of daily living - 

soul dulling superficial sensations.

Example: endless hours 

in front of the tube

hazed over by 

too many Doritos 

and too much beer.

In the mean time -

and it sure is "mean" -

two million people 

right now are literally, actually 

starving to death worldwide -

        statistic from

UN WORLD FOOD PROGRAM

       the folks who

     just received the

    Nobel Peace Prize.

One more for not at all 

good measure.

Too often domesticated, 

bleached, pale, wimpy, 

self serving institutional religion 

in bed with structures of 

preference, preferment and power, 

clerical domination and privilege,

watered down Gospel, 

ritual, rubrics, polity, dogmas 

crowding out vibrant community 

and deep spirituality.

OK, OK, I hear you!

So, yes I did have three cups 

of coffee this morning!

Admittedly intense today.

But, hey, we really need to

hear and head Jesus

about being centered right

and freed from invites to peril.

What may initially register

as restrictive and stern is, 

in happy and holy fact,

liberating and energizing.

A hokey, humble metaphor:

A race car needs 

clean, clear, pure fuel 

to fire its engines, 

to power them 

to excellence and victory.

So do we and our society

need clear, clean energy

to power us 

  RADICAL RIGHT

  in our living and 

its freedom to fulness.

All the above is just a start

at unpacking the power 

and the wisdom of Jesus

compacted in these 

three short verses.

As already noted, 

he uses the temptation 

to adultery for starters  

- sure to get our attention -

and then presses the need

to free up by cutting loose 

from whatever else,

such as raising a hand threateningly,

would draw us off center,

trip us up and thus down,

foiled and failed in life. 

"Enough already!"

I need to go 

pray for purity,

for rightness 

at my center point

and all the way out 

in my life practices.

I need to pray the same 

for all of us as a people.

I need to pray for us all

the grace and courage

to let God make us

personally and as a people,

   RADICAL RIGHT

  In God's Dear Love,

   Your exhausted 

           and 

      exhausting 

        brother,

       John Frank

         ******

  As always, a hearty

       WELCOME

   to all joining us 

   for the first time

        here at

  "frankly speaking"

spirituality for the street

- posted by mid-day Thursdays

 east coast USA time

 johnfrankshares.blogspot.com

- arrives by automatic 

  email delivery every Friday

  the sign up is above top

- Blog Archive hosts all past postings

  right column above.

                ******

            SUGGESTION

           As we seek to

        FOLLOW THROUGH

           on living out 

   The Sermon On The Mount,

    please let me recommend

  Jesus' Plan For A New World

  The Sermon On The Mount, 

Richard Rohr with John Feister,

      Franciscan Media, 1996

    ISBN 978-0-86716-203-5

              ******

     Have a heck of a week,

     freed and happy to be 

         RADICAL RIGHT

              ******

   

      

POTTER

    This is the fourth

           in our

         Fall Series

   FOLLOW THROUGH

          living out 

The Sermon On The Mount

          ******

Dear All of Us,

Ah, The Arts!

Earth elements

heaven soaring, searching.

Sound, stone, paint, motion,

word, glass, wood, metal - 

all singing, showing the sacred.

See the power of the potter.

Caressing clump clay, 

whirling dervish spinning divine, 

fondled free, upward, 

drawn out to form fulness.

     See Potter Jesus.

  He works the clay of 

          Tradition, 

The Law and The Prophets -

   earthbound elements   

       sprung free.

Clumps of consciousness

   evolved expansive, 

wide -  deep - high -  full.

"You have heard it said...

  But I say to you..."

     Six pericopes 

 of potential released, 

        Tradition 

 evolved, worked to 

furtherance and fullness -

from the letter of the law 

to the sprung spirit of Love,

from act based law released

to soul stance, Love Embraced.

     Matthew 5:21-48

See Six Soul Leaps to Love,

from:

     - contempt to communion

     - lust limits to pure presence

     - discarding to dedication

     - confounded word to simple truth

     - resisting to embracing

     - selective to universal love.

        

See Potter Jesus.

See the art of transformation.

See the evolution, 

the expansion of the 

first periscope:

    contempt to communion:

       THE MESSAGE 

Translation of the oldest

   manuscripts into

      today talk.

 Matthew 5:21- 26

"You're familiar 

with the command 

 to the ancients, 

'Don't murder.'

 I'm telling you that anyone

 who is so much as angry

 with a brother or sister 

 is guilty of murder.

 Carelessly call a brother 'idiot!' 

 and you just might find yourself 

 hauled into court.

 Thoughtlessly yell 'Stupid!'

 at a sister and you are 

 on the brink of hellfire.

 The simple moral fact is 

 that words kill.

"This is how I want you 

to conduct yourself 

in these matters.

If you enter a place of worship

and, about to make an offering, 

you suddenly remember 

a grudge a friend has against you,

abandon your offering, 

leave immediately,

go to this friend 

and make things right.

Then and only then,

come back and 

work things out with God.

"Or say you're out 

on the street and 

an old enemy accosts you.

Don't lose a minute.

Make the first move; 

make things right with him.

After all, if you leave 

the first move to him, 

you're likely to end up in court, 

knowing his track record,

maybe even in jail.

If that happens, 

you won't get out 

without a stiff fine."

 How's that for

"throwing a pot"?

Blunt, strong, earthy

very Jewish talk 

and parable from Jesus.

In it

      Potter Jesus 

        shows us 

the art of spiritual living,

    how to draw out

      and fashion    

earthiness to divine fullness.

   It means accepting 

       the divinity 

      at the center 

   of our earthiness. 

   It's there in clay.

   It's there in us.

   It's there in others.

 At the Center Point of 

        all is All.

It is the Love that is God,

   uniquely, creatively, 

  dynamically present

    in all and each.

         Divine. 

At that Center Point 

     we are one 

    with all in ALL.

     GOD LOVE

       is that

   Center Point 

        and 

   The Fullness.

   Draw that out, 

fashion it to fullness 

in thinking, feeling. 

Attitude to action -

transformed, evolved.

For sure there are impurities 

in the clay of our earthiness.

We irritate each other.

The art is to go to the center

of the troubling other 

and draw that Godness out,

to be drawn out with it 

as a divinely diversified 

           ONE

 The Art of Love Living.

So, we don't damage 

or destroy the painful other.

No looks that kill, 

nor any other deadliness.

And there are too many of them:

denigration, disparagement,

mocking, ridicule, belittlement.

Sad to say, my personal default, 

and is it ever a "fault,"

is to go dead on the other

when I'm angry,

the "silent treatment."

I withdraw from them, 

push them away from me.

    I deny them.

    I deaden them.

    I deaden me.

    It's murder,

    inflicted from 

my impure haughtiness.

  It defiles and denies 

      the divine 

      in us both

       - hellish -

So, way better we see 

self and God in other.

  We embrace all three 

    at once and as

          One.

We absorb any deadening 

from other in the deepest 

of our liveliness.

We return good for evil.

We suffer fools, and more, gladly.

We refuse to kill in defense 

of a life that can't ultimately be killed.

We are patient with those that pain.

   All this takes place in our 

         here and now 

            as it is.

 Right now is a murderous 

     time and culture: 

-governments that can't

- trillion dollar militarism

- cut throat competition 

- blatant, vicious political attracts

- sports and other "entertainments"

  violence laced

- deadening social, racial, 

  financial disparities

- culture clashes

- the denial of objectivity and truth

- a "me" materialism 

  and self absorption pursued   

  to absurd indulgence,

  "and the hell with you

  and your need"

- there's some, but not nearly enough,

  recognition of the evil of sexual abuse

- even less recognition of nature abused

- religious institutions and leaders at times

  giving the lie to Love Lived Godness,

 "wolves in sheep's clothing."

All that and tons more need not be

the frustration and fraction of 

our earthiness being drawn out,

fashioned, to divine fullness.

We get to live Heavenly Kingdom

in the midst of Evil Empire.

It's an alternate lifestyle for sure.

It needs the support of community

in a real, practical, praying, caring

             Oneness. 

It needs a centered spirituality

           that meets 

            all in All 

and grows out from there.

 So, let's hang out with 

      Potter Jesus 

 and learn the art of

     Love Living,

the beauty of life giving

rather than death dealing,

let him draw us out beautiful.

On his business card it reads:

   "I've come that you 

    might have life 

    and that abundantly."

        John 10:10

   That's just how things 

       shape up with

       Potter Jesus 

       and his artistry.

On the chance no one 

has told you lately, 

or you haven't had 

a good look at yourself

in the mirror of Reality 

for a while,

let me say what 

a beautiful fashion of God 

you are!!

         You Brother

        John Frank

          ******

As always, welcome to 

our first time visitors.

This week we had 

many dozens of 

new friends from France.

Please be right at home

with us all from 

Kingdom Come.

We're so glad 

we're here together.

Many and sincere thanks 

to all who are sharing

    with others 

"frankly speaking"

spirituality for the street

- it is posted by 

  mid-day Thursdays

  east coast USA time

  johnfrankshares.blogspot.com

- an email version goes out

   Friday mornings 

   sign up is top right above

 - Blog Archive has all past postings

   bottom right column above.

If anyone gets on your case

this coming week and says

"You're a real piece of work!",

 tell'em you sure are!!

           ******

 

To do that let's see 

  

LIVING TRADITION

  This is the third in our 

        Fall Series

   FOLLOW THROUGH

         Living Out

The Sermon On The Mount

           ******

Dear All of Us,

Good Morning,

Good Afternoon,

Good Evening,

Good Middle of the Night.

Whatever the time in your 

          THERE

 May it be God Good.          

      

In my Washington, DC 

          HERE

    it's a God Good 

   Monday morning,

   Fall cool and crisp.

Whatever the weather,

Monday morning here means 

get the blog rolling. 

It's a pleasant routine 

become a happy tradition.

Now that opens a segue

to the specialness of

      traditions.

We all have them:

  - a week at the beach 

    every summer

  - First Communions at seven

  - your favorite cake 

    on birthdays

  - always buying a Honda

  - Thanksgiving dinner 

    at your mother-in-law's

The specialness, even sacredness, 

of tradition was so soulfully sung 

by Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof.

He tells of the villagers trying 

to continue their bonding traditions

in the midst of a world 

changing around them. 

Tradition and change.

We all deal with it.

So did Jesus.

   We're at the part of 

The Sermon On The Mount

when Jesus locates himself, 

and us his followers, in the 

          Tradition 

   of the Jewish People,

The Law and the Prophets,

            AND 

   his shifting it and us

     into high gear.

   Significant change.

   Matthew 5:17-20

 

  Jesus, always the Jew, 

         affirmed 

The Law and the Prophets

            AND

    Played it Forward.

      In the process 

  he let everyone know

     the need to get it 

           Right 

    way more than the

 religious establishment 

            of his

        (and our??)

            time.

The Jews were rooted in

The Law and the Prophets

       It was their 

        Tradition. 

 

         Jesus, 

Jew through and through, 

 in no way was about 

       to pull up  

  those sacred roots.

     He was, though, 

     very definitely

about tending, extending, 

their development and growth,

       taking them to 

 new heights of fruition.

         His is a

  LIVING TRADITION. 

    He affirmed both

  generational continuity 

  and its development.

  

    It's like producing 

     priceless wine

     from old vines.

 Those vines are both

    deeply rooted

 and vigorously alive 

 with the new growth 

       of grapes.

   A healthy vine 

can neither renounce 

its roots nor refuse 

fresh growth and fruit.

  Neither did Jesus.

   

 LIVING TRADITION

 Jesus didn't terminate.

    He transcended. 

He furthered and fulfilled. 

He reinterpreted and enlarged.

  "You have heard it said, 

    but I say unto you..."

  He widened the horizon 

 He moved the focus from 

    the letter and form 

          of the law 

         to its spirit 

             and 

    our inner intentions 

      and motivations.

    External religiosity 

          and/or 

   correct conformity

          to law

  is not near enough

     nor complete.

   Attitude and action

    flowing from love

     is the way of

    The Kingdom 

 Come and Coming,

   with its fresh 

   and fuller life 

here and here after.

  Jesus is saying in

other ways and words:

      "God is Love"

       I John4:8

      

      "You shall love 

      the Lord your God

      with all your heart, 

      and with all your soul, 

      and with all your mind.

      This is the greatest 

      and first commandment.

      And a second is like it:

     'You shall love your neighbor 

      as yourself.

      On these two commandments 

      hang all the law and prophets."

          Matthew 22: 37-40

 Jesus built on a good base,

     erecting a renewing

     spiritual habitation.

     LIVING TRADITION

      All of this was/is 

    a mammoth spiritual 

        Sea Change.

   Jesus shook things up 

   and His Spirit still does.

    

 In our life's journey 

 we all go through such,

 through continual change, 

          shifting.

So do societies and cultures.

So does spirituality.

So does religion.

In all of these we are 

right now in the midst 

of a huge shake up.

Just look out the window.

   What a help 

 to follow Jesus.

    He shook 

the Jewish tradition 

    to new life.

He opened things up, 

    built forward 

  from a solid base.

 He didn't demolish.

    He developed 

    and expanded.

That means going from 

a set order of things 

to a period of disorder 

and then moving into a

refreshed and expanded 

        reorder.

 It's no cake walk, 

 but it does get you 

where you need to go.

      Please consider 

   taking time and soul 

with the three week series 

               on

  Order Disorder Reorder

        Richard Rohr 

     Daily Meditations

     Center for Action 

     and Contemplation

     August 9 - 29, 2020

It applies to our spiritual lives

and just about every other sphere 

of individual and shared life.

It talks rootedness, 

development, growth.

It talks the pain of disorder 

between order and reorder in life,

spiritually and every other "...ly".

In our spiritual living 

we are lucky enough 

to never stand still.

If we try, we die.

Spiritual living 

never comes 

to a dead stop.

It is rather a 

dynamic progression.

We never "get there".

We're always "getting there".

The present builds on the past

and moves to the future.

It's similar to what Jesus did 

with the Jewish Tradition.

He never said it wasn't good.

He did say it wasn't good enough.

It was a mile marker 

and we are blessed 

with a wide open road 

as we travel to Fullness.

What we got as as religion

when we were children was one thing.

There is a lot more to it and to come.

It was a tricycle that got us started.

Our transport had to change 

if we were to get on our way in life.

So, there was the exciting freight 

of learning to ride a two wheeler.

That got us along farther and faster.

Then again the exciting freight 

of learning to drive a car. 

And so it goes in our 

spiritual living/progression.

We move from an ordered way

to the disorder of letting go of it

(or having it taken from us),

to a new, a reordered moment -

and that for only a while.

As a kid some learned to make

The Stations of the Cross.

Comes the day when 

one doesn't so much do the

fourteen "stations" in church.

One lives them out in relationship, 

at work, at home, soul deep - 

wherever one is "stationed"

in the dynamic progression to

           FULLNESS 

   

    "The only thing that 

     doesn't change 

     is change itself."  

        Heraclitus

   

    "When I was a child, 

     I spoke as a child, 

     I thought like a child,

     I reasoned as a child; when

     I became an adult,

     I put an end to childish ways.

         I Corinthians 13: 11

Our spiritual living is in tandem 

with what Jesus did in furthering 

        The Jewish Tradition.

         We are party to 

order, disorder and reorder

again and always in this dynamic

       LIVING TRADITION.

             

We do well to see and sense 

what and how Jesus did that 

and does that a plenty in our 

          Right Now.

Jesus reordered.

He enlarged the Jewish tradition.

He deepened and elevated it.

He gives a host of examples 

and guidance in the rest of 

The Sermon On The Mount.

   Matthew 5:21 - 7:29

These are the rich new growth.

They are right at home,

everyday, out on the street,

busts of divine new life

on the vine of our living 

spiritual tradition.

Tended are things like: 

  - anger and degrading others 

  - sexual purity and realness

  - divorce

  - truthfulness

  - overcoming evil with good

  - love of enemies

  - a way to give alms that counts

  - praying that actually is

  - forgiving - a "giving for"

  - fasting forward

  - heart treasure

  - inner light

  - wealth that can't wither

  - keeping the holy whole

  - our ask and God's largess 

  - The Golden Rule

  - the narrow road to Real

  - heads up - know by fruits

  - talk less  -  act more

                DO 

            God's Will

  - hearers and doers 

  - build on Rock Reality.

     Beautiful, Dynamic 

      Living Tradition.

     

You know what?

The Summer Series

      become 

 This Fall Series

 Might just become 

 Our Winter Series!!

 There's so much here.

 It's so doggone good!

Jesus is a change agent.

He builds on the best,

opens it in an expanse 

of growth to fullness. 

    He invites us

     to change, 

   to come along 

   with him in this

  LIVING TRADITION.

     So good for us 

to share together here in

this wonderous expanse. 

   Every Godness,

      John Frank

       ******

            PRAY AND PONDER

               The Message

    provides a refreshing translation 

            of the scriptures 

        in contemporary speak.

"Don't suppose for a minute 

that I have come to demolish 

the Scriptures - either 

God's Law or the Prophets.

I'm not here to demolish 

but to complete.

I am going to put it all together,

pull it all together

in a vast panorama.

God's Law is more real and lasting 

than the stars in the sky 

and the ground at your feet.

Long after stars burn out 

and earth wears out,

God's Law will be 

alive and working.

Trivialize even the smallest item 

in God's Law and you will only 

have trivialized yourself.

But take it seriously, 

show the way for others,

and you will find honor in the kingdom.

Unless you do far better 

than the Pharisees

in the matters of right living,

you won't know the first thing 

about entering the kingdom."

   Matthew 5:17-20

In view of this scripture,

and the three quoted above 

in the body of the blog:

- What do I hear in my heart?

- What direction/redirection 

  do these words invite?

- What do these scriptures

  say to my soul about 

  the passion and commitment 

  of my spiritual living?

- What do these scriptures mean

  in terms of things I need 

  to stop and things I need to start?

- What do these scriptures reveal 

  about our culture and society?

- What are the "best practices"

  I can live in our culture and society?

- Where am I at the moment:

  are things in order, 

  being disordered, 

  growing into a refreshed reorder?

           Matthew 5: 17- 20

                  ******

      A Happy Hearty Welcome 

      to all joining us for the first time.

     Over the past almost four years 

     we have had folks join us 

     on and off from eighty nine countries.

            Last week we had 

        our first ever visits from 

                  Curacao.

       A special Welcome to you!

       

       "How good and pleasant 

        it is when brethren 

        dwell together in unity"

               Psalm 133

                ******

 Thanks to all who have shared

      "frankly speaking"

   with family and friends.

- it is posted online 

  each Thursday mid-day,

  east coast USA time

  johnfrankshares.blogspot.com

- there is automatic email delivery 

  on Fridays - the sign up 

  is top right above

- all past postings are available at 

           Blog Archive

        right column here.

Say, how about we all go fiddle 

on the roof with Tevye this week?

Old Timers like me would do well, 

though, to fiddle from the front porch!!

      SEE YOU NEXT WEEK!

              ******