your you and people-cutters ..

I thought I might jot-down something intelligent to remind myself I still have a brain this late October morning, sitting here in a tank top when I should be shivering over coffee ..
and then I remembered I am not good at that, so I figure I'll spill my soul for a minute and see what color the vomit wears ..

when the God idead to make tiny two-armed two-legged thin-skinned blooded creatures with some sort of resemblance to Godself, God didn't look in the mirror first..

and when God told them to create creatures of their own with a semblance of resemblance to them, God didn't open a huge photocopy center or design a people-cutter
instead GodMom made 2 ..
God could've made one and a copier ..
God can do anything under the sun, under any sun ..

2 ..
and they weren't the same, hence
" Jack Sprat could eat no fat
his wife could eat no lean
and so between them both
they lick'd the platter clean "

2 that resembled each other
yet not the same ..
2 that resemble God
yet not the same
2 to create other tiny two-armed two-legged thin-skinned blooded creatures
yet not the same..
because there weren't any copiers alive back then

thus, a bit of Jack, a bit of Jane
mix it up real good and see what pops out..
surprise !
..

and then you look around
as you sit slurping a Slurpee under some wide ungainly tree dropping color-splotched leaves all in your drink
and you wonder why it is people want you to be like them
to fall into the same damned bucket
fit in just this slot
wear this color
eat that food
read these books
go to that church
vote
smoke weed or drink beer
drink weed
smoke the beer ..
..


consider the flowers of the field
they neither toil nor spin, yet GodDad adorns them all gloriously, this flower differing in glory from the glory of that one there, or this one over here..
if all the flowers looked like all the other flowers - maybe short stemmed, maybe blue-petalled, all with yellow stamens .. hmm .. maybe God is boring, or God's paint palette can't bring green out of blue and yellow, or God's flower-design studio caught fire after the first draft  ..
..

so consider. .
while we're ' like '
we're not the same
not the same ..

never ever be ashamed or beat yourself down or cower or allow your you-colour or your you-shape or your you-faith to make you feel diminuted .. ever
you are the you that you are
and there's no other quite like you
and the only other person who ever gets to say anything to you about you that you should consider of any real import is Jesus
ever

let the people-cutters whisper and toss their darts and make their jokes and undercut you for not being them
not being like them ..
you are beholden to one Man only, the Man Jesus, the Christ, the son of the living GodPapaMamaCreatorLover
and that, my friend, is the good truth of Godself to you
be yourself without apology to the sneerers
..

be careful then how you judge
because what goes around comes around to smack you right in the ass
and the latter end of that is worse than the first ..

a call for balanced outrage ..

.. sadly, a political comment 

albeit with Jesus in mind .. .

..

“We cannot stand by and allow the Jerry Falwells and James Dobsons of the world claim to speak for God regarding Trump and sexism … When this election is over—and Hillary Clinton is the nation’s first female president—I hope that we will finally get beyond the idea of ‘Christian women leaders’ being some special subset of Christian community."

so says Diana butler bass

the anti-evangelicalsfortrump christians are leaving a gaping hole in their commentary on american politics in this 'ere day

as they trumpet their disapproval of the candidate's horrible morality, and the unbelievable support he gathers from the evangelical-right so-called, they generally refuse to say anything about the candidate on the other side

(significant in this scenario is the organised refusal to admit other candidates from other parties, under a system put in place by the same 2 parties on the platform)

this silence in the light of who hrc is in terms of the nagging, itching horrors which attach to her public/private mix of political tenure is, to put it in the most vulgar (original meaning) terms, dangerous

the reason i say that is this: it leaves the readers of these christian writers with the impression that the lady is not a tramp
and that, in view of their responsibility as leaders/advisers/commentators to the church, is scary

it's also a matter for which they must bear responsibility, because they represent the God who will hold them responsible for their ommission .. 

and i'm being kind in calling it 'omission'

these are well-educated theologians and christian commentators

sadly, some, like the one quoted up front, are stepping-up in support of hrc, and apparently part of the reason is that she's a she ..

now i get that
i get the she-thing, women having been domesticated like forever and treated as leftovers
i'm all for erasing that crap

but to posit that even A reason to vote for someone as president of these 'ere united states is their gender is, to render it in bloggable wording, bare boo ..
the same way that A reason to vote for someone is their color or race ..
those are characteristics that they did not develop
they were born he/she, black/brown/white, etc
that's not something they earned

what they did earn is the history they produced during the life they've lived
and that, along with any claims they might currently make towards this or that position on the political issues, should bear the preponderance of the weight in their pandering for presidency

watching these christian influencers during this very un-presidential campaign has been another form of religious crap, only this time from the other side, the anti-evangelicalfundamentalistconservatives

and i am saddened by it all

yes, mr. trump is a poor poor approximation of anything in the realm of political leadership, but the balanced reality is that hrc is too
and the failure to balancefully present that to their readership is tantamount to suggesting they vote in a way that, to this writer, demonizes the person of Jesus

.. and, to put it bluntly, he's the only one tells me how to move

so i'm very disappointed in you all
benjamin corey
rachel held-evans
john pavlovitz
diana butler-bass
etc etc

the reason i don't link their names in this post is that i don't want to start a battle
i think they're good people with good intentions and good theology, generally ..
if you want to investigate their positions for yourself, they're very public figures, and it's easy to do

i'm simply sickened by the posturing of the nouveau anti-standard form of american christianity in this matter, which movement presumably exists to undo the misrepresentation of God within christianity-at-large
.. 'cause they're now evidencing the same kinda thing, sadly

if you believe that you should be involved in the politics of this nation, something Jesus did not appear to do (his focus was on an other-worldy kingdom), then please be fair in your involvement, balanced ..
.. let Jesus be the author of your mindset

it matters, because you represent Jesus
you are a Jesus person, and people are (should be) looking your way to see him ..

the world is becoming a bleaker place before our very eyes
and the significance of our role as kingdom-people is glaringly allthemore obvious
.. may we fairly and honestly and gracefully and evidently portray the Lord Jesus as we move among and within, knowing that this present darkness calls even more for visible light
   light that can be seen
      and not hidden under a basket
         what use for that ?
            none

.. we are that candlelight
may your light shine in such a way that people will see your good works and glorify your father in heaven

peace to you
in these troubling confusing times ..

choose life ..

two primary interpretations of Genesis 3 exist in theology

the most common is God's judgement for disobedience ..
the snake is cursed
the woman too, in childbearing and submission to the male
and the Earth (and, by extension, the man) which, although playing no part in the disobedience, now produces restrictive troublesome hindrances to human life
the man bears the result of that in his labour to now get 'produce' for life

the other more-recent and less-told view focuses on the grace of God
whereas God had warned of death as a result of the disobedience, the humans live past the event, able to continue, and to produce offspring to boot, even though now under a troublesome environment

so, one view roots itself in judgement, the other in gracious mercy
..

as it is the first story in scripture, the attitude of the reader/hearer is bent in one or the other direction from the outset as they move forward into the other readings ..
God as Judge
God as Gracious
..

with that in  mind, consider the concept of 'life' in the story

God, who is consistently expressed in scripture as the God who IS, as in without beginning or ending, as in forever God, magnanimously expresses Godcharacter by creating life outside of Godself ..

the telling of the story is full of thoughtfulness and creativity expressed in abundance through variety and plenty ..
this God, powerful beyond our conception, expressed God's nature through producing life in all sorts of forms -
flying, swimming, running, crawling
erupting from the very ground to leaf and fruit
all of it endowed with ability to reproduce itself ..

additionally, the endowment of functionality and economy is artfully adorned -
colour, trait, sound, feather, fur, tail, beak ..
vision, taste, hearing ..
soar, dive, speed, stealth ..
long or short-stemmed, purple or blue or red or yellow or pink, petal upon petal, scentuous ..
mammoth or tiny, scaled or skinned,
piercing the heavy watery medium that covers two-thirds of the incredible Earth
   Earth now ordered by this awesome
   Being whose majesty is painted into
   every glorious pass of the creative
   brush, dipped in this or that spot of
   blended creativity ..
the sheer variety of life evolving from that unfathomably brilliant mind is incomprehensible
imagine the consciousness of this Creator-God .. well .. it's beyond imagination ..

life unfolding in all its wonderfilled glory at the hand of this One ..
life

the epitome of this life is the creature human ..
it appears from the story that Creator is pointedly laying-out an environment for the final creation, a being created in the very image (think physical) and likeness (think non-physical) of the Creator ..
astounding
God creating Godlike creatures, expressions of God in creaturely form ..
marvelous

everything is in place for thriving abundant reproductive life in a plentitude of forms, coexisitng in wholeness, the entire Earth a self-supporting organism, a flourishing Wonder of Life, dwelling in unison, balanced

the chaotic haphazard that was there in the beginning is incredibly transformed into an incomparable work of living art, abounding in life, giving life
..

.. and then .. the concept of death is introduced ..

after all this wonderful creative expression, this outpouring of life, death is placed just there, interposed at the end, as a contrast, a potential towards the very chaotic haphazard void from which God had brought life

death
life

with privilege comes responsibility
   and gratitude
   and trust in the Privileger
..

for the Godlike humans to be truly godlike, the core aspect of God must be endued ..
love

the love of Creator - expressed in creative self-giving and sharing and opening-up and life, self-propagating life, thriving verve expressing its own creative love-sharing - could only exist in freedom, the uninhibited right to choose ..
apart from choice the human creature would be a pre-programmed being, quite un-like the Godimage they represent ..

thus the 'tree of the knowledge of good and evil' and the counsel of the Creator to not eat, "for in the day you eat you will die" ..
   on that very day
the 'tree of life' was there, poignantly juxtaposed to the tree that brings death ..

choose ..
choose life
why choose death ? ..

in the presence of the pervasive blessedness of such an incredible abundance of life, why would they (you/we/i) choose death ..
why indeed

if for no other reason, the graciousness of the Endower of Life 'demands' the return of loving acknowledgment from his creatures, willing respect for this God and this God's desire to not eat
it may be framed as obedience
it rather may be framed as a gratitude flowing from loving respect and adoration for the Grand Giver of life
..

the rest of this prequel is well known ..
the choice was death - not directly of course, but as consequence
the true choice was to disrespect the Lifegiver, to deliver self as autonomous authority, to ply my will of choice
exert my own sovereignty ..
   death
   over life

the massive undoing of Eden's glory is told in God's words to Deceit and to the human image bearers
in contradiction to God's own warning, God grants life in the new reality of encroaching death
all creation suffers the impending result of choice - atrophy into death.

by Creator's grace, life continues through propagating life, but it now inevitably ends ..
misery out of blessedness ..
perennial stormclouds now lie on the horizon for all life ..
eventually the storm always arrives
darkness ..

what madness
life given
   death chosen
   light out of darkness turned on its head
      darkness wins
..

the Expression was there in the beginning where God was
   in fact the Expression was God
all things were made by him
   he was creator
life was inherent in him, and Life gave life
   and enlightened humanity
the Life shines wherever there is darkness
   and cannot be extinguished ..
and the Light of Life came into the world of humans
   they did not recognize him ..
the Expression of God became a human
   and took up residence among us ..
we see the glory of his life
   glory as of the only-ever born son of God
      abounding in graciousness
      Expressing truth
         (John 1)

the creator of the universe takes human life as his own
to shine a light on life in the ever-present all-encompassing inevitability of death
   death to which we all are in bondage
to free us from the dark void of death
   and translate us into the kingdom of Light and Life ..

the disrespecting distrust we invoke for the One who gave us life cannot undo the love of that One ..
the Light of Life will not be deterred by our unfaithfulness to his love and graciousness ..
he pursues relentlessly, humbly calling us to recognize ourselves in him
to live in the light of that recognition
   full of grace and truth

Philippians 2:5-11 poetically portrays the mind of the Christ Expression expressed in humility for the Love of us
   for the undying love of us
      even to his death

the Light has shined in our darkness
bringing life
promising life in abundance
   eternal life.

that life lives in us such that, even in the ugly scary face of imminent death, we can peer through the darkness at the Light that will not be extinguished
and journey, after light is lost by the eyelids' final fall, through death into Life to be with him, the Light of Life
..

nothing can death us from the love of Christ..
nothing
not trouble or persecution or hunger or want or danger or threat
not death or life
not angels or demons
not fears about now or worry about tomorrow
not the very powers of hell ..

no power in the heavens or in Earth will ever separate us from the love of God revealed in Jesus the Lord Christ
.. nothing
      (Romans 8:35 ff.)
..

life out of death spells grace
grace in abundance

Creator himself dies for the life of us ..
that is the love of God in pure Expression

life in abundance is the Good News of the Gospel ..
life
not death

choose Life

Spunk, in Jesus' name ..

in a town in the south
there's a vision
a project-in-the-making to bring a semblance of dignity to the undignified
and i'm impressed with what little i know so far
   forwhateverthat'sworth ..

it currently consists of a church and a clothing/meal ministry in the depths of the downtown
where people live bare-ly

i don't know a whole lot about the LOT Project
but i've talked with the visioanary
and his heart is in the midst of raising people
   up
   out
   higher
further to what's already there is a desire to see people have access to tools and equipment and technology they can't afford to allow them to produce something to sell in a visioned downtown market in an antiquated building

this is good stuff
..

yesterday i opportuned at the clothing/food event - my second time
i witnessed 60+ people browse for something to wear and eat a meal
   seconds came after everyone had eaten, and some took
   the invite to get a togo box for later
      when maybe they had nothing in the cupboard
         or the backpack
..

as i pondered the situation here on that ground
i remembered a chat i had with the in-charge dude at the clothing/feed-me place for the needy
and was reminded of the gracious move of God in the lives of people in the direction of the gracious kingdom of God on Earth
   and was blessed in that remembering ..
.. reminded me of my not-so-long-ago self in a place far far away ..

the youngster barely strikes 22 on the world clock ..
imagine ..
in his tenure studying theology-in-whatever-specific-form, he decided to get off his theological arse and move tangibly in the direction of kingdom
and ended-up in this place
.. family and friends said he was fool-ish and delusional
making a mistake
but God was winking in his direction
so the crazy kid diss'ed the 'advisement' and headed out towards God's wink ..

22

when i think of who i was at 22, i slip into my private sinkhole, ashamed at the naivete and o-so-foolish worldish dreams i was chasing
   career, money, stability and whateverthehellelse this world offers
   to persons of privilege like moi
i had a tug in my gutsoul that wanted Godstuff for my life-endeavour
   but the pressure from outside was always in the direction of success
   and i didn't have the guts to turn my back on the society
   to walk in a transverse direction that would step all over privileged me
      and allow for Jesus to liveout life through me
   i wanted to make people proud
   i forgot the part where Jesus says "unless you die to who you think you are,
      who you want to impress, who you think you need to be
         you cannot be my disciple"
..

 Spunk (my name for 22) ia a firey excitable guy that just wants to give his life for Jesus' sake
and right now that consists in doing this
.. i hope he never ever changes the passion of that want
for i've seen far too many people begin in this vein
   and then, when 'success' and accolade and growth in their ministry occurs
   they change - their success ends-up dispassioning their Jesus-sakedness
      and they fall prey to standard evangelical fare
      lose their footing in their calling and exchange it for a few lights, a sound system
         and ye good ole offering plate
   .. the only people that lose-out then is the very people they set-out to serve
   and life reverts to 'normal'
      and Jesus weeps ..
Jesus weeps at that crap
believe it
..

i pray for Spunk
   that Jesus maintains the hold on
   his heart, tight-gripped
that the passion in his gut pains him for ever
   like the persistent hunger those 'least' people experience daily
that his eyes get bigger and his periphery widens in the faces of those he serves
   those the least of these
and he sees Jesus' face in their face
and in the mirror
.. and that the nagging comments and advice that will no-doubt continue to float his way
and no-doubt pull at his humanity through doubt and questioning himself and ..
will never deter him from finding his face dirt-deep at the foot of the cross
   cause only Jesus knows
      only Jesus gets to make that call
..


i am blessed by this man-kid ..
may he live a firey passion for a long long time
and others be blessed
and Jesus be blessed
..

i wish i had my life to live again
   maybe from 22
'cause this dude inspires me

we need a whole bunch of Spunks
this world would be a hellofalot better place

..   how about you
..

blessings to you
and peace
and love

" God is in control ! " ..

God ..

God isn't in the business of controlling the weather
although God could

God doesn't usually control people either
although God could

frankly, God is not in the control business
because living things aren't machines

God works out of the ground of love
and love does not control or seek to control

love is a voluntary hilarious response to love

and God loves
God is loving
God is love

love seeks to communicate love
   because love cannot live in isolation
and love responds to love communicated

thus the community of Godself in trinity
thus ' communion ', as in Eucahrist, symbolic vertical and horizontal sharing
thus ' community ', as in the Body of Christ
thus the communion ( ' fellowship ' ) of the holy spirit of God
   the intimate embrace of God
..

God is not control
so that "God is in control" is basically theologically bending who God is ..
yes, God will at some point wrap things up and, when the time is right ('kairos') will bloom the kingdom in its fulness
but God is currently in process of drawing, encouraging, wooing us through us who are in love with God
.. .

we are the expressions of God's wooing love in the Earth
we are the spirits through whom the spirit of God calls-out " come to me that you might have life in its fullness "

..

the Expression of God became human to engage recognition of God in us ..

once we ' see ' God in human form, recognition bursts in us
once we recognize God and are open to the goodness of God in love
we begin to recognize God in others
and communion establishes
   as we open more and more to the gracious love of the God who is there
   and who manifested, Expressed Godself in the man, Jesus
..

so that when storms of life rage
   like Hurricane Matthew
instead of portending that God is judging this or that people for this and that sin
may we join in the very unclear and undefinable activity
   of prayer
engaging God in behalf of the others in our world
   who are quite like us in the majority of respects
   even though different in some
in that way we reflect the openness of God
   the embrace of God
for all God's creation
   in particular the creation created in the image and likeness of God
      which GodExpression took-on when God appeared here as human
      to show us God in human
         so we could recognize God in us
            God in me


control is not the issue
in fact, the propulsion to release control
   out of the foundational ground of love in God
is the issue
   God's propensity to open Godself in vulnerability to the very creation of God
      as most poignantly expressed on the Hill of Skulls
      where Jesus was put to shameful death

God released control in love
so that through love we could learn to respond in love to God
and share that love with the others in our lifeworld
..

be careful what you ask for ..
we want God to control
but that control will deny in us the core element of our humanity and our Godlikeness
which is outside the realm of control

" you've heard it said .. but i say "..

It's easier to side with the powerful
   Jesus blessed the poor, the meek, the hungry,
   the merciful, the peacemakers, the persecuted
It's easier to love those who love you
   Jesus said love your enemy
It's easier to say " I believe "
   The demons believe - they even tremble
It's easier to quote scripture
   Jesus said " I am the way, the truth, the life "
   and “ You search the Scriptures because you think
   they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me,
   yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life. "
It's easier to strike back
   Jesus said to turn the other cheek
It's easier to put faith in facts
   faith sees, even when doubts exist
It's easier to fall-in with the church crowd
   faith questions, explorers, wonders
It's easier to say " I am a Christian "
   Jesus said " lay it all down and grab that cross with
   your name on it - it's custom designed for you;
   now come, follow me
It's easier to argue for your Christianity
   much harder to look through it and embrace the ' opponent '
It's easier to swallow the theology
   The hard part is following Jesus
   Jesus said " my yoke is easy and my burden is light "