Sunday, July 24, 2005

The Haunt of Jackals Part 7


You can actually order this sticker or T-shirt HERE.
_________________________________________

My Muse describes herself as a "heathen". I find her more like heaven.

She came up with the verbiage above. I liked it immediately and I hope you do too.

Not all who happen to be believers are closed minded angry bigots. My own mentors in this regard would have to be C.S. Lewis, Tolkein, Walker Percy, Thomas Merton, Flannery O'Conner, Anne Lamott, T.S. Eliot, and, er Bono and Bruce Springsteen.

One thing they all share to some degree is they drop the artificial "we-they" dichotomy, are generally very critical of their own tradition, and are always looking for a fresh "Word".

They are good examples from a "Christian" tradition. But Word comes from all around us and from many traditions. You cannot read Ghandi and not see it as Word, or the Buddha. You cannot read Thich Nyat Hanh and not be moved if you are touch with your own spirituality.

And it is just here that streams of fresh water can flow into the haunt of jackals.

As I see it many of us are sequestered in our various "camps" up in the hills. The jackals bray and bite and the Word has little of no place in the valley below.

What if we left open our own springs and allowed the waters to flow freely into the haunt?

What if we baked real bread and came openly with the gift of that and broke bread together regardless of our own creeds or belief systems and simple talked and explored together?

What if we read the words of Christ with fresh eyes and ears and allowed them to have a life of their own and not be co-opted by dead religion?

Do we have the faith, hope and love enough to do that?

Word.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is very good.

'religion' can't be in touch with its spirituality because they never had it or it got lost. To afraid to hear other voices and respond to them, they don't know how, they have the Word to read but it isn't in them enough to break bread with other 'waters'

And the most incredible thing is Jesus invited those different waters, he was relational and he broke bread with anyone who wanted to. He just wanted to share what he knew and believed, never pounding on people, except for the religionists.
---------------------------
Well, as you can see, i like it alot! This is what i mean when you let the Spirit speak, it is who you are and at least for me and i know others too, find themselves seeing Jesus in a fresh new way (as i expressed above). The spirit is speaking and also hopefully it is inviting others lenses to come and break bread too!

I think it ended well. If you wanted to continue you could. Nothing wrong in possibly continueing but also sometimes the reader has to figure things out themselves.

This is what i love about folk like you, Jesus came and turned the world upside down and still does through you (and others) except at this point the world that is being turned upside down is Religion, oh wait, that is what Jesus was doing too!
See what i mean, it resonates in you!

So there!

Anonymous said...

oh yeah!

I am going to buy the sticker!