Surprise

Leo Tolstoy makes an argument against the Christian religion. Being a religion, Christianity is a power center just like every political, economic and social power center. Power centers require force to enforce that power. The Nicene Creed was forced upon the gathering at Nicaea by the Roman Emperor Constantine in 325 AD, who threw a party to gain support and then killed or banished those who would not sign up. This is how Jesus became God.

The Great Russian novelist and armature theologian would replace the unavoidable violence of the Nicene Creed with the universal brotherhood of all men, the suppression of national distinctions, abolition of private property and the nonresistance to evil by force. Tenets taken from the words and life of Jesus in the Bible. Tolstoy was somewhat optimistic about this redefinition of what it means to be Christian.  

This optimism was misguided. Our human nature, which always rises to the occasion, gets in the way. Instead of only 133 years, maybe, we humans will progress to the Tolstoy vision in another 1000 years. Or maybe, what is needed is the canceling out of the believe it or die church and returning to the freedom of expression among Jesus followers. Yes, there was turmoil among the followers, some of whom resorted to force. Human nature is what it is. Freedom is expensive.

Jesus was not who the church says he was. Instead of a redefinition, lets through out the Christian stuff and tell the world about God spirituality, universal God salvation, acceptance of all our human brothers without exception and the freedom of believing or not believing with no borders. 

After all, eternity has no borders. Eternity is by nature the future for all of us, surprise and surprise!

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In Plain Sight

Leo Tolstoy, “The Kingdom of God is Within You”, 1893.

“Let the Church stop its work of hypnotizing the masses, and deceiving children even for the briefest interval of time, and men would begin to understand Christ’s teaching (Sermon on the Mount*). But this understanding will be the end of the churches and all their influence. And therefore the churches will not for an instant relax their zeal in the business of hypnotizing grownup people and deceiving children. This, then, is the work of the churches: to instill a false interpretation of Christ’s teaching into men (Nicene Creed*), and to prevent a true interpretation of it for the majority of so-called believers.” 

Page 62; (* not the author).

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God glimmer

So long for now bro! Ours is a dead end world but as you know, death does not rule eternity. Religion of any flavor does not rule eternity. God, the eternal flame, is the only ruler of that world.

When death seems so powerful in our lives, how can any sane human being look to a world beyond the grave? Who has the straight scoop on eternity? Is there an eternity? What voices are to be trusted with the certainty and reality of our ending? Opinions swing back and forth. 

One option is to trust the much maligned psychologists. There is no system of any sort that consistently explains or heals the fragile persons among us but the psychologists may have given us a clue. The clue is the glimmer in and around us that falls like rain.

Webster says that a glimmer is a feeble or intermittent light or spark. A glimmer to us is like the shooting stars that happen for only seconds almost every night as seen from my front porch. Is it a star or space junk? The psychologists will say only space junk, a glimmer is merely a natural occurrence. They say we all experience and need to recognize these faint and fleeting feelings of safety that are opposed to the triggers that drive us to a fight or flight response. So recognized, we are on the road to better mental health.

Some of us would, however, including my bro, say that the sparks in and around us also have an eternal origin, they are calling cards. They are fleeting, faint and undeserved sparks of God and God is the ultimate safe space. 

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Woe

This world of woe is all about power centers. They are the natural result flowing from our natural competitive DNA. All of life is unavoidably competitive. Power centers are political, economic, religious or social/cultural. They all are evil in that they will always reward some folk and punish others. Power centers are constantly searching for new targets and alliances that further their tyranny.

We humans have arrived at our time to bridge the natural to the eternal. So far the spiritual has only been used by power centers to leverage their own selfish intent. Jesus saw power centers as tigers, ripping the eternal from our daily lives. Jesus was a believer in the eternal not the religious, no matter the flavor. Jesus quietly forced the tigers of his day to show us their evil intent.

We await human progress beyond the natural. Freedom also waits. Full freedom awaits those of us who are moved to live Jesus like.

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Competition

Competition is our experience. Competition is all there is. We were born to compete. It is either compete or die. There is no static middle ground. Do we crave to be coddled? Yes, but our only real need is to find a place to compete. It is fundamental to our world and likely every other world in the galaxies. Compete we must or we are in the process of dyeing.

Do you doubt? Why does every culture have its stadium games? Why is all of life about the survival of the fittest? Why does suicide seem to some to be friendly? Why does every earthly power center including politics, religion, economics and cultural norms, reek of competition? Why do so many of us suddenly die after losing the competitive edge after retirement? Why do so many veterans commit suicide after leaving the security of the military?

The answer is they quit, they surrender, they run to mama! Competition, for them, is somehow, too much. The lesson: Always be in the game. Always take life as it comes and find a way to compete in every circumstance. Simple but so challenging.

Socialism is the political answer to running to mama. There is no mama!

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Family

Eternity is not personal. Get over it! Eternity is not the Sunday school promise or pariah to be avoided. Eternity is not about faith on our earthly terms. Eternity for all is about losing our earthly identity to join the God union in the sky or wherever. The Apostle Paul rightly mused that God is no respecter of persons. The God union is our eternal future and the greater lasting family. We shall all be eager participants in the joy ride.  Amen.

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Scared Cats

Senator Majority Leader John "fine tune" Thune representing South Dakota.

Senator Lisa “murky” Murkowski representing Alaska.

Senator Mitch “almost dead” McConnell representing Kentucky.

Senator Sam “tidbit” Tillis representing North Carolina.

Senator Susan “cozy” Collins representing Maine.

Chief Justice John "compromiser" Roberts of the United States Supreme Court.

Associate Justice Amy Coney "tag along" Barrett of the United States Supreme Court.

Republicans all, elected or appointed. They will go down in history as the Scared Cats that failed to stand fearlessly in our national time of crisis.

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