The Kingdom of God Is Within You!
"Sloughing Towards Galilee!
The Kingdom of God Is Within You!
As we enter the political season we hear more and more of God's will in the election; and as I work with people on the streets, I see individuals come out and tell them how to be "saved"; I was raised in that environment.
Fr. Richard Rhor clarifies for us the reason this approach is so prevalent:
I suspect that Western individualism has done more than any other single factor to anesthetize and even euthanize the power of the Gospel. Salvation, heaven, hell, worthiness, grace, and eternal life all came to be read through the lens
of separate egos, crowding God's transformative power out of history and society. Even Martin Luther's needed "justification by faith" sent us on a five-hundred -year battle for the private soul of the individual, thus leaving us almost no care for the earth, society, the outsider, or the full body of Christ".
Soren Kierkegaard put it:, "purity of heart is to will one thing."? This is the message of Jesus when he said the pure of heart would see God(Matthew 5:8). They alone keep their eyes in one constant and consistent direction, and thus overcome the divisions created by divided hearts and loyalties that plague our nation and us.
St. Francis of Assisi was connected to the Source. He truly experienced real, and radical participation in God's very life. Knowing his value and true identity he was willing to let go of status, privilege, and wealth. Francis knew he was part of God's plan connected to creation and all beings in communion and in love. Francis taught his followers to own nothing so their possessions would not own them, "And the Lord told me. .he wanted me to be a new fool in the world of God."
People are terribly in need in this world of division, and electronics; we are afraid of life, losing our Center.
I frankly make people angry, or uncomfortable when they find out I am a priest, they have been hurt by the institution of Christianity, very hurt, but so have I.
Through the last thirty years, I have been going through a decentralization process, of struggling with who I am regarding the "institutional Church," and through the process, I discovered that I was hounded about "sins", cussing, having a glass of wine, and so on; my son was adopted out without anyone knowing because of my sin of sex and ultimately I committed the ultimate sin of being queer; but through many struggles, I have prospered; but have seen, listened to, counseled, and buried many who were frankly destroyed in being discovered. It is only this week in their national conference that my former denomination is considering removing the haunting phrase, "intrinsic evil," and will continue to be haunted, as are the other denominations that have opened their doors by the ghosts of the past. You do not simply remove a phrase and open your doors to ordination, without looking back and repenting and working towards truly being a group that reaches all; that is what is going on in the racial struggles in our country today, we pass the laws, we give blacks the right to run for election, win, and many gain wealth, yet the majority remain in poverty, and feel the oppression of past slavery still remaining. Those of us who are white have not? faced our own continued racism, after all, we changed the laws, and the past is the past.
Through the "decentralization" of my life and ministry, I am? "outside the Gates" Hebrews 13:12, where Jesus was crucified.
The heart of what I hold dear in my relationship with God is found in I Corinthians 15: 3, ff: "For I handed on to you as of first importance what I, in turn, had received that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day, and he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve..
He died because humanity has failed to honor his commandments of love of our neighbor--to feed, clothe, provide housing, non-violence in actions, visit them in jail and prison, and stand with them as they die. I have spent thirty years on the streets seeing violence after violence, having myself covered in blood, and holding the hands of young men and women as they suffer and die and for me whatever comes after death only comes as we work for his reign here, and all will be included. The only way no one will be included is if they walk away, and I have a good hunch the loving God will reach out and bring them back.?
We suffer the consequences of our actions but the Source of our being is ever-loving and welcoming and calls us to be his hands and feet.
The more life is decentralized, the more alive Jesus becomes in my life, yet he is but one of many streams to the Source.
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I believe we need to narrow our focus, become like Jesus more single-focused, and find the Source of how inner beings, and in doing so find ourselves more alive, more single-focused on others.
When we come to our inner selves, when we live in pure hearts, and let our nakedness our naked being we become more real. We're able to draw from the abundance and share freely with others.
By being more naked with our inner selves we can be "Story Catchers", who catch the story of one in need, without judgment, and bring care to another, for loneliness kills, and we need relationships.
Father Henri Nouwen gives us a prayer form, to assist in finding The Kingdom of God is "Within You:
"The Jesus Prayer, or any other prayer form, is meant to be a help to gently, empty our minds from all that is not God, and offer all the room to God alone.
But that is not all. Our prayer becomes a prayer of the heart when we have localized in the center of our inner being the empty space in which our thinking and feeling, knowing and experience, ideas and emotions are transcended, and where God can become our host. "The Kingdom of God is within you."(Luke 17:21).
The prayer of the heart takes these words seriously. When we empty our minds of thoughts and our hearts from all experiences, we can prepare in the center of our innermost being the home for the God who wants to dwell in us. Then we can say with St. Paul, "I live now not with my own life, but with the life of Christ who lives in me"(Galatians 2:20.
Then we can affirm Luther's words, Grace is the experience of being delivered from experience. And then we can realize that it is not we who pray, but the Source who prays for us.
Narrow your path into seeing the One God who loves all of us, and become a "Story Catcher" for others. Do Gratias! Thanks be to God!
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Wednesday, May 1
We Celebrate the 91st birthday of the Catholic Worker Movement!
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We have a special rosary prayer for this day If you would like a copy email me at [email protected].
Fr. River Damien Sims, D.Min., D.S.T.,Director
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
415-305-2124
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