{"id":16328,"date":"2018-01-02T09:28:31","date_gmt":"2018-01-02T14:28:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=16328"},"modified":"2018-01-02T09:37:57","modified_gmt":"2018-01-02T14:37:57","slug":"how-can-everything-be-sacred","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=16328","title":{"rendered":"How Can Everything Be Sacred?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Introduction: Image and Likeness<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cac.org\/how-can-everything-be-sacred-2018-01-02\/\"><strong>How Can Everything Be Sacred?<\/strong><\/a><br \/>\n<strong>Tuesday, January 2, 2018<\/strong><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-jkMnq2Hfzo\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nThe three monotheistic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) teach that one Creator formed all things. There is thus a radical unity at the heart of the universe\u2019s pluriformity, resolving any conflict between diversity and the shared \u201cdivine DNA\u201d found in creation.\u00a0This <em>theo-logic<\/em> allows us to see \u201cthe hidden wholeness\u201d in all things and to confidently assert that \u201ceverything belongs.\u201d The distinction between natural and supernatural, sacred and profane, exists only as a mental construct.<\/p>\n<p>You may be asking, as so many have over the years, \u201cRichard, how can you make such na\u00efve blanket statements like \u2018Everything is sacred. Everything belongs?\u2019 What about Hitler, nuclear bombings, ISIS, Westboro Baptists, and the United States\u2019 epidemic of mass shooters?\u201d I agree that we can and should name evil as evil. But unless we first name the underlying goodness and coherence of reality, along with our own imperfection, we will attack evil with methods and self-righteousness that will only deepen the problem. This is Nonviolence 101. It wasn\u2019t until the twentieth century that the importance of nonviolence became widely acknowledged.<\/p>\n<p>Further, Christianity has far too easily called individual, private behaviors sins while usually ignoring or even supporting structural and systemic evils such as war, colonization, corporate greed, slavery, and abuse of the Earth. All of the seven capital sins were admired at the corporate level and shamed at the individual level. [1] This left us utterly split in our morality, dealing with symptoms instead of causes, shaming people while glorifying systems that were themselves selfish, greedy, lustful, ambitious, lazy, prideful, and deceitful. We can\u2019t have it both ways. Evil lurks powerfully in the shadows, in our unconscious complicity with systems that serve us at others\u2019 expense. It has created worldviews of entitlement and privilege that were largely unrecognized until rather recently.<\/p>\n<p>Only contemplative, nondual consciousness is capable of seeing things like this without also being negative or self-righteous. Once you can clear away the web of illusion you will be able to see that every created thing is still made in the image of God; every being has the divine DNA or essence. There is no profane place, person, or creature. We can even find the sacred in seemingly secular human endeavors like sex, food, work, economics, and politics, as we\u2019ll see later this year.<\/p>\n<p>As we\u2019ll explore next week (and in each Saturday\u2019s \u201cPractice\u201d), contemplation helps us see \u201cbeyond the shadow and the disguise\u201d of things (as Thomas Merton reflected) [2] so as to perceive reality at its depths. \u201cChrist is everything and he is in everything\u201d (Colossians 3:11). To see this is to have \u201cthe mind of Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Gateway to Presence:<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>If you want to go deeper with today\u2019s meditation, take note of what word or phrase stands out to you.\u00a0Come back to that word or phrase\u00a0throughout the day, being present to its impact and invitation.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>________________________________________________<\/p>\n<div class=\"row title-row\">\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"utmost-devo-title col col-sm-12 col-xs-12\">\n<h2 class=\"entry-title\">Will You Go Out Without Knowing?<\/h2>\n<h4>By <a href=\"https:\/\/utmost.org\/oswald-chambers-bio\">Oswald Chambers<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"clearfix\">\u00a0<strong>He went out, not knowing where he was going. \u2014<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?version=31&amp;search=Hebrews+11%3A8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Hebrews 11:8<\/a><\/strong><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"row entry-meta\">\n<div class=\"col-sm-4\">\n<div class=\"top-sharing\"><strong>\u00a0<\/strong>Have you ever \u201cgone out\u201d in this way? If so, there is no logical answer possible when anyone asks you what you are doing. One of the most difficult questions to answer in Christian work is, \u201cWhat do you expect to do?\u201d You don\u2019t know what you are going to do. The only thing you know is that God knows what He is doing. Continually examine your attitude toward God to see if you are willing to \u201cgo out\u201d in every area of your life, trusting in God entirely. It is this attitude that keeps you in constant wonder, because you don\u2019t know what God is going to do next. Each morning as you wake, there is a new opportunity to \u201cgo out,\u201d building your confidence in God. \u201c\u2026do not worry about your life\u2026nor about the body\u2026\u201d (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Luke+12:22\">Luke 12:22<\/a>). In other words, don\u2019t worry about the things that concerned you before you did \u201cgo out.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<section class=\"entry-content\">\n<div class=\"post-content\">\n<p>Have you been asking God what He is going to do? He will never tell you. God does not tell you what He is going to do\u2014 He reveals to you who He is. Do you believe in a miracle-working God, and will you \u201cgo out\u201d in complete surrender to Him until you are not surprised one iota by anything He does?<\/p>\n<p>Believe God is always the God you know Him to be when you are nearest to Him. Then think how unnecessary and disrespectful worry is! Let the attitude of your life be a continual willingness to \u201cgo out\u201d in dependence upon God, and your life will have a sacred and inexpressible charm about it that is very satisfying to Jesus. You must learn to \u201cgo out\u201d through your convictions, creeds, or experiences until you come to the point in your faith where there is nothing between yourself and God.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Introduction: Image and Likeness How Can Everything Be Sacred? Tuesday, January 2, 2018 The three monotheistic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) teach that one Creator formed all things. There is thus a radical unity at the heart of the universe\u2019s pluriformity, resolving any conflict between diversity and the shared \u201cdivine DNA\u201d found in creation.\u00a0This theo-logic allows [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16328"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16328"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16331,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16328\/revisions\/16331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}