{"id":16471,"date":"2018-02-23T09:22:38","date_gmt":"2018-02-23T14:22:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=16471"},"modified":"2018-02-23T09:30:43","modified_gmt":"2018-02-23T14:30:43","slug":"our-work-in-co-creating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=16471","title":{"rendered":"Our Work in Co-Creating"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Friday, February 23, 2018<\/strong><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/gRO81S8OFrc\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nThe Great Work now . . . is to carry out the transition from a period of human devastation of the Earth to a period when humans would be present to the planet in a mutually beneficial manner. \u2014Thomas Berry [1]<br \/>\nAgain, I offer insights from the late theologian Beatrice Bruteau:<br \/>\nIn the case of the cosmos, we can say that God as Creator is incarnate as self-creating universe, including self-creating creatures within that universe. . . . Creativity itself is what is evolving in the cosmos, and we are the growing edge as the Trinitarian Life Cycle moves from Transcendent to Incarnate to Realized. We are in a position to realize ourselves as incarnate divine creativity. This has two effects.<br \/>\nIt makes the whole thing intensely meaningful. The universe is not some blind and uncaring organization of atoms. . . . It can easily be seen as a gigantic artwork, full of whatever it is that comes out as \u201cfeeling\u201d when it becomes incarnate. We are part of this, creative contributors to this.<br \/>\nAnd this is the other effect: we bear some responsibility. We have to take our part in the work. We, for instance, are now in a position to do something about all the suffering. . . . We are agents within the system and can have causal effects on other parts of the system. We have intelligence, we have empathy and capacity to feel for others and to care about them, we even have insight into the Ground present in every being and calling for an appropriate form of absolute respect.<br \/>\nWhat will we do? . . . What does \u201cGod want us to\u201d do? Not a good way of putting the question, because it distances God from the world, but the answer I propose is Be! Be creative, be interactive, be agape, give being, unite, be whole, be in every possible way, be new. The self-creating world is unpredictable. It\u2019s like a musician\u2019s improvisation. . . . But the artwork will always resemble the artist. So the cosmos will somehow be like the Trinity, the vast Person-Community that is Agape, inter-being. . . .<br \/>\nDoes the contemplative have some special role? I say to the contemplative: Feel at home in the universe, study it, try to understand at least some of its innumerable marvels, including ourselves who are more and more capable of this understanding\u2014marvel at that! Rejoice in the cosmos. In spite of all its hurtful ways, look at what it has done, is doing, is capable of doing. . . . And be active in it, contribute to it, participate in the building, in the artwork, in the healing, in the understanding. This is where Reality is. You yourself are both a member of the Finite and a member of the Infinite. You are a participant in the Trinitarian Life Cycle, for you are doing the incarnating and the creating and the realizing and the rejoicing. God\u2019s ecstasy creates the world, and the world\u2019s ecstasy realizes God.<\/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\">The Determination to Serve<\/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>The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve\u2026 \u2014<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?version=31&amp;search=Matthew+20%3A28\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Matthew 20:28<\/a><\/strong><\/div>\n<div class=\"row entry-meta\">\n<div class=\"col-sm-4\">\n<div class=\"top-sharing\"><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"top-rule\">\u00a0Jesus also said, \u201cYet I am among you as the One who serves\u201d (<a title=\"Luke 22:27\" href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Luke+22:27\">Luke 22:27<\/a>). Paul\u2019s idea of service was the same as our Lord\u2019s\u2014 \u201c\u2026ourselves your bondservants for Jesus\u2019 sake\u201d (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=2+Corinthians+4:5\">2 Corinthians 4:5<\/a>). We somehow have the idea that a person called to the ministry is called to be different and above other people. But according to Jesus Christ, he is called to be a \u201cdoormat\u201d for others\u2014 called to be their spiritual leader, but never their superior. Paul said, \u201cI know how to be abased\u2026\u201d (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Philippians+4:12\">Philippians 4:12<\/a>). Paul\u2019s idea of service was to pour his life out to the last drop for others. And whether he received praise or blame made no difference. As long as there was one human being who did not know Jesus, Paul felt a debt of service to that person until he did come to know Him. But the chief motivation behind Paul\u2019s service was not love for others but love for his Lord. If our devotion is to the cause of humanity, we will be quickly defeated and broken-hearted, since we will often be confronted with a great deal of ingratitude from other people. But if we are motivated by our love for God, no amount of ingratitude will be able to hinder us from serving one another.<\/div>\n<section class=\"entry-content\">\n<div class=\"post-content\">\n<p>Paul\u2019s understanding of how Christ had dealt with him is the secret behind his determination to serve others. \u201cI was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man\u2026\u201d (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=1+Timothy+1:13\">1 Timothy 1:13<\/a>). In other words, no matter how badly others may have treated Paul, they could never have treated him with the same degree of spite and hatred with which he had treated Jesus Christ. Once we realize that Jesus has served us even to the depths of our meagerness, our selfishness, and our sin, nothing we encounter from others will be able to exhaust our determination to serve others for His sake.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Friday, February 23, 2018 The Great Work now . . . is to carry out the transition from a period of human devastation of the Earth to a period when humans would be present to the planet in a mutually beneficial manner. \u2014Thomas Berry [1] Again, I offer insights from the late theologian Beatrice Bruteau: [&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\/16471"}],"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=16471"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16473,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16471\/revisions\/16473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}