<\/p>\n
Trusting Our Bodies<\/strong><\/a>\nTuesday, April 3, 2018<\/strong><\/p>\nCapable Flesh<\/em>\n<\/iframe><br \/>\n<em>The tender flesh itself<br \/>\n<\/em><em>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 will be found one day<br \/>\n<\/em><em>\u2014quite surprisingly\u2014<br \/>\n<\/em><em>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 to be capable of receiving,<br \/>\n<\/em><em>and yes, full<br \/>\n<\/em><em>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 capable of embracing<br \/>\n<\/em><em>the searing energies of God.<br \/>\n<\/em><em>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Go figure. Fear not.<br \/>\n<\/em><em>For even at its beginning<br \/>\n<\/em><em>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 the humble clay received<br \/>\n<\/em><em>God\u2019s art, whereby<br \/>\n<\/em><em>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 one part became the eye,<br \/>\n<\/em><em>another the ear, and yet<br \/>\n<\/em><em>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 another this impetuous hand.<br \/>\n<\/em><em>Therefore, the flesh<br \/>\n<\/em><em>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 is not to be excluded<br \/>\n<\/em><em>from the wisdom and the power<br \/>\n<\/em><em>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 that now and ever animates<br \/>\n<\/em><em>all things. His life-giving<br \/>\n<\/em><em>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 agency is made perfect,<br \/>\n<\/em><em>we are told, in weakness\u2014<br \/>\n<\/em><em>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 made perfect in the flesh.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em>\u2014Saint Irenaeus of Lyon (c.130-c.202) [1]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>God knew that only humble vulnerability could be entrusted with spiritual power\u2014and so God hid it like a treasure in the simple, largely anonymous body of Jesus. \u201cGod\u2019s power is at its best in weakness,\u201d Paul tells us. \u201cFor it is when I am weak that I am strong\u201d (see 2 Corinthians 12:9-10).<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, much of Christianity has been negatively and uselessly trapped in guilt about being \u201cflesh,\u201d while the great messages of the Gospel\u2014grace, healing, and restorative justice\u2014have largely gone unheeded. Obsessive guilt about our embodiment has too often kept us \u201cfrom the greater matters of the law: justice, mercy, and good faith,\u201d as Jesus says to the Pharisees (Matthew 23:23).<\/p>\n<p>We must begin by trusting what God has done in Jesus. We cannot return to a healthy view of our own bodies until we accept that God has forever made human flesh the privileged place of the divine encounter. We have had enough of dualism, enough of the separation of body and spirit, enough over-emphasis on the body\u2019s excesses and addictions. We must reclaim the incarnation as the beginning point of the Christian experience of God. We are not followers of Plato, but must return to the Hebrew respect for this world and for all the wisdom and goodness of the body. The embodied self is the only self we have ever known. Our bodies are God\u2019s dwelling place and even God\u2019s temple (see 1 Corinthians 6:19-20).<\/p>\n<p>In some ways it may seem simpler to obey usually arbitrary rules about diet or sex than to truly honor the living incarnation we are. Show me a single ascetical or anti-body statement from Jesus. Yet, as Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) said, \u201cAvoiding the risk of a transgression has become more important to us than carrying a difficult position for God.\u201d [2]<\/p>\n<p>I believe God has given us permission to learn wisdom and humility from our bodies and not just to repress them out of fear. Remember, <em>the steps to maturity are necessarily going to be immature.<\/em> God is an expert at working with mistakes and failure. In fact, that is about all God does. Mistakes do not seem to be a problem for God; they are only a problem for our ego that wants to be pure spirit. We first tend to do things wrong before we even know what right feels like. I am not sure there is any other way.<\/p>\n<p>____________________________________________________<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Upper Room<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>April 3, 2018 <\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Not Growing Weary<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Gary A. Miller (California)<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"grey-box\">\n<div class=\"quoted_scripture\">\n<p><strong>My soul clings to the dust; revive me \u2028according to your word. <span class=\"reference\"> – Psalm 119:25 (NRSV)<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"body\">\n<p>I remember a time when my body, mind, and spirit were completely drained. My mother had recently passed away; our church was experiencing some serious leadership issues, and my son\u2019s hereditary illness had flared up. Some of these events were sudden, but others had lingered for many months. I went about my daily life, automatically putting one foot in front of the other. Life was drudgery, and I plowed through it painfully.<br \/>\nFor some of us, weariness seems to be a way of life. I found my antidote to weariness in two places: in trusting that God would revive me and in serving others in tangible ways. I vowed to spend more time meditating on the Psalms, and I began to mentor a young man who had serious family problems. Soon my spirit was revived, and my soul was nurtured.<br \/>\nI\u2019ve seen that God often provides relief from our weariness as we focus on the Lord, not on what we expect to receive. God can shift our focus away from our problems and toward helping those who are also struggling \u2014 bringing peace to ourselves and to others.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"prayer-box\">\n<div class=\"subtle-label\">Today’s Prayer<\/div>\n<p><span class=\"todays-prayer\"> Dear Lord Jesus, renew us with your peace as we face challenges. Fill us with a desire to serve others. Amen.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> Human Bodies: Week 1 Trusting Our Bodies Tuesday, April 3, 2018 Capable Flesh The tender flesh itself \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 will be found one day \u2014quite surprisingly\u2014 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 to be capable of receiving, and yes, full \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 capable of embracing the searing energies […]<\/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\/16608"}],"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=16608"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16608\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16610,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16608\/revisions\/16610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Capable Flesh<\/em>\n<\/iframe><br \/>\n<em>The tender flesh itself<br \/>\n<\/em><em>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 will be found one day<br \/>\n<\/em><em>\u2014quite surprisingly\u2014<br \/>\n<\/em><em>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 to be capable of receiving,<br \/>\n<\/em><em>and yes, full<br \/>\n<\/em><em>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 capable of embracing<br \/>\n<\/em><em>the searing energies of God.<br \/>\n<\/em><em>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Go figure. Fear not.<br \/>\n<\/em><em>For even at its beginning<br \/>\n<\/em><em>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 the humble clay received<br \/>\n<\/em><em>God\u2019s art, whereby<br \/>\n<\/em><em>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 one part became the eye,<br \/>\n<\/em><em>another the ear, and yet<br \/>\n<\/em><em>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 another this impetuous hand.<br \/>\n<\/em><em>Therefore, the flesh<br \/>\n<\/em><em>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 is not to be excluded<br \/>\n<\/em><em>from the wisdom and the power<br \/>\n<\/em><em>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 that now and ever animates<br \/>\n<\/em><em>all things. His life-giving<br \/>\n<\/em><em>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 agency is made perfect,<br \/>\n<\/em><em>we are told, in weakness\u2014<br \/>\n<\/em><em>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 made perfect in the flesh.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em>\u2014Saint Irenaeus of Lyon (c.130-c.202) [1]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>God knew that only humble vulnerability could be entrusted with spiritual power\u2014and so God hid it like a treasure in the simple, largely anonymous body of Jesus. \u201cGod\u2019s power is at its best in weakness,\u201d Paul tells us. \u201cFor it is when I am weak that I am strong\u201d (see 2 Corinthians 12:9-10).<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, much of Christianity has been negatively and uselessly trapped in guilt about being \u201cflesh,\u201d while the great messages of the Gospel\u2014grace, healing, and restorative justice\u2014have largely gone unheeded. Obsessive guilt about our embodiment has too often kept us \u201cfrom the greater matters of the law: justice, mercy, and good faith,\u201d as Jesus says to the Pharisees (Matthew 23:23).<\/p>\n<p>We must begin by trusting what God has done in Jesus. We cannot return to a healthy view of our own bodies until we accept that God has forever made human flesh the privileged place of the divine encounter. We have had enough of dualism, enough of the separation of body and spirit, enough over-emphasis on the body\u2019s excesses and addictions. We must reclaim the incarnation as the beginning point of the Christian experience of God. We are not followers of Plato, but must return to the Hebrew respect for this world and for all the wisdom and goodness of the body. The embodied self is the only self we have ever known. Our bodies are God\u2019s dwelling place and even God\u2019s temple (see 1 Corinthians 6:19-20).<\/p>\n<p>In some ways it may seem simpler to obey usually arbitrary rules about diet or sex than to truly honor the living incarnation we are. Show me a single ascetical or anti-body statement from Jesus. Yet, as Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) said, \u201cAvoiding the risk of a transgression has become more important to us than carrying a difficult position for God.\u201d [2]<\/p>\n<p>I believe God has given us permission to learn wisdom and humility from our bodies and not just to repress them out of fear. Remember, <em>the steps to maturity are necessarily going to be immature.<\/em> God is an expert at working with mistakes and failure. In fact, that is about all God does. Mistakes do not seem to be a problem for God; they are only a problem for our ego that wants to be pure spirit. We first tend to do things wrong before we even know what right feels like. I am not sure there is any other way.<\/p>\n<p>____________________________________________________<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Upper Room<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>April 3, 2018 <\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Not Growing Weary<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Gary A. Miller (California)<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"grey-box\">\n<div class=\"quoted_scripture\">\n<p><strong>My soul clings to the dust; revive me \u2028according to your word. <span class=\"reference\"> – Psalm 119:25 (NRSV)<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"body\">\n<p>I remember a time when my body, mind, and spirit were completely drained. My mother had recently passed away; our church was experiencing some serious leadership issues, and my son\u2019s hereditary illness had flared up. Some of these events were sudden, but others had lingered for many months. I went about my daily life, automatically putting one foot in front of the other. Life was drudgery, and I plowed through it painfully.<br \/>\nFor some of us, weariness seems to be a way of life. I found my antidote to weariness in two places: in trusting that God would revive me and in serving others in tangible ways. I vowed to spend more time meditating on the Psalms, and I began to mentor a young man who had serious family problems. Soon my spirit was revived, and my soul was nurtured.<br \/>\nI\u2019ve seen that God often provides relief from our weariness as we focus on the Lord, not on what we expect to receive. God can shift our focus away from our problems and toward helping those who are also struggling \u2014 bringing peace to ourselves and to others.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"prayer-box\">\n<div class=\"subtle-label\">Today’s Prayer<\/div>\n<p><span class=\"todays-prayer\"> Dear Lord Jesus, renew us with your peace as we face challenges. Fill us with a desire to serve others. Amen.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> Human Bodies: Week 1 Trusting Our Bodies Tuesday, April 3, 2018 Capable Flesh The tender flesh itself \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 will be found one day \u2014quite surprisingly\u2014 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 to be capable of receiving, and yes, full \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 capable of embracing the searing energies […]<\/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\/16608"}],"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=16608"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16608\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16610,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16608\/revisions\/16610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}