{"id":22906,"date":"2023-09-14T10:41:50","date_gmt":"2023-09-14T14:41:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=22906"},"modified":"2023-09-14T10:54:10","modified_gmt":"2023-09-14T14:54:10","slug":"letters-from-outside-the-camp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=22906","title":{"rendered":"Letters From Outside The Camp"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Blessing Offor - Your Love (Lyric Video)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3SBhSkRdWiM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>In fall 2020, Richard began sending out occasional letters that he called \u201cLetters from outside the Camp,\u201d a reference to the many usages of \u201coutside the camp\u201d in the Hebrew Bible.<\/em>&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOutside the camp\u201d is a prophetic position on the edge of the inside, which is described by the early Israelites as \u201cthe tent of meeting outside the camp\u201d (Exodus 33:7). Even though this tent is foldable, moveable, and disposable, it is still a meeting place for \u201cthe holy,\u201d which is always on the move and out in front of us. <strong>It inspires me to wonder how we might maintain that same sense of prophetic freedom outside the contemporary political and religious \u201cencampments\u201d of our day. For those of us who are sincerely and devotedly trying to camp elsewhere than in any political party or religious denomination, we know full well that we must now avoid the temptation to become our own defended camp.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The prophets exercise their\u202fimagination\u202ffrom that place of freedom,\u202fas my favorite Scripture scholar Walter Brueggemann describes so well:\u202f\u201cBecause the totalism [that is, the system] wants to silence, banish, or eliminate every such unwelcome [prophetic] intrusion, <strong>the tricky work is to find standing ground outside the totalism from which to think the unthinkable, to imagine the unimaginable, and to utter the unutterable.\u201d\u202f\u202f[1]&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The free and graced position found in the tent of meeting is what allowed Jesus and all prophets in his lineage to speak from the privileged minority position. I<strong>t is always less desirable, compared to the comfortable and enjoyable places at the center and the top; yet it is the Jesus stance, and the place where all Franciscans follow after him.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The \u201ctent of meeting\u201d is the initial image and metaphor that eventually became our much later notion of \u201cchurch.\u201d<\/strong> The greatest prophet of the Jewish tradition, Moses, had the prescience and courage to move the place of hearing God outside and at a distance from the court of common religious and civic opinion\u2014this was the original genius that inspired the entire Jewish prophetic tradition. It is quite different than mere liberal and conservative positions, and often even at odds with them. <strong>Prophecy and Gospel are rooted in a contemplative and non-dual way of knowing\u2014a way of being in the world that is utterly free and grounded in the compassion of God.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>S<strong>omehow our occupation and vocation as believers in this time must be to first restore the Divine Center by holding it and fully occupying it ourselves<\/strong>. If contemplation means anything, it means that we can \u201csafeguard that little piece of You, God, in ourselves\u201d as Etty Hillesum describes it. [2] What other power do we have now?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>________________________________________________<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sarah Young Jesus Calling<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Stop judging and evaluating yourself, for this is not your role. Above all, stop comparing yourself with other people. This produces feelings of pride or inferiority; sometimes, a mixture of both. <\/strong>I lead each of My children along a path that is uniquely tailor-made for him or her. <strong>Comparing is not only wrong; it is also meaningless.<\/strong><br>&nbsp; &nbsp; Don&#8217;t look for affirmation in the wrong places: your own evaluations, or those of other people. <strong>The only source of real affirmation is My unconditional Love. M<\/strong>any believers perceive Me as an unpleasable Judge, angrily searching out their faults and failures. Nothing could be farther from the truth! I died for your sins, so that I might clothe you in My garments of salvation. <strong>This is how I see you: radiant in My robe of righteousness. When I discipline you, it is never in anger or disgust; it is to prepare you for face-to-Face fellowship with me throughout all eternity. Immerse yourself in My loving Presence. Be receptive to My affirmation, which flows continually from the throne of grace.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Luke 6:37 NLT<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Do Not Judge Others<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>37 \u201cDo not judge others, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn others, or it will all come back against you. Forgive others, and you will be forgiven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>John 3:16-17 NLT<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>16 \u201cFor this is how God loved the world: He gave[a] his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In fall 2020, Richard began sending out occasional letters that he called \u201cLetters from outside the Camp,\u201d a reference to the many usages of \u201coutside the camp\u201d in the Hebrew Bible.&nbsp;&nbsp; \u201cOutside the camp\u201d is a prophetic position on the edge of the inside, which is described by the early Israelites as \u201cthe tent of [&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\/22906"}],"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=22906"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22906\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22910,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22906\/revisions\/22910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}