If you concentrate on nothing else in social life, spend your heart’s gaze upon the story of the Samaritan woman by the well.

Don’t alert me that you love Jesus
…It only reveals your still unconscious pride. Instead, with a reserve approaching eloquence, perceive how we lack the heart and being to hoist that flag. It is a big sin to rob someone of their religion — so I cannot say much more, and must shut it down.

Don’t stipulate that you want a God-fearing man
…No bonafide Elohim craves such an indignity. Reflect instead ten years on Calvary, and how the Old Testament was demolished in the wake of it. When you can imagine away all the old commandments and melt them in the force of the One, you are almost ready for the real battlefield. Exert your wonder to its humble extremity, and puzzle out how it is, precisely, we are made in Divinity’s image.

Don’t pluck me your cherished shards of scripture with zeal
…Except to stand in their radiance with a solemnified awe. Never to make stark the egotism that you possess salvation or I might do. For if you proclaim yourself saved, then I apologize but you are not. Quest ever instead with a ferocious human empathy, and I will kiss you the kiss without lips, and companion you the comradery of truth, and help you architect the world’s next zodiac.

_______RS

[ Image : a snippet from album cover of Hot Tuna’s “Burgers”… click this to hear Jorma and Jack’s version of the old timey black blues spiritual “True Religion”. ]

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