Friday, May 16, 2014

4th Easter 2008, Wound Always Open


4th Easter
John 15: 1-27

I AM the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch of mine that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he trims clean, so that it will be even more fruitful. You have already been purified by the power of the word that I have spoken to you.
Abide in me and I in you.
Just as the branch cannot bear fruit out of itself unless it is given life by the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you stay united with me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains united with me so that I can work in him, bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not remain united with me withers like a branch that is cut off. Such branches are gathered up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you abide in me, and my words live on in you, pray for that which you also will, and it shall come about for you. By this my Father is revealed, that you bear rich spiritual fruit and become ever more truly my disciples.
As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Ground your being in my love, just as I have taken the aims of my Father into my will and live on in his love.
These words I have spoken to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. This is the task I put before you: that you love one another as I have loved you.
No man can have greater love than this, than that he offer up his life for his friends. You are my friends if you follow the task I have given you. No longer can I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing. But I call you my friends because I have made known to you all that I have heard from my Father.
You did not choose me, but I have chosen you, and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruits should live on after you, so that what you ask the Father in my name he should give it to you. I say to you out of the fullness of my power: Love one another.
If the world hates you with hatred, remember that they hated me first. If you belonged to people in general, they would love you as belonging to them; but you do not belong to them, because I have chosen you out of mankind. That is why people hate you.
Remember the word I spoke to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master’. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they have held on to my word, they will hold on to yours also. Everything that they do to you they will do as though they did it to me, for they do not know Him who sent me.
If I had not come and had not spoken to them, they would be without sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who turns in hatred against me turns in hatred against my Father also. If I had not done deeds among them, deeds which no one else has ever done, they would be without guilt. But now they have seen me, and have still hated both me and my Father.

But it was to fulfill what is written in their law: ‘They hated me without a cause.’
But when the Comforter comes, the Spirit of Truth who proceeds from the Father, he will bring knowledge of me and will be my witness. And you also will be my witnesses, because you have been united with me from the very beginning. 

4th Easter Sunday
April 13, 2008
John 15: 1-27


In this time after Easter, the gospel readings lead us back to what he tried to describe to His disciples before He died: He tried to tell them that His life continues forever.

At His death the disciples hearts were broken – broken open. Their souls were grievously wounded by their loss, the loss of their deepest Friend, the loss of all their hopes and dreams of His glory. But at Easter, Christ began to pour the power of His resurrection into the open wound of their hearts. At first they could not recognize Him. At first, their pre-conceptions about the finality of death prevented them from perceiving Him as the Resurrection and the Life. But gradually they began to receive His life-giving power in their hearts. They began to affirm and to accept the great mystery of his resurrection. An enormous reverence began to grow in them. They began to assent to a new World Way. They began to realize that He, the being of Love, had survived death.

Today we hear the wonderful words: ‘I am the true living vine, you are the branches. My father is the vinedresser. Stay connected with me, so that your souls will become fruitful’. It is our task not just to keep our souls alive; it is our task to make our souls bear fruit for the Father.

What are the fruits of soul that the Father hopes to harvest from us? They are the same qualities of soul that the disciples wrested from death—the fragrance of reverence, the fruitfulness of a  mood of all-affirming acceptance, the ripening substance of a love for all of humanity. This is the Life that the Resurrected Christ, the True Vine, pours into all souls connected with Him. These are the fruits— reverence, open acceptance, love—that the Father would harvest. These are the fruits that nourish the evolution of the world.


Staying connected with Christ is our task. It is a challenge for the heart to remain open and receptive, within love, within Him. But love is a creative act. And to create is to labor, sometimes in pain and travail. As Novalis said, “To love is to hold the wound always open.”  We hold our wounded hearts open so that Christ can pour His reverence, His openness, His love into us. We hold our wounded hearts open so that we can become fruitful. We hold our hearts open so that we can nourish the world. 

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