Pentecost
John 14: 23-31
Jesus replied, “He who truly
loves me reveals my Spirit, and my Father will love him and we will come to him
and prepare with him a dwelling in the everlasting [an eternal dwelling]. He
who does not love me cannot reveal my Spirit. And the spirit power of the word
that you hear is not from me; it is the speaking of the Father who sent me.
I have said this to you while I am still with you.
But he who is called down, the health-bringing Spirit, whom the Father will
send in my name, he will teach you everything and will awaken within you all
that I have said to you.
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do
not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do
not be afraid [have no fear].
You have heard how I said to you, ‘I am going away,
and yet I am coming to you’. If you loved me you would rejoice because I am
going to the Father[ly Ground of the World], for the Father is mightier than I
am.
I have told you now, before it happens, so that
when it happens you may find trust. I no longer have much to say to you, for
soon the prince of this world is coming. Yet over me he has no power.
But the world shall see in this how I love the
Father [Ground of the World] and how I act in accordance with the Father’s
purpose, as it was entrusted to me. Arise, let us go on from here. [let us be
on our way.]
May
12, 2008
Whitmonday
John
14: 23-31
We
think of the sun as a shining orb that slowly travels across the sky. We see
the light it sends down to earth, illuminating all things. We feel its warmth
on our skin. So we could say that we are not separated from the sun. The sun is
not only up in the sky, but also where it works and has its effects, here on
the earth. We live in fact the midst of the sun.
The
sun supports everything. Although its light may vary in quality from place to
place, the sun’s living light is not attached to one particular place on earth.
It shines for all of the earth, for all of humanity. It shines on good and bad
alike. Nothing is hidden from the sun; eventually all comes to light. The sun is the great living symbol of
universal tolerance.
Christ,
after his sojourn as a human being on earth, returned to his home in the sun. But
since the earth is not separated from the sun, He continues to be in our midst.
He continues to shed His living light of love on all alike, both good and bad.
He supports everyone. Nothing is hidden from Him. Although His light may be
refracted into differing religious colors, His Spirit of Love is the one,
unifying healing Spirit, whose living light surrounds the whole earth. He is
the living quality of universal tolerance.
The
Sufi poet Hafiz expresses something of Love’s universal acceptance. He writes:
Even
after
all this time
the sun never says to
the earth
“You owe me.”
Look
what happens
with a love like that
–
it lights up the whole
world. [1]
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