1st Advent 2014, Insistent Grace

1st Advent

Luke 21:25-36

And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars; and upon the earth, the nations will be constricted with anxiety and doubt with the advent of these spiritual revelations, as before a roaring sea and waves. And men will lose their inner strength of soul out of fear and foreboding of what is coming over the living earth: for the dynamic powers of heaven will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud, in the sphere of life, with dynamic power and great radiant glory.

And when these things begin to happen, stand upright and lift up [raise] your soul to the spirit, for your deliverance draws near.

And he gave them a comparison, saying, ‘Observe [behold] the fig tree and all the trees when they burst into leaf. Seeing this, you know yourselves that summer is near. So also when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near.

Amen, the truth I say to you: this present age of Man’s being shall not pass away until all has happened.

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

Guard yourselves lest the perceptive power of your hearts be smothered by excess of food and drink and by over-concern with the cares and worries of life, and the light of these spirit events break upon you suddenly like a snare…for it will come upon all who dwell upon the face of the whole earth. So be awake in the spirit at all times, praying, so that you may have the strength to live through all these things that are about to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.

1st Advent

Luke 21:25-36

When a seed is planted, the first thing to happen is a kind of cataclysm, a disintegration. It swells; the hull cracks; the seed itself splits apart as the sprouts break forth, one diving down to root itself in the earth, the other rising into the light.

This is what life does. Real life, real progress and evolution break us apart. They change us, sometimes fundamentally. Life pushes us out of our comfortable place of the merely potential into the uncomfortable stretching and growing toward fulfillment.

At this time of the year, humanity is God’s Bride. He has impregnated us with His hope for us; with His trust in us; with His love for us. We are to grow and carry His Spirit-Child within us, His Son who will be born into our hearts at Christmas. Like any other fruitfulness, this brings us both joy and discomfort. The poet describes how it is for us:

There is a grace approaching

Thomas Cooper Gotch

it is the completion of our birth.

It does not come in time,

but in timelessness

when the mind sinks into the heart

and we remember.

It is an insistent grace that draws us

to the edge and beckons us surrender

safe territory and enter our enormity.

We know we must pass

beyond knowing

and fear the shedding.

But we are pulled upward

none-the-less

through forgotten ghosts

and unexpected angels,

luminous.

And there is nothing left to say

but we are That.

And that is what we sing about.[1]

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[1]  Stephen Levine , “Millennium blessing”  in Breaking the Drought

4th November Trinity 2014, Creating All Anew

4th November Trinity

Revelations 21: 1-27

And I beheld the events in the spirit out of which a new heaven and a new earth proceeded. For the earlier heaven and the earlier earth were gone, and the billowing ocean is no more. And further I saw the Holy City, untouched by the earthly, coming forth out of the being of God, descending out of the spiritual worlds: the New Jerusalem. She appeared in her beauty like a bride who has adorned herself for the bridegroom. And I heard a powerful voice coming from the throne that said: “Behold the Dwelling of God in the midst of humanity. For He will indeed dwell in your midst, and the people will be His people. God himself will be with them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eye. There will be no more [bodily pain, nor soul pain, nor any other burdens of the inmost being] death, nor sorrow, nor weeping [uproar] nor any other sound of pain, for the old world is gone.” And He who was seated on the throne said: “Behold: I am creating all anew.”

And He said, “Write, for it is these words that shall make faith and knowledge into true reality.” And He said to me: “It is accomplished! I AM the Alpha and the Omega, World Beginning and World Goal. To the thirsty I will give from the springs of the waters of life, outside the workings of destiny, as grace. He who overcomes, he shall inherit all this. ‘I will be His God, and to me He will be like a son.’

“Those however who were cowardly [the spineless], and who had no trust [the faithless, unbelieving], who were servants of evil and perverted the image of Man [the despicable, vile, foul], who wanted to destroy the sacred [murderers], who went along impure paths of soul [sexually immoral, whoremongers], who worked with forces of evil [witches, practitioners of the magic arts], who bound themselves to evil beings [idolaters, idol-worshippers]—and all who served the Lie [liars of every kind]—their share will be on the lake which burns as with fire and sulfur; that is the second death, the death of the soul [the death after death].”

And there came to me one of the seven angels who have the seven bowls filled with the last seven plagues of the world; and he spoke with me and said, “Come, I will show you the eternal Feminine, the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”  And he carried me in spirit-form up to a great high mountain, and let me see how the Holy City, Jerusalem, the City of Peace, descended out of the spiritual worlds, coming forth from the being of God, wrapped in the most intimate splendor of the revelation of God.

Her shining [gleaming] is like that of a precious gemstone, like the stone jasper, clear as crystal.Her walls are of mighty size and height; she has twelve gates and at the gates stand twelve angels. On the gates are written the names of the twelve sons of Israel; three gates from the East, three gates from the North, three gates from the South, and three gates from the West. And the wall of the City rests on twelve sacred foundations, and the names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb work in them.  And he who spoke with me carried a golden measuring rod, in order to measure the City and her gates and her walls. And the City is spread out in a square; her length is the same as her width. And he measured the City with the measuring rod. It measured twelve thousand miles; the length and breadth and height were alike. And he measured her walls at one hundred forty-four cubits [ells], the measure of a man, which now the angel was using.

The covering of her walls was of jasper, and the City herself of purified gold, clear as glass. And the sacred foundation of the wall were adorned with every precious stone:

the first, a jasper,

the second, a sapphire,

the third, a chalcedony,

the fourth, emerald,

the fifth sardonyx,

the sixth, carnelian,

the seventh, chrysolite,

the eighth, beryl,

the ninth, topaz,

the tenth, chrysoprase

the eleventh, hyacinth,

the twelfth, an amethyst.

The twelve gates were twelve pearls, and each of the gates made of a single pearl. And the city was of purified gold, like a transparent crystal. I did not see a temple in the City, for the Lord God, Ruler of All, is her sanctuary, and the Lamb. And the City needs neither sun nor moon, for she shines from within; for the shining revelation of God is streaming brightness in her, and her light is the Lamb. And all nations shall walk in her light, and the rulers of the earth will carry their spiritual treasures into her. And her gates will never be closed by day, for there, night will be no more.  And all the shining treasures of the revelations of the world, and all the spiritual worth of the nations and all achievements of the soul will be brought into her.  And nothing can enter which is not spiritualized [consecrated], nothing which perverts the image of Man, nothing which remains under the power of the Lie, but rather only those who are written into the Book of Life of the Lamb.

4^th November Trinity

November 23, 2014

Revelations 21: 1-27

We have arrived at a kind of seam in the cycle of the year. This is the last Sunday of the liturgical year; next Sunday starts a new beginning. The reading offers both comfort and joy. At the end of the cycles of time, God will collect all our tears of suffering. Like the Prodigal son returning we will be showered with the grace of the living waters, filled with God’s living essence. And the meaning of all our lives will be revealed to us. For we will see the Great City of Peace, built out of human suffering. Our tears will be transformed into gates of pearl. Suffering becomes the gateway. The interior of the city will also be built by human virtue, ‘all the spiritual worth of nations and all achievements of the soul.’ Rev. 21:26 And it will be illuminated by the transparent gold of the Light of Christ.

We have come to the end of the year’s cycle. But the end also always signals a new beginning. For Christ is always ‘creating all anew.’  Rev. 21:5 A mighty vista of our future home has been revealed to us. And here we are graced with yet another cycle, another year in which to continue to work to build the divine city, the city in which we will all dwell at the end of time. 

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3rd November Trinity 2014, New Flowers

3^rd November Trinity

Throne of God

November 16, 2014

Revelations 7: 9-17

Next I looked and saw a great crowd beyond anyone’s power to count, from every nation and all races and peoples and tongues standing before the throne and before the Lamb draped in garments of white and with palm branches in their hands, and they shout with a great voice saying, “Healing and help [salvation] to our God who sits on the throne and through the Lamb.”

And all the angels were standing in a ring around the throne and the elders and the four living beings, and they fell down in front of the throne upon their faces and adored God saying,

Yea, so be it. Amen. [To our God be blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and strength for an age of ages. Amen.”]

All the blessing power of the Word, that creating permeates the world, all the revealing might of the spirit, that enlightens the senses appearance, all the light of wisdom that leads us to true knowledge, the secret of transformation which gives worth to all being, that brings the world forward, and all the strength and power of the spirit –they belong to our God from aeon to aeon. Yea, so be it, Amen.

And one of the elders spoke up, asking me: “These people draped in garments of white, who are they and where did they come from?”

And I said to him, “Good sir, you yourself know.”

And he said to me:

These are the ones just come from the great Suffering. They washed their garments clean, and made them shining white in the blood of the Lamb.

That is why they can stand here before the throne of God

And serve him day and night in his temple.

The One who sits on the throne shall settle down upon them [dwell upon them].

They shall not hunger ever again, nor thirst again;

The sun shall not bear down too hard upon them, nor anything burn them,

Because the Lamb, in the midst of the throne, will be their shepherd

And guide them to the springs of the water of life,

And God will wipe away each teardrop from their eyes.

3^rd November Trinity

November 16, 2014

Revelations 7: 9-17

In life we experience the events and conditions of the world; we receive the actions, the words and thoughts of others. And we suffer because we are open to being acted upon.

One pre-Christian response to this fact of our existence was to remove oneself from suffering by cultivating non-attachment. This is perhaps not a bad start, for we frequently suffer because we are over-attached to outcomes; we may be egotistically trying to spare ourselves. Yet Christ, the God made human, taught us that suffering can have redemptive power, especially when undergone willingly and for the sake of others. Suffering can be a real eye-opener.

Hardship and adversity can have a purifying effect on our egotism. It can cleanse us of our prideful sense that we can control our own universe. Adversity endured can teach us that there are gracious gifts to be found in places we do not wish to go, gifts we didn’t know we wanted. It can teach us that suffering can lead to transformation.

Necessary suffering well encountered washes our soul garments clean. ‘Thy greater Will be done,’ can lead us to recognize that there is a greater purpose than our everyday minds can know. In suffering we can find the comfort and consolation of a God who intimately knows what we are going through. For He has been there Himself. Indeed, He continues to occupy the precincts of suffering so that He will be there for us when we find ourselves there.  He will help us to make something out of it. The poet describes this process:

…And if, in the changing phases of man's life

Snowdrops in Snow

I fall in sickness and in misery

my wrists seem broken and my heart seems dead

and strength is gone, and my life

is only the leavings of a life:

and still, among it all, snatches of lovely oblivion, and snatches

of renewal

odd, wintry flowers upon the withered stem, yet new, strange flowers

such as my life has not brought forth before, new blossoms of me

then I must know that still

I am in the hands of the unknown God,

he is breaking me down to his own oblivion

to send me forth on a new morning, a new man.[1]

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[1] D H Lawrence, “Shadows”

2nd November Trinity 2014, Sky Bridge

2nd Trinity November

Tiffany Stained Glass,
Angel of Sardis

Rev. 3, 1-6, (Sardis)

And to the angel who penetrates the congregation of Sardis write:

Thus speaks he who has power over the seven creating spirits of God and over the seven stars: I know the consequences of your deeds, for one says of you that you live, and yet are dead. Awaken, and strengthen what remains in you, that is otherwise about to die, for I have not found that your works possess reality before my God.

Remember how you were once receptive for all the workings of the spirit, and for all words which came from the spirit. Care for them in your soul in inner loyalty. Change your heart and mind.

If however you do not awaken, I will come over you suddenly like a thief, and you will not know at which hour I will come over you.

But you have some names in Sardis whose souls have not been darkened by illusion and addiction to the senses. They will walk with me in white garments, for they are worthy of them.

He who overcomes, he shall be clothed with white garments, and I will not wipe out his name from the Book of Life. I will speak out his name and acknowledge him before my Father and his Angels. He who has ears to hear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches.

2^nd November Trinity

November 9, 2014

Revelations 3: 1 – 6

This letter is from the Son of Man. It is written to the angel of the community of Sardis. It can be heard as a letter to an entire community, ‘a community whose members feel the Christ within themselves’.

It is natural that a community tends to drift away from its original receptive gesture of soul. After all, things change. Habits form. And over time, a community’s relationship to the spirit may become dull. This letter stresses being open to the words and workings of the spirit. Christ encourages us to revive our original prayerful openness, in loyal dedication to Him.

Sky Walk, Grand Canyon

Such openness helps us to overcome illusion through the Truth of Christ’s Being. It helps us overcome our need to see, hear, touch a physical God. The poet Czeslaw Milosz was asked about praying to a God one could not perceive:

You ask me how to pray to someone who is not.

All I know is that prayer constructs a velvet bridge

And walking it we are aloft, as on a springboard,

Above landscapes the color of ripe gold

Transformed by a magic stopping of the sun.

That bridge leads to the shore of Reversal

Where everything is just the opposite and the word 'is'

Unveils a meaning we hardly envisioned.

Notice: I say we; there, every one, separately,

Feels compassion for others entangled in the flesh

And knows that if there is no other shore

We will walk that aerial bridge all the same.[1]

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[1]  Czeslaw Milosz, “On Prayer” in New and Collected Poems, 1931-2001, trans. Robert Hass

1st November Trinity 2014, Live In You

1^st November Trinity

Revelations 1, 1-20

This is the unveiling of the being of Jesus Christ, which proceeds out of the divine world for those who would serve him. To them shall be revealed what must of necessity happen in the future and which powerfully presses into world events. God formed this revelation in imagery and sent it through his angel to his servant John. And so John speaks as a witness to everything he saw, that is, to the Divine Word, and to the life of Jesus Christ, which serves as a testimony. Blessed is he who knows how to read the prophetic words, and blessed are those who know how to hear them, and all who take what is written in this book into their souls; for time presses.

John, to the seven congregations in Asia:

Grace and peace to you

From Him who is, and who was, and who is coming

And from the seven creating spirits before his throne

And from Jesus Christ.

By his witnessing he is the archetype of trust.

He is the first born from the realm of death,

He is the leading spirit of the Kings on earth.

He has turned to us in love, and by the power of his blood

He has released us from the spell of sin which lay upon us.

He has established us as true kings and made us into priests

before the divine Ground of the World, his Father.

To him belongs all light of the spirit and all power of soul from aeon to aeon. Amen.

See: he comes in the realm of the clouds.

All eyes shall see him, also the eyes of those who pierced him.

And men down the ages will lament about him. Yes. Amen.

I am the Alpha and the Omega,

Thus speaks the Lord our God

who is, and who was, and who is coming

the divine ruler of the world.

I, John, your brother and your companion in all trials and also in the inner kingdom and in the power of endurance which we possess through our one-ness with Jesus: I was on the island of Patmos. There it was granted to me to receive a share of the divine Word and to bear witness to the sufferings of Jesus.

On the Lord’s Day I was lifted up to the world of spirit, and I heard behind me a mighty voice like the sound of a trumpet. It said: write what you see in a book and send it to the seven congregations: to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamum, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia and to Laodicia.

And I turned to see him whose voice was speaking to me. And as I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands, a figure like that of the Son of Man:

clothed with a long billowing garment,

encircled round his breast with a golden band;

        his head and his hair shining white like snow white wool,

his eyes like a flame of fire,

his feet like burnished bronze glowing in a furnace,

his voice like the rushing of many streams of water.

In his hand he held seven stars;

from his mouth issued a sharp two-edged sword

and his face shone, as the sun shines in its full radiance.

And when I saw him, I fell at his feet and was as if dead. But he laid his right hand upon me and said:

“Do not be afraid. I am the first and the last, and the living one. I was dead, and look! I am living and I bear the life of the world through all aeons. Mine is the key to the realm of death and of the shades. Write down what you see: what is now, and what is to come.

The secret of the seven stars, which you see in my right hand, and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the picture in the spirit for the angels of the seven congregations, and the seven lampstands are the seven congregations themselves.” 

1^st November Trinity

November 2, 2014

Revelations 1:1 – 20

Imagine being given two large seeds, a real one, and a cleverly made replica. Could we tell just by looking which one was real? Using all of our senses, could we distinguish between the living one and the merely material one? We could certainly test them by planting them and seeing which one sprouts.

Today there are many images and descriptions of people’s experiences of Christ Jesus. Perhaps not all of them correspond to the true, living, creating essence of His being. How can we tell the difference?

In His revelation to John, we have been given a true image of Christ. He bears a human form; yet one infused with fire. His head shines sun-white with the pure radiance of his thought. His breast is encircled with the gold of loving kindness. His eyes shine with the creative fire of love. His feet glow with the activity of purifying transformation. His hands hold the creative weaving of the seven-fold evolving nature of life. And his voice resounds with the life of living waters.

This is the true picture of Christ. And we can know that He is the true living one because he was planted in the earth and was born out of the realm of the dead. ‘I AM the Living One’, He says. ‘I AM the true seed. Plant me in your midst. Plant me in your hearts. Hear my life-giving voice in your congregations. Let me live in you.’