2nd Trinity November
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| 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.
2nd 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.
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| 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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