3rd Passiontide 2014, Drops of the Sun

Third Passiontide

John 8: 12-20

And Jesus began to speak to them again: “I am the light of the world; he who

Holman Hunt

follows me will not walk in darkness, but have the light in which there is life.”

Then the Pharisees said to him, “How can you be your own witness? Your testimony is not valid.”

Jesus answered them, “Even if I do bear witness to myself, my testimony is valid, for I know from where I come and where I am going. You judge according to the physical aspect of Man, but I judge no one. Yet even if I did judge, my judgment would be valid; for I am not alone, but HE who sent me is with me. In your Law it says that the testimony of two persons is valid. I bear witness to myself, and the Father who sent me also testifies to me.”

Then they said, “Where is your Father?” And Jesus answered, “You know neither me nor my Father. I you knew me, you would know my Father also.” These words he said as he was teaching in the treasury of the Temple. And no one seized him because his hour had not yet come.

3^rd Passiontide

April 6, 2014

John 8: 12-20

No matter whether we are North or South, day or night, the sun continuously rays forth its light. Behind the visible light, there also stream forth invisible forces of life. It is this combination of light and life that draws forth the plants up from the earth. Light and life bids the plants grow, blossom, set seed. Light and life bids them die away, letting their seed essence fall back to earth in order to make way for new life.

Maulsby Kimball

Christ says that He is the light of the world, the light that rays forth life. In Him the essence of the sun itself has descended to earth. The Son God has come to earth so that day or night, we can walk within His living light. In fact, we are able not only live within His light; we can also take the Christ light into ourselves, and ray it forth to others, to the world. That is the meaning of communion: to take the light-seed of Christ into ourselves, for the sake of the world.

What is the nature of the Christ light? It is a living light that is filled with love. Light, life and love express the essence of God. Christ dwells in and streams forth the light of our heavenly Father, who is life, who is love.

‘For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever [knows and trusts in him] believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life’.[1]

We need not fear darkness, inner or outer; we need not fear our deaths; for the Christ in us is the light-seed of His essence. The Christ seed essence that we take in makes possible everlasting light, ongoing life, and the radiance of love, for the world, for us.

So as Hafiz says:

Keep squeezing drops of the Sun

From your prayers and work and music

….

Keep squeezing drops of the Sun

From the sacred hands and glance of your Beloved.[2]


www.thechristiancommunity.org

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[1] John 3:16

Picture: Christ the Light of the World, Holman Hunt

[2] Hafiz, “ Cast All Your Votes For Dancing” in I Heard God Laughing - Renderings of Hafiz by Daniel Ladinsky

3rd Passiontide 2013, Watered Down

3^rd Passiontide

Rembrandt

John 8: 1-12

Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives; but as soon as day dawned he was already in the Temple court, where the people flocked to him, and he sat down and began to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees led in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand in the middle, and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They said this only as a trap, in order finally to have a reason for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down, and started to write something in the earth with his finger. When they kept on pressing him with questions, he stood up and said to them, “Whoever among you is without sin, let him cast the first stone at her.” And again, he bent down and wrote in the earth.

When they heard this, their conscience began to stir within them, and they went out, one after the other, beginning with the eldest. And only Jesus was left and the woman who stood in the middle. Jesus stood up, and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one passed judgment on you?”

“No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I judge you,” Jesus declared. “Go now, and leave your life of sin.”

3^rd Passiontide

March 17, 2013

John 8: 1-12

If someone adds something to food or drink to thin it out, or to poison it, we say that it has been adulterated. It has been watered down, or made harmful.

Humanity’s soul has been adulterated. The adversary forces have added the thorn of evil, the sting into our hearts. Because of this wounding, we have become weak. We are both ‘watered down’, not fully potent, and at the same time capable of harm.

Christ came to the earth to experience what it is like being a human being in a body of flesh. He knows in depth the basic human condition of weakness. And in His empathy and compassion, he does not judge us. Rather He seeks to give us strength, to heal us, to raise us up. Eventually we will rise and expand. We may now feel shriveled, in grief. In the words of the poet, we may ask Him:

My heart is so small

it's almost invisible.

How can You place

such big sorrows in it?

Yet he answers:

"Look," …"your eyes are even smaller,

yet they behold the world."[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

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[1] Rumi,  in Whispers of the Beloved  by Maryam & Azima Melita Kolin)