6th Easter
John 14: 1-31
“Let
not your hearts be troubled. Trust in the power that leads you to the Fatherly
Ground of the World and to me. In my Father’s house there are many rooms. If it
were not so, how could I have said to you, ‘I go there to prepare a place for
you’? And when I have gone and prepared
a place for you, I will come again and take you up into the realm of my being
and working, so that where I work, you also may work. And you know the way
where I am going.”
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| Burne-Jones |
Jesus answered, “I myself am the Way—the Truth— and the Life. No one
finds his way to the Father but through me. If you had really known my Being,
you would have recognized my Father as well. From now on you do know him and
have seen Him.”
Then Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father; that would satisfy
our deepest yearning.”
Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long and yet you do not know
me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us
the Father’? Does your heart’s voice not tell you that I am in the Father and
the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. But the
Father, who lives eternally in me, continues to do his works in them. Build
your faith on the power of my Being that lets you know: I in the Father, the
Father in me. Or at least learn to trust through looking at the works
themselves that have arisen.
Truly, truly I say to you, whoever trusts in my Being will also do the
works that I do --and greater deeds will he do, because I go to the Father. Whatever you ask for in unity with
me, I will do it, so that the deeds of the Father may be revealed in the
working of the Son. When you turn to me in prayer in the power of my name, I
will be the Creating One in all your works. If you truly love me, you will
share in my spiritual goals. And I will ask the Father and He will send to you
another Counselor, who will stand by you for ever, even the Spirit of Truth.
The earthly world cannot receive this Counselor, for it cannot perceive his
working and does not recognize him. But you know him, for he will live with you
and will work in you.
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| Rembrandt |
Whoever bears my spiritual goals within himself, and brings them to
revelation in his working, is one who truly loves me. And whoever truly loves
me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will reveal myself to
him.”
Then Judas, (not the Iscariot) said, “But Lord, how is it that you will
reveal yourself to us and not to the people who are in the world?
Jesus
replied, “Whoever 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]. Whoever 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.
These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the
health-bringing Spirit, the Counselor whom the Father will send in my name, he
will teach you everything and will bring to your remembrance all that I have
said to you.
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. Not as the world gives do I
give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled nor let them be afraid.
You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and yet I am coming to you’.
If you loved me you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for
the Father is greater 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 ruler of this
world is coming. He has no power over me.
But I act in accordance with the Father’s purpose, as it was entrusted
to me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Do the same. Arise,
let us be on our way.
May 17,
2009
6th Easter
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| Christ the Gardener, Durer |
John 14: 1 – 35
Plant one seed, and in time it will produce hundreds of
seeds, all replicas of itself. In this way, the living entity that produced the
seed maintains itself through cycles of time.
Out of the Father Ground of all Being, who is existence
itself, there emerged the first seed. This seed is the Logos-Word, the I AM.
This Logos-Word spoke, and all of creation came into being. Into all creatures,
especially into us, He placed a seed of Himself, the I AM. This seed germinates
as we are born, blossoms when as small child we begins to say “I”. This little
but all-encompassing “I” continues to blossom and engender seeds throughout our
life. The seeds of myself are my words and my actions. I am what I say. I am
what I do.
In an ordinary plant, form and seeds are fixed by type. We
human I-AM beings however, have the capacity to create various types of seeds.
For we have choices in speaking, choices in doing. And these choices can create
seeds for magnificence and nourishing beauty. Or they can create seeds of weeds
and thorns.
The poet speaks to God and says:
We stand in your garden year after
year
We are trees for yielding a sweet
death.[1]
Our words and deeds are the seeds for our own Selves. For in
another season, in another lifetime, the quality of the word- and deed-seeds we
have produced will be what surrounds us. God will reap what we have sown. And
accordingly, we will live in what we have created.
Christ is the gardener who watches over our growth and
progress. He is the Water of Life. He feeds here, prunes a bit there, trains
toward the Light of Himself. He is the Way, and he hopes for a harvest of words
and deeds done in His Spirit, done in love, in truth, and from good will. For
He will plant the seeds we produce, the seeds of our Selves, and we will
germinate again with Him in His garden, in another place, in another season.
