St. Johnstide
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| Florentine School, Wikimedia |
John 3: 22-36
After this Jesus and his disciples came to the land of
Judea. There he stayed with them and baptized. John also baptized; he was at
Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there, and people came to him
and were baptized. For John had not yet been imprisoned.
Then a dispute arose between the disciples of John and
the Jews about the path of purification. And they came to John and said to him,
“Master, he who came to you beyond the Jordan, to whom you bore witness – here
he is, baptizing, and everyone is going to him.”
John answered, “No human being can grasp spiritual power
for himself that is not given to him from the higher worlds. You yourselves can
testify that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’
“He who has the bride, he is the bridegroom. But the
friend of the bridegroom, who stands by and listens to him, he is filled with
joy at the bridegroom’s voice. This joy of mine is now full. He must increase,
but I must decrease.
He who descends from above, out of the spiritual world,
is elevated above all beings of the earth. Whoever is only of the earth, whose
being arises from the earthly, his word is also earthbound.
He who comes from the heavens is elevated above all who have
arisen from the earthly. What he has seen and heard in the world of the spirit,
to that he can bear direct witness, but no one accepts his testimony.
But whoever accepts his testimony, sets his seal to this:
that God is true [truth] [that there is no higher truth than the reality of God].
Whoever God has sent, his words are filled with the power of divine thought,
for God gives the spirit to human beings not according to human rules, but
according to the creative power that he awakens in man.
The Father holds the Son surrounded in his love, and has
given everything into his hands. Whoever trusts in the power of the Son within
himself, he grows out of the earthly into timeless life.
Whoever cannot trust in the power of the Son within will
not behold the world of life; rather the working might of the spirit world must
one day burn him like a fire that will consume him.”
St. Johnstide
July 12, 2015
John 3: 22-36
There is a part of ourselves that wants to make things
happen. And to do that, we need energy and power. After all, we can’t use our
power tools without plugging them into an energy source! In this earthly world,
we have figured out how to create our own energy sources for our power tools.
John the Baptist also speaks about the uses of power and
spiritual energy sources. ‘No one can grasp spiritual power for himself that is
not given to him from higher worlds,’ he says. John 3:27 In the spiritual world
we don’t create power; we receive it. For the energy source to perform
spiritual deeds is generated in the heavens. We have to ‘plug in’ to a higher
source.
When John says ‘I must decrease,’ he is recognizing the
source and energy in the universe, which is Christ. John recognizes that he
himself must depend less and less upon his own self-generated deeds and come to
receive more and more of what Christ wants to generate through him. The course
of John’s outer life, his beheading, seems tragic. But we know that his life
continues on another , more angelic level. He is the guiding spirit of the
circle of the disciples. He inspires John the Evangelist’s gospel and Book of
Revelation. For within himself John the Baptist trusts in the power of the Son,
the Bridegroom, and grows out of the earthly into timeless life. John 3:36
As Psalm 15 says:
Lord, who can be trusted with power,
and who may act in your place?
Those with a passion for justice,
who speak the truth from their hearts;
who have let go of selfish interests
and grown beyond their own lives;
who see the wretched as their family
and the poor as their flesh and blood.
They alone are impartial
and worthy of the people's trust.
Their compassion lights up the whole earth,
and their kindness endures forever.[i]
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