St. Johnstide
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.”
3rd St. Johnstide
July 10, 2016
John 3: 22-36
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| Cell mitosis (division) |
In today’s reading, the arrival of Christ Jesus in John the Baptizer’s sphere prompts a division among the people. But John understands that an over-arching spirit is driving this development. Christ has arrived as the bridegroom of humanity. And his union with us is creating a rapidly multiplying new people, a new and all-inclusive race of Christ-people. This new folk crosses and transcends the previous racial and tribal boundaries.
The ideas and thoughts of the divine world are directing this new development in humankind. The growth of the Christ folk is surrounded, warmed and enlivened by the Father’s love. The Spirit fire of a love creative of being has been ignited in humankind. It unites us and burns away selfish egotism. Individuals can feel it, like the poet who says:
Listen, I've light
in my eyes
and on my skin
the warmth of a star,
….
And
everything alive
(and everything's
alive) is turning
into something else
as at the heart
of some annihilating
or is it creating
fire
that's burning, unseeably, always
….*
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