Holy Nights
1 John 1: 1-10
What was from the beginning, what we have heard,
what we have seen with our eyes, what we have beheld, and touched with our
hands: the Word of God which bears all Life within itself - the very Life revealed itself, and we have seen
it and so bear witness to it and proclaim it to you as the life which is
through all cycles of time. It was with the Father; now it has revealed itself
to us. We have seen it and heard it, and we proclaim to you so that you also can
live in spiritual community with us; that is, our community with the Father and
with Jesus Christ his Son.
These things we are writing so that your joy may be
full.
And this is the message we have received from Him
and proclaim to you: that God is Light, and there is not any kind of darkness in
Him.
If we say that we have community with Him and yet conduct
our lives in the darkness, what we say is a lie and what we do is without
reality.
Only when our life is fully permeated by light, as
He Himself is in the light, are we truly united in community, and the blood of
Jesus His Son cleanses us of all sin.
If we say that we are without sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
If we are conscious of our sinfulness and confess to
it, then He proves faithful and just; he takes the sin from us and cleanses us
of all unrighteousness.
If we say that we have never fallen into sin, we
make Him a liar, and the divine Word which goes forth from him is not in us.
Holy Nights
December 29, 2019
1 John 1: 1-10
Shimmering in eternal realms is the great Tree of Life. In
Egyptian myth, this
Christ Jesus carried this further: on the tree of the cross,
the tree of death that became a shining tree of life; the divine creator’s arms
are outstretched in an embrace of love that includes the whole world.
We are each a living replica of the tree of life. At birth,
we are rooted in the divine depths. Our crown is in God’s starry heights. And
at the very center of our being is the beauty of our heart, connected with the
sun, shining with the creative power that unites all. Our heart is the axis around which our whole
world revolves.
This creative, sun-like center is the radiant beauty of
love. It is supported on the one hand by mercy and on the other by justice. For
the Christ-Sun on the cross was placed between the two thieves. To the one who
was willing to assume responsibility for his own deeds, the Christ-Sun’s
beauteous love showed mercy: “Today, you shall be with Me in Paradise .”
Luke 23:43 To the one who railed and
egotistically cursed God, cutting himself off from divine love, there could
remain only the severity of God’s justice.
A merciful and just love—this is the love that God enacted
on the field of history. This is the love that He has implanted in each human
heart, from there to be radiated forth as the life-giving Sun of Divine-Human
love. So, in the words of the poet:
Let us be like
…falling stars in the day sky.
Let no one know of our sublime
beauty
As we hold hands with God
And burn
Into a sacred existence …
That surpasses
Every description of …love.*
*Hafiz, “The Day Sky”, in The Subject Tonight Is Love, by Daniel
Ladinsky, p. 24.
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