Whitsun (Pentecost)
John 14: 23-31 (adapted from Madsen)
Jesus replied, “He who 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]. He
who 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.
I have said this to you while I am still with you.
But he who is called down, the health-bringing Spirit, whom the Father will
send in my name, he will teach you everything and will awaken within you all
that I have said to you.
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do
not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do
not be afraid [have no fear].
You have heard how I said to you, ‘I am going away,
and yet I am coming to you’. If you loved me you would rejoice because I am
going to the Father[ly Ground of the World], for the Father is mightier 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 prince of this world is coming. Yet over me, he has no power.
But the world shall see in this how I love the
Father [Ground of the World] and how I act in accordance with the Father’s
purpose, as it was entrusted to me. Arise, let us go on from here. [let us be
on our way.]"
“If you love
me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another
advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world
cannot accept him because it neither sees
him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world
will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will
live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me,
and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves
me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them
and show myself to them.”
Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord,
why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?”
Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my
teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home
with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words
you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
“All this I
have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the
Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of
everything I have said to you.
Whitsun
June 9, 2019
John 14: 23 -31
In a children’s story, the element of fire asks the Son
of God how it can serve Him. He tells the fire that in order to serve Him, it
must cease to burn, cease to consume; it must die so that the Son of God can
awaken it to a new life of service. So the element of fire dies down and is
extinguished. Then it is resurrected, rekindled as warm flames of love for God
in the hearts of those who love Him.
In our own lives, our hearts can burn for many things.
Our desire life can consume us, consume our resources, consume our
relationships.
But drawing Christ’s power of sacrifice into our hearts
can help us to bank the fires of desire; we can voluntarily extinguish them so
that they can be transformed into love; the warmth of a love that serves
others, that serves Christ in his evolving of the world. For Christ’s love, His
heart, is a fire at the center of the world. His is the fire that generates an
existence beyond time. A poet caught a
glimpse of this creative fire:
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…*
* Franz Wright, “The Fire” in God's Silence
